YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S8 E3 "The Maud Couple"

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Sometimes, our loved ones may pretend to like something we give them to protect our feelings.
  • Just because somepony new has come into your loved one's life doesn't mean they love you less. Likewise, if you're the one who's got someone new in your life, that's no excuse for blowing off promises to your other loved ones.
  • Not everypony has to like social events, and it's good to meet them halfway and let them have their space.
  • Similarly, even if they'd rather not attend, less social people can still appreciate being invited to social outings, as long as they're allowed to refuse.
  • You don't have to love, or even like a loved one's new partner. Sometimes, being happy that they're happy together really is enough.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Maud a terrible comedian, or a good anti-comedian?
  • Some of Mudbriar's "corrections" are actually incorrect. (Caverns are a subset of caves, not a completely separate category, as he implies. And the leaves on that branch don't look like Quercus castaneifolia at all.) Are those just errors by the writers, or is Mudbriar not as smart as he thinks?
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Mudbriar's imaginary "vision board", in which he enters a meditative state and envisions a wall of panels surrounding him, is never brought up again. Then again, it's all in his head.
  • Pinkie Pie's "Opposite Day" hallucination. It's funny, but it makes little sense given the context of the scene and comes right out of nowhere.
• Die for Our Ship: Many fans were not happy to see their shipfics of Maud with Trixie, Starlight, OCs, self inserts, and various other ponies made redundant with Mudbriar's introduction. Some were even agreeing with Pinkie when she misinterpreted Limestone's analogy and thought she should break him open like a rock.
• Fanfic Fuel: How Limestone became so miserable would make a very interesting story.
• So Okay, It's Average: The general consensus is that the episode isn't quite as funny as it could have been given Mudbriar's generally bland and divisive humor, but isn't all that awful, either.
• Stoic Woobie: Limestone is subtly made into a Stepford Snarker who openly says she's miserable all the time and is deeply jealous at Maud getting a boyfriend first.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Pinkie offhandedly mentions that she looked for Maud in Discord's dimension which we don't get to see, missing potential in a humor-focused episode. ^note  Though it should be noted the comics did have a story with this premise.
  • The set-up could have been a chance for Pinkie to get perspective on Maud, that her sister is weird and hard to understand for other ponies and it's only because Pinkie is used to her that she doesn't realize it. This simultaneously would have deepened their bond and allowed her to see Mudbriar in a new light.
• Unexpected Character: Few expected Limestone and Marble to make an appearance, let alone play a small yet pivotal role in the third act.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Pinkie's behavior regarding Mudbriar becomes a bit more understandable when you consider that it's implied Maud had been completely blowing off Pinkie in favor of him. In the episode proper, she promises to hang out with Pinkie one morning and then isn't around most of that morning, and the dialogue early in the episode implies that this is a recurring problem. Hard to blame Pinkie for feeling jealous and abandoned when it looks like Mudbriar clicks with Maud better than she does, despite being in her life for far less time.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Even though Mudbriar is clearly meant to be difficult to get along with, some viewers found him a little too irritating to be the well-meaning figure he was meant as. While both he and Maud share the same deadpan Literal-Minded personalities, Mudbriar's literalism comes off as much more mean-spirited due to his constant use of "Technically..." to fix incorrect, but inconsequential statements. It doesn't help that the episode treats him as the victim and Pinkie as the one who has to apologize, when there were clearly moments where he wasn't being entirely considerate either (i.e. him deliberately taking up time in the bakery over a minor action, right after browbeating Pinkie for cutting into his time).

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