My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E23 Ponyville Confidential/YMMV


 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: A Trixie reference!
 * Big Mac finally gets more non-one-line, non-brainwashed-by-love dialogue again, while Applejack is heard uttering her brother's trademark "Eeyup" and "Nope."
 * Anvilicious: Reporters and/or their bosses going to unethical lengths to get the scoop and what's more, lying and withholding facts just to get a good story? Sensational news that everyone snaps up despite it being insensitive and low-brow? Reputations ruined by ugly revealing news and paparazzi? All Truth in Television, just look at the prevalence of tabloids and sensationalized news on the papers and TV.
 * Broken Aesop: While the girls are rightfully scolded for writing hurtful and embarrassing gossip,  Hypocrisy much?
 * Really the main problem a lot of fans have is towards the Mane Six, and it's the same problem they had about the Mysterious Mare Do Well episode: the ponies only care about the hurtful gossip when it's stories about them! And even the exception to that, Twilight, is only looking out for her teacher. All the other ponies are eating up the articles like everyone else. When the stories featuring them come out, Applejack is only outraged about the story about her, Twilight only outraged about the story about her teacher, and Rarity who had been defending the harmless gossip until that point suddenly and completely turns against it when, you guessed it, they did a story about her. Justified as they may be, it still makes them come across as hypocritical and horribly self-centered.
 * Of course Rarity as usual is semi-admitent of her hypocrisy and treats their actions in a far more understanding tone than the others. One could also argue that the Cutie Marks casually asking for more stories to their face and showing they presumably hadn't learnt anything probably only fueled the others' temper more (and likely why they were suddenly met with a blissfully forgiving and kindly tone after apologizing and quitting their jobs ).
 * The various ponies become angry at the Crusaders for not being considerate of others' feelings, and selfishly ignoring the pain others were in for their own benefit. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie has a bit of a breakdown and actually acknowledges she might have a problem with partying too much (and says it in the style of someone admitting they have an addiction), and none of them cares because they're too focused on their own embarrassment.
 * There's a hint of "we were only writing what you wanted to read" in the apology letter -- which may explain why the fillies are so Easily Forgiven .... but still, no one even has the class to look embarrassed about it.
 * Not looking embarrassed doesn't mean you aren't embarrassed.
 * Their reactions, as harsh as they were, were more than justified and excusable. Imagine yourself reading an article that is revealing a very personal thing of yours or it's telling something that is un-true. And now, everyone in town is reading that exact article. Now that everyone knows it, you can't walk in the streets without knowing that people know about the thing in the article and will judge you while remembering it. Let's face it, even if you are the most forgiving person on earth, you still would feel a little bit angry in front of the CMC for the embarrassment you have because of their story about you, even more so for the fact that you would carry the shame of it for a very long time. Honestly they should be grateful that Ponyville is not a place like, say, Springfield, or else they would've had everypony hunting after them with Torches and Pitchforks.
 * Hypocritical reactions to gossip like this are common in fiction. Also, Twilight was never into it to begin with.
 * Also the mane six only became angry at the CMC once the gossip starts going from gossip to "making stuff up". The real Aesop is "don't lose your moral integrity".
 * Epileptic Trees: A lot of fans assumed the paper the CMC will be printing their column under would be called Equestria Daily, after the enormously popular, Lauren Faust-interviewing fan blog of the same name (which has been referenced by The Hub's commercial There's a Pony For That as well as the shirts EQD Twilight Library, EQD University, and EQD Pony Party). This looked less and less likely as more previews came out, and was eventually Jossed by a preview clip in which a colt calls it the Foal Free Press.
 * Rarity also identified the "real" local Ponyville paper by name: The Ponyville Express.
 * Hidden Depths: Silver Spoon, for once, didn't work with Diamond Tiara as a co-villain. Maybe they're drifting apart after the events of "Family Appreciation Day" and Silver Spoon isn't doing as much bullying, if any. Of course, this could easily be reversed if she goes back to her old self in season 3.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: The fic Slice of Life, where Celestia has to go on a diet, now seems more likely.
 * Someone already made a fic with Rainbow Dash having embarrassing photos of herself being presented.
 * Memetic Mutation: Rarity's reaction to one of Gabby Gums's articles became exploitable before the episode even aired.
 * Featherweight, peering into the basement of the school with camera at the ready, has quickly morphed to an image exploitable, "Peepingweight."
 * Speaking of Featherweight, fans have already decided he's Equestria's version of Peter Parker and therefore secretly the Spectacular Spider-Colt!
 * Nightmare Fuel: Was the episode trying to make kids think they'd lose their families if they did something bad? Applebloom essentially gets thrown out of her home!
 * Not necessarily. All the CMC chose to stay in their treehouse (which is within Sweet Apple Acres) in order to think of a way to make amends. Rarity wasn't nearly as tough on Sweetie Belle, and yet she stayed anyway.
 * She wasn't thrown out of her home. Big Macintosh simply told them to leave "just him and AJ be", he did not tell them to leave as in kicking them out of town. In fact, in hindsight, they were going to them not to apologize but to get more material for a story, and Big Mac wants no part of it.
 * Squick: Spike literally reaches down Rainbow Dash's throat to retrieve one of the cucumber slices she swallowed and puts it on his eye.
 * Hey, when your idea of a hot tub is a nice lava pit...
 * Also, Snips' and Snails' shaved behinds!
 * Straw Man Has a Point: While the Gabby Gums articles were hurtful and earned the CMC animosity from the whole town, it lifted the Foal Free Press from being merely a school paper to having town-wide distribution. Though Diamond Tiara's methods were unethical and cruel, under her direction the paper was arguably the most successful it had ever been.
 * Then again, school papers are free.
 * What an Idiot!: You know, Diamond Tiara, reading that tiny, yellow notebook Apple Bloom placed on your desk before having it go to press would have saved A LOT of embarrassment on your part, and you may have still been editor-in-chief if you did. And you read all the previous articles they wrote too, so why not that one?
 * The report was handed in late and seconds prior to the paper being put into print, which gave some excuse as to why she sent it to press without taking the time to look over it.
 * Plus, the CMC might have hoped for that, knowing how desperate Tiara is.

Return to the mane article here.