My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E19 Putting Your Hoof Down/YMMV


 * Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Money-back guarantee? Get advice for free!
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Fluttershy only say those harsh things to her friends because she knew it would upset them, or does she deep down really think that Rarity and Pinkie Pie's special talents are frivolous and pointless, and she could only ever express it while in her assertive mode?
 * Alternatively, the "The Reason You Suck" Speech could have actually been about how she feels about her parents.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: It was the first new Fluttershy episode we've had in almost a year. Of course the fans were ecstatic!
 * Base Breaker: Angel's treatment of Fluttershy. It can either come across as funny slapstick or just cruelty.
 * Broken Base: The episode itself seems to be causing (yet another) division. While the reception has been mostly positive, some feel that certain scenes were too mean spirited.
 * Designated Villain:
 * Perhaps intentional, Iron Will was just doing his job the entire episode, teaching Fluttershy to be more assertive and claiming his payment when he thought she was satisfied with the results. One could argue that his threat of violence against her was merely a bluff to get his money, especially since when Fluttershy explained that she wasn't satisfied and thus had no obligation to pay, Iron Will respectfully backed down.
 * Plus, Rarity and Pinkie's dislike of him is understandable.
 * The tomato salespony. She changes the price of her tomatoes from the day before and has a sign clearly stating as such, yet she's the one being treated as in the wrong when Fluttershy underpays her and when Pinkie Pie then heckles her into selling for her old price.
 * It's less that she's wrong and more that she's being a jerk. She could have politely pointed out to Fluttershy that the price had gone up, and apologized for the misunderstanding; this is not only good customer service in the real world, but should probably be expected from a town where everypony generally treats each other nicely. Too, haggling over the price of goods in an open-air market is to be expected; Pinkie doesn't heckle her, she just uses an odd haggling method.
 * Domestic Abuse/Unfortunate Implications: Some of the things Angel does to Fluttershy when he's unsatisfied with his meal, including slapping her across the face and kicking her out of the house. He is a Vague Age Tsundere, maybe a smidge older then Spike, that swings between Hypercompetent Sidekick and Bratty Half-Pint when it comes to his "needs." He is also a rabbit, so take that all as you will.
 * Epileptic Trees: The two Valley Girl ponies that show up early on have the exact same coat and eye colors as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Since Rainbow wasn't in this episode, its lead to... suspicions.
 * Iron Will teaches that to be assertive (and therefore an object of admiration), you should yell at people who do things like bump into you instead of getting out of your way. Previously, what character who was obsessed with being seen as cool did the exact same thing to Fluttershy...? Maybe Gilda wasn't really a complete jerk, maybe she'd just recently taken the assertiveness course!
 * Trixie incorporates a lot of Iron Will's act and presence as part of her stage show. Just how many ponies took this course?
 * Poison Joke Epileptic Trees: There has been speculation to the effect that a bull and a human are Iron Will's parents. Hopefully somepony's just joking.
 * Fantastic Racism: Sure, a minotaur's a monster in our mythology, but since one is real in Equestria...
 * To be fair, Rarity and Pinkie were just blaming Iron Will for what happened to Fluttershy. and by the end, they accepted that is was Fluttershy's own doing as much as she did.
 * Fridge Brilliance: While there are a few ponies who act like Jerkasses before (including Angel), most of them come after Iron Will's presentation. Perhaps Fluttershy wasn't the only one who took his advice too far.
 * Fluttershy quickly realizing what she has become might not be as abrupt when you remember how she reacted to being mean last time.
 * Fridge Logic: Uh, Fluttershy, why didn't you just fly over those ponies with the carts instead of plowing into them?
 * Closer to Fridge Brilliance: Flying over them would be the same as walking around them. She wanted to be assertive and make them move out of the way, not take the easy option.
 * How did she board her house up from the outside? She could board the last door up from the inside or "think inside the chimney" to get back in...
 * Angel was helping her.
 * Fridge Horror: The existence of minotaurs in Equestria. If you know how minotaurs reproduced in Greek mythology, this makes the fanon theory that Equestria was built on the ruins of human civilization seem that much more plausible.
 * Except that nothing says they have to be based on the greek mythology. Fantasy stories in general take a liberal approach towards the usage of mythological beings, and nopony said that they were half-human.
 * Given there were no minotaurS in Greek mythology, just a single Minotaur, and nopony indicates Iron Will is the only one in Equestria, there is nothing indicating Greek mythology is followed to the letter.
 * Iron Will managed to do accidentally what Discord failed to do, convince Fluttershy to be mean.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Fluttershy told Discord that she realizes her faults and is happy her friends want her to overcome them. It's only after Pinkie and Rarity try and fail to help her assert herself that she takes more drastic steps.
 * Fluttershy's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Pinkie becomes a lot more painful to watch when you remember how hard she takes the idea her friends don't care about her.
 * Just how long was Fluttershy locked away in self-imposed exile? It would be bad enough if she had been there for weeks, but what if it was only hours? Considering hatred can cause an eternal winter via evil ghost horses, could profound sadness cause foliage to die in Equestria?
 * Genius Bonus: Iron Will's first appearance is inside a maze. He's a minotaur. In Greek Mythology, the original minotaur was imprisoned in a labyrinth. While "maze" and "labyrinth" aren't technically the same thing (a maze has multiple paths, whereas a labyrinth has one path that gets concentrically smaller) they've evolved into synonyms over the centuries.
 * Wait a minute -- if a labyrinth has only one path, why did Theseus need a ball of yarn to get back out of it?
 * Because the path, while singular, crossed itself so many times, one could easily get confused as to which way the exit was and, essentially spend a lifetime trying to get out. The string showed the path he had taken.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: In previous episodes, Fluttershy has shown that she can be assertive, but it REALLY takes A LOT to push her to her limit.
 * In the end, Shy uses The Stare on Angel to get him to eat. Fans have drawn her doing this in her "get him to eat a carrot" scene in "Dragonshy" since that episode.
 * Jerkass Woobie: Sure, New and Nasty Fluttershy is a jerk, but given how the other townponies (sans Pinkie and Rarity) and her pets treat her, can you blame her? At least, until she took it too far.
 * Memetic Mutation: The shot of Iron Will giving a thumbsup to the camera has been snowcloned into an advice animal.
 * Also, in a similar vein as "Disco Discord" from "Return of Harmony, Part 1", clips of Iron Will dancing to different music have been making the rounds on Youtube.
 * The Scrappy: Angel Bunny's conduct in this episode earned him a lot of criticism, and may affect his overall popularity.
 * Angel Took a Level In Kindness later on, so that could save him from this.
 * Boxxy Brown, the cherry seller. Thanks to his unreasonable pricing upon hearing that Fluttershy needed his last cherry and then even calling Fluttershy a doormat after selling it to another customer for a much cheaper price has earned himself some less flattering alternate names and is probably the most hated of the Jerkasses in the episode. And he doesn't even get a well-deserved taste of New!Fluttershy's wrath.
 * Visual Effects of Awesome: The head turn scene analyzed in this video.
 * We Want Our Jerk Back: Some fans did enjoy New Fluttershy, and weren't pleased when Old Fluttershy came back. Of course, many more fans, as well as Pinkie and Rarity themselves, had the exact opposite reaction.

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