My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E08 The Mysterious Mare Do Well/YMMV
- Accidental Innuendo: When Rainbow Dash pulls in Applejack for a photo opportunity, the positioning of the mouths and Applejack's reaction afterwards suggests something a bit more than being pulled into shot, which the fandom has noticed.
- Alternate Character Interpretation / Broken Base: How much you like this episode seems to depend on whether you interpret the actions of the other Mane Five as just trying to show Rainbow Dash a better way to be a hero or as deliberately trying to show her up and turn people against her.
- To be fair, they never really called her out in front of the whole town. They even did the reveal in a back alley to spare her undue humiliation, and saved ponies she was being too irresponsible to save, even risking their own lives to do so.
- There's also the fact that nine times out of then, it was only Rainbow's bragging that made the disasters get to the point the Mare Do Well had to intervene anyway. Had she not stopped to gloat, she would've been able to deal with the disasters herself before they got out of hand or the Mare Do Well actually had time to get there. So knocking her down a peg or two was actually a pretty good idea.
- In one camp, this episode ruined Rainbow Dash. In the other, it redeemed her[1].
- In a third camp, there was nothing wrong with Dash and her behavior in the first place, and her friends were taking it WAY too far. And that this episode was just there to break her for no reason.
- There's still the fact that they did not talk to nor warn Dash about the possible consequences of letting her heroics go to her head, all before Mare Do Well showed up.
- The scene where the Mane Cast praise Mare Do Well's heroics is particularly contentious, as it makes them hypocritical and unnecessarily hard on Rainbow.
- Even worse than that, it could be seen as them egging on Dash, as they should know from experience that her ego would cause her behavior to worsen, meaning they were actually trying to make her hit rock bottom before they revealed their intended lesson. They can plainly see she's getting frustrated and that her feelings are hurt, but they just keep poking until something big happens.
- The other explanations fans have come up with include: they were just trying to tease her a little but severely underestimated how hard she was taking the whole thing; they were checking to see if she'd learned her lesson yet; they were trying to hint to Dash that if she acted more like the Mare, people would still compliment her; and more.
- Another possibility could be the other Mane 5 dropping very unsubtle hints of MDW's identity. Like The Confessor said, look for patterns.
- That they laugh at the quarreling Rainbow has with Spike - in such a way that they can be very easily misinterpreted as laughing at Dash - doesn't help.
- In one small camp, some think the way the other Mane Five behaved towards Rainbow Dash was mixture of both interpretations.
- Broken Aesop: The message of humility would certainly have been stronger if the scene in Sugarcube Corner hadn't included the girls complimenting aspects of Mare-Do-Well that they contributed to her.
- YMMV if you think they're seeing if Rainbow Dash has learned her lesson yet.
- Though they still bragged, regardless of reasons.
- Plus they seemed to understand that they went a little too far, as they revealed MDW's identity right after that episode.
- But the fact is, you can't ignore the fact that by basically bragging into Rainbow Dash's face and that their entire motive in this whole Mare Do Well shenanigan was to teach her humility; they weren't practicing what they were preaching, which makes them hypocrites.
- YMMV if you think they're seeing if Rainbow Dash has learned her lesson yet.
- Broken Base: Whoo boy, this episode did it. The fans are bitterly divided on Rainbow Dash's treatment in the episode:
- Side #1: Rainbow Dash was getting far too arrogant, and the rest of the Mane Cast's lesson was exactly what she needed.
- Side #2: Rainbow Dash was doing absolutely nothing wrong in her arrogance, the Mane Cast's actions towards Rainbow Dash went too far, and were disproportionately cruel.
- Side #3: Sees merits in the prior two sides' point of view, though neither are completely correct. They generally agree that Dash was acting too arrogant, and she needed to learn how to be more humble, but agree that because the aesop was poorly executed it made the rest of the Mane Cast look like bigger jerks than Dash. Side #3 is uncomfortable with the fact the other ponies went straight to embarrassing Rainbow Dash rather than first trying to approach her about her attitude, and, if said approach should fail, resorting to Mare Do Well.
- There's a Side #4 too; while the Mane Six do came a little too far, they're forgiven by how they seemed to realize it. While it's not showed, it's made clear by how they decided to reveal MDW's identity to Dash right after the Humiliation Connga they gave to her at Sugar Cube Corner. On the other hand though, it seemed that the episode stated that Rd's not a very bright pony, since she failed to realize of how the others where in the wrong as much as her.
- Flame War: The mere mention of this episode, can cause a big time flame war anywhere among the fandom, even in this page.
- Fanon Discontinuity: For many fans, this episode never happened.
- God Mode Sue: The Mysterious Mare Do-Well. There is a reason, though.
- Jerkass Woobie: Rainbow Dash upon savoring her popularity becomes an egotistical ass and vents a lot of spite towards Mare Do-Well for taking it away. As her attempts to gain credibility get more and more pathetic however, you can't help but feel sorry for her. After all, she's just trying to be a hero.
- Out-of-Character Moment:
- For some fans, the entire episode is one for Rainbow Dash and/or other members of the Mane 6.
- Apparently, in this episode, Pinkie is afraid of ghosts. Did she forget to giggle at the ghosties?
- Sometimes, it's fun to be scared!
- She hasn't exactly been consistent with this, though. One episode, she's giggling in front of evil looking trees, the next episode she's afraid of bats on her face and several episodes later, she's afraid of an evil enchantress who does evil dances.
- Uh, bats can carry rabies and usually avoid human/pony contact, and they also sleep during the day. If a real-life bat seems to be attacking you, it's probably sick. If she thought that there were bats on her face during the day time, she was right to freak out. And evil enchantresses are a little more terrifying than scary-looking trees.
- Fluttershy not only joins in the Mare-do-Well ruse, but does a fly-by above the dam, apparently just to show off. This was long before "Putting Your Hoof Down" gave her a bit more confidence.
- In one camp of the frequent arguments about this episode, this entire episode is one for Rainbow Dash.
- The Scrappy: As seen from the above debate, this status was handed genorously to either Rainbow Dash or the rest of the Mane Cast, depending on who you ask. Granted the remainder of Season Two seemed to cool things off with most of the fanbase, and there are as many fans who find this episode's story and characterizations to be standard enjoyable fare.
- Tastes Like Diabetes: In this episode, we finally get to see a pony baby... and it is ADORABLE!
- Uncanny Valley: At the same time, the aforementioned pony baby could also invoke this trope.
- Unintentionally Sympathetic: Rainbow Dash for a lot of the audience, leading to the Broken Base.
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- ↑ at least after the way she treated the contenders and especially Tank in the previous episode...and even THAT's YMMV