My Review of MLP: FIM season 7 episode 14 Fame and Misfortune · 9:41pm May 26th
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
Greetings, folks. This is Mr. J back with another MLP episode review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing the fourteenth episode of season 7 entitled “Fame and Misfortune”, written by M.A. Larson. Now this was quite a unique episode for this season alone; back when this episode aired in 2017, the audience saw themselves in a mirror—a mirror of the toxic fan base. For me though, I genuinely don’t care enough for most of these ponies because they mean nothing to me.
The episode begins with Twilight solving a friendship problem between two fillies in Ponyville. Remembering the “friendship” material in her journal, she decides to share with her friends about her idea of spreading multiple copies of the journal to everyone so they too may be inspired by their friendship lessons they learned.
But oh no! Things go terribly wrong! Instead, everyone just becomes either fanatics, bullies, stalkers, or all of the above. They point out flaws of the Mane Six and say all sorts of nonsense—similar complaints that this fandom have made about the show for years.
I totally see the intention behind this episode: it’s basically a way of calling out all the haters within the fandom—especially those who simply despise either certain aspects of the main characters or just the characters themselves. Hey…wait a minute…this episode is talking about me, isn’t it?
Because if I recall, I’ve been very vocal about my hatred for more than half of its main characters: Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and even Pinkie Pie. I don’t hate them because of their flaws; I hate them because they are either irredeemably obnoxious, insufferable, or just downright patronizing with their idiotic dogmatic beliefs about friendship. That’s why.
I seriously don’t give two fucks about those ponies, and I couldn’t care less when everyone was making their lives miserable. However, I was concerned over Applejack and Fluttershy because those two are genuinely likable. At least they make an effort to teach friendship in a relatable, down-to-earth manner such as kindness and honesty.
But after I re-watched the episode, something crossed my mind: why was everyone acting this way so suddenly? Why were they acting so out of character just to convey the lesson that the fandom is full of weirdos? Because normally, these strangers wouldn’t care less about six mares, much less the Princess of Friendship.
But some of these ponies knew a couple of them for a long time such as Pinkie, yet they’re gonna act like they never—okay…my brain is starting to melt the more I think about it too much. None of this makes any sense.
Some people may this as a direct attack on the fandom and claim that it is a complete exaggeration of the “legitimate” criticisms they’ve been giving to the show. For me, I see it as a feeble attempt to get people to stop complaining about the show. The thing is, you can’t get people to change their minds about certain things. They have every right to express what they hate about these characters as long as they don’t attack or threaten the writers or anything like that.
Here’s another thing: I understand that these characters have flaws, and that’s what makes them interesting and unique. However, if they keep making the same mistakes over and over, then these characters will no longer become interesting. I can’t stay engaged with the story if there’s too much character assassinations left and right. That’s why seasons 8 & 9 suck donkey ass.
But the song “Flawless” was incredibly catchy and well-written. It’s probably one of my favorite songs in this show. But as much as I like it, I feel like it was executed poorly; it feels like Larson was trying to say, “Yeah, yeah, they’re not perfect. Shut up already! Just accept them regardless of what you think of them!”
No, I won’t. They may have some noteworthy attributes, but most of these characters are utter garbage. That is MY opinion, and I respect anyone who may disagree. We all have different views and opinions.
Lastly, the ending with the two fillies was somewhat touching. It shows that out of all the chaos that happened, only two people proved they actually learned something from those journals which helped improve their own friendship. Hmm, is this a commentary on the show’s target audience? That kids can better understand friendship morals than grown adults that also watch the show?
Overall, I don’t really have a strong opinion on this episode as a whole. For me, it wasn’t really that awful, but it’s not that amazing either. The only thing I dislike about it is how slightly manipulative it is; it tried to make me feel sympathetic for my least favorite characters, but I really do not care. Twilight is the worst character, and it gives me pleasure to see her miserable. You have a problem with that? Too bad, so get off my page.
This gets a solid C-. Where was Spike during all this? They could’ve really used his help, you know.
Peace out.
Kind of hated that Spike was just missing.
Like he wrote some stuff in the journal too and yet no one seem to noticed that but also its jarring he is just MIA in general.
Especially since that moment of Starlight speaking with the girls about this feels like its supposed to be Spike's moment.
As for the idea of the episode itself being a jab at the toxic part of the fanbase, honestly its.. not exactly a good idea(especially on how this was executed). It was a mess
Yay. I had a feeling from the beginning that you weren’t exactly going to give much of a high opinion on this episode, which is why I expected less from this review.
Quite amazing, really. Everyday, I’d often be astounded by the fact that we’re alike, yet completely different. For instance, whereas you dislike just about all the G4 characters, I dislike all the G5 characters.
Mister, that’s exactly how I feel about Sunny.
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Well, not all of them, obviously, but boy, they do an amazing job trying to make me despise them. I have a strong love/hate relationship with MLP, you know that?
But what do you think of this episode?
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Personally, I consider "Fame and Misfortune" underrated. I thought it did a great job at addressing that there are tons of people in the fandom who focus on too many unimportant aspects of G4 and forget that its prime intent was to give lessons regarding friendship, a factor that I know all too well because of how many lesbian-centered fanfics there are.
Plus, it reminds me that while it's okay to be strongly passionate about something, it's important to remember what the intentions of the product are and give more focus on what it's about.
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Stop. Just don't. That is irrelevant to this topic, so why even go there?
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Sorry. I got lost in my head.
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I think, in the end, the episode gave me a great reminder as to what kind of fan I don't want to be.
Damn, the hatred of those 4 particular ponies is strong with you, but given this show seems to botch their characters up so much in certain episodes, I can't say I blame you.
I do like Twilight, Rainbow and Pinkie myself, but I respect your opinion on your dislike towards them.