"The Break Up Break Down" Review: About Hurt Feelings and Shipping Fuel

And with this episode we get to see, just like that, another Hearts and Hooves Day! This isn't something I did expect to happen. The last, and until now only, Hearts and Hooves Day we have seen in the show was way back in Season 2 and with five seasons without a Hearts and Hooves Day episode, I really didn't think we would ever get another one.
But now we got one and what a deep episode it even was! This episode has three different, deep plotlines.

First off, we have Big Mac and Sugar Belle. Big Mac believed, because of a misunderstanding after eavesdropping on Sugar Belle, that Sugar Belle wanted to break up with him and tried to cope with that by drowning his sorrow in hard apple cider (I shouldn't be surprised about such things anymore at this point, but I'm astounded the creators of this episode dared to put this into it!) before Discord and Spike tried to cheer him up. And, after some ill advice from Discord, he decided to break up with Sugar Belle first before she gets the chance to do that. But, since Sugar Belle didn't want to break up with him, he devastated her with this.
There is a very deep and realistic moral in here. When Big Mac thought that Sugar Belle wanted to end their relationship and leave him, he knew that this would hurt his feelings and, after Discord's advice to break up with her first, decided to do that to avoid getting hurt like this. He wanted to be the one who hurts, so that he wouldn't have to be the one who gets hurt.
But with that, he did something terrible. By being willing to hurt Sugar Belle to avoid getting hurt himself, he acted selfish and did something that makes it look like he doesn't truly love Sugar Belle.
Sugar Belle was speaking about a lesson about misunderstandings and eavesdropping after Big Mac told her his reason for breaking up, but the actual lesson from these events is something else:

If you believe that someone you love could hurt you and you decide to hurt that person first to avoid hurt for yourself, you're acting like you don't really love this person, because you rather hurt the person you love than accepting hurt for yourself. If you truly love someone, you would never wish them to get hurt instead of you and you should never attempt doing that, regardless of how much you are afraid of getting hurt yourself. It's a selfish act that would contradict your love for that person.

And I can even relate to Big Mac here, as this is something I once thought about doing myself a while ago and I almost ended up doing it and it is only with this episode now that my eyes have been opened and that I fully understand why that would have been a terribly wrong thing to do and how wrong I was for even considering it, so I can directly confirm that things like this indeed happen in relationships.
This might be the deepest and most mature lesson MLP: FiM ever had. And it's not even where the depth ends, it's where it all just starts.

Next, we have Discord. Spike tried to prove him that true love exists, something Discord did not believe in. And after it first looked to them like Discord is right, when it seemed like Sugar Belle wanted to break up with Big McIntosh, Discord learned that he was wrong in a very interesting way later.
After Big Mac broke up with Sugar Belle and he returned to the barn, he yelled at Sweetie Belle when she didn't want to leave as he told her to, because he suffered from his breakup with Sugar Belle, and he made Sweetie crying that way. And Applebloom, Scootaloo and Spike were quite sad, as well, when they realized what had happened.
Discord saw all of this and it was there when a literal lightbulb went on above his head and he disappeared to break Sugar Belle's wagon wheel to slow her down when she wanted to leave Ponyville so that Big Mac could catch up with her.
Discord saw how much pain it caused that Big Mac and Sugar Belle broke up and he realized that, if love can cause so much pain, it has to be real then. Discord also learned something there and together with the lesson Big Mac learned and how what Discord learned is related to this, it means that both Big Mac and Discord learned something important about love there.
This is remarkable considering how MLP: FiM has friendship as its main theme and it shows most impressively how much it has evolved and grown, by portraying such incredibly deep and realistic moments and lessons today.
Also, additionally to this, Big Mac has said a few very interesting things that give a hint on why he doesn't talk much. After he broke up with Sugar Belle, he told her that he doesn't like talking because words can hurt and after Sweetie Belle said to him how she doesn't like it that her secret admirer doesn't talk to her, he told her that he maybe doesn't like talking because he talked too much and it only brought him trouble.
Since Big Mac is known for not talking much, this sounded like he was referring to himself there. Has Big McIntosh hurt someone with words so much that he decided to not talk anymore since then?
I can't tell if this is intended as foreshadowing by the creators of this episode and if we will find out more about that in an upcoming episode, but we definitely got an insight into Big Mac's silent demeanor here.

Lastly, we have Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. While being busy with preparing the barn for Big Mac's surprise date with Sugar Belle, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle moaned about it how they don't have a special somepony, which shows how much they have grown, as they didn't have such thoughts yet years ago, on the Hearts and Hooves Day that we saw in Season 2.
When Derpy accidentally smudged the symbols for Sugar Belle's name on Big Mac's package and let it getting delivered to Sweetie Belle instead that way (interesting to note here, it wasn't even so much Derpy's fault that this happened, since sugar is sweet, as well, the symbols Big Mac drew on it could have easily been interpreted as Sweetie Belle's name and the package could have therefore gotten sent to her regardless), Sweetie Belle thought she has a secret admirer who sent her this package.
After asking every colt and stallion in Ponyville if he is Sweetie's secret admirer did not deliver any results, Sweetie Belle was quite downcast over this. But after they laughed over the discovery that the package was actually supposed to go to Sugar Belle, Sweetie Belle realized that she actually has two very special ponies in her life already, as Applebloom and Scootaloo are her best friends.
Which is something that can be seen in two ways. Sweetie Belle was expressing how she isn't sad anymore that she doesn't have a secret admirer because she has two best friends who are special to her and the search for her secret admirer also hints at that she is straight, as Scootaloo and Applebloom only asked male ponies, but the moment can be understood that way that Sweetie Belle isn't even interested in finding a special somepony because she already has Applebloom and Scootaloo.
It's too early to tell for sure based on that moment, but I wonder if she could have discovered in that moment that she feels a bit more for Scootaloo and Applebloom than friendship. And since it can be understood that way, this gave the ScootaSweetieBloom ship some support, which makes me happy, as it is a very rare and underrated ship.
Regardless of how Sweetie Belle meant this exactly, though, she had a very deep realization there, which gave the episode a very adorable end.^^

I also found two other things in their plotline interesting. First off, when Applebloom talked to Pipsqueak and asked him if he could answer her a few questions, he didn't respond and looked rather nervously in front of him. This is interesting, because, if he only sees Applebloom as a friend or even just acquaintance, why would make that question, asked on Hearts and Hooves Day, make him nervous?
It's a bit vague, but maybe he thought in this moment that he is about to find out what Applebloom feels for him, because he has a crush on her. The PipBloom ship definitely got some fuel there, as well.^^
In addition to that, I'm also wondering if we got a hint that Scootaloo could feel something for Button Mash of all ponies. While they asked every colt and stallion in Ponyville, Scootaloo went to Button Mash first, which seems suspicious. It could have been a coincidence, but maybe she wanted to ask Button Mash first to hopefully find out he isn't the admirer, because she does have a crush on him? It would be interesting if that turns out true, considering how much Sweetie Belle and Button Mash get shipped in the fandom.^^

The other one, is something that Scootaloo said. When they returned into the barn after their first attempt to find Sweetie's secret admirer, she said that they asked "every stallion" in Ponyville. This means, not only did they consider colts their age as potential candidates for Sweetie Belle's secret admirer, but grown-up stallions as well.
I did not reckon we would get something like this again in the show, but that Applebloom and Scootaloo even considered stallions shows again that Equestria's society does not have age restrictions in regards to romantic relationships, just like "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" in Season 5 showed in a very subtle way.
This time, it was a lot more straightforward and I'm happy that it got confirmed more. :)

There is also an astounding realization I had to get about this episode:

It doesn't show the Mane Six anywhere!

None of the Mane Six have a role in this episode; neither a main role nor a side role and they don't even appear in the background anywhere. That's something that is very rare.
There are a few more episodes where this was already the case, but I never noticed until now, so I legitimately thought this is the first time this happened before I checked on the other episodes.
Season 6 had one episode where none of the Mane Six appeared with "On Your Marks" and Season 7 had three; "Hard to Say Anything", "To Change a Changeling" and "Marks and Recreation".
The first five seasons, though, had not one single episode without at least one of them in at least a background appearance, so the number of episodes without them is increasing. I will keep an eye on that and see how many episodes without them will there be in this season.

Aside from the main plot, this episode also has to offer a lot in the background pony department. We finally saw Derpy doing her mailpony job again, her usual clumsiness included, when she smudged the ink on Big Mac's package.^^ I'm also interested in the other mailponies we've seen working with her there; they are new to us and I have a feeling there is a certain connection between them and although I can't tell which one yet, I am fascinated by them.^^ However, I also notice that Derpy's appearances are spread quite thin this season, this is only the third episode she appeared in, which worries me. I hope this changes with the next episodes.
Almost better than Derpy's appearance were Lyra and Bon Bon. Lyra went to Bon Bon and they exchanged Hearts and Hooves Day presents, followed by some quite intimate snuggling.^^ This is the clearest depiction of their relationship since "Slice of Life" and even much more straightworward than in this episode and I love that! :D They clearly get more daring with portraying their relationship in the show and this amazes me. :D
Finally, Carrot Top is now apparently in a relationship with Coco Crusoe. When Spike and Discord walked through Ponyville, they were seen nuzzling quite close to the camera. Seeing this was especially interesting, as a lot in the fandom theorize that Carrot Top is in a relationship with Written Script, some of which even going so far to claim that Carrot Top is Dinky's real mother and that she and Written Script are Dinky's parents. Both of these assumptions were crushed quite effectively with this episode.

And that's it for this episode. I'm sure there are more interesting details in the background, but I'll be going over those in my Afterthoughts tomorrow. This is one of my favourite episodes of Season 8 so far, and even of the whole show. It's very deep and has a ton of shipping fuel and it ranks very high for me because of that.^^