A Shipper's Worst Nightmare: A Hearth's Warming Special or a Nightmare Night Special? · 4:20am Oct 28th, 2018
So yeah, after watching The Best Gift Ever, I couldn't help but think, was this meant to be a Christmas special or Halloween special? With all the soul crushing shipping teases that came with this special. Starting with Marble Pie reacting to Big Mac and Sugar Belle sharing a kiss under the mistletoe that I can't help but think it was foreshadowing for what was to come.
First of all let me get the good stuff about this special out of the way first. Being the fact that we get character cameos in the beginning and ending of them celebrating Hearth's Warming and that we get Christmas references galore and we finally see reindeers in the show (Even though I wish they had a bigger role one that would have been better for the special) I do enjoy the interactions and adventures the Mane Six and Spike had when it came to finding an extra special gift for the person they had drawn for. But there was definitely some flaws to it.
This special in my opinion was nothing but a giant fan service to the older bronies and pegasisters. Especially the shippers. Call me bias if you must because you're right. I am both happy and dissatisfied with this special because of the shipping alone. But you know as happy I am that a couple of my ships got noticed in this but honestly I think it really ruins the tone of the Best Gift Ever because the point is for the main cast to find a present for one friend and I believe a better objective would be that the girls and Spike got a different person in the drawing making it way more interesting, for example they should have Spike keep Rainbow Dash cause that's a friend that he doesn't spent time with that much so trying to find a gift for her would have been just as hard if not more so making the special that much more interesting. Twilight or Pinkie could have kept the other but one of them should have a different friend like Fluttershy or Rarity. Basically this was a good chance to mix it up a bit by having friends that had little interaction in the show find presents for that friend and not make out to be like they needed to find a gift for their special somepony (Especially since Rainbow Dash and Discord acted like a tag team on behalf of the FlutterDash and Fluttercord shippers). The end message was for friendship to be the greatest gift of all, but I feel that the message got warped.
So in a way I should be glad I got my heart sunk by a certain ship to make me realize that there could have been a better way to tell this story without hurting other shippers' headcanons. Because now, it's hard for me to go back to this special without feeling that pain over again. All the more reason why that moment with Big Mac, Sugar Belle, and Marble was important. It was a warning to shippers of all kind of the happiness and bitterest they will experience in this special. So again I ask was this truly a Hearth's Warming special or was it really a Nightmare Night Special given it has traumatized people of their ships not coming true? Because if it was... (Slowly claps) Well-played, writers... well-played...
Thoughts?
i really love it especially Spike's song, also Derpy's part
I'm...not really sure what the issue with that acknowledgment of "MarbleMac" shippers was; it just seemed like a brief tongue-in-cheek reference, and personally, I never shipped them anyway because the possibility still exists that they could be related, and to me that would get kind of awkward. Plus, Big Mac has slowly grown out of staying silent all the time, whereas Marble still seems to mostly be just as quiet now than she was when we first met her. Overall, though, I enjoyed this special; there were quite a lot of funny moments (particularly with Discord), and the story was sweet overall.
Honestly, I have no idea what to think of this special. There were a few sweet parts, but there were a few parts that really irk me. Like the Fluttercord and Sparity hints? I couldn't keep track of how many times I rolled my eyes in annoyance. And SugarMac still exists? YUCK! I've never been a fan of any of those ships, thank you very much. But that's just my opinion. Sorry if I offend anyone.
But I did think it was a pretty cute story.
4959147
The only thing I can agree with you about is Sprarity since I am a Fluttercord and SugarMac shipper but this is exactly what I was talking about in my blog. They really should have left the shipping out of the story all together. Because isn't the point of a Christmas special is suppose to leave a warm and happy feeling within you? The shipping is just going to leave a bitter taste in some shippers who don't get special moments for their ships.
4959155
Yeah, you're right. But Hasbro should just leave the shipping to us; it's what we do.
4959155
Well, there's is something to the warm embrace of someone you are intimate with during the longest nights of the darkest part of the year, an 'as along as we have each other we can make it through this, not even when the death of the sun (which is what the winter solstice was viewed) will kill us as long as we have each other,' bond.
Also there's something about a roaring fire in a hearth and it's just you and one you care about, it can just foster that moment when both realize how they mean to each other and care about each other.
4959258
Yes, okay, but that's not the point here. If anything, the example you gave is perfect for Shining Armor and Cadance to show because they are an actual couple and therefore it works. But because other people have different ships, it doesn't work in this case because it only adds to the hurt for some people.
4959274
Fair point, but let's be honest, Rainbow and Discord trying (and for the most part failing until the end) to work together to find just the right gift for Fluttershy is by and large far more interesting to watch then Shining and Cadance cuddling with chestnuts roasting over an open fire.
um to be clear that was not meant as an innuendo.
Honestly, I think Hasbro only poked at the ships enough for the people who ship those pairings to get a bit of a holiday surprise. You can't watch everything My Little Pony puts out with shipping goggles on or you might miss the point. You don't have to feel like Hasbro is attacking ships until they actually do like they did with SugarMac to MarbleMac, FlutterMac, and CheeriMac fans. I'm an avid shipper myself, but if you just see the "shipping" moments in this episode the way that they actually were, you have a lot less to worry about than you think:
The kiss on the cheek that Rarity gave Spike was a friendly "thank you". This is the way Rarity tends to show friendly affection for Spike quite a bit just like in the Season 2 episode, "Secret Of My Excess". She was flattered because Spike wrote a song for her. That's all.
Discord does care about Fluttershy a lot. While this is cute fuel for FlutterCord fans, it's also just the fact that Discord and Fluttershy are very close friends.
Yes, Marble Pie was a little crushed by the fact Big Mac and Sugar Belle shared a kiss under the mistletoe, but Marble and Big Mac are potentially related and it would be awkward if they actually got together. I think what the writers were doing here is addressing that a little bit. It was less than three seconds of the special. That's not really what mattered about it.
I loved the holiday special and I felt REALLY good after watching it! It really depends on how you look at it. But I respect your opinion.
Yeah, my OTP wasn't in this special, so this special didn't hurt me.
Besides, my OTP technically isn't canon anymore, so I didn't have anything to lose in the first place. 
Besides, Christmas love, Christmas cheer, and Christmas friendship are too special to waste getting bitter over shipping. 
Yes, I know it's still October, but I don't really care because yay, Christmas! 
I'm not crazy.
4960179
Well at least I know how you felt when Timberlight happened. And yet the irony of this is that I used to be a Spiarity shipper. I don't regret changing ships when I did because I still think it can work. My hope now is that Spiarity has a date only to realize that they didn't have much common as they thought they did. Not only is that a realistic lesson to show kids, because you can date more than one person in your life before settling with the one. So yes, I'm slowly healing from this and you're right the shipping did make me bitter when most of the special was still pretty great. But I still think it's a Nightmare Night special in disguise...