YMMV / Centaurworld

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Even if you think a friend's change is good, if your friend doesn't, you need to put your personal feelings aside and comfort them about their grief towards this change, lest they fall further into despair. While the Centaurs treated Horse's transformation as a good thing, Horse is horrified about it and her grief about the transformation eventually leads to Horse being willingly swallowed by the Whaletaur Shaman.
  • In "The Last Lullaby", the Elktaur and his backstory act as a cautionary tale of how self-loathing can negatively affect not only yourself, but also those around you. Even if it does have over-the-top consequences, it does bring to light how important it is to love and respect yourself, flaws and all.
  • The whole show runs with the idea of withholding judgment on someone else until the truth of their circumstances is made clear, because that's the only way they can be judged fairly. Glendale's kleptomania is acceptable because she's generous with what she steals and it hurts her at least as much as it helps, since it's the only real balm to her otherwise uncontrollable anxiety. The Woman's obstruction of Horse's return doesn't make her an antagonist because she obviously has reasons, we just don't know what they are at that point. The Minotaurs aren't responsible for what they are or what they do, so it'd be unfair to murder them when they can't fight back and aren't doing anything. The Elktaur's only motivation was to trick a woman into loving him back for no real reason, and he let his inner conflict over it murder an entire generation of innocent people, so the characters judge him as deserving of death. "Don't judge before you know the truth, but once you have it, don't hesitate; judge decisively."
• Accidental Innuendo: There's this gem from the song 'What Would You Say' between Stabby and Durpleton: "Now we're two guys in a hole / A daddy and his Stabby!" They are actually talking about the fact they are a family in the Moletaur tunnels but ... yeah, it is hard to listen to without snickering.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Was Stabby's/Philip Bonecrunch's transformation from minotaur into a cartoony Centaurworld version of himself something that was done more willingly in reaction to begrudgingly accepting the love he was shown (and forced to accept), or are the effects of Centaurworld like a magical disease and he was transformed against his will, body and mind, into a toddler-esque form? Regardless on the morality or discussion on if he is "happier" post-transformation, there is the argument on how much free will was involved, if any.
  • Word of God is that people don’t change based on the style of the world they're in; they change based on how much they let the world change them.
  • Exactly how much of Zulius' joining in with the other centaurs' nonsense be attributed to him being The Gadfly?
• Alternative Joke Interpretation:
  • Is Durpleton really forty-seven like he claims, or was it just one of those random things Durpleton says? Zulius seems to confirm it with his dismissive "obvi", but on the other hand, Zulius has shown time and again that he's The Gadfly and may have just been trying to stir something up. A Q&A session done by Megan on Instagram confirms that Durpleton truly is 47.
  • Zulius's interrupted backstory, which, from what few details we get, seems to be a Shout-Out to Batman. Is he such a drama king that he's making up a tragic backstory so he won't be the only one without one? Or does he just happen to have a backstory very similar to Batman's?
• Awesome Music: The show is a musical, and it definitely pulls out all the stops in terms of wonderful songs. Has its own page.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In "The Rift: Part 1" Comfortable Doug's appearance and song number is out of context since he has no relation to the plot at hand. It gets even weirder when Sunfish Merguy, The Glitter Cats, Gebbery, and even Jeffica appear before drilling away.
• Catharsis Factor: The death of the General after revealing everything about the Nowhere King's origin and attempting to murder Rider. So as the Last Lullaby when the Woman kills the newly reformed Elktaur.
• Demographically Inappropriate Humour: There are plenty of moments in this show that are more noticeable for adult fans.
  • Ched implying a cave has a mouth hole and a second hole in the back in "It's Hidin' Time".
  • Glendale's transformation into a hardened criminal while in Moletaur prison in "Holes, Part 2", including a teardrop tattoo (which is supposed to be a sign that someone has killed).
  • At the beginning of "Ride the Whaletaur Shaman!" it's revealed that Wammawink has a barely disguised fetish for Merdudes and it only gets worse from there—it also turns out that she forced Glendale to make a magazine filled with softcore erotic images of shirtless Merdudes and if that wasn't enough, a Merdude body pillow. Also, one of the Merdudes in Wammawink's Imagine Spot has obvious pubic hair.
  • In "The Rift: Part 1" Wammawink very much does the right thing stopping Durpleton from giving his short farewell poem to Horse just from the first verse alone: "There once was a Centaur named Wenis..."
  • In "Horsatia Wighair Beansz?", Zulius is initially as distressed as the rest of the herd at being picked up like luggage, but when he discovers he's been nestled against the bellhop's rock-hard abs, he becomes very pleased and says he could get used to it. Later, when he sees the muscular tulip steppers being oiled up by hand, he expresses a very frantic desire for that job with visibly parched lips — he's thirsty.
  • "My Tummy, Your Hurts" has Wammawink briefly distance herself from the group to eat a snow cone, telling them not to disturb her "special snow cone time", which she even holds in a similar way to a wine glass, very clearly making it a simile to her day drinking.
  • In the backstories episode, Wammawink's speeches about asking before entering peoples' memories start to sound like an analogy for sexual consent. This is underlined by Zulius practically throwing himself at Horse in a very provocative pose, which makes her very uncomfortable.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Because the Elktaur / Nowhere King has such a tragic backstory in the series finale, as well as a fairly attractive design before he was split up and mutated, there are many fans who believe he could be redeemed via The Power of Love, be it with his canon love interest or with an OC. Interestingly, the General doesn't get this treatment to the same extent as his counterpart due to being given a fairer life in canon, with most fans keeping him villainous to make the Elk more sympathetic. While most fans admit he went too far in canon, there are some who insist he shouldn't have been killed, despite the show making it clear he was Beyond Redemption, as his love for the Woman had turned toxic and his selfish actions spawned a war that went on for decades and killed many, many beings across the two worlds.
• Dry Docked Ship: Zulius and Splendib are well accepted to be exes in the fandom. While Season 1 stops just shy of saying it outright, Season 2 confirms their relationship to be romantic once the two get back together.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Comfortable Doug is a popular character both in-universe and out, due to his amusing antics. The Birdtaurs practically worship him.
  • Splendib is very popular for his catty personality, being a Big Beautiful Man and for his Foe Yay Shipping-laden rivalry with Zulius, which becomes a canon romantic relationship in season 2.
  • A literal case with Becky Apples for being a scarily competent warhorse, enough to even put the battle-savvy Rider on edge.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • After Horse transformed into a more cartoony form in Season 1, many fans began to speculate what the main centaur characters would look like in the style of the human world.
  • After Season 2 revealed the Elk and the General were originally one centaur who was split in half, many fans have wondered how the main centaur herd would look if they were split as well.
  • Since Zulius is the only character whose backstory isn't shown onscreen, and his one appearance in a flashback had him look the same as he did now, his fans enjoy filling in the gaps. This usually also explores what exactly happened with him and Splendib in Cattaur Valley.
• Fanon:
  • It's generally accepted that Rider's name is Rider (or even Ryder). This is because, among the central human characters, "Rider" is the only one that could reasonably be someone's name.
  • Fan's have taken to calling the Elktaur Brian, after his voice actor, and also the General's voice actor for having the same first name.
  • The Mysterious Woman's name is often headcanoned as "Lavender" after her hair color.
  • Zulius and Splendib have an on-again, off-again relationship, and their rivalry-turned-romance seen in the series is not the first time this has happened between them.
  • The idea that Horse and Rider were originally one centaur who was split apart in infancy/toddlerhood like the Elktaur has been explored a few times.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Bojack Horseman, mostly centered around the humor of both shows having a depressed horse protagonist. Having characters voiced by Paul F. Tompkins and Wendie Malick certainly helps.
  • The show tends to be promoted alongside Jellystone! due to their release dates being a day apart from each other.
  • The fandom seems to be friendly with the Inanimate Insanity fandom, as Adam Katz works for both of these shows.
  • A minor one with Turning Red because of Mei's drawings of Devon as a merman, due to the "hot mermen" magazine that got similar memetic attention.
• He's Just Hiding: Some fans choose to believe the Mysterious Woman ended up sparing the Elktaur due to her hesitancy as well as the fact that the audience never sees the kill. This ended up being Jossed with Word of God confirming that the Woman did indeed kill off the Elktaur.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: After Season 1 was premiered, there were several posts, at least somewhat, jokingly saying or bemoaning that the Nowhere King would end up becoming Tumblr's next sexyman. Come Season 2 where it was revealed that the Nowhere King was a fairly attractive, Adorkable elktaur, fans immediately latched onto his design and origin story. It's almost a Self Fulfilling Prophesy.
• Ho Yay: Zulius/Durpleton gets some traction, helped along by the fact that Zulius at one point calls Durpleton "babe."
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: "Stripes on Stripes", the official ship name for Zulius and Splendib.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Horse grew up in a constant war that took both her parents and trained her to expect danger at every turn. She gets separated from her rider, her best friend and only family, and tries her best to survive an unfamiliar world by taking charge and facing danger head-on. The longer she spends in this world, the harder it becomes for her to hide her pain, yet she continues her quest out of sheer determination to get home and protect Rider from harm. Her armor does nearly crack a few times, however, most notably when she briefly loses herself to a whaletaur's stomach due to her fear that Rider would never recognize her even if she made it home.
  • Initially, Wammawink just seems like an overbearing Team Mom, but in the fourth episode, it's revealed she watched the slaughter of her entire herd and was orphaned as a small child with nobody to protect her. She copes by obsessively protecting and guiding her friends and never tells anybody else her Dark and Troubled Past if she can help it.
• Les Yay:
  • Horse/Wammawink is a fairly popular ship in the fandom, with fans interpreting their relationship and shared Affectionate Nickname of ‘Babygirl’ as romantic. While Wammawink initially imprints on her as another surrogate daughter, Horse is the only one of the herd who seems to be equally protective of Wammawink. It also helps that Horse spends the majority of episode five carrying a sleeping Wammawink on her back. The second episode of season two also has Wammawink jealous of Rider.
  • On a stranger note, sometimes the relationship between Horse and the Rider seems to be framed in a romantic light, most notably during their season 1 reunion song, and when Horse gets angry and jealous in season 2 when she finds out that Rider has a new horse in the human world (even asking about Becky Apples, "Is she hot?!"). The latter is even directly compared with Wammawink's one-sided romantic rivalry with Jeffica. The Elk also directly compares his romantic love for the Mysterious Woman to Horse's love for Rider.
  • Wammawink's romantic rivalry with Jeffica can come across as a different kind of obsession, as Wammawink draws attention to Jeffica's "stupid pretty legs" and perky wool.
• LGBT Fanbase: The show has quite the following, thanks to Comfortable Doug and Wammawink being Ambiguously Bi (Word of Gay confirmed that the former is supposed to be pansexual) and because Season 2 confirmed that Zulius, Ched and Splendib are all mlm in some way, with Zulius and Splendib becoming very openly affectionate with each other and even making an official ship name for themselves, while Ched is revealed to have a crush on Zulius. The show's Family of Choice aspect and campiness are also a part of its appeal.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Horse's heroic sacrifice in the finale becomes this the longer she spends eulogizing her life and bidding farewell to her loved ones — it happens at the start of an hour long episode and we know she's going to be fine. Moreover, she's well aware of how her magic works, and that using backstory magic on the Nowhere King means his backstory is going to start rolling soon.
  • Rider dying after the General stabbed her. Not only was she given a bit more screentime in Season 2, but reuniting with her has been Horse's overall goal since the first episode.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • A number of fans feel as though the Elk is the completely innocent party and it was the General that was truly at fault. This ignores that the Elk was willing to lie and manipulate the Woman as the General had, and probably would have had things gone the way he expected. Word of God confirms that the General is the way he is because he had the privilege to be, implying the Elk could have easily been the same way if the perspectives were reversed. That's also ignoring that the Nowhere King's actions were only possible because of the Elk manipulating the rift; in the end, he's the one responsible for bringing war into two worlds and turning his love for the Woman toxic.
  • There are fans who insist the show would be better if it focused more on the fantasy side and dialed down on the weird centaur humor. However, the contrast between these genres is the whole point of the show, and the audience is meant to see depth beyond the weirdness of Centaurworld as Horse learns more about it.
  • Some fans took the Take That, Audience! angle of "All Herd All the Terd" personally and were enraged that the creators thought Wammawink was The Scrappy. In reality, the episode was likely being worked on before Season 1 even aired and the birdtaurs were meant to be a stand-in for the general overly-enthusiastic fandoms, not Centaurworld specifically. Wammawink being the in-universe Scrappy was likely just Rule of Funny on display.
• Moral Event Horizon: The General crossed it when he tried to kill his Elk-half and then locked him in a dungeon so small he couldn't move for 10 years.
• Nausea Fuel: Try keeping your lunch down when you see how the Nowhere King eats. He gobbles down one of his (living) minions and proceeds to digest the poor bastard as grossly as possible. In general, the show really emphasises the sickly, putrid nature of the Nowhere King. His first onscreen appearance has him heaving and vomiting copious amounts of black bile all over the floor as he manifests.
• One-Scene Wonder: The Taurnado from "Fragile Things". It only appears for the duration of a musical number and leaves soon after not to be talked about again, but the scene where it appears shows it as being terrifying enough to make a big mark with the fandom.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Wammahorse - Wammawink x Horse
• Slow-Paced Beginning:
  • While Horse has a definitive end goal, the series is about mostly about how the other goofy characters bounce off her. The pace doesn't truly pick up until halfway into the second to last episode of the season.
  • To a lesser extent, Season 2 seems to have problems of people feeling the first four episodes are meandering Character Focus while episode 5 feels like actually continuing from where Season 1 left off.
• Spiritual Successor: With the constant whiplash from silly jokes to massive trauma or scary things, Adventure Time.
• Squick:
  • The moletaurs are dripping with sweat. Horse disgustedly asks them not to touch her, and Glendale whimpers angrily when Comfortable Doug gets some of his sweat on her face.
  • The birdtaurs' way of communicating with one another involves sending birdtaur eggs to one another, in what is supposed to be a reference to Twitter. What hatches from these eggs are pink, slimy, and veiny birdtaur infants.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • In the second season, Horse finds out that Rider has been looking after a different horse and thinks that she might have replaced her (unaware that she was just looking after someone else's horse as a favor to the General). In the series finale, after Horse finds out about the General's connection to the Nowhere King and tries telling Rider about it, Rider condescendingly dismisses her claims about the General since she's "just a horse" and therefore doesn't know any better. The idea that the way Horse sees Rider doesn't 100% mesh with Rider's view of Horse on grounds of species dynamics, especially since Horse was a non-sapient horse before arriving in Centaurworld, could have been a compelling subplot in the second season and would have given Rider more character development. Instead this happens near the end of the series finale's climax and not much really comes of it.
  • Zulius and Splendib reconcile and get back together offscreen, missing an opportunity to properly address Zulius's issues with him. This sticks out since Zulius fighting alongside Splendib is highlighted in "Battle Round," a song that highlights the Herd's relationships and Character Development (i.e. Glendate fighting alongside the coldtaurs, Durpleton fighting alongside Stabby, and Ched finally being a tulip stepper).
• Ugly Cute: Several of the centaur designs can look rather awkward and off-putting to some, but their deliberately cartoony style of animation and personalities make up for it when it comes to making them endearing.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Wammawink is pretty well-liked by the show's actual fandom for her cute design, flawed but endearing personality and tragic backstory. However, in-universe, the birdtaurs (who are basically the Herd's in-universe fandom) view Wammawink as The Scrappy.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Following the premise of the first season, many noted how there's several... questionable things that happen in the series such as how the Mysterious Woman killed a ladybug centaur to use its blood as paint, Glendale's kleptomaniac behavior and her history with the law, a Very Special Episode discussing suicide, alcoholic beverages (a mojito, to be exact), Wammawink's softcore merman magazine collection, and everything regarding the Nowhere King, an exceptionally terrifying villain considering the setting, and the many deaths both on and offscreen he's responsible for. Against all odds, it scored only a TV-Y7 rating and was featured on the Netflix After School Youtube channel, meant for kids and families.

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