YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S1 E14 "Suited for Success"

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • One could see the lesson of this episode as "Don't interfere in an artist's creative process." It fits nicely with the Take That! on the main recap page.
  • Others see it as an allegory for unpleasable fanbases.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: DJ-P0N3/Vinyl Scratch, the DJ unicorn, makes her first appearance here. She's on screen for only a few seconds and does nothing but turn on the music and bob her head to it, but she garnered enough of a fanbase to play larger roles in later episodes (and in Equestria Girls).
• Fans Prefer the New Her: A few fans find that Rainbow Dash's bad dress doesn't look as bad as the rest, and is actually quite cool (albeit inappropriate for the occasion).
• Genius Bonus: Rainbow Dash's first costume includes a gold crown of laurel leaves. In Ancient Greece, where the myth of the Pegasus came from, laurel wreaths were given to athletic champions. Foreshadowing: She DID win the "Best Young Flyers" competition two episodes later. So by the time she does wear the dress for its original purpose, she's earned her laurels.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Rarity worrying about her career being ruined comes to fruition in Season 7's "Fame & Misfortune" when all of Ponyville boycotts her and she suffers Sanity Slippage.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The lyrics that Rainbow Dash "won't look like a tank" and Fluttershy's dress should be "something breezy." M. A. Larson picked up on this as well and went full Trolling Creator with it, cracking that the lyrics for the song are deliberately meant to foreshadow more future episodes.
  • During Rarity's meltdown, Pinkie Pie says that she'll become a crazy cat lady. Come Season 4, and Pinkie turns out to have one in her family.
• Memetic Mutation: It needs to be about 20% cooler...
  • Not as commonly used as the above, but there is Rainbow Dash's love of fun things.
  • Even Rarity does the duckface!◊
  • Though it's by no means her only one and she has many more smaller moments of drama, Rarity's breakdown is legendary.
  • This image◊ of the ponies waiting for their dresses has been memed into them asking for hugs◊.
• Narm: Rarity's entire "I'M SO PATHETIC!" rant. It's not really supposed to be funny, given that she says it after her first fashion show — and apparently her career — has just gone down in flames, but Tabitha St. Germain's delivery makes it downright hilarious.
• Never Live It Down: Would you believe this is the only time the "20% cooler" line appears in the show? It was finally referenced again four years later in Rainbow Rocks, though as "20% less cool," and by the human Rainbow Dash.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Fans who started watching the series from the beginning saw this episode as Rarity's transition into a well-written character with Hidden Depths. Those who didn't like Rarity at first saw her as The Load of the Mane Six and a Rich Bitch whose selfishness often got the better of her. This episode proved she was willing to make sacrifices to keep her friends happy no matter the cost. It also allowed fans to sympathize with her after the Mane Six took advantage of her generosity.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Rarity sort of brought the situation onto herself by insisting that she make her friends new dresses and shooting down Twilight when she says no. Even when her friends weren’t all that satisfied with their first dresses, they seemed alright to take them as they are rather than let Rarity redo them, but again, Rarity insisted.
• Wangst: Played for Laughs with Rarity after her fashion show ended in disaster.
• The Woobie: Rarity is stressed out, overworked, and finally breaks down. Making it worse is that she was doing all of this for free and for her friends. This has the benefit of proving her generosity.

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