YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S1 E5 "Griffon the Brush Off"

• Accidental Innuendo: Spike seems to have a little too much fun while blindfolding Cloudchaser for a game of Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Pony.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Does Gilda's jealousy towards Pinkie Pie merely stem from wanting to spend time with a friend, or is she in love with Rainbow Dash and views Pinkie as a threat to a potential relationship?
• Base-Breaking Character: Gilda. Some fans dislike her for being a Jerkass and making Fluttershy cry. Other fans view her as a Jerkass Woobie despite the fact that she doesn't have any excuse for her actions (at least until Season 5).
• Draco in Leather Pants: Gilda. A lot of people like to paint her as a misunderstood Jerkass Woobie and vilify Rainbow Dash for getting rid of her. This is ignoring the fact that Gilda is nothing but rude to everyone except Rainbow Dash when she arrives. She excludes Pinkie, terrorizes Granny Smith, steals food, yells at Fluttershy, and insults everyone at the party. Granted it was an awkward situation but she neither apologizes nor accepts responsibility for her actions.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Not Gilda herself, but the griffons are among the most popular non-pony species on the show.
• Fanfic Fuel: Not Gilda herself, but revelation that Griffons exist in this show has spawned a lot of stories.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Four seasons later, we learn that griffons literally have no concept of friendship, putting everything involving Gilda in a much different light. Rainbow Dash is the only friend she's ever had, and she has little idea how to reconcile that with Rainbow having other friends.
• Les Yay: This episode stands as one of the biggest sources in the entire series.
  • Gilda acts like a jealous ex-girlfriend with the way she acts towards Pinkie's attachment to Rainbow Dash.
  • Surprisingly one sided though. As Gilda seems to be very physical with Dash only for Dash to immediately move away.
• Memetic Mutation: "I'm a year older than you."
• Narm Charm: Between the nineties slang and attitude, combined with how schoolyard her bullying is, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it would be impossible to make Gilda's actions come across as anything but laughable, even when it's supposed to be completely serious. But when her actions do lose their comedy, they become really uncomfortable to watch.
• Never Live It Down: Gilda actually did do other mean things besides making Fluttershy cry. People just remember and bring it up the most due to how uncomfortably memorable the whole scene is.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Rainbow Dash gets a bit of this for her 'ultimatum' to Gilda at the end. Essentially what Rainbow Dash is really saying is that if Gilda values their friendship, she'll accept Rainbow Dash's other friends as well - and if she's not willing to do that, then Rainbow Dash wants nothing more to do with her. So Gilda had the opportunity to apologize and just chose not to.
  • Pinkie Pie to a lesser extent. Some fans forget that her annoyance at being excluded was not because of an either/or situation. She wanted to hang out with both Rainbow Dash and Gilda and compromise the situation. Gilda meanwhile wanted Rainbow Dash for herself and excluded Pinkie.
  • Gilda is sometimes made out to be a vengeful monster that is willing to go so far as to take part in wars against Equestria just so she can have a chance to get back at Rainbow and her friends. While Gilda is by no means a saint, she's simply a small time jerk that just so happened to have some memorable moments of extreme unpleasantry. Gilda also really did care about Rainbow Dash as shown by her willingness to put up with embarrassing situations for an extended period of time just to make her happy.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Glida blowing up at the party guests after being pranked one to many times, automatically blaming Pinkie Pie for setting the pranks up to target her specifically, and walking out on Rainbow Dash when she admits to doing it herself and demands that Gilda has to accept her friends if she wants to continue being friends with her, is completely understandable. Gilda had been the sole receiver of a long list of pranks during a party Pinkie Pie herself set up, the party guests (including Rainbow's friends) repeatedly laughed at Gilda's humiliation, and Rainbow Dash doesn't even attempt to apologize or take responsibility for her part in upsetting one of her closest friends.
  • By the same token, it's hard to blame Gilda for being at least a little angry at Pinkie Pie for trying to weasel in on her time with Rainbow Dash, especially since they hadn't seen each other in a long time. The closest anyone ever gets to calling Pinkie out for her own clingy behavior is Twilight...who's made to apologize for it at the end.
  • Gilda yelling at Fluttershy for bumping into her is a legitimate complaint, as Fluttershy had been walking backwards in the middle of a busy market street and not really paying attention to her surroundings.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Pinkie Pie. Anyone who's ever traveled a long way to visit a close friend that moved away, only to have one of said friend's new local friends constantly horn in on everything you want to do together and try to dominate their time as well, may find themselves sympathizing with Gilda instead (jerk or not).
• The Woobie: The first of a long list of Woobie roles for Fluttershy, being driven to tears by Gilda's bullying. Pinkie even interprets her as this trope in-universe; victimizing her with pranks is too cruel due to her meekness.

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