YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S5 E24 "The Mane Attraction"

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Being an over the top edgy pop star who pushes the boundaries is bad. Artists should instead keep to performing tasteful, bare bones productions.
  • Don't judge some pony famous to be mean or unfriendly just because they're celebrities. Although there are celebrities who are mean off-stage, some may also surprise you.
  • To quote from this video: In case of creative crisis, apply patriotism until public is clapping.
• Award Snub: The song "The Magic Inside" was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Original Song, but lost out to "True Bromance" from All Hail King Julien. The general consensus is essentially "How could a joke song win over this?"
• Base-Breaking Character: Svengallop is either Love to Hate-able or an obnoxious Karma Houdini Jerkass.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Coloratura's cutie mark spinning when she's singing "The Magic Inside", which really served no purpose to the plot, especially odd considering Season 5 was all about cutie marks.
• Broken Base:
  • The reception of "The Magic Inside" is divided into those who love it for its emotional charge and powerful vocals and those who think that it is a generic piano ballad that is trying to ride on the coattails of "Let It Go" from Frozen (2013).
  • On the flip side, "The Spectacle" is seen as either the cringeworthy Stylistic Suck it was intended to be or a very fun and charmingly self-aware and catchy with truly impressive effects that wouldn't be out of place of a real-life PMV. Lena Hall herself stated in her reaction video to the episode that she had the song stuck in her head for a good while after recording it.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Magic is shown to be able to record video and sound during the episode.
  • Sapphire Shores, according to Pinkie, is the second greatest pop star in all of Equestria. Rivalry between Sapphire and Coloratura ensues.
  • Coloratura's time in Manehattan and how exactly she and Svengallop met, not to mention their working relationship and her rise to fame, are also ample fuel for fanfic writers.
  • Applejack reflecting on her time with Coloratura in Camp Friendship. Prime fuel for writers who want to explore other characters going to summer camp now that it's canon in Equestria.
  • Svengallop finding somepony else to exploit.
    • Or hopefully, getting his comeuppance.
  • The results of Countess Coloratura's rather drastic change in image has had its share of stories.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Rara always wears a black veil, which symbolically represents that she can't see her manager's true colors. It's a veil of ignorance.
  • Applejack says that Svengallop doesn't "give a pickled pippin" about Rara's charity work. There are several apple cultivars called pippins, which are often used to make apple pickles.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Friendship is Magic airs an episode about an artist asserting her creative integrity in the face of management interference. Three days later, Lauren Faust announces that she has left the Medusa film project due to creative differences with Sony.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • We now have a character whose In-Series Nickname is "Rara", several years after Rarity had been given the Fan Nickname "Rarara".
  • This G3 fan-made video based on Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" amusingly presaged the Hair Flip part of Coloratura's "Countess" persona. The song is even in a similar style to "The Spectacle".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Jokes regarding Coloratura and comparing her to Lady Gaga, Adele or Prince began to come out.
  • RARARARARARARARA, regarding Coloratura's nickname by AJ, which is also the Fan Nickname for Rarity.
  • A smaller one is saying how Coloratura could be The Countess. Helps that she's inspired by Lady Gaga, who plays The Countess.
• Misaimed Fandom: Coloratura's first song, "The Spectacle," is intended to be an overproduced mess in visuals and sound, to show how Svengallop has influenced her and to sharply contrast "The Magic Inside" with its simple production but more powerful performance. However, for many the song is still legitimately good and enjoyable in its own right.
• Narm: As some viewers noticed, Applejack’s flashback has filly Coloratura sing with an adult voice, making the whole scene a bit disturbing.
• Refrain from Assuming: When its animatic was released, before the official title was given, "The Magic Inside" was known by fans as "I Am Just a Pony".
• Strawman Has a Point: Svengallop's parting words that Coloratura would be nothing without him is supposed to be undermined by his being a demanding jerk to everyone, forcing Coloratura to take a tacky persona and using her to his own ends. But after he quits, Songbird Serenade replaces her as Equestria's biggest star while Coloratura hasn't been mentioned since, suggesting Svengallop was doing his job as her manager of making her popular despite his selfishness. It’s noted that by "Grannies Gone Wild" he appears to be back in hard times sulking in a dance club, implying that a similar thing might have happened again with her as well. That being said, Coloratura does get a special mention in "Rock Solid Friendship", implying that maybe her stardom isn't entirely lost.
• Tainted by the Preview: A number of viewers were greatly put off by the Lady Gaga-esque musical number previewed the day before the episode's premiere, seeing it as atrocious and far too modern for the likes of the show. Those familiar with the SDCC animatic and pre-release synopsis months in advance know that not only is that entirely the point, but the singer undergoes a radical transformation by the episode's end and performs a soulful, tear-jerking "I Am" Song that could give Frozen (2013) a run for its money.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • It would have been interesting to have at least one of Svengallop's esoteric demands have the equivalent Secret Test function of Van Halen's notorious brown M&M's contract rider to confirm that all arrangements are set up safely as per contract. It would have given Countess Coloratura's defense of her manager more credibility and presented a greater challenge for Applejack to show her friend the whole truth about him.
  • Applejack is initially more concerned with how much Countess Coloratura has changed since they last met as foals and is more interested in seeing the old Rara again rather than just accepting a close friend may have grown up into a different person. How interesting would it have been to see Applejack have to come to terms with a friend not being the same person she remembers her as and having to accept those changes.
  • Or finding that Svengallop really does have Coloratura's best interests at heart but knows the rules of the game all too well. Imagine that: Svengallop socking it to the industry suits instead of to Rara.
  • It would have been rewarding — and completely in keeping with the core message of the series — if a bitter Svengallop had attended the concert expecting to see Coloratura fail miserably without his carefully crafted effects, only to be so moved by her performance that he begs her to take him back as her manager on the condition that she has full creative discretion. The show's gone to that well several times already, but it's a deep well.

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