YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S8 E13 "The Mean 6"

• Badass Decay: Chrysalis, once one of the show's most dangerous villains, spends the whole episode having to corral the Mean 6 like an irritated den mother, and her plan never had a hope of working anyway. That said, she does manage to pull off a complex magical ritual to create the Mean 6 in the first place, which is impressive and up there as one of the better villain plans. It's all downhill for her from there. Possibly justified due to her Sanity Slippage, though.
• Broken Base: While some think the episode's comedic tone worked in its favor and that the interactions between the Mean 6 and the Mane 6 were funny enough to make up for the plot conveniences, others find its ending very anticlimactic, not to mention that Chrysalis was portrayed in a less than stellar light that made her come across as more of a Saturday morning cartoon villain, rather than the threat she used to be in previous appearances.
• Cry for the Devil: The fact the Mean Six, at least some of them, show genuine fear during their deaths and spent their entire existence essentially Chrysalis's slaves made many feel sad for their deaths.
• Evil Is Cool: Mean Twilight is just as clever and competent as the regular Twilight, but more ambitious and evil. She aspires to be The Starscream and lead the Mean Six in seizing the Elements for themselves, and engages Chrysalis in a Beam-O-War that Mean Twilight almost wins before they're interrupted.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • The Elements of Harmony all turn dark before they reverse the spell on the Mean 6. Is it possible for them to turn permanently dark, and what would that mean for Equestria?
  • Chrysalis still has Starlight's photo. Could she make a 'Mean' clone of Starlight, and how would this effect a pony who seems to have gotten over her once evil ways if she was suddenly confronted with them made flesh?
  • The Mane Six realize that Chrysalis has made evil clones of them, and apologize to each other for believing that the mean clones were the real ones.
• Fan Nickname: "Shutter Bug" for Chrysalis's disguise as a photographer pony. Eventually disproved when the name of her disguise is revealed to be "Crackle Cosette" in the final season.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Due to the Mane 6 never realizing that Chrysalis made evil clones of them believing them to be real, some fans would like to pretend that this episode never happened.
• Fridge Horror: If Chrysalis and the clones actually did make off with the Elements, then how would the Mane Six react when they found out their power source was outright stolen without them knowing?
• Genius Bonus:
  • The colors of Chrysalis's pony disguise in the opening are almost the inverse color values from her normal form.
  • Also, her cutie mark? Not exactly a ladybug as can be thought at first glance, but the fake ladybug, the Asian Lady Beetle that is known as a massive pest in the Americas.
  • In certain variations on the Changeling Tale, the abducted was replaced by an enchanted log (known as a "stock" or "fetch" in some sources) rather than by the more typical fairy impostor. The titular Mean Six were created by the changeling Queen Chrysalis from logs. They were stocks/fetches.
• I Knew It!: Many fans speculated that Queen Chrysalis would return for revenge on the Mane Six and Starlight after their last encounter with her. Their wishes came true.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Queen Chrysalis spends the entire episode as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, to the point where there are some scenes where you just feel sorry for her for having to deal with the Mean 6.
  • Sure, the Mean Six were... well, mean, but it's not as if they had much choice in the matter. Chrysalis created them explicitly — bad attitudes already built-in — to serve her, immediately set them to work on a thankless task, and threatened them when they misbehaved. In the end, they were killed after only a few hours of life, having never experienced a moment of kindness, friendship, or love, and never being given a chance at redemption.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Mean 6, especially Mean Twilight, would make for great recurring villains who could serve as an even match for the regular Mane 6. Instead, they are killed off at the end of the episode, with the heroes never even realizing they existed.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The possibilities of Chrysalis or the Mean 6 successfully making off with the Elements could have made for interesting storyline potential. Instead, the Tree of Harmony kills off the Mean Six and Chrysalis is driven off without the heroines even learning of her presence in the episode.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The way that the Tree of Harmony gets rid of the Mean Six before they can harm Chrysalis is quite graphic, leading one to wonder how the showrunners got away with a TV-Y rating. The original death scene was even more graphic and horrifying, so they presumably were told to dial it back quite a bit.
• The Woobie:
  • Fluttershy. Thanks to the actions of her Mean counterpart, she finds herself yelled at and hated by the forest animals. In her mind, they're antagonizing her for no reason at all, which greatly distresses the animal-loving pony. This treatment quickly leaves her curled up on the ground, crying her eyes out. And as if that weren't bad enough, she is then shown No Sympathy by Mean Twilight, who tells her to "get over it". This ends up inciting an argument between the real Twilight and Pinkie Pie, making her feel even worse (to the point where she wails "Can't we all just get along?!")
  • Starlight Glimmer. From the very beginning of the trip, she is shown to be ill at ease with nature in general. Applejack's attempts to help her cause her to be weighed down by an excessive amount of camping gear, making it even harder for her to traverse the forest (resulting in her gaining some scrapes and bruises between scenes). Then she encounters Mean Applejack, who mocks her over all the gear, making Starlight believe Applejack only gave it to her to make her look ridiculous. With tears in her eyes, Starlight gets rid of the gear, and runs off in despair.

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