YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S8 E9 "Non-Compete Clause"

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Not addressing an argument is just about as bad as arguing in the open because it enables an issue to fester. The point is to get to the heart of the disagreement and stop fighting before it gets out of hand.
  • When somebody is doing a poor job teaching you, sometimes you've gotta take matters into your own hands and teach yourself.
  • Don't be so caught up in fighting with one another that you cannot see your own canoe has sunk without you.
  • In regard to a certain Chancellor, just because the person sharing advice is a bad person with a bigoted viewpoint doesn't automatically mean what they're saying is necessarily wrong.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did the students really think everything Applejack and Rainbow Dash did was to show them the importance of teamwork through demonstrating how not to work together, or were they just trying to make the two of them look good in front of Twilight?
  • When Ocellus remains in her Bite-acuda form long enough to spook Gallus, did she honestly forget she was still in that form, or was she intentionally messing with him?
• Genius Bonus: The episode title itself. Viewers who aren't well versed in contract law are unlikely to be familiar with non-compete clauses, which prohibit former employees from exploiting sensitive information owned by their former employers, and tend to be more common and enforceable in Canada (where the series is produced) than in the US (the series' primary market).
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A major problem with the episode is that it rehashes the old Rainbow Dash vs Applejack rivalry that has been the focal point of several past episodes. Except by this point the two have had years of Character Development in-universe and their rivalry hasn't been a part of their dynamic for several seasons, so several fans were annoyed that they had regressed so badly, to the point they were unfavorably compared to their showing in "Fall Weather Friends". Twilight even lampshades that she thought the two had grown out of the behavior they exhibit here.