Due to its large, nerdy, and rather broken fanbase, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has a few points after which some groups of fans just ignore developments.
- The "purist" or "Originalist" contingent of the fandom like to ignore all episodes produced without any creative input from Lauren Faust. The cut-off here is one of two places: either after "Return of Harmony" (the final episode Lauren directly supervised from start to finish), or after "Hearth's-Warming Eve" (the final script Lauren personally approved).note Still others accept all of the first two seasons (a few of its episodes grudgingly), but ignore everything from "The Crystal Empire" onwards due to it and all future episodes having absolutely no involvement from either Lauren or original head writer Rob Renzetti. Even some episodes Lauren did work on receive this treatment due to being unpopular, like "Feeling Pinkie Keen" or "Over a Barrel". Either way, this group ignores over 80 percent of the series.
- Some bronies pretend "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" never happened due to how badly it handled its lesson on humility and how all the characters in that episode were uncharacteristically complete jerks.
- Some fans like to pretend that "Ponyville Confidential" never happened because of its mean-spirited nature and how the rest of Ponyville came across as hypocrites for enjoying the gossip column and then getting mad when their reputations were personally affected by it.
- Unrelated to the Purism arguments, a large portion of the fandom — especially Spike fans — utterly reject "Spike at Your Service" due to its total disregard for the little guy's established character traits, helped by Word of God admitting that the original script had a justification for this (he was nervous while hanging around his crush, causing him to fail at tasks) that the final one didn't have (which swapped his crush for a different character). This same portion of fans also pretends that "Princess Spike" never happened, due to it not only reusing the basic plot of "Just for Sidekicks", but also having the Butt-Monkey comedy in the episode derive from him just doing his job as opposed to the Laser-Guided Karma he took in "Just for Sidekicks".
- There are some fans who like to pretend the series ended with the Series Fauxnale "Magical Mystery Cure", which let them ignore the even more polarizing seasons that came out afterwards. This was even intended to be the final episode, but the series was so popular that it continued for six more seasons.
- The first episode of Season 4, "Princess Twilight Sparkle" had some contentious developments. "Part 1" implied the entire series up until that point had taken place within a single year, which led to a lot of Continuity Snarls and broke Willing Suspension of Disbelief, as much of the fanbase assumed that everything had been taking place over the course of at least three years. "Part 2" got flak for showing that the confrontation between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon was over in minutes and before the latter did anything worse then briefly KO Celestia. Many fans ignore this fight since Nightmare Moon's in-universe infamy and Princess Luna's guilt over it doesn't make sense in light of her doing so little, as parodied here.
- Season 4's finale "Twilight's Kingdom" left such an impact for Friendship Is Magic and had such a massive Status Quo shattering event on par if not bigger than "Magical Mystery Cure", that it caused even more fans especially who were already put on the fence for Season 3's finale, to ignore everything that came afterwards. Seasons 5 and beyond are exceptionally polarizing for various reasons, but "Twilight's Kingdom" is pointed to as a big reason why it is. It's the epitome of a Tough Act to Follow for certain fans, who believe that anything the show does from then on will never be able to match it. With Season 6 getting it particularly rough, being widely regarded as a mediocre season overall.
- Some fans like to think everything that happened after Starlight Glimmer joined The Mane Cast never happened. Even more wholly denounce Starlight-focused episodes as simply not having happened, particularly the early ones, as they tend to Worf or Flanderize other characters for the sake of making Starlight look good (that is, when those other characters even show up).
- After Flurry Heart was born, Celestia has a line implying that she is the first alicorn ever born. This upset the fandom, as most fans had always thought that Celestia and Luna were "natural alicorns", unlike Cadance and Twilight. The line is ambiguous enough to have several interpretations, so many fans went with the interpretation that they were born alicorn.
- The controversial "Fame and Misfortune" has both fans and creators alike preferring to just ignore discussing this episode and pretending it never happened, due to its harsh Take That, Audience!
- Many are inclined to ignore Season 8 due to the controversy around the School of Friendship (namely finding it to be a stretchy concept and Twilight forcing her friends to teach at the school in addition to their existing jobs), as well as feeling the Young Six were unnecessary additions to the cast and fearing they would replace the Mane 6 as main characters, especially since they saved the day in the finale while the Mane 6 were imprisoned (similar to why the Season 6 finale was divisive). It also begins Discord's regression in "A Matter of Principals", turning the previously very popular Discord into a Base-Breaking Character. The episode plays such a role in future events that it can't just be overlooked; in fact, it causes many of the issues with the Series Finale.
- Even among fans who would accept most of Season 8, the least popular episodes that most fans feel compelled to ignore are: "Non-Compete Clause", in which Rainbow Dash and Applejack regress to irresponsible competitiveness which almost gets one of their students killed; "Yakkity Sax", which has a ridiculous plot and conclusion even for Pinkie; and "Father Knows Beast", which is a rehash of "Dragon Quest" and, while initially making it seem like it might explore Spike's origins, really doesn't, as the dragon who claims to be Spike's father is a fake, and thus the episode feels pointless.
- The Season 9 premiere, The Beginning of the End, often gets this for ignoring King Sombra's Character Development and Worldbuilding from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW), bringing him back as a still–Generic Doomsday Villain, and inexplicably changing him from a Knight of Cerebus No-Nonsense Nemesis to a Big Bad Wannabe Cartoonish Supervillain. (Even those who don't, often Fan Wank that Beginning Sombra was Actually a Doombot.) And not helping is that it kickstarts the "Grogar"/Discord arc, another example.
- Fans of the Daring Do adventures have decided that the last Daring Do epsiode, "Daring Doubt", never happened due to the weak twist that retroactively made Daring Do the bad guy all along. This is despite the fact that the true villains, who the audience is suddenly supposed to sympathize with now, tried to murder her and ruin her reputation on many occasions without even considering the idea of actually talking to her.
- A significant number of fans declare this with the last episode, and to a very slightly lesser but still large extent season 9 as a whole, non-canon due to its hefty amounts of Flanderization, Contrived Coincidences, and ass pulls:
- The twist that "Grogar" was in fact Discord the whole time, as many viewed this as a waste of a character from Generation 1 and/or because of the idea that Discord would be stupid enough to free two villains, revive one, (attempt to) unite them, lead them to an artifact capable of draining magic (including his magic), and on top of that not expect the villains to backstab him. Some fans would have been happy with the twist had he been trying to reform the villains the same way he'd been reformed.
- Cozy Glow receiving the same punishment as Chrysalis and Tirek, as some feel she did not deserve it on the grounds that she was a child and victim of entrapment and blackmail, while characters like Discord and Starlight Glimmer got away with much worse.
- The Distant Finale for failing to confirm or sinking ships and limiting how any future works, fan and canon, can progress due to a number of characters' future careers and/or that they have been Saved by Canon. Several fans have stated it was an in-universe fan fiction written by the characters.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
- The first Equestria Girls movie got this from a large chunk of the fanbase for turning the young-adult ponies into teenage humanoids and placing them in a High School AU setting. As a result of this, and misinterpreting showrunner Meghan McCarthy's statement that the movie would not affect the continuity of Season 4note , these fans were unhappy when the pony version of movie-original character Flash Sentry, who was seen as a Romantic Plot Tumor by many, made a cameo in "Three's a Crowd" as Cadance's bodyguard. Although they were temporarily quelled by staff insisting his inclusion was an animator's decision rather than story decision, a second Flash cameo (in a one-line speaking role this time) during "Twilight's Kingdom" caused these fans to absolutely lose it.
- While backlash against the series has died down as it increased in quality, the cameos of Equestria Girls exclusive characters in the Season 7 and 9 finales, which Word of God confirmed meant the series was canon, drew ire from those who wanted the works kept separate. Some fans argue that just because the characters were canon didn't mean the events of the series were (as characters who first appeared in the "canon" comic, like Moondancer and Star Swirl, had irreconcilably different designs, personalities, and backstories once they appeared in the show proper).
- Several fans like to pretend the series ended with the Forgotten Friendship special which featured the reconciliation between Sunset Shimmer and Princess Celestia which met the high expectations of fans who waited the whole series for and a story that could served as a powerful Book Ends for Sunset's character. Subsequent specials failed to deliver on fan awaited plotssuch as and had weaker writing, villains, and redemption as well as failed to meaningfully develop or advance the series. It also reached the point their staying in high school after all this time became hard to ignore.
- While the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) comics are officially canon unless/until contradicted by the show, their more hit-or-miss quality, the lack of acknowledgment from the show (whose staff is very careful not to give a straight answer on the issue), an increasing discrepancies between them has many it so even many who acknowledge the comics treat them as their own thing.
- Even fans of the comics consider the "Nightmare Rarity" arc (issues 5-8) to be AU at best due to it going against what was known about Nightmare Moon's rise at the time. The show ended up standing with the comic on this one, with the Season 4 premiere retconning Luna's descent to be similar, which many fans further rejected as they prefer Nightmare Moon to have been a voluntary persona crafted by a jealous, angry Luna, instead of her being corrupted by an outside force.
- Friends Forever Issue #14 is widely considered to have never happened, owing to not actually focusing on Luna and Spike's friendship, a misleading cover, the concept of "friendly" dragons living in a China Town-esque region of a major city, a very Anvilicious plot with an anti-racism message that contradicts itselfnote and falls hard into Strawman Has a Pointnote , and ends with a completely out-of-nowhere Deus ex Machina that "proves" the strawmen wrong. Even fans of the comic tend to reject the idea of a Dragon Town, as it clashes wildly with what the cartoon has established about dragons, namely that Spike is only one in Equestria and that ponies lack any real knowledge on the creatures due to their fear of them.
- The Holiday 2014 comic received massive criticism for how badly it treats Sunset Shimmer. The Rainbooms spend the story acting like jerks, suspecting her of being the one leaking embarrassing information about them. And having nothing to do with the holidays. When it first released, practically every review in the fandom discouraged people from reading it at all.note However, while still disliked in and of itself, the comic quickly managed to become a popular source of Fanfic Fuel in the community, as countless writers put their own spin on the events; in fact, some of the most-liked fanfics about Sunset Shimmer either frame themselves as an alternate retelling of her Anon-A-Miss woes, or use the incident as the catalyst for a larger story.
- "Siege of the Crystal Empire" is often disregarded, as it follows up King Sombra's "My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic" issue (itself an incredibly popular issue that portrays Sombra as someone Driven to Villainy and ending on a fittingly somber note) with a much more comedic and lighthearted issue that ends with Sombra being abruptly reformed and purified, and happily running into the sunset thanks to the love of Radiant Hope. Some fans were turned off by what felt like an attempt to undo the plot of such a popular issue for the sake of a happy ending, and introducing a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for the very divisive Mirror Sombra from the "Reflections" arc. Fortunately for them, Canon Discontinuity soon went into play with the return of King Sombra as a villain in the Season 9 premiere (which ironically got this from fans who did like this arc, and/or see Sombra's S9 characterization as inferior).
- Thanks to all the buildup with Celestia, Twilight, Luna, and the Elements/Tree of Harmony all being thrown to the wayside in favor of Starlight Glimmer being the one to save the day, "Chaos Theory" gets this in spades.
- Even fans of the Cosmos arc tend to reject the backstory aspect of it and consider it non-canon, as it tries to heavily Retcon Discord's past as a genuinely malicious and chaotic villain by portraying his past self Token Good Sidekick and well-intentioned character. It goes on to claim that it wasn't Discord who was responsible for the evil from his original reign, but the eponymous Cosmos, who he was in an abusive relationship with. Fans weren't too happy with the idea, as it profoundly damaged Discord's show characterization by removing the need for his Heel–Face Turn and lessening its impact, erasing the idea of Fluttershy being his first-ever friend, removing much of the agency that made Discord such a memorable villain in the first place, and cheapening the idea of The Power of Friendship redeeming him, as he was Good All Along rather than actually changing for the better. Even staunch defenders of the issue maintain that the backstory was a lie and that Discord was being an Unreliable Narrator to try and save face.
- The "Season 10" comics Worldbuilding nations beyond Equestria]], including the long awaited zebra homeland, has been mixed. What has been widely rejected about it was the nations having their own Trees and Elements of Harmony, never explaining how this is possible given how Equestria's Tree was created, which was seen as too contrived and diminished the Elements and other nations by making them more similar to Equestria.
- No one in the Friendship Is Magic fandom pays any heed to any official comics produced in Europe. This is because European MLP comics are specifically targeted at children (whereas the IDW comics are "all ages" and actually aim slightly older than the TV series does). Ire and shunning is especially reserved for the German comics, which are notorious for their poor art and storytelling.
- Due to the tendency for G4 MLP merchandise to significantly deviate from the show, fanon discontinuity may also occur between fans of the show and fans of The Merch. This commonly occurs with toys in particular. On one hand, fans of the show often disregard details and backstories of the toys as they are thought to be written by third parties who seemingly have spotty knowledge of the show, while fans of the toys view the toy line's attempts to be more show accurate as moves to pander to more casual adult fans of the show, among other reasons.
- My Little Pony (Generation 5) is officially a Distant Sequel to Friendship is Magic where ponies are once again divided and the old setting has disappeared into legend. Many fans have rejected this due to the Happy Ending Override of Twilight Sparkle and her friends accomplishments over the series rendered All for Nothing (furthering complaints about the Series Finale that it was a mistake to have Twilight become ruler of Equestria). Even many who like G5 feel the series' mystery of what happened to the old Equestria is lackluster/doesn't get enough focus, and the disappearance of the old setting and races discards most of the setting's Worldbuilding, invalidating the theoretical appeal of it a sequel. Thus, many treat G5 as an Alternate Continuity in order to enjoy it on its own merits.
