M.A. Larson delivered a merciless rip to every keyboard warrior whoever trolled on Twitter with “Fame and Misfortune,” a My Little Pony episode that also gave its fair share of fandom and continuity nods.
We started with Twilight Sparkle breaking up a fight between fillies Coconut Cream and Toola Roola, who some fans may remember from G3 (generation 3) My Little Pony. But they were fillies here. Does that mean G3 is the future of the current show? Hmmm…. (no).
Beware, spoilers abound in this episode discussion.
Soon, Twilight got the idea of publishing the old Friendship Journal. It just had so much good advice to little ponies like Toola Roola and Coconut Cream! Starlight Glimmer helped her make these copies from a spell she learned when she had to copy “a certain manifesto.” (It was The Communist Manifesto.) But Twi started to get concerned when ponies asked her to autograph their copies, which they didn’t even read.
That’s not a fan, Twilight. That’s a scalper who needs to be sent to the moon.
But when she encountered fans who actually read the books, it got even worse. They hated Rarity with a fiery passion, and they felt it was their place to shout down Fluttershy for being a pushover.
“We’re entitled to know!” said one troll pony, demanding to know why Flutters was so weak.
Larson may be attempting to shake that stigma, because Fluttershy again showed her assertiveness in this episode.
It wasn’t all negative. Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack got harassed from ponies who loved them too much. So what happened when these two groups converged? Arguments in front of Twilight’s castle, with neither group really paying attention to Twilight’s lessons on friendship, flaws, and how nopony is supposed to be perfect.
In the end (ending SPOILERS), these trolls just never got it, but Coconut Cream and Toola Roola did. The Mane 6 decided it was worth all the harassment and stress to get the message out to little ponies like those two. The troll ponies, I assume, are irredeemable ass hats who will never be happy.
Fair enough.
I’ll be honest, though. I smarted just a little bit from this episode. Remember back in school when the teacher occasionally got mad in front of the whole class, and even though you knew she wasn’t talking about you, you still felt lumped in with the group that made her mad?
Are the MLP creators so battered and fed up with the trolls that they think all Bronies are pricks? I’ve barely even seen a few Bronies who were pricks. But then again, that’s probably because I rarely use Twitter.
Why celebs and creators favor Twitter over Facebook, I will never understand. I know Facebook trolling is problematic too, but Twitter is a cesspool. Twitter doesn’t even take token attempts to control the trolling. (Hell, they don’t even ban ISIS accounts).
It’s obvious to me that Larson feels beaten down by troll comments, either directed at him or the voice actors. It’s times like these that a good fan shows support.
The Southern Nerd 
MA Larson stated that while he wrote the episode it was an old script that had been heavily reworked. Due to writers guild rules they were forced to keep his name as the main writer. Note the substitution of Starlight for Spike. The role in this episode makes more sense with him in it. I wasn’t a fan of this. It was just OK but Hasbro was pretty dismissive of the fans in this. They’ve pretty much said, ‘Deal with it’ to hard core fans and they’re losing regular fans. The show is for better or worse on its way out.
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Well said. I must say, however, larson is obviously a smart man; i doubt he would lump a whole fandom into one group. I.e. the troll group. though i did get that teacher/class vibe you brought up and i do think he was obviously addressing those complaints. As well, i also felt the song was almost in defence of the staff. I loved that song btw. Sorry for my horiffic grammer and writing. thanx for your thoughts
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Thanks for the comment. I know he wouldn’t intentionally imply that all Bronies are like that, but accidentally maybe.
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