My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E04 Luna Eclipsed/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Aesop Interpretation: It's no use trying to change or get rid of a negative reputation - some people will keep spreading it, even though they know it's not true. Instead, you should play to everyone's expectations of you, let them define who you are (at least in public), and generally go along with the herd. You do want to be liked and accepted, don't you?
    • Alternatively, it's no use trying to leave your past behind, so bring it back instead and turn it into a laughing matter, even if it was painful to you.
    • Fantastic Aesop: Of course, given that they're sapient horses, their definitions of the importance and acceptability of going along with the herd will vary from our own wildly.
    • It seemed to be more about showing that Luna's scary side (which she does have) is fun too and nothing to *really* be afraid of. She was shown enjoying herself casually with the other ponies soon after.
    • Actually it didn't worked that way with Luna: the grown up ponies seems to be scared by her because of her past as NM, but in reality they were actually showing the same kind of fear and submission they give to her sister Celestia (at least before the spiders incident, when they were really scared) when she shows up. The only ones who shows up some fear were the kids (and Twilight's friends, but then again they saw NM more closely than the other ponies), but then again they were just following Pinky's example of how "being scared make things more fun". So at the end it was all a matter of misunderstandings.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced:
    • Fans were already excited that Luna was coming back, but this early in the season? And Zecora, who kinda fell off the radar halfway through Season 1? Even Dinky & Ace, some fan favorite background ponies that haven't been seen since "Call of the Cutie"[1] show up prominently in this episode.
    • Derpy Hooves/Ditzy Doo, one of the most successful examples of an Ensemble Darkhorse in recent fiction, was finally pulled out of the background and got her own scene...alongside Carrot Top no less!
  • Base Breaker:
    • Pipsqueak. Some fans think he's adorable, and others think he's a Creator's Pet in the making.
    • Let's just say that Luna's portrayal in this episode didn't sit well with a number of fans, either.
    • Pinkie's reception in this episode is rather divided as well. Her whole pretend to be scared of Luna act is seen as either just getting into the spirit of things, or just being plain mean.
      • That her constant running away caused her to lose track of Pip, who nearly drowned, pushes her actions a bit off the deep end.
  • Broken Base: While not as divisive as other episodes (it managed to be one of the highest rated episodes by Hasbro, so yeah), either this episode was the best episode for Luna, or the worst thing about her.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Why is it that no one in town recognizes Twilight Sparkle's costume of a wizard from ancient history, but Luna gets it straight off, right down to the details? Luna's spent a thousand years on the moon: She doesn't have the intervening history to muddle her memory of the past. (Compare to someone in stasis easily recognizing someone from their own era, even as they fail at pop culture.)
  • Genius Bonus: Zecora is dressed as an enchantress/storyteller with spiders in her hair. In African folklore, stories are the domain of Anansi the Spider.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • One of the most popular fanfics over the season break was Fallout Equestria, where the protagonist is named "Littlepip". This episode introduces a new character named Pipsqueak and Zecora at one point calls him "Little Pip". This isn't a Shout-Out due to Animation Lead Time (and the writers aren't allowed to read fanfics anyways). The coincidence hasn't escaped some fans, though.
    • Similarly, one fanfic written early on in the series' run featured Luna having trouble adjusting to the modern age.
    • There's also this line from Progress, which ended up being surprisingly accurate to the canon Luna's personality, and came complete with Dramatic Thunder:

Luna: "EUREKA! I AM THE GODDESS OF MATH ONCE AGAIN! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

  • The Woobie:
    • Luna. The poor girl tries, but due to a lot of different things, she keeps making things worse and worse. Who can blame her for finally getting completely fed up with everypony treating her like a monster?
    • Fluttershy. When Luna's standing over her, loudly demanding advice, all Fluttershy can do is meekly agree while looking like she wishes she could melt into the ground.

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  1. ↑ OK, Dinky was in one of the Imagine Spots in the previous episode, but other than that she's been missing
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