Cross stitch pattern of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy from My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. Thanks to TheArtsyEmporium for the vector that made the sprite so much easier to make, but the scene itself is from the episode Fame and Misfortune. Read my review below. Unlock this pattern and many others in both PDF and PNG format by donating to my Patreon.

Grid Size: 151W x 99H
Design Area: 10.64″ x 6.93″ (149 x 97 stitches)
Colors: 17

I didn’t intend to make a review of Fame and Misfortune, I just got on a rant. Let me preface this with the fact that I do like this episode and the song is amazing. Starlight Glimmer learning a book duplication spell in order to copy the Communist Manifesto is hilarious. That’s not an allusion I would have expected from this show, but Glimmer delivers! I love the tongue in cheek, “The purpose of the journal isn’t supposed to be marketing” when it is totally marketed that way in real life. But I’m more interested in this cutie mark camp the crusaders are putting on. That sounds fun and I hope we get an episode about it. I also love Rarity wearing her emotions and freaking out. That being said…

The whole episode tries to hold up a mirror to the fandom, but it doesn’t really line up quite right, so moments that are supposed to make us laugh at our own faults either fall flat because they’re baseless (Pinkie needs to be funny all the time) or they feel like the show is attacking us for having opinions about fictional horses (Rarity is worst pony).

And I know that any criticism of this episode will be met with comments like “you totally missed the point.” The thing is that I do understand the point, I’m just expressing the opinion that the story wasn’t written well in order to make that point. An episode that gets the mirror right is Stranger than Fan Fiction, where Quibble Pants comes off as an exaggeration instead of the norm. It was funny to laugh at him totally dismiss half of the Daring Do books because they suddenly became unrealistic, and then realize that I’ve done the same thing to Korra.

The big problem with Fame and Misfortune is that Toola Roola and Coconut Cream have such tiny roles, and they’re supposed to be the contrasting version of the fandom. Most fans are perfectly fine and don’t go around attacking stars or following them into bathrooms. It would make more sense for the writers to write the story from the perspective of these two fillies instead of Twilight’s. That way you can tell the same story and avoid the us vs. them mentality all while bolstering the confidence of the actual target audience. Seeing fans’ behavior through the lens of other fans puts the two on a level field. If not, then at least tell the story through Starlight Glimmer. Being a third party is exactly what she’s there for.

And, as much as I love the song Flawless (check out this cool remix), I feel like it kind of misses the point. Fans aren’t mad at the show because the characters have flaws, we’re mad because the writing is bad sometimes. Fluttershy having to learn the same lesson more than once is fine, but the writers telling the same story with only slight variations is not fine. Fans don’t skip Spike episodes because they think Spike should be perfect. They skip them because the writers can misunderstand Spike’s strengths and his episodes often suffer for it. I get that the people who make this show are humans with flaws like the song says, but then they should extend the fans the same understanding instead of painting all of us as angry lunatics.

There’s a tip for writing annoying characters that the characters around them should be more annoyed than the audience. The problem comes when your annoying characters are so bad that you can’t do that. Maybe then it’s time to rethink you structure your story.