However the Spongebob version is 12 years old.
They still have almost nothing in common besides the very bare bones. Let's take a look;
Walking Small- Spongebob is minding his own business when Plankton comes up. He wants to teach Spongebob to be assertive.
- Plankton teaches Spongebob for personal gain (land), and wants to make him into an starfish so he scares everyone away.
- Spongebob is bad at being assertive, so Plankton gives up, but Spongebob insists that they keep trying.
- Spongebob finally succeeds and proceeds to be an starfish to everyone.
- Spongebob notices what he's done, and instead becomes super nice again.
- Plankton is pissed. The end.
Putting Your Hoof Down (Skipping the first bit to even the timelines)
- Fluttershy actively seeks out help to become assertive.
- Iron Will teaches Fluttershy for personal gain (money), but he believes he's just making her assertive. No starfishry intended here.
- Fluttershy is bad at being assertive. Neither of them give up, though Fluttershy probably wanted to.
- Fluttershy succeeds fairly quickly and proceeds to be an starfish to everyone.
- Fluttershy notices what she's done, and instead stays assertive without being an starfish.
- Iron Will is fine with this and actually learns something. The end.
Upon further brown townysis, they're even less alike than I previously thought. Besides the fact that the protagonist becomes an starfish and realizes what they've done is wrong, there's nothing else in common. Some of the major points are even the direct opposite (See bullets 1 and 3). Comparing Walking Small to Putting Your Hoof Down because they're episodes that feature someone becoming an accidental assertive starfish is like comparing Blockland to Minecraft because they're video games that feature blocks.
