S05:E22 - What About Discord

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

@ truffles

 

Thanks for all the Info, i didnt know all that. I should watch the Episodes in order, sorry 

Than of course, the Episode does make sense, and i take most of it back.

 

@luffyiscool  

 

Well..okay, could be. I just had a feeling, that she is just worried. I didnt thought after all this Friendship Lessons, that she still just could get Jealous.

I thought she was just concerned.

[Luffyiscool 397]

I didnt thought after all this Friendship Lessons, that she still just could get Jealous.

That's what Twilight thought as well. 

"The Princess of Friendship can't get jealous..."

 

She thought that she was above jealousy, and stubbornly denied her true feelings.

Eventually, after finding out what was going on, her friends assured her that jealousy is a natural thing and it's okay to feel that way sometimes.

Twilight just needed to accept her feelings so that she could get over it.

 

Plus, it's humbling and refreshing to see Twilight struggle with something relating to friendship.

Just because you have a masters degree in a subject, it doesn't mean you ever stop learning about it.

She may be an expert on friendship at this point, but there will still be more lessons for her to learn as time goes on.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Luffyiscool

[Zhortac 1,474]

This episode felt like the writers were trying to let us know, they remember Twilight exists. 

[Lucky Shot 232]

One of the weakest episodes in a long while, but I didn't hate it like I have certain previous episodes... which is even worse in my opinion -- at least those episodes got some reaction out of me.

 

The main problem with What About Discord is its complete pointlessness. It relies on two concepts we've already seen from the same show -- Discord doing stupid and spiteful things to hypocritically test his friends' faith like he has some room to talk, Twilight trying to math-and-science her way through friendship which is not optimally solved that way -- and wanders slowly through a red herring-ridden plot like Tank looking for a place to hibernate. Its plot twist was obvious miles away and relied on a lesson Twilight had or should have already learned three or four seasons ago.

 

(Except that the lesson wasn't real because Discord unfairly made Twilight jealous not only by intentionally bonding with her friends, but also by effectively telling her how she felt until she got that way.)

 

Most of the episode wasn't funny -- that's because our perspective is attached to Twilight, who doesn't find any of the (many) inside jokes between Discord and her other friends very funny because she doesn't know what ridiculous situation they refer to; we can't find them funny either, for pretty much exactly the same reason.

 

The character interaction was too fixated on repeatedly shaming Twilight for not knowing these injokes that have conveniently sprung out of the ground in the last three days, lacking much of the colorful banter of seasons past. After wasting the majority of the episode on Twilight's neuroses, it turns out that the entire shenanigan was all a complete waste of everyone's time anyway, intentionally made such by Discord.

 

That is, Discord was not only trolling Twilight; he was also trolling the viewer since we're pretty much Twilight in this scenario.

 

I received absolutely no new insight into any of the characters or concepts of Equestria from this episode -- I'm awfully surprised that a show that doesn't follow a manga would have filler. >__>

Edited November 13, 2015 by Lucky Shot

[WubBeast 49]

So who like the idea of Twilight missing out a fun weekend with Discord and the rest of her friends and how Twilight thought that Discord put them under a spell

[Pinkiesister75 92]

We appear to be the only two people in the forum that have seen this movie and caught the reference.

......and in his jar is a mini-Smooze! So cute!

 

I liked this episode and had no problem with it. Whatever made the episode uncomfortable was rectified in the end and Discord teaching a moral lesson by being an amusing jerk is very much something he'd do.

 

The inside jokes were never fully explained but that was the point. That said, we do get various hints (my interpretation...)

* Discord changed the apples at Sweet Apple Acres into oranges (and perhaps there was some sort of mixup involving apples & oranges) and everyone was spooked by a snake only to find out it was some sort of vine/stick/hose. They have a good laugh as one of them said "Orange you glad it eally wasn't a snake?!".

* Discord and maybe some of the other ponies either stepped in a bunch of peanut butter at the café or walked around with the jars as shoes.

 

Some people don't like this episode but personally, I had no problem with it. I had more of a problem with aspects of Sweet & Elite (Rarity lies to everybody and it doesn't backfire on her), Putting Your Hoof Down (The whole town took a level in jerkass like Fluttershy and this is never addressed or dealt with like with Flutters. No comeuppance for the cherry guy. Angel Bunny was less a cute grumpy bunny and more a domestic abuser...but Flutters does discpline him in the end with 'THE STARE'!) and Just for Sidekicks (Just a sadist show at the expense of Spike....even if some of it was his fault).

 

I confess that I haven't watched the one with the "Jerkass Wonderbolts" that everyone talks about.

 

 

That said, even the above-mentioned episodes that bug the heck out of me had plenty of amusing moments. I love Iron Will and his goofy, Vince Offer/ShamWow Guy-looking goat sidekicks. It would have been a great episode had they addressed the creeps in town better and that cherry guy. Maybe have Iron Will admit he was a little pushy and tell the town the lesson that Fluttershy learned. Cherry guy either gets to be part of Fluttershy's rampage montage or he apologizes for being a slimebag (even giving Flutters a basket of free cherries). I really wanted to punch cherry-guy. I do love the stuff with Pinkie & Rarity and the guy at the clock-tower.

 

 

I liked this episode because whatever jerkassery there was was addressed, the ponies apologized to Twilight, Discord was "being Discord", the gags were great, Spike was himself again, Zecora makes an appearance (and states the cauldron is usually just decor) and there was a good moral.

 

And Flutterorange was cute....she had A-PEEL!

[Lucky Shot 232]

The inside jokes were never fully explained but that was the point. 

 

When I make my own cartoon series, I'll be sure to have at least 1 episode that is intentionally not entertaining, so I can tell everyone who hates it how the point that was.

[Sh Pie 65]

This was an emotional episode with a lot of perspectives to look at. Twilight wasn't in on the joke so she didn't find it funny. Nor did I except for the orange puns. Although it was ultimately her decision to waste her time rearranging her books again while her friends were having fun, if somepony did in fact ask her to join them, she probably would have. Since she feels obliged as the Princess of Friendship to participate in social activities regardless of the thousands of schedules she writes and follows regularly. But then she jumped to the conclusion that Discord had brainwashed them. In her attempt to hide her jealousy from herself, she became delusional and inadvertently insulted her friends, questioning Discord's honesty and the ponies' sanity. Since she was unable to understand the joke even after the re-enactment and assumed that fun, friendship and bonding with Discord was the result of chaos. I think she learned an important lesson about acceptance and everything was resolved in the end, more or less.

[Crax 14]

I found it boring, meh, just my opinion though. But i can't wait for tomorrow' s ep!

[Luffyiscool 397]

I'm awfully surprised that a show that doesn't follow a manga would have filler. >__>

This is a slice of life show. There are no fillers.

 

[Lucky Shot 232]

This is a slice of life show. There are no fillers.

 

Yeah well you just watched one.

[Luffyiscool 397]

Yeah well you just watched one.

Nope, don't think so.

By official definition of filler for cartoon/anime episodes, EVERY non-finale/premiere related episode (every slice of life episode) is a filler.

MLP without filler is just the premieres and finales.

[Lucky Shot 232]

Nope, don't think so.

By official definition of filler for cartoon/anime episodes, EVERY non-finale/premiere related episode (every slice of life episode) is a filler.

MLP without filler is just the premieres and finales.

 

Or you can stop making stupid excuses and pretending you didn't understand exactly what I meant with my metaphorical insult of the episode by calling it fillter.

[Luffyiscool 397]

Or you can stop making stupid excuses and pretending you didn't understand exactly what I meant with my metaphorical insult of the episode by calling it fillter.

I thought you were being 100% serious actually, and I was responding in full intent of engagement.

No excuses here, just cross-misunderstandings of wordings and sentencing. Good day then~

[Voiceman 6]

So was your guy's overall thoughts on the episode?

[Retired 83]

I have many mixed feelings about this episode. 

 

What did I dislike? Well, the episode overall felt... strange. Out of place. I felt that it had no overall purpose than to make Twilight jealous. Discord seemed like he had a great masterplan behind everything but in the end I didn't understand his motives. It was as if he just wanted to make Twily jealous, and the true purpose behind it was not clear to me. It showed that choosing a weekend for oneself is not as great as to have a weekend with friends, which is kind of a weird moral to give through the episode. You can have a weekend with your friends and have fun, but it's no sin to have chosen a weekend to do something that you enjoy doing, and the episode kind of made Twily feel guilty about it. Even the Mane Six were making her feel worse by saying things that made her feel left out. I felt like the Mane Six were not being that supportive of Twilight as other occasions. This rubs me off in a wrong way because I am an introvert and I, 80% of the time, prefer to spend a day by myself doing what I like than with people.

 

This episode, for me, is kind of bland compared to every other season 5 episode and it is my least favorite of the series in its entirety. However... the writing was brilliant in a sense that it made us feel just as confused and as left out as Twilight felt, since we didn't see what they were laughing about. But, I eventually found myself cringing every time they made a joke, because I didn't see what happened. I would have loved an episode in which they show the weekend with Discord in it's entirety, and then this episode would have made more sense. It would have allowed more character development, more bonding and more reasons as of why they decided to go with Discord and have fun in the first place, since the majority of the Mane Six were apprehensive of Discord. Why was there a change of heart? Why did they suddenly decide to laugh at all his jokes? What did he say or do that made them change their minds? I understand Discord's motives somewhat--maybe he didn't want to interrupt Twilight, but seeing her act jealous made him want to give her a lesson. But... why? What are the motives behind such lesson? I just... I just need more explanations behind this episode. Everything was just... there. They didn't give us reasons, they didn't show us what was going on and the purpose of the episode left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. This episode had so much potential and I feel like it was executed poorly. 

 

What did I like? Well, we saw some character development for Discord and the Mane Six, I'll give it that. Discord, in his unique perspective, genuinely wants to experience friendship, and I really loved the hug at the end. Twilight's personality got more development as well, since now we see that she is completely logic-based and wants to approach emotional aspects through raw science and technical observation, rather than letting herself express her emotions. That is something that I liked about the episode--the character development here was outstanding. Spike was hilarious here, I really love his sarcastic side. All in all I have to sadly say that this episode just didn't live up to the expectations I had of it. Yeah, there were cute moments and we can finally see that Discord is getting along with the Mane Six better... but all I need was to see what happened and to maybe stretch the plot to two episodes to better understand the motives behind Discord's actions.

[Grepper 3,192]

This was an okay episode.

I could predict the ending (and the episode's moral of shared experiences and inside jokes) about halfway through it, but it was somewhat interesting nonetheless.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Grepper

[Brainstorm 4,108]

I enjoyed this episode, it not only shows that Discord is getting better at being good, but it also shows more of Zecora and Spike.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Brainstorm

[Arrowstormen 62]

Also, the writer here also wrote Princess Spike.

 

And it only took him till his second episode to get Spike down.

I don't know, I don't think the issue was that he hadn't gotten Spike down, but rather that Spike is always at his best when he's a side character to somepony else, preferably Twilight. 

[retrobakon 57]

Is nopony gonna mention that sweet Back to the Future reference Pinkie pulled? 

[BritishBrony2012 809]

Feel bad for Twilight feeling left out and all and try to find out why her friends find Discord's joke funny. It annoyed when friends agree with Discord. But at the end of the episode it all turn out good.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Adam Burt

[LunaDream 331]

This episode was okay for me. It grew kind of annoying after a while. Usually I LOVE Discord episodes, like " Make New Friends But Keep Discord", but this one was just weird. I think Twilight went a step back, usually Twilight admits her feelings and mistakes, but it almost seemed arrogant that she was denying that she could be jealous. Discord was also weird too. He wasn't being playful, he was being spiteful, and trying to make problems between the friends.

 

 I don't know.

 

:grin2:

[Makazi 317]

You know, I would have much preferred an episode where we actually got to see Discord becoming close with the girls and bonding with them rather than what we got here; that would have been something truly special--but I guess that's what fanfiction is for, ey?

 

The group hug at the end was sweet, though.

[JH24 385]

The more I think about this episode, the more I want to pretend it never existed. The main issue for me was that this whole lesson felt mean-spirited towards Twilight, toward the point it drove her to tears. It just doesn't feel right. And the same goes for the reactions of her friends.

 

 

Whenever Discord tries to teach Twilight a lesson it's done in a comedic and fun kind of way, this lesson and the way it was executed felt out of place. In the end, I still want to pretend that Discord bonded with all the Mane 6 over the course of the season, but with no association to this episode whatsoever.

Edited November 28, 2015 by JH24

[Makazi 317]

The more I think about this episode, the more I want to pretend it never existed. The main issue for me was that this whole lesson felt mean-spirited towards Twilight, toward the point it drove her to tears. It just doesn't feel right. And the same goes for the reactions of her friends.

 

 

Whenever Discord tries to teach Twilight a lesson it's done in a comedic and fun kind of way, this lesson and the way it was executed felt out of place. In the end, I still want to pretend that Discord bonded with all the Mane 6 over the course of the season, but with no association to this episode whatsoever.

 

Unfortunately since Discord became close with the girls over a weekend that we didn't get to see a single second of, actually seeing it happen is a missed opportunity we'll probably never get to witness.