S08:E14 - A Matter of Principals

[DonMaguz 1,023]

6 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I wonder if Starlight knows Spitfire beyond just being Rainbow Dash's boss. 

Maybe Dash explained her what was a Wonderbolt and then she got excited about it becoming curious to meet "the wonderboltiest of the Wonderbolts". 

[CastletonSnob 3,023]

That Limburger cheese must have smelled really bad if Spike couldn't take the smell of it. This is a dragon who likes to smell his own feet!  

[Senko 459]

6 hours ago, VG_Addict said:

That Limburger cheese must have smelled really bad if Spike couldn't take the smell of it. This is a dragon who likes to smell his own feet!  

Ironically the smell associated with Limburger cheese is caused by the same bacteria responsible for foot odour.

[Props Valroa 25,960]

Oh god that was hilarious and absolutely amazing! I'm starting to like the student 6 even more! Discord was great in this episode. I liked seeing Starlight and Trixie there, too.

Edited August 7, 2018 by Califorum

[Cash In 21,487]

After the hiatus, I will say that this was an alright episode to resume with.

I found that Starlight's character was written rather well, but Discord of course was being a complete dick. Too much of a dick to be honest. I did like the inclusion of the minor characters though.

[BastementSparkle 20,310]

I really liked this episode, I've seen a lot of criticism regarding Discord's behavior, but honestly I didn't really have a problem with it. Yes, he's being a big jerk here, ruining Starlight's attempts to run the school properly, he's definitely in the wrong. But he's Discord, I kind of expect this from him at times, he's the spirit of chaos and disharmony after all, this isn't really out of character for him. He often acts like a petulant child when he doesn't get what he wants. He's been better recently with episodes like Discordant Harmony and the Break up, Break Down, but I don't think it's surprising that this side of his character is still going to resurface.

 As for Starlight offering to include him at the end, rather than telling him off, it makes sense to me. Punishing Discord or snapping at him again likely wouldn't have really had much of an effect, even if he somehow agreed to leave the school alone, he'd still be bitter and resentful about not being included. Starlight decided that it was more important to try and be inclusive and empathetic rather than just pushing him away further to solve the problem.

As for him potentially putting the students, or Twilight and the girls in actual danger...I highly doubt it. Discord is crazy powerful, if he can summon a Bug-bear with a snap of his fingers, he can also get rid of it with a snap. He's shown that he's often completely aware of things he's not even there to see, like knowing about the song in the season 8 premiere, or knowing about Twilight's insecurities in her Princess status all the way back in season 4. He's not necessarily omnipotent, but if he knows he's sending Shy and friends into someplace dangerous, I imagine he could easily keep an eye on them the whole time and protect them pretty easily if he felt like they were actually going to get hurt. Of course, he wants to scare the students and keep Twi and pals busy, so he's going to do his best to make it look like they're in danger in the process.

 Also, I really like Starlight and Spike here. Spike especially, I like how he's willing to both stand up for, and against Discord when needed. Starlight once again tried to solve her problems with magic early on, by trying to banish him, but he was putting her under a ton of stress at the time so I can't really blame her for falling back on that, her taking the time to think about it after and find out how to really solve the problem really shows how empathetic she's become, and why she does fit this guidance counselor role, and I liked that a lot too. Overall, fun episode.

[Justin_Case001 4,855]

Quite good.  Really liked it.  Not much to say.  Just a solid Q episode.

It's interesting that Discord can f*ck with the map and their cutie marks.  I liked seeing Starlight go all Goku Kamehameha on Discord's ass.  It's not often we see something like that, but it was a startling reminder of just how powerful she really is.  Pretty badass.  Although, I really want to know more about that spell she used.  She can banish Discord's physical body?  How the hell does that work?

Major props to Glimmy for quickly realizing that continuing to fight Discord with magic wasn't the answer.  She showed a lot of maturity at the end, there.

When Discord called Starlight a power-hungry, incompetent mare, it made me think of this classic Simpsons scene.

Discord: "You power-hungry, incompetent mare!"

Starlight: "Hey, hey!  I may be power-hungry and incompetent, but I....um....what was the third thing you said?"

[DonMaguz 1,023]

13 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

She can banish Discord's physical body?  How the hell does that work?

My interpretation is that she used a banishing spell that needs a target (Discord) and a place (the school grounds) to be banished from.

Then Discord used his magic to enter the school grounds through a loophole, separating his body from his conscience, he never put a foot in the school until the spell was released.

[Nye 1,652]

I think my favorite part was finding out that the entire time 
 

Spoiler

The Mane 6 were bamboozled by Discord.

That or the paintings.

[Dethde 20]

19 hours ago, Justin_Case001 said:

Quite good.  Really liked it.  Not much to say.  Just a solid Q episode.

It's interesting that Discord can f*ck with the map and their cutie marks.  I liked seeing Starlight go all Goku Kamehameha on Discord's ass.  It's not often we see something like that, but it was a startling reminder of just how powerful she really is.  Pretty badass.  Although, I really want to know more about that spell she used.  She can banish Discord's physical body?  How the hell does that work?

Major props to Glimmy for quickly realizing that continuing to fight Discord with magic wasn't the answer.  She showed a lot of maturity at the end, there.

When Discord called Starlight a power-hungry, incompetent mare, it made me think of this classic Simpsons scene.

Discord: "You power-hungry, incompetent mare!"

Starlight: "Hey, hey!  I may be power-hungry and incompetent, but I....um....what was the third thing you said?"

Nah, she wasn't being exactly powerful, only discord's physical form was banished from the school grounds, his magic and shenanigans were still intact.

Discord let her do it aswell, seeing it as a victory forcing her to become violent.

[Sh Pie 65]

This was a great Starlight and Discord focus episode to start the second half of Season 8. I liked the part where Iron Will as the substitute teacher made Yona become aggressive about friendship. Discord knows how to entertain!

However Starlight's choice is questionable as well. Trixie may know a lot about magic but she's still just a friendship novice. Is she really the best candidate compared to a Wonderbolt and a Doctor? I think Starlight is a little biased whereas Discord chose substitute teachers objectively based on their capacity for chaos. I like that about Discord, he's a pragmatic guy.

Starlight using her magic to banish Discord was a cool display of her potential and maybe a little OOC given her perspective on banishment in the Season 7 finale. I guess that was the point though, since she was acting as an authority rather than a guidance councillor. And so she learns her lesson about looking for the reason behind an action and offers Discord a place in the school.

Overall, an enjoyable episode of conflict and resolution between 2 very different characters. And then....

On 8/6/2018 at 3:45 AM, JCKane said:

All in all not a bad episode.  And I'll admit I was thinking the next episode would be about the Mane 6's friendship quest but guess not

Ditto. I thought it would be another pair of episodes occurring simultaneously. A surprising subversion indeed.

[Hierok 11,829]

This is first Discord episode I don't love. There is a simple thing so this could be awesome:

• Instead of Discord taking charge he could have asked to be a teacher. Starlight would deny that and bring in others and so Discord does what he does. Now it just seems like he is a jerk, and not in the good way. 

It wasn't bad, but they could have made the point more understandable.

Edited August 14, 2018 by H'rok

[Singe 2,109]

It was a good episode. Also it just reaffirms Neighsay criticism of Twilight running a school. We see she hasn't bothered to staff the school with anyone besides her close friends.

[Allen 1,371]

This episode is the mid-season premiere and we're back from hiatus once again. Discord's actions at the School of Friendship was controversial "What are you doing, Discord?! That's not how it works that way!" It turns out to be a chaos. Discord is responsible for this and his actions he caused to scare them. Starlight Glimmer, as a temporary headmare, along with Spike, were taking care of the School of Friendship to keep things organized as what Princess Twilight Sparkle wants when she and the other Mane 6 ponies are off for a friendship mission to pass. The Mane 6 ponies were off to a friendship mission but it's fake being called manually by Discord when he shined their cutie marks of them, which they have to get back at the ending part to know what's going on, meaning that it is not a friendship mission for them. Discord will have to forgive what he have done, and I thought he makes things well organized when Fluttershy is with him, all the time. Starlight Glimmer's role as a temporary headmare was a challenge, and I'll give a good rating for this episode.

 

[Varrack 1,080]

I had a suspicion once Discord showed up that he had something to do with the friendship quest..

They're going to have to give him a teaching role sometime in the future...he was only vice headmare for about 10 seconds, so the problem of this ep isn't quite resolved until he gets some official position.

Anyways, great start to the second half of the season. If the leaked emails from December are right, that means...

Spoiler

... we're less than a full 26-episode season away from the end of FiM...

 

[Senko 459]

9 hours ago, Varrack said:

I had a suspicion once Discord showed up that he had something to do with the friendship quest..

They're going to have to give him a teaching role sometime in the future...he was only vice headmare for about 10 seconds, so the problem of this ep isn't quite resolved until he gets some official position.

Anyways, great start to the second half of the season. If the leaked emails from December are right, that means...

  Reveal hidden contents

... we're less than a full 26-episode season away from the end of FiM...

 

Wait

Spoiler

season 9 wont be 26 episodes?

I feel cheated.

[BastementSparkle 20,310]

On ‎8‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 4:12 AM, Senko said:

Wait

  Reveal hidden contents

season 9 wont be 26 episodes?

I feel cheated.

As far as I'm aware, Season 9 is 26 episodes. I'm pretty sure the original e-mails had some debate on if it'd be a full 26 episode season or a 13 episode one, but I'm pretty sure they decided on a full one.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I really enjoyed this episode, but to be honest I found Discord to be a huge annoyance here, mainly because of his whole attitude towards Starlight and her being in charge of the school, however seeing Starlight blast Discord away like that, WOW. The moral was well done and I liked seeing the Young Six interact on the scavenger hunt, but yeah not my favorite Discord episode. 9/10.

[qwerE 95]

I liked the ending, Starlight apologizing was sweet and the twist that the friendship quest was fake was interesting. I didn't like most of the episode, though. Discord was too mean and I couldn't help but feel bad for Starlight and the students.

Edited December 21, 2018 by qwerE

[bigbertha 410]

 This is horrible. For starters, the comedy all fails.The jokes all either fall into references to previous episodes, lol random, or Discord being an asshole. I'm not a fan of any of these kinds of jokes.

The fact that Starlight rewards Discord at the end is by far the worst part though. Sure, Discord not being invited to the school before is a dick move, but that doesn't justify what Discord does in any way. Starlight apologizing is fine, but that should've lead into Starlight making Discord realize what he did was wrong. Instead, Discord acts terribly, gets what he wants in the end, and laughs off everything that happened as "delightful misadventures". It's like A Friend in Deed, except without the good things.

Score: 0/10

 

[Props Valroa 25,960]

Really good episode for sure. I love the plot, set up and the story of this one. Discord is a fun character. We should have seen Maud as a teacher though! There was a friendship lesson at the end, which was the real lesson of this episode.

[JMTV99 1,348]

I thought it was just "meh". The only good thing that I loved from this episode was seeing Starlight goes full blast on Discord and vaporized him after he's talking smack towards Starlight about her past. When I saw that scene, I give a massive round of applause to Starlight because as someone who doesn't like Discord, I thought it was so cathartic and I do respect her now.

Other than that, it was forgettable to me.

[Moony the Cat 3,695]

Discord is annoying, i dont like him, he doesnt deserve to be friends with the mane six. Apart from me disliking him, there were some funny moments in the Episode, specially from the student six but my favorite part was when Starlight blasted Discord away,that was so satisfying.

But i still dislike the Episode because off Discord.

[Rosy Moonlight 367]

I think that it would have been better if Cranky was, well, cranky because he was having marital problems with Matilda.

Cranky ends up revealing that he is having doubts about being a good husband and ends up crying. The students then awkwardly try to comfort him.

By the end of the episode, it is shown that he is reconciling with Matilda and that things are going to be okay between them.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Rosy Moonlight

[GloryForShame 26]

Ughh....i was expecting after some good episodes with Discord, they never fuck up his character again to be a total asshole or just straight up evil.

Discord can be a jerk, that is normal to me, but a fucking asshole and evil?  Jesus, he literally almost hurt that poor Yak girl and many other students, he had some fun momments, but later in episode he just gets worse and worse.