S05E22: What About Discord?

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Re: S05E22: What About Discord?

Postby Cthulhu Inc (?) » Sat Nov 07, 2015 11:05 pm

„Sporange“ rhymes with „orange“.
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Postby Captain Rufus (?) » Sat Nov 07, 2015 11:11 pm

Spike was at maximum snark. TSparks was a peak Turbonerd. Discord was Discord.

A fun little episode. Nothing mind blowing but cute enough really. A pleasant way to kill 22 minutes.
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sat Nov 07, 2015 11:18 pm

I liked this one a lot. Maybe dragged a little towards the middle, but once the third act hit things picked up again.

Loved the Back to the Future reference (as well as the great little musical sting that went with it), and the whole ending was great, especially the revelation that Discord still can't help himself when it comes to manufacturing disharmony.
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Postby Wildfire (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:03 am



Nobody wants her.
She just stares at the world.

Planning her vengeance.
That she will soon unfold.


Please don't reform her. We need a diabolical villain like her to keep coming back. :-P
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Postby Niels Olof (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:15 am

Eh, weak sauce for my taste.

Outside of a few good Princess Twilight Sparkle faces and a Lebowski reference, I did not find much to enjoy in this episode. Can we have the garden gnome back again, please? He really tied the Royal Gardens together…
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:21 am

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Postby Minty (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:37 am

Discord is the type who would run a meme into the ground, isn't he?
:excellent: All your base are belong to---
:glare: GOD DAMN IT DISCORD, NO!
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:45 am

Well, it was pretty scary timing this came up just after the Twitch marathon.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 1:30 am

Wayoshi wrote:Image

It's always funny to see things like this in the show, considering how pieces of art like this are more detailed than the characters they're based on. :-I
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Postby Angel Beat (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 1:41 am

I like that Zecora's cauldron is purely there for show. :3:
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Postby Highbrow Dash (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 1:43 am

I expected it to be her lunch, but that works too :v:
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 1:57 am

:excellent: Communism was just a red herring.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:01 am

Angel Beat wrote:I like that Zecora's cauldron is purely there for show. :3:

She's used it before (The Cutie Pox immediately comes to mind; there, she made that potion to fix Apple Bloom's broken tooth) for actual potions. Still, it's funny to have her just putting that on as a big display for Twilight.
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:15 am

What-ho! an episode at this late hour with a real live honest-to-goodness Friendship Lesson! And not one of the intricate, high-concept ones that require a lot of bending over backwards to articulate, as has been the case so often since the letters to Celestia ended. "Don't begrudge your friends bonding without you and developing their own inside jokes." A lesson that oh so many kids, and indeed adults, could stand to learn.

And while that's (for me) a plus, it's also a pitfall, in that New Writer Syndrome strikes in the form of a really conceptually oblique narrative device: inside jokes. The writing is just a little bit too clever for its own good. The writer is trying too hard to show how good he is at this stuff, at blending S1-style awkward nerdo Twilight and S1-style playground etiquette lessons with S5-style Discord hijinks and callbacks to past highlights, and especially at coming up with a brand-new style of gimmick to write the dialogue around.

The first we see of the "inside jokes", it's from Twilight's perspective, and she's right—they aren't funny. They're nonsensical. They feel at first, in fact, as though the writer is actually just really bad at writing gags. (Why is "hisss-terical" a joke? Is this some kind of hypnosis reference? Where's that PPPP thread?) But then you find out that yes, that's actually the whole point. And that's clever indeed... but you're left so disoriented by it that the whole rest of the episode you can't help but be acutely aware of how hard the script is working at keeping the two perspectives, Twilight's and everyone else's, separate. You can just feel it being determinedly too smart for itself, too smart for Twilight.

And ultimately it's just a little bit too smart for the show in general. The half-hour format doesn't quite have enough room in it to contain all that forced cleverness and to be funny at the same time. Sure, there are some good jokes; but the episode is so busy weaving its intricate little tapestry of Discord-lunch-date injokes and Twilight being her old tone-deaf pre-FPK self that it doesn't have any time to let us form any of our own injoke-like relationships with it.


Well, that's not true. I loved phrasings like "the Applejack farm" and that noise Discord made when he was petting Twilight's head (and her horn going TWONG TWONG), and Rainbow Dash's :offendash: reaction to having the potion thrust at her was pretty great :v:
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:36 am

Wayoshi wrote:Image


Oompa, Loompa, doomp-a-dee doo
I've got another puzzle for you
Oompa Loompa, doomp-a-dah dee
If you are wise you'll listen to me

What is the risk when a pony's too shy?
You might make friends with the wrong sort of guy
Someone who'll tease you and pull on your strings
He'll make you do very foolish things!

Like turn into an o-o-orange

Oompa, Loompa, doomp-a-dee dah
If you're no doormat, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doomp-a-dee do!
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:44 am

On rewatch I still like this one, but do think Discords motivations could have been made more clear at the end. Especially since it could have been easily pointed out that he was leaving twilight alone because it's what she wanted, not out of maliciousness.

Still glad to see him making friends with the others.
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Postby PonyHag714 (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:02 am

Image I'm the Princess of Friendship...I can't get jealous.

Image Hay everypony! I just picked up the Starswirl The Bearded Cookbook for 2 bits at a yard sale!

:twonk:
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Postby Soft Snow (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:20 am

I loved this episode. I lost it when Twilight was trying to get everyone to drink the potion. :gotcha:

I can relate to this both ways because I was in a situation where the inside joke my friends shared wasn't really that funny and my other friends didn't get it and one where i didn't get my friends inside jokes. So Discord not knowing of an inside joke made it come full circle for me.

I think the whole purpose of Discord is to not be straight forward with his answers. I think he intentionally planned this but was trying to play it off as a coincidence. I get that feeling when he tries to dismiss it at the end by saying "the important thing is" as if regardless if he meant it something good came from it.

Oh my gosh, Starlight Glimmer was in the bushes in this episode as well? :awesomedash: I'm surprised Discord didn't notice that. I'm surprised anyone noticed that. I wonder if it will be revealed at the end all the episodes she secretly appeared in?
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Postby PictishBeast (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:25 am

The Doctor wrote:On rewatch I still like this one, but do think Discords motivations could have been made more clear at the end. Especially since it could have been easily pointed out that he was leaving twilight alone because it's what she wanted, not out of maliciousness.


My reading of the episode couldn't be more opposite. Discord's motivations are super malicious.

Or at least petty. He's got a feud going with Twilight and he's not above dragging it out in public and making things really awkward.

Discord's status updates on Facebook would be so passive aggressive.
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Postby PictishBeast (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:27 am

Mechanical Ape wrote:
Oompa, Loompa, doomp-a-dee doo


This owns, that is all
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Postby PictishBeast (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:50 am

Mechanical Ape wrote: "What's so funny about 'The Dude abides'? That's not a humorous line at all! Spike, fetch my gas chromatograph and my Big Lebowski Blu-Ray!"


This, exactly. I liked that the inside jokes were unfunny and nonsensical but I LOVED that Twilight was personally offended by this and determined to prove that she was right. It's like a billion internet arguments in concentrated form.

:-/ "This movie you enjoy isn't funny. Explain to me why it's funny."
:rainbert: "I can't explain it. Funny is subjective."
:twiright: "Aha! So you admit you're wrong!"
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Postby Durandal (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 4:10 am

Puns Aren't Funny: The Episode
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 4:46 am

Wayoshi wrote:Well, it was pretty scary timing this came up just after the Twitch marathon.

:gotcha: I'd call it a happy little accident.
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Postby Soft Snow (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 5:57 am

Discord is like the prefect internet forums troll. Intentionally annoy one person to death while appearing friendly to everyone else. That way if Twilight raises concerns about Discord in the future her friends might have some doubts about it.
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Postby Just Scuds (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:44 am

Durandal wrote:Puns Aren't Funny: The Episode


Of horse they are! :excellent:
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Postby Wylie (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:55 am

Discord had a tiny Smooze in a jar around his neck at the end. And a fishing pole. I'm not sure what he thought they were going to be doing, exactly.

T'was a good episode, and I liked how each of the ponies treated Twilight's potion- Rarity dumped it under the table so nobody could see, Fluts gently splashed a bit out, Applejack used a country-ism (it's super effective!), Dash just straight-up knocked it over, and Pinkie chugged it.
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 7:01 am

Wylie wrote:Discord had a tiny Smooze in a jar around his neck at the end. And a fishing pole. I'm not sure what he thought they were going to be doing, exactly.



Discord at the end was a direct reference to "What About Bob".



Also, in the film Bob would carry his Goldfish in a jar with him most the time.
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Postby SneakHorse (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 7:07 am

A somewhat strange episode, but not a bad one by any means. It felt a lot like something from Season 1. Twilight being all super-nerdy again was great, and the overall writing was pretty solid - the depiction of inside jokes that you have no context for was spot-on, and Discord's characterization was basically perfect.

Plus, the Bob Ross and Marty McFly gags. Goddamn.
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Postby Nemrex (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 7:24 am

Nice little, pop-culture referential episode, I especially liked Discord explaining how Twilight's presence was the variable that was in it of it self why she couldn't get the in-jokes. It was also interesting how Twilight boxes herself into a conspirative mindset so that Discord must have charmed them to laugh their hooves off. Reminds me of people who can't fathom why other people enjoy things they didn't and then somehow extrapolate that something outside of their experience must have convinced them that they like it. :twiright:


But what strikes me the most was that they did something akin to a "Cruel to Be Kind" trope, which is just another reference to John De Lancie's old role as Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Which I haven't been against him being typecast into the powerful trickster role since the beginning of his appearance. Especially if that typecast involves :ponydrugs:.
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Postby MurdER_weapOn '78 (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 9:51 am

rudecyrus wrote:Some good moments, but overall it gets an "eh" rating.


Basically this.

The in-jokes were not laughing-your-head-off material, whether you were there or not :v:

The part where they were trying to recreate what had happened in minute detail felt the sort of pointless pissing about that could have been lifted straight out of an episode of Last of the Summer Wine.

There's no way that Discord didn't intentionally mean to upset Twilight, he gives her a :excellent: look near the beginning to make it obvious, plus his admission that he enjoyed seeing her suffer.

Liked Rarity blatantly throwing the potion away as if to say "no, I'm not fucking drinking this", they all seemed pretty pissed off with Twilight in that scene, they weren't humouring her at all.

First appearance for Zecora apart from her brief cameo in episode 100, I'd been wondering if she was being phased out (in the show).
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Postby Gnot Syndrome (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 10:41 am

SneakHorse wrote: the depiction of inside jokes that you have no context for was spot-on


I found myself feeling suuuuuper uncomfortable during this episode, and I realized that this is why. They really did a good job with that.

I also really liked the (other?) moral that you shouldn't disregard your own feelings because "you shouldn't feel that way" for whatever reason.
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:58 pm

I liked this long-legged stalking walk cycle they drew for Twilight. It's new:

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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:04 pm

MurdER_weapOn '78 wrote:There's no way that Discord didn't intentionally mean to upset Twilight, he gives her a :excellent: look near the beginning to make it obvious, plus his admission that he enjoyed seeing her suffer.


The thing that made this really funny for me is that it seems like Discord probably put the entire weekend together just to mess with Twilight. We've not seen any evidence to suggest that Discord hangs with anypony besides Fluttershy on the regular, and then suddenly he's besties with the whole gang? Either he's been secretly getting chummy with everyone between episodes, or he spent three whole days sucking up to them in exchange for a couple of hours of screwing with Twilight's feelings.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:11 pm

I still feel like he was legitimately trying to be nice to the others. Maybe I'm just assuming the best, though?
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:20 pm

Fizzbuzz wrote:I still feel like he was legitimately trying to be nice to the others. Maybe I'm just assuming the best, though?


Knowing Discord, it could easily have been both at once. Have some laughs with the gang AND stitch up Twilight at no extra cost? How could he resist?
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:39 pm

Fizzbuzz wrote:I still feel like he was legitimately trying to be nice to the others. Maybe I'm just assuming the best, though?


Same here. And I think it's pretty easy to prove given he made friends with Rarity and AJ who would be much harder to win over. He could easily make friends with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie just via love of pranks and jokes, but those other two would be tougher.
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Postby MurdER_weapOn '78 (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:56 pm

The Doctor wrote:
Same here. And I think it's pretty easy to prove given he made friends with Rarity and AJ who would be much harder to win over. He could easily make friends with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie just via love of pranks and jokes, but those other two would be tougher.


To be honest, before this episode I would have given him no chance with RD, Applejack and Rarity.
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Postby Adelor Lyon (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:21 pm

A lot's changed in the past five years.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:25 pm

That's something that seriously stood out to me, too. When I mentioned The Cutie Pox yesterday, I went back and looked at that scene and just couldn't believe how barren the interior of her house looked back then.
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Postby Just Scuds (?) » Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:28 pm

The Doctor wrote:
Discord at the end was a direct reference to "What About Bob".



Also, in the film Bob would carry his Goldfish in a jar with him most the time.


:awesomedash: :"Oh my gosh, that's so neat!"
:allears: :"And even the episode's title is a reference to that movie. So meta. Wow."
:shock: :"You're telling me all of you have seen it and I haven't and you're sharing a laugh and I don't have any idea what's so funny ..."
:awkward: :"The green eyed monster of jealousy rears his ugly head!"
:here: :"I'm standing right here."
:twiright: :"I'm not jealous at all! ... Spike take a letter!"
:dearcelestia:
:twiright: :"Dear Netflix, Please put "What About Bob" at the top of the queue."
:-/ :"We're going to have a movie night, and we're going to study this film scene by scene and I'm going to get to the bottom of all of you are laughing at!"
:cheese: :"Aahhhhh - Twilight, it's a Bill Murray flick from the early 80's ... he's sorta playing the same character over and over, you can kinda take it or leave it ...
:facehoof::"I am the Princess of Friendship, and I hereby decree that we shall have a movie night."
:-P :"Hoo-whee, look at Twilight! Pulling rank like a boss!"


:-I :"This dynamic looks a bit familiar."
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