YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S4 E11 "Three's a Crowd"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: What was Discord's real goal? To test Twilight's friendship with him? To cause a rift between Twilight and Cadance for no good reason? To be a Trickster Mentor and teach her a lesson about not overlooking her close friends? To use Fluttershy's absence as a rare opportunity to freely troll Twilight without her admonishment? Or maybe just all of the above and then some?
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: While the "Glass of Water" song is supposed to show how demanding Discord can be (prompting Twilight to find a quick cure to his illness), the imagery gets weirder and weirder as he makes more demands. Then again, this is Discord we're talking about. And importantly to be a BLAM, neither Twilight or Cadance mention the oddities again, outside of a "WTF?" expression at the end of the song.
• Broken Base:
  • Flash Sentry appears for a brief non-speaking cameo. A good fraction of the fandom suddenly cry foul, speaking to the "lies" of Meghan McCarthy who said Flash wouldn't appear in Season 4, thinking now that the movie is now canonized (though the movie was already confirmed to be canon a while ago, it would just have no bearing on Season 4), and ruining the episode completely. Most fortunately laughed and enjoyed the appearance. According to Jim Miller, his appearance was just a nod◊.
  • Rainbow Dash quickly ditching her friends when Discord needed help. Rule of Funny or Dash being a Jerkass who's forgotten her loyalty aesop from the last episode?
• Fan Fic Fuel:
  • Applejack and Rarity "catching" the blue flu from Discord. Since they come down with it together, fan art and fan fics feature them taking care of each other.
  • Discord getting sick for real at the end. Some fan works delve into its potential effects on his powers, making for interesting Brought Down to Normal material while he recovers. Not to mention, of course, all the Hurt/Comfort Fic potential with him and Fluttershy.
• Fridge Brilliance: From the start, Discord's illness looks very suspicious, as you can't help wondering if the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony can actually get sick. However, as the ending shows, he CAN contract a disease, so even if Twilight had looked up for it (and this obscure bit of trivia was actually in a book), she couldn't have called up Discord on his bluff this way.
  • The moment Discord shows up at the train station, all of the present Mane Six act the opposite of their element (Rainbow Dash high-tails it out of there, for instance). It seems Discord has a passive influence.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Discord getting sick for real at the end is quite hilarious and awesome (given the Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? factor) here. Less so after you see Tirek Mana Drain him and leave him similarly weakened in "Twilight's Kingdom", though.
• One-Scene Wonder: The Tatzlwurm at the end. It definitely makes as much of an impact as it can within such a sudden and short time frame — as Twilight, Cadance, and even Discord can attest to.
• Ship Tease: Since the entire episode is Discord attempting to invoke the plot of a Hurt/Comfort Fic, his interactions with most of the characters have this undertone, but it's especially noticeable with Fluttershy, since he claims to have come all the way to Ponyville simply so she could "take care" of him.
• Squick:
  • "Codfish oil" comes from pressing a cod's liver, which places fish on Discord's menu. In a land of herbivores. Then again, he is made up of several carnivores, one of which (the eagle) is known for eating fish...
  • Discord asks for "sweet mince pie" — possibly referring to sweetbreads (pancreas and thymus) — to cure his aching stomach. Mince pies are a British Christmas food, and are traditionally sweet, being filled mostly with candied fruit. They do contain a small amount of mincemeat, though. Evidently, a case of Aluminum Christmas Trees.
  • Then we have a huge, purple, pink-headed worm spraying Discord with foul liquids before shrinking away. And only not getting Twi and Cadance because they had protection. Radar, do you hold that contact....
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Discord's song has a very similar cadence as another song sung by another blue, all-powerful being. Said being's lamp even shows up in the song!
• Visual Effects of Awesome: It is a Discord episode so the animations have full license to be as creative as they wish.

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