And appropriate for changelings.

I was pretty upset with the Discord/Starlight episode. I know people will be upset with Discord for being a goddamn troll, but I'm upset with the writers for ignoring any chance of character development in exchange for making him a goddamn Looney Tune. So same reason I'm upset with with he Pinkie episode.

That's my beef too. I'm not actually bothered by his behavior. Discord is a petty, mean-spirited asshole who violently overreacts to perceived slights both real and imaginary. This has been true even as recently as "Dungeons & Discords", when he terrorized Spike and Big Mac with the Violent Retribution Edition of their game in response to them wanting to play it.

As Spike noted in that episode, it did wind up for the best because they actually really liked Discord's DMing style, but that's still not for lack of trying to be a spiteful dickshit on his part.

This is who Discord is. Starlight sorely underestimated the depths of his pettiness because she wasn't around for any of that, but the fact is that it's never changed. He's never changed. He values Fluttershy and that's it.

No, the problem is that the resolution tries to cast Starlight Glimmer as having been in the wrong, but the episode leading up to that resolution does nothing to justify it. She acknowledges that she's a terrible headmare, but the episode doesn't even give her a chance to suck at her job before Discord shows up. Everything bad that happens is a result of his sabotage, not her incompetence, making her owning up to mistakes she never made come across as completely undeserved.

The episode goes Full Discord out of spite when only the second half should have been. If we'd had a first half where Starlight is struggling and failing to do the job and Discord's legitimately trying to help, only to get offended when she notes that his particular brand of helpfulness does more harm than good, then the resolution would feel more deserved.

When I first saw Iron Will, I kinda thought that was where we were going. I thought that this would be the episode's framework:

• Discord hired a bunch of awful teachers.
• Starlight tells him to eat a dick because he's being a mean jerk.
• Discord gets offended and shit goes bad.
• Starlight realizes that Discord actually was trying and that maybe she was being the mean jerk in all of this.
• Starlight uses her management skills to recognize that Discord's teachers aren't actually bad. They're just in the wrong roles. She moves Iron Will to Honesty class, where he teaches students about the importance of owning agreements like "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" and not making promises unless you're willing to keep them.
• Starlight apologizes to Discord for running him off and not giving him a chance. Discord apologizes to Starlight for being an asshole. Amends are made.

But then Discord hired a tree and it was clear that he was just being a spiteful dick for spiteful dick's sake. Which, again, is in-character for him, but it just doesn't fit the direction that the episode meant to go in.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 7th 2018 at 8:06:29 AM

Post of the Day #2236

That does explain why Pinkie Pie suddenly had trouble keeping secrets in "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows".

This conversing about Discord sparked a memory from the first special of the second season, one that I initially glossed over: how did Discord know about where the Elements of Harmony were when he wasn't petrified anymore?

Assume as a God of chaos and reality Warper that he is all knowing

He clearly had enough power to interact with the world while he was petrified before breaking out. Mayhaps he stayed quiet till he knew where to find them, and THEN started sending chocolate rain everywhere.

With regards to Principles, I feel like there was a lost opportunity to have Discord genuinely try to help, but screw it up because he operates on a complete lack of knowledge and have everyone think he's being a dick because of his track record (then get defensive about it). That would have made more sense with Starlight's moral at the end and then allowed them to add a moral for Discord about how it's nice that he wanted to help, but he should really give the whole teamwork thing more of a go.

Hearth's Warming episode got me right in the feels. I also feel ancient for recognizing its title as a Breakfast Club reference.

Edited by KuroiTsubasaTenshi on Aug 7th 2018 at 12:12:46 PM

Idle thought about "The Hearth's Warming Club":

So, one of six students pulled a destructive prank to sabotage the holiday and someone needs to talk to them and find out who did it and why, while also communicating that the school isn't mad and just wants to help them.

Boy, it's too bad this school doesn't have a guidance counselor or something.

More evidence that the show has absolutely no idea what the hell to do with Sunset.

As I'm sure we've heard time and again, she really should have been a one-season main character who got a spinoff, and not a permanent addition to the mane cast.

Huh, good point. This would have been a great moment for Starlight as counselor. And Starlight trying to counsel is hilarious, as we saw before.

"Learn from your own mistakes, even if the other guy was being even worse than you," is a valid lesson, I think. The big problem with "A Matter of Principals" is that it misidentifies the nature of Starlight's mistake, and acts as if her minor mistake was remotely comparable to Discord's dickishness.

At the very beginning of the episode, Discord did have one legitimate grievance: that no one had thought to invite him to any school events. So when Discord showed up to offer his "help", Starlight's mistake—more of an intellectual failing than a moral one—is that she didn't realize there was an incoming temper tantrum and didn't go into "give the baby his bottle" mode soon enough. Starlight's crime is that she overestimated Discord's emotional maturity, and responded according to that overestimation.

In a practical sense, Starlight could have prevented the whole debacle from the start. But no reasonable judge would actually blame her for what happened after—except for the episode itself, so screw that.

Edited by MetaFour on Aug 7th 2018 at 4:59:19 AM

So, thoughts on "A Matter of Principals" — I missed it when it aired and only got around to watching it now.

I agree with the complaint that the moral felt very divorced from the actual story. Starlight admitting to being at fault when everything that happened was entirely Discord's fault was... weird. She wasn't a bad headmare — for one thing, she barely did any headmareing at all. Discord started screwing things up from the outset and everything Starlight did afterwards was desperate attempts at damage control.

The parts I genuinely enjoyed were largely separate from the main plot, come to think of it. The character and creature cameos were fun — hey, twittermites really do exist! — and the artifacts were interesting. Although they beg the question of how Celestia ended up owning them all.

Honestly, I feel like this is the kind of episode that if I ever return to it, it will be for the cameos, minor details and gags more than anything else.

In other news: Celestia is in Hearthstone.◊

There's also an unrelated Luna.◊

Edited by LordVatek on Aug 7th 2018 at 8:38:45 AM

Sometimes I think the story and the moral at the end are written by two entirely separate people, who then try to stitch them together at the last possible minute.

AKA Princess Spike Syndrome. Although even that one wasn't quite as bad. Really, I wonder what the writers were thinking sometimes.

And Starlight trying to counsel is hilarious, as we saw before.

Reminds me a bit of Travelers, where a time traveler takes the place of the school's guidance counselor and barely tries to maintain her cover, giving really insensitive advice to the students.

I think it was the same problem that Surf And/Or Turf had. You know that saying about seeing the forest for its trees? Well, what happened was that the writer got lost in the trees and couldn't find the forest.

So much time spent playing around in and having fun with the premise that she forgot to actually put the story in, resulting in a message and theme that just sort of pops up out of nowhere in the last two minutes and has little to do with the episode that preceded it.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 7th 2018 at 8:22:01 AM

@Vatek: Ironically, a Battlecry that would be much more appropriate for Chrysalis. Celestia would do better as something like an effect: When your opponent summons a minion that costs (7) mana or greater, summon Twilight Sparkle and return to your owner's hand.

A card that cares about the rightmost card in your hand? I guess Hearthstone really likes to play with effects that are only possible in a digital card game.

Ironically, MTG does some of the same things but only in silver border. Although there are black bordered cards which care about whether a card in your hand was drawn this turn, which is obviously difficult to keep track of, but that's just the result of a lack of forethought by the designers.

By the way, I've been rewatching a few episodes on Netflix since it's leaving soon, and I noticed something odd. Seasons 1-2 are available in English and Spanish, Seasons 3-5 are available in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Chinese, and Seasons 6-7 are only available in English. I wonder why they licensed those specific dubs for those specific seasons.

Edited by storyyeller on Aug 7th 2018 at 12:57:45 PM

Idle thought: Since "Horse Play" implied that raising the sun and moon are specifically Celestia and Luna's Cutie Mark talents and not cool spells that they know, the Nightmare Moon fiasco makes a bit more sense. Luna taking so much offense about the moon being disrespected fits perfectly with the idea of it being her talent.

Cutie Mark talents are key aspects of a pony's identity. Slighting the moon is like slighting Rarity's fashion design or Fluttershy's love of animals; you're disrespecting something that this character takes extremely personally. Remember when Applejack flipped her shit at Strawberry Sunrise for dissing apples in "Honest Apple"?

Yeah, that reaction right there is Nightmare Moon. Except taken over a prolonged period of time and with everyone dissing apples.

Random note. I find it really cute that Silverstream tried to give the dragon-sneeze tree an apple.

Post of the Day #2237

You know, that POTD makes me suddenly realize that one of these days, the POTD generator might land on one of my reviews.

That's going to be a loooooooooong POTD to scroll through.

For some reason I feel like Starlight and Applejack would get along really well.

Maybe just because they're two of my fav characters.

Edited by GNinja on Aug 8th 2018 at 2:59:22 PM

You know, that POTD makes me suddenly realize that one of these days, the POTD generator might land on one of my reviews.

It's especially likely because it is biased towards longer posts in order to hopefully have more interesting POT Ds. The script chooses 5 posts at random and then selects the longest one of them. So any post could theoretically be chosen, but shorter ones are less likely.