Rating:
Originally, I had hoped M.A. Larson would write Discord’s
return as opposed to Trixie’s, but it’s difficult to complain considering how
both episodes turned out. Dave Polsky was
probably the best second option among the rest of the writers, although he didn’t
quite find all he could from the premise.
Hard as it is to believe, My Little
Pony is a series that is calling out for arc-based stories, so another
episode that openly references many of the previous shows is quite refreshing. Immediately then, Keep Calm And Flutter On feels
more substantial than most of the other episodes in the third season since,
holy shit, something is actually happening.
Unfortunately, Polsky kind of loses control after a strong opening act,
and the episode crash lands its way to an ending everyone but me foresaw (I
assumed “predictable” meant TV laws would rule out and Discord would return to
stone at the end). This conclusion only exists
to accomplish something that I actually thought should happen while watching:
to make Discord a part of the series going forward. Successfully fitting Discord into the show
will continue to be challenging given his established character, but John de Lancie is so good and fun in the role
that he is worth having on the series.
Normally it would be odd for a (more or less) contemporary
cartoon to import an omnipotent character from a science fiction show set in
the 24th century, but My Little
Pony’s multitude-of-references approach makes this seem less strange. As Q, de Lancie’s character always had some
admittedly bizarre reason for annoying the Enterprise crew, which usually
involved showing the “inferior” humans their potential or appeasing the Continuum. Discord is the 21st century
version of Q in that he literally does everything for the lulz. There is no other motivation for him except
that he enjoys fucking with everything, and acts like what would happen if the
average internet user was given unlimited power. The problem with Discord isn’t exactly that
he’s evil as much as uncontrollable, and clearly there would be no ability for
normal living circumstances as long as he is loose in society.
Perhaps this explains the somewhat sketchy opening as
Celestia decides Discord can be reformed
with no warning and drops the world’s biggest troublemaker on the mane
six. Fortunately for Polsky, it is very
much in character for Celestia to leave huge problems in the hands of her much
less-talented student and her friends while she’s off partying elsewhere,
because her plan of “maybe Fluttershy can do something” is otherwise quite
preposterous. There isn’t a whole lot of
plot besides Fluttershy trying in vain to accomplish this Herculean task,
which produces a number of comic moments while the rest of the mane six take up
their usual spot on the sidelines.
For whatever reason, a number of the episodes in the third
season related to contemporary movies, and Keep Calm is no exception. This time, the show is basically Ponyville’s
version of Zero Dark Thirty, as
Fluttershy is very certain she is right despite little evidence and everyone
telling her how mistaken she is. At
least the circumstantial evidence in Zero
Dark Thirty made some sense, and is a lot more than what Fluttershy
had. Her “little evidence” was actually
no evidence, but that doesn’t dampen her resolve that befriending an irrepressible
fiend is the correct path. Even though
it ends up working, watching Fluttershy being taken advantage of and
apparently being too dumb to realize it is what most of the second and third
acts consist of, and it isn’t enjoyable to see her treated this way.
Not to get into a big “rules of the game” speech, but
generally you have to stand up for yourself at some point if you want to earn
anyone’s respect. This is something
Fluttershy already learned in Stare Master, which makes it ironic that the
eponymous stare is only referenced here.
Obviously it had no chance to work, but Discord’s predictable trolling
of her attempt is still fun to watch. At
least Fluttershy has a few moments of standing up for herself, so she doesn’t
seem like a complete pushover even if they didn’t work. Truthfully, the characterization is pretty
strong, as none of the characters felt over the top despite all the silliness
that occurred. Polsky didn’t write the
first Discord episode, but from a character standpoint it wasn’t noticeable,
which probably wouldn’t have happened if certain other writers had been given
the premise.
Fluttershy really should have said something once her house
was being turned in circles, which was a bit too much to accept at that point. Obviously she’s not a parent, but neither am
I and it was very obvious that the time to do something was then. At least Fluttershy takes a stand at the end
of the episode when it becomes extremely
apparent (as opposed to mostly) that Discord was abusing her offer of
friendship. This leads to a neat twist
in that Discord monologues himself into defeat, but not by prematurely
revealing his plan. His joke about
losing the only friend he’s ever had ends up being too serious after all, and
he can’t go on screwing with all of Ponyville if it means he’ll be alone. As someone who also doesn’t have any friends,
I don’t really see what the big deal is.
I mean…hmm… As silly as the stop-on-a-dime character change seems,
solitude isn’t a fate anyone goes to willingly. We’re usually too caught up in the good vs.
evil battle to think of how the villain must feel about the consequences of
running an empire. Just because they’re
the bad guy doesn’t mean they don’t have needs too. I feel pretty bad after a decade, so what
would it be like after a millennium? Discord
is usually having too much fun to stop and think about where his life is at,
but he’s a 1000 year-old teenager with little hope for a decent future. This realization may seem abrupt but it isn’t
far-fetched, which makes for a surprisingly poignant moment from a character
who didn’t seem capable of having them.
Of course, Discord’s heart growing three sizes and
immediately joining the good team isn’t exactly realistic given what his nature
is, so at least an aside knows it won’t quite be permanent. Again, Keep Calm solely exists to justify
bringing Discord on as a recurring character, but there probably wasn’t much of
a better way for this to happen in 22 minutes.
We’ve kind of gotten used to video game villains joining in on things
after a while (Bowser’s not so bad, right?), so this is very much in that spirit. Of course, most video game villains aren’t
voiced by John de Lancie. Q didn’t
necessarily produce the best Star Trek episodes (although a number of them do
qualify), but the series was better off with him showing up once in a while no
matter how displeased the crew were about it.
Whatever logistical problems the character created were worth having de
Lancie portray someone who could literally do anything.
And even if he’s pretty much just playing the same character
here that he first began portraying in 1987, de Lancie brings a similar breath
of fresh air to My Little Pony. This is partially because the male characters
are largely either untalkative or uninteresting (not really a complaint in my
opinion), but is mostly due to the talents of de Lancie. He was given a wide range of expression here
that is atypical of what is called for from the other voice actors on the
show, and had no problem with any of it.
This included a number of different voices and quite a bit of emotional
expression, but the consummate professional left no hint that he actually
hasn’t done all that much in the way of voice acting (certainly not compared to
the leads). Since de Lancie will admit
his voice has at least some part in his appeal, it’s surprising he hasn’t done
a lot more of it. His performance here
is why it’s worth it for him to be on the show, as de Lancie is very much in
top form despite being close to the “retirement” age when the episode aired.
While the good things Polsky brought to the writing are
appreciated, he also wasn’t able to come up with a better episode due to some
issues. Word choice was definitely
problematic at some points. For
instance, one “such language” was funny but two is just lazy, and while “well
played” may be of its time, it sounds like a cool phrase Polsky heard someone
say as opposed to what would actually come out of Discord’s mouth in that instance. To be fair, he does deserve props for not
having Rarity respond to Pinkie Pie’s “you like?” with a “like” of her
own. But I don’t know how much of
Fluttershy getting stepped on can be forgiven, especially when it’s obvious to
her friends that she’s being used. And
while “friendship is magic” may be a nice sentiment for a children’s show, it
would probably take a lot more time and effort for Discord to come around
instead of just one sentence. This makes
for a slight pacing problem, but was likely by design as it anticipates the
next time Discord shows up.
It is also possible this wasn’t all Polsky’s fault,
though. Like the previous episode, Keep
Calm’s writing credit was split into story and teleplay, so perhaps Polsky
didn’t have control over the abruptness.
I had joked after seeing the unfamiliar name Teddy Antonio that the
creators had finally taken my suggestion of picking a random brony for the
staff, and apparently I wasn’t all that far off. According to a fellow reviewer, while
Antonio’s parents are story editors, he was a teenaged fan of the show at the
time. Naturally he is far from being a
member of the writing team, but connections and a bitching credit could make
for a bright future. That’s not to say
this was a great premise, and how much the “story” credit means is still
unclear. But in insisting on an
arc-based story and making Discord/de Lancie a regular feature on the series,
Antonio’s contribution may be seen as one of the most important in the series.
Even if Polsky’s wording isn’t perfect and there are a bit
too many spells going on (a spell to prevent Discord from touching the Elements
and a reforming spell?), his feel for the characters and a large amount of the
dialogue is definitely appreciated.
After Feeling Pinkie Keen and being fired “giving other deserving
writers a shot” in the second season (yes, he tweeted that), I continue to be
amazed that Polsky developed into one of the show’s better writers. Even so, the fourth star can’t quite be scraped
due to the problems mentioned above, and because the episode is more
justification than plot as to why Discord is going to be on the show. But it’s still solid enough to crack the top 5
in this season, and watching de Lancie perform (even in cartoon form) is always
a treat. No matter how important Keep
Calm And Flutter On ends up being overall, the result won’t affect its
goodness. It’s one of the few episodes
in the third season to actually look forward to the future of the series. Keep Calm may not rank among the best, but
still can’t be forgotten nonetheless.
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