Rating:
While M.A. Larson would tackle many issues during an
impressive second season run of episodes, his lone two-part opener is all
story. As something of a companion to
the pilot, The Return Of Harmony introduces Discord (an omnipotent lord of
chaos voiced by John de Lancie), and calls upon our ponies to reunite the
Elements Of Harmony and save Equestria.
After retrieving these Elements by traveling through a labyrinth,
Twilight must restore her friends once they are turned into opposite versions
of themselves by Discord. Larson follows
Lauren Faust’s blueprint in having the six ponies go on adventures together,
and it takes a little while to crystalize into a complete story. Additionally, Larson’s dialogue isn’t always
spectacular, while his use of slapstick (though not usually intended for
laughs) and a “that was easy” solution end up being unfortunate harbingers for
many subsequent episodes. But he also
finds classic moments as well; mainly in the labyrinth and later scenes of the
anti-mane six. And of course there’s de
Lancie, whose Q persona fits surprisingly well in a completely unrelated
series. His Discord produces sights that
won’t appear again around Ponyville, and de Lancie’s instantly recognizable
voice is perfect for voice acting. The
Return Of Harmony is unquestionably better with him, and his performance is
strong enough to warrant multiple return visits for Discord. Larson’s style feels slightly raw though, and
borrowing other writers’ worst traits means the episode isn’t aging so
well. But his overall sense of story is
strong even if the ending feels rushed. Despite
being slightly inconsistent and awkward, The Return Of Harmony’s better moments
are unparalleled in the series. That
still makes for one of the season’s best episodes despite any lessons having to
wait until next week.
As usual, Larson finds a way to involve the Cutie Mark
Crusaders in a story they otherwise wouldn’t belong in. While touring the castle grounds with their
class, the Crusaders start fighting in front of a strange-looking draconequus
statue. Cheerilee explains this is
Discord, but doesn’t mention the being himself resides inside. Our favorite ponies are assigned papers and
continue on, but a beating heart and familiar laugh are quite ominous.
Once the episode proper begins, Rainbow Dash finds herself
battling cotton candy clouds while Applejack must deal with chocolate rain and
overflowing popcorn. As the mane six
meet at Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight uses her organization skills to stop this
threat after magic doesn’t work (she smartly has those suddenly giant animals
eat everything around). Unfortunately,
the incident is symptomatic of a much bigger problem, which they realize after
Celestia summons them to Canterlot.
Celestia explains that her foe from a thousand years ago has
returned, and that he couldn’t be contained because Twilight and friends now
control the Elements. Since Princess
Fatass isn’t going to do one damn thing about this or any other problem in her kingdom,
she tasks Twilight with halting Discord.
Unfortunately, they soon learn that the Elements are missing, after
which Discord taunts them from within the stained glass portraits. His Riddler-esque rhyme suggests that the
Elements may be in Celestia’s outside garden labyrinth (why does she have one
of those again?), so our ponies quickly head to search there.
Discord won’t give the Elements back that easily, so he
announces the mane six must play a game to get them. They won’t be allowed magic or flight
(Discord temporarily makes all six earth ponies), and if one of them leaves,
the game ends with no Elements. Twilight
and crew must accept, although they quickly find themselves separated as well.
While theoretically moving toward the center, Discord uses
this alone time for turning each of the mane six members. He appears friendly at first, but uses fear
and hypnosis to change them into opposite versions of their attributes. Applejack starts lying all the time, Pinkie
Pie is mad and hates laughter, Rarity obsesses over some giant diamond that’s
actually a stone, and Fluttershy becomes extremely mean and sarcastic. Despite acts of extreme cruelty for her,
Flutterbitch is definitely the most interesting change, especially while she
laughs at, fights, and terrorizes the other mane six members. Discord leaves Twilight unchanged though, as
she must now deal with her friends acting very strangely. It turns out the game is almost over though,
since Discord offers Rainbow Dash her wings back if she’ll leave. Readily abandoning everyone, Dash is soon
gone along with their chances of recovering the Elements.
Once episode two begins, Twilight realizes “back where you
began” must mean Ponyville and not the labyrinth entrance. She somehow corrals her remaining friends
back there, although they don’t go very willingly. Or quickly, since Rarity insists on carrying
that huge stone with her everywhere despite not really having enough strength
or stamina. Ponyville has succumbed to a
huge amount of chaotic changes (soap roads and the day/night cycle changing
every few minutes), which also slows everyone down. Finally making it back to her library,
Twilight discovers the Elements in a book after winning “keep away”. Surviving Fluttershy’s practical jokes,
Twilight redistributes the Elements (with Spike being named “the new Rainbow
Dash”) and heads out to confront Discord.
Without Dash though, they won’t work, so Discord just laughs and leaves. After this failure, so do her other friends,
who weren’t really all that interested.
Since the mane six have now apparently broken up, Twilight’s sudden loss
turns her gray as well.
Discord tries “consoling” Twilight while she wanders around
town, but it only makes her more depressed.
Before completely giving up, Celestia sort of does something and starts
sending back all of Twilight’s letters.
This gives Spike a huge stomachache, but too bad for him I guess. Twilight recalls her earlier good times with
friends, and determines she needs to refresh their memory. Applejack becomes guinea pig number one
(since she’s just sitting around the farm), and a Matrix-like injection of memories successfully restores Applejack’s
true self.
Twilight’s other friends follow in quick succession, but
Rainbow Dash is still missing.
Fortunately Pinkie Pie finds her on a cloud right over there. That was easy (I invented that was easy!). However, it’s not quite so easy since they
have to chase Dash before the spell can be administered. Thankfully Fluttershy is Equestria’s true
fastest flier, because she reaches Dash while dragging a hot air balloon full
of ponies. With this bucking bronco subdued,
Dash is restored and they can all finally confront Discord. Considering their previous failure, he isn’t
inclined to do much in the way of stopping them, but this time our ponies have
no trouble activating the Elements.
Twilight’s atom bomb of magic turns Discord back to stone and reinstates
a normal and boring Ponyville.
Since Larson doesn’t mean for The Elements Of Harmony to
tackle any issues, its merit can only stand on story. For high marks, the episode must be a
superior and engrossing tale full of iconic moments and characters. On some level this is true, but the
subsequent season ruined things for Larson.
Flutterbitch is gleefully mean toward her “friends” and Spike upon being
created, but only intends to hurt. This
mirrors every single script Merriwether Williams touched, which likewise hated
whoever was around. And it precedes
various embarrassing episodes for Twilight (Lesson Zero), Applejack (The Last
Roundup), and Pinkie Pie (Baby Cakes).
Larson also seems to run out of time, since Twilight just reminds her
friends of good memories to cure them.
This anticipates Meghan McCarthy’s “that was easy” plot solutions, which
first began in A Canterlot Wedding.
Whether fair or not, Larson cannot be given a pass here because of his
track record.
However, when taken over two episodes, he does come close to
producing such a compelling story. As
the mane six are gradually restored, a sense of epicness and emotion emanates from
how much they mean to each other. And
the labyrinth adventure with anti-ponies counts as iconic. Larson’s story moves well between its various
sections, even if not quite consistently strong. Series’ namedrops are pretty much never
appreciated, nor is that scrum animation during the teaser. But outside of these and the problems
mentioned above, everything else is fairly solid.
That includes characterization, which is doubly strong since
Larson had more to cover than usual. Despite
being separated and missing throughout most of the episode, our ponies still
get strong moments by themselves. Pinkie
Pie loves chocolate rain and therefore doesn’t want every chaos element to end,
while Fluttershy resists Discord’s temptations by stating she is indeed “weak
and helpless” and therefore lucky to have her friends. Their alternate personalities likewise deliver,
such as Flutterbitch childishly chiding “ha ha” after Pinkie yells at anyone
laughing or Applejack telling stories on the farm while doing nothing.
Naturally Discord is the star attraction though, and easily
becomes My Little Pony’s most
credible and interesting villain. John
de Lancie’s performance is a big reason for it, with his familiar laugh and
great delivery of lines that aren’t always perfect (identifying each pony by
their Element seems redundant). But
Discord also works because he misbehaves rather than being strictly “evil”, and
therefore has more depth compared to any subsequent villain (Chrysalis, Sombra,
Tirek). Q had the same characteristics,
but Discord’s inclusion and chaos make My
Little Pony’s characters and normal Ponyville life seem almost stale by
comparison. Rarely does such convention
busting happen, but Discord’s true coup is becoming a recurring character from
this one appearance since many others have failed (especially those by
McCarthy).
(Discord changes everyone but Twilight, which is an
interesting omission. He takes pleasure
in having her give up on the mane six, but perhaps Discord didn’t want Twilight
to change. He shacks up with Fluttershy in
later episodes, so the potential interest has shifted there. But Twilight and Discord is an angle that
will sadly remain unexplored. Of course,
he probably doesn’t because an anti-Twilight would just be one with no magic,
and that isn’t very fun.)
While I originally felt The Return Of Harmony belonged amongst
the series’ best episodes, time has made claiming that impossible. With no lesson or point, too much slapstick,
and a rushed ending, the story isn’t strong enough to override these
problems. Larson’s writing was still
developing here (which obviously wasn’t noticeable at the time), and its
inconsistency is likewise hurtful. But
that doesn’t mean what remains isn’t still very good. By creating an actual villain and putting our
ponies on an adventure to save themselves, Larson can still lay claim to the series’
best two-parter. This is the way Faust
envisioned her series, which makes The Return Of Harmony a last gasp before
other hands changed its course. Larson
also summarizes season two as whole though (both for better and worse), which
is an odd accomplishment itself. Too
much of the worse seeped in unfortunately, and Larson’s better when finding
creative ways for dealing with issues.
But The Return Of Harmony is still very memorable just the same. For an epic My Little Pony story, it has yet to be beaten.
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