My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 522 - What About Discord?

 

Rating:

Oh god wh…wait I used that one already.  What About Discord? actually starts from a very decent premise about friendship but becomes an utterly painful mess.  Instead of seriously exploring this issue, Neal Dusedau makes his second episode one big in-joke that couldn’t possibly be funny for anyone.  Twilight gets a raging boner for reorganizing her books (again, as Spike points out) over some “long” weekend, but misses out on her friends partying with Discord.  Ever the scientist, Twilight tries recreating their meeting but unsurprisingly fails.  Because we need a twist though, Discord admits he planned the whole thing so he could teach Twilight that it’s okay to be jealous.  Then the mane six make Discord feel like shit too because fuck friendship.  Dusedau flirts with a decent moment for maybe one minute when Twilight admits she hurts despite feeling silly about doing so.  Unfortunately, everything else around this is handled very poorly.  None of the jokes are funny, but the mane six keep laughing while not even trying to sympathize with Twilight.  And Discord continues his cold streak by becoming a dreadful parody who ruins every episode he touches.  Obviously Dusedau wanted a Q Who aesthetic (where Q introduces humanity to the Borg, costing lives), but why Discord teaches this lesson now is never explained.  Instead, What About Discord? acts like a “bad friend” treatise.  We learn nothing about any character (Twilight was similarly confounded and pissed in Feeling Pinkie Keen) except that our ponies can suddenly find Discord hilarious if the plot demands it.  Too much of What About Discord? is painful and dumb to rate any higher despite a small sliver of positive.  Dusedau’s premise elaboration completely failed, and became yet another season five disappointment.

Did you know Twilight likes books?  And she’s so nerdy that she loves re-sorting them rather than doing any social activities or anything else normal people consider fun?  There’s no way this will backfire on her.  Like when she finally frees Spike after three days (naturally with an obligatory sun joke) only to see Rainbow Dash and Discord doing a bad comedy act together.  Did they seriously spend hours rehearsing every possibility despite not having any idea when Twilight would finally emerge?  What if Spike didn’t come out with her, or vice versa?  Dusedau never expects such questions to be asked.

The new BFFs have inside jokes together too, and don’t seem remotely interested in explaining them.  Even though they leave shortly, Twilight encounters this same behavior from her other friends as she wanders around Ponyville.  Discord always just happens to be around, and the mane six laugh about stupid shit.  Ironically, Discord cares much more about Twilight missing out than her actual friends, who at best half-heartedly apologize before giggling over more dumb jokes.

Despite pretending not to be jealous, Twilight is actually pissed.  Apparently the best way of handling this is by staging an elaborate recreation with everyone and studying why their inside jokes are so funny.  All in the name of science and friendship, Twilight assures Spike, who rolls his eyes along with us.  Everyone goes along with her for some reason, but they find reenacting each detail impossible.  Discord finally concludes the only variable unaccounted for is Twilight’s presence, since she wasn’t there for the luncheon or anything else.

With another act left though, Twilight isn’t giving up just yet.  She reasons that her friends must be under Discord’s spell, which is actually a logical supposition since (a) they have been before and (b) no better way exists to explain their bad jokes and behavior toward Twilight.  So of course this isn’t true.  Zecora laughs off Twilight’s very feasible request and hands her some sort of “potion”.  Now Twilight must figure out how to have the mane six drink this potion without realizing it, but creativity is hard.  So she just sits her friends around the great hall’s table and orders them to drink.  They prove they’re not under a spell by refusing, except for Pinkie Pie who doesn’t give a shit.  So much for a lesson about trust or whatever the point of this scene was.

Discord arrives and somehow kills again with his peanut butter hoof bit.  Twilight finally has enough of this bullshit and admits she’s angry that they all had a great experience without her.  She should be immune to jealousy as the Princess of Friendship, but Twilight’s comrades forgive such “unnatural” feelings.  Rarity even states that as friends, they should be better at communicating rather than bottling everything up.  This is coming too close to being a decent lesson, so Discord takes credit by admitting he encouraged the mane six not to invite Twilight.  She probably wouldn’t have come anyway, but now everyone is pissed.  Instead of communicating their displeasure at being deceived, they trash Discord by laughing at their own recently created in-jokes.  This succeeds in hurting him, but happy ending anyways because I don’t know why.

Outside of some moments with Twilight, Dusedau’s characterization is absolutely awful.  The other mane six members only delight in making whoever happens to be around them feel awful while completely lacking anything that resembles a sense of humor.  There’s no way they would keep laughing at such terrible jokes and then collectively stop when the plot demands it.  Rarely for the mane six, Dusedau makes no delineation between characters.  They are one big ball of hate and indifference which doesn’t fit nor is remotely becoming of a show theoretically about friendship.

Discord may be given more free reign in being a terrible friend and acting illogically, but that doesn’t make him any more believable.  Before his big reveal, he constantly looks smug whenever Twilight does anything.  That his purpose was genuinely helping her can’t be accepted given how he acts.    Fluttershy also intimated that Twilight not getting invited was a group decision, so Discord suggesting this was his idea seems hastily retconned.  With a second poor appearance in season five, Discord became the series’ bad joke who really doesn’t deserve more episodes.  What About is another shameful outing among too many.

Duesdau’s poor writing doesn’t stop at characterization either.  His dialogue also suffers from many weak spots, whether it’s the constant puns (orange you glad I didn’t use one right now?) or characters spouting stupid things (Pinkie exclaims an obviously untrue “I love important” just before the reenactment, and Applejack has another yawn-inducing southernism with “hog heaven”).  Then like in Winter Wrap-Up, Spike accurately critiques his present episode, although most of it is directed toward Twilight.  Realizing that you’re writing a bad script doesn’t excuse you from doing so.

And while apparently trying to be hip, Dusedau throws in two oddly specifically timed pop culture references that feel very out of place.  Discord turns into celebrated landscape painter Bob Ross twice, but with no explanation.  Ross had been dead over 20 years when What About Discord? aired, but his 73^rd birthday occurred nine days before.  Streaming site Twitch.tv celebrated this unimportant anniversary with an eight-day marathon of every show he released.  Likewise, the date Marty traveled ahead to during Back To The Future Part II (October 21, 2015) passed shortly before airing as well, which accounts for Pinkie dressing like him during her time travel reference.  How far ahead Dusedau or the animators were thinking is unclear, but these kind of dated references are atypical of My Little Pony and don’t offer anything positive.

Apparently everyone involved wanted the audience to have no idea what was going on, but nothing was gained from this approach either.  The only lesson Dusedau taught was that if you see people cracking inside jokes, hurry up and make your own so they can feel terrible too.  His premise would have been far better expressed with a few characters and one specific situation rather than an ensemble where no one stands out.  As it stands, What About Discord? is one long painful joke which doesn’t realize it has overstayed its welcome.  No actual comedy can be found, and Dusedau squashes his only decent dramatic moment when Discord starts taking credit for everything.  At least Dusedau can take comfort in proving how important writing is to My Little Pony (again), but obviously for the wrong reasons.  Like the other worst episodes of season five, What About Discord? represents an absolute failure on too many levels and is lucky not to be rated worse.