MLP episode review: The return of Harmony Part One and Two · 6:16pm Jun 26th, 2014
Okay, moving on from the Gala, time for the debut of a complete, utter monster, a total bastard and villain. I speak, of course, of Discord. It's time to get away from his chaotic hell and get to...
The Return of Harmony
We open at the Canterlot Sculpture Gardens. Cheerilee is leading a field trip of foals with speaking lines. She points out a statue representing friendship and the CMC pile into one another, giving each other dirty looks. Another statue is victory. Some people for some... reason or another think Celestia turned ponies into those statues. I do not because that's squicky as all hell and way too dark. The CMC argue some more and we get the 'Sweetie Belle is a dictionary' meme. They are really snappish. Cheerilee calls them over to Discord's statue and exposits a bit about his form. The CMC argue again and we get ominous panning/musical sting on Discord's statue. Then they come to blows while Cheerilee watches and shakes her head. Cheerilee... DO SOMETHING! And then back to the statue and his black heart begins beating. Cheerilee tells them they're all right and it represents discord, and they've represented it so well, each will write an essay on it. The others laugh, walk off and Discord's statue cracks.
Okay, most people think it was the CMC's bickering that led to him getting free. I don't. We've never seen them fight like this before or since. I see it as Discord's about to break free and he is causing them to fight. It'd be something he'd do, too. Anyway, back from commercial and Dash is flying around. A pink cloud flies by and she gives chase, catching it. But it's cotton candy. A bunch more zoom around and one above her begins raining... chocolate milk. It's not supposed to rain until tomorrow! At Sweet Apple Acres, the clouds move in and begin raining. Dash reports a cola storm in Cloudsdale. It's just so... weird how 'normally' she reports that. The corn begins popping and Pinkie dives in like Scrooge McDuck into his money bin. Rarity walks by in a fashionable rain ensemble and asks if there's anything she could do without getting wet, or dirty. *Facepalm* And then the apples all grow so huge and heavy the trees bow down. Animals begine ating them and Applejack calls for Fluttershy, who pops up outta nowhere. She tries to talk to the animals, but they grow long legs and run around, freaking her and me out. And then Twilight and Spike walk in to complete the gang. Twilight's learned a new spell that will fix everything! And I call bullshit on that and...
Seven.
She fires it off, and nothing. And a part of me snickers at her. Rarity walks over and places her umbrella/saddle on Twilight. Plan B time, then. She has Dash corral all the clouds, which she is suddenly able to do when before she couldn't. Pinkie is just... laying in a puddle of the milk and drinking it. Ugh... Applejack lassos them down. She has Fluttershy tell the animals about the cotton candy clouds with a bit of reverse psychology. Twilight pontificates about teamwork and cooperation-working together! Dig it. And Spike burps up a scroll. Celestia wants to see them all in Canterlot! They go, using back alleys to avoid those still rightfully angry at them about last episode.
By the by, we have environmental damage, ruining of food and the body horror inflicted on those animals.
In Canterlot, Celestia is pacing back and forth. The others arrive and Twilight babbles. Celestia holds up a hoof and leads them down a corridor. An old foe has returned, named Discord. As she says it, Fluttershy looks up at a stained-glass window of him and we hear faint screams. Yeah, that's pretty damned unsubtle, there. To quote Celestia, "Discord is the mischievous spirit of disharmony." Before she and Luna stood up to him, Equestria was in a bad state. We see the window again and the screams are louder. After 'discovering' the Elements of Harmony, they turned him to stone. Good for them! But since no longer connected to the Elements, the spell's broken. She takes them to Canterlot Tower where the Elements are and tells them to use them. No obtuse planning, no wheels within wheels, just stop the son of a bitch. This, I LIKE. Twilight begins to ask why them, but Pinkie interrupts as she sees a window of them stopping Nightmare Moon. Celestia says they realized their full potential and it's them who are now connected to them. In other words, they can't use them. Okay, good. Twilight begins to say yes, but Pinkie interrupts and says eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain. I must now hit her.
Celestia unlocks the door and floats out a jeweled chest. Rarity wants the case! K... rarity's really being flanderized in this episode. Celestia says she has full confidence they'll defeat him. She opens it... and it's empty. She drops it and ominous echoing! Pinkie says she'll be outside in one of the puddles with a giant swizzle straw. *Cracks knuckles* So, it began earlier than I thought. Back from commercial, Celestia says the chamber's protected by a spell only she can break. Also, Pinkie's back. It doesn't make sense... and then we get evil laughter. "Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?" Personally, a metric ton more than nonsense. I'd be punching Wonderland residents left and right if I ever ended up there! Celestia shouts at him and, with a flash of light, becomes the glass portrait of himself. He was lonely encased in stone, but she wouldn't know that because he doesn't turn ponies to stone!
Well, no. That's no fun for him. Neither does Celestia. She does, however, encase evil bastards who turn other being's lives into Y7-rated versions of hell.
Celestia wants to know what he did with the Elements and he 'borrowed' them. He's also forgotten how 'grim' she can be. *Snort* Wrong princess there, bub. Dash sticks up for her and then flies at the window, smacking into it. Discord shows knowledge of them all and Pinkie again is an idiot by laughing at him standing on Twilight's head. Celestia butts in and asks about the Elements. Discord says he'll tell her, "My way." And I did it.... MY WAY! He does the little rhyme about finding the Elements back where you began, and Twilight interprets that as the hedge maze. To be honest, it makes sense. Celestia... does a knighting motion to Twilight with her horn. Pony what? More laughter and they're at the maze. Fluttershy's scared about going in there, but Dash flies up to scout ahead. Dash, good on you. Then Discord commits more body horror and removes wings and horns. Would've been a bit much if he removed Applejack's and Pinkie's hooves, methinks. He shows up in the flesh for the first time and laughs, complete with ominous thunder and lightning! He then says they should see the looks on their faces. I am legit surprised he didn't conjure up mirrors, actually. Twilight wants their wings/horns back and Discord said he took them to ensure no cheating. Yeah, pot? This is the kettle. You're black.
He lays out the rules. No flying and no magic. Hey, he broke that rule already! They get the Elements and petrify his ass! The second rule is everyone must play or the game is over. They do a pretty cheesy 'let's do this together' bit, complete with them putting their hooves forward. Then walls of plants spring up to separate them. For perhaps the only time in the show's history, I cheer Discord on. Twilight tells them to get to the center. All comply but Fluttershy, who legit freaks!
Back from commercial and it's time for Discord's mindraping to begin! First is Applejack, who follows some apples. Applejack... why are you following the rolling apples?! She finds herself in an orchard. the apples fall and roll around her in a pretty freaky manner. They turn into the three 'Keepers of the Grove of Truth'. And they remind me of the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock, actually. One question, and for some reason Applejack's not running out of there. Applejack says she doesn't trust them, but asks what will become of them. She peeks into a pond and sees them severing their friendship. We look up and see Discord as the puppetmaster to the apples. The apples tell her when the truth hurts, sometimes the lie's easier to take. Discord fades in, Applejack's eyes go wacky and she turns gray. A wall slides down and Twilight finds her as the orchard disappears. It's Liarjack, everyone, complete with scrunchy face! I won't be calling her that, though. Twilight's suspicious, but talks herself out of it. "Applejack wouldn't lie!" Well, she did in Party of One...
We pan up and see Pinkie bouncing along, finding a grove of balloons. It's the greatest-and first-balloon garden she's ever seen! She trips into the mud and the balloons laugh at her. Discord shows up and asks what's the matter. Pinkie says they're laughing at her, and her friends laugh with her. Discord's head also merges with a balloon and detaches from his body. The balloons laugh at her and turn into freaky effigies of the others. Discord's eyes go wonky, then Pinkie's eyes do that and she's mindraped. Twilight and Applejack show up and Pinkie's... not funny or happy. Twulight passes it off as stress. Yeah...
We cut to Rarity walking sideways and she slams into a wall. Discord says she's found the one thing that could rival his face for sheer beauty. *Snort* Yeah, right. Rarity's eyes immediately go wonky, but she fights it off! She walks away, but snaps faster than a pencil being squeezed by the Thing and rips at the wall, turning gray. We cut to her and several piles of debris, looking quite disheveled. We see a huge diamond, all set to be used in some evil mastermind's death ray. She hefts it and begins walking off as the remainder of the wall crumbles, revealing the others. Twilight is glad, then confused as we see what Rarity really has-a huge boulder. And not the character voiced by Mick Foley, either.
Over to Fluttershy, scared out of her mind. She tries to pony up, but three butterflies send her back into the foliage. She bounces back out and follows them, finding Discord as a butterfly. He tries vebral manipulation, but nothing. He gets so frustrated he brute-forces the mindrape onto her. Ah, so the games he played before with the others were him getting his jollies on their pain! Thanks, show! I needed full confirmation he was a sadistic bastard, too! Right on cue, the group meets with her. And ho, boy. Anyway, finally, Dash! She hops around, spotting a flash-animated cloud and, you guessed it, follows it! I'm guessing those had magic to them that 'suggested' they follow them. Otherwise, the Mane Six aren't looking too bright on that front. Anyway, she finds Discord lounging on a cloud hammock. Dash readys some hooficuffs, but Discord tells her she has a choice. He tells her the foundations of home will crumble without her. She sees Cloudsdale crumbling, and her eyes go wonky. And then Discord mindrapes her, gives her a box with her wings and gives her a choice.
Back to the group, Twilight is carrying on with what amounts to a madness mantra by now. Applejack says Dash is flying off, abandoning them. Twilight says that's a lie, but nope. Clouds roll in, the maze slides into the ground-I guess the light-cycles were destroyed-and DSiscord shows up, saying the no-magic/no wings rule was broken. He says this while flying and I now wish to unleash the Matrix on him. Well, spoilers for the Hasbroverse there... *Evil grin* He gives back the horns and wings and laughss, saying they're in for a big storm of chaos! Oh, noes! What will happen?! Well... time to find out!
The Return of harmony, part two
After a 'previously on' and credits, we come back to Discord still laughing, falling down. The Mane Six go nuts, Rarity showing off a surprising command of martial arts! Twilight tries to get them to stop, then tells Discord he's not playing fair. Twilight... are you kidding me?! Even Discord is surprised at her idiocy. She asks how they were supposed to find the Elements if he took away the maze and I am aghast at her right now. Discord does a flashback to him in the windows, and then informs her he never said they were in the labyrinth. He then taunts her some more. "Maybe the magic of friendship can help you!" He then leaves to begin turning Equestria into a Y7-filtered hellhole.
Twilight tries to figure it out while the others do funny background events, and she just wants to go home. Then she realizes back where they began... is Ponyville! And we cut to it and... ho, damn. Buildings are floating, chocolate rain is falling, and Twilight is trampled by body-horrified animals. "Good boy, Angel! Momma's so proud!" Oh, that's just... wow. And now the sky is being fucked with. The roads turn to soap, too. Discord calls it the new and improved Ponyville and says they're only the first of his changes. God, I am so glad they defeated him before that. Pinkie skates by, natch. Nice callback to Winter Wrap-Up, there. At Golden Oaks, Twilight is at the end of her rope. Fluttershy destroys the flowers in front, to boot. They're also all graying up even worse. Rarity refuses, since Spike will come and take Tom! So Twilight brings him on, on her back. Twilight, TK?
Inside, Fluttershy douses Spike with a bucket of water. He notices their color change, which brings up the question why Twilight didn't earlier if it's an actual physical effect. fluttershy does the 'Your face!' bit, and Twilight goes to look for the reference book to the Elements. Spike knows where it is and gets it, but Fluttershy grabs it and we get a game of keep-away. I hate keep-away. And considering how stressed Twilight is, I can forgive her forgetting about her magic. Spike tackles Fluttershy. Go, Spike! But it's not enough, and we get a big ball of crazy, that ends with Twilight finally with the book! Spike stands guard and inside are the Elements!
Twilight says they found them together, then notices they don't even care. She says she never thought her friends would turn into complete jerks! Yeah... Twilight? They've already shown they can be complete jerks in season one. She slaps necklaces onto them and big crown thingy onto her, while Spike becomes the new Rainbow Dash. Spike is actually a bit nervous about that, but too bad! Actually, that would've been interesting if it had worked. And hell, in a lot of ways Spike is more loyal than Dash. He sure puts up with more shit than her but sticks around, at least.
Twilight says they'll defeat Discord so they'll never have to see each other again. God dammit Twilight you're harsh here! You've gotta realize they've been put under mindrape, right? Outside, "Here comes Tom!" as Golden Oaks gets a taste of the season four finale. Discord says for them to fire when ready and paints a target on himself. His voice is pinging high on the sarcasm meter, too. :p They charge up, Twilight's eyes glow... and nothing. Discord applauds them and says harmony is dead. The others leave and Twilight snaps. "With friends like you, who needs... enemies?" And she turns gray. Aww. :( A single tear falls, hitting the ground as a broken heart.
We cut to her walking along, buffalo in tutus dancing and going to meet up with Ahiru and Mytho from Princess Tutu. Pies float and Screwball floats by. Discord pops in and we see Berry Punch getting doused with pepper. She sneezes and the walls, come tumbling down! Discord says she's got to get into the spirit of things! Twilight says not anymore, and Discord... pumps his arm and shouts, "YES!" Ah, he's glad he broke her and can reign this little hellhole. Good to know!
At Golden Oaks, Twilight tells Spike to pack. She throws her crown into the trash! on the floor, Spike is writing in pain and there's a pile of scrolls. Oh, dear lord! Celestia, stop it! Use teleportation! We get a montage of Twilight reading her old letters and her color returns. She flings him around, probably making him more nauseous. *Swats Twilight* STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!!!! She realizes her friendships are important and will help them save Equestria. She also lowers SPike into his bed, gently. I still must hit her for what she did, though. She notices Spike in pain and decides to let him rest... and then another scroll.
Okay, I am legit pissed at that. It's not funny!
At Sweet Apple Acres pigs fly. I like the NJO, Magical Mystery Cure and Keep Calm and Flutter On. I say the 2007 Transformers movie was bad and other stuff that's never gonna happen. Big Mac is digging in the ground... because he's been mind-swapped with Winona. Granny Smith is dancing, and I bet in massive loads of pain and Applejack is... reverse-eating an apple. Twilight shows up to fight for their friendship! She tackles Applejack to the ground and uses a memory spell to basically reboot Applejack. It works! Applejack's back! Then Fluttershy, who thought it was a nightmare. Next is Rarity, who asks they never speak of it again. Pinkie Pie is laughing, and finally Dash! but they can't find her! Pinkie finally does something productive and spots her on a cloud. Twilight tries to talk to her, but it goes as well as it expects and says she's staying in Cloudsdale, where it's AWE-SOME! Rarity wonders how she can think that's Cloudsdale, and Applejack pipes up the same way she thought Tom was a diamond. Applejack, bad form! Time for Plan B!
The balloon goes up, hopefully not towing Rose Tyler along with it, and Twilight tells Fluttershy to hold Dash down while Applejack lowers Twilight down for the spell. Fluttershy... flies down and asks her if she can hold Dash down for the spell. Fluttershy... you IDIOT! Dash flies off with the cloud and they give chase. Dash buzzes them, so Applejack lassos her, but the rope's not tied down and yanks Rarity and Pinkie into the air. Turns out Pinkie was supposed to secure the ropes. Oh, good lord, Pinkie! Rarity tells Fluttershy to fly faster, but she can't. If you had simply grabbed onto her to begin with...
Twilight says if they can't catch her, Discord wins. Fluttershy calls him a meanie and catches up. Applejack lassos her, pulls her down and memory spell time! They're all back! At Discord's throne of blood, where the rivers ran with tears! He's laughing it up, drinking the glass of chocolate milk and then tossing away the milk. The Mane Six show up, but he's not impressed. Applejack says he couldn't break apart their friendship, and he TKs her necklace around, saying not to lie to him. Okay, clever. He then does an indirect neck-lift on the others. Vader would be so proud. Twilight teleports into the middle of them and a protective bubble is formed around them. I... think that's the Elements beginning to activate. They land and she does a Patrick Stewart speech to him. Discord taunts them, and they power up. But first, Pinkie needs more chocolate milk. It wasn't funny the first time! The Elements really power up, flinging around bolts of energy. Discord has an epic Oh, crap moment and is petrified! Ah, good riddance to complete monsters! The Rainbow forms a double rainbow, then a dome that undoes all his chaos. Yay!
At Canterlot, it's celebration time! It's an homage to the end of ANH. The Elements get celebrated. Applejack winks at Celestia... for pretty much no in-universe reason. It's the ANH homage, pretty much, but makes no sense in-universe. But good on all of them! And we get a new stained-glass window, showing them defeating him. There's cheers, streamers and finally end credits!
Thoughts
WOW. These two episodes, what a way to open the season. Drama, action, tragedy, some humor and just overall they're great. I love both of them. Just pretty much great from start to finish.
Now, then. Discord... I think you can figure out how I view him. I'm not gonna lie, disseminate or, well, even apologize. I see him as an evil bastard. There's no blue or orange morality with him, no mitigating factors. He is pure scum, through and through. He knows he'd tormenting sapient beings. He knows he's hurting them, and he doesn't give a damn, as long as he can get his jollies. John de Lancie did a marvelous job with him, but he's not Q. he's not Q's son. He's not Trelane, or a rogue Organian or anything like that. Discord is... Discord. He's a separate character who has the same voice actor as Q, and was written as a Q expy, but he is NOT Q. There's no lesson with him, here. There is nothing but him turning Equestria into a Y7-filtered hellhole.
I am going to quote Onimar Synn, the main bad guy, from the JSA trade paperback Return of Hawkman:
"The vast majority of history's grand villains didn't think of themselves as such. I harbor no such illusions. I am perverse. A sadist, at heart. And I have had thousands of years to reflect upon this."
That's Discord. He mindraped the Mane Six for shits and giggles. That big "YES!" with Twilight shows he knows he broke her and is glad to have done it. It goes WAY beyond simply making sure he didn't get restoned. If he wanted to stop that then scatter them to the four corners of the planet, or into deep space!
Do I like Discord? I hate him, in a good way. I'm not sure how many of you remember form my Call of the Cutie review, but I compared him to Ted DiBiase. I'll pay to see him get beat, but I'll pay to see him. He's a great villain. Past that... yeah.
Some thoughts...
1. The CMC didn't break him out. He was already about to break out.
2. No, Celestia doesn't turn ponies to stone. That's him being an asshole.
3. The spell on him was broken due to Nightmare Moon and that whole fight. For my money's worth, the Mane Six dying while not breaking their bonds of friendship or the bit with the Tree of Harmony would not have freed him, since they didn't have the Elements for the rest of season two and he was still petrified. Or to go my favorite route, the Doylist route, if the writers didn't want to free him, they didn't have to. :p
Headcanon
I won't reveal Discord's origin in the Hasbroverse, but I will say Megan had a hand in his creation. He'll break free, mess with her and the Mane Six and then be resealed, never to be freed again. And no, he did not turn the flutter ponies into changelings. Ugh, I hate that bit of fanon!
Anyway, one hell of an opening. Tune in next time where Twilight snaps like a twig! Also, sorry. I have no Discord toy. Hasbro... where is he?! So here's a good substitute!
Yeah, that says it all, doesn't it. :p
Or the CMC bickering is one of those character flaws that appear just to drive the plot, like how Spike got super-clumsy in Spike at your Service or Bulk (Wonderbolt cadet) could hardly fly in Rainbow Falls.
In other words, bad writing.
THE BOULDER is pleased that he has been referenced.
I can see where you're coming from in concern to Discord. Depending on what story or headcanon I'm working with, he's either a) Myxyzptlk's old roomie, b) the Deceiver from Warhammer 40k or c) a spirit of chaos that enjoys being a dick. Either way, he's one of those Love to Hate characters.
And noticing the pic, I really wanted a villain voiced by Mark Hamill in Season 4... Season 5 hopes, perhaps?
Compressed Vice, you say?
That works too, I guess.
EDIT: I can't wait to read your take on Mysterious Mare-Do-Well.
Nice, Ted DiBiase, huh? High five for wrestling from the 80s! *offers hoofbump or highfiver, whichever works*
Discord has a very different situation in the Shogunverse. Dunno how you might like it though. But he will be popping up there one of these days.
I'm curious, are you the same as me in thinking that Keep Calm and Flutter On was more done just because Discord is a fan favorite and they wanted to keep bringing him back, or do you think Celestia was legit in saying she had 'a use' for his magic?
I personally think his reformation should have waited till season 4 and/or taken a more than one episode myself, but he does show a moment or two in part two before that 'Yes!' moment where he almost looks remorseful about what he just did, before trying to ignore it, honestly.
And that's probably where TwiCord (DiscoLight?) comes from.
Didn't Queen Majesty use to do that?
You know I've never thought of that, and I think you may have a point.
From Avatar: The Last Airbender; are you also an Avatar fan?
That's the Matrix from old school Doctor Who right.
MLP is rated Y, not Y-7. If it was Y-7 it would be much more interesting.
The way I see things, I figured when Discord was first conceived by Lauren Faust and the other writers, they never figured having to use him again just like so far no other real villain has returned. Given Discord's popularity after he first showed up, they then felt they had to do something with him again, but with Lauren Faust's departure weren't sure what to do or how. Since as you noted Discord is a bit of a Q expy, I figured the writers were like:
"What happened to Q on Star Trek?"
"Well, he was like reformed and stuff."
"Let's do that then!"
Now, "Keep Calm and Flutter On" did bother me initially, but after seeing what they've done with Discord in Season 4, I feel much better about it.
In the end though, I'm a Christian.
So even when an evil bastard repents, I have to accept it and forgive.
I see people defending Discord at times, dismissing his actions as merely "trolling" and I feel like I'm watching the television fan equivalent of an abused, codependent spouse. I'll probably get into this more when we reach season 4 where we can get into the meat of his "reformation", but in short, given the number of times his actions would go on to nearly, if not actually result in someone getting eaten by a monster, I feel like Discord's later behaviour is only "trolling" if you're talking about the creature from myth/fantasy/roleplaying games.
Oh, it happens to every mage sooner or later.
Some people will latch onto anything. Except Celestia's golden apple tree.
In any case, I tend to see Discord more along the lines of Mr. Mxyzptlk. He would've gotten bored with evil eventually. Fluttershy catalyzed the process... which, of course, meant that he was up for one last hurrah.
I have always thought that Spike would make an excellent Loyalty bearer, and if the rest of the mane six who were there hadn't been Discorded the EoH might have actually worked.
As much as I felt terrible for Spike in that scene, I always thought it made since, figuring that Celestia couldn't port in things because of Discord's magical chaos messing up the targeting or whatnot, but that she could dragonfire send them, since dragons are super magic resistant.
I usually agree with your reviews. But this time I will have to, respectfully, disagree about Discord.
I *like* Discord. I always thought the ponys seemed kind of smug. What with them living in their little micro-managed world. He's the balance to the Royal Sisters harmony. It's that whole yin-yang thing.
They can control the weather, do magic all that good stuff. So it's really no wonder a 1000 years after Nightmare Moon their army is still sporting spears. The U.S. went from Kittyhawk in 1903 to landing on the moon in just 66 years.
You need chaos. Without it, all you get is a stagnate society. Without any *real* problems, such as he would bring to the table, there was no reason to try to find solutions to anything.
Leading to, of course, The Roman Empire pointing and laughing at them.
Not to mention you need a powerful villain.
In some scifi book I read years ago they talked about that. For every hero you need a villain that is just about as smart, or tough or what have you. Otherwise, you don't need the hero.
Then it went on to a moral dilemma, where the super-villain and the super-hero have to team up to fight a bigger threat. Does the hero join forces with evil? Even for a 'noble' purpose? Or does he stick to his principles and fight alone? But that can wait for another time.
Name me just one character who isn't. Go on, ah'll wait.
Wait...you found it enjoyable? They do exsist! And I thought I was the only one
Regarding the need for an official Discord toy, here you go.