SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Make New Friends But Keep Discord"

Just so you know, there are spoilers here for "Make New Friends But Keep Discord". Probably doesn't matter that much since is a few days late.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my review of "Make New Friends But Keep Discord".

The Grand Galloping Gala has once more reared its ugly head. But you know who else has reared its ugly head. Discord! Yes, Discord was hoping to attend the Gala as his dear friend Fluttershy’s plus one. However, Fluttershy has already promised to take her new friend Tree Hugger to the Gala with her. Discord makes a show of not caring that he won’t be going to the Gala, but you can so totally tell he’s jealous. Fortuitously enough, Discord then gets his own ticket to the Gala and decides to bring another friend as his plus one to show Fluttershy that she isn’t his only friend either. That friend is the Smooze! Will Discord succeed in his mundane yet somehow still sinister plot to show up Fluttershy, and will the Smooze be stopped? Because no pony can stop the Smooze! You can’t stop it!

So what’s the verdict?

I admit this episode wasn’t quite what I expected it to be. But can you really expect anything when Discord is involved? In any case, I feel this episode was this season’s funniest episode so far.

So yeah, I liked it!

Oh, where to start with this? At the beginning of course! So, Discord and Fluttershy are having tea like they apparently do every Tuesday. (I think this was hinted at in “Twilight’s Kingdom”.) Fluttershy happens to mention that she’d like Discord to meet her new friend Tree Hugger. You see, Fluttershy met Tree Hugger while on an expedition watching Breezies because she’s a member of the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures. Wait a minute! Wasn’t that all mentioned in “Three’s A Crowd,” another episode with Discord in it?! Continuity! Anyway, Fluttershy brings up how much fun they’ll all be having at the Grand Galloping Gala, and Discord expects Fluttershy to take him as her plus one. However, Fluttershy has to burst Discord’s bubble when she admits she already invited Tree Hugger as her plus one because she assumed Discord had his own ticket. Discord leaves, though, barely hiding how upset he is about this. (He didn’t even stay to eat their Tuesday teacakes!) Discord then goes looking among his acquaintances for somepony else to take him to the Gala. He seeks out Twilight Sparkle by popping in on Spike while he’s in bed!


I feel for you Spike. I felt violated too.

Anywho, Twilight is in Canterlot helping Princess Celestia prepare for the Gala. So, she’s a no go. Discord then pays a visit to Carousel Boutique where Rarity is making Gala dresses for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Applejack says the Gala isn’t a life-changing experience, but she still tears up seeing Apple Bloom in her little Gala dress. Awwa. So much for crying on the inside. The CMC even cry out about how it’s going to be the Best Night Ever! Continuity!

But seriously, don’t get your hopes up.

Discord inquires as to their plus one status, but apparently the CMC will be attending as Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash’s plus ones. So, that’s a no go as well. Discord then pays a visit to Sugarcube Corner. Apparently, Pinkie Pie can still spot Discord even when he’s hiding in a mysterious box.

This is apparently a reference to a video game that I do not understand for I am not a player of video games.

Discord orders all the cakes at Sugarcube Corner and subtly brings up the subject of the Gala and who Pinkie is taking as her plus one. Pinkie says that she’s taking her sister Maud as her plus one. Wait a minute! MAUD!!! Maud is in this episode too! That was quite a pleasant surprise. Moving on, Discord cancels his cake order once he spots Fluttershy walking along with her new friend Tree Hugger. Discord pops off to meet Tree Hugger and does not take a liking to her. She’s pretty much your typical dirty hippie spouting New Age nonsense. Discord pops off back to his home, which seems to exist in some kind of nether realm of chaos with strange creatures fluttering about.

Wait a minute! Does Discord live in the Spirit World? My crack fan theory that MLP and the Avatar-verse exist in the same multiverse has been confirmed!

Discord mutters to himself about how upset he is Fluttershy chose Tree Hugger as her plus one over him while doing some chaotic household maintenance, like sweeping literal dust bunnies under his couch and un-washing his dishes in the sink. However, a rather intrepid postal pony floats by Discord’s house to deliver him a letter. (Why couldn’t it have been Derpy?! That would have been so awesome!) Turns out, Discord has been invited to the Gala! But he’s still going to need a plus one. He doesn’t want it to look like Fluttershy is his only friend.

So, the night of the Gala arrives, and Twilight is there next to Princess Celestia. Wait, this is like the first time we’ve seen Princess Celestia all season. Seven episodes in; that’s like a record or something. Anyway, Discord arrives at the Gala with his guest.

The Smooze!

Yes, the Smooze! In G1, it was an eldritch abomination that could not be stopped! Here though, it’s kind of a big, green blob that grow when it eats shiny things. It’s barely a Horrible Gelatinous Blob.

Where are its eyes?!

But, this is not the Smooze’s episode. This is Discord’s episode. Moving on, Twilight is concerned about Discord’s guest, and she asks him to keep it under control. Discord assures her has everything under control, and so he goes off to find Fluttershy. Fluttershy is laughing it up with Tree Hugger when Discord just happens to “bump” into her. He gets miffed when somehow Tree Hugger doesn’t remember meeting him before. Discord introduces Fluttershy to the Smooze and makes a show about how it is his bestest, oldest friend. (They apparently went to college together.) Discord gets annoyed further when Fluttershy’s reaction to meeting the Smooze is that they should all go out to dinner together some time.

Discord puts the Smooze out in the garden so it doesn’t get him into any trouble while he goes out and tries to prove how good friends he and Fluttershy are to Tree Hugger. They regale her with a story about how they went out to get a cake but came back with two. (That is literally the whole story.)

Just look at that face.

Rarity then bursts in from the garden all covered in Smooze ooze because it ate the gemstones off her dress. Discord’s solution is to vacuum the ooze and the dress off of Rarity, causing her to scuttle while covering herself.

But Rarity, you don’t normally wear clothes.

Anyway, Discord locks the Smooze away again so it doesn’t make a fool of him in front of Fluttershy. This time, it’s in a closet. A closet that just happens to be filled with gemstones and other shiny things.

On to the best part of the episode. Since Fluttershy thinks Tree Hugger is the funniest pony she’s ever known, Discord decides to regale the Gala with a little stand-up. As a stand-up enthusiast, I really enjoyed this part. Discord references Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, and Gallagher with little bits of Rodney Dangerfield and Jeff Foxworthy. He tells a joke about how though he has mismatched wings, he flies better than Twilight, and Celestia giggles! And then when Discord tries telling a knock-knock joke and no pony responds, he’s like “It’s the most basic of jokes!” and then Maud Pie, who has been absent for most of the Gala so far, is like “You’re the most basic of jokes.”

Oh my gosh! That killed me! Good one, Maud. Good one indeed.

Meanwhile, the Smooze whilst feasting on the shiny things on the shiny things closet has grown exponentially and bursts in a flood out of the closet as a scared colt looks on.

This is apparently a reference to the film The Shining, which is a movie I have never seen.

The Smooze inundates the Gala covering everything and everypony with its oozy self. Twilight and Celestia are unable to do anything because it’s resistant to their magic. Kind of like how the G1 Smooze was resistant to the Rainbow of Light. Tree Hugger says some New Age mumbo jumbo, and then proceeds to intonate at the Smooze. Well, whatever she did, it worked. The Smooze collects itself into one giant Smooze pile. Discord isn’t having any of this Tree Hugger saving the day. Discord is done with Tree Hugger. So she won’t interfere further with Discord and Fluttershy’s relationship, he takes Tree Hugger and threatens to throw her into another dimension. A dimension populated by a live-action sock puppet!

Fluttershy demands that Discord stop this. The Remane 5 are on the case, but Discord throws a disco ball their way, and they get caught up in the Smooze’s smooziness as it goes chasing after it. Fluttershy wants to know why Discord is doing this when they had been getting along just fine. Discord instead accuses Fluttershy of abandoning their friendship in favor of Tree Hugger by inviting her to the Gala instead of him. Fluttershy asserts that she did not abandon their friendship; she just invited another friend to the Gala. She asks him that if Discord had a friend he could discuss chaos-based magic with, would that mean they weren’t friends. Discord realizes that it just means he have friends for more than one thing.

I loved how assertive Fluttershy was here! She really has learned how to put her hoof down.

Discord learns the error of his ways. He stops the Smooze, pulling all the shiny things it ate out of it. So, Discord can stop the Smooze! Discord can stop it! He then apologizes to Tree Hugger for letting her get caught up in his wrath. He even apologizes to the Smooze for spending the night thinking about his own feelings over its feelings. So this time, the Gala actually turned out pretty well. Twilight also apologizes to Celestia for letting the Gala turn into a disaster. Celestia, however, rather exuberantly tells Twilight that this is the most fun Gala in years. In fact, this is exactly what she hoped would happen when she thought to invite Discord.

One of the things I liked most about this episode was how despite the problem being so mundane, Discord goes about it in such a sinister seeming way. He smiles villainously when he plots about who he should bring as his plus one. And then at the end, he was going to throw Tree Hugger into another dimension so she wouldn’t interfere with Discord’s friendship with Fluttershy. Even though Discord is reformed, he still seems to have a bit of villainous streak, even if it’s over such everyday things.

Even though she had a total of three lines, I think Maud Pie really stole the show during her moments. Seeing her here was quite a pleasant surprise and completely unexpected. She had a bit of minor role here, but I understand she is still slated to appear in a Hearth’s Warming episode this season. I look forward to seeing her again so soon.

As for Tree Hugger, I admit I didn’t quite care for her. Mostly because I’m technically a Republican, and she’s a dirty hippy and I don’t truck with that New Age mumbo jumbo. I sense as I suspected that many are already chomping at the bit so ship her with Fluttershy. Fluttershy has always wanted to be a tree, and her name is Tree Hugger.

Still though, she reminds me a bit of that commune of hippies Rarity encountered in the Rarity micro-series comic. (They’ve made further cameo appearances since then.) Perhaps this is what was meant when the powers that be behind MLP mentioned at their SDCC panel that the show might be influenced by elements from the comics. We also see Celestia letting her hair down so to speak in the comics. Perhaps that also explains Celestia’s exuberance at the end of this episode.

The only real thing I can say I didn’t quite like was what they did with the Smooze here. When it came to Tirek, he took quite a level in badflank compared to G1’s Tirac. This Smooze, compared to G1 Smooze, has been quite defanged. It doesn’t even have eyes! I think there was a lot of potential had they did a relatively straight adaptation of the Smooze. But this wasn’t meant to be an episode about the Smooze. This is an episode about Discord. So that can be forgiven.

Here’s a question. Where was Princess Luna?

I imagine some may ask why Discord is upset Fluttershy has another friend when he already knows he has five other friends, whose friendship is so strong it was able to defeat him in his first outing. The way I see it, Discord feels his friendship with Fluttershy is special, more special than that she has with her friends. She is the only of the Mane 6 who seems to genuinely likes Discord. I figure he’s concerned that since Fluttershy invited Tree Hugger, their friendship may special enough to rival that he has with Fluttershy. He’d freak out just as much if Fluttershy were going with another of the Mane 6. At least I think so. Does Discord really need a rhyme or reason for anything he does?

The absolute best thing about this episode though is how they never said that this was the Gala that followed the Gala from "Best Night Ever". That would have really screwed up the episode chronology I came up with a few weeks ago. In fact, Celestia says it's been years since she had this much fun at the Gala. I imagine the last time was in "Best Night Ever", meaning I was right about these two Galas being years apart. Seems my chronology is good so far.

Overall, “Make New Friends But Keep Discord” was a really fun episode. There’s always loads of fun when Discord’s around! You got to love an episode with both Discord and Maud Pie in it!

What did you all think of “Make New Friends But Keep Discord”?

God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.

Comments

[Doctor Perseus]

Since you've already read my review, you already know that I loved this episode. It's an episode that's definitely worth several revisits. Heck, I'm a big fan of Stephen King and I didn't even notice the reference to The Shining until my second viewing of the episode. There's so much happening in the foreground and background that I'm sure there are still subtle references here and there. Like how Discord's outfit for the Gala is apparently a reference to Dumb and Dumber (a movie I have yet to see).

I'm also glad that I'm not the only one who wasn't all that impressed by Tree Hugger. As I said in my review, she felt like a character who was just "there" and was pretty one-note throughout the episode aside from that one cool moment with her calming the Smooze down.

I personally liked what they did with the Smooze. Though I'll admit that seeing a villainous Smooze would be interesting. Who knows? Maybe there's more of them out there somewhere.

Wait a minute! Does Discord live in the Spirit World? My crack fan theory that MLP and the Avatar-verse exist in the same multiverse has been confirmed!

Now that I think about it, Discord's realm does look like it could fit in some sort of bizarre area of the Spirit World. I wonder if Uncle Iroh ever stops by for tea. There needs to be fan art of Discord and Fluttershy having tea with Uncle Iroh in the Spirit World. Now.

I'm also glad that this episode didn't break the episode chronology you made. That's the only thing helping me with the nitpick I have with Tanks for the Memories.

It looks like we're going to get another break from MLP after next week's episode because I looked and saw that MLP's 100th episode (which is the episode that follows The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone) isn't going to air until June 13. That's three weeks without ponies! But, hey, we waited eleven months for Season 5 (excluding the treat that was Rainbow Rocks) so three weeks won't be too bad.