My Review/Rant of MLP: FIM season 8 episode 14 A Matter of Principals · 7:41pm Oct 7th, 2023
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
Warning: This contains insults and name-calling for Discord. For you Discord fanatics, read at your own risk. Wait, why am I writing this warning? Never mind, be offended for all I care!
Greetings, everyone. This is Mr. J back with another MLP episode review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing the fourteenth episode of season eight entitled “A Matter of Principals”. Oh boy, this is quite lovely for this season to stoop this low once again. It has an excellent expertise in the art of character assassination and regression. And as an icing on the cake, this episode was written by one of the worst writers of this show: Nicole Dubuc. Honestly, any episode she writes is 99% bound to be terrible in every aspect possible.
Honestly, I don’t want to spend too much time in this because this was so bad to sit through. Let’s get this over with…
The episode begins with Twilight and Spike introducing six magical artifacts based on each respective species’ culture in preparation of the scavenger hunt they have to play. Then suddenly, the Map calls Twilight and her friends to an off-sight location which will prevent them from teaching in the school for some time.
Thus, Twilight makes preparation for the seemingly real trip and puts Starlight in charge of the school in her absence with Spike by her side. As the Mane Six left, Starlight and Spike wave goodbye…while Discord stands by out of nowhere.
Now this is where things get horribly ugly: Dickhead Draconequus then goes ahead and claims to be in charge of the school while Twilight is gone. But Spike corrects him and says that Starlight is in charge. This puts Discord in a sour mood and schemes to mess things up in the school.
So throughout this whole episode, Dipshit Chaos sabotages Starlight’s schedule by hiring the wrong people (and a tree) to be substitute teachers to teach the wrong things about friendship, interrupting classes, and deliberately putting the students in danger…just to make Starlight look bad. And…he had the audacity to accuse her of being incompetent and power-hungry?
Discord Fuckwit, what in Nova Prime’s name are you doing?! He was nothing more than childish, selfish, and disrespectful to Starlight all because Twilight decided to choose her over him and he wasn’t invited to the activities of the school?? And Nicole had to excuse her horrendous writing with, “Nah, Discord was just lonely. He just needed to politely ask, so he’s fine!” And guess what? With no surprise, he gets zero consequences for his actions (no, being physically banished from the school doesn’t count because he still tormented the school in ghost form).
Did he ever look at himself in a mirror? Incompetent and power-hungry? This is coming from the guy who got tricked by Tirek after the latter drained all magic from Equestria and the same guy who eagerly wanted to become head draconequus of the School of Friendship so he could do his own thing.
And remember, in the final season, he initially volunteered to become ruler of Equestria and was betrayed by the Treacherous Trio when he pretended to be Grogar. So, hypocritical jackass, who’s incompetent and power-hungry again?
Starlight should not have apologized to him at all…actually, she had nothing to apologize for. See, I hate it when characters who are clearly in the wrong get a slap on the wrist and are seen as in the right whereas other characters who call them out on their stupidity get depicted as wrong in the actual episode. It is this type of trash writing I hate the most.
It felt like Starlight was rewarding him for bad behavior; don’t ever give candy to a child when he throws a tantrum. That’s bad parenting.
Discord, I don’t know who raised you, but has anyone ever taught you actual manners? He wasn’t an adult in this story; he was an obnoxious man-child who hated the fact that he didn’t get his way. Isn’t he supposed to be reformed? Because he surely was acting like a villain towards Starlight. And DO NOT defend him by saying “He’s a creature of chaos! He can’t help it!”
That is still no excuse for his toxic behavior. This is all the more reason why he should’ve never reformed in the first place; he keeps making treacherous atrocities that could’ve harmed an innocent pony or creature, and all he ever gets are scoldings and nothing more. They keep enabling him to do more harm than good, and they refuse to acknowledge they’ve done wrong in not punishing him.
And this gets even worse at the very end! Twilight and her friends return back to the school all messed up after they realize that the mission the Map called them for was fake. So…you mean to tell me that he had zero regard or worry for Fluttershy and wasn’t concerned at all whether or not she might get hurt out there. Wow, Dipcord….you’re an asshole. A gigantic one at that.
This episode sucks from the atrocious writing and character assassination. Nicole Dubuc, you should stick to writing scripts for Transformers shows because you’re far better in that field than here. This definitely gets a solid F. This will forever be regarded as one of the worst episodes of season eight and be scorned for the way it treated its characters. John de Lancie deserved better than this.
Peace out, folks.
The fact that the Tree has no defense against Discord tampering with the Map is concerning.
At this point, I’m thinking of classifying the majority of Seasons 8 & 9 as part of either a chaos television production in Discord’s dimension or something else. Because you’re right, Nicole Dubuc clearly didn’t have much of an understanding for G4 “My Little Pony” or its characters. As co-head writer and story editor, she took things in a direction that was openly questionable among others, and she certainly didn’t care about maintaining continuity very much.
Ironically, the things you just said about Discord…are exactly how I feel about a certain MLP G5 character, whom I still wish had been killed off or got some form of punishment. And whom I think got off the hook way too easily.
That being said, though, I disagree about Discord not being upgraded to reform status. It’s mainly because I find it too hard to wanna see him as a villain forever. Also, I think he’s definitely the most complex and three-dimensional of G4’s reformed characters, because his struggles are ones I can’t help but personally relate with, and the fact that they’re constant makes him realistic as one too.
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That’s because he’s only been a villain for one season premiere and a “reformed” secondary character for the rest of the show. If it was the other way around, you wouldn’t be saying that.
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Of course. Then again, I think I was initially among the people hesitant towards the idea of him being reformed, but when I saw “Keep Calm and Flutter On”…I felt impressed by how well it worked out. At least, in my opinion.
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Any thoughts on this despicable episode?
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I’m pretty neutral towards it, although it’s not one of my favorite episodes either. I think one of the only positives I noted was that, by sending the Main Six off on a wild goose chase, it proved that Discord had no romantic attraction for Fluttershy and FlutterCord won’t ever be canon.
Also, I thought the part where Trixie talks in the banana phone was funny.
So...I never watched/caught up on Seasons 8 & 9...and these reviews are making me consider keeping it that way.
Ugh! This episode pisses me off. and the fact that I consider episode like Yakity Sax and Non-Compete Clause to be worse than this episode shocks me off.
You know this episode is a steaming pile of Spike's Turd when both Starlight's detractors and fans can actually agree on something for once.
Yes, apparently Discord is the victim for not getting what he wanted (despite that it hasn't been shown that Discord is qualified for an education and given who he is. The last place he would fit into is a f*cking school.
But it also makes him beyond stupid. Like, did he expect The Mane 6 would be gone forever. Starlight is only Vice at the moment and is just trying to do her job. Also, great way at making the map of friendship even more confusing now.
This is why Nicole Duboc is one of the worst writers on the show (alongside Scott Sonneborn and Josh Hamilton). She gets backwards continuity all the while derailing every character in the process.
It should be renamed "Gaslighting: The Episode"