My Review of MLP: FIM season 7 episode 12 Discordant Harmony · 12:10am April 29th
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)
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with another MLP episode review for tonight. This evening, I will be reviewing the twelfth episode of season 7 entitled “Discordant Harmony”. This is one of the best episodes of this entire season, and what makes this even better is that Discord has a whole episode to himself aside from Fluttershy. And guess what? He’s written as a decent person! It’s about time he didn’t cause any problems for other people or acts like a dick for plot reasons.
In this episode, we initially see Fluttershy and Discord having a tea party at her house which they all thoroughly enjoyed. Discord then suggests he hosts a tea party at his house, making Fluttershy very excited because she’s never been to his house before.
Eager to make it perfect for his best friend, he goes to every market that sells tea to find the best kind of each one—the chaotic type that can sing and dance. The ponies he encounters question his friendship with her as they see how different he is from her. This, of course, annoys Discord because their friendship means a lot more to him than they realize.
But as we see later on, their words will take root in his heart. It kinda hurt his feelings to see other people being judgmental about their friendship.
After getting everything he needs, he returns to his house in the chaos dimension and is horrified at seeing his own dwelling place in its natural chaotic state. Fearing it would displease Fluttershy, he takes away every thing chaotic—basically stripping himself of his own personality and acts “normal”.
Folks, words cannot express how much I love Discord’s character development in this episode! The Fox brothers did a fantastic job giving him so much depth of character and showing us Discord’s more vulnerable side—or rather his softer side. We can see how much he cares about Fluttershy, and in this storyline, he gets too carried away by his high opinion of her.
By stripping away everything that reflects on his own chaotic personality, he becomes less like himself and more like everyone else. He gets too normal which ultimately nearly killed him. Not only does that reveal an interesting aspect of his character but also makes this episode a little dark.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time in the series where a character has a terrifying near-death experience. This is a kids show, yet it went an extra mile in introducing a fate like this. Fortunately, it’s not outright scary because it’s presented in a way that won’t give children nightmares.
This shows how much the Fox brothers respect the intelligence of their audience and care about the story they’re writing about. Props to them for their wise use of good storytelling.
Fluttershy realizes how different he sounds; she was excited to see the absolute chaos that embodies his home but was disappointed that he redecorated it to become normal. That shows how much she appreciates him being himself.
And notice, Fluttershy never tells him how the tea party at his home should be like. She’s not like a toxic friend who makes everything about himself/herself. She knows how different he is from her which is precisely why she likes him so much.
This, right here, is the object lesson we should learn: what makes friendship so noteworthy is not really how much more two people have in common. I mean, that’s good and all, but the differences between them both makes it much more unique, in my opinion.
Friends may like each other for how similar they are in some ways, but they should also admire how different they are from each other: different hobbies, likes, dislikes, goals, interests, and so forth. That makes it more interesting because we don’t share the same opinions we have. We respect each other, and we learn more from each other. That’s makes this friendship experience more worthwhile and enjoyable.
So I love how Fluttershy had to bring Discord back to being himself by thinking and doing chaotic stuff. Regardless of how weird Discord may be to others, it won’t stop Fluttershy from being close friends with him. So at the end of the day, friendship still wins.
Man, what an amazing episode! Discord is doing something that doesn’t make him the source of the conflict for other ponies, doesn’t act like a prick, doesn’t behave like a man child, and doesn’t make himself look like a victim after doing something terrible. Oh, that’s right, he’s written by people who actually respect the character and the material they’ve been given.
Hmmm, that makes a huge difference, doesn’t it? With that said, it gets a solid A. Perfect episode. One of the best episodes of this season. I will not hear otherwise.
Peace.
Man, it sucks how he gets character assassinated in a lot of episodes, but this one, which I've yet to see, actually writes him as he should be given he is a reformed former antagonist.
It’s an amazing episode indeed. And truly one of the best to feature Discord.