"But Keep Discord" Initial Thoughts · 7:25pm May 18th, 2015
Where did her tail go? Yes EE, I remember your theory. I'm crowdsourcing.
tl;dr this gets maybe a 2/10 from me. After a lengthy mano-a-mano analysis with Jaxie, we reached two conclusions: A) that the intended interpretation was a Discord/Fluttershy/Tree Hugger love triangle shipfic, aimed at our demographic. Platonic interpretations of the episode work well enough for the target demographic, but don't hold up well to fridge logic. And B) under the working premise that this was a wink-wink-nudge-nudge shipping episode, it was not handled particularly well. As an author of shipfics that were not handled particularly well, I consider myself something of an expert on the subject. 
I'll probably work on a more detailed post later tonight or tomorrow, akin to my Bloom and Gloom post, defending those two points in more detail.
I'll preemptively tack on a State of the Author here, before people rightfully start heckling me for status updates. Despite a battlecry to dive back into writing, my RL scenario has still been less-than-condusive, and as a few of you can attest, I've been battling against an acute case of EverythingIWriteIsShit-itis. That said, I've been working on a few 20k fic ideas that have slowly been gaining some traction in my Gdoc folder—one's a [Comedy][Crossover] with a particular MMO, the other's a Twilestia [Rom][Com]. Also, with invaluable assistance from Ferret, we've been working our way through posting up our collab Pathfinder pony session novelization, The Quest for Celestia's Raiment (spoiler: Ferret's kicking my butt in the editing department 
). I'd really also like to dust off MLCT again (dat cliffhanger... or rather cliffcutter) yet at the same time, I really don't want to overcommit myself, so... I'm playing things by ear for now. Soon, though. By all means though, continue to harass me! I'm back in the phase where butt-kicking and masochism are productive tools. 
I didn't know you could get diagnosed with that. I guess I've been afflicted for a year or so at least.
I'm going to assume that you were making a joke and that you didn't actually make the assumption that this was meant to be shipping.
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Me and Jax debated for about an hour, certain that I was just being a pervert as always. But no matter how much I tried playing Devil's Advocate, we couldn't reach a satisfying platonic explanation of the episode. Essentially, the episode tried to be a "clean" story for the kids, but with lots of jokes for the adults in the audience. But in attempting to do both, it didn't succeed well in either.
I wish I was joking.
Not trying to be overly cryptic here, but I'm gonna need a full blogpost to back that position up, so I'm trying to not get ahead of myself until tonight ^^;
I get the feeling you guys need to expand your debate club to beyond two people.
So you don't like it because it was shipping?
Not sure if being trolled.
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That's why I'm writing a blogpost about it D: So I can tell people on the internet why I'm right and they're wrong.
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Uh, hello? Goatee? I'm clearly the evil doppelganger.
I can see where you're coming from with interpreting it as shipping...
But I think you're overlooking one major thing. Discord is brand new to friendship. His understanding of it is also severely limited.
If you interpret his behavior as the reactions of someone with Autism or Aspergers reacting to a friend who lacks the condition announcing another friend - especially when it's someone said hindered friend has never met - I find the behavior all too logical and understandable, having actually been in that situation myself. I got nearly as jealous and upset the first time a friend I had didn't have time for me because of a new friend, no romance involved.
This is even more so the case with Discord, where Fluttershy is literally the only one who accepts him for who he is and tries to understand him, rather than trying to make him fit into a mold.
...to be blunt, these reasons actually made the parts where Discord was trying to prove himself a 'better friend' than Treehugger at the Gala painful to watch.
So taking that approach, no shipping is actually witnessed. If anything, I saw Dislestia shipping, considering the huge, adorable grin on Celestia's face in the background when Discord showed up with the Smooze, and her being so happy about inviting him because of the chaos caused.
Psst, hey guys! I think Pav was making a parodic review based on the backlash to Tanks for the Memories. <.<