SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "What About Discord?" · 6:17am Nov 9th, 2015
Just so you know, there are SPOILERS here for “What About Discord?” Probably doesn’t matter that much since it’s a day late. My last review of a Discord episode was also late. Isn't it ironic?
Now, without further ado, here is my review of “What About Discord?”
Twilight Sparkle spends a long weekend organizing the books in her castle library as part of her “booksortcation.” When she comes out after three days, she discovers to her shock that her friends have been having quite the time with Discord of all creatures. They even have their own inside jokes that Twilight is not privy to. After trying her darndest to understand what has been going on between her friends and Discord, she comes to the conclusion that Discord must have her friends under a spell. Will Twilight realize the truth behind why she is so concerned about her friends and Discord?
So, what’s the verdict?
What about Discord?
Yes, what about Discord?
Well, Discord is always fun to have around! This was a significant improvement compared to “Scare Master” last week. Then again, it doesn’t take much to be better than “Scare Master”, but a significant improvement no less.
So yeah, I liked it!
We begin as mentioned previously with Twilight setting out to organize the books in her castle’s library as a part of a “booksortcation.” It’s like a “staycation”, except you get to sort books. Oh joy. Still, I wish I could spend three straight days being productive. I tend to get lazy and kind of distracted. Wait, what was I doing? Oh right. This is a review. So, Twilight and Spike finally leave the castle after three days where they happen to run into Rainbow Dash and Discord. That’s a rather odd pairing, which Twilight notices. Rainbow and Discord seem a lot more chummy than usual. Turns out, they’ve had quite a bit of fun together over the past three days.
You could say it was “hiss-terical”!
That’s their inside joke now. You had to be there for it.
Twilight thinks is quite odd. Since when do Rainbow and Discord have inside jokes. Since the last three days apparently. But it just gets odder from there. Soon enough, Twilight runs into Discord with some more of her friends. She stops by the Rarity’s boutique to pick up some vintage books Rarity wanted to donate to her library, and who just happens to show up but Discord and Fluttershy. Fluttershy asks Twilight if her booksortcation went well, and when she answers in the affirmative, Fluttershy adds “Orange you glad you did it?” Orange! Rarity and Discord laugh at this uproariously. It’s another one of their inside jokes. Twilight of course doesn’t get it. She is standing outside of the inside joke. Rarity tries to explain, and Discord tries to paint a picture for her… literally. 
Yes, that is Discord impersonating Bob Ross. Though if I could be honest, I knew little of Bob Ross and his happy little trees until his Epic Rap Battle in History with Pablo Picasso.
Anywho, Fluttershy admits they would have invited her to hang out, but they didn’t want to interrupt her book organizing. Discord assures her that it must have been more important than all the fun they had, being rather sinister about it. That’s kind of odd. Twilight goes off with Spike imagining that her friends must have had quite a fun weekend with Discord. Spike wonders if Twilight regrets having missed out on it. Twilight says no, but you can tell she does. She then hears Applejack and Pinkie Pie laughing it up at Sugarcube Corner. Once again, Discord is there, reminiscing over what he calls “the best weekend ever!” He’s regaling them about something Applejack said concerning “peanut butter hooves.”
Yeah, Discord is on fire with his various shapeshifting impersonations.
Twilight still doesn’t get it, of course, even when Discord demonstrates by dancing around with two jars of peanut butter on his feet. Discord notes that Twilight seems glum over having missed out, but she insists that she’s glad had all this fun and have all these inside jokes with Discord. Such things can create lasting bonds between friends. Discord’s kind of sorry all this bonding took place while Twilight was holed up in her castle, but he’s sure she had just as much fun as they all did.
Twilight can’t believe she missed out on all the bonding, and Spike points out that Twilight is jealous. Twilight insists she isn’t because the Princess of Friendship can’t be jealous. She claims she’s sorry because these experiences could have helped her with her duties as Princess of Friendship. Twilight figures the fun her friends had with Discord must have had to do with the specific things they did with Discord, and so, she decides to research all that they did. Twilight then meets with her friends and Discord to go over in detail everything they did. This proves more difficult than imagined because everyone disagrees over the precise details. Once she realizes this is no use, Twilight decides to take a different approach. She’s going to have to somehow actually be there. Pinkie takes this to me she’s planning something involving time travel! 
This time, it’s Pinkie’s turn to play dress up for humorous purposes. She is actually dressed like Marty McFly from Back to the Future. If they had scheduled this better and aired this episode the same week as October 21, 2015, that would have been so awesome. Regardless, it remains the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future. Still, it could have been so much more awesome.
Anyway, that’s not what Twilight meant. Time travel is something that should never be messed with.
Wait a minute!
Is that what I think it is? Is that Starlight Glimmer? Watching them when they just so happen to be discussing time travel.
… Interesting.
What Twilight really meant was that she wants them to recreate everything they did with Discord to get a sense of the fun they had. They start by recreating the lunch that started the whole weekend off. With Discord being particularly helpful in this endeavor, they recreate everything down to the precise, minute detail, just like Twilight said. 
Yep. Exactly like Twilight said.
Despite all this, Twilight still finds she doesn’t get why these jokes are funny. Discord points out that there is one detail they haven’t accounted for: Twilight herself. He points out that they can never exactly recreate what happened with Twilight present because she wasn’t there. All their friends agree that Discord has a valid point.
Twilight though is not buying it, and her thoughts quickly turn to the sinister. Oh boy, Twilight is going crazy again. How delightful! Twilight thinks Discord has her friends under some kind of spell that causes them to only think they had a great time over the weekend. Twilight turns to Zecora for help on this matter. 
Hey, it’s Zecora! I think this is the first time we’ve seen her doing stuff like all season. The writers must hate writing all her dialogue it being all in rhymes and all. Anyway, Zecora questions Twilight’s theory that Discord has her friends under a spell. Still, she provides Twilight with a potion that should break the spell. She also admits that the glowing cauldron in the middle of her hut is mostly just for show.
The next morning, Twilight has invited all her friends to her castle. They wonder what they’re doing there. Perhaps they are there for a map adventure, but Pinkie checks and is unable to find any glowing tushies. Wait, “tushies.” That’s kind of a risque way of putting it. Twilight arrives and announces that they are all there for a day of fun! But before they can do that, they all have to drink from this potion to break the spell Discord has them under. Twilight is quite direct about all this. Twilight doesn’t blame them for coming under his spell because they didn’t know that they fell. Wait, Discord isn’t a siren. Anyway, her friends assure her that this is not the case. Fluttershy in particular is aghast because what Twilight is accusing Discord of is downright evil! Speaking of the devil, that’s when Discord himself shows up. 
Is that the Smooze in a jar around his neck?
Moving on, Discord is here because he heard Twilight had got the gang all together to hang out today. When he does his dance with the peanut butter jars on his feet, everyone but Twilight still laughs. There goes Twilight’s spell theory. Twilight still doesn’t get it. She doesn’t think it’s funny! Well, she wasn’t there. That’s the problem. It may have been her fault she stayed in all weekend for her booksortcation, and now she missed out on all these fun moments and inside jokes. She feels bad about missing out on all that, even tearing up a little! It’s “Amending Fences” all over again! Spike suggests again that Twilight is feeling jealous, but she insists again that as the Princess of Friendship, she can’t be jealous. Applejack points out that she can be jealous; no one will fault her for that. Twilight admits that she knows her friends are allowed to do things without her, and she is told she can feel jealous about it. She just has to admit it. That’s a lesson I can stand behind!
That’s when Discord reveals that Twilight wouldn’t have realized all that if he hadn’t insisted on not inviting her. Everypony is a little taken aback by this revelation, and Applejack even asks if Discord did so with the intention of making Twilight feel left out. Discord insists that was not his intention; it was merely a fortunate accident. He sincerely did not want to interrupt her while she was sorting books. Discord argues that they can all agree that Twilight learned a valuable friendship lesson about that she can feel jealousy and recognizing said feeling rather than pretending it’s something else. While he did find it amusing when Twilight tried to recreate their weekend, it was never his intention to make Twilight feel jealous. That is something the old-school, villainous Discord would do. Orange you glad he changed? Crickets. Turns out, Discord has worn out all his inside jokes with Twilight’s friends. They start making jokes about the prior incident with Twilight thinking they were under a spell and making them drink a potion. Now, Discord doesn’t get why all this is funny and is feeling left out. Like Spike says in the end, he just had to be there.
Discord has now cemented his role in his post-reformation appearances as the shape-shifting, reference-making jokester. But here, he adds something to this role. This episode sees Discord playing a part in making this episode’s moral possible. I recall that there was children’s show with a character that would teach the other characters valuable lessons in a way that seemed kind of mean. Just like what Discord did here. (For the life of me, I can’t remember what that show was.)
It’s very interesting that the moral Discord helps deliver here has to do with jealousy. As you may recall, Discord’s last outing this season “Make New Friends But Keep Discord” featured Discord himself learning a lesson about being jealous of your friends. It almost seems like he’s paying it forward to Twilight when it comes to lessons about jealousy. Come to think of it, I think it was this episode John De Lancie was talking about in that interview he did with ILoveKimPossibleALot because he mentioned his last episode having a lesson in jealousy.
Speaking of “Make New Friends But Keep Discord,” this episode also has in common with that one is how sinister Discord can seem despite his reformation. Discord can approach the most banal of things with such an air of deviousness. He has a number of moments in his encounters with Twilight where he seems suggesting something sinister is really at work here. Or perhaps it just seemed sinister to Twilight. It almost seems odd that Twilight would suspect Discord remains capable of doing something as evil as putting her friends under a spell. Then again though, the last season finale saw Discord briefly going back to villainy alongside Tirek. Plus, the last time he had an episode with Twilight, he was ruining her day with Cadance in an effort to see if Twilight was really his friend. Perhaps Twilight still has her doubts about Discord, but she does have some reason to.
As for what is wrong with this episode… I got nothing. Orange you glad I got nothing?! You know, orange like all over this episode… Never mind. But once again, we have a pretty solid episode. It’s great way to bring the season to a close as we move closer and closer to the finale later this month.
Overall, “What About Discord?” was a wonderful little romp with a lot of Discord. You can never have too much Discord I always say.
What did you all think of “What About Discord?”
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
Huh. It appears this is one of those rare occasions where I have a less positive experience with an episode than you. Eh, that might be a bit of an understatement. As I explain further in my own review, I wasn't that crazy about this episode. It's actually my least favorite episode of Season 5 as of now.
But I'm glad that others, such as yourself and DrWolf, were able to enjoy the episode.
On a final note, I can't believe I missed Starlight Glimmer when I first saw this. If there's anything this episode gave me, it's more excitement for Starlight's return in the finale.
3531870 It is certainly an understatement.