What About Discord's Ulterior Motives? Also, Will the CMC Play a Large Role in the Finale? And Would Not Having a Happy Ending Really Be All That Bad?

Spoiler Alert: I'm going to be talking about episode 22 of season 5 of MLP:FIM, and speculating about the finale. If you are not caught up to the 22nd episode, then catch up before reading this. If you are caught up, read on. Or don't. I don't control you. You have free will. Hopefully.

I'm not going to really go into detail about all of my thoughts on this episode (Spoiler Alert: I do), but I've noticed a few people disliking the fact that Discord did that whole thing to make Twilight jealous. And I get it, it doesn't seem like the logical progression for his character, especially with the lesson he learned in Make New Friends But Keep Discord. However, I think that the reason he did what he did was not to mess with Twilight just for the sake of messing with her. I think that he did it because he felt like he was being left out. Before this episode, Fluttershy was the only one that actually spent any time with him, and I think that he probably felt ignored a bit. The only time they really acknowledge him is when he goes to them. So, he decide to make Twilight feel what he was feeling. ("I'm sure [your book sorting] was much more important than the fun we had." Yeah, he sounds a bit bitter) Is this the best way to communicate to your friends that you're feeling left out? No, it isn't. Was he being a bit of a passive-aggressive douche? Yes, he was. But we already knew that. Did he take it a bit far? Mostly it was Twilight that did that, but he was to blame a little (But come on; It's Discord). I think that his motivation was similar to what he said it was in Three's a Crowd. Except it was genuine this time. Why did he pick Twilight? She's the logical one to pick for this sort of thing. Other than Pinkie Pie, Twilight is the one most likely to overreact to this sort of thing (although Pinkie probably would have found the jokes funny even without context). She's also the Princess of Friendship, and the leader of the Mane Six, and the main protagonist. Also, even though she's the Princess of Friendship, she's still kind of introverted, so she would be the least likely to seek out Discord to spend time with him without being prompted to. I think that another lesson they could have gone with here is not to ignore your friends. Actually, there are a lot of lessons to be learned. That's something good about season five: while there usually is a main lesson, there are also other, secondary lessons. They were probably in there in all of the seasons, but them telling you the main lesson made it so you didn't have to come up with your own answer for what they were trying to teach, which made it less likely to see the secondary lessons. At least, that's what I think. Maybe I'm wrong. Who knows. Another flaw in the episode could be how quickly Twilight jumped to the conclusion that Discord was up to something, but she wasn't entirely wrong. It seems like something he might do just to mess with her. Also, she jumps to that conclusion because she was trying to think too logically. It didn't seem funny, but they were laughing, so there must be something else to it. However, just because something may seem funny for you doesn't mean it's funny for someone else, and vice versa. She does sort of get it when she says that it might just be her, and that she would see how her friends found it funny. However, that wouldn't necessarily be the case. It's like in Princess Spike where Spike says that he knows Twilight so well that it's easy to make decisions like her.
You know, while I'm at it, I'm going to talk a bit about some other things in the episode. One, how would making someone think they're having fun in a non-fun situation be evil? If anything, it'd be a good thing (although, it would be best to ask permission first). Seriously! If I had to choose between sitting through an incredibly boring situation and being bored by it, or sitting through an incredibly boring situation and enjoying it, I'd choose the latter. Also, what was with the whole "The Princess of Friendship can't get jealous" thing? I call B.S.. What happened to the whole "I don't think I'm better than anyone else!" from season four? It was touched upon in the premier, and a little bit in Three's a Crowd. Both, I should mention, have Discord with an important role. And, in both, Discord mentions her thinking she's better than anyone else. She denies it, but seems to go back on that in this episode. It would have been more believable if she had just said that she shouldn't be jealous, instead of that she can't be. Also, it's pretty good to see (most of) the Mane Six actually getting along with Discord. Although, there was a severe lack of chaos involved. A bit of chaos is fine, as long as it's not disrupting the harmony. Chaos and harmony, working together in harmony. Hmm. Also, I really want to see Pinkie, Rainbow, and Discord pulling pranks together. Equestria would be doomed. Or maybe they would have an all-out pranking war. My money would be on either Discord or Pinkie. Probably Pinkie. You cannot hope to defeat Pie in a prank-off. She is simply the best there is. Also, the second time Discord referenced Bob Ross, was that fan art? Because that would have been kind of awesome. People would probably get upset that they weren't picked if it wasn't theirs, though. They could have a raffle or something, though. It probably wasn't fan art, but it seemed to be at least referencing fan art, because that looked like it was fan art. So, shout out to the brony community from the show. Also, when Discord made his own throne in the throne room, I noticed it had his face on it. Since the symbol on the throne for the ponies is their cutie marks, it would have been cool if they had made the symbol on his throne a tornado, like it was when Discord disguised himself as a pony in Twilight's Kingdom. It seems to fit him. A powerful and unpredictable force of nature (although, I'm pretty sure tornadoes can be predicted using meteorology, but who cares). Another thing: if Discord wanted to, he could have shown Twilight exactly what happened, like he did in the season two premiere. It would have been like she was there, but she wouldn't be influencing the events at all. Of course, he didn't actually want to. I just thought it was worth mentioning. It would have been interesting if Twilight had brought it up, though. Also, apparently Starlight Glimmer's in the background again, spying on Twilight. When if first happened in Amending Fences, I wondered if it was just an animator that threw her in by accident, or just to mess with us. It looked like her, but it might not have been. I didn't really believe it wasn't her, but it was a possibility. Now, however, she's back, and unless it's that same animator messing with us, it was on purpose. I think this is great, because it's basically telling us outright that she's going to be in the finale. But I wonder what she's doing spying on Twilight. Perhaps trying to study her strengths and weaknesses. Smartest villain we've had, I guess.

I'm really hoping the CMC play a part in the finale. Think about it: Starlight Glimmer's special talent seems to be taking away other ponies' Cutie Marks. From what the show is telling us, that is a bad thing to do. What would it mean if a pony's special talent is inherently bad? Can they not be redeemed? Because doing so would go against their special talent. This makes me think that Starlight Glimmer's cutie mark has some other meaning; one that relates to her cutie mark-removing spell, but is not just that. Besides, having your special talent be a single spell would be kind of lame. Although, one could argue that her special talent is not only removing other's cutie marks, but also to convince them that that is the right thing to do. How else would she manage to convince the entire population of that town to allow their cutie marks to be taken. But that still leaves the question: if one's special talent is evil, can they be redeemed? And if they can be, what would happen? With all these questions about Starlight's cutie mark, I think that the CMC will play a large part in the finale, trying to figure out what Starlight's special talent really is. Or, it could just be that Starlight is redeemed (or imprisoned; who knows?) in the finale and they try to figure out her cutie mark in the next season. But I for one am hoping that the CMC will play a large part in the finale. Maybe they will be the main protagonists of the finale, or maybe they'll share the spotlight with the Mane Six (I don't think there's ever been an episode focusing on both the CMC and the Mane Six; that'd be interesting). Or maybe they won't play any part in it at all. Who knows? Also, it would be kind of hilarious if Starlight took away the CMC's cutie marks in the finale. They'd get them back eventually if that happens, though. There's always a happy ending.

You know, I think it would be interesting if an episode didn't have a happy ending. I can't remember off the top of my head if that's happened before, but it would be cool to see them showing that not everything in your life is going to turn out okay right away. It'd show that it's okay to fail, to make mistakes, as long as you don't let that keep you down, and learn from it next time. For example, it would have been interesting if, in Hearthbreakers, the Apples and the Pies didn't end up having the happy ending they did? What if, instead, it happened like Granny Smith said it would, where they would be friends eventually, but for right then they needed to give them space. Sometimes, when you're mad at a friend, the best thing to do is to just take some time to calm down and think about what happened, and how you can get past whatever it is that's upsetting you. But it doesn't have to happen right away. You make mistakes, you learn, and you do better next time. They came close to doing this with Maud Pie, but they turned it around at the last minute. That episode could have shown that not everyone can be friends with everyone else, but you can still get along with each other. And even if you don't get along with someone, it doesn't mean you can't still be friendly towards one another. And just because things aren't great now, it doesn't mean they won't be great later. I think that the show seems to go a bit fast when it comes to certain things. Like redemptions, and happy endings. Things always have to be good by the time the episode ends. There aren't really any long-term problems, and that doesn't really depict life accurately. And yes, I know that this show does not depict life accurately. It's a cartoon about magical talking ponies. However, the lessons are made to be translated into real-world situations. I think an important lesson is that not every problem is solved so quickly, and problems don't come one at a time. I think a great addition to the show would be if there were long-term problems and lessons. Like with Filli Vanilli, where Fluttershy starts to get over her fear of stage fright. That's a good thing that they did there. Not every problem is solved before another problem presents itself. Things need to take more than one episode (or one two-parter) to be solved. And the box in season four and the map in season 5 don't count. Those are more like ongoing quests, not personal problems. Stuff like Diamond Tiara's redemption would feel a bit more... complete, if they took more than one episode. It's like with the CMC trying to get their cutie marks. Now that I'm thinking about it, it does sort of fit in with what I'm talking about. You can't just solve everything in one episode. Except, the CMC never really seemed to be getting closer to their goal. If the writers had wanted to, they could have made it so the CMC wouldn't get their cutie marks until season eight, and it wouldn't be all that unbelievable. Small but significant amounts of progression in each episode would really make this show better. If we had seen little hints about Fluttershy gradually facing her stage fright, it would have made that so much better. But they seem to want to focus on one problem at a time, without much development with everything else going on in the background. Rainbow Dash's slow(ish) progression from aspiring Wonderbolt to actually being recognized as almost an official Wonderbolt was pretty good, but there needed to be more about it happening in the background. Rainbow mentioning something about being in the Wonderbolt Reserves and trying to work her way up in between the episodes where that was the focus would have been great. Things need to happen in the background. And I don't mean in the literal background; I mean that the focus of an episode isn't the only thing that's happening in their world at the time. Thinking about it now, Twilight gradually accepting, and even embracing, her role as a princess seems to be a good example. In Princess Twilight Sparkle, she's a little uncomfortable being in charge and telling others what to do, but she does it anyway because she has to. In Twilight Time, we see her embracing her role as a responsible authority figure and role model. We see her maturing as the season went on. And I think that's great; gradual character change happening throughout multiple episodes, without it being the focus of all of those episodes. More of that would be great. And I think if that was what had happened with Diamond Tiara, I would have liked it more. To be honest, while I was watching the episode, I found myself hoping it was a dream, and that Diamond Tiara would wake up, not entirely remembering the dream, but being subconsciously inspired to improve herself and become a better pony. But the change shouldn't happen all at once. Maybe just start with her gradually mocking others less. Have her see the CMC and not call them blank flanks for once. It would be more believable that way. Having the characters change so quickly makes it less likely to see how people change slowly in real life. Something I also kind of liked about having Diamond Tiara like she used to be is that it shows that not everyone changes to be better. It doesn't mean they can't change. It just means they aren't. So, long story short, we need gradual character growth throughout multiple episodes without it being the focus of those episodes, and we need at least one or two episodes with non-happy endings, but with the hope of improvement and happiness later on.

Anyway, that just about fills my quota for ranting about ponies for one day. I had no idea I was going to write all of this. Seriously. If only I could write this much this easily on an essay. I started this expecting maybe a short paragraph, at most, about Discord's motives in What About Discord?. I did not expect this. You know, I think if I wanted to, I could just rant about ponies for hours. In fact, I just might. But if I do, I'll do it later. I'm done for now.

Until next time,
Some Random Brony Online

P.S. I will be randomly adding on more of my thoughts as I think them, so if you're interested in that, check this again every once in a while. Or don't. If you want to read my random thoughts on ponies, go ahead.