Season 6, Episode 17 Thoughts and Review · 3:28am Sep 11th, 2016
I KNOW I SAID I WAS GONNA CATCH UP BUT GIVE ME A BREAK I'M TRYING MY BEST OK. Alright, let's get on with the episode.
The episode begins with Fluttershy packing her bags for a trip away from Ponyville. Discord appears and believes that she has planned a tropical vacation for the two of them, but Fluttershy explains that she is accompanying her friends on an overnight goodwill tour of Yakyakistan. When Discord expresses disappointment over Fluttershy's sudden departure, she suggests that he join Spike and Big McIntosh in a "top secret" activity that they do whenever the Mane Six leave town.
I love how she's gotten way better at subtlety getting her way. Very proud of my shy baby.
Discord dismisses the notion of spending an evening with two "sidekicks", but Fluttershy says it would be a good opportunity for him to expand his circle of friends. Discord is still dismissive, but he takes it under consideration.
Mostly because Fluttershy scared the poop out of him, haha.
At the Ponyville train station, Discord's attempts to convince Fluttershy not to leave end in failure. The rest of the Mane Six soon arrive, and Spike and Big McIntosh see them off as they leave on the Friendship Express.
"I certainly wouldn't be allowed to discuss it with you girls."
-Spike, in regards to Guy's Night
...Rarity is me.
In Spike and Big Mac's company, Discord becomes awkwardly uncomfortable. When they approach him, he tries to back away until they invite him to join their "Guys' Night". Discord is intrigued by the idea of an evening of zoot suits and swing dancing and accepts their invitation. Spike tells him to meet them at Twilight's castle at sundown.
That evening, Spike and Big Mac are excited to begin their Guys' Night, and Discord makes a considerably flashy entrance. He expects a night of partying at Ponyville's rowdiest establishments, but Spike says they are staying in and playing games. Still excited, Discord suggests pony charades, but Spike and Big McIntosh instead sit down to play a game of Ogres & Oubliettes, much to Discord's horror.
Me, whenever I find out I have to go out and socialize.
Spike explains that Ogres & Oubliettes is a tabletop role-playing game in which players create their own fantasy avatars and take part in an imaginary adventure where decisions and outcomes are determined by dice rolls. During Spike's explanation, Discord affords only the barest of interest.
In the game, Spike is a wizard named "Garbunkle", and Big Mac is a unicorn knight named "Sir McBiggun". Their objective is to rescue "Princess Shmarity" from the evil Squizard. In creating his own character, Discord disinterestedly chooses an archer named "Captain Wuzz". The game gets underway, and Discord immediately makes several unsuccessful decisions—mainly due to his lack of interest—and earns penalties to his character and imaginary ridicule. Angered by Spike and Big McIntosh's laughing, Discord seals Big Mac in a magic bubble and decides to show the two a real Guys' Night.
Discord snaps his fingers and creates a swing jazz dance club, offering milkshakes and card games to Spike and Big Mac. However, Spike and Big Mac want to go back to playing Ogres & Oubliettes, and Spike proposes that Discord sit and watch if he does not want to play. Offended, Discord agrees to return to the game – by transporting Spike and Big Mac into the game itself.
Kinda thought they were gonna hit the fantasy-reality thing earlier, but oh well.
In the game world of Ogres & Oubliettes, Spike and Big Mac take on the appearances and abilities of their character avatars. However, the dangers they face are now completely real, and Discord is in control of everything that happens. The evil Squizard and his forces—appearing as living cardboard drawings—arrive to attack Spike and Big Mac. Spike and Big Mac run away, and after briefly shielding themselves from a barrage of arrows, they take shelter in a cave.
Discord appears before them, and Spike angrily chews him out for ruining his and Big Mac's game. When Discord asks why they invited him to join them in the first place, Spike reveals it is because they felt sorry for him. Discord promptly transports the three back to the castle throne room. Spike explains further that Fluttershy told them about his behavior before she left, and they invited him to join them out of courtesy. Discord is mortified to discover that he is not as "cool" and respected as he initially thought he was, and he decides to leave while playing off his embarrassment.
Spike and Big Mac return to their game but are unable to focus due to the circumstances of Discord's departure. They call Discord back to give him another chance, and Discord returns in an instant. He apologizes for ruining their evening, and Spike and Big Mac admit that the game was exciting when Discord made it real. They ask him to make a toned-down version of the Ogres & Oubliettes world, and he happily obliges.
Some time later, the Mane Six return from their trip to Yakyakistan and go to the Castle of Friendship, where they find Spike, Big Mac, and Discord playing a real-life version of Ogres & Oubliettes. As they celebrate their victory over the Squizard, Fluttershy is pleased that Discord had made new friends.
Twilight suggests they excuse themselves while the boys finish playing their game, but Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie decide to join in the fun. Upon entering the game world, Rainbow and Pinkie take on their own fantasy character avatars and team up with Spike, Big Mac, and Discord against the Squizard's skeleton hordes.
So, while this isn't my all-time favorite episode of the season, I still enjoyed watching it! It was fun to see Spike, Big Mac, and Discord have some screentime. There were a lot of little things that I enjoyed about this episode.
Like this.
Sometimes, I think we all forget that Discord used to have total dominion over Equestria and that he can be very threatening when he wants to be. He's the physical embodiment of chaos, after all. It was really cool to get that reminder of, "hey, this dude used to be a bad guy... good thing he's on our side, right?"
However, he's still a lovable, chaotic-loving little butt who likes to mess with people for the hell of it.
Somewhere in Equestria, Celestia is cursing Discord out.
There was also our other two guys in this episode: Spike and Big Mac. We've heard about their friendship in the past, but now we're actually getting to see it in person. And man, it's so great.
These two are such bros and I love it so much.
I'm sad we don't get to see more of their friendship with one another, and I really hope we do see more of it. In general, I wanna see more of Big Mac, because he's such a good character and he's got so much more to him.
LOOK AT THIS DORK. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.
However, I do have some minor complaints... Like, I thought this episode was going to focus more on the fantasy aspect than anything else? We didn't even get to the fantasy part until the episode was half over. The built up took a bit too long and the fantasy aspects suffered because of it. The scenes that we did see were really fun and interesting, but I wish we could have seen more of it.
But, I will say I enjoyed seeing Pinkie and Rainbow jumping in at the end. It was unexpected, but totally in character for both of them.
So, to sum up my review, this episode wasn't the best episode, but I still enjoyed it and was entertained by it. Hopefully I get the next review out in a timely manner.
Wanna talk about the episode more? Comment down below and let's talk!
A pretty good episode, even though I did think they were going to get into the fantasy roleplaying in real life a little sooner.
I couldn't help but think this episode was the most fun John de Lancie and the animators had with Discord in a long, long time. It was fun to see him cut loose. And it was adorable how easily Fluttershy saw right through him.
Also, I can't be the only one to notice how enthralled Rainbow Dash was by Big Mac's big, hard, black
shaftsword, can I?derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/5/9/1149757.gif
Sorry. Been dying to use that gif somwhere.
It would be nice if the fantasy game was entered sooner in the episode. However, it would take away the focus of the plot: Discord's quest (don't know if that's the right word for it) to make new friends, especially with how the episode started. We know he already accepted that his bestie can have other friends besides him (which was a hell of a ride at the gala), so now he is given the chance to do the same, once he gets past his own ego that is.
For the game itself, it doesn't feel it can be enjoyable with just 2 players, especially when one rarely talks. So, it's kind of a mystery how Spike and Mac made it work before Discord came along.
Um...RPGs usually have to have a Dungeon Master so the players know what the Hell their doing. How exactly did the game work with just the 2 of them? I've tried a 2 player RP before and It's, quite frankly, boring.
They did an episode about D&D....
AND DIDNT HAVE BUTTON.
I SWEAR, WHO WANTS TO MARCH ON WALL STREET WITH ME?