"The Break Up Break Down" Afterthoughts: Gay Couples, Background Pony Relationships, Discord's Powers and More! · 10:51pm May 22nd, 2018
Here are my Afterthoughts for "The Break Up Break Down"! A little bit less than in other weeks, but there are still some interesting observations to be made:
- When Big Mac expressed impatience and anger over it that the pie for Sugar Belle takes so long to bake, Spike answered on this like Big Mac actually said something and he was responding on that, even though Big Mac didn't actually talk. A little later, we could observe how Big Mac wasn't the slightest bit concerned that Discord ruined his pie by removing the card from it to read it, because he knew Discord is able to repair it again like nothing happened with his reality-bending powers.
These two moments, as well as Spike's teasing about Discord's feelings for Fluttershy, showed nicely how the three of them have grown together a lot and gotten used to each other's quirks.^^
- Speaking of Fluttershy, despite doing his best efforts to hide it, it was very easy to see that Discord crushes on Fluttershy, in this moment as well. His answer on Spike's remark came shooting very fast and he did a huge effort to give the impression that he loves tea so much, followed by very worried, and slightly ashamed, looks in his face.^^ Spike knows him really well.
And I got to say, the typical guy friendship between them has grown on me, I wish we would see more guys' nights of them.^^
- What many, if not everyone, who watched the episode probably just saw as a joke, actually has a deeper implication, namely, Discord's bet with Spike. Discord said Spike has to mow his lawn for eternity if he loses. We got the confirmation here that Discord, as it was theorized already, is indeed immortal! If he wouldn't live eternally, then he would have said "mow my lawn for the rest of my life", as Discord wouldn't have anything from it that Spike mows his lawn after he died from old age. But he spoke of eternity instead, so his choice of words made that very clear.
Discord living for eternity is something we only got hinted at so far, in the 24th mane series of the official comics, when we saw Discord travelling into prehistoric times with Fluttershy, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle and having an old friend there, which only made it clear that he is a creature with a very long lifespan. But now we got the undeniable confirmation that Discord is an immortal being.
Which also makes you wonder why Discord has such problems with accepting love..... Maybe he has experienced love and seeing his partners go so often that he started to disdain love, because it hurt too much to see his lovers die over and over again.
Also, if Spike would have lost the bet, would Discord have somehow prevented him from dying? Or maybe turned him into an undead so he could mow his lawn for all eternity? Does Discord have such powers as well, to raise the dead or extend someone's life as long as he wants? If so, why did he not to do that to save the ones he loved from dying so they could stay with him through eternity? Is there perhaps a wholly different reason for why Discord has trouble accepting love?
There's some food for thought here.
- Derpy's co-workers in the Ponyville Post Office gave me a familiar feeling. Last year, my friend DinkyUniverse told me about some old fanon from the early days, about Derpy's three sisters. These three mares don't look like Derpy at all, so they are likely not related with her, but seeing them reminded me on this fanon.^^
- As I said in my review already, this episode has a ton of shipping fuel and, more than that, even outright confirmations which pony is together with which pony! Showing us another Hearts and Hooves Day, we got a lot of insight into Ponyville's romantic life.
Here are the couples seen when we saw Discord and Spike walk through Ponyville the first time:
- When I rewatched the episode today, I noticed how Spike said the same thing as explanation for what Big Mac overheard from Sugar Belle as Sugar Belle herself said later, word by word. This reminded me again on how Spike believed to have psychic powers during the Equestria Games because Twilight was lighting the fire for him.
Has he, perhaps, actually gained such powers now?
- When we saw Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle in town before starting to search for Sweetie's secret admirer, we got to see another four couples:
Only with Lily and Roseluck it is a bit ambigious, since we know them as sisters, so they might not be a classical couple. Of course there are other possibilities, as we never got a 100% confirmation that the Flower Trio are indeed sisters, so far, so I could be wrong about the incestous relationship. But either way, we got to see an actual lesbian couple here! Which of course isn't the first time anymore, but this is only the second lesbian couple we got to see in the show, so it is still special.
And we even have gotten a true novelty here, as we saw the first confirmed gay couple in the show in this episode! Coco Crusoe and Goldengrape definitely enjoy their time with each other. 
Also, Royal Riff has a crush on Sparkler and made advances to her and Sparkler did not seem to object, judging by how dreamily she looked at that heart balloon he gave her.^^
- Discord tried to ship Big Mac with a cardboard, pen and paper RPG skeleton from "Ogres & Oubliettes"! And this got me interested, according to Discord, Skelenor only works for the Squizard to pay her student loans..... as a skeleton? Does this mean she started studying after her death? And if so, what did she do when she was still actually alive? Or did she already study the same thing there and just continued with it after her death?
This made me wondering about the lore of "Ogres & Oubliettes". Does the universe of this game have a whole undead skeleton race and society, similar to how "World of Warcraft" has an undead race? I wish we would hear more about that.
I also appreciate the humor here, when Big Mac told Skelenor how Sugar Belle's nose is there where hers used to be and points at the hole in the middle of her head. I'm always up for some good, black humor.^^
- Spike offered to Big Mac, as his last solution for his problem with Sugar Belle, to just hide from her so she can't break up with him, because he always hides from problems that are too big to solve. This is a nice bit of characterization for Spike where one would not expect it, similar to "Horse Play", apparently, Spike has a tendency to run away from his problems.
- Sometimes, there are moments where I'm questioning that Discord is actually good now..... When Big Mac hid in the barn and Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle talked about Sugar Belle, pay attention to what Discord said, he used the things they said about Sugar Belle to manipulate Big Mac and to bring him to a point where he would say that Sugar Belle broke his heart, so that he could answer with his suggestion to break up with Sugar Belle first. Add the gleeful tone in his voice and grin to this and we have old Discord back.
Discord, in an attempt to help Big Mac because he is his friend, could have just flat out told him to break up with Sugar Belle first so she couldn't hurt him, but instead, he waited and smeared the bitter "truth" into Big Mac's face until he had him where he wanted him to have. And one could see that Discord enjoyed this manipulation.
Sometimes, I wonder.....
- I already mentioned shipping fuel, but there is still a bit more in this episode. Before Big Mac entered the barn again, we could see a chart that Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hung up, with a photo of Sweetie Belle surrounded by the photos of several colts from Ponyville; Pipsqueak, Button Mash, Snips and Snails, Rumble and Chipcutter.
Three of which are colts Sweetie Belle gets shipped with fairly often in the fandom; Button Mash, Rumble and Pipsqueak. Of course that's just coincidence, since there were also three colts on the chart Sweetie Belle isn't getting shipped with often, or not at all even, but it's still interesting to see.
Are a few of these colts perhaps such Sweetie Belle has expressed an interest for in the past?^^
- At the end of the episode, there is one last bit of depth. Big Mac said to Sugar Belle that, even though it hurt to break up with her, he wouldn't trade this feeling for anything, because it would mean to also give up the good times they had. The hurt he felt when breaking up with Sugar Belle was something he could only feel because he had good times with her in the past, so suppressing this pain would automatically mean to suppress the good feelings too, as the pain evolved from those good feelings.
This explained nicely how love can become pain and how pain and love are interwoven with each other; if you want to feel love, you will also have to accept feeling pain sometimes. The old saying that love hurts got explained plenty and very in-depth in this episode.
- And, talking about love, Spike has apparently fallen in love with Skelenor! Does this mean he replaces Rarity with her or does he have two mares of his dreams now?
I had many of the same thoughts, though I see you didn't include the Lyra X Bon Bon ship, is there any reason why? I thought they made it very apparent. Or were you just pointing out the background characters whom actually stayed in the background?
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Nope, no particular reason, I have nothing against Lyra and Bon Bon, on the contrary, I love their relationship a lot.
I just wrote about them in my review of "The Break Up Break Down" already.^^
I always write the most obvious things from an episode and thoughts about the main events into my review and, since Season 8 now, all the interesting little background events and things that are only implied and require more in-depth thinking to notice/understand them, into my Afterthoughts.
And Lyra and Bon Bon jumped into your eye immediately, so they found their place in my review.^^