Friendship is Card Games: Friendship University · 11:14am Aug 12th, 2018
Wherein we see why Wisdom shouldn’t be your dump stat, especially not if you’re a wizard.
It’s nice to see the writers haven’t completely forgotten about the Pillars.
That “You’d think after more than a thousand years, there wouldn’t be anything left to learn” comment is more than a little bizarre. It makes no sense if it’s referring to the time Star Swirl spent in Limbo, since he never personally experienced that time. The only way to make sense of it is if Starswirl had lived for more than a millennium prior to sealing the Pony of Shadows… which, given all he did, actually kind of makes sense.
I’m not sure which cameo I like more. On the one hand, the thought of Tree Hugger and Star Swirl interacting is a wonderful mental image. On the other, we got to see pony Salvador Dali again, which is always fantastic.
A boater hat on the school insignia. Never a good sign.
More ponies than the School of Friendship? I’m pretty sure we’ve seen more populous crowd scenes at Twilight’s school.
Interesting appeal to proximity. After all, Ponyville’s central location in Equestria just means it’s equally far from every edge of the country.
That said, does the place really still count as a backwater when it has its own resident princess, the founding sites of two burgeoning corporate empires, and the capital city a short train ride away?
We’ve seen the Crusdaers made honorary graduates of Twilight’s school, so the “only friendship school that gives degrees” bit seems extremely specious.
Darn it, Neighsay, I was growing to respect you before this episode. But no, a combination of spite, speciesism, and shining star power in his eyes is enough to get his stamp of approval without actually looking at the school. I can only hope that the fallout of this incident will do horrible, horrible things to the EEA’s reputation. Or at least Neighsay’s.
For that matter, does he even have the authority to accredit Friendship U? Twilight established friendship schools operate under a different umbrella. I suppose between the single data point and Neighsay’s eagerness to answer the challenge to his authority, no one involved paid attention to that little detail. I also have to wonder if the school really does hew to all EEA requirements; finding such a discrepancy might have been a better opening move than going straight for unveiling the scheme.
It’s a good thing they were right in front of the room where Star Swirl was at that moment, and that Flim knew his location. Otherwise, the reveal would’ve fallen rather flat.
“They run a resort in Las Pegasus!” This only reinforces my headcanon that everypony knows that Las Pegasus resorts have under-the-table gambling, but nopony is so gauche as to actually say it. And it emphasizes why Twilight is suspicious of the Flimflams even after they’ve gone relatively straight: The only reason they’re constructive members of society these days isn’t because they’ve stopped scamming people, but because they’ve found a socially acceptable way to scam people. And as they showed all the way back in Season 2, they’re never satisfied with quality when they could have quantity.
I honestly love how Star Swirl trusts the Flimflams because of a lesson Twilight taught him. Not only is it kind of hilarious to see a friendship lesson backfire like this, it also teaches how those lessons can be taken too far. Moderation isn’t an easy concept to teach, but this episode does a pretty good job of it. From Star Swirl’s perspective, he’s acting entirely reasonably. (And part of him likely still sees the Flimflams fawning over him as due respect.)
Plainity is pretty darn fantastic, especially the speed at which she redoes her hair when she eventually sheds the disguise. Eyepatch… I mean, I love the use of the sticky note cutie mark, reminiscent of both the Method Mares and NCMares, but come on, Rarity. At least give her a Sneaking Suit to go with the eyepatch if she’s going to engage in academic espionage action. (Granted, it did work for the average pony, but the Flimflams have to be more discerning than that to be effective con artists.)
Indeed, maybe they should’ve traded duties. Twilight does have experience with infiltrating a student body, though it works better when she’s in a human body as well.
I really don’t think the Flimflams have much of a leg to stand on with the blackmail. They still have a criminal record as long as Flam’s mustache, whereas Twilight has saved the world numerous times. A shame Rarity wasn’t there; she probably could’ve spun this to the point where they’d be begging the mares to let them keep their casino resort. (That said, given the last time an alicorn let herself be consumed by jealousy…)
And there’s the small matter of how if they were really on the up and up, they wouldn’t have needed to go through with the blackmail at all.
Rarity, that’s sweet of you to say, but Twilight has been letting her emotions cloud her judgement this entire episode. Indignation, suspicion, and yes, even jealousy have all been at work in keeping her off-center and on the rear hoof. There were a wide variety of better ways to go about doing this, and Twilight was too busy seeing a blend of red and green to notice them.
Mind you, this isn’t a complaint. It’s perfectly in character for her. Twilight doesn’t deal well with the unexpected, and Star Swirl may be an even bigger blind spot for her than Celestia.
Tuition is free, but you have to pay if you want to actually do anything. The Flimflams have pioneered freemium education. Insert Electronic Arts joke here.
So, if the brothers are only using every other page of the lesson plan, shouldn’t that lead to some rather nonsensical bits when a paragraph continues off of one? To say nothing of Twilight failing to recognize her own work.
Heck, that might have been another viable way to beat the brothers: Charge them for the use of Twilight’s intellectual property.
I do like the Flimflams having no idea who Rarity is. She hasn’t really factored into episodes involving them until now, and they aren’t exactly the most fashion-forward stallions in Equestria.
And then there’s the ending foreshadowing with Cozy Glow. If she isn’t actually evil, we’re definitely meant to think she is.
In all, I enjoyed this. This may have been one of the worst successful approaches the protagonists could’ve taken, but they had excellent reasons for being off their game. And while parts of the conflict felt artificially inflated, overall this was a fun episode. Though the apparent exclusivity of Twilight’s friendship schooling guidelines are a bit bizarre; you’d think she’d want to disseminate those… though I suppose after the friendship journal, she’d rather the lessons be taught by those who’d lived them to ensure everyone gets the message.
And again, I want consequences for Neighsay. The Flimflams aren’t the only ones who can go to the papers… though given how other EEA members were part of the musical number, it doesn’t seem likely. This conspiracy goes deep... or this was an undercover investigation that Twilight trampled in her righteous fury. 
But honestly, at this point, throwing the brothers in jail might be the best thing one can do with them. That or lock them in their own resort.
Now, on to the cards, still available at no charge:
Celebrity Endorsement 3W
Legendary Enchantment
Spells you cast have affinity for legendary creatures. (They cost 1 less to cast for each legendary creature you control.)
“Princess Celestia slept here” signs pepper hotels across Equestria. Some are even true.
Unfabulous Guise U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -3/-0 and has skulk. (It can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.)
1U: Return Unfabulous Guise to its owner’s hand.
Lesson Omitted UU
Sorcery
Target opponent chooses draw step, main phase, or combat phase. That player skips each instance of the chosen step or phase during their next turn.
Half a lesson can be worse than no lesson at all.
“Friendship U” 2U
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on “Friendship U”.
1U, Sacrifice “Friendship U”: Gain control of target creature with power X or less, where X is the number of verse counters on “Friendship U”. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Star Pupil 2U
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
Whenever you draw a card, put a +1/+1 counter on Star Pupil.
Rarity: “What’s wrong, darling?”
Twilight Sparkle: “Oh, nothing. Just… nostalgia.”
1/1
Twilight’s Blessing 2U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.”
Whether alicorns actually have divine powers is irrelevant. What matters is what the blessed pony believes.
Generous Engineer 3U
Creature — Unicorn Rigger
When Generous Engineer enters the battlefield, it and each of your opponents assembles a Contraption. (Each player puts the top card of their Contraption deck face up onto one of their sprockets.)
“Samoflanges for everypony!”
2/3
Double Time 5UU
Sorcery
Choose another player. Take an extra turn after this one. At the beginning of the first upkeep in your next game with that player, take an extra turn after that one.
”Twilight has told me it is good to make time for your friends.”
—Star Swirl the Bearded
Incriminating Blackmail 1B
Enchantment
Extort (Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay (wb). If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.)
2, Discard two cards: Incriminating Blackmail’s owner sacrifices it. Only any opponent may activate this ability.
Scarred Alicorn 3B
Creature — Warrior
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying
Scarred Alicorn enters the battlefield with three -1/-1 counters on it.
Whenever another Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn enters the battlefield under your control, remove a counter from target permanent.
5/5
Flimflam Friendshipologists 4B
Creature — Unicorn Rogue
At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent loses 1 life and each player on your team gains 1 life.
”It’s not a real word, and that’s just the beginning of their deception.”
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
3/3
Everhoof Expedition 1R
Enchantment
Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, put a quest counter on Everhoof Expedition.
Remove three quest counters from Everhoof Expedition and sacrifice it: Target creature gets +X/+0 and gains trample until end of turn, where X is the number of lands you control.
Placid Rafter 1G
Creature — Pony Shaman
Hexproof from blue (This creature can’t be the target of blue spells or abilities your opponents control.)
U: Target spell or permanent becomes blue until end of turn.
”Life is a river. Go with the flow.”
2/2
Las Pegasus Cheerleader 3G
Creature — Pony Citizen
When Las Pegasus Cheerleader enters the battlefield, support 1. (Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one other target creature.)
If one or more counters would be put on a creature you control, that many plus one of each of those kinds of counters are put on that creature instead.
2/2
Surreal Schooner 3
Artifact — Vehicle
Hexproof
Crew 2 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 2 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
You may tap two untapped enchantments you control rather than pay Surreal Schooner’s crew cost.
4/3
Flimflam Vault 4
Artifact
Whenever a creature an opponent controls becomes tapped, create a colorless Treasure artifact token with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color” unless that player pays 1.
The brothers ensure that fools and their money are parted as quickly as possible.
Premium Worksheets 4
Artifact
If a player would draw a card, that player skips that draw unless they pay 1.
”And for just five bits more, you can get the deluxe edition!”
—Flim Flimflam
Friendship Stitch-o-Matic
Artifact — Contraption
Whenever you crank Friendship Stitch-o-Matic, choose one —
• Put target artifact or enchantment card from your graveyard on top of your library.
• Put target Contraption card from your scrapyard on top of your Contraption deck.
Weaponized Friendship 2RW
Instant
Weaponized Friendship deals damage to any target equal to the number of creatures you control. You gain life equal to the damage dealt this way.
Behind Twilight Sparkle is a trail of broken wills and bodies, flattened by the hooves of those closest to her.
Academic Espionage 3(ub)
Sorcery
Look at the top four cards of target opponent’s library, exile one of them face down, then put the rest on the bottom of that library in a random order. You may look at and cast that card for as long as it remains exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast that spell.
Twilight’s Envy 3UB
Sorcery
You draw two cards and target player discards two cards.
No alicorn deals well with the idea that someone else is outdoing her in her area of expertise.
I have complicated feelings about this episode
It may have gotten too real for me. And not just for the obvious reason. I know you're a flawed pony, Star Swirl, but I never expected this from you.
I fail to see how any of this would keep you from respecting Chancellor Neighsay. :V Neighsay for Princess 2018!
It took me a second before I realized that random Rarity emote was supposed to be the faction watermark. Well played.
I didn't care for this episode. Maybe I just wasn't paying close enough attention on the first watch, but a lot of the details confused me, and the plot seemed convoluted.
Twilight not recognizing her own lessons was a red herring that really threw me off. Skipping every other page is about as bad a disguise as sticking an eyepatch on a pony. She should have recognized her own writing immediately.
Also, it would have been nice if Flim and Flam had mentioned that they worked with Applejack and Fluttershy to expose Gladmane's corruption. I was hoping they'd prove to be semi-reformed.
This episode wasn't as bad as "Yakkity Sax," but I didn't get much entertainment from it.
It was nice to see Star Swirl, however, and I like how he learned from his mistake with Stygian (even if he's probably over-correcting now).
Yeah, Cozy Glow seems a bit too cutesy, even for MLP. I like the fan theory that she's a spy for Neighsay.
Headcanon accepted!
4918838
Barnyard Bargains.
Dude knows time magic. For all we know he has jumped back and forth through eras.
(Following the casino theme)
When it first dropped, I took the briefest blackjack-hand peek at the leak, and I seem to remember something about Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, and the EEA. But I'm not going to bet on black over my shoddy memory.
Oh FOME, you silly goose. Don't you know that just makes the story more enticing? The more you do for a person, the more that person will like you. The more you do for people, the more they'll expect, or just look for a way to tear you down so they don't have to feel like they have to measure up. A casino mogul leaves crowd of people thousands in the hole? Even if the news does spend a whole month calling them a monster, then that's just the way the world is sometimes. Some princess doesn't hold the elevator, or snarls at the camera? Scandalous!
i0.wp.com/farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4310495954_6217e89468_b.jpg
4919208
I think you replied to the wrong comment.
4918870
That's just a little joke writers like to throw around even though a character has been removed from consciousness or the process of aging.
You'll here people saying Captain America is 98, that Avatar Aang is over 100 years old, or that Phillip J. Fry is in his 1,020s.
Thank you, 4919314
Again, Neighsay is written to be an asshole because it's the only way to distract from all the good points he makes. The fact that he's a racist, a hypocrite, and an all-around vindictive person has no bearing on that fact that he's been consistently proven right on most of his complaints about the Friendship School. But none of it matters. He's the villain, and therefore is wrong by default, and the characters and audience are free to just hate him rather than actually consider his point of view. And even this won't be enough. Mark my words, he's going to descend to downright comical levels of villainy before all this is through, just so that there's no possible way he can ever be taken seriously.
4919624
I thought there’s actually showed a little bit of development for him. It seemed like he was really quick to approve the University, probably hoping for some satisfaction of showing up Twilight. It seems like the show is trying to go for a Walter Peck style villain, where the character puts heir own ego before the welfare of the state. But yes, with racial discrimination thrown in. Neighsay is arguably the most subtle season villain the series has ever had. He’s a toxic ideology wrapped up with a respected and renowned individual, who occupies the one of the levers of power in society. He can’t be defeated with a fight scene. That also means making him sound competent and reasonable by actually being competent and reasonable. As opposed to Flim and Flam, who sound gentlemanly and respectable, but are demonstrably lying through there teeth. Before Shadow Play, I wouldn’t have been confidence that the show could write a character like this. But then we got Starswirl. He was a bitter jerk for most of that finale, with an unconstructive attitude. But a lot of what he said, on paper, wasn’t actually wrong when he said Twilight screwed up and that Stygion was a great danger.
At the very least, you can take comfort in the fact that Neighsay won’t just be swept aside because how more than half the antagonists that have ever appeared in this show are getting redemptions. Plus, it IS Maurice LaMarche.
4919668
Thing is, I don't take comfort in that, because I don't fear Neighsay being swept aside. I fear that his character will derail even further into lunacy, and that everyone will forget he ever had a point to make in the first place, himself included.
For all his faults, the thing that I actually like about Neighsay is that he seems to hate the Friendship School as much as I do. For different reasons, granted, but he's the only character in-universe who recognises how badly it fails as a school. It's basically the same reason I liked Pharynx. Only, because he can't be defeated in a fight scene, that attitude isn't going to last. The only way for Neighsay to stop being an antagonistic force in the narrative is for him to change his mind and accept the Friendship School, just like Pharynx had to accept the new changelings. And it's not going to be done by proving him wrong. Someone is just going to point out to him that he's being an asshole, and his change of opinion is just going to be an unstated requirement of reforming.
That's a pretty awesome flavortext line :)