Friendship is Card Games: What Lies Beneath · 12:03pm Sep 23rd, 2018
So, how many of you saw this ahead of time and have just been waiting for my reaction?
I appreciate how even characters on the show are having difficulty keeping its continuity straight. Good to know we’re not alone there.
Evidence that Cozy Glow is evil, number 71: She applauds for an upcoming test.
Oh good. The Tree’s in the vents. It’s in the freakin’ walls, man!
I can understand Silverstream being excited by plumbing. As with stairs, it’s not something you’d expect an underwater civilization to employ. Furthermore, unlike stairs, we haven’t seen solid evidence that hippogriffs use it.
Shut up, Cozy, no one likes you. Seriously, I’m amazed Gallus and Smolder allowed her to prattle on. I mean, Sandbar tried to interrupt her and they didn’t.
I do love how Yona is confused by everyone’s sour mood afterwards. She’s too self-assured and/or dense to actually comprehend Cozy’s insinuations and take them to heart; she just saw a very rude little winged pony who obviously had no idea what she was talking about, and surely her friends felt the same way.
The Tree’s Twilight interface is interesting for a number of reasons. For one, it’s not clear how much of its unblinking, robot-voiced demeanor is part of the Tree learning to interact verbally and how much is deliberately lowballing its social intelligence. We see far more sophisticated simulacra later in Dash, Rarity, and the socialite ponies, but those may be using the Student Six’s minds to power their interaction protocols beyond what the Tree can handle. Heck, we actually see the Tree’s interaction improve from one end of the episode to the other… though that could still be intentional, with it playing the enigmatic mentor and pulling back the curtain after they pass the test.
And, of course, there’s the fact that the Tree chose to represent itself with Twilight, but she is the Bearer of Magic, the pony whose mark is at the Tree’s core… and one of the bodies the Tree consumed in “The Mean 6.” I’m not saying there’s a correlation there, but the possibility exists.
Not at all surprised by Gallus’s fear. I’d imagine claustrophobia is common in most if not all flying species in this world. The others are rather more compelling, though. Smolder is ashamed to admit a softer side that not only acknowledges something positive about pony culture, but would make her the laughingstock of the Dragonlands. Ocellus casts herself as the living embodiment of changelingkind’s worst qualities, fearing no amount of advances and transformations can make her more than a monster. Silverstream literally has the shadow of Storm King looming over her, even after he was shattered. Yona is faced with a foe so small and smashable that no yak should fear it, yet to her shame, she does.
And Sandbar? Sandbar’s is perhaps the most brilliant of all. It’s not just disappointing his idols that he fears, but also acknolwedging those idols’ hooves of clay. He knows that at the end of the day, his heroines are still equine and imperfect. Even Princess Celestia has her faults, and he dreads to acknowledge that. He reflects many of us in that respect.
In fact, let’s look at the trials from a certain perspective: Smolder faces a trial of Beauty, acknowledging and accepting its value. Ocellus faces one of Healing, needing another to mend her broken faith in herself, and thus her inability to change out of the form she most reviles. All the trials could be cast as ones of Bravery, but Silverstream stands out for having the deepest trauma, alone and afraid against an enemy whose very silhouette she fears… and she comes out of it screeching her feathery head off. Yona faces a test of Hope, reaching out to anyone in a moment of desperation and getting an answer. Sandbar deals with a trial of Strength, though it shades into Honesty; it’s more a question of strength of character than strength of body, but he still powers through it. That leaves Gallus with a test of Sorcery, and while that may sound bizarre, he faced an almost purely intellectual puzzle with arbitrary but internally consistent rules that, when properly followed, allowed him to reshape his environment to his will. I’d say that counts.
Silverstream’s diatribe towards the Storm King isn’t just fantastic for the faces and mocking his name, it also delivers perhaps the most devastating response one can give to a conquering egomaniac: You will be forgotten.
It is really bizarre to see Chrysalis’s body weeping and giggling like that.
I’m kind of surprised Sandbar never actually asked what the mission was. I mean, I can accept the fanboy glee blocking it out for a bit, but he was galloping for a long time.
I’ll be honest, I was kind of hoping Sandbar would need the most help. The pony being the one who needed the most support in reharmonizing himself would’ve been a nice twist.
When the castle wants to teach you a friendship lesson, it sends you to your hometown and forces you to make up with your overbearing parent. When the Tree wants you to learn a friendship lesson, it goes full Jigsaw, locks you in an escape room filled with your worst fears, and gives you a strict time limit before it seals you away like any other disharmonious thing that ends up in its crosshairs. 
Of course, when the Tree wants to help people, it tends to vaporize them and reshape their bodies to attract more pollinators, so there you have it.
Okay, Cozy, we get it. You’re evil. And clearly plotting something with the Tree. Frankly, I’m amazed the Student Six are all willing to let this pass, but they did just come out of a group therapy session with the avatar of harmony.
In all, this was awesome stuff, and confirms my theories regarding the Tree of Harmony to a far greater degree than I expected, especially in light of “Shadow Play.” Now, let’s see what emerges from this fertile soil.
Bearers’ Devotee W
Creature — Pony Citizen
Hoofcraft — Bearers’ Devotee gets +2/+2 as long as you control three or more Ponies, Pegasi, and/or Unicorns.
Word travels slowly in Equestria, but the Bearers have done too much for too many to not have some degree of fame.
1/1
Cooing Socialites 2W
Creature — Pony Citizen
Whenever a player casts a black or red spell, you gain 1 life.
”Isn’t that just the most precious demon you’ve ever seen?”
2/2
Defiant Hippogriff 2W
Creature — Hippogriff Warrior
Flying
Revolt — When Defiant Hippogriff enters the battlefield, if a permanent you controlled left the battlefield this turn, exile all cards from target player’s graveyard.
”We won’t hate you when you’re gone. You’re not worth the effort.”
2/2
Crushing Cavern Trap 4W
Instant — Trap
If a nontoken creature entered the battlefield under an opponent’s control this turn and wasn’t cast, you may pay 1W rather than pay this spell’s mana cost.
Destroy target creature with toughness 4 or greater.
Chrysalis’s Sycophants UU
Creature — Shapeshifter
Lieutenant — If you control your commander, you may have Chrysalis’s Sycophants enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.
”We are yours to shape, Your Majesty.”
2/2
Academic Sedative 3UU
Instant
Draw two cards. Creatures your opponents control get -2/-0 until end of turn.
Yaks are accustomed to studying traditional songs and the deeds of ancient, storied heroes. Transitioning to a Twilight Sparkle-designed curriculum isn't easy.
Historical Confusion 2B
Instant
Exile all cards from target player’s graveyard.
Surveil 2 (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
“Were we always at war with Eastneighsia?”
Ominous Machinations 2B
Sorcery
Surveil 2, then reveal the top card of your library. Each opponent loses life equal to that card’s converted mana cost.
”Don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything.”
Harmony’s Trial 3B
Sorcery
Target player discards two cards. You gain 4 life.
”Whatever you saw was your own disquiet made manifest. You are better without it.”
—The Tree of Harmony
Twisted Visage 3B
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has menace.
Ocellus once read that every filly is doomed to become her mother. She hasn’t slept well since.
Shadows of the Storm 5B
Creature — Shade
Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you’re done activating mana abilities pays for 1.)
1B: Shadows of the Storm gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
They exist mostly in survivors’ minds, lurking in the creak of gasbags and the echoes of thunder.
3/3
Sneering Whelp 2R
Creature — Dragon
Flying
Sneering Whelp gets +1/+0 for each enchantment your opponents control.
”It’s not like I want any of it. I just like looking at how dumb it is.”
1/2
Inescapable Encounter 1G
Sorcery
Target creature blocks target creature this turn if able.
Retrace (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition paying to its other costs.)
The only way out is through the tea party.
Beseech the Trees 2G
Sorcery
Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for 1 or one mana of that creature's color.)
Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefiled tapped, then shuffle your library. If a creature convoked this spell, untap that land.
Yak Arachnist 2GG
Creature — Ox Shaman
Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, create a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach.
”Spiders friends to yak. Make perfect webs and smash prey from inside out.”
3/3
Unseen Spider 3G
Creature — Spider
Hexproof, reach
Its web never catches the light. Its body never crosses your vision. The only sign you ever notice is its legs skittering down your neck.
2/3
Cavern Swarm 4G
Creature — Spider
Reach
Cavern Swarm has menace as long as you control a red permanent.
Cavern Swarm has vigilance as long as you control a white permanent.
This deep, the slightest bit of light and heat gets everyone’s attention.
4/4
Elegant Dragon 3R(wu)
Creature — Dragon
Flying
Whenever Elegant Dragon attacks, you may attach target Aura or Equipment to it.
Any dragon can terrorize the countryside. Few can make it look good.
3/3
Harmony Interface 3GU
Creature — Avatar
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
When Harmony Interface enters the battlefield, each player discards their hand, then draws cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player discarded this way.
Harmony Interface’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
*/*
And the Kitchen Sink!
(UR) Instant
(Nonexistent mana costs can’t be paid.)
Assemble a Contraption. (Put the top card of your Contraption deck face up onto one of your sprockets.)
Splice onto instant or sorcery (ur)(ur) (As you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card’s effects to that card.)
Insinuate 1(ub)//Instantiate 4UB
Sorcery//Sorcery
Insinuate: Search target player’s library for a card and exile it. Then that player shuffles their library.
Instantiate: You may cast a nonland card from your hand or graveyard without paying its mana cost.
*raises hand*
Eeeeee I want one
Also another Alicorn, yay
Sneering Whelp is actually a great design, reminiscent of the recent Enchanter's Bane. I like the idea of mono-red's only answer to enchantments (outside of stuff like Scour from Existence) being just killing the player who owns them.
Lies! D: I like her! I think she's cute! That she's evil only makes her cuter. And that ignores the fact that 'evil' in this season is definitely the side I support. :B
I really wish this had been episode 6 instead of 22. <.< The rest of the season might have sucked less if I'd been given a reason to care about these idiots sooner.
I still say that the Student 6 will inherit the Elements/Pillars/Tree's magical harmony stuff
So how long until Little Tree takes her mother to task for this?
Does this look like the face of mercy?
On one hand, having Gallus show up actually tell Silverstream that none of it's real seems a bit of a cop-out compared to how half the group got out of their situations on their own. On the other limb, it was a dick move by the Tree to make a girl face off against a room full of yetis in the first place. No way she would make a move in that situation, no fault of her own.
4942413
It's adorable!
A commonly held and I feel correct theory is that "Harmony" is somewhere between Good Is Not Soft, Light Is Not Good, and Blue & Orange Morality.
Also Cozy Glow is adorable and I love her sweet little hooves.
Between the Mean Six and this episode, I am now officially scared of the Tree of Harmony. And I LIKE IT!
4942529
Go back and read the first line of the blog. At what point did it seem like I'd already seen episodes ahead of time? And even if I hadn't, seriously, dude. Spoiler discipline. I know it's been a while at this point, and they're telegraphing Cozy Glow harder than Samuel Morse himself, but some consideration would be nice.
4942551
"I wonder how Flim & Flam got ahold of your book?"
*Cozy wanders in like sup.*
4942557
Any statement along the lines of "I think this episode that hasn't aired in your country yet jossed this" generally counts as spoilers, so if you're going to black out any part of the comment, it'd be the first two sentences. Sorry if I'm being harsh about this, but I have tried very hard to avoid any information about the finale. I haven't been entirely successful, but still.
4942438
That might be:
My favorite part of the episode. Part of what Gallus and Smolder need to learn is how to help others, so their tests include that as the second part.
Mike
4942322
I appreciate that we got to spend time with them before the God Tree of Destiny marked them as being important. If this had been episode 6, I suspect we would have spent the rest of the season wondering "How come nothing really important has happened with these characters since then?" This was a huge problem in seasons past with only putting major story points at the beginning and end of seasons. Now it seems like they're properly seeding the idea before the finale (and that isn't me making a tree joke). Certainly never thought that the six of them were idiots though.
This was a good episode. They used the students well and made us care about them. My only real complaint is that squeezing six individual trials of character into a single episode meant that each one was very small and fast on its own, which was pretty unavoidable. Still, they made it work as well as could be hoped.
4942574
Interesting angle. I hadn't considered they might be anything special, just that the three cares about friendship sticking around.
Have no reason to care about the characters, or wonder why they're all Mary Sues: I guess this season was just a bad idea. :B
4942651
I have to assume that they're important since they got as much screen time in the season finale as the original cast. And there's no way the Tree just does this for anyone; that it's even capable of holding a conversation is a huge reveal. I haven't seen the finale yet, though I am tempted. (BTW do you mean "Tree" instead of "three?")
How are the Student 6 Mary Sues? That term has been thrown around enough for me to not really glean what people mean when it's used. Do you mean it in the sense that they don't have any flaws? It seems like this episode was built entirely around their fears and personal demons, and having to confront them.
Do you mean it in the sense of characters getting a ton of powers out of nowhere? The closest thing I can think of that matches that is Yona suddenly being able to talk to animals. But really, there's just as much reason for a talking yak being able to understand non-talking animals as a talking pony.
Is it that everyone likes them? That's the usual reaction you can expect from ponies and Ponyville, and I certainly don't expect the Mane 6 to have a grudge against some teens.
4942567
That's actually a very good point.
Argh, dude, this just makes me want Netflix to post S8 even more. My schedule's been crap this season and I'm fed up with backwards Dailymotion rips.
4942784
Closest shorthand I could come up with for them suddenly being thrust into worldly importance. :B
4942828
So, main protagonists?
Well, Sandbar took the longest out of all of them. He managed to break himself free, true, but the others were already done by that point.
You know, at first, I wondered about Gallus's test. It didn't seem like anything related to friendship. Like you said, it was a Saw-like death-trap (excepting the Tree obviously doesn't follow its own rules since it lets them go after the time limit is up, implying it's not actually that cold-blooded) where his only concern would be for himself.
Then I noticed, that part wasn't the test. When Smolder and him stand at the exit and decide to look for their friends instead of escaping, that was the test. Gallus (and Smolder, to a far lesser extent) were thrown into situations designed to make them want to leave as soon as possible. But they didn't; they went to those two friends trapped in situations they couldn't manage to get themselves out of because they felt trapped by their pasts.
And Sandbar? Sandbar obviously wants to be important to some extent. And why wouldn't he? He's a mundane Earth Pony in the most exotic group at their school. He can't fly, he can't cast spells, he's not even particularly strong like Yona or smart like Ocellus. Sandbar has nothing special to him except being a pony. So, it may not look like it at first, but choosing to go back for his friends instead of running to this unknown mission with his idols means admitting, on some level, that he's not special. At least not more special than any of them are.
Sandbar's trial took a bit longer than it perhaps needed to, but it was still basically an improved version of Rainbow Dash's test of Loyalty in the series premiere.
The episode was clearly awesome. It has seemed likely that the Tree is sapient for some time, but I wasn't really expecting that to be confirmed in canon.
The cards are great. The black designs here are quite distressing - as in, they're effective representations of the disturbing fears the students had. Poor Ocellus and Silverstream.
I love the flavour justification you found for Cavern Swarm.
*raises hand*
Also, considering that the Pillars are responsible for the Tree's creation, well... I want your thoughts on this:
[FULL VIEW]
orig00.deviantart.net/53ee/f/2018/271/2/7/22_friendship__other_t_by_bjdazzle-dco046b.png
That would be an interesting family dynamic.
Also, congrats, Star Swirl, you're a granddaddy!