Friendship is Card Games: A Trivial Pursuit · 11:38am Aug 18th, 2019
This week, we hit levels of Twilighting that shouldn’t even be physically possible. Also, several ship names become canon, if not the ships themselves.
Hmm. A horse is attempting a highly coveted and extremely rare threepeat victory. It’s the trivia equivalent of the Triple Crown. Now if only Twilight had a more disciplined jockey…
Fun fact: I had closed captions on while watching, and the caption for the sound as Spike slid closer to Twilight in the opening was “sloop.” Not relevant to anything, I just thought it was funny. Sloooooop
I wonder whether Twilight got that Vinyl shirt herself, or if one of her friends—likely Pinkie—bought it for her at a DJ PON-3 concert. Though for all i know, Vinyl has them for sale at her house if you ask. I’m pretty sure that’s how you get Admiral Biscuit shirts outside of conventions.
Hmm… Yup, Hasbro makes Trivial Pursuit. All these in-house references and still no card games. Unless you count the numerical rules and subrules, but that’s a stretch.
Oh hey, the comedy club from “Rock-Solid Friendship.” Or… I guess it’s a community center or something?
I’ve been playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses a bunch lately, so my first thought when Twilight unveiled the bar graphs was “Ah, the different ponies’ stat growth rates.” Even a lot of the pairings feel like optimizing support ranks. (Clearly someone’s trying to get Maud and Mudbriar to S rank.)
Another case of mark equalling name… immediately after Twilight displayed an example of profile equalling name. Well, Equestria’s a magical land, not a consistent one.
Sorry, Fluttershy, but there’s a reason you struggled with the Element of Laughter, and it’s not just crippling social anxiety.
They definitely overplayed the meme faces this episode, but they were pretty great. Especially what I can only describe as “angry pudding.” (Second row, second from the right.)
“Team Appledash is basically unstoppable!” I mean, Team Rarijack gives it a good go, especially in the human universe.
Why even bother drawing the last two participants? Other than for pre-commercial break dramatic effect, of course.
I do appreciate Pinkie cycling through a number of different potential pairing names. I personally am quite fond of Twinkie.
I wonder what happened to Starlight for even the word “trivia” to traumatize her. We don’t see any sign of that sort of thing in the episode itself. Of course, Spike having greater psychological endurance than Starlight comes as no surprise.
While this was a missed opportunity for incidental world building, the continuity was largely on point.
Telling Pinkie to sit still… Ugh, I’m going to get into this in full detail later.
Huh. Thousands of years of erosion turned the Ghastly Caverns into Ghastly Gorge, but Star Swirl still knew the area as the Caverns in “Shadow Play.” That doesn’t mix well with the 1,111th anniversary of Celestia’s first sunrise in “Horse Play.” Of course, the only source on that is Pinkie, and Tia may have been too polite, eager to act, and/or willing to obfuscate the historical record to correct her.
Given those scores, this trivia contest must go on for the whole night. I wonder how many times Granny Smith has nodded off in the later rounds. Can you disqualify the emcee?
Twilight. Just ring in. You know the answer.
Yeah, somepony’s getting written out of the will. Shameful display, Applejack. Dishonor on you. Dishonor on your chimp.
Protip: Spike pointing out the obviously correct solution when the DWK-patented Idiot Switch is set to Twilight doesn’t help the aggravation. It only exacerbates it. Seriously, Spike, your bookhorse is broken. Try turning her off and on again.
Oh boy, here comes the rules lawyering. It’s those kinds of antics that got Twilight banned from Shining’s O&O sessions. (Well, that and the minmaxing.)
Mint, fudge, and chili? I suppose when you eat pineapples whole, you have a very interesting palate in general.
“Pony B.E.” makes… Hmm. Actually, it kind of works, if we assume that it’s the pre-Equestrian equine calendar, as opposed to, say, the yak or hippogriff one. Possibly even the earth pony calendar, as opposed to Pegasus or Unicorn B.E.
It’s appropriate that one of the answers in the first montage is “bananas,” because Twilight certainly is at this point.
You know, I do enjoy Twiburst, but not like this.
Ah, karma. Not so fun when you’re the one being snubbed, is it, Twiggles?
Yeah, Twilight definitely deserved that bit of Snarky Pie.
Speaking of karma, at the closing fade to black, Derpy’s locked out of a building housing Cranky and Matilda.
You know the worst part of all of this? I cannot honestly call it out of character for Twilight. This is her at her worst, with tunnel vision that could connect the UK and France… but it still seems feasible for her. Heck, it’s a low-key reprise of the movie, Twilight being so obsessed with attaining a goal that she does terrible emotional harm to Pinkie as collateral damage. At least this time she didn’t commit any crimes against other nations.
Also, I related to Twilight far more than I’d like to admit. The dynamic of Team Twipie was a very familiar struggle between having fun and the thirst for victory, one I’ve grappled with many a time in games like this. And I would have loved to have seen the two of them work together to annihilate the competition.
In all, this was a pretty shallow plot centered around Twilight’s dark side. Indeed, it was basically a glimpse of pony Midnight Sparkle: Ruthless, arrogant, petty, hyperfocused, and irrational. Thankfully, she didn’t tear any holes in the fabric of time and space. I’m pretty sure that’s covered by Rule 71.6.
Now, the next category is “homebrewed Magic cards”:
Coerced Infraction 1W
Instant
Coerced Infraction deals 3 damage to target tapped creature.
Forecast — 1U, Reveal Coerced Infraction from your hand: Goad target creature. (Until your next turn, that creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able. Activate this ability only during your upkeep and only once each turn.)
Scour the Rulebook 3WW
Instant
State-based actions don’t apply to you or permanents you control this turn. (You don't lose the game due to having 0 or less life or drawing from an empty library. Your creatures aren't destroyed due to damage or deathtouch and aren't put into a graveyard due to having 0 or less toughness. Your planeswalkers aren't put into a graveyard if they have 0 loyalty. You don't put a legendary permanent into a graveyard if you control two with the same name. Counters aren't removed from your permanents due to game rules. Permanents you control attached or combined illegally remain on the battlefield. For complete rules and regulations, see rule 704.)
Motion Denied 1U
Instant
This spell costs 0 to cast if it targets a spell that wasn’t cast from a hand and you control an Island.
Counter target instant or sorcery spell.
Mayor Mare holds onto whatever advantages she still has over Twilight with an iron mouthgrip.
Drowsing Donkey 2U
Creature — Donkey Citizen
Drowsing Donkey can’t attack unless you’ve cast a noncreature spell this turn.
“You go spend a few years as Pinkie Pie’s friend, see how tired you are.”
3/3
Trivia Mistress 2U
Creature — Pony Advisor
At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player chooses a card type, then reveals the top card of their library. If the revealed card is the chosen type, that player draws a card. (Artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and tribal are card types.)
2/2
Careful Contemplative 3U
Creature — Wizard
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Partner with Careless Blatherer (When this creature enters the battlefield, target player may put Careless Blatherer into their hand from their library, then shuffle.)
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player draws a card.
2/2
Penalizing Princess 3UU
Creature — Wizard
Alicorn
Flash
Flying
When Penalizing Princess enters the battlefield, counter target spell, activated ability, or triggered ability. (Mana abilities can’t be targeted.)
2/1
Advanced Twilighting 4UU
Sorcery
Target player puts the top half of their library, rounded up, into their graveyard.
Overload 2UU (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of “target” with “each.”)
Friends inevitably influence one another.
Careless Blatherer 2B
Creature — Pony Rogue
Partner with Careful Contemplative
Whenever an opponent draws a card, Careless Blatherer deals 1 damage to that player.
2/3
Traumatized Scorekeeper 2B
Creature — Unicorn Advisor
Whenever another player loses life, you gain 1 life. (Damage causes loss of life.)
By the time calculus got involved, she decided the job would be easier if she just went insane.
3/2
Apple Family Exile 3B
Creature — Pony Rogue
When Apple Family Exile enters the battlefield, destroy target land if its controller controls more lands than you.
“Every bushel has a few bad ones. Some worse than others.”
—Granny Smith
3/2
Quest for the Threepeat 1RR
Legendary Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, put a quest counter on that creature. Then if that creature has three or more quest counters on it, you may remove all quest counters from creatures you control, transform Quest for the Threepeat, and attach it to that creature.
At end of combat, remove all quest counters from creatures you control that didn’t deal combat damage to players this turn.
Triple Crown
(R) Legendary Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +3/+0 and has trample and triple strike. (It deals first-strike, regular, and last-strike combat damage.)
The power is an afterthought. The real reward is the prestige.
Spectrum Smasher 2R
Creature — Pegasus Warrior
Partner with Spectrum Harvester
Flying
Pay two mana of different colors: Spectrum Smasher gets +2/+0 until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
0/2
Flint Elemental 3RR
Creature — Elemental
1R: If a red source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player this turn, it deals that much damage plus 1 to that permanent or player instead.
When sparks fly, ponies fry.
3/4
Fierce Rivalry 4RR
Sorcery
Surge 2RR (You may cast this spell for its surge cost if you or a teammate has cast another spell this turn.)
Target creature fights another target creature.
Some friendships are more hooves-on than others.
Signs of the Season 2G
Enchantment — Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Create a 2/2 green Elemental Wolf creature token with “T: Add G.”
II — Scry X, where X is the number of creatures you control.
III — Until your next turn, whenever you tap a permanent for mana, add an additional mana of any color.
Spectrum Harvester 3G
Creature — Pony Druid
Partner with Spectrum Smasher
T: Add two mana of different colors.
“We’ll make ‘em black and blue to start with.”
2/2
Unknown Quantity 3GG
Creature — Pony Warrior
Hexproof
As Unknown Quantity enters the battlefield, roll a six-sided die. Unknown Quantity enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the result.
Wise mares fear the one who has no idea what she’s doing.
0/0
Brothers’ Dread Rampage 2WB
Legendary Sorcery
(You may cast a legendary sorcery only if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.)
Each player chooses a creature and an enchantment they control, then sacrifices the rest.
Centuries ago, two fallen princes left one wasteland to create another.
Forceful Ejection 3UB
Sorcery
Return up to two target nonland permanents to their owners’ hands. For each permanent returned this way, that permanent’s owner discards a card.
Spike sighed as he gathered himself. It was going to be one of those days.
Improbable Alliance
Conspiracy
Double agenda (Start the game with this conspiracy face down in the command zone and secretly choose two different card names. You may turn this conspiracy face up any time and reveal those names.)
Each creature your team controls with one of the chosen names has partner with the other chosen name.
The rehash of the movie's TwiPie (ugh, I hate that this has been acknowledged by canon now) schism was one of the things that really turned me off of this.
And I'd like to continue deluding myself that this is not in character for Twilight. That, for all that it's certainly possible for her to blow off one of her friends like this, she's learned enough after 9 seasons of being the Princess of Books that she might just, y'know, reign herself in before the worst happens. :| I don't know why I continue to believe things like that, as they are patently false, but there you go.
Oddly enough, I kind of, er, I guess the word could be "praise" this episode for handling a misfortune to Pinkie by her other friends effectively. One of the big issues I had with "Yakity-Sax" was that the episode was supposed to be generating sympathy for Pinkie when it was clear her new hobby was visibly disturbing and disrupting everyone (even causing physical damage). In this one, you genuinely feel she was unfairly wronged.
I also have a very nice, kind, well-mannered, and thoughtful relative who nevertheless turns into a werewolf when she plays cards with the family. (She actually starts using f-bombs...and she hates f-bombs.) And honestly? I've had experience with people before in which competitiveness turns them into major buttholes. (If I'm being honest...I've been that person more than once.)
Because of that, I like this one better than last week's, but it doesn't change the fact we've seen two of the Mane Six at their worst two weeks in a row for the final half of the final season.
This episode wouldn't have rubbed me the wrong way if it had been in season 1 or 2. Twilight is better than this now.
Better odds than not, Twilight was probably involved.
5107934
Excessive rules lawyering making them change the scores back and forth?
I was thinking there was a 'great villains of Equestria' category or something, where the pony reading the cards had to keep saying 'no offense'.
5107895
It's a little better than that, inasmuch as Twilight eventually realized what she did wrong without being told didactically by someone who already knew. She saw her own behavior in Sunburst (who unlike Starlight in The Beginning of the End was not putting on an act to get her to see what she looked like from the outside, but was genuinely acting the same way for the same reason), apologized, and corrected her behavior.
Actually, now I say that, it occurs to me that this was, finally, an example of this kind of episode done right. Where the character acts badly but redeems themselves and shows their own good qualities, rather than just following the instructions of someone else who knows better.
It's still not pleasant to watch in the moment, but it at least makes it clear that the character is not reducible to their worst qualities.
5107895
:/
5107951
Probably. I imagine either A) Starlight was the score keeper in the last Trivia Trot, and Twilight's shenanigans frustrated her to no end, or B) Twilight roped Starlight into a few practice games and that got to Starlight.
No, this is a real thing! The trick to making it not revolting is to use a tiny bit of chili... just enough to "turn up the volume" on your taste buds without adding flavor or burn. It intensifies the flavor of the other ingredients!
An easy experiment to do is to separate a milkshake into two glasses. Add a drop or two of Tabasco sauce to one of the glasses and stir it in. Have a friend swap the glasses around while you're not looking and do a taste test. One will taste creamier and more flavorful that the other.
I feel the same way about this week's episode as I did about last week's: it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I have no desire to watch it again.
Oh, well, at least the new Invader Zim movie on Netflix was everything I hoped it would be.
Oooh, three silver-borders and a conspiracy. Noice. Though I am going to be spending some mental power debating if Rules Lawyer and Scour the Rulebook are really worth the same mana cost...
This did not follow the rest of the season's prompts of concluding character arcs or answering longtime questions, and was more likely the staff going "OK, we get one last chance for meme faces and shipping references." I can appreciate that, but there was still a teachable moment, like there should be for each episode.
5107903
I really felt for Twilight yesterday. I have a lot of friends on the spectrum (I guess we just tend to cluster), and some of them are super high strung. Sometimes when we're just trying to sit down to to watch an episode on our laptops, or even just having a conversation, they'll just be incessantly throwing out comments, mumbling, twitching or rocking in their seats. I'm an objective-oriented person, so if something is interrupting a plan, I get antsy. So I try dropping hints about behavior, but I can get snappish. Especially if it's happening in public, with people who don't know them. I have to debate if I'm being too self-important, or if I'm doing them a favor by making them more cognizant of their behavior.
So is the Flint Elemental inspired by when Twilight also set her quill on fire?
So... what is the full detail?
I was really pleased with Granny's involvement here. It reminds us that with her goofy pronunciation thanks to her accent and aged body, she's still a pretty capable (and funny) adult. She's one of the different types of 'intelligence' that this episode has on display. Granny Smith is the experienced common sense. Maude and Mudbriar are obnoxiously unflappable and composed. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were able to pull ahead probably thanks to reflexes and expertise in their given field. What impressed me the most is how they didn't make Pinkie look like a moron. It reminded me of one the best descriptors for her I've ever read on this website: "Pinkie blurts out the third thing that comes into her head."
5107956
Well said. The conflict also worked just fine for me because the entire setup was so low-stakes. If Twilight had thrown Pinkie under the bus in front of her entire School of Friendship, or made a herself fool at herself at some UN summit, it would be too cringey and mean-spirited for me. Here, his is town trivia night. This is the sort of thing MY office likes to hold for employees on Sunday events. Twilight also makes her case clear to Pinkie Pie, oblivious though she is, that she came here to win, and even tried to give Pinkie Pie a chance at succeeding. It's a sentiment that the ensemble cast adds to. Before the game proper starts, the episode introduces a range of personality types from around town that all non-aggressively agree that they'll all work against each other for the title. Even Fluttershy is acting competitive.
Reading your comment, it also made me appreciate the show giving Sunburst a character flaw outside of "NEEEEEERRRRRD!" His initial character arc was his fallout of flunking out of magic school. Since then he's proven himself as a wizard by saving the Crystal Empire and all of Equestria, and he's faced down the personal shame by opening up to Starlight and his mother. The only other remaining personality flaw for him to face is how he could act oblivious to Starlight's feelings in "Uncommon Bond", and that was something that the fans would point out more than the show. But that aspect really flows into what we saw of his behavior on Team SunLight, including how he just fell into it and felt guilty afterwords. After so long without being relevant, it was cool to have him reappear with a new cocksure facet to him.
5108441
How exactly does a “Conspiracy” card help the player? What does it mean of two creatures are “partnered?”
5108897
A few points:
• Flint Elemental was based solely on the fact that one of the trivia answers was flint. I drew pretty heavily on those answers, since there's only so many ways one can spin ponies yelling at each other in a community center.
• I never did make the connection between that bit of TwiPie interaction and the conclusion, did I? My point is that normally, I'd expect Twilight to know better than to expect Pinkie to stay calm and stop being a distraction just because somepony told her to, but I am intimately familiar with how the usual social graces can go out the window in a competition, especially when someone who prides themself on their intelligence is locked in a battle of wits.
• Conspiracies were introduced, appropriately enough, in the special draft-focused set Conspiracy. Most conspiracies, like Brago's Favor, have an ability called hidden agenda, which allows their benefits to apply to a specific card you choose at the start of the game and reveal when it's most advantageous. Double agenda, as seen on Improbable Alliance, is a variant of this. Others start the game face up and have either an effect at the start of the game, such as Backup Plan, or a continuous effect that isn't tied to a specific card, like Emissary's Ploy. Conspiracies aren't legal for any Constructed format, for obvious reasons.
• Partner with (name) is explained on Careful Contemplative in this blog. When one partner enters the battlefield, someone can search for the other Improbable Alliance allows you to declare any two creatures partners for this game.
Interesting. So...
Nightmare Moon is arrogant, sadistic, petty, self-absorbed, tyrannical, thin-skinned, and vain.
Daybreaker, from what we saw, is arrogant, cruel, petty, destructive, and unfettered. Oh, and hammy, but they're ALL hammy.
There's some similarities shared by all three. Which makes sense, them being in similar social positions. There's also some differences, also makes sense since they're manifestations of the respective ponies giving in to their desires in a way that's not healthy: Luna's desire to be recognised and respected, Celestia's mischievous impulses and her wanting to cut loose and enjoy herself freely and openly, and Twilight's thirst for understanding and being in control. I wouldn't even say these are vices, because in a sense these stem from positive qualities: Luna wants to perform as a proper princess, Celestia wants to be approachable, and Twilight wants to be able to solve any and all problems, for everyone.
You know, I rewatched the scenes with Daybreaker again, and I had a thought. What if Daybreaker's rant about Celestia being so powerful she doesn't need anyone is rooted in Celestia's fear of failing her little ponies rather than of going all out? Nothing so far suggests Celestia actually has been holding back. Maybe her point of "If Luna can become this, so can you!" isn't about there being a dark version of Celestia bubbling beneath the surface that she has to hold back, but about Celestia being scared that she needs one because she keeps getting defeated again and again. That plain old Celestia is inadequate.
All things considered, it probably is more about her wanting to cut loose. That's consistent with what we've seen so far. Celestia is the more jovial and easygoing of the two. Luna is more reserved. Even their hammy evil sides show this: Daybreaker just burns everything while Nightmare Moon moves back in with her old castle, where everything is meticulously redesigned to be night-themed... including the ponies!
Whew. That went way off-script. Sorry for the rambling, FOME.
How did I not catch that? I can definitely see the writers putting that in on purpose.
Sooooo muuuuuuch!
I'm more curious what happens if an odd number of ponies try to play, cause at that point, if Pinkie hadn't shown up,it's possible Twi wouldn't have been able to compete at all given the lack of partner. (Or she would have drafted Spike to be it.)
He pretty much has the most chill possible in Equestria without some herbal support.
He's run out of bucks to give, he knows this far to well to even bother wasting time doing anything but point out the obvious correct answer just so he can say "I told you so" later, and then sitting back to watch the show.
Please....she could make it possible to drive from the US to Europe.
Yeah, shallow ep, but it was just so damn fun I can't not enjoy it.Between this, and the next ep... pretty well made me...not all THAT sad the show is ending.Not for some 'it's turning into crap' idiocy, but just..... seeing Twilight stressing the hell out and going nuts is so damn FUN! But,long term... she does have to grow.And that's kind of the place for most of the mane characters, they've grown to the point that pushing the more wacky, ridiculous, just for fun type stuff like this gets harder and harder to see them do.
This is by no means a bad thing, and the fact they have grown that much is a major testament to the show and the greatness of it. But at the same time......... Most of the Mane 6 are in stable places where they have matured, and are where they want to be in life. While there are many stories that can still be told, things do start to get more limited. You either need to accept it and eventually move on, or you start resorting to random, sitcom/Soap Opera twists that change everything just for the sake of giving them something new to do, no matter how little sense it makes or how bad it screws them over.
Like adding a school for them all to suddenly be teachers at.