Episode Re-Review: The Return of Harmony Parts 1 and 2 · 8:12pm Feb 15th, 2021
While Season 1 was drawing to a close, Lauren Faust was working on her plans for the grand finale for that adventure show she had wanted FiM to be. She didn't have much of a concept at first beyond just Twilight defeating Discord, an enemy even Princess Celestia couldn't defeat, and ascending to alicornhood and taking over from Princess Celestia right on the spot. Heck, Discord hadn't gotten much beyond just causing chaos. It was only once Lauren started binging Star Trek: The Next Generation that inspiration would strike, getting the idea to base Discord off of Q. However, as time went by Hasbro instead opted to greenlight a second season with their own plans for continuing the show, and Lauren Faust would become less and less involved. Eventually, her "finale" would be reworked into the Season 2 premiere and M. A. Larson would be tasked with trying to make all the little pieces fit together. Did he succeed considering his work on "Sonic Rainboom" and "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", or like Amy Keating Rogers with "The Best Night Ever" did he turn in a less than stellar product? Well, let's find out.
Part 1 begins with Cheerilee taking a class on a field trip to Canterlot, more specifically the garden. In this garden reside a series of statues that embody different things. One of them is a creature called a draconequs, an actual mythological creature just like griffons and hydras. The Cutie Mark Crusaders start debating what the creature is supposed to represent, and then all of a sudden they start fighting and acting strangely out of character (such as Sweetie Belle calling Scootaloo a dodo, another flightless bird). While they fight no one notices the statue starting to crack, and it's implied that the CMC fighting is what frees Discord. But I find this really stupid and hard to believe. Do you honestly mean to tell me that no one ever fought in front of Discord's statue before at any point? Not even just a little? If he's been imprisoned for over a thousand years my suspension of disbelief can't be stretched thin enough to assume no one ever fought in front of his statue during that insanely long time period. Maybe there was supposed to be something more that got lost or not conveyed when this episode was being converted. And this isn't the only time I'm gonna wonder if there's not some director's cut of this out there somewhere.
Cheerilee breaks up the fighting by telling the CMC that they were all right, and even demonstrated what the statue represents through their fighting. In fact, because they did so good she's gonna have them write a report on it (I've heard of stranger ways of punishing students for bad behavior). Then the whole class leaves as the statue begins to crack more and a faint laugh is hard as Discord begins to wake up.
We then cut to Ponyville as strange things start happening: Cotton candy clouds, chocolate milk rain, animals with strange and exaggerated features, you name it. The mane six are all gathering at Sweet Apple Acres, trying to help (or at least most of them are, Pinkie Pie seems more interested in stuffing her face and Rarity is worried about getting wet). Eventually, Twilight shows up and casts a spell to try and fix everything. But of course it doesn't work, so instead she has to improvise a solution to get things under control. I get that this is meant to show off Twilight's leadership skills, but it feels like we don't get to see the mane six's friendships at their best. It feels like they're all basically dependent on Twilight to solve their problems because otherwise their own personalities will get in the way. And pacing is going to be a real problem throughout this two parter, probably as a result of the conversion. It's not so bad now but it's going to get really jarring later on. Anyway, Spike belches up a scroll from Princess Celestia urging the mane six to come to Canterlot at once.
When the mane six arrive (no word on where Spike is but I assume Twilight dropped him off back at the library given what we'll see later) Princess Celestia reveals to them that an ancient evil that she thought had been defeated forever has returned, and that evil is Discord. She proceeds to exposit about him, how he ruled Equestria before Celestia and Luna rose up and overthrew him and how their connection to the Elements of Harmony are now severed since they were passed to the mane six (they even have a stain glass window comemerating the occasion). She then tasks the mane six with wielding the Elements of Harmony again to defeat Discord, though Pinkie Pie objects because as she puts it "Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain". This was meant to be funny, but Pinkie's basically saying that ponies lives turned upside down is okay since she gets unlimited chocolate rain out of it, and this makes her look really shallow. Sometimes you have to kill a joke for the sake of your story.
Despite Pinkie's objection Princess Celestia prepares to give the mane six the Elements of Harmony, but when she presents the case holding them she finds it empty. It isn't long before Discord reveals that, surprise surprise, he took the elements. It's worth mentioning that they didn't originally intend on having John De Lancie himself voice Discord, they were originally going to get a poor man's substitute before someone suggested they get the real thing, and John agreed. Given what's happening in "Pony Life" I would assume that their idea of a poor man was going to be Peter New, although I could be wrong. Anyway, Discord starts revealing that he knows about the mane six and the elements they're connected to, claiming that Pinkie Pie's is his personal favorite. All the while the stained glass image of himself is moving around and even dances atop Twilight's head. The pop culture references start to become rather obvious here, as Discord basically does a dance similar to "Everyday I'm Shuffling".
A furious Princess Celestia orders Discord to stop with the games and reveal what he's done with the Elements of Harmony, and he agrees but "I'll only tell you my way." which is through a riddle. It doesn't take long for Twilight to arrive at what she assumes is the conclusion: The hedge maze near the castle. And she comes to this conclusion based solely on the twists and turns part, interpreting the riddle literally even though there's no indication that the riddle was intended to be literal. So the mane six leave and Rainbow Dash intends to fly over the hedge maze to find the elements. But she doesn't get far before her wings vanish, as do Fluttershy's. Twilight and Rarity lose their horns, but Pinkie Pie and Applejack don't seem to be affected. Then Discord emerges in all his glory, briefly pretending to menacing before revealing a more playful nature. He's definitely got an advantage over Nightmare Moon in regards to interaction with the heroes, something every good villain needs to be effective. Discord reveals that he took the wings and horns to ensure "no cheating" for a little game of his, a game that operates under two rules. Rule number one is no flying and no magic, and rule number two is everypony has to play or else the game's over and Discord wins. Then he vanishes after wishing the ponies good luck.
Determined that they can win if they just stick together, the mane six take one step into the hedge maze only to be immediately separated courtesy of Discord. With the exception of Fluttershy none are frightened and decide to move out and regroup in the center of the maze. And here is where the pacing starts to get really choppy. Discord begins to target the mane six, his first such target being Applejack. Applejack sees a bunch of apples rolling by themselves and follows them to a small pond. They tell her that they're the keepers of the grove of truth and that she may ask them any one question. Apparently not concerned or suspicious by the strange behavior, Applejack decides to ask what's gonna happen on this quest. She's encouraged to stare down into the pond, and is shown a vision of "the future" where the mane six all agree to go their separate ways and never speak to each other again.
A horrified Applejack doesn't want to believe it's true (and indeed it isn't since Discord is quite literally controlling the apples like puppets on strings), but the apples allow her to be brainwashed by Discord into lying. Her coat color dulls considerably, and then her path opens back up to allow Twilight to meet up with her. Applejack claims she was talking to nopony, which is actually true because the apples were not ponies. If she had said noone then that would be a lie. Anyway, she trots past and Twilight dismisses the behavior because she says "Applejack would never lie" even though she witnessed Applejack trying to lie on the spot during "Party of One". Anyway, Pinkie Pie is the next to be targeted as she stumbles across a balloon garden only to trip and fall in a mud puddle when one of the balloons grabs her leg. Then the balloons start laughing at her as Discord shows up and claims her friends have always been laughing at her behind her back. Pinkie insists that's a lie, but Discord uses mind games and manipulation to make her think that's true. This one actually works well since we have seen times before where various members of the mane six didn't seem to have a high opinion of Pinkie Pie, though this does also run contrary to "Party of One"'s message about assuming the best and not the worst in your friends.
So Pinkie Pie is corrupted as well and now Twilight seems to notice the strange behavior, yet still doesn't seem to think something is up even when she can see the dulled coat colors. We'll even learn later on that this isn't just a visual clue for the audience, this is actually there in-universe. And the pacing just keeps chugging along almost too fast as Rarity is next to fall victim to Discord's tricks. Her corruption is abrupt and sudden. She goes from rejecting the brainwashing to charging at what she thinks are diamonds and digging at them with her hooves. Then we get to Fluttershy, and Discord tries to brainwash her by using butterflies, claiming that her friends think she's useless. While it's funny to see Fluttershy counter Discord's tricks and shake them off without concern, her saying that she is weak and helpless just makes her look pathetic. How can anyone have that low a self esteem and say that with such a straight face? Once again, sometimes you have to kill a joke for the sake of your story. Anyway, Discord loses his patience and resorts to doing the brainwashing directly by touching Fluttershy. Who would've ever guessed that from these interactions would be born a potential romantic relationship?
Twilight and the others join Fluttershy as Twilight says the labyrinth is getting to everyone, meaning she's starting to suspect something but for whatever reason she doesn't think Discord is behind it. And then we come to Rainbow Dash, who finds Discord himself laying in a hammock made of clouds. Rather than fight Rainbow, he come to give her a message. He shows her an image of Cloudsdale about to fall apart all the while providing her with a riddle involving making a choice. It feels like they were going for a type of sadistic choice that villains like The Joker are fond of (you can only save one person but both are extremely valuable to you).
Rainbow is then brainwashed and Discord gives her a box containing her wings. A corrupted Rainbow Dash flies away, causing Discord to dissolve the labyrinth and give everyone else back their wings and horns because the game is over. Part 1 ends as he cackles at his apparent victory while lightning flashes behind him.
Part 2 opens up with Pinkie Pie originally appearing to talk directly to the camera when she asks "What are you laughing about?!" but it's actually her talking to Discord. Then we see fights between Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and Applejack and Rarity, Twilight approaches Discord and accuses him of not playing fair. Discord basically points out that his title is a dead giveaway that he doesn't play fair, but Twilight counters by claiming that they can't find the elements if he takes away the maze. Discord naturally can't resist gloating as he treats Twilight to a flashback and tells her that he never said the elements were in the maze, she just assumed. After a bit of rubbing it in he tells her "Maybe the magic of friendship can help you" before he snaps his talons and disappears. A disappointed Twilight just wants to go home, but then realizes that that must've been what the answer was supposed to be.
On the way back to Ponyville (without taking the train for some reason) Twilight gets trampled by bunnies with huge legs, and one of them is apparently Angel since Fluttershy praises him and says "Momma's so proud". Then the sun sets and the dirt roads turn into slippery soap.
Discord reveals that this is his handiwork and then tells Twilight he's turning Ponyville into the new chaos capital of the world. It's a fine scene but it does just basically amount to Discord gloating for no other reason than because he can. We really don't see much of the "New and Improved Ponyville". The group reaches the Golden Oak Library as Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity all turn completely grey in front of Twilight and yet she doesn't say anything. Rarity also continues to claim that the boulder she's carrying (which she named Tom) is actually a diamond, and she won't leave it alone, forcing Twilight to lug it into the library with her. Then Spike gets a bucket of water dumped on him by Fluttershy as he asks what that was for, and Fluttershy claims it was because he looked peaceful (in other words she did it because she felt like it). Spike comments on how the ponies are all grey, proving that this isn't just a visual tell for the audience. Twilight then tries to find the book "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide" but her patience begins to wear thin as her "friends" opt to steal the book and play a game of keep away with it.
Twilight eventually retrieves the book after a scuffle and finds the Elements of Harmony inside the reference guide, right back at the start of her adventure that led her to discover friendship. She then places the elements on each of her friends, not even bothering to change up the elements despite having seen their behavior. And rather than track down Rainbow Dash she just makes Spike fill in for him with the line that became a meme "Congratulations, Spike! You're the new Rainbow Dash!". Soon after leaving the library, the girls and Spike find Discord who pretends to be concerned and even offers up a part of his body as a target. The elements begin to activate and it briefly seems like Discord miscalculated, but ultimately they fail.
Here, Discord kind of starts to fall apart as an antagonist. His personality seems to be reduced to that of a playground bully when he says "Discord rules, Celestia drools" and just claps in approval at how "Harmony is dead". Each of the corrupted mane six split off and throw away their elements, and Twilight just gives up while claiming "With friends like you, who needs... enemies". Her entire body turns grey all of a sudden and she sheds a tear falls into the shape of a broken heart.
Twilight strolls on through the chaos broken hearted, and Discord tries to show off all sorts of chaotic things he's doing like making a pony sneeze so hard that paper cutouts of houses fall down. But Twilight isn't interested. It briefly seems like Discord is remorseful and saddened at his victory, not unlike how The Joker can't exist without Batman around. But it's just a fake out as he cheers once Twilight goes into the library to start packing. I suppose having a villain actually question themselves was too complex?
Twilight is prepared to throw away her crown when suddenly Spike is revealed to be really sick because he's been belching up scrolls non-stop. The scrolls turn out to be all the friendship lessons Twilight learned and sent to Princess Celestia. Supposedly there's confirmation that more episodes occurred before this, but considering a big animation detail we'll see beginning in the next episode I think that idea falls apart. Anyway, reading over the lessons is enough to reverse the feeling of hopelessness and restore Twilight to normal. Then she decides she has to fight for her friends and for Equestria (as if she wasn't already doing that). Her first visit is to Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres, tackling her and using a memory spell to get Applejack back to normal. Interestingly, the last memory Applejack sees is herself racing alongside Rainbow Dash during the events of "Fall Weather Friends", further adding fuel to the fire for AppleDash shippers. But if you were expecting this scene to play out for all the other friends, you thought wrong. Fluttershy is cured without the memories being seen, Rarity is cured without us seeing how Twilight approaches her and Pinkie Pie is cured completely off-screen. Why did they do this, you may ask? Why, so we can focus on Rainbow Dash for a couple of minutes. She thinks a patch of clouds is Cloudsdale, and when Applejack brings up how Discord tricked Rarity Rarity replies by saying "I thought we agreed never to speak of that."
So they use Fluttershy to sneak up on Rainbow Dash and tie her down, but then Fluttershy stupidly wakes Rainbow up and asks her for permission to tie her down, resulting in a chase scene.
It is kind of funny to see Fluttershy be encouraged to fly faster when she's told that Discord will win otherwise, and to hear her call him a "Big, dumb, meanie!" but once again I would rather the story be stronger instead of having this whole sequence be the result of a joke that made Fluttershy look dumb. Anyway, Rainbow Dash is eventually caught, tied down and has her memories restored. I get that she was vital to the mane six earning their cutie marks, but she didn't need to take up so much screen time that we had to rush through the restorations of Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Anyway, the girls celebrate but then realize they probably should defeat Discord before celebrating properly. They find Discord on some kind of throne as he gloats about chaos, and when he's confronted by the ponies he responds by drinking the glass out of a glass of chocolate milk and throwing the solid chocolate away and having it explode behind him. Really, all that's missing is the famous Wilhelm Scream.
Discord also doesn't seem to react to the ponies having their color back, and he basically just sits there and lets them power up. He doesn't realize until too late that the Elements of Harmony are working again, and is unable to escape as he is turned to stone once again.
Then, after everything has been restored to normal, we get a shot for shot recreation of the ending scene of Star Wars: A New Hope as the mane six are honored at a ceremony in Canterlot and a new stained glass comemerating their defeat of Discord is unveiled. Yet somehow, later episodes will still want to pretend the mane six are unknown to anyone outside of Ponyville.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the two parter? Like I said earlier, I really wonder if there's some "Director's Cut" somewhere that shows Lauren Faust's original visions or intentions for when this was her grand finale project. I imagine that if this had been a special or a movie or even just a three parter it would've been so much better and would've had so much more polish. The rushed conversion that had to fit so many details together for a premiere clearly shows, there's so many things that the two parter just rushes through and a lot of times where it breaks the story flow for the sake of jokes that, funny as they may be, would've been better left on the cutting room floor. This two parter also highlights the fact that almost every two parter in the show would more or less focus on Twilight to varying degrees while the rest of the mane six would have supporting roles (and Spike might too). Discord is originally a better written and handled villain than Nightmare Moon because he has a better personality and more interactions, but it starts to fall apart by the end when he begins to devolve into more of a playground bully and a background threat, and his defeat is so rushed and anti-climatic. They do at least acknowledge Luna exists here, but no explanation is given for her absence. And Twilight looks like an idiot for making rash conclusions and not noticing her friends' strange behavior or them literally turning grey in front of her. It was nice to see more direct references, but pop culture references don't automatically make your story stronger (it just proves you know pop culture). There are some good moments throughout, but the rushed pacing and constant interrupting the story's pace for jokes kills a lot of the momentum. Part one gets a C+ and part two gets a borderline C/C-. The two parter as a whole is unfortunately above average at best. It really needed more time on the backburner, because Lauren and Hasbro clearly wanted two different things out of it.
Well, Season 2 will thankfully improve very quickly, because up next we have what was the first episode of the show I ever saw and I would argue one of its most iconic (for better or for worse is up for debate): "Lesson Zero". And if you thought Pinkie's mental breakdown in Season 1 was crazy, you ain't seen anything yet!
For me, this episode has a few good moments, but I just find the whole thing oddly unpleasant, to the point that it's one of a small handful of episodes I'd call overrated.
It's also just straight up my least favorite premiere.
I think Discord being more in the background for part 2 does make sense, considering it's more about helping the mane 6. I will agree his defeat was a bit rushed though. That's my one real problem with the episode. And Luna's absence can be explained by it being day. And she did notice her friends' strange behaviour. And it bothered her immensely. As for the grayness, that's a detail I'm not sure about. It seems like a running theme that when characters go gray, other ponies don't notice it. It makes me wonder if it's just an aesthetic detail for the viewers, other than Spike commenting on it, which makes me think ponies are lowkey corruption blind.
I can get some of the complaints, but even if I considered all of them big flaws (which I don't other than the ending), I think c is far too harsh a score. There's just too many amazing character moments, comedic moments, Discord being Discord moments, etc. I also think the maze part of the episode is a god damn masterpiece. Discord using the ponies' vices against them made for some of the most comedic and interesting and intense moments of the episode. And it was when Discord was at his most threatening and entertaining.
No doubt Twilight did this out of desperation, as she wanted to defeat Discord as soon as possible and might've figured that searching for Rainbow Dash on her own would take too long.
5454741 I still think "Celestial Advice" and "All Bottled Up" are the weakest of the premieres, simply because there's nothing linking them together other than them focusing on Starlight.
5454777 Yes, there were good moments. But almost all of them came from the mane six being discorded or from Discord himself. And by the end he went downhill fast because of how he acted. Often, the funniest moments in this episode came about at the expense of the story, especially the chase scene starting because of a joke about Fluttershy asking for permission to tie Rainbow Dash down.
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I wouldn't say most of the good moments are from being discorded or from Discord. Those were the best moments in the episode probably, but the OG Mean 6 were absolutely great, and most of the episode was really awesome, with just a couple issues bogging it down. And it is a bit much for Fluttershy to ask Rainbow to hold her down, but she really wouldn't want to hold her best friend down, so her being hesitant to just do it isn't too bad.
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At least both of those episodes are enjoyable (as I said before I really love All Bottled Up).