Episode Re-Review: Dungeons & Discords · 5:43pm May 29th, 2021
Discord had been noticeably absent from Season 6 up to this point, though this was not entirely by intent considering he was planned to appear in "A Hearth's Warming Tail" but was cut due to time constraints. Spike, meanwhile, had been through his ups and downs that included "Gauntlet of Fire" and "The Times They Are a Changeling". The idea of them sharing an episode was certainly out there, and Season 6 really needed something to get back on track after two duds and an episode about racism that was both not as bad as it could've been but also far from the kind of quality Season 6 had briefly flirted with. But Nick Confalone was writing the episode, although his most recent work had included "No Second Prances" which was still hotly contested. With all these ingredients together, was it possible for Season 6 to return to form to an extent? Well, let's find out.
We begin with Fluttershy packing for a trip when Discord shows up, expecting to be invited along. But Fluttershy mentions that she just found out Princess Celestia is taking the mane six on an overnight tour of Yakyakistan. She then suggests that Discord could spend the night with Spike and Big Macintosh who have a not so secret guy's night that they do whenever the mane six are away (no word on where Starlight is at any point during this episode or how Spike and Big Mac work around her presence). Discord protests, claiming that they're "sidekicks" but Fluttershy claims he might get to like it if he gives it a chance. Discord, however, not so secretly tries to get Fluttershy to stay by changing the train tracks to lead straight into a volcano, and Fluttershy makes him change it back. The rest of the mane six then show up as Pinkie Pie mentions the yeti she encountered on her trip to Yakyakistan a season ago.
Big Macintosh and Spike are in a not so secret rush to get the girls to leave, which kind of begs the question of why they bother pretending their guy's night is a secret when everyone knows about it and knows what they're doing.
So the mane six leave and Spike and Big Mac offer Discord a chance to join in on their guy's night. Discord initially tries to pretend he's got better things to do, before he agrees and vows to show up at sundown so the fun can start. He keeps his word, making a big dramatic entrance, not unlike a sports star.
Discord thinks that a guy's night is going to involve a night on the town, hitting up clubs and all that stuff. But Spike (perhaps because he's still a kid) proposes staying indoors for what's really more of a game night. Oddly enough, Discord fondly speaks of his past experience with his own "game" while he strokes a bit of Celestia's mane that he borrowed the way all super villains stroke their pets.
But Spike indicates that his game is Ogres & Oubliettes, a canon migrant from the comics since "Neigh Anything" established it as something Shining Armor and his nerd friends played all the time. Oddly enough, Hasbro apparently owns the rights to Dungeons & Dragons which this game and episode title are both clearly based on (the granddaddy of tabletop RPGs). Spike and Big Mac have their own characters, and Spike is the dungeon master since he's in charge of naming the world and the villain. His crush on Rarity is still a thing because he's named the princess Shamarity while claiming it's a totally normal name for his own little world. Spike's character is a wizard, while Big Macintosh's is a unicorn swordsman (swordsstallion, I guess).
The villain is a squid wizard literally named The Squizard, and Spike is hoping to make Discord a character in the game. Discord is anything but interested, he'd rather do something else. However, Spike assigns him the name of "Captain Wuzz" when he ignores the sarcasm in Discord's voice and Discord himself chooses to be an archer. Then Spike takes up the role of dungeon master again, beginning the session with the heroes trapped in a cell in a dungeon.
Discord, not really taking the game seriously, tries to more or less cast magic missile at a guard but the spell backfires on him.
Spike and Big Macintosh start teasing Discord because of this, ignoring his complaints about how the game is stupid. So eventually Discord snaps, sealing Big Mac in a bubble and opting to show Spike and Discord what "Guy's night is really all about".
However, Spike demands that Discord let him and Big Macintosh play their game. And Discord agrees, sending them both in a a real life session of Ogres & Oubliettes where the pain is real. And Discord happens to be the dungeon master this time. A clever little detail is that we see "A score of arrows" with the exact number Quibble Pants mentioned in "Stranger Than Fanfiction".
It's worth mentioning that Big Macintosh is an entirely silent "Eeyup" and "Eenope" character again, though perhaps to make up for it Peter New is the voice of the squizard. Spike naturally berates Discord for this reckless move, telling him to stop and Discord eventually agrees. It's then revealed that Spike and Big Mac invited Discord to their guy's night because they felt sorry for him, to which Discord reacts by more or less disappearing. Spike and Big Macintosh try to move on and play the game without Discord, but it isn't working and so they call him back. Discord eventually manages to force out a "Sorry" before Spike asks him if it's possible to bring the game to life again but remove the pain. To that end, we cut to them facing down the squizard's forces right as the mane six come back from their trip. Twilight reacts oddly as if she's embarrassed or uncomfortable with what she's seeing even though the same original comics run that gave us Ogres & Oubliettes also showed that Twilight sometimes played it with her brother. In fact, it's kind of a shame there's no nod to Shining Armor even just as the one who taught Spike the game. I mean yeah, by this point he's a father so he probably can't come to Ponyville, but even just a line or two mentioning him wouldn't have hurt. Anyway, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash decide that they want in on the action, and rush over to the game world as they become a bard and a thief respectively. I can't help but feel like Pinkie being a bard is a nod to Friendship is Witchcraft.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, the biggest virtue to it is that it's our first guys centered episode with the girls having only a minor role at the very start and end. Spike shines pretty well here, again demonstrating how you make the little kid character work without being too annoying. And it was interesting to see a nod to the IDW comics, even if it was an indirect and kind of vague one that only long time fans might know about. However, the episode seems to stumble by its decision to put the spotlight on Discord. He immediately becomes hard to sympathize with when he calls Spike and Big Mac "sidekicks" and claims that only "Opposite" him would wanna hang out with them literally. Plus, his apology feels dragged out. However, Spike is kind of to blame for the falling out since he doesn't do a good job of being a dungeon master. He doesn't really try to get Discord engaged in the game and doesn't really try to stick up for him when Big Mac starts laughing at Discord. Speaking of Big Mac, I don't really like him going back to being just an "Eeyup" and "Eenope" character here, it really cheapens the development he got at the end of "Brotherhooves Social". I'm not saying he has to speak all the time, but considering he hadn't really appeared much all season I don't think it would've hurt to make him speak up here. The episode's ending in and of itself almost feels like it could've been the set up for another episode, though thankfully it also avoids the tired cliche of "Girls aren't allowed to join guy's night". Ultimately, this episode gets a borderline B+/A-, it is enjoyable but it could've used a bit more polish.
Now we have an interesting episode since it was the first and only episode that a new writer would pen for the show (and it wouldn't be part of a collab like some other one off writers), as well as one that would show off a new sport with "Buckball Season".
For all of Discord's jerkiness in this episode, at least he realized his mistake and made up for it, which is more than I can say for a certain other episode of his. *cough*A Matter of Principals*cough*
For me, this episode is pretty boring for the entire second act.
If it was more like the third, I'd enjoy it more
5526940 Yeah, but at the same time the third act has kind of been done almost to death with the whole idea of: Live the game, feel the pain, that sort of thing. I do think they could've included it more or come back to it for another episode later, like say have that for "The Break Up Break Down" instead of the cliche sitcom misunderstandings that stopped being interesting by the time of Shrek.
5526949
It's overdone, sure, but I'd still rather have that than what we did actually get in this episode.
This is honestly my favorite Discord of all time.