MLP:FIM S5E22 - "What About Discord" - Grading & Discussion

[Amaris]

Episode Title: "What About Discord"
Air Date: November 7th, 2015, 11:30 AM Eastern Time (4:30 PM GMT/UTC)

Summary: "Twilight returns from Canterlot to discover that her friends have developed an inexplicably deep bond with Discord. Puzzled by how they became so close in her absence, she starts to suspect that Discord is up to something sinister."

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REMEMBER: NO OPEN SPOILERS UNTIL 3 PM ET (8 PM GMT)

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Ruminations:
This episode title and plot is based off of the Bill Murray comedy What About Bob?, and I am going to love the *yay* out of it. The moment I saw the title I knew, I knew, and sure enough, reading the summary just cinches it. This episode looks like it's going to be a heck of a lot of fun. I've got my fingers crossed that at some point Discord's going to ask "is this corn hand shucked?" or maybe "baby steps down out the door," or even "I'm sailing! I'm sailing!", oh please oh please oh please! On to the show!

 

[Peach Wookiee]

"It's death therapy, Discord!" Okay, that looks cool in my head. Crazy Twilight in the role of Richard Dreyfuss!

 

[Amaris]

^

"Baby steps out the door..."
"Baby steps down the sidewalk..."

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^Discord needs a goldfish.

 

[Kemaiku]

Messy heavy handed filler material, but this is the writers second episode in MLP altogether, the other being Princess Spike. Think they should give them the old golden hand shake and make sure they don't interfere with season 6.

As in, bringing up time travel out of nowhere the moment Starlight's mane is seen peeking out of a bush. I mean okay we already know thats the endgame of the season because of the schedule fuckup by Discovery Family, SDCC and FG, but was this episode is a random excuse for her to get the idea here?

 

[Taylirious]

B

Entertaining but not too exciting.

 

[Amaris]

** It's after 3 PM, so there are spoilers ahead. Well, not really spoilers, but definitely episode details. **


I enjoyed the episode immensely. Lots of great looks for Twilight, Spike, and everyone. In fact, everyone looks much more alive in this episode than they have before. Maybe it's all of the newer facial expressions.

The message is solid: even friends can become jealous, no matter how good a friend they are, or how much they know about friendship. The key is to acknowledge that jealousy and move on from it.

Sight gags this episode:
Discord looks like Bob Ross twice (5:09, 19:10)
Pinkie Pie dressed as Marty McFly, with a Back to the Future musical motif in the background (9:50)

And YES, Discord appears at the castle dressed like Bob Wiley (blue shirt, hat, fishing gear, jar with Smooze instead of Gil the Goldfish)! (17:10)

All in all, a very fun episode. It gets an A from me!

 

[SeerSGB]

Average overall, certainly the weakest Discord episode in the series. And more of the story theme of "Friends growing up/moving on in life". Makes me wonder if the season finale is going to be a reset button for the series.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

It doesn't sound like it, Seer. I could be wrong, but judging by Friendship Games, it doesn't sound that way. And I have to say, Discord is only adding fuel to the fire that he's Q crossing universes.

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, I don't think it will, either. We know we're getting a sixth season, and it would be the height of stupidity for them to hit the reset button, so I think we're just looking at a life lesson (friends grow up and move on). I do think that season 6 will be the last, though.

 

[SeerSGB]

Yeah, I don't think it will, either. We know we're getting a sixth season, and it would be the height of stupidity for them to hit the reset button, so I think we're just looking at a life lesson (friends grow up and move on). I do think that season 6 will be the last, though.

The way 5 is playing out, I wonder if they went into it planning it as the finale season and got Season 6 after production was underway. The whole season really feels like a "Goodbye tour"

 

[Amaris]

It could have been the original intent, yes.

 

[SeerSGB]

Kind of reminds of Season 4 of Babylon 5: We got Deconstruction Of Falling Stars, they filmed "Sleeping In The Light" then...

..."Fuck, we've got one more season to do"

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Yeah, I don't think it will, either. We know we're getting a sixth season, and it would be the height of stupidity for them to hit the reset button, so I think we're just looking at a life lesson (friends grow up and move on). I do think that season 6 will be the last, though.

I hope they end it right when it ends...

 

[Amaris]

Kind of reminds of Season 4 of Babylon 5: We got Deconstruction Of Falling Stars, they filmed "Sleeping In The Light" then...

..."Fuck, we've got one more season to do"

It does feel like that, because they have begun wrapping up so much.

Yeah, I don't think it will, either. We know we're getting a sixth season, and it would be the height of stupidity for them to hit the reset button, so I think we're just looking at a life lesson (friends grow up and move on). I do think that season 6 will be the last, though.

I hope they end it right when it ends...

I hope so, too.

 

[Kemaiku]

Several of the things we were told about that sounded like season 5 episodes are going to be season 6 ones according to some of the staff on twitter.

As I said to John before they've been implying seasons 5 and 6 were written back to back and produced that way as well. So whereas season 7 would lead perfectly up to the 2017 movie, I think the two of them were written that way given the poorer perfomance of season 4, but I think they'll be the last as well.

We know from Larson's MMC interview this year that it (S3) was meant to be the last episode and season 4 was stretched out without as much guidance or effort. They've really been turning that around with this season and I'm sure the next one will be at least the same.

But even if season 6 is the last one, that's 26 more episodes after this one, Legend of Everfree, Equestria Girls 4, MLP the Movie and whatever Guardians of Harmony turns out to be.

 

[Amaris]

Several of the things we were told about that sounded like season 5 episodes are going to be season 6 ones according to some of the staff on twitter.

As I said to John before they've been implying seasons 5 and 6 were written back to back and produced that way as well. So whereas season 7 would lead perfectly up to the 2017 movie, I think the two of them were written that way given the poorer perfomance of season 4, but I think they'll be the last as well.

We know from Larson's MMC interview this year that it (S3) was meant to be the last episode and season 4 was stretched out without as much guidance or effort. They've really been turning that around with this season and I'm sure the next one will be at least the same.

But even if season 6 is the last one, that's 26 more episodes after this one, Legend of Everfree, Equestria Girls 4, MLP the Movie and whatever Guardians of Harmony turns out to be.

Indeed, there's still a glut of pony ahead of us for the time being, and I'm very interested in how they will end the whole thing with, as you mentioned, the series finale happening 2 seasons ago.