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| I wonder whether the similarity to 1920s cartoon character faces was intentional? |
Written by M. A. Larson
17 Sep 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 9.0
The one with horn-opened locks. Well, one of them, anyway.
Thoughts: And we're back! What a start to Season 2, too. We get the debut of Discord, with this two-part premiere his only outing as a true villain. He's charismatic, unpredictable, dangerous... all the things a great movie villain needs. I wasn't familiar with Star Trek's Q when I first saw this (really! Not everyone watches it!) but John de Lancie was still easily the most compelling character in the episode. Discord also has the necessary crucial weakness, but the only hint this time that he's not quite as all-powerful as he believes himself to be is his inability to corrupt Fluttershy without changing tack. This is of course the very first time we see 'Shy having a special hold on Discord, something that will develop far more in future seasons. The other Mane Sixers get corrupted variously interestingly: Pinkie's genuinely creepy balloon garden is my pick, whereas Rarity's and Rainbow's corruptions are less cleverly done. Twilight alone remains normal... for now. The only thing I slightly dislike about this ep is its beginning: the CMC's field trip is a bit of a contrivance; and the stuff with chocolate rain etc, though amusing, drags very slightly. Once we're in Canterlot, though, with Celestia giving us the intriguing – and frightening – information that Discord once ruled Equestria, it's hard to look away for a moment. Oh, and I also love the little instrumental theme that plays whenever things look up for the ponies. A very good start to S2 indeed. Superb, even.
Choice quote: Discord: "What fun is there in making sense?"
New rating: ★★★★★
Next up is, of course, part 2! I don't imagine for a moment that it's going to score badly. But let's see how it goes.
I remember first seeing this and being struck by how *big* it all feels compared to season 1, even though I later learned it was part of the production cycle from the first season anyway - but the most striking moment was seeing Celestia lose control of the situation, her fright at suddenly realising she's been outwitted was the first hint the show ever gave that she wasn't the omnipotent Goddess-Empress 4D chess master (as even the s1 premiere was equivocal as to whether everything happened according to her master plan). Here, she was as surprised and fumbling as anypony else, and I vividly remember how shocking that felt. Hard to remember given the subsequent 8 seasons of repainting her as the daffy but well-meaning matriarch who doesn't actually help, but the idea that she didn't actually have everything covered really felt like it signalled a change in the dynamic of the show's world.
ReplyDeletethat she wasn't the omnipotent Goddess-Empress 4D chess master
DeleteAnd hence the reduction, from then on, in ponyfic that portrayed her as such -- to the extent that I'm now quite startled if I read a story that does that and isn't from 2013 at the latest.
Ooh, it's back! :D
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I always disliked about the beginning was the long series of establishing shots to remind us who all the characters were. I'm glad they stopped feeling the need to do that as the show went on.
Yes, it's incredibly jarring in The Cutie Map when they do the full round of introductions not once, but twice; conversely, the moment it's subverted in Rainbow Roadtrip ("and this is... everypony!") is a glorious surprise. I have to say it didn't jar as much here for me though - it feels more like a celebratory reminder that We Got Another Season and Everyone Is Welcome To Join Us.
DeleteIndeed. I have a great deal of time for "The Cutie Map", enough so that I'm really looking forward to reaching it -- but those weren't its finest moments.
DeleteYou know, what's really interesting about this whole episode is that if it weren't for 'The CMC', as indirectly as it appears, Discord would not have freed himself from that stone imprisonment in the first place. We'd eventually learn how he came to be that way, but at this point all we could assume was he was just another mess from a thousand years ago that Celestia & Luna initially dealt with by imprisoning him in that stone. But the sad thing about this first part is how the CMC's part is never fully addressed in this series as it appears to have simply came out of nowhere. If the spell that kept Discord locked away for a thousand years actually did so naturally like this was the moment he was bound to be released, then it would've been just fine. I just needed to get this part out of the way.
ReplyDeleteAs for the remainder of the episode in general, most of it was pretty much the 'Discord' show, that we get an idea as to what he's like and for the time being he's generally a threat, in a quirky kind of way. Somehow, this clever beast manages to separate the Mane Six in an endless maze never planning on the girls to actually 'get out' but so he can deal with their inner demons one-by-one (Although I do agree some things 'could' have been executed better). But it is interesting to note that out of ALL the ponies he couldn't corrupt during this first part (Aside from Twilight Sparkle), the biggest pony that alluded him most is Fluttershy. Despite all his talk about how the other ponies think she's weak and helpless and questioning how that makes her feel as a pony, Fluttershy admits she is self-aware of what kind of pony she is and mostly accepts it because her friends will always care for her regardless. That was more than enough to demonstrate that not only did it force Discord to corrupt Fluttershy another way, but it gave us a subtle hint as to why Celestia would 'choose' Fluttershy to be the pony to 'reform' Discord. But that's another story.
Getting into this series, I admit I hardly seen John De Lancie in 'any' of those Star Trek shows (I don't even watch 'Star Trek' myself, which I admit). BUT... I do recall when he portrayed a father in that 'Breaking Bad' series (Specifically Season 2), when his daughter (Jesse's girlfriend at the time) died of a heroin overdose and the grief made him collide two airplanes while they were in the air thus explaining what was up with the black-and-white images including of a purple bear with a missing eye in the pool). But otherwise, this is the one show where I got an idea of what John De Lancie offers and at the time I figured he was just going to be a one-off villain made specifically to set the stage for Season 2. Boy would I be wrong as other seasons would come.
As the start of a two-parter, in a way it was like a 'reverse' Season 1, whereas the first season brought friends together it was 'this' two-parter that starts to drive the team apart. The moment where the villain actually plays a more proactive role and doesn't just appear until the very end. All the more making us anxious to see what happens during the next part.
I became a fan between S1 and S2, so this is the first one I watched as it premiered. I did like it, but as others have noted, the establishing shots and repeated jokes did make it feel kind of stretched out. Maybe I'm jumping the gun here, because I don't remember exactly where the dividing lin was between parts 1 and 2, but I did feel like Twilight was making an odd leap in interpreting Discord as saying the solution was in the maze. Twists and turns, sure, but to wind up back where they started? That doesn't say "maze" to me, but then the "twist and turns" doesn't make that much sense for what Discord actually did, either. I always felt like Twilight hadn't thought that through very well.
ReplyDeleteThis was the first episode I watched "live", so it gets a special place in my heart. Discord was never more entertaining than during this couple of episodes, and I just love how creative they could get. Not sure if it is in this episode, but the little gag of him filling up a glass of chocolate milk from top to bottom, then chucking it behind him only for it to explore, always felt particularly inspired to me.
ReplyDelete