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| This whole scene is packed with fun references |
S6E17: "Dungeons & Discords"
27 Aug 2016
My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 8.0
Thoughts: Guys' Night, eh? In a
female-dominated society like Equestria, this seems a fair
counterpart to Earthly "Girls' Night" events. It's quite a fun watch, and one of Discord's better late-series appearances. The pre-credits scene with Fluttershy is good fun, "Opposite" and otherwise. Actually, the whole episode is good fun, aided by Nick Confalone's really amusing dialogue, the usual excellent voice acting and some really funny visual gags. "Ogres & Oubliettes" both sends up and pays tribute to Dungeons & Dragons – possibly some overly serious D&D players got irritated, but I'd consider that a plus. The segment where Discord brings the game to life is also great (if a little scary) viewing. All in all, a massive improvement on Discord's last big episode ("What About Discord?") and a really entertaining ep all round. It's not perfect – the "electric shock" scene is a little too Looney Tunes and feels mean-spirited for this show even from Discord. But we have a good Discord episode and a good Spike episode and a fun Fluttershy support act and parsnips. This time I'm pushing an episode's rating up a star. It gets a four now.
Choice quote: Discord: "Fun with sidekicks?"
New rating: ★★★★
Next
time, I'll be rewatching "Buckball Season". I had a lot of affection
for it last time round, and I'm really hoping that's still the case now.
I mean, they took two characters whose focus episodes always suck -- Spike and Discord -- and, mashing them together, somehow made something I look back on fondly. I don't even know if this is a 'good' episode, per se, but it sure as hell was a lot of fun. Discord being into jazz clubs was also kind of brilliant somehow?
ReplyDelete"It sure as hell was a lot of fun" counts as a good episode in my book! :)
DeleteI was always a bit skeptical on Discord's return and his episodes thereafter even on my initial binge run of the show, but this slow, years-long rewatch has just further cemented how problematic the writing of his character is. Even the better showcases of him (most of "Twilight's Kingdom" and "Make New Friends But Keep Discord") still have notable asterisks attached, and as for the lesser showcases… well, enough digital ink has been spilled on that. Ditto for the one-note relationship with Fluttershy doing both of them more harm than good as characters (it could have been done well, they just didn't capitalise on the potential), and the arc with Twilight getting totally abandoned after Season 4 and reset back to standard "torment Twilight because it's funny" status. By the time we're at the Season Six finale and he's firmly back in "only Fluttershy matters" mode… shudder.
ReplyDeleteBut! For this one episode, we have Discord done more or less right, and if that's more or less by making it a low-stakes episode with nothing of consequence… well, it also gives Discord the much-due lesson of branching beyond Fluttershy to make other friends (the point of the original drafts of "Make New Friends But Keep Discord") and not be such a stick-in-the-mud, and at least in Nick Confalone's future scripts with the character, that sticks.
Beyond that, I think one of the bigger reasons of success here was by having such a small core cast. Really, with Big Mac barely speaking (Applejack and Pinkie both say more than he does; the whisper gag feels weird, given he has spoken full sentences in normal circumstances in the past), it's a two-creature play with Discord and Spike, and as others have noted, this delivers a good episode for characters who struggle in the spotlight. The low-stakes stuff is to attribute for that, as is the thinner plot and large amount of dialogue (mostly John De Lancie performing alone and Cathy Wedlock with Discord's stand-in, heh) allowing consistent characterisation without the slips a denser plot often causes. Many early episodes showed this, and with the three worthwhile Season 9 episodes ("Frenemies", "She Talks to Angel" and "Going to Seed" also having very small casts, there's a pattern, no?
D&D episodes in media are a hard sell for me (and a fantasy game is a bit redundant in a setting like MLP as it is), but this one acquits itself there well enough, keeping it simplified but not losing the possibility of complexity, or getting bogged down with rule explanations. More happily, it allows the numerous Discord sight gags to just run wild, from the "game to life" segment to the Jaxx club and its barrage of references; even his usual ones feel fresher, from the inverted colours in the opening to the minuscule messenger with the running SFX from The Flinstones.
The very low-stakes nature of an episode like this and it not being a super-deep character piece does put a ceiling on how good it can be. And even there, there is a certain spark missing from some jokes and timing that I feel Season 2 could have nailed. I also find the "oh, you silly boys with your nerd games" jokes a little much, and not something the Mane 6 would really do. Regardless, even if it's not a laugh riot, it is a perfectly fun little episode, and as both a fond showcase for Discord and Spike (who finds just the right tone to approach and bounce off of Discord throughout, which is great) and another early showcase of Confalone being among the few late-show writers you can mostly depend on, after a shaky start with his first few episodes, I'm fond enough of it now.
I'm frankly not too bothered about whether this would have been (even) better had it come up in S2. I had a great time with it in S6, and that's enough for me. :)
Deletethe three worthwhile Season 9 episodes
Heh, you won't be shocked to read that my count is a bit higher than that, albeit not as high as I'd like it to be. Assuming you say farewell to these after S7, you won't be reading it, but I reckon I'll find maybe half a dozen satisfying enough.
I always liked this one. It's a nice bit of fun and a far better "bringing the game to life" than that ill-considered one that had Starlight forcing Sunburst into one. Plus I enjoy seeing yet another of the strong male characters (after Shining Armor) prove to be a nerd at heart. Though I wish they'd played against his obvious strength and had him be a stealthy archer or thief character.
ReplyDelete"Uncommon Bond"? Looking back, my review for that was basically "It was okay", but then it was an episode 24 and on the whole pre-finale episodes haven't been great. ("Top Bolt" may be an exception.)
DeleteIt doesn't take a whole lot to beat What About Discord?, does it? Then again, I'd say the same thing for the previous three episodes of season six, so...
ReplyDeleteThis is Nick Confalone's best script up to that point, but then again... again, that bar wasn't high to begin either. Party Pooped and The Saddle Row Review focused too heavily on comedy and less on the story, Hearthbreakers was just dull, and the less said about No Second Prances, the better. Dungeons and Discords, however, is fairly concise and makes the most out of what few elements it has, so nothing feels pointless.
That being said, ranking the episodes out of this season, this is somewhere in the upper middle as there have been better episodes before and after. Nothing spectacular or amazing; just fine.
We don't agree on "The Saddle Row Review", but I mostly do on the other eps you mentioned. And I take the point about this one being (as Mike also said) a low-stakes episode and not wasting a whole bunch of stuff.
DeleteThat's a funny coincidence: I remember not being terribly fond of this one when I first saw it, but like your experience, the episode's definitely grown on me since. I think I just remembered the talky-round-the-table scene as longer and more boring than it was. The vivid imagery stands out more on a rewatch.
ReplyDeleteCan't add much to your and Mike's observations. The D&D thing was kind of a handicap for me personally, and still poses a barrier to how much I can enjoy this (I'm neither familiar with nor invested in the tabletop game genre and its subcultures). Plus, I never really bought the emotional arc Discord's supposed to be going through, which basically amounts to him needing to get out more and see other people - which is doubly weird given he's already expanded his circle to include the Main Six already. Given you could do that kind of plot with literally any character, applying it to someone as unique as him felt a bit of a time-waster.
Credit where it's due, though: the jazz idea was genius, and if nothing else they get plenty of mileage out of Discord's reality-warping powers and visual gags.