In another forum where I hang out, someone recently compared the morality of a Paladin killing a theif in combat to whether a soldier at Omaha Beach deserved to die.

Don't forget the (Su) Sepia Snake Sigil. Also, they should be Maximized Fell Drain Explosive Runes.

When was this?

Well, for more details...

I was expecting the beavers to become relevant as well, I liked Discord rolling his eyes, the spinning house, and the gravy boat dog a strange amount and Fluttershy and Discord both trying to play each other was great. Same for the Title Drop.

But he added the most of the time catch.

It's really odd how Dash is consistently the voice of reason this episode.

Yeah, it's easy to overlook how much RD has changed since her "charge at it first, ask questions later" days.

Some people do forget that baseline Dashie was the sort to bodycheck Twilight through a window on suspicion of her being a spy.

When was this?

And the characters have definitely changed since season 1.

That's right. She's probably the least trusting and most violent of the mane six.

edited 19th Jan '13 12:25:44 PM by ApplelightLimited

Towards the beginning when Clestia arrives with Discord, ..cut to AJ and Fluttershy talking to the beavers when Dashie arrives tells them to hurry the hell up and flies back.

That's when.

edited 19th Jan '13 12:25:08 PM by terlwyth

Le sigh............

Episode was great up until the last two minutes.

Afterwards...

Oh, I didn't make the connection to text messages.

...And now I ship Fluttershy ♦ Discord. That, or Discord ♣ Fluttershy ♣ RD.

Yeah, the ending could've been done way better. Otherwise, the episode was okay. If you want my opinion, they should've either tried to drop subtle hints about Discord's desire throughout the episode, or have him right his wrong at the Acres once he realized that Fluttershy was trying to be her friend, then have him spend the last few minutes convincing the rest of the Mane Six that he's genuinely sorry.

The fact he actually fixed everything at all should have been enough evidence that he was sorry.

Trying to convince everyone that he's sorry would have completely ruined the episode for me. That is so far out of character that no amount of suspension of disbelief could keep me in the show.

There were some subtle hints.

Discord is essentially an extremely spoiled child. He gets everything he wants whenever he wants because he can make it so.

Fluttershy's method of dealing with him was simply to bend over backwards and let him do whatever he wanted... and this somehow made him reevaluate his methods up to that point? Why would it? And I can't buy that their "friendship" could possibly have meant anything to him. They hung out for less than 2 days and the entire time one or both of them were trying to manipulate each other. That it not a friendship.

I'm okay with the setting being a super happy friendly rainbowland where everyone has good in them, but Discord was introduced as being an exception. From the moment he appeared he was treated as a terrible threat that had to be stopped immediately, with no playing around. No one ever considered a peaceful solution, Celestia told them to get the Elements and go zap him.

Now all the sudden it turns out all you need to do to make him nice is ask.

This was by far the most nonsensical and illogical plot the show has ever had. I'd like to pretend it didn't happen but I don't believe in Discontinuity so I suppose I'll have to live with it.

I wonder if they'll even bother coming up with an excuse for why Discord doesn't defeat any further villains for them from now on?

He wasn't sorry though, he just didn't want Fluttershy mad at him.

edited 19th Jan '13 12:44:31 PM by Bluespade

I can see this is shaping up to be one of the controversial episodes.

@Syd: We already knew that was going to be the case as soon as we got the synopsis.

@Blue: I can see what you mean, but I think of it this way: Discord isn't necessarily inherently malicious; the reason he was in his introductory episodes was because he wanted to bust the elements of harmony up and he just happened to find it amusing. In this episode, he basically realized that enjoying himself and not doing exactly what he wants all the time aren't two mutually exclusive options. Basically, his primary goal is to make himself feel good, and in this episode he realized that he could do that while not making enemies out of everyone.

That said, yeah, the two-minute long conclusion really should have been about five times longer than it was, but I don't think it was necessarily OOC or goes against any of the show's themes up to this point. It just didn't quite get the development that it needed to.

I'd also point out that this might be the first time that Discord has ever experienced somebody doing something solely for his benefit without having an ulterior motive. Even Celestia only freed him because she thought she could get something out of it. As far as we know, this is the only time in Discord's existence that he wasn't treated as an enemy right off the bat. For the first time in over a thousand years, somebody actually tried to like him, and for the first time he realized that having people who like you actually feels good. Possibly even better than just using your ultimate power to screw with everyone else and make them hate you.

edited 19th Jan '13 1:12:24 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Shrug. Well I'm not one of those people who is angry that others like it. I'm glad it was well received, and like I said, I enjoyed about 80% of the episode. Just that ending... aruaghg.

If I cared about the Aesops I would have plenty to say about the bad advice given in this episode, but yeah, I don't care about those.

I find that unlikely. He used to rule Equestria remember? Surely he had lackeys who tried to get friendly with him for their own gain?

edited 19th Jan '13 1:13:26 PM by Bluespade

But that's just sucking up, not true friendship.

I have noticed a consistant issue with the more action-oriented episodes. In nearly all of them, the main gripe that strikes me as being on the money is "they didn't have enough time to fully wrap things up at the end."

But not Crystal Empire, IMO episode what didn't suffer from this problem, thats its my favorite episode.

Re-watched today episode. Loved it. I would say ending is little rushed but I cant because I have to much hearthwarming feels to have any complains.

Also, he doesn't strike me as the type to have lackeys anyway. I interperted his ruling Equestria has him doing whatever he wants, not instituting a formal government.

And that's exactly what Fluttershy did, wasn't it?

edited 19th Jan '13 1:23:57 PM by Bluespade