Hahaha sorry sorry was this posted already? [1]

Dear Twilight Sparkle, My Most Faithful Student,

Imagine my surprise earlier today when a rather aggravated timber wolf manifested itself in a puff of green flames directly over the table at which we were serving lunch to the Griffonian ambassador, landing, I might add, atop the seven layer velvet cake that had just been laid out for dessert...

And finished chapter 38 of Fallout: Equestria. Will update liveblog on it later tonight.

@seraphem: Well I did say shouldn't, not that their won't be.

And I'm really not seeing the problem with having a new group of element wielders reinforce his prison. In fact your statements show that it probably involves less risk thenb what happened in this episode.

It's an unfounded assumption that there will be another group of Bearers ready by the time the current Bearers lose their connection to the Elements.

"Twilight's into shady stuff. Want it Need it, Love Poisons, Reformation spells. Celestia really needs to step in and put a stop to this."

Didn't Celestia basically want this?

If anything, his words from Season 2's premiere ring even louder. Celestia seems to be running some 1984 "love and tolerance" boot camp here. It's best to be afraid of her.

What words were those, again?

I honestly doubt it would really matter because from what I gathered from Return of Hamrony, the spell only begins to breakdown when the new wielders take them up ( and even then it last for months), or that even after the severing of the connection the seal last for over a millennium anyway. I can't imagine that their group's friendship is so special in that world that they could find another in the space of a thousand years.

Really, the only way I see this going wrong is if Celestia were lazy about it.

edited 19th Jan '13 5:06:52 PM by Mio

She said she wanted Discord to reform "of his own free will." I don't think a mind rape spell would be appropriate.

@ Mio. because you are assuming that when the Mane 6 die, there will be new bearers found in time to reinforce the prison.

Ummm, no. Celestia did not lose her connection to the Elements until the Mane 6 defeated NMM. So the seal lasted like a year after that.

edited 19th Jan '13 5:08:57 PM by Seraphem

Well the previous bearers aren't dead yet.

What?

Okay here is how it went

Celestia and Luna found the Elements, used them to stop Discord

Luna went nuts, Celestia took all 6 elements and used them to stop NMM

After that she enshrined them in the old castle and never used them again, but still had the ability to do so if she needed. But for some reason, likely knowing it was the only way to purify Luna instead of simply imprisoning her again. Tia maneuvers Twi to form the Mane 6 and they take possession of the Elements. Severing Tia's connection to them

Seal on Discord she and Luna made begins to weakon, and within a year of that he breaks out. Mane 6 reimprison him

Tia realizes that every time the Elements change hooves, he can break free.

Now, what happens if the connection to the Elements is lost because the Mane 6 die before finding a replacement? Discord is free and there is no way to stop him. If it's becuase of something like with Celestia and they merely pass them on, then yes they could just reinforce the seal before it breaks. But, that's assuming replacements will be found before that.

I think the key problem with the episode is pacing issues, much like some previous S3 episodes like Apple Family Reunion, it takes far too long to actually get the story going and then finishes things ridiculously bluntly. It's kinda redeemed by the fact that the padding is at least Discord, so thus actually funny to watch, but still it seemed more time should have been made to set up the resolution than just random filler humor.

I am interested to see how a heroic role for Discord could work out later on.

edited 19th Jan '13 5:41:13 PM by Psi001

It's more the single biggest issue the show has dealt with from the start. The limited run time. If this was an hour long show it would be amazing.

That may be true for some episodes, however others would probably need to be panned out, probably with a B-plot. Which can have it's own benefits.

I don't think it's purely the fault of the time limit. This being the third season, the writers should really have learned by now that they only have 22 minutes per episode and how to most effectively utilize that time. Case in point, in this episode, the scene with AJ, Fluttershy, and the beaver could have been cut without losing anything. I was honestly kind of surprised that that scene didn't go anywhere; it felt like filler. Pacing is definitely the biggest overall issue that the show has.

Eh, I just think that pacing is not the show's strong suit. The two-parters have similar pacing issues, so a longer run time doesn't exactly help. They sacrifice pacing for more characterization moments and general interaction, but I think they could get both down, so I'm not excusing it.

implying

Smarty :3

YOU NEVER HEARD THAT

Smartie Pants: Her talent is underwear. Don't ask her why. Seriously.

Dat expression :D

I wonder how a pony would get that as a talent :V

edited 19th Jan '13 5:52:27 PM by AceOfScarabs

I think the flaw of the episode is that it violated the Law of Conservation of Detail .

First, the beaver debacle. Granted, the show used brainwashed beavers to establish the big flood of Sweet Apple Acres. But they went so far as to have Applejack and Fluttershy be late to the meeting because of it. One might think that a detail with so much attention brought to it would be more important to the plot than just another case of Discord being naughty. Like, say, if they made it so that Discord had nothing to do with the second (and bigger) flood at all, which would have driven home a point about the other five throwing false accusations about him.

Second, the reformation spell. If this were a longer episode, this would have fit in just fine. Twilight tries to have a backup plan, Discord covers all bases, etc. But in light of the ending feeling a lot rushed, and considering this detail otherwise had little effect on the overall plot, they could have easily cut this part as well.

---

Clothing store. Or... lingerie store?

edited 19th Jan '13 5:54:47 PM by KylerThatch

She's the Equestrian Bulma Briefs?

Yeah I was expecting it to not be Discord but just the beavers on their own at first.

Yes pacing can be an issues, but, everything for the most part is great to see.

I'm mixed about the beaver scene, it was kinda superfluous, but it was the few instances in S3 AJ's old more temperamental personality came up again (while still keeping Character Development concerning her stubborness). It's not just how many scenes, the pacing overall, seemed a bit slow. Discord does something funny/creepy, RD tells Fluttershy not to fall for him. It was funny but after a while it seemed they were just repeating the same thing over and over without proper progression.

edited 19th Jan '13 6:08:06 PM by Psi001

In the Crsytal Kingdom, they got around the pacing issue by removing any hint of characterization from the villian.

Then added tons of comic relief using the mane cast acting as a diversion. I mean it was fun and all, but like the Discord vs RD stuff it was the same stuff that went on for too long.