My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Page 114

Me too.

think a lot of people are missing the bigger picture here. Discord isn't trying to corrupt all of the elements of harmony, just one: Twilight's. He's not tricking anypony, he's tormenting them and then using them as puppets to make Twilight feel like her friendships are falling apart. It's not about them, it's about her.

Let's look at the rather deft use of imagery throughout the episode. Discord is portrayed as a puppeteer, in the stained glass windows and again in the "Grove of Truth" scene. I think this is meant to be taken literally: he's not manipulating the ponies into abandoning their elements, he's using them as puppets. When he "possesses" them or whatever he's doing, their color drains away. They lose something vital: free will, or the ability to make their own choices, or whatever it is that makes them who they are, however you define it. They do what he wants, even if he doesn't have a direct mind control link.

This raises an important question: if Discord is a puppeteer, who is the puppet show meant for? I think it's pretty obviously Twilight. At the end of Applejack's scene, he could have chosen to reunite her with any of the others, but he chose Twilight because he wants her to see her friends at their worst. Likewise, after each scene, as another pony rejoins the group, it's Twilight who reacts to her changed behavior. The writers take the time to show us her reaction, and in a 22-minute episode about six characters with a whole mess of backstory, that's quite a red flag. Those reactions are important.

But what about Dash? Doesn't he offer her a choice? No. He's really just feeding her a cue. We know that Dash wouldn't choose to abandon her friends when Cloudsdale is in danger because she didn't do it earlier when Clooudsdale was having a nasty cola storm. She stayed in Ponyville to help them clean up the cotton candy clouds. She doesn't really have the choice, he's just using her to make another wrinkle.

What's the point of all the theatrics, then, if he's just hypnotizing them? Why bother to lure Applejack to the Grove of Truth, or make Pinkie Pie doubt her laughter in the balloon park, or show Rarity the illusion of the diamonds? Because he's sadistic, and he's playing with them. He only loses his cool and zaps Fluttershy because she's ruining his fun. He's just bucking with them. Because he can. This isn't a game; there aren't any rules; he's not really giving them a choice. He's just torturing them. For fun.

Granted, I can't really offer a full reading of the show because, like the rest of you, I've only seen half of it so far, but I think that the whole point of this has been to get to Twilight. She's the one who felt the "spark" of friendship in Season 1 Episode 2, which makes her the weak link. Discord isn't really a trickster; he's a bad dude who's trying to extinguish that spark by using Twilight's friends against her. If he is playing a game with them, he's using Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Dash as the pieces, and Twilight Sparkle is his true opponent.

also this episode was completed at the same time season 1 was produced and was originally meant to be the season 1 finale, but it was held over for season 2

which means that this was produced before the brony phenomenon was truly realised, making this ep that much more mindblowing. I wonder what they'll have in store for us when we'll get to the "actual" season 2 eps...