A month ago, I mentioned how I read that Maud might appear in a Season 5 episode, and with the seventh episode of the season, "Make New Friends but Keep Discord", it's happened. I don't pay attention to who writes which episode because I want to keep an open, unbiased mind each time, but I think it's safe to say this one wasn't by the same writer as the episode "Maud Pie".
Ugh.
Yeah, y'know, when I started this blog I fully intended it to be me just saying how great Maud is and never expected me to do much criticizing, but this episode was baaaaad. Even before Maud appeared, the whole thing just had a weird feel to it. A lot of dumb stuff happened like fairly prominent pop culture references, an obnoxious new character, the dreaded characterization breaking, and more.
In the first half, Pinkie Pie is explaining who she wants to bring to this year's Grand Galloping Gala, saying, "I was gonna ask my mom because she's, y'know, my mom, but it turned out she didn't wanna go, so I started asking around and around and around and I couldn't think of anypony and I was about to just go by myself, but then I realized of course! Who loves fancy, exciting affairs more than anypony else? My sister Maud!" Yep -- the first bad episode of the season and it was the one with Maud's return. One weird coincidence is that earlier that very day I had made a post about the My Little Pony Series 3 Trading Cards card of Maud Pie that said how she "Secretly dreams of someday attending the Grand Galloping Gala."I had theorized that maybe it was a hint towards a future episode, and I guess I was sorta right, though they didn't play up Maud's part at all (and, yes, I know I posted my Gala prediction after the airdate of the episode, but I hadn't seen it until two days later).
As the episode continued, I couldn't help but feel like I had missed a season or something because the whole thing just didn't feel like My Little Pony. For example, there's a part where Rarity acts embarrassed upon having her dress removed and covers herself with her arms -- as if she didn't normally walk around unclothed like most ponies do. It was a really stupid moment that just doesn't match the show's humor and serves as a sort of ambassador for how this episode was.
Anyways, back to Maud. She physically pops up around the thirteen minute mark wearing a glittery gown that seems to match the color of her usual dress which was fine. Soon, she's seen again at a table talking to another pony. Eventually, when Discord is doing some horrendous standup comedy routine, Pinkie Pie turns to Maud and says, "Maud! Jokes!" to which she replies, "My favorite." I dunno about this. I don't think of Maud as someone who'd be enthusiastic for some standup -- I feel like her mind works in an uncommon way ("It doesn't talk. It's a dress.") that wouldn't worry itself over standard, juvenile standup. It's possible she's only being sarcastic, but that also doesn't seem her style, especially towards Pinkie Pie. I guess I think of Maud as being real straightforward and, y'know, saying apple cider "tastes like apples" -- I don't think of her as being a sarcastic jokester. Soon in the same scene, Discord says that knock-knock jokes are "the most basic of jokes!", to which Maud heckles back, "You're the most basic of jokes." Hmm. Again, I dunno -- I think it's out of character for her to do anything that could be considered mean, but then again, Discord deserved to be put in his place for his annoying display, maybe I should be thanking her. The fact that she's making a really strange face the whole time she says it and during its response doesn't help any.
Now even with all that, here's what may be the worst Maud part: At one point, the room is flooded with an ooze, and to stay out of it, Pinkie Pie uses Maud as a sort of raft and paddles along with an oar. What? I'm assuming it's just to push the whole "ooo, look how expressionless Maud is no matter what's going on" thing, but that's stupid. I mean, just because she doesn't express herself the same way others do doesn't mean she's an unresponsive vegetable or something. I'd like to convince myself it was just an attempt at showing how the two siblings have a very strong bond or something, but at this point, trying to cover the tracks of bad writing is useless.
The last Maud speaking part is when Discord says, "I think I may actually grow to like this multiple friend thing." and she says, "I like it, too." I actually think this was good. It connects Discord's situation with Maud's from the "Maud Pie" episode, and when saying it, she's not being mean, she's not making a weird face, and she's not... being a boat.
As I think I've said before, Fluttershy is my favorite pony, but even she seemed off in this one. All around it was just a bad episode, with "Dragon Quest" as the only competition for worse that I can think of off the top of my head... but at least that one had that awesome Fluttershy beginning. They even messed up on Celestia, making her act a bit too informal at the end. The new friend, Tree Hugger, could actually have been really interesting with her discussions of auras and chakras and such, but they insisted on taking a stereotypical hippy approach, not even letting her talk without sounding drugged out with some New Age music playing in the background. So stupid.
Honestly, I wouldn't have liked "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" regardless of Maud's inclusion, so it's really a shame she got caught up in it. We've waited over a year for her triumphant return, and it turned out a disappointment. I would have rather she not returned at all. Remember when I explained my hopes about a possible future Maud appearance in that one post? I said things like, "I don't want to see her break character for a "wow" or "funny" moment as often happens on TV etc." Though I'm not sure I'd say they went that far, I do feel like they had her acting almost as a parody of herself or something. I also said in the post, "there's definitely hope that another Maud appearance could be a good thing, though it's inherently risky with such a quirky, offbeat characterization that was accomplished so well the first time." This episode represents exactly what I was worried about. Lastly I said "it really would be fun to see Maud's canon augmented." Note how I specifically said "augmented", not just "continued" or, as in the case of this episode, "tarnished".
This episode makes me think: Did I jump the gun on making this blog? Is Maud really my second favorite pony or was "Maud Pie" just a good episode? The lesson here is that having characters written by someone who didn't create them is always risky and is all too likely to result in at least one messed-up moment. I like very unique characters, ones that hardly seem to exist in American fiction, and though Maud fit the requirements for my taste, letting some random writer come in and try writing her is ruining it. Let's hope for a good comeback episode...
Post update 5-30-15: Geeze, I just learned that they even spelled Maud's name wrong in the script...
