The Neal is real.
 
Was his reply proper? Not really. But do grown-ass men and women need to pick apart a Saturday morning cartoon? Not really.
 
For fuck’s sake people, calm down.

the episode didn’t make me uncomfortable, it made me BORED

@Itsthinking  
you felt your uncomfortableness crawling on your back.

@atalarikt  
You do realize which site you’re on, right?

@toxicitzi  
@Itsthinking  
Guys, let’s not make it worse, okay?

@toxicitzi  
I’ll tell you what makes me uncomfortable: Neal Dusedau episodes.

@Itsthinking  
You’re gonna have an uncomfortable time.

@toxicitzi  
And hey, it fits with the “uncomfortable” part.

@Itsthinking  
..
 
true story kids. don’t try doing that.

@toxicitzi  
It’s kind of hard to make a bed and chair out of pure salt.

@Datte-Before-Dawn  
I am uncomfortable too.
 
Neal Dusedau, buy me a new bed and chair.

Ah, so it was intended to not be entertaining. That makes it better? It was a good episode at sending a message (Inside jokes are always terrible; that last one should have actually been a joke if they had wanted to send a different message), but not so good at being entertaining. It serves a purpose, at least, moreso than a lot of the other bad episodes; the moral was fairly sound here, not perfect, but not completely busted by any means.
 
On a more related note, this writer is adding fuel to the fire, which is not likely to help him. He probably shouldn’t be doing this. I am not saying that to disparage him, or legitimize any threats he may have received, but more as a warning; I feel that he would almost certainly be better off in the long run if he just blocked or ignored these people. It would also be advisable to not lump them in with people that are just giving him criticism… That just makes him look bad. It can be understandable, given what else is happening, but it is still not a good thing. I’m guessing that this is the first time he’s ever done anything that has attracted this much attention, unless the Fish Hooks fandom is as rabid as this one…

@OneOverTwo  
Because trial by fire is an option.

@dt  
I think the big question is “Why did they give a new writer a Spike episode & a Discord episode as their first two episodes?”.

To be fair, they have him writing Discord eps. I mean, c’mon. That’s tough to work with.

The entire episode I was right there with Twilight, confused at what was going on, reasonably sure Discord was up to something, but not sure if he had mind-controlled the rest of the m6 or if she really had missed something. When she finally broke down in the end, ouch.
 
Mission accomplished.

Class act.

The episode was pretty good. When an uncomfortable lesson makes you uncomfortable it usually means you’re either learning something or trying really hard not to. This was the first episode in a long time to have an actually important social lesson.
 
Twitterpansy and OP needs to go watch the british Office. Get some lead in their stomach.

Christ this fandom and the show staff sometimes

@ArrJaySketch  
Thank you for that. I’ll admit, it’s not a perfect episode, but the buildup to the moral and Twilight’s end reaction speak a lot to me, personally. I’m just glad I was able to convey some of that to you as well.

Nah, I think this is the first step to being petty and spiteful. The last thing the staff needs.

I think I like this Neal guy.

@Background Pony #6FD5  
I think you really hit on something. Maybe it wasn’t bad. People post little scenes from the episode, like Rarity covertly dumping out her potion, and it makes me smile. Little things, like Spike’s reactions.
 
This episode does hit really close to home, but I think because it was a Discord episode I was expecting something really funny, and….hmm.
 
I want to muse on this for a few days. Thank you for your response. I want to get back to you.

@Background Pony #6FD5  
I expected myself to hate this episode only to be smacked by feels. Neal deserves much more credit for this, imo.

@ArrJaySketch  

 
As I said in an earlier comment, I actually like the way they did this, because I know quite well what Twilight’s experience was like. The first really good, lasting friend I ever made was in my second to last year of high school, and I spent many years before then being the kind of person who was always out of the loop on everything. And that discomfort of being the one on the outside, of knowing that you’ve missed something that other people share, is very realistically captured here. I applaud the staff for managing to realistically depict this too, because it would be easy for this to miss the mark entirely and fail at conveying the level of emotion it needs to. I know it may not make the episode popular like some of the others have been this season, but it takes an experience that is emotionally complicated and makes it understandable. That is commendable in its own right.