Quill'd In: Discord, Reformed?

[Quilled Inc 161]

I wanted to do a quick examination and evaluation of Discord's character, in an effort to better understand the nature and subsequent ramifications of his reformation.  I would absolutely love to hear everypony's feedback!!

 

[Darker 1,351]

Huh. The answer to the question you're searching for is simple. Discord was inspired by Q, a Star Trek villain also played by John DeLancie. The Q are a race of chaotic godly beings that live in a universe parallel to others.

 

In Star Trek, Q finds a romantic interest (just like Discord finds Fluttershy, in some way) and also reforms and later apologizes for what he once did.

 

Discord as himself isn't that much of a unique character. They keep mentioning lots of Q references throughout the show, making him more of a rip-off to me. And I honestly don't want to say that, because Q is, after Khan, my favourite Star Trek villain, easily being the most hilarious one the rogue gallery has to offer.

 

Discord is not nearly as evil or powerful as Q is, since Q goes at certain points where many reality-warpers (the kind of villains that can manipulate matter and so forth) wouldn't go, such as killing not only the parents, but an entire race just to make one little child his future daughter and successor.

 

John DeLancie captures Q being such a creepy monster, but all the creepiness is away when we see that this character is more comical than anything. And when I say comical, I say that Q is pure golden humor.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jld2efeDVX4

 

 

And about Discord being reformed, Discord already learnt the lesson after being betrayed by Tirek. He's not going back to evil. No more.

[Quilled Inc 161]

I really need to watch more Next Generation, haha!  I knew that Discord and Q were similar characters, but I didn't realise that they were *that* similar!

 

And yeah, of the many examples of anthropomorphic personification used in visual media, I think that I see more embodiments of chaos than just about any other fundamental abstraction (with the exception of Death, maybe).  Not that I'm complaining at all; those tend to make for more entertaining characters!

 

 

And about Discord being reformed, Discord already learnt the lesson after being betrayed by Tirek. He's not going back to evil. No more.

 

Indeed, I fully agree.  But conflict involving his nature is always a possibility, as he becomes more accustomed to this new life of his.  I for one am interested to see how they continue to develop his character going into Season Five!

[Darker 1,351]

I really need to watch more Next Generation, haha!  I knew that Discord and Q were similar characters, but I didn't realise that they were *that* similar!

 

And yeah, of the many examples of anthropomorphic personification used in visual media, I think that I see more embodiments of chaos than just about any other fundamental abstraction (with the exception of Death, maybe).  Not that I'm complaining at all; those tend to make for more entertaining characters!

 

 

 

Indeed, I fully agree.  But conflict involving his nature is always a possibility, as he becomes more accustomed to this new life of his.  I for one am interested to see how they continue to develop his character going into Season Five!

 

Seeing how Q and Discord are the same, I'm not too sure what they might do with Discord now, he already knows about friendship, but there's still much more to learn. What is his purpose in Equestria.

 

Maybe as a defender, who knows? That might be the reason why Celestia made Twi and the others reformed him, because she knew Discord was the least evil of all the rogues gallery before Tirek, and that he could easily turn good and serve in the side of order.

 

Celestia might have known that Tirek was going to escape some day and Discord would be the perfect candidate to stop him. But Tirek was much more dangerous than the characters from the show and part of the audience thought, turning Discord back to his evil routes.

 

Discord may surprise us in the future. And who knows? Maybe more dangers from the past generations will also confront Discord. Tirek defeated and humiliated him, but what would Discord do against other evil baddies from G1, like Grogar, the Ram Necromancer?

 

https://derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTIvMDkvMTQvMTlfMTZfMjhfMjA3Xzk4MDI4X19VTk9QVF9fc2FmZV9kaXNjb3JkX2cxX2FydGlzdF9wZWFjaGlla2VlbmllIl1d/98028__safe_discord_g1_artist-peachiekeenie_grogar.png

[Quilled Inc 161]

Seeing how Q and Discord are the same, I'm not too sure what they might do with Discord now, he already knows about friendship, but there's still much more to learn. What is his purpose in Equestria.

 

Maybe as a defender, who knows? That might be the reason why Celestia made Twi and the others reformed him, because she knew Discord was the least evil of all the rogues gallery before Tirek, and that he could easily turn good and serve in the side of order.

 

Celestia might have known that Tirek was going to escape some day and Discord would be the perfect candidate to stop him. But Tirek was much more dangerous than the characters from the show and part of the audience thought, turning Discord back to his evil routes.

 

Discord may surprise us in the future. And who knows? Maybe more dangers from the past generations will also confront Discord. Tirek defeated and humiliated him, but what would Discord do against other evil baddies from G1, like Grogar, the Ram Necromancer?

 

https://derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTIvMDkvMTQvMTlfMTZfMjhfMjA3Xzk4MDI4X19VTk9QVF9fc2FmZV9kaXNjb3JkX2cxX2FydGlzdF9wZWFjaGlla2VlbmllIl1d/98028__safe_discord_g1_artist-peachiekeenie_grogar.png

Definitely.  As demonstrated in my video, that concern of Discord being literally chaos incarnate does make you wonder what, exactly, his role is in Equestria.  I took the perspective of retaining a figurative balance between total order and total chaos; you could almost consider applying the typical morality alignment system employed in many tabletop RPGs (In this case, post-reformation Discord would be Chaotic Neutral, and post-Tirek would be Chaotic Good).

 

I definitely think that Celestia overestimated Discord's resolve and/or underestimated Tirek's manipulative capabilities, or else she somehow knew that Discord's betrayal was necessary for the final key to be discovered (#alicornlogichurtsmybrain).

 

I think that there is a lot of future potential for Discord.  I mean, of all the characters  in the show that we have become acquainted with, Discord has probably changed more over the course of the last two seasons than any other (with the exception of Twilight, potentially), so I would be interested to see if they focus at all on him coming to terms with his new conditions (which they have already done to an extent, but more could be done with it).  I do like that Grogar comic that you linked; I think that would be a fantastic approach to an episode if they chose to bring Grogar back!

Edited September 26, 2014 by Quilled Inc

[Conred 274]

Discord was not really evil in same way Tirek was anyway. He wanted to have fun, not destroy everything. He cant really be reformed but more like guided to be more friendly and accepted in a society. He didn't care about friendship because he didn't understand its value. He was naive enough to actually trade Fluttershy friendship with Tirek. Friendship, altruism, empathy and many other traits of a good person is just very exotic for him but even in Return of Harmony he was more fascinated in toying with ponies and clinging toward social interactions instead destroying everything right after getting free. He just didnt understand that the approach of being nice instead nasty was more acceptable.

So for me evil is something born from negative emotions like Nightmare Moon or from dark magic like Sombra. Discord is more like cultural differences, Discord just didnt understand the way of the ponies live and that the ruler is not the one who is the strongest.

[Quilled Inc 161]

Discord was not really evil in same way Tirek was anyway. He wanted to have fun, not destroy everything. He cant really be reformed but more like guided to be more friendly and accepted in a society. He didn't care about friendship because he didn't understand its value. He was naive enough to actually trade Fluttershy friendship with Tirek. Friendship, altruism, empathy and many other traits of a good person is just very exotic for him but even in Return of Harmony he was more fascinated in toying with ponies and clinging toward social interactions instead destroying everything right after getting free. He just didnt understand that the approach of being nice instead nasty was more acceptable.

So for me evil is something born from negative emotions like Nightmare Moon or from dark magic like Sombra. Discord is more like cultural differences, Discord just didnt understand the way of the ponies live and that the ruler is not the one who is the strongest.

 

Pretty much what I said in the video, albeit with a bit more emphasis on the roles of 'Harmony,' 'Order,' and 'chaos,' in how they determine Discord's nature.  I would almost go so far as to say that Discord was never necessarily "evil," for the reasons that you listed!

Edited September 26, 2014 by Quilled Inc