spoiler The one character who's execution is flawless: Discord

[Silver Stream. 708]

Beware Episode 22 spoilers.

 

 

But yes....despite the fact I do not consider him the most sinister villain and ranking him lower than others when it comes to "best mlp character " I feel as though Discord has been the only character who has been executed exceedingly well throughout all his screen time.

 

At one point, I doubted the spirit of chaos would do well as a "protagonist" because a character like him can't simply "turn good" just like that...even with the magic of friendship.

 

And the results have exceeded my expectations. We've seen him develop better than most. From evil trickster, to "reformed" spirit of chaos.....his execution stayed on top and Johnny boy continues to steal the show whenever he makes an appearance.

 

What I love most is that he still loves to screw with Twilight and the others for his own dark amusement while also being the cause of something positive. Why I love is that NO ONE will ever truly know his intentions. It could be coincidental that his mischief leads the Twilight to discovering something new and good.....or it could be his plan all along which is my strongest guess.

 

I'm pleased he hasn't dramatically changed. And I'm also pleased that he seems create a more genuine atmosphere with being friends with the Mane 6 WITHOUT losing his mojo. Anyone else agree? Disagree? I just felt a bit giddy and wanted to express my thoughts.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Princess Sunset

[Pinkiebow 47]

I agree with pretty much everything you said.

[J. Brony 313]

What I love most is that he still loves to screw with Twilight and the others for his own dark amusement while also being the cause of something positive. Why I love is that NO ONE will ever truly know his intentions. It could be coincidental that his mischief leads the Twilight to discovering something new and good.....or it could be his plan all along which is my strongest guess.

 

My thoughts exactly.  If you stop and think about it, every single time that Discord has shown up, Twilight has emerged from the encounter as a better person and learned a valuable lesson.  

 

In my headcanon, Discord represents chaos, providing the Yin to the Tree of Harmony's Yang and fulfilling a role similar to Celestia's in teaching Twilight all that she needs to know to fulfill her destiny as a princess.  He's just been doing it from the opposite end of the spectrum, playing the part of villain rather than mentor.

[immblueversion 331]

Here's a quote from Jayson Thiessen taken from The Art of Equestria that pretty much sums up the team's approach to Discord:

 

"What I like is that he started out as a villain and now he's not a villain, but he never really changed. It's really just whether or not he's trying to hurt the ponies or take over their world. He's still the chaos character that we were introduced to; it's just that now he's not doing it for evil purposes. He's essentially the genie from Aladdin in a way, or Loki--really, any sort of trickster. He can be either negative or positive, but it doesn't change his trickster nature."

[Sporemane 545]

Discord behaves just like Q from Star Trek Next Gen. I know that was no accident. Seeing Discord mess with Twilight to teach her a moral lesson, and amuse him self in the process. Is just like when Q messed with Picard to teach him a moral lesson, of course when Q teaches a lesson sometimes someone dies. Discord is the main reason I became interested in MLP, because he is so much like my favorite Star Trek character. If it was not for Discord, I would not be here.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Sporemane

[Roughshod 719]

As a character Discord's appearances are rare and generally well structured and definitely well acted. He's had the advantage of being shown frequently enough to be an influence yet not any more that would make him a regular feature and thus cost him some of his novelty.

[Silver Stream. 708]

Discord behaves just like Q from Star Trek Next Gen. I know that was no accident. Seeing Discord mess with Twilight to teach her a moral lesson, and amuse him self in the process. Is just like when Q messed with Picard to teach him a moral lesson, of course when Q teaches a lesson sometimes someone dies. Discord is the main reason I became interested in MLP, because he is so much like my favorite Star Trek character. If it was not for Discord, I would not be here.

 

 

Going to be honest here, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case for many people. I feel as though he steals the show every time he blesses us with his appearance. But I'm going to be fair in this case, and give a little bit of credit to Twilight for making his appearances even more historical. While the writers try to execute the bond Discord and Fluttershy shares, I believe the relationship between Twilight and Discord are more interesting. At times, I like to believe Fluttershy manipulated Discord the first time around (for reasons I explained in a former discussion....but I don't mean it in an evil way or anything)....but their relationship grows more genuine after Season 4. Twilight and Discord makes things rather....fun and realistic to me. So while Discord is the Star, Twilight certainly supports it greatly.

 

 

 

In my headcanon, Discord represents chaos, providing the Yin to the Tree of Harmony's Yang and fulfilling a role similar to Celestia's in teaching Twilight all that she needs to know to fulfill her destiny as a princess.  He's just been doing it from the opposite end of the spectrum, playing the part of villain rather than mentor.

 

Couldn't have explained it better myself. Well put.

[Castle Bleck 19,206]

As a character Discord's appearances are rare and generally well structured and definitely well acted. He's had the advantage of being shown frequently enough to be an influence yet not any more that would make him a regular feature and thus cost him some of his novelty.

 

Just like The Ridder in Batman: The Animated Series.

 

Though that was mainly because it was hard for the writers to come up with good riddles for him to use.

[Conred 274]

He is both The Joker toward his enemies and The Genie toward his friends. And very charming toward Fluttershy

[pony.colin 156]

What I love most is that he still loves to screw with Twilight and the others for his own dark amusement while also being the cause of something positive. Why I love is that NO ONE will ever truly know his intentions. It could be coincidental that his mischief leads the Twilight to discovering something new and good.....or it could be his plan all along which is my strongest guess.

 

 

 

This, a lot of what I thought about.  Um, I think I should not write up too much, because I think everyone is fairly close in thoughts about how Discord played out his actions during this episode, and I'm just agreeing.

 

I did have some fun trying to guess if this was a case of occam's razor from Twilight's perspective, because I genuinely was having to make some guesswork here based on what I interpreted feelings. Haha, I can't believe I believed Twilight's original stance over Spike's stance on what they thought Twilight's feelings were.  And then Discord revealed his batman gambit and I was like, ah so I was duped here. Good play, Discord, good play.

 

I do like how this episode played out and I think i can understand Discord completely in his relationship with the pones and Spike.  Yeah, he gets that he has to be "good" but at same time, "yeah, yeah I get that I'm supposed to be good and not be antagonizing here. But hey, I'm kind of enjoying Twilight feeling a little bit left out and alone here at her expense, but that was not my full intention here as I'm teaching her a valuable lesson here at the same time, so i can't be faulted for being "evil" again. My intentions are .... probably good.... granted, I enjoyed seeing you squirm Twi, if just for a little bit. It was probably 70% intent to teach you a lesson Twi, probably "  

The guessing game was the fun part.

Edited November 8, 2015 by pony.colin

[cmarston1 5,954]

Well huh.

You do make a good point.

He is one of my favorite characters and so far, he hasn't had an episode that I disliked so far.

Discord is an interesting character and I am glad that he was "reformed" and allowed to have a recurring role.

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

I like the idea of bringing Discord as a sort of leveling figure and foil to Twilight's control-freak tendencies. When she thinks she's safe or in control of things, Discord will show up and teach her a lesson. In so doing, he shows up at a fittingly inopportune time and creates a fittingly annoying/awkward ("What About Discord?") or dangerous ("Three's a Crowd") situation to test Twilight's character. Like others have mentioned, this brings him closer to Q from Star Trek: TNG, who wasn't above indirectly causing collateral damage resulting in loss of life just to keep Picard, as a representative of humanity, in check with his wisdom. For both Q and Discord, their risky and playful facades hide an immeasurable amount of wisdom, and for that reason, the characters to whom they play foil can't even bring themselves to show any respect to them, much less trust them. If you have power and know a lot of things about a lot of things, whose rules do you have to play by?

 

However, I have to bring up one question that's going to test all this praise for Discord's reformation for sure. Why does Discord seem to have to learn relatively simple lessons in friendship if he has enough of a grasp of the concept that he's teaching the Princess of Friendship lessons in her own game without her even knowing?

 

Consider "Twilight's Kingdom" and "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" against "Princess Twilight Sparkle", "Three's a Crowd", and "What About Discord?". In both "Kingdom" and "Make New Friends", Discord has friendship problems that cascade into big issues that endanger others. In "Kingdom" he's willing to forsake friendship entirely for freedom, only after he came to learn of its benefits in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" and tested Twilight's loyalties in both "Princess Twilight Sparkle" and "Three's a Crowd". It can be argued that he was very early in that stage at that point, but if he was having enough fun with Princess Twilight as a "good" guy, what good was usurping power for no discernible reason going to do him in "Twilight's Kingdom"? If he had been successful, he would have had no lessons to teach or characters to test. In that case, a lack of foresight this considerable is uncharacteristic of him and sounds more like a ploy for Twilight's character than development on his, just like Celestia's haphazard planning.

 

In "Make New Friends but Keep Discord", it seems that Discord is again new to this friendship stuff, as he had to learn an essential lesson in controlling envy. Here, he uses his power to play for attention, and in the end it seems as if he genuinely learned something new. It's fitting that he passes this lesson onto Twilight in "What About Discord?", but with such a masterful command of the concept that he socially engineers a situation to get the Princess of Friendship to admit to her envy. On the one hand, it seems hard to believe that he just learned this exact same lesson when he's doing this, but on the other hand, did "Make New Friends" merely awaken or unlock some sort of knowledge Discord already had on the concept?

 

What works about this character is that he keeps us guessing. He is in a position to use his unique intellectual and physical abilities to teach lessons in friendship while setting up extreme situations in which to do so, but simultaneously learning new things about friendship himself. I like to wonder whether or not he had every little part of the plan worked out, or if there's more to it than he's letting on.

[J. Brony 313]

@Wind Chaser makes a good point.

 

With every episode I have to wonder if Discord is manipulating events to help Twilight realize her destiny or if he's just as clueless about friendship as he would lead us all to believe.

 

Maybe it's a little of both.

 

Starswirl the Bearded was said to be one of the wisest and most powerful wizards in Equestrian history.  And yet he did not understand the concept of friendship.  Is it possible that Discord is in the same situation?  Could he be helping Twilight from behind the scenes to become a true princess while learning what it means to actually be a friend at the same time?

[Cimarronboy 248]

As for reforming dizzy, I don't think it really happened. Yes he's "friends" with the girls but his need for devious deeds only proves that he's willing to play along, whether doing so to look for a loophole to his situation or actually wanting to be good. The situations he keeps getting everypony into really don't seem so harmless as well, despite the more more positive outcomes. He may actually have turned good but his behavior (other than being the pony version of loki) and attitude feel way too devious (mainly the constant motive feel to his actions) to be a legit turn. Could just be me though.