Why aren't there more Discord episodes?

[GagiePie 45]

This has been a question for me since season... 3 right? Whenever he was reformed. We don't have that many and he is a great character that really needs more episodes. Why do you think we have MORE Spike episodes than Discord when Discord isn't that hard to write for, (In my opinion) I'd say just put random stuff for him to do and give him emotion

[Mothra 704]

True, Discord is a fun character, the writers could do alot with him! You'd think he'd have more episodes by now, I agree. I wonder why Discord doesnt have more episodes and why Celestia has none at all :/

[Mesme Rize 15,687]

Having Discord episodes, is like having christmas. Christmas also just comes once a year, because it's something special. If Christmas was every week, or worse every day, it would lose it's specialness. Discord episodes are always something special, because he can do things no pony else can do, not even Twilight.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,803]

I personally don't think we need more Discord episodes, but more episodes that have Discord in them. I really think that his antics and humor works really well when not in the forefront of the episodes. To me, What About Discord was a pretty bad episode because everything else took a backseat to his jokes and whatnot. Absolute randomness will only get you so far. I think he should take the backseat to other characters. Even Discord can be overdone.

[IronM17 5,400]

Hmm, maybe it is to expensive for the studio to pay De Lancie for his roles.

And I must say, it is ok that he has only few roles. If he would be in every episode, I think his character and his fun would become boring. And Spike is the best friend of all the Mane 6 and Twilights assistant. So, that's why he has more roles than Discord. 

[CandyStrike 603]

It might have to do with the target audience.  I know when I was a little girl I wouldn't have been very interested in Discord episodes, because I wouldn't be very interested in Discord.  You know what, I'm still not interested in Discord much.  Liked him better as a villain.

[cider float 2,538]

I checked the OP post. This was posted 11 minutes ago. Clearly you haven't been watching Season 5? There's way too much episodes for a character that isn't even a major character.

[Script Dangles 231]

I'll take the opposite position:  I often wonder why there are so many Discord episodes.  I think they use him far too often...to the point where I'm kind of sick of him, now.

 

Before everybody jumps all over me:  I know I'm in the minority, feeling about him as I do.  I realize he's very popular and I'm certainly not saying he's a bad character.  He just annoys me and I wish they'd use him far less frequently.

[Moonlight 7,288]

I love Discord but I always thought his episodes weren't the best, aside from The Return of Harmony of course, while What About Discord was awful. As for why there's not more I'm just going to assume it's because he's not a main character and already has at least 5 episodes (The Return of Harmony, Keep Calm and Flutter On, Three's A Crowd, Make New Friends But Keep Discord, What About Discord) and I'd say that's plenty for a character who's not even a main character.

 

He's like Spike, a character who shouldn't be the leader of an episode but should definitely be a supporting cast. Like any other character, he can be overdone to the point of it being bad or mediocre. I wouldn't mind more Discord episodes, I just wish they were better. Besides, Celestia is the only character who really needs an episode at this point.

[Pinkiest Pie 405]

I don't like Discord all that much. I think they use him TOO much, he really is in my opinion one of the worst characters. Don't hate me for that, please. Anyways, since you like Discord all so much they have little episodes because of the TARGET AUDIENCE. The people who are supposed to be watching are generally not supposed to like Discord because he is a villain.

[Untitled Goose Q 5,137]

Much as I love Discord, he is most definitely a character to be used sparingly. 

 

It's good that he is no longer a villain, due to being too powerful for that role, he now occupies the same role that Q did- used as the antagonist but never an outright villain, and not too often (though S5 does feel Discord heavy).

 

We don't want him to get boring, or to start thinking he should just solve problems all by himself.

[Broken Gear 29]

I think it's because writers know he is very liked among fans (as well as among themselves) and simply don't want to spoil a, erm, "good" character. It's really hard to write character such as Discord without watering down his characteristics.

[Pinkiest Pie 405]

  On 2015-11-20 at 4:41 PM, Broken Gear said:

I think it's because writers know he is very liked among fans (as well as among themselves) and simply don't want to spoil a, erm, "good" character. It's really hard to write character such as Discord without watering down his characteristics.

Yes, the more quanity of Discord the less quality of Discord.

[ShadOBabe 19,013]

Oh, no, don't ask for more!!

I'm really worried about how many they have already!!

 

Discord is the kind of character I think should be a special treat. Like they should stop making episodes based mostly on him where they give away his appearance in the synopsis and just have him pop up anyway as a pleasant surprise.

 

He's going to become passe, and since he's my second favorite character, that would be depressing.

[cmarston1 5,959]

It's all about the money.

Do you really think that Studio DXH has enough money to pay for such a big time celebrity such as John Delancie to appear in a lot of episodes?

He is too expensive to appear any more than a few episodes a season (including the premiere and or finale in some cases)

[Perfect Alicorn 19]

Because Discord is more of a secondary character. Spike is a main character, therefore he has more episodes. 

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

@GagiePie, hey, just letting you know that I've moved this thread and a few other ones you've made to the Show Discussion section. Topics that have to do with the show and its characters work better here than in the Sugarcube Corner section, which concerns fandom stuff. Thanks for reading

[Sunny Fox 5,952]

Because in some sense, it's difficult to write for Discord. He can literally do anything, as he proved by capturing Tirek single-handedly. So there's no villain conflict to really put him in without some sort of handwave for him not being able to just click his fingers and end the conflict.

 

This being so, his episodes have to focus on some kind of inner discord, if you will,   (like the way Tirek got around him by pointing out that he was being controlled by the ponies) and it's hard to see how to avoid that becoming formulaic, and thereby becoming stale and repetitive. In other words, they have to spread out the Discord episodes, otherwise they'll all end up being essentially the same episode. For this reason, among others, if I had had it my way, he would never have been reformed at all, nor become a recurring character, but c'est la vie. no?

 

As an alternate explanation, perhaps John DeLancie is just too busy in general to allow for him to provide the voice for that distinctive Discord discourse on a regular basis. 

[Partialgeek514 5,011]

I personally think that Discord has been getting just the right amount of episodes. I love to see his randomness and references to other things. I feel though that if he started getting any more episodes, his personality would get boring and also distract from the other really good parts of the show. Although I like him, I feel that his episodes naturally put a lot of focus on just him and can take away some other good aspects of the show.

[CastletonSnob 3,079]

Spike gets more episodes because he's been in the show from the start, and is friends with the Mane Six.

 

Speaking of which, Spike needs to have better episodes. There's still a lot of potential for him, like how Celestia got his egg, him growing up, his relationship with AJ, Pinkie, RD, and Fluttershy, etc.

 

You know who needs episodes? Celestia and Zecora.

Edited November 21, 2015 by VG_Addict