movies/tv Genie or Discord?

[Dreadmallon 353]

   Hey everypony, today I was listening to "Friend like Me" by the Genie (Robin Williams) from the Disney movie Aladdin, and then I started thinking, Isn't Genie like a good Discord (With obvious limitations)? And then I thought, I wonder what other bronies think of Genie compared to Discord? So here I am asking this question: Who do you prefer, Genie from Aladdin or Discord from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? Please explain why you chose who you chose.

 

EDIT: This is the Genie from the original Aladdin, not the one from the sequels.

Edited April 10, 2013 by III Prong III

[Fhaolan 4,484]

One thing to note is that the version of Genie in Disney's Aladdin is different from the Genie in the various sequels. In the first one Robin Williams was basically set in front of a mic and told to 'do stuff' based on an outline. And the director picked and chose from the massive output from that.

 

In the rest of the Disney stuff, there was a set script that was adhered to by different voice actors. Similar to what John DeLancie did with Discord.

 

So comparing the two isn't quite fair. 1) Genie has a lot more *stuff* you can go watch than Discord. 2) the way Genie was done actually changed past the first outing.

 

That aside, I preferred Discord. While the character is presented as random, due to the pacing every action he makes feels deliberate. As if despite the fact it doesn't make sense *to us*, he actually had specific reasons for doing any of that stuff. In the same way that writers need to know the rules before they can break them effectively, he understood exactly how each chaotic act would be received and what it's effect would be.

 

Genie on the other hand gives the impression of randomness for randomness' sake. He doesn't seem to understand what is going on most of the time, and definitely doesn't appear to know that he isn't making sense.

 

So in a way, Discord is less chaotic than the Genie. But more effective in applying chaos.