Post of the Day #2387

Posted by NE Sgamer 190 on Fri, 21st Feb '14 10:53:13 AM - Post #51403 in the new thread

No, the redemption spell seems to be different! the Elements of Harmony were probably not crafted for the only purpose of brainwashing and it's not the only thing they can do!

A unicorn put in effort and time to craft a spell for the one and explicit purpose of brainwashing ponies to be benevolent! that's what got me freaked!

What the.

Actual-

Also, about discord using his powers for Equestria.

Has that ever come to fruition? Ever? I can see that idea being suggested if there were supposed to be no more since if there were supposed to be no more, then the writers wouldn't have to come up with an idea for discord to use his powers in a way that doesn't immediately solve the problem and leaves our protagonists twiddling their thumb-erm...hooves?

But there was more. Much more. So, how did the writers use the idea of discord using his powers for Equestria?

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 6th 2019 at 2:02:22 AM

They mostly haven't because Discord is a gamebreaker that is difficult to nerf without being hamfisted about it. Though that's basically what they did in To Where And Back Again, the one time he actually gets serious about helping.

Eh... not really. I think they reformed Discord so they could keep him around without him being a game breaker villain anymore.

His potential to help Equestria is the in-universe reason for his redemption.

But the real reason it happened is that it opened story opportunities with a popular fan-favourite.

I'm aware that Celestia wanting to use discord's powers for Equestria was the Watsonian reason and her doylist reason was "it's about to end so let's use what we have left to try to get as many buggers to see it as possible. We probably won't have to use discord after this so we won't have to try to get Lancie again (he's gotta be quite hard to get as you might have to scrounge in the cushions to get him) or think of a way for discord to be in adventure tales that doesn't mean problems are immediately solved before the protagonists can do anything."

I'm merely wondering how Celestia is thinking of how her "redeem discord so that he can use his powers for benevolent purposes" idea is going now. So far, if I recall correctly, discord has either not done anything almost all of the time, caused the problem even if it was a gambit from before his attempts to reform himself, or became a turncoat and helped harm Equestria again. He helped save Equestria once.

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 6th 2019 at 5:01:27 AM

From a strictly in-universe perspective, I figure that the plan to have Discord use his powers for good isn't something that Celestia likely sees as among her more successful ventures.

It's simply so amusing to me that the idea that if discord is reformed, he can use his powers for Equestria, the in-universe reason for such a hazardous and risky endeavor, has such a low rate of actually working.

Compare the number of times Equestria needed help to the number of times discord could have helped but either didn't, caused the problem, or put Equestria in more dire straits. Compare that to the number of times discord has helped Equestria.

It's ludicrous how little this idea has actually worked.

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 6th 2019 at 4:59:47 AM

It's possible that he has been helping out but we don't see or hear much of it because it's just... not that big of a deal for him, so he just doesn't bring it up.

Or he tells Fluttershy but she doesn't ever mention it because it's never super relevant and she knows Twilight would go into a fret if she knew something had happened anyways.

Hhhmmmmmmm...

While that could be a nice comic spin-off, it sort of edges into the bog of "what we have not seen" and would discord really brush off a way to brag to Sparkles about how he's been helping Equestria to annoy Sparkles as, um, he did plenty of times? Annoy her.

Let's actually try to count every time Equestria was in dire straits and what discord did each time, for clarification.

Beginning two-parter, 4: Plunderseeds were wrecking Equestria and discord had sown them but it was before his reformation. So, that's a 0: he didn't do anything wrong but maybe he wasn't that helpful?

Ending two-parter, 4: when tirek rampages through Equestria, discord becomes a turncoat and backs-stabs Sparkles and her companions before being drained of magic by tirek. -1: he put Equestria in even more dire straits.

Beginning two-parter, 5: he wasn't with Sparkles and her companions because this was the only time hitherto they had been dispatched by the Cutie Map. 0: he wasn't with them because there was no reason for him to be there.

Ending two-parter, 5: this was about Sparkles and Glimmer so discord wasn't there because he had no reason to be there. 0.

Beginning two-parter, 6: when the Crystal Heart broke, discord wasn't there because he wasn't invited to the Crystal Empire. 0: he wasn't there because nobody wanted him to see Cadenza's baby.

Ending two-parter, 6: Chrysalis kidnaps Sparkles and her companions and the Princesses and Fluttershy being kidnapped is enough for discord to get off his scaly bum and actually help Equestria. 1: he actually helped Equestria.

Ending two-parter, 7: this was never seen by me so my awareness of what happened in here is patchy but discord wasn't there but that's because he wasn't taken with to get the Pillars from their self-imposed cage. 0?

My Little Pony on the silver screen: discord wasn't there and is it really possible for him to not notice the Storm King and his goons everywhere? Neither was this seen by me so as far as my awareness stretches, maybe the Storm King didn't really go as far as Ponyville? Score: needs further clarification.

Beginning two-parter, 8: Same for here but discord could have been useful for finding the kids. Score: needs further clarification.

ending two-parter, 8: yes, neither was this seen by me. He could have been useful going to tartarus? Was he affected by the magic drain? Score: needs further clarification.

So, for the nonce and to the limits of my awareness, it's a score of 0 over 6 and that's only the ones that, as far as to my awareness, is definite.

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 6th 2019 at 7:48:26 AM

I'd give Discord half credit for the Tirek arc, because although he did turn traitor at the drop of a hat, he was also the one who pointed out the key episodes to Twilight which turned out to be instrumental in saving the day.

-0.5. While my awareness does not stretch to that two-parter, discord being a turncoat is as far from Celestia's motive for giving discord his probation as can be imagined.

He had another chance to change and he tossed it into the garbage when another person gave him the chance to indulge in his base desires of being the Master of Chaos, a desire that not even Fluttershy, the one pony he cares about, could hold a flame to. Helping Sparkles came after tirek drained him of magic, didn't it? Helping the angels after you back-stabbed them because the devil used you and tossed you away leaves you with little to stand on for any idea of redemption or even that whatever scraps of a heart you have, it'll ever be enough to turn you away from being the Master of Chaos.

this is only my opinion but being a turncoat, even if he turned back (and only after being drained of and tossed to the garbage by tirek), is so vile and disgusting that it can't be really be made up for. He'll have to live with a negative for that score.

Erm...this got dramatic, didn't it?

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 6th 2019 at 8:11:55 AM

One could infer both Discord's assertion to Princess Celestia that he'll use his magic for good and Celestia telling Twilight in "Twilight's Kingdom" that she's putting Discord on the Tirek problem to mean that Discord is using his magic to benefit Equestria. It's just that those tasks he's doing are between Celestia and Discord; we, the audience, never see them because they have nothing to do with Twilight and her friends, and thus never come to the attention of the protagonists through which we experience the story.

But one is under no obligation to make that inference, given how much we see of Discord and how relatively little of that screentime is actually providing such a benefit. You can give him the benefit of the doubt, but you don't have to. Indeed, if we are meant to believe that he's doing a lot of work for Equestria offscreen, it would not be difficult to add some lines here or there alluding to it for the audience's benefit.

Chatting about it over tea with Fluttershy for instance.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 6th 2019 at 9:25:39 AM

Helping Sparkles came after tirek drained him of magic, didn't it?

Actually, Discord pointed out the lessons to them at the beginning, before Tirek even showed up.

...Oh. Have not seen that yet so can't really argue reliably.

Becoming a turncoat is still a mark that can't really be erased, in my opinion.

While this forum is still conversing about discord, school's going to start for me quickly and season 3 was finished for me at the beginning of this month so seeing season 4 will be in a couple of weeks.

One quick question about that: how much of a nuisance is discord in this season? He's in this season a lot, isn't he? He's also less of a mischievous trickster and more of a bully, isn't he?

I don't think Discord is ever much of a bully. The worst incidents I can recall is Three's Company, where he attempts to troll Twilight and Candace, and A Matter of Principals where he harasses Starlight while Twilight is away.

A lot of Discord episodes poke fun at his insecurity - he tends to frequently get jealous and/or defensive.

Edited by storyyeller on Jan 6th 2019 at 12:44:44 PM

Yeah, those episodes basically make him the villain without technically being a villain. It's the writers having their cake and eating it too where it comes to Discord being reformed but still causing mayhem.

Post of the Day #2388

Posted by Corvus Brachyrynchos on Thu, 15th Mar '12 9:19:07 AM - Post #126274 in the old thread

He makes the jump from Epic Adventure Villain to Slice of Life Villain. He's not always deliberately bullying, but he's usually in the wrong in some way or another. For instance, "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" has a conflict that derives from Discord's insecurity about Fluttershy's date social accompaniment platonic infatuation totally-a-date with Tree Hugger.

The conflict is then escalated by Discord's shittiness as a person, right up until the point where he attempts to murder Tree Hugger in a jealous rage. Discord is unquestionably villainous here. It's just not quite on the "Transform all of Equestria into a world of chaos for my amusement" scale.

That POTD is oddly appropriate if you assume it was being written by Discord.

Has anyone speculated on what happened to Feather Bangs when Our Town was ruled by Starlight Glimmer?

My personal headcanon is that he suddenly became a better singer after Starlight took away his cutie mark.

So, storyyeller, why don't you use the text effect for referring to another person's words instead of a simple italicization? You know,

Also, and this may be vital for arguments to come, but when is it reasonable or logical to come to conclusions about things we do not see or have not been shown? Anybody can answer this if they want.

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 7th 2019 at 9:50:28 AM

Because I am too lazy to type out "[[quoteblock]]" all the time. Surrounding quotations in italics is a lot easier.

A shorter tag for quoteblocks would be convenient. Shortening it to quote would be much better already.

Maybe something to suggest for the next forum update?

Post of the Day #2389

Posted by Luminosity on Sun, 7th Sep '14 3:22:45 PM - Post #88550 in the new thread