Welp, Death Battle did what a decade of canon and fanfics couldn't · 2:02am Sep 15th, 2023
I guess I like Discord now?
I mean, cards on the table. Discord is one of those characters that I just can't really get behind of. I liked him a lot as a villain, bu ever since 'Keep Calm and Flutter On', I've grown tired of the guy. Mostly the sense of humor surrounding him being centered on randomness for randomness sake, which got old for me with Deadpool a couple of years before I even started watching the show.
The other big problem I have with Discord as presented in canon is the abuse subtext. Probably not intentional from the show's creatives (I hope), but a lot of the situations the character is involved, especially post-redemption, share a lot of abusive patterns. Emotional manipulation, dishonesty, self-excusing behavior, narcissistic tendencies. There're a lot of real-life parallels that do build a pattern of an abusive character with Discord. Parallels that always make me too uncomfortable to not focus on them.
Which is the reason I usually avoid Discord-centric fanfics, unless they have him as a villain or address the abuse subtext problem.
However, I should have known that Death Battle would give me a new insight. I honestly love watching this show's analysis portion because there's always a piece I didn't consider about characters I knew or are a good introductory text to new characters.
In Discord's case, none of that happened, really, but the narrative introduced during the fight portion really built a different Discord for me. It does showcase his more caring side, and a more built character. It did help that, being a main character gives him character, and character can be developed. Specially in the end of the fight with Bill Cypher, which honestly had me rooting for Discord in the end.
What I'm trying to say is that Discord works far better for me when he gets to be a character instead of the plot-element he usually is, both in canon and fanon. Something I just came to notice after getting the Death Battle for comparison, seeing him facing obstacles to overcome instead of being the obstacle himself.
So, hey, who says the surprises stop after the first ten years in a fandom?
I got a lot more out of the character of Discord from reading Dadonequus Discord since he had so much more presence in the story, without trying to disguise or ignore the fact that he was stoned for a good reason, and wasnt significantly different later in the show just because he agreed to try friendship.
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I'll give it a read later, but no promises. With my job, I have little spare time, and get distracted very easily these days.
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It took awhile for me to get into it, but really mostly because the story is in second person, and that's my least favorite perspective.