Things I'd like to see on MLP: Discord the Real-Life Villain · 4:31am Nov 17th, 2013
Discord, I'm howling at the moon,
And sleeping in the middle
of a summer afternoon
Discord, whatever did we do
to make you take our world away?
Discord, are we your prey alone
or are we just a stepping stone
for taking back the throne
Discord, we won't take it any more,
so take your tyranny away!
Next week will finally be the very long awaited premiere of Season 4 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Equestria Daily shared a promo from The Hub today that revealed quite a bit.
Narrated by John De Lancie, the promo hints that Discord will be playing a large role alongside the Mane 6 as an enemy that has become a new ally. Perhaps I was right about a key part of harmony turning out to be a balance between order and chaos. The promo also features a monstrous crocodile. Wonder what that's about?
Now, as I may have noted before, two of the things I didn't like about Season 3 was Discord's reformation in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" and Twilight's ascension to alicorn-hood in "Magical Mystery Cure". These past few months, I have been growing more accepting of Twilicorn, and I have a reason for being able to live with Discord's reformation. It seems that the season premiere is already shaping up to try to prove that both these things were good ideas. I really hope they can.
Anyway, Discord's reformation in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" really took me by surprise, because frankly I didn't expect it. Without a doubt, Discord was the probably MLP's most popular villain. Why would they take the occasion of his second appearance to no longer make him a villain. I was really looking forward to Discord's return, but not like this! However, the more I thought about it, Discord's reformation provides a great opportunity for some very fascinating storytelling.
For the purpose of transparency, I admit that I've never too much of a fan of villain reformation. The same thing happened quite disastrously for one of my alltime favorite villains Sylar from the show Heroes, portrayed by Zachary Quinto.
Sylar was a superpowered serial killer, who acquired superpowers from other superpowered individuals by murdering them by slicing their heads open with telekinesis. Sylar, like Discord, was a very popular villain, and had much the same effect on fans as Tom Hiddleston's Loki in the Marvel cinematic universe. Sylar though spent a lot more time as a villain than Discord. He was the main villain for Heroes' first season and one of the villains of its highly abridged second season. The first part of Season 3 saw the first attempt to reform Sylar. He meanders around a bit before returning to villain status in the second half of that season. In the fourth and final season, Sylar was finally reformed in a very roundabout way. He was initially brainwashed into believing he was another character named Nathan Petrelli, and when he finally recovered his true identity, the influence of Nathan's memories and personality led to his reformation.
At least we can all thank Celestia that Discord's reformation was not anything like this. His at least made sense. And even though it was only half-an-hour long, it wasn't as rushed as Sylar's.
Obviously, I didn't want to relive any of that heartache when it came to MLP. However, I actually feel MLP has a better chance to tackle some more mature storytelling with a reformed Discord along the lines of what I have previously called The Harry Potter Effect.
They have a chance to depict Discord as a Real-Life Villain.
I'd like to turn our attention to what Discord promised at the end of "Keep Calm and Flutter On".
Yes, Princess, I'm ready to use my magic for good instead of evil.... Most of the time.
Many people will probably point out the "most of the time part". Discord has already been shown as playing around with his words. Celestia certainly knows this. That's probably why she asked Twilight to hold onto to the Elements of Harmony just in case. Also, John De Lancie has been teasing that Discord's reformation may not be complete. So, perhaps Discord will use this caveat as an excuse for a renewed streak of chaos.
However, I'd like to emphasize Discord's promise to use his magic for good. Discord is a good example of one of my favorite types of villains. The kind TVTropes calls Faux Affably Evil, that is a villain who covers his evilness with a veneer of friendliness and affability. This is opposed to my other favorite being genuinely Affably Evil, where a villain is genuinely friendly and affable but is still evil. (Mayor Wilkins from Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an excellent example. I mean, he's a villain who even after transforming into a demon does not curse!) Anywho, fiction allows us to have villains who wear their evilness on their sleeve, hide it beneath a veneer of affability, or are genuinely affable. In fiction most of the time, you know who the villain of the story is.
In real life, this is not the case. Think of the most evil people you know in the world. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, countless others. They did some pretty atrocious things. But did they wear their villainy on their sleeve? In real life, it is very rare for a villainous type to profess their villainy. The people listed above genuinely believed they were the good guys. Even in fiction, the villain is the hero of their own story. In real life, this is unfortunately the case for every villain. They believe themselves to be the heroes.
Discord's reformation gives the writers of MLP the opportunity to depict Discord as a Real Life Villain, a villain who genuinely believes their villainous actions are for the good. Especially if it turns out to be the case in the premiere that Harmony requires a balance between order and chaos. Maybe Discord will determine that there's too much order in Equestria and a bit more of his chaos is needed. It would be an interesting conflict with Twilight or the Mane 6 as a whole struggling over what an appropriate compromise between the two is. That on its own I wouldn't mind seeing.
I still hold on to the chance that Discord will return to full fledged villainy, at least shifting more towards affably evil than he was before. In this case, I still believe he would want Fluttershy to remain his friend. She is his only friend after all. I imagine he will take the lessons of friendship he has learned and apply it forming a friendly cohort of villains made up of all the villains faced on the show so far. I could imagine it going like this:
Discord: You see, Fluttershy. I find I like being friends with you so much that I wanted some more friends. An important part of being friends is having shared interests. Their interests happen to be taking over Equestria, but who am I to judge.
I could see Discord further trying to maintaining his friendship with Fluttershy by arguing that you have to accept your friends for who they are, just as she accepts her friends for who they are and doesn't force them to change:
Discord: You don't force your friends to change who they are to fit perfectly in your life. You accept them for who they are. This is who I am Fluttershy. The Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony! Certainly, my only friend can accept that.
Perhaps this is what it takes to finally corrupt Fluttershy on her own. Perhaps since all the other villains are opposed to friendship and work on their own that it is Discord learning the magic of friendship and introducing it to the other villains that would allow them to come together as a nigh unstoppable force against the Princesses and the Mane 6.
I would so love to see anything like this. If they don't do it on the show, I'm definitely using it in a fanfiction.
But even if none of this is the case and Discord's Heel- Face Turn is complete, Discord is set to appear this season in at least 1 to 2 episodes and will get his own song! No matter in what capacity, more Discord is always a good thing.
Those are my thoughts. What are your thoughts on Discord as a villain and his reformation?
P.S. I'd also like to add that I do not believe that Discord is Star-Swirl the Bearded!
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
Yeah, I don't get the whole "Discord is Star-Swirl the Bearded" theory either.
I have no problems with Discord being good as long as he remains as an entertaining, chaotic troublemaker. Discord being willing to work alongside the Mane 6 and the Princesses while still being chaotic and troublesome provides the opportunity for several interesting scenes and episodes in the future.
1514411 You make an excellent point.
Wait, what? People think that Discord is Star Swirl? Why?
Also, I love Heroes!
1515684 You have excellent taste in television sir/madam.
I don't know. There are some people who theorize that Discord was originally Star Swirl the Bearded for some reason.
1515793 As do you.
I also didn't like it very much when Sylar turned good, but I usually accept just about whatever happens in shows I like. Except when Rose got trapped on the parallel world, and got replaced with...Martha......in Doctor Who 
I...uh..why? What reasons could they have for thinking that?
1516230 I believe it has been seriously suggested that they both have beards. There are also some who suggest that Star Swirl attempted his incomplete spell from "Magical Mystery Cure" and turned into Discord.
I don't consider it much more than a crackpot theory anyway.
1516243 ......
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