Speculation and Apex Artillery: Chaos Magic · 10:48pm Oct 31st, 2014
I've had several tries writing something conclusive on Discord, trying to paint a complete picture of our favourite Lord of Chaos.
I couldn't make it work. For one thing, Discord is somewhat self-contradictionary, and, secondly, the topic is just. Too. Freaking. Big. For one post.
So, here we are, on the first part of what hopefully will be a series on Discord.
We'll start with something easy: His magic, herefrom for this purpose be called Chaos Magic.
And when I say 'Chaos Magic', I mean 'the apparently magical alterations imposed on reality by Discord'.
I'll begin by asserting that Chaos Magic is fundamentally different from 'Normal Magic'.
First, it can achieve feats that are otherwise deemed impossible.
This can be seen first when Twilight is unable to counter its effects using her 'fail-safe spell' and second when he removes the Elements of Harmony from their vault without breaking the powerful spell protecting said vault.
More examples may include Discord being fully conscious and perceptive in spite of being stone or the insane warping of reality he does on a regular basis.
Second, it is cast without the aid of specialized body parts, any visible magic aura or preparation time.
Sure, Discord snaps his fingers every now and then, but for the most part, he does Chaos Magic without it, often even without the white flash of light and the accompanying sound.
If it weren't for its unusual, over-the-top effects, Chaos Magic would be nigh unnoticeable.
I may be biased by our sample group, but most creatures we have seen channel their magic through a specific body part, such as the horn for unicorns, wings for pegasi, fire for dragons (not really a body part, but you get what I mean).
In the case of our ponies, loss of these body parts results in an inability to perform magic. Since Discord was able to first reconstruct and then deconstruct his entire body on several occasions (e.g. in S04E11) I see it safe to assume that Discord is independent of any part of his body, sans perhaps the ability to think, which, however, might not necessarily necessitate a brain.
While Discord possesses a yellow magic aura, (see S02E02) it is never visible. The only occasion we see Discord do magic with an aura is when he lets the Mane Five float in front of him by their Elements.
The magic seen in this scene does not conform to the usual behaviour of Chaos Magic since
- an aura was visible
- the effect wasn't instantaneous
- Discord showed signs of strain
This may be for two reasons:
A) While worn by their bearers, the Elements (and perhaps the bearers) are insusceptible to Chaos Magic, therefore Discord refrains to mundane magic, of which he possesses a great deal less.
or
B) While worn by their bearers, the Elements (and by extension the bearers) resist Chaos Magic to a certain degree. Thus, Discord has to put more effort behind it, indicating that the lack of aura and preparation time under normal circumstances is simply an effect of Discord's vast power.
Any way, this scene indicates that Discord cannot magically remove the Elements from their bearers, making Celestia's spell from S03E10 not only unnecessary but perhaps even useless, since Discord penetrated her magical defences with ease when stealing the Elements from Canterlot Tower.
However, since Discord has no trouble teleporting Fluttershy around (while she is wearing the Element of Kindness, of course), this effect only seems to apply to magic that might, or is intended to, separate Element and bearer.
Still, another possibility would be C) for Chaos: Discord just wanted to put on a show on that one occasion.
Either way, since he can teleport bearer and Element, Celestia's spell is still useless.
The third, and also most graphic, reason to believe Discord magic is different from other magic is seen when Tirek absorbs Discord's magic.
Visual Aid.
Exhibit A; pretty noticeable: Discord's magic looks (and sounds) freaky as nothing good, even moreso when compared to pony magic. A small wonder Tirek didn't get a stomach ache.
Exhibit B; less noticeable: Tirek hardly grows.
"So what?" you may ask. However, during other occasions, Tirek grows more if he absorbs more power. One unicorn is a bit of a boost, many ponies do a lot, the Mane Five quite a bit, the combined magic of the alicorns makes him grow through the roof, and Discord—well. See what I mean?
I think I have made my point here. Chaos Magic is by all appearances different than other kinds of magic shown, validating the endeavour to actually describe it as a unique type of magic.
My assertion is that Chaos Magic is the second most powerful kind of magic in the show, second only to the Deus Ex Arbore powers employed by the Elements of Harmony.
The reasons for this lie in its superiority in scope, convenience and subtlety when compared to other magics.
Scope: Chaos Magic seems to be most versatile of any magic we have seen yet. From warping the laws of nature, time, space and perhaps even magic, toying with biology to affecting the mind, there is nothing we have really seen that Chaos Magic can, in principle, not do.
Convenience: Discord has integrated Chaos Magic into his general mannerisms. It says something when you can use powerful magic beyond the wildest dreams of most unicorns nonchalantly, just for added expressiveness, during a conversation without interrupting its flow in the slightest.
Subtlety: What you notice about Chaos Magic is mostly its effect, not the process of it being cast. I said a bit about this earlier, so, for the sake of brevity, it shall suffice to mention that Discord was able to remove Celestia's tail from her body without her noticing and without any visible or audible indication of magic happening.
So, one can clearly see why—what is this about Tirek? Excuse me, but I can't see how throwing laser beams around and failing at beating up a pretty purple pony princess is more powerful than, say, setting up sun and moon to rise and set in irregular patterns at a ludicrous pace.
And yes, he may have had Discord's magic, but seemed fairly unable to use it. The only time Tirek used something resembling Chaos Magic was when teleporting in Twilight's friends—something involving unstable flickering back and forth and a not exactly instantaneous effect. I think this indicates that Tirek refraining from using Chaos Magic may indeed have stemmed from a lack in ability and not (only) from insufficient creativity on Tirek's part. (Remember when Tirek used Twilight's friends to get her magic? That was Discord's idea. Not his own. If that centaur sees a problem, he'll try solving it by blasting it with freakin' lasers before attempting anything else.)
Point is, Discord is far more powerful than any of the princesses, even combined. The question is why Tirek couldn't use this power to defeat Twilight.
Possible explanations:
1) He didn't actually steal Discord's magic.
2) The Chaos Magic remained separate from the other types of magic, not adding to Tirek main pool of power, unusable for the centaur.
3) Chaos Magic is so closely tied to Discord only he can use it.
4) It is Discord that makes Chaos Magic so powerful. In other words, Discord doesn't really have much raw strength, but is just exceedingly good at using magic due to high experience and a genius-level intellect. Maybe his spells operate on different principles that allow him to do more with less. (if pony magic were like medieval alchemy, Chaos Magic would be like science fiction nanotechnology)
I think we have now sufficiently qualified Chaos Magic to the best of my ability, so I will now in conclusion mention a few cases of individuals other than Discord displaying similar abilities:
I am talking about Pinkie Pie, of course. Her cartoonish ways are often astonishingly similar to Chaos Magic, and her Pinkie Sense provides an interesting parallel to Discord's ability to sense magical imbalances. However, it must be noted that Pinkie Pie's abilities are severely more limited in scope than Discord's, as she is seldom seen to influence anything beyond her immediate surroundings.
The other possible example would be Zecora refilling her cup, although that was just one occurence and could easily be something else entirely.
If you find some aspect to be missing or are dissatisfied with my reasoning, please let me know! It'd like for this to be as good a possible.
My theory is a combination of 2, 3 and 4 (except in the universe where Discord is Q, where it's 1.) Discord really is absurdly powerful because he knows how to use Chaos Magic, which is essentially raw, wholly unstructured magic. Entities who aren't Discord will have a very, very hard time using Chaos Magic, because you don't impose your will on chaos, you more or less collaborate with it, and the results are rarely fully predictable. For a control freak like Tirek, Chaos Magic is almost useless, and adds very little to his useable magic pool. That being said, Chaos Magic is indeed incredibly powerful... for those who know how to use it. Pinkie has no more magic than any other earth pony, but part of her pool is chaos magic, enabling her to do things that high-level unicorns have difficulty doing.
My theory is that as the Element of Magic, Twilight can tap any form of magic -- including Chaos. When her spells go spectacularly wrong, it's because she's pulling from a source she can't control. Her personality isn't well suited to control of Chaos magic but she has the native ability to draw on it... which leads to stuff going wrong.
(In the universe where Discord is Q, "Chaos magic" is Q power, and what Tirek took from Discord was the magic physically resident within his form that allows him to access the omnipotence of the Continuum. So he did take magic from Discord, leaving Discord powerless, but what he got was not Discord's full power, because the Continuum wouldn't have allowed Tirek to draw from it even if he'd known how.)
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Is that so?
I think I just found a topic for the next Speculation and Apex Artillery.
Maybe something on how strong magic runs in the family, and how the Mane Six are veritable powerhouses in comparison to your average pony...
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Well, ok, I was comparing her to Applejack, to be honest. :-) You're right, all of the Mane 6 have a lot of power in comparison to others of their race. (It seems to run in families. Maud is absurdly strong even for an earth pony, and Big Mac and Granny Smith appear to be very strong as well, while Shining Armor is plainly much more powerful than the average unicorn.)