What /about/ Discord?

So I finally stumbled across a YouTube upload of Saturday's episode (at least I think it was Saturday's. I still haven't seen the Nightmare Night one, so I'm a little mixed up). I love it. I love it so much that I'm blogging about it immediately after watching it at 5 in the morning (don't judge). But not quite enough to take screencaps.

Anyway, Discord again. And what a Discord he is. So last season we had a few appearances like this, where he acts outwardly like a friend, but with obvious ulterior motives that are not so obvious to little ponies. Well, they're obvious in the sense that we know he has them, but we don't actually know what they are until the end. Or maybe not even then.

Take "Princess Twilight Sparkle", for instance (the episode with the vines, not the actual princess, or her Vines). Looking at the two-parter as a whole, it looks like Discord was steering Twilight toward a larger lesson the whole time, while making it look like a halfhearted attempt at a power grab, and also on a shallower level making it look like an innocent misguided slip-up. He never actually says flat-out that he planned it all that way from the beginning to be a lesson, but to our minds at the end it's by far the most likely explanation.

Alternatively, you could look at "Twilight's Kingdom", where Discord seems to go the other way. He spends about three-quarters of the special playing the same game, playing innocent and stupid at least twice over, but then he genuinely gets blindsided by Tirek's S-B-I Betrayal, and from then on it seems perfectly clear that he's not the guiding mastermind behind Twilight's character development.

So we've seen a bit of both so far, but we all thought that would end with that episode and Discord's "full" reformation.

And then we get this.

Let me try to explain through my 5:30-AM mental haze why this episode impressed me so much. Aside from the best references of the season, of course. Looking at it on the first viewing, it looks unexpectedly like another S4-style "Discord being sneakily evil... maybe" plot. Twilight's noticing strange things and they're all about Discord (see what I did there?). Clearly, he's up to something. He doesn't not do things like that on purpose. It's really too bad, but he's not the actual embodiment of chaos that fanfiction likes to make him out to be. That's a shame, because that can be handled really well.

Not only is there an obvious pattern that Twilight is quaintly slow to pick up on, but Discord rubs it in her face for only us to see as he goes. So we know he's doing this on purpose, and the obvious goal is to separate Twilight from her friends, right? Or is it? Or is it not? Or is it again?? Don't worry, you'll be asking yourself the same thing soon if you're not already.

See, we've seen Discord pull this act before. I've already talked about it, we don't need to talk about it again. It's just not like him to not have a mysterious, probably philanthropic ulterior motive behind his apparent sinister one. At least, not when he's not the main character of the episode. So by now, we can probably guess that he's actually doing this for a good cause. Right? There just might be one problem with that.

He's reformed. I mean, really reformed. Fo' real. In "Twilight's Kingdom" he was actually humbled for once, and everything we've seen since then has had him being the one learning and adapting and getting the character development.

Before, he was what I think of as a Gandalf-tier character. He was above any real growing experiences because he was already grown and experienced. He was set in his ways and had thousands of years (give or take) advantage over the protagonists. He was a straight villain. A good one, but he fit the bill. He was able to be foiled by underestimating his opponents even though he seemed to have it all won. It all felt right.

So then he was "reformed" the first time. We saw him actually have a character turn near the end, but it still felt good because the whole episode was about setting that up, and trust versus doubt, and friendship and faith and Fluttershy. We could tell he wasn't all the way there yet, and we didn't really think he would ever get there. Of course, we had no way of imagining what was to come.

After that he played the role of a good friend or a learning friend, depending on the episode and the depth of acting his goals required. He was actually friends on some level with Fluttershy, and clung to her in his own way as his first and only friend, but he still wasn't above using her or even abandoning and betraying her if necessary. This all felt good because we knew who he was by now, and we all had a sense for his desires and priorities even though they were never ever stated explicitly and they changed from week to week. Discord is just that sort of character, that you can understand without ever actually seeing enough to understand.

Then his arc was completed with Tirek and Twilight. He finally lost patience for playing nice (though only after giving Twilight a rough shove in the right direction to beat Tirek in the end) and gave up his friend(ship) for something more enticing, and more familiar. And though he did it all with that quiet, casual smugness that makes it look like it was his plan all along, we had no reason to believe it was anything other than an impulsive decision that only came as a result of Tirek's offer. We could tell he wasn't really into it, at least not in a narrative sense. He had too much character development for all of that to be worth so little as to throw away on a whim. So we knew from a character-understanding perspective as well as narrative sense that he was going to come back to the light side, and stronger than ever. And he did.

That one episode, we can safely assume, was the one time we saw pure Discord reacting to an unexpected personal failure. No tricks, no acts, no secret plans, just him dumbstruck at being betrayed (though he really should have seen it coming) and humbled enough to qualify as a KeyMaster, for the Element of Magic/Friendship, no less.

So that's it. Arc complete, he's starting with a fresh slate and a clean leaf. Now he's actually going to take friendship seriously and be humble enough to learn new things, and be the sole recipient of the moral of the story for once. And he was, for his couple of appearances. He had a new role in the show, and it felt right because it made sense after what he's been through so far.

And then along comes this episode. Now he's back to being the Mischievous and Aloof Gandalf. He's playing behind two scenes at once again, and dispensing lessons instead of receiving.

I have no problem with that part. Well, a little, because inconsistency, but I believe it, considering the circumstances of episodic writing. What I did have a problem with, at least for the first two thirds or so, was the backtracking he seemed to do.

Alright, I've danced around it enough, but it's about time I actually brought it up: I don't know for sure what game Discord's playing at after this episode. For the first two thirds or so it genuinely looked like he was trying to sabotage Twilight's friendship with the others. I knew intellectually that there was going to be a big lesson in the end and conceivably Discord could have been working toward it, but there weren't any hints to that effect. And that didn't feel right because we usually get at least a little leaning towards the deeper deep motivation, even though the ponies don't.

It might just be because it was reversed this time from "Princess Twilight Sparkle" and "Twilight's Kingdom". There, Discord played the part of the reformed-in-name-only Discord they expected but hinted at guiding Twilight - with authority and forethought that could only come from deep understanding of friendship and/or the power of Harmony - toward her eventual solution. Here, though, he acts the part of the good, starting-to-bond-with-individual-characters Discord that we were expecting, while hinting at a sinister motive.

Of course, when Twilight had her climax (oh gosh) and admitted she had a problem (that's step one!), Discord owned up to being behind it even more than we thought he was (or that he really needed to be), and he seems remarkably forthcoming about the whole thing, even though it looks very suspicious.

So he looks suspicious. And not only that, but Twilight spends a good third of the runtime acting under the belief that he was truly evil. Didn't make a big fuss about it, just assumed it as an easier explanation than the fact that humor can be situational.

That was my one big problem with the episode. We can debate Discord all we want, but Twilight was acting like his part in the whole Tirek thing never happened. Discord's first friendship was with Fluttershy, but the one that made him truly accept friendship as a virtue was with Twilight. And she just dismissed that with no argument.

What the heck, Twilight? I get that you're still learning and that's part of what the episode was about, but still. Have a little sense for continuity, at least for your season finales.

Anyway, Discord had to know how they would feel about him announcing that he was behind keeping Twilight from her friends, but he volunteered the information without so much as being asked. He had to have planned that. And also unlike him, when confronted about it, he directly implies that he did it so that she could learn an important lesson. He never used to do that. That's why, to me at least, this also feels like an act.

This episode's Discord was one who still has schemes. What they are and who they benefit, I have no idea, but he has them.

But it's not a complete backtrack. The little table-flip they pulled on him with their own inside joke (oh yeah, spoilers for the new episode, by the way. Just in case you didn't get that) showed that he didn't really get the lesson either. At least, he wouldn't have been able to predict how Twilight would react if he really didn't know what it felt like to be left out of an inside joke, so he couldn't have planned the whole thing to begin with.

Just one last laugh to end the episode on? Maybe. I think they gave it too much attention for it to be unessential to his character in any way.

My point is, something in this episode's Discord is an act, but it's written in such a way that it could be any part of what we saw of him. He could be actually good and secretly wise beyond what we saw of him at the Gala, or he could be less savvy and still just trying to figure out true friendship and happening to help Twilight on the way, or he could actually be plotting against her for real again, just as easily. We don't know.

This episode has made me realize that Discord is one of the most complex characters I have ever seen, even just from his appearances in the show and ignoring fanfiction entirely. Makes sense for the Spirit of Chaos, right? It reminds me of Jack Sparrow, especially in the first Pirates movie when you're really not sure until the very end just whose side he's really on, and even then he might still surprise you. (talking, of course, about seeing it for the first time. But still, watch it again and think about this)

What do you think? Is Discord going to do the logical thing and continue on the path of Friendship, or is there something bigger going on? And is that thing good or bad? Cuz I don't know.

C-C-See you later!