We all know that Discord loves causing chaos, but according to the writers it's more of him trying to have a good time than any real malicious intent, unless others are a threat to him by trying to return him to stone.

So I've been wondering especially after reading; 'The Game of Estrus' and Discord himself more or less being equal to the 'Pony Devil' in some works I've read have made me wonder if there is anything that Discord would consider going 'too far'.

Like more mature themes that official distibutions like novels, film, the show, games, and the comics could/would NEVER touch upon; murder, genocide, rape (see above fic), etc.

The reason I ask this is because he seemed to have no problem mind-F***ing the Mane Six in his debut episode, Stealing the Elements of Harmony, Flooding/Freezing Sweet Apple Acres, and Potentially causing severe injuries like turning all of the roads to Ponyville into soap.

This also begs the question of whether or not he knows the problems that these action could cause and simply doesn't care, or he realizes/thinks about it afterwords but simply doesn't care enough to change them back.

Did/Could he make ponies heads explode with streamers flying everywhere rather than actual blood and brain matter? Turn someone's guts into parasitic worms to eat them from the inside out? If he could remove wings and horns, could he also not remove another ponies legs to laugh at them as they struggle to try and get around?

(Personally I'd only reserve these ones for Grim Dark fics.)

People seem to have varying degrees on seeing him as Chaotic Evil/Chaotic Neutral from fic to fic and I want to know what you guys think.

Too much chaos? Hmm, interesting subject.
See, chaos is merely DIFFERENCE, if it weren't for chaos, everyone and everything would be the same. Every day would be the same experience as the last one. Nothing new, nothing surprising, yes evil comes from chaos, but so does good.

Too much chaos really depends on the individual person's view. Too much chaos could either be one HUGE different thing happening or a whole bunch of little things. They can even vary. A meteor hurtling towards the planet meaning imminent death is chaos. However the circus coming to town on your birthday, you getting a free pass to everything at the carnival including anything you want for free for that day, that is also chaos, though too much of a good thing is still too much.

So I guess really it depends on how far the chaos goes and what form it takes.

1811039
Really, as we are never told what the extent of his powers are, you can assume just about anything. I've read fics, namely We Fight as One, and Ascension, which have Discord being fairly evil. Ascension justifies this by saying that he is both the god of Chaos and the trickster god, and his performance in the show is simply him being the latter. I see no reason as to why he could be shown as the former as long as it works.
Pretty much, as long as they story is interesting, and you keep the general characteristics of Discord right, ie, his callous sense of humor, then you can go as nuts as you want.

1811078

However the circus coming to town on your birthday

Unless, you hate clowns.

1811096 Like I said, chaos. you have no control over what happens, YOU decide what to make of the chaos, it's alignment of good or bad depends on the individuals views, nothing more.

1811085

Well you see, one of the reasons I ask is because I remember a trollfic I read some time ago about the Mane Six spontaneously deciding that they're sick of Dash and hire Lightning Dust to kill her.

The author's excuse for their out of character behavior was that Discord screwed with their minds or something, but many (myself included) felt that to be an unsatisfactory answer as it felt like something that would be going too far (even for Discord).

Really, when you can literally rewrite reality to your whims, you have to make your own fun.

Sure, you could just remove the pony's legs and watch them flop around, but that would get old real quick. Everyone reacts in pretty much exactly the same way.

Mentally trapping them within their own skulls and making them watch as they abandon everything they once held dear is much more challenging, and much more entertaining. Make it a game. Unless they somehow win, in which case they must be cheating. Yes, I'm looking at you, Fluttershy.

And there's no fun in killing them. Keep them alive, and then laugh as they constantly abandon everyone and everything important to them. Again. And again. And again...

1811085 Heck, he's the embodiment of chaos, technically, he is by nature going to be irrational. He could have ANY personality and if it doesn't fit what is in the show (either by a lot or a little) that IS chaos. Him being portrayed differently would be perfectly understandable as it's not normal.

1811102

Hence the tags 'Chaotic Good', 'Chaotic Neutral', and 'Chaotic Evil'?

1811039
I never really thought of Discord as someone who would use his chaotic powers for malicious intent. He's more the kind of character who just likes to have fun and have a laugh at things. I really wouldn't picture that sort of image as that, unless you put him in some sort of grimdark setting, like Pinkie Pie in Cupcakes. How far he goes with his powers is, however, a thought to really think about.

I just posted a Discord fic yesterday where he uses his magic to force ponies into romantic moments with each other. Would that count as going too far?

1811107
I think that feels like a cop-out, as Discord isn't actually involved, he's just a Deus ex Machinima. As long as Discord is actively the main villain, I reckon it could work.
Also, just remembered another fic where discord is evil: Ascended
1811115
Exactly. Throw a bit of chaos into the mix.

1811110 Yeah, I agree. I don't think Discord is really looking for anything to be permanent. More like, he turns one situation into another, like the flood at Sweet Apple Acres. He was told to 'fix' it. So he did, with HIS idea of fixing it.

1811122

I think that would really depend upon how far the two ponies in question would be willing to go under his influence.

Otherwise, I think that's similarly to the morally questionable effects of using 'Love Potions' or the 'Want-It, Need-It' spell given as how depending on their circumstance, the audience could possibly interpret it as 'date-rape' so if you're aiming for the Dark/Grim Dark tag and maybe a bit of controversy-I say go for it.

But, if not-then I suggest you be careful to try and avoid more mature situations with that being used as a plot device.

1811110

Non-Lethal psychological torment.

That does sound intriguing...

1811117 You can't really tag it, for one person may consider it wrong because they have different views. Like I know that there's at least someone out there who disagrees with me, that's chaos.

I think Discord is hilarious and just plain awesome. He's definitely an antagonist but he's not evil unless he wants to be. He has control over reality itself.

1811136 Exactly. Heck, he essentially called out Celestia saying even he wouldn't turn someone into stone. Also, he got out after having to be immobile for a thousand years. Then, they want to send him back for no reason other than "We don't like him". To me, that's really mean, and most of what he did to the mane six was harmless. Heck, he didn't have to give their wings and horns back, but he did because he said he would. Someone who keeps their word is evil? Well, thanks Celestia, for that interesting bit of information.

1811039
Discord is a spirit of chaos. He has no interest in actually hurting people. Although living under his rule is clearly unpleasant, even if he isn't screwing with your mind.

Potentially causing severe injuries like turning all of the roads to Ponyville into soap

Not really. This is a cartoon world, its difficult to get hurt.

Remember "Sonic Rainboom"? In order to prob Twilight to find a spell that will allow them to go to cloudsdale, Rarity hits her with enough force to throw her across the room. In real life this would be an instance of serious violence and Twilight would almost certainly sustain injury if not death. In Equestria Twilight is fine and no one seems to consider this abnormal.

RD is a perfect example of this. Her flying is extremely hazardous. In fact we have seen her smash through walls in more than one occasion. In real life that should have killed her and potentially other people. In Equestria she is at best dazed and the other ponies either ignore it or find it slightly annoying.

Point in case: Discord's silly pranks aren't going to hurt anyone.

There are different types of chaos. there is the mostly innocent and funny, the cruel and traumatizing, and the sadistic and deadly forms of chaos. I believe Discord is mostly about the first and does cause the second when he needs to. I don't think he would even touch the third type. He enjoys messing with ponies, and if he k=hurt or killed them, then he would have less ponies to mess with. He isn't really destructive. He is more along the lines of a cruel humored child.

1811148
Actually, that wouldn't be bad at all. The plot device, I mean. But, for reference, it is T-rated.

1811039 Too much of a chaos is when particles behave in such mess that it makes them fall apart, destroying matter and turning it back to the original 'energy soup' which existed when the universe formed billiouns years ago.

Anything that I was about to say has already been said, so I'm just going to casually throw my two cents in and leave it at that.

Personally I never felt that there was such a thing as too much chaos, as the-pieman stated, you need it in order to gain any realization how precious life actually is.

We need chaos to enjoy harmony. Same for we need harmony, to enjoy chaos.

I want Discord to be seen as a God that shouldn't be reckoned with, something that if nature screwed up too badly, he would take the place of "fixing" everything. Take that as you will.

Whether he's evil or good, Discord will be my main character for the show none the less.

I wanted to say something to this too but I would just repeat was already has been said :/
Well then I will say this : Since we are all more or less authors of our own stories here we can decide for our own story how much chaos would be TO much :)
The readers don´t have to share our opinion about it though ;D

Hey, I'm Nick.

well, without chaos, how could we have order? so, CELESTIA is causing unbalance, not discord. (that was totally unrelated.) chaos that lasts longer than order is to much. so...... how long has equestria been around?

1825289 half of a million years?

My speculation is that Equestria is around 5,000 years old.
The Pony races would have been thousands of years before, due to an "Obscure history."

And before that, when the three races were in disarray, it would have taken thousands of more years before they actually GOT to Equestria. Even Equestrians don''t know what happened, except the story of the formation of Equestria and when the Wendigos attacked the three races.