Discord is a male draconequus, spirit of chaos and former antagonist introduced in the season two premiere "The Return of Harmony".
Primarily characterized as a nonsensical trickster, he is a Greek mythology-inspired creature called a "draconequus" (from the Greek words meaning "dragon horse"), a serpentine being with a pony's head and numerous different animal parts. It is shown in the series' distant past that he was opposed by Celestia and Luna for tormenting ponies with his reality-bending powers, and he similarly faces the Mane Six during the premiere; both times, the ponies use the Elements of Harmony to turn him to stone. Princess Celestia explains that Discord is the spirit of chaos and disharmony who once ruled over Equestria in a state of unrest and unhappiness, until she and Princess Luna used the Elements of Harmony to imprison him in stone. However, after the sisters lost their connection to the Elements, the spell was broken and Discord broke free.
In the season three episode "Keep Calm and Flutter On", Princess Celestia decides that Discord should be reformed so his magic can be used for good. Discord is released under Celestia's decree to reform himself, which he does after Fluttershy treats him like a friend. He has since been an anti-heroic ally of the Mane Six, occasionally causing mischief while struggling to become a better friend to them.
In Friendship is Magic, Discord is voiced by John de Lancie. In Pony Life, he is voiced by Peter New.
Appearance[]
Discord is a draconequus. He has the head of a pony and a body of many other things. The word "draconequus" is composed of the Latin "draco" or Greek "drakon", meaning "dragon", and the Latin "equus", meaning "horse". His head is horse-like, much different from other ponies' head styles, though Cheerilee describes it as a "head of a pony". He has a deer antler on the right, a blue goat horn on the left, one long fang, yellow eyes, red different-sized pupils, a snake tongue, a goat beard, and white bushy eyebrows. He has the right arm of a lion, the left claw of an eagle, the right leg of a lizard, and the left leg of a goat. In addition, he has a bat's right wing, a Pegasus' left wing, a horse's mane, and a dragon-like snake's tail with a white tail tuft. The shape of his body resembles that of a snake. Discord bears a resemblance to a Chinese dragon, a creature often depicted with a serpentine body, facial hair, feline claws, and antlers.
Personality[]
Discord has the traits of a typical on-and-off hero.
As the incarnation of chaos and disharmony, Discord professes great inclination to these two subjects. Every movement he performs is related someway with this. He possesses an outrageous sense of humor, often grazing the madness, which is strengthened by his powers of reality-bending.
He is a mischievous, sneaky, wacky trickster who effortlessly pulls pranks on his targets through the use of his powerful magic, illusions, and hypnotism; however, he has learned to consider his victims' feelings more.
He has a huge sense of showmanship and drama, preferring to be playful towards his victims before getting down to business. He specifically enjoys dressing up with different outfits from time to time. Discord has a fondness of making idioms and expressions literal, such as "my ears were burning" or "when pigs fly." He amuses himself with his magical mischief, hardly at the cost of others. Fortunately, after having had his fun, he will switch it back to normal. He will also gladly spread fun chaos to anypony he can to create happiness and cheer in Ponyville.
As an omnipotent entity, Discord considers himself above all of the rest, diminish magnitude to every setback presented before him, including those which suppose a threat to him. It could be said that Discord suffers from a superiority complex, something that has to lead him to find himself trapped in a rocky prison twice. However, after every defeat, he learned from his mistakes. After his first escape, he did exaggerate the Elements' power and tried to get rid of them. However, his overconfidence implied his failure once more when after corrupting the Mane Six, he thought they were not a menace anymore.
He has absolutely no sense of vengeance as he had no desire to seek revenge on Princess Celestia for imprisoning him. After the Mane Six petrify and later revive him from his stone form, he had no interest in taking revenge on them for beating him once again. In "Keep Calm and Flutter On," upon Celestia's request, Discord was released from his stone form by the Mane Six to give him a chance to behave himself. He has begun to mellow out after meeting Fluttershy and admitting he has never had a real friend before, preferring to remain best friends with the ponies instead of thriving in total mischief and will aid them from time to time.
However, despite this, come "Make New Friends but Keep Discord," Discord still apparently struggles with understanding the concept of friendship and still shows his mischievous, problematic, and self-centered traits, feeling he was replaced by Fluttershy's new friend Tree Hugger and that Fluttershy no longer cared for him just because she had chosen to bring Tree Hugger over him. As well, he brings the Smooze as his friend to the Gala, knowing about the Smooze's benevolent, but rather obstreperous, troublesome, disruptive, and dangerous nature, intentionally trying to cause mischief just to make his point to Fluttershy.
He is known to be more "playful", intent on playing and tricking his victims rather than destroying them as was seen in "The Cutie Re-Mark," Celestia and Luna are at his mercy, being forced to act in a mock circus and he does not seem to have any intent on destroying them.
After being betrayed and depowered by the Legion of Doom in "The Ending of the End," Discord was forced to warn the Mane Six and the Royal Sisters of the incoming threat and admit he brought them back for his plan to help boost Twilight's confidence. Though they are all immensely disappointed with his poor planning and putting every pony in Equestria in mortal peril, he constantly tries to justify his actions through his good intentions. It was not until he was imprisoned with the heroes that he fully realized his mistake and vowed to make up for it, which he ultimately did by risking his life to trick Tirek into releasing the prisoners and staying behind to keep the legion occupied while the Mane 5 and Spike escape. Even after getting his powers back, he showed a new sense of humility as he bowed before Twilight for proving her worth as the new ruler of Equestria. However, he was vengeful towards the Legion for betraying him, as he was the one who suggested that turning them all into stone would be the ultimate punishment for them since it meant spending all of eternity together, and helped Celestia and Luna in doing so.
While ultimately a thoughtful, goodhearted friend, he can sometimes be a braggart, selfish, stubborn, and a bit of a liar. Despite enjoying chaos and mischief, he can become easily annoyed if things do not go his way.
Discord naturally and instinctively causes mischief, so he thrives on the unexpected and unpredictable; he finds order to be boring and turgid and is horrified of the idea of something being "tidy and mundane, living life as expected" and does not like clichés. Therefore, Discord has made it his personal goal to cause as much chaos, mischief, and unpredictable madness as possible; he does it all for fun, with a slapstick sense of humor. Being a symbol of chaos, he dislikes order, cleanliness, and predictability. However, he has taken orders before, as well as cleaning up (i.e. taking a shower) and has been somewhat predictable at times. In "Discordant Harmony," Fluttershy states she is pretty sure Discord hates gravity; however, this is inaccurate as he is aware of the necessity of gravity and likes it (as long as he can cause mischief). Overall, he will indulge in these things, despite his chaotic persona. Discord is above Good and Evil, which he finds equally boring, though he does seem to lean towards good as he intends no malice in his tricks, only to make them exciting and unpredictable. He wanders from place to place (even moving through dimensions) to "make things more lively" (i.e. wreaking chaos) wherever he deems the situation to be boring. He dislikes routines (especially repeated), clichéd situations, and everything boring, but acts out of a love for pranks rather than actual malice. As a trickster, Discord is very mischievous, cunning, and deceptively intelligent.
Ironically, he has a habit of telling bad or unfunny jokes, often in stand-up comedy. This is demonstrated in his comedy act in "Make New Friends but Keep Discord," in which he makes a fool of himself on stage telling jokes that nobody laughs at. In "To Where and Back Again - Part 2," he uses a stand-up comedy act to distract the changeling's guards.
He also despises being given the nickname "Dipcord," taking it very personally. This could stem from a troubled past.
He uses fewer contractions in his vocabulary oftentimes, giving him a somewhat sophisticated, charismatic, archaic tone to his status as a "chaos god".
So even though Discord still plays tricks, he really does have a soft spot in him.
Trivia[]
- Discord used to be one of Pooh's enemies until Fluttershy redeemed him.
- He is also friends with Gloomius Maximus, before he (Discord) truly reformed.
- Discord will become the FT Squad's enemy in The FT Squad's Adventures in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but will later become an ally after getting reformed by Fluttershy.
- Discord will meet Team Robot In Team Robot &a The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie.
- In My Little Pony: Friends Forever Issue #2, the Crusaders work with Discord, who makes a reality bubble for them and creates various scenarii in which they might earn their cutie marks. When Discord's reality bubble nearly covers all of Ponyville, the Crusaders put a stop to it. They thank Discord for his efforts and make him an honorary Cutie Mark Crusader.
- Discord will become Thomas' enemy from Thomas' Adventures of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - The Return of Harmony (Full Movie) until he will be reformed after Thomas' Adventures of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - Keep Calm and Flutter On, but in Thomas' Adventures of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - Twilight's Kingdom, Discord turn back to the dark side after Tirek aids him to steal stealing all the magic in Equestria in exchange for freedom to cause chaos on his own accord, only to be betrayed and drained of his magic by Tirek later. Having learned how truly important friendship is, Discord fully reforms, vowing to be a better friend to Thomas and will be making his guest starring appearance helping any friend in need.
- Discord will appear in Pooh's Adventures of The Harry Hill Movie as a reformed character and will be joining Pooh and his friends at the end of the film.
- Discord will meet Nighlock and his team in Pooh's Adventures of The Myth of Burton.
- Discord was always a mischievous trickster.
- Discord will become Connor Lacey's enemy in The Irelanders' Adventures of My Little Pony Friendship - The Return of Harmony (Full Movie) until he will be reformed after The Irelanders' Adventures of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - Keep Calm and Flutter On, but in The Irelanders' Adventures of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - Twilight's Kingdom, Discord turn back to the dark side after Tirek aids him to steal stealing all the magic in Equestria in exchange for freedom to cause chaos on his own accord, only to be betrayed and drained of his magic by Tirek later. Having learned how truly important friendship is, Discord fully reforms, vowing to be a better friend to Connor and join his team for more adventures in the end.
- He will become Ryan Freestar's enemy in Ryan's Adventures of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - The Return of Harmony (Full Movie) until he reformed in Ryan's Adventures of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Keep Calm and Flutter On. He refused to join the Irelanders after they are disbanded and sometimes guest star because he learned that Connor Lacey was murdered by Linda Carolglow.