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HareTrinity — Discord fixed
Published: 2013-01-24 01:53:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 22906; Favourites: 335; Downloads: 123
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EDIT: Changed the text/speech bubbles somewhat to make it easier to read (I hope).Mostly inspired by people complaining that he's been effectively neutered as a villain. I never saw him as evil myself (just crazy and powerful) but do get their point, and it's a shame we'll probably not see him as a villain again. Plus I didn't remotely enjoy the episode... Oh well. Maybe next one?
And no, I'm not sure what happened with proportions in this (especially the first two panels).
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Comments: 175
As a matter of fact, I thought it was a great episode.
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I think you're in the majority.
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Realized what she's done-
Realized how innocently and easily she took the MIS-identification-
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Pet carers are such weirdos.
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He did make a point of saying he would use his magic for good instead of making chaos "most of the time." I think he's still going to be a force of mischief for everyone involved in the show.
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That's true, but it's still a big change and I'm not sure it'll be worth it... Oh well. We'll see.
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It probably won't take much to aggravate Celestia, so he could still at least be a bit troll-ey. I completely understand the feeling about the whole neutering of his villain side, though. I freaking loved him as a god of chaos.
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Discord: hey fluttershy what are you doing down-...sleepy....whatever.....enjoy...*snores*
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Unless you're Discord.
Thank you!
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He is not a villain, he is a troll, he just not realize that he can have fun as anty hero and get away with it, unlike when you are villain and get turned to stone.
Compromises, compromises.
We need to remember that he is spirit of chaos and disharmony, all you need to do is to use harmony to take out disharmony, and then Discord can have fun with little chaos by working for good ponies.
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can i post this on facebook its to funny
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Sure, link me when you do?
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(slowly processes the joke)
OH DEAR CELESTIA O_O
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Only if he picks at the wound.
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you think he wont?!?! lol!
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Oh Man. That is very clever. I'm surprised my twisted little brain didn't make a connection sooner. Very nice job.
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My complaint was really more that he was too easily reformed. That realization came out of nowhere.
Besides, it doesn't mean he's not evil in the fandom (perhaps even in a later episode of the show). He could easily be plotting (tee hee) something, being the evil mastermind he is, and just generally being cautious because the last time he tried to lure away the elements of harmony he was beaten. Perhaps he's going to set a trap, or worse, split them up as friends without discording them. That'd make a terrific story imo <3
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I can only imagine Friendship is Witchcraft Fluttershy when I see this.
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Hmm perhaps eating every single reformation spell wasn't the best idea after all, what if its very papers were enchanted by the spells that were wrote down.
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i actually thought that too
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I've seen a comic using that idea, but I don't see how it's relevant here?
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I was just bringing that up cause it might explain to people who were wondering what happened to Discord. You've seen a comic with that idea, could I maybe have a link to that?
I never saw Discord as evil myself, how can anyone who makes it rain chocolate possibly be evil.xD
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Put a cone on him before he starts chewing his--never mind.
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This is sort of related: [link]
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Funny thing is, when I first saw the episode, I immediately raised the question "Wait, did Fluttershy reform Discord by getting him addicted to friendship?"
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...oh dear.
Being unfamiliar with the expression - not being a native English speaker and all - I didn't even get the joke to its full extent until I read that part in the description that said Discord had been "effectively neutered as a villain". 
Oh. Yeah... That. 
I can see why you didn't like the episode. I watched it and it left me with the typical warm fuzzy feeling at a feel-good ending ... and tons of confusion because it made no sense whatsoever.
In fact, that's only one of the things I didn't get in the episode. There aren't many holes in its logic, but oh boy, do the few holes it has run deep.
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So... either Discord's previous reign wasn't nearly as bad as she made it sound, or ...?
In any case, Discord could've just teleported straight out of Ponyville, you know, turned Canterlot Castle into a giant bananna-motor-oil cake, and left for, say, the Crystal Empire or Griffonia or some other place far enough away to give him enough time to build up an impenetrable defense parameter.
I mean, it's great to see consistent behavior in the mane six bringing up valid points against releasing Discord, but I'm saying it's not enough.
I mean, I would've accepted an explanation that "Discord is still weakened by the power of the Elements, and he won't be able to cause too much trouble", or something of the sort, but just hoofing over the Elements and saying its enough isn't gonna quite cut it.
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Just... WHA...?
That... completely undermines the first two episodes of season 2.
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. . .
Ehem. What do you need the Elements of Harmony for again? Why not just blatantly blast everypony who's acting out of line with a "reformation spell"?
...alright, alright, ethical issues. Using mind-altering magic would be immoral, and should be highly restricted. That's why Twilight has at least a dozen books containing the same spell!
(Discord didn't eat one book, he ate the specific pages from several different books.)
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...there's just this tiny detail at the end where the dinner-ware suddenly stops dancing that seals it, and that's just a split-second you could easily miss.
And *snap*, Discord is suddenly a good guy. Okay.
I guess I can count myself lucky I don't have any stakes in fanfictions on the subject-matter, a lot of people must've been ripping their mane's out about their fics getting robbed of its basis.
I've read one or two interpretations on this, such as "Discord was never really evil as such, he just didn't care that much about others beyond them serving as entertainment value - and suddenly, he has a friend and that means he needs to keep her interests in mind as well, not just his own."
Still, this went so fast you could've just missed the entire build-up (all of one scene) the first time watching.
All in all, the episode was nice ... and extremely confusing, making me scratch my head in the end about how to possibly make sense off it.
Probably very appropriate for the spirit of Chaos, then. ... I think?
I mean, Discord proved in the episode to be capable of breaking the fourth wall [link] (he shoved his face at the camera and directly addressed the audience) ... so... he's causing chaos and disharmony in the fandom?
I dunno, was this on purpose or something?
[link]
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+fav own comment
Discord 'neutred as a villain'
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Ah! One of the first things I thought was "why doesn't he run away (to somewhere where he can be chaotic in peace)"! I thought I was the only one!
And yeah, it doesn't do much for canon-Celestia that she's now confirmed as sealing him in stone for over 1000 years when all he needed was a friend. :/
I saw "are reformation spells ethical" raised before, but now you point out that Twilight definitely had several books with this mind-altering magic in the library... That is kind of creepy.
>And *snap*, Discord is suddenly a good guy.
Right? It wasn't just Discord going good, either, it was all the rest of the mane 6 suddenly not doubting him at all once he'd restored the orchards! A few montages, of him and Fluttershy actually DOING stuff together as friends, not trying to fool each other (before the flood), and/or of him and the mane 6 ALL doing things together after, would have added a lot to the ep.
"so... he's causing chaos and disharmony in the fandom?" - That's a nice meta-angle at least.
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>Ah! One of the first things I thought was "why doesn't he run away
Yeah. Although, he could've just as easily done so as well the first time around, yet he instead chose to play mind-games with the element-bearers. Let them find the Elements, only for them being unable to use them. I mean, sure, he could still have given Twilight a riddle on where to find the Elements, but that doesn't mean that the answer for that riddle couldn't have turned out to be "on the moon" or "in the core of the sun".
Why take a risk? Eh. I guess he's Discord, so him sticking around just to screw with them seems as good a reason as any.
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>A few montages, of him and Fluttershy actually DOING stuff together as friends [...] would have added a lot to the ep.
Yeah, you're right. Like with the photos shown at the end of the Royal Wedding. Heh. Kinda surprised they didn't have more Pinkie/Discord interactions in the episode, considering the fandom.
Eh. Guess it would've distracted from Fluttershy? Meh, a random photo at the end of Pinkie getting her chocolate rain with whipped cream would've worked.
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> [...] Twilight definitely had several books with this mind-altering magic in the library... That is kind of creepy."
No kidding. 
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>And yeah, it doesn't do much for canon-Celestia that she's now confirmed as sealing him in stone for over 1000 years when all he needed was a friend. :/
THAT. Oh god. THAT. I didn't even think about that. Oh god, you're totally right.
Oh dear Celestia, that's just wrong. That little detail certainly breaks things. Hard.
[link]
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>That Celestia meme
SAVED!
Ah well. Maybe they'll build on the ep's ending in the future, it'd be more annoying if they brought Discord back just for that and never mention him again!
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Considering John de Lancie is a strong supporter of the fandom ... yeah, I guess we'll see him again, at least making a Luna-style cameo every now and again.
The thing that I've been wondering about even more than "Discord is now a good guy" is how to "fill" all those other plot-holes in the episode.
Since the episode itself doesn't make sense here, it's up to the fans to find possible explanations.
Thought about it a bit, came up with some possible theories.
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1) "Why didn't Celestia take more precautions against Discord?"
Perhaps he was still weakened from the previous "harmony-blast" and couldn't use his powers at a global scale. (the time of day stayed the same, for instance)
Though it certainly would've been worth mentioning during the episode (and not even have taken that much time to make the statement), so errr.
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2) "Princess Celestia cast a spell on the Elements to prevent Discord from hiding them"
Yeah... this is a toughy. Since I doubt Princess Celestia to have had any significant magical growth-spurs within just one or two years after several millenia of already being pretty powerful...
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2a) Either this goes together with 1), Discord being weaker and unable to break through her spells.
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2b) Or she got help from Princess Luna in casting the spell, who at the time of s02_ep1 might not yet have regained her full strenght - albeit not admitting to outside help when saying "I've cast a spell on the Elements" during the episode makes that seem somewhat unlikely...
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2c) Or some extremely complicated explanation for why the casting such a spell wasn't possible previously - such as that the spell could only be cast with the help of an artifact only found within the recently-returned Crystal Empire, and that would only last temporarily - temporary by alicorn-standards, anyway.... a century or so, so nothing the mane six would've to worry about Discord taking the Elements from them, but not long enough to hold since the Crystal Empire had disappeared 1000 years earlier.
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3) The existence of reformation spells, and the fact Twilight keeps at least a dozen on those in her public library?
... yeah, I got nothing.
Maybe Twilight got those books from different sources after, say, Trixxie's brief reign of Ponyville through the corrupting powers of the alicorn-amulet? 
This raises severe ethical concerns either way.
And having those lying around in a public library doesn't exactly instill confidence in the already morally questionable situation.
I mean, Spike openly mentions to Fluttershy that Twilight was looking for reformation spells, and there is no reaction of "Oh my Celestia! Twilight, what were you thinking? How could anypony possibly do such a thing?" or anything of the sort, only "we won't need any spells anyway".
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4)"And yeah, it doesn't do much for canon-Celestia that she's now confirmed as sealing him in stone for over 1000 years when all he needed was a friend."
Okay, now that's some material for analysis in a fanfiction right there.
(Not that I myself would write it, I'm already too pre-occupied with "Daring Do and the secret of the Fourth Wall" and the as of yet unreleased / in-the-works continuation of s03e03, "Pinkieviduality".)
If we wouldn't want to think of canon Celestia as Trollestia playing "the long game" ( 
Also, "back then" they, in all likelihood quickly became his main targets, being the Element bearers and standing up to him and all that - and when you're the victim, you usually don't feel sorry for the bully.
After escaping, however, Discord focused most of his attention on taunting the current Element bearers - this may have given Princess Celestia an outside perspective. Perhaps reconsidering if she had made a harsh judgement in error.
And after some (comparatively short) time of contemplation, she decided to give him a chance.
Oh yeah, and her sister having turned into Nightmare Moon at some point after Discords' first petrification and later being redeemed as Princess Luna may have given some food for thought.
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