CronoM
"[@PaintEdits":](/images/2203708#comment_8757228
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Exactly.
Let's think about how Discord doesn't make any sense as an antihero in the long run.
His motivations as a partial protagonist are, simply, he's chaos, not evil, and he does not want to be stone cold evil (unless he's seeking revenge and venting like in his introduction) and that Fluttershy is so sincere in her attempts to befriend him that he simply wanted to reciprocate, even a little. Fluttershy was offering something he couldn't critique outright, and something he didn't have. Even Q had a softspot for Data, and Q knew Data was a being of complete sincerity.
But his role and motivation as a part time antagonist, as someone who uses his omnipotence and boredom as an excuse to shake the tree a little and reveal people's flaws unfettered by order and repression is....the manifestation of Celestia's perfect order, ergo, Twilight Sparkle.
....But that's the thing. The 'Discord trolling the main character' plotline and the 'Twilight is destined to obey everything Celestia has to say and become her successor' plotline, are completely incompatible!!
Discord has no interest whatsoever in Twilight as a person. None. He couldn't care less about her, he's stated many times Fluttershy is the only one he considers protecting. Q, on the other hand was immensily fond of Picard and their battle of wits and moral wordplay.
But Discord keeps antagonizing Twilight simply because she is everything Discord hates. Not personally of course, there's no real animosity towards her, but it's her mindset that he finds worthy of his trolling. She's predictable, she's naive, she follows all orders without any doubt, she represses her emotions. There is value isn expressing ones anger and questioning the status quo at times but Twilight resists it at all costs.
These 'Discord trying to teach Twilight' episodes are written....but for the sake of Princess Twilight status quo, by the end of the episode Twilight ends up missing the point at the very last moment nearly everytime. When Discord was trying to teach Twilight healthy skepticism in the glass of water episode, Cadence deflected it into being idiotically trustful as a merit!
So in the end, what does he end up doing since Twilight is way too much of a hopeless Celestia brown noser for his lessons? He decides to pull an 'introduction of Sombra' Celestia on her, and make an artificially worse situation out of a simple one, the same way Celestia sent Twilight to stop Sombra without the elements on orders to do real stuff alone without her friends or the elements, something even Luna thought was stupid and irresponsible. It was unnecessary, it nearly got everyone killed, and the situation only made Twilight admire Celestia's wisdom more, instead of learning a shred of independence despite 'disobeying'.
And the finale was redundent cause Discord already did that shit if we include Discord giving the Mane 6 the instruction manual to beat Tirek beforehand and not taking it back after he betrayed Equestria. He never put his full chips in with Tirek even after Tirek 'passed his test' and revealed Twilight exists, but he still made the situation infinitely worse by letting his guard down around Tirek like a complete fool and getting drained.
So in the end, nothing is learned from his trolling, nothing is learned from his artificial worsened villain incidents, so in terms of results, all he succeeds at being is an incompetent jackass. Q may have been a complete jerk, even someone willing to let a few mortals die if it meant delivering his point, but he was always capable of delivering a good point.
....
And do you know what's the worst part? You could tell John de Lancie had a big hand in creating his dialogue, it was often full of his Q-isms and he loved the trolling energy of Discord that mirrored his master class character of Q from Star Trek...but the scripts simply wouldn't let him deliver his dark but thought provoking punchlines. It would always end with Discord sighing and accepting he was being a jerk and his lesson being wasted, even when his good lessons were harsh but overall harmless.
So Discord's character comes across as being completely inept at best, and, like you said, a complete piece of trash at worst.
Exactly.
Let's think about how Discord doesn't make any sense as an antihero in the long run.
His motivations as a partial protagonist are, simply, he's chaos, not evil, and he does not want to be stone cold evil (unless he's seeking revenge and venting like in his introduction) and that Fluttershy is so sincere in her attempts to befriend him that he simply wanted to reciprocate, even a little. Fluttershy was offering something he couldn't critique outright, and something he didn't have. Even Q had a softspot for Data, and Q knew Data was a being of complete sincerity.
But his role and motivation as a part time antagonist, as someone who uses his omnipotence and boredom as an excuse to shake the tree a little and reveal people's flaws unfettered by order and repression is....the manifestation of Celestia's perfect order, ergo, Twilight Sparkle.
....But that's the thing. The 'Discord trolling the main character' plotline and the 'Twilight is destined to obey everything Celestia has to say and become her successor' plotline, are completely incompatible!!
Discord has no interest whatsoever in Twilight as a person. None. He couldn't care less about her, he's stated many times Fluttershy is the only one he considers protecting. Q, on the other hand was immensily fond of Picard and their battle of wits and moral wordplay.
But Discord keeps antagonizing Twilight simply because she is everything Discord hates. Not personally of course, there's no real animosity towards her, but it's her mindset that he finds worthy of his trolling. She's predictable, she's naive, she follows all orders without any doubt, she represses her emotions. There is value i
These 'Discord trying to teach Twilight' episodes are written....but for the sake of Princess Twilight status quo, by the end of the episode Twilight ends up missing the point at the very last moment nearly everytime. When Discord was trying to teach Twilight healthy skepticism in the glass of water episode, Cadence deflected it into being idiotically trustful as a merit!
So in the end, what does he end up doing since Twilight is way too much of a hopeless Celestia brown noser for his lessons? He decides to pull an 'introduction of Sombra' Celestia on her, and make an artificially worse situation out of a simple one, the same way Celestia sent Twilight to stop Sombra without the elements on orders to do real stuff alone without her friends or the elements, something even Luna thought was stupid and irresponsible. It was unnecessary, it nearly got everyone killed, and the situation only made Twilight admire Celestia's wisdom more, instead of learning a shred of independence despite 'disobeying'.
And the finale was redundent cause Discord already did that shit if we include Discord giving the Mane 6 the instruction manual to beat Tirek beforehand and not taking it back after he betrayed Equestria. He never put his full chips in with Tirek even after Tirek 'passed his test' and revealed Twilight exists, but he still made the situation infinitely worse by letting his guard down around Tirek like a complete fool and getting drained.
So in the end, nothing is learned from his trolling, nothing is learned from his artificial worsened villain incidents, so in terms of results, all he succeeds at being is an incompetent jackass. Q may have been a complete jerk, even someone willing to let a few mortals die if it meant delivering his point, but he was always capable of delivering a good point.
....
And do you know what's the worst part? You could tell John de Lancie had a big hand in creating his dialogue, it was often full of his Q-isms and he loved the trolling energy of Discord that mirrored his master class character of Q from Star Trek...but the scripts simply wouldn't let him deliver his dark but thought provoking punchlines. It would always end with Discord sighing and accepting he was being a jerk and his lesson being wasted, even when his good lessons were harsh but overall harmless.
So Discord's character comes across as being completely inept at best, and, like you said, a complete piece of trash at worst.