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Discord, also known as the Spirit of Chaos, formerly the Spirit of Disharmony, is a recurring character in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Discord, also known as the Spirit of Chaos or Spirit of Disharmony, is a former major villain in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He appears as the main villain in the two-part Season 2 premiere "Return of Harmony" and the Season 3 episode "Keep Calm and Flutter On", a minor villain in the Season 5 finale "Cutie-Remark", the central villain of the Season 4 finale "Twilight's Kingdom", and a supporting anti-hero for the rest of the series. In Season 9, Discord assumed the guise of Grogar and acted as the "main villain" of the season until his deception was revealed near the series finale.

Discord is the omnipotent being of chaos and disorder who desired to turn all of Equestria into a chaotic wasteland, and was once the arch-nemesis of Princesses Celestia and Luna, and then the Mane Six. But then Fluttershy helped him realize the true value of friendship, which led to a slight redemption. He was then tempted back into villainy by Lord Tirek, but became a hero again after Tirek betrayed him and then being saved by Twilight Sparkle, leading to his true redemption. In the final season, Discord posed as Grogar, an ancient and powerful ram sorcerer who once ruled ancient Equestria and assembled a team of the most dangerous villains in Equestria, in a misguided effort to prepare Twilight for when she inherits the throne from Celestia and Luna, until he was exposed when his plan ultimately backfired.

He was voiced by John de Lancie, who also played Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation (who was Discord's main inspiration), Sinestro in Duck Dodgers, and Brainiac in Justice League Action. While playing as Grogar, he is voiced by Doc Harris. In My Little Pony: Pony Life, he is voiced by Peter New, who also voiced Big Macintosh in Friendship is Magic. In the Japanese dub, he was voiced by Shigeru Chiba, who also voiced Raditz in Dragon Ball Z Kai and Mr. Fujinami in Urusei Yatsura.

Appearance:

Discord is one of the species called a draconequus, as explained by Cheerilee from the beginning of the episode. Discord is a combination of many body parts from different creatures which also makes him a chimera. He has the long body of a brown horse, the head of a gray pony, with an ivory deer antler on the right, a turquoise blue goat horn of the left, one long fang, yellow eyes with red pupils, a snake tongue, a black mane, and a white goat beard. The rest of his body consists of the right paw of a pale yellow lion, the left yellow talon of a brown eagle, the right leg of a green lizard, the left leg with a dark brown hoof of a tan goat, the right wing of a purple bat, the left wing of a bluebird, and a red snake tail with a white tuft at the end that he has been seen to use as a third hand.

While disguised as Grogar, Discord appeared as a large cornflower blue ram with apple green eyes and red pupils, a white mane, tail and eyebrows, long dark azure horns and hooves, and sharp fangs protruding from the bottom of his mouth. He wears a red collar with big golden studs and a single chain link at the center where the real Grogar's magic bell once was

Personality:

As the incarnation of chaos and disharmony, Discord professes great inclination to these two subjects. Every movement that he performs is related someway with this. Discord possesses an outrageous sense of humor, many times grazing the madness, which is strengthened by his powers of reality-bending.

He has a huge sense of showmanship and drama, and specifically enjoys dressing up with different outfits from time to time. He has a fondness of making idioms and expressions literal, such as "my ears were burning" or "when pigs fly", and also has a habit of telling bad or unfunny jokes, often in stand-up comedy, such as in "Make New Friends But Keep Discord", he makes a fool of himself on stage telling jokes that no pony laughs at, and the Season 6 finale, he uses a stand-up comedy act to distract the changeling guards.

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 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 is shown to no desire in seeking revenge on Princess Celestia for imprisoning him a thousand years ago, After the Mane Six petrify and later revive Discord from his stone form, he also no interest in taking revenge on them for defeating him once again. He is known to be a more "playful" supervillain, intent on playing and manipulating 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 he was released under Princess Celestia's supervision, he never interested in redeeming himself after hearing it what Celestia had said during his imprisonment and tried to find a supernumerary way to counter the Elements' power by manipulating Fluttershy for his own desires behind the trick of a false friendship, which eventually resulted counterproductive since he developed strong feelings for her. This leads to two prominent attributes in Discord's character. He is highly duplicitous, manipulative, uncompromising and unscrupulous, showing no hesitation in lying, tricking, playing filthy and diverse mendacious methods in order to achieve his goals. He also seems to have a rather sadistic and cold-blooded side to him, such as when he was gleefully lying back and watching Cherry Berry and Comet Tail struggling to get untangled from the Plunderseeds, and due to the fact that he constantly laughs at other's dismays.

In "Keep Calm and Flutter On", he is seen wearing dead bunny slippers and chuckling at the ponies' misfortunes at the dinner party. In fact, he is a supporter of physiological torture, as he enjoyed Twilight's despair once she found herself abandoned by her friends in "The Return of Harmony". However, if he can't obtain the expected results with his charming skills, he doesn't doubt in using the force to brainwash his victims. However, there is still some good inside him.

In the moment Fluttershy declared to consider him a friend, Discord showed to be really affected by this statement, as he mentioned that he had never had friends before. Many fans consider this fact as the motivation that drove Discord the way he is. Until the moment, Fluttershy had shown to see Discord as more than a monster but as a true "sweetheart" he hadn't realized how alone he was. If fact, he hated his loneliness that much that just for not being on his own again he renounced to domain the world as he had ever desired. However, since then, it seems that he still remains his annoying and mischievous self.

In "Twilight's Kingdom", it shows that Discord has begun to truly understand friendship with all of the ponies and fell guilty when he has allowed Tirek to drain their magical powers. He then asked Twilight for merciful forgiveness and thanks to her for saving him, also apologizing to Fluttershy directly. At the end of the second episode, it shows that Discord made friends even from Celestia and Luna - his formal nemeses. Twilight even included him into her kingdom "court" as one of her closest, dearest, and most loyal friends.

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 that 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.

In "The Beginning of the End", Discord showed great interest in ruling Equestria when the Royal Sisters announced their retirement and was disappointed to learn that they planned to put Twilight in charge, though he was willing to accept this. He did, however, show great disappointment that Twilight didn't feel ready to take such a responsibility. So in an effort to push Twilight into accepting her new role, he took extreme measures by disguising himself as the legendary villain, Grogar, and gathered the most dangerous villains in Equestria so he could manipulate them into helping Twilight discover her potential. He also refused to help the Mane Six fight off King Sombra and pretended to be injured when he did help, and then gave an inspiring speech about their friendship to boost their confidence needed to win the day. But then he was angered to learn that the sisters decided to postpone their retirement and Twilight's ascension, considering the whole thing to have been a complete waste of time.

While portraying as Grogar, Discord put on a serious and frightful demeanor that was enough to intimidate the other villains into submission. He claimed to be extremely patient and cunning, having awaited for thousands of years to take his revenge and is willing to work with other villains just for a chance to pull it off. Despite this claim, however, he was unable to tolerate his team bickering with each other, so he sends them on a mission to reclaim the real Grogar's Bewitching Bell in order to teach them to work together. When they claimed to have failed this mission, he only showed anger for a brief moment and then was pleased that they finally got their act together. He also will not tolerate disobedience, as he refused to bring back Sombra after he turned his back on him and used his death as an example to coerce the other villains into compliance. Unlike the majority of villains in the series, Discord (posing as Grogar) does not underestimate the Mane Six and acknowledges their teamwork as the key to their success. However, despite his seeming distrust of his cohorts, Discord (posing as Grogar) was gullible enough to believe their story that they failed to retrieve the Bewitching Bell, and was surprised when his cohorts turned on him and revealed that they had the bell all along.

After being betrayed and depowered by the Legion of Doom in "The Ending of the End", Discord was forced to warn the Mane 6 and the Royal Sisters of the incoming threat and admit that 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 everyone in Equestria in mortal peril, he constantly attempts to justify his actions through his good intentions. It wasn't 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 Princess 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.

Fan depictions:

PONY.MOV:

A heavily modified version of Discord also appears as the main antagonist of Hotdiggedydemon's .MOV series. For more details on that incarnation.

Others:

Fans have picked up on the Satanic elements present in Discord's character, notably his being an omnipotent, malevolent trickster and tempter who stands opposed to Order and Harmony itself. Many depictions of Discord thus cast him as the Ultimate Evil present in Equestria (in other words, he is depicted as the show's equivalent to Satan). In many fanworks, he has been portrayed as much more sinister in stark contrast to his portrayal on the show.

Some other depictions cast him and Chaos as a necessary force that balances Order. Occasionally, fans may straight-up portray him as a good-natured and fun-loving guy (this is often accompanied by depicting Princess Celestia as an oppressive tyrant).

Powers and Abilities:

As an embodiment of Chaos, Discord appears to be omnipotent. He has manifested a great number of abilities and skills over the course of G4 MLP - abilities that he has shown so far include:

• Hybrid Physiology: Discord has a body made of different parts of creatures and animals
• Reality Restoration: As of been shown in some episodes (namely "Keep Calm and Flutter On", and "To Where and Back Again Part 1") he is also capable of restoring reality back into its original state. Whichever is more efficient, this can count as a power to balance his reality affecting chaos magic or a counteractive ability to use against other reality warpers.
  • Chaos Magic: Discord is capable of altering reality into many ways and manipulate the laws of nature and the physics of the world via his chaos magic. It can also erase the magic of others, such as Starlight Glimmer.
  • Nigh-omnipotence: The source of his reality manipulating abilities and among other powers, is the power to be near the pinnacle of Omnipotence, which makes him the most powerful character to be seen in the show. He would may also flawlessly restore anything to its original state, possess a complete and utter collection of powers, heal or fix anything without fail, or even manipulate space-time, or cosmic elements at will if given the proposition.
  • Shapeshifting: Discord has taken many odd forms, some of which defy physics or parody characters
    • Size-Shifting: Discord has varied in size from very large to be small enough to fit in a pony's ear.
    • Gesturify: Sometimes he has to require the use of snapping his fingers whenever it comes to most of the reality distorting powers he owns by far, otherwise they wouldn't function correctly as he expects them too. This is a sub-power that comes with his chaos magic in general.
      • Hypnotic Magic: Discord has shown the ability to corrupt others and is skilled at hypnotic magic. He can even outright take control of someone's mind, although he prefers not to.
      • Telekinesis: Discord has shown enough telekinetic skill to lift the entire Mane Six up magically, such as when he "grabbed" them by the collars.
        • Teleportation: One of the most used abilities, Discord is able to teleport from one place to another, as well as teleport objects or people and make objects disappear out of thin air. He can also teleport across alternate dimensions such as the real-world of "Ogres and Oubliettes" and his own personal dimension, summon individuals from anywhere to his own location, or transport himself to someone else's location without knowing exactly where they are. This appears to be his main method of transportation, as he is shown frequently to detest walking and most other forms of travel.
        • Fourth Wall Awareness: Discord appears to be aware he is in a cartoon, even though he doesn't explain what he does.
          • Teleportation: One of the most used abilities, Discord is able to teleport from one place to another, as well as teleport objects or people and make objects disappear out of thin air. He can also teleport across alternate dimensions such as the real-world of "Ogres and Oubliettes" and his own personal dimension, summon individuals from anywhere to his own location, or transport himself to someone else's location without knowing exactly where they are. This appears to be his main method of transportation, as he is shown frequently to detest walking and most other forms of travel.
            • Creation: Discord is shown to be skilled with creation magic. He is able to create objects, creatures, and plants at will, including powerful magical creations like the Plunderseeds.
              • Levitation: Discord is able to float in the air.
                • Flight: Discord can fly using his wings. He was also able to achieve a supersonic flight similar to Rainbow Dash's.
                  • Replication: Discord can create copies of himself and of other people, creating a replicate of Trixie out of her hat.
                  • Animation: Discord can bring any inanimate object to life
                    • Appendage Generation: Discord can grow extra body parts.
                    • Anatomical Liberation: Discord can make parts of his body come apart, and is able to move them while detached so. He is also shown using this ability to remove Princess Celestia's tail without her noticing.
                    • Object Possession: Discord was able to use his head to possess a balloon, and he can also appear magically in various objects, such as gems and stained glass windows.
                    • Transmogrification: Discord can alter the appearance of objects and creatures, such as: giving rabbits deer legs, making a squirrel and a rabbit large and hulking, and turning apples into oranges and oranges into apples.
                    • Matter Ingestion: Discord is able to consume matter such as glass, a painting, a teacup, and a telephone without any negative side effects.
                    • Portal Creation: Discord can open portals to different dimensions by using his eagle claw to cut through the fabric of reality, or open a portal to grab things in another point in a location.
                    • Disease Generation: Discord can inflict ponies with any kind of diseases and illnesses.
                    • Pyrokinesis: Discord is able to generate blue or green flames, as shown in "Three's A Crowd" and "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" respectively. He can also create images using blue flames.
                    • Smoke Generation: Discord display creating the amount of smoke to cover a background as shown in "Ogres and Oubliettes".
                    • Color Alteration: Discord was able to fade Twilight's friends' colors, he also changed his color to blue to make it look like he had the "blu flu" or change himself into green and turned a tablecloth from white to red by touching it.
                    • Thought Manifestation: Discord is able to show his thoughts to others by using clouds of smoke, such as when showing Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadence a flower that would cure the "blu flu".
                    • Enhanced Strength: Discord is deceptively strong, enough so to take a tree out of the ground and taking a big rock out of the ground with just one arm.
                    • Enhanced Durability: Discord took a blast from King Sombra's dark magic without injury.
                    • Enhanced Hearing: Discord was able to hear Applejack from a distance away.
                    • Weather Magic: Discord is able to manipulate the weather by making rain clouds go crazy, causing thunderstorms or creating cotton candy chocolate rain clouds.
                    • Animal Manipulation: Discord is able to manipulate the animals' behavior by making them go wild unnaturally.
                    • Daytime Manipulation: Discord is able to manipulate celestial objects at will to bring about daytime or nighttime.
                    • Gravity Manipulation: Discord is able to make things float into the air, and making objects lighter or heavier. He can undo the gravity of an area to cause things to float above air.
                    • Time Travel: Discord is able to project himself and others into events that have happened in the past.
                    • Bubble Imprisonment: Discord is able to imprison ponies in magic bubbles which is a similar trait to Tirek once he had drained Discord of his magic.
                    • Prehensile Tail: Discord can use his tail to hold things, and can make his tail tuft into a hand.
                    • Cartoon Physics: Like Pinkie Pie, he is able to use cartoon physics by stretching his limbs, deflate like a balloon, zipping his mouth shut, moving very fast, turning his mouth upside down and appearing out of unexpected places.
                    • Magic Imbalance Detection: Discord has the natural ability to sense major disturbances in magic, such as magic being stolen, or transferred into others.
                    • Immortality: Discord seems to be immortal, as he has stayed in his stone prison for thousands of years without dying. He claims himself to be centuries old and is also presumably just as old as, if not older than Celestia and Luna. As shown in The Last Problem, in the future set 20 years after the series, Discord didn't show any sign of aging.
                    • Clairvoyance: Discord can use his crystal ball to see and watch over anything or anyone in Equestria.
                    • Necromancy: Discord is also capable of bringing the deceased back from the grave, as he did with Sombra, but it seemed he had to draw symbols into the ground to do so.
                    • Energy Blasts: Discord can shoot large beams of dark energy that can blow a hole in the wall or shoot white energy beams from his fingertips to zap away objects.
                    • Petrification: Discord can turn others into stone, as demonstrated with Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis and Tirek.
                    • Master Trickster and Manipulator: Discord is good at deceiving ponies and making them do his bidding without even realizing it.

Trivia

• His Japanese-language voice actor Shigeru Chiba also voiced Raditz in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dr. Hiyari in Anpanman and Mr. Fujinami in Urusei Yatsura 2022 anime.

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