Discord

"Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?"

- Discord's famous phrase

Discord is a recurring character in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He initially appeared as an antagonist in the second and third season, then an anti-hero in the fourth season, and later becomes a true hero for the rest of the series. He is also one of Twilight Sparkle's best friends.

He is voiced by John de Lancie, who also played Q.

Personality
Discord basically has the traits of a typical on-and-off hero.

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 though. He has a sense of showmanship and drama, preferring to be playful towards his victims before getting down to business. He laughs and 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.

In his first appearance in "The Return of Harmony Part 1 and 2," Discord breaks free from his stone imprisonment, takes the Elements of Harmony, and turns the ponies against each other, making Twilight miserable and depressed; in the end, he was overpowered and turned back to stone by the Mane Six. In "Keep Calm and Flutter On," upon Princess Celestia's request, Discord was released from his stone imprisonment 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 thrive in total mischief and will aid them from time to time.

While a thoughtful, goodhearted friend, he can also sometimes be a braggart, arrogant, selfish, cocky, self-centered, stubborn, overconfident, and a bit of a liar. Despite having a fondness for chaos and mischief, he can become easily annoyed if things do not go his way.

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 actually likes it (as long as he can cause mischief). Overall, he will indulge in these things, despite his chaotic persona.

Ironically, he has a habit of telling bad or unfunny jokes. This is demonstrated in his comedy act in "Make New Friends but Keep Discord" and when he tries to distract a group of changelings guards in "To Where and Back Again - Part 2."

He also despises being given the nickname "Dipcord."

He uses less contractions in his vocabulary oftentimes, giving him a somewhat sophisticated, charismatic, archaic tone to his status as a "chaos god".



Appearance
Discord is a draconequus. He has the head of a pony (even though his head is more goat than pony). He has a deer antler, goat horn, goat fang, goatee, and mane. He has a right lion paw, a left eagle claw, a right light purple bat wing, a left light blue pegasus wing, a right light green lizard foot, and a left deer antler.

Reception
Discord received positive feedback from fans and others and was one of the most loved main characters of the series.

Powers and Abilities
As an embodiment of chaos and mischief, Discord is borderline omnipotent. He has manifested several abilities and skills throughout the series – abilities he has shown so far include:


 * Hybrid Physiology: As a draconequus, Discord has a body made of different parts of animals and creatures.
 * Nigh Omnipotence: The source of his reality warping 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 series. He would also flawlessly restore anything to its original state, possess a complete (or almost complete) and utter collection of powers, heal or fix anything without fail, or even control space-time, or cosmic elements at will if given the proposition.
 * Chaos Magic: Discord can alter reality in many ways and control the laws of nature and the physics of the world with his magic. It can also erase the magic of others, such as Starlight Glimmer.
 * Reality Restoration: As shown in some episodes (namely "Keep Calm and Flutter On" and "To Where and Back Again Part 1"), Discord can restore reality back to its original state. Whichever is more efficient, this can count as a power to balance his reality affecting magic or a counteractive ability to use against other reality warpers.
 * Size-Shifting: Discord can vary in size from very large to being small enough to fit in a pony's ear.
 * Shape-Shifting: Discord can take many odd forms, some of which defy physics or parody characters.
 * Gesturify: Sometimes, Discord 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 would not function correctly as he expects them to. This is a sub-power that comes with his magic in general.
 * Probability Alteration / Logic Control: Discord can make extremely unlikely events occur within his vicinity and alter the laws of logic to his whim.
 * Telekinesis: Discord has enough telekinetic skill to lift the entire Mane Six up magically.
 * Hypnotic Magic: Discord can corrupt others and is skilled at hypnotic magic. He can even outright take control of somepony's mind, though he prefers not to.
 * Telepathy / Nigh Omniscience: In "The Return of Harmony," Discord somehow knew the Mane Six's names, strengths, and weaknesses without ever having met them before. In "Keep Calm and Flutter On," he reveals he heard everything about Celestia's plan to reform him while imprisoned in stone. He also knew about Twilight's princess coronation and the "Winter Wrap Up Song," despite not being there. He also knew how Twilight felt about her role as princess. However, he did not predict that Tirek would betray him, so he is not omniscient nor even semi omniscient. As well, he tends to forget things as he still is not perfect, despite his powers. He has even seen the Cutie Mark Crusaders, though he has never really met or interacted with them and therefore does not know who they are.
 * Fourth Wall Awareness: Discord appears to be aware he is in a cartoon, even though he does not explain he does. He has even referred to others as "secondary characters."
 * Teleportation: One of most used abilities, Discord can teleport from one place to another, as well as teleport people or objects 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 somepony 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 skilled with creation magic. He can create creatures, objects, and plants at will, including powerful magical creations like the Plunderseeds.
 * Levitation: Discord can float in the air.
 * Flight: Discord can fly using his wings. He can also achieve a supersonic flight similar to Rainbow Dash's.
 * Replication: Discord can create copies of himself, other people, or objects.
 * 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 once used this to remove Celestia's tail without her noticing, though he did re-insert her tail afterwards.
 * Object Possession: Discord can possess inanimate objects. He can also appear magically in various objects.
 * Transmogrification: Discord can alter the appearance of creatures and objects, 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 can consume matter, such as glass, a painting, a tea cup, 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 location.
 * Disease Generation: Discord can infect others with any kind of diseases and illnesses.
 * Pyrokinesis: Discord can generate blue or green flames. He can also create images using blue flames.
 * Smoke Generation: Discord can display creating amount of smoke to cover a background.
 * Color Alteration: Discord can fade others' colors, including his own. 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 can show his thoughts by using clouds of smoke.
 * 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 can take blasts from dark magic without injury.
 * Enhanced Hearing: Discord can hear from a distance away.
 * Weather Magic: Discord can control the weather by making rain clouds go crazy, causing thunderstorms, or creating cotton candy chocolate rain clouds.
 * Animal Control: Discord can control the animals' behavior by making them go wild unnaturally.
 * Daytime Control: Discord can control celestial objects at will to bring about daytime or nighttime.
 * Gravity Control: Discord can make things float into the air and make objects lighter or heavier. He can undo the the gravity of an area to make things float above air.
 * Time Travel: Discord can project himself and others into events that have happened in the past.
 * Bubble Imprisonment: Discord can imprison others 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, Discord can use cartoon physics by stretching his limbs, deflating like a balloon, 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 is somewhat immortal as he has stayed in his stone prison for thousands of years without dying, even though he will die eventually. He claims himself to be centuries old and is also much older than Celestia and Luna.
 * Clairvoyance: Discord can use his crystal ball to see and watch over anypony or anything in Equestria.
 * Necromancy: Discord can bring 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 finger tips to zap away objects.
 * Petrification: Discord can turn others to stone as demonstrated with Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow.
 * Master Trickster: Discord likes to deceive others and have them do his bidding without even realizing it. However, there have been times where he gets caught tricking them.
 * Old Prime: Despite his age, Discord is skilled at many things, such as water and ice skating.

Weaknesses
Discord's strengths are many while his weaknesses are very few. Attacking him head-on is usually doomed to fail as he can easily thwart any assault through his magic. However, he is vulnerable to the Elements of Harmony, which have successfully turned him to stone twice in "The Return of Harmony Part 1 and 2." Using the Elements also dispels all of his magic, returning things to their rightful places and shapes.

He has also been shown to be vulnerable to other entities of immense power, such as a sufficiently-empowered Tirek. This is most likely due to Tirek's anti-magic properties being capable of shutting down Discord's magic when sufficiently empowered or simply because Discord did not have time to realize he was being betrayed before he was drained of his magic. Similarly, a sneeze from the Tatzlwurm was able to infect him with a severe illness he was not able to cure himself of.

One important weakness of Discord is his ego. He tends to be extremely overconfident and so assured of his own invincibility that he will not go all-out against enemies. He learns from this mistake and while disguised as Grogar, he brushes off King Sombra's own overconfidence and ego. In addition, his tendency to underestimate opponents means he can be taken by surprise and beaten before having the chance to react. While intelligent, he is not susceptible to being tricked as in "Twilight's Kingdom Part 1 and 2," he fell for Tirek's proposition to become allies, not suspecting Tirek would betray him in the end. Also, prior to befriending the Mane Six, he secretly always wanted a best friend, which allowed Fluttershy to sway him towards befriending the ponies.

As shown in "Discordant Harmony," if Discord stops exhibiting his usual mischievous behavior and starts to act "normal" instead, he will lose his abilities and slowly fade from existence. Fortunately, Fluttershy managed to make him return to his normal state before this could happen, thus saving his life. This is why he should not avoid his position of what he represents (or at least for a long time). However, what actually happens after he fades out remains unknown for the time being.

Discord is weak to anti-magic in general as he could not counter the Changelings' anti-magic, though (as is common with omnipotent characters) his weaknesses come and go as "plot demands". This is done to prevent Discord from basically winning every battle the ponies may comes across save for the most extreme examples (as Starlight even mentioned Discord could, if he wanted, defeat the entire Changeling army by sneezing had they not utilized anti-magic, making the threat null and void).

Season 2

 * The Return of Harmony - Part 1
 * The Return of Harmony - Part 2
 * Hearth's Warming Eve (cameo)
 * A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 (cameo)

Season 3

 * The Crystal Empire - Part 2 (cameo)
 * Keep Calm and Flutter On
 * Magical Mystery Cure (cameo and flashback)

Season 4

 * Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1
 * Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2
 * Three's A Crowd
 * Trade Ya! (cameo as a lamp)
 * Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1
 * Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2

Season 5

 * Make New Friends but Keep Discord
 * Crusaders of the Lost Mark (mentioned)
 * What About Discord?
 * The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2 (alternate timeline)

Season 6

 * Dungeons &amp; Discords
 * To Where and Back Again - Part 1
 * To Where and Back Again - Part 2

Season 7

 * Celestial Advice
 * A Royal Problem (cameo)
 * Discordant Harmony
 * Fame and Misfortune (cameo)
 * A Health of Information1 (cameo)
 * Shadow Play - Part 2 (mentioned)

Season 8

 * The Maud Couple (cameo in photo)
 * The Break Up Break Down
 * A Matter of Principles
 * A Rockhoof and a Hard Place (mentioned)

Season 9

 * The Beginning of the End - Part 1
 * The Beginning of the End - Part 2
 * Sparkle's Seven (cameo)
 * Frenemies (mentioned)
 * Between Dark and Dawn (cameo)
 * The Summer Sun Setback
 * She Talks to Angel (mentioned)

Films

 * My Little Pony The Movie (cameo)

Specials

 * My Little Pony Best Gift Ever

Friendship is Magic

 * Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair (cameo)
 * My Little Pirate: Friendship Ahoy (cameo)
 * Reflections (cameo)
 * Discord in Time
 * The Good, the Bad and the Ponies (cameo)
 * Ponyville Days (cameo)
 * Siege of the Crystal Empire
 * Chaos Theory
 * Friendship is Magic Issue 57

Micro-Series

 * Micro-series Issue 8 (cameo)

Friends Forever

 * Friends Forever Issue 2
 * Friends Forever Issue 5
 * Friends Forever Issue 14 (mentioned)
 * Friends Forever Issue 16 (mentioned)
 * Friends Forever Issue 18 (mentioned)
 * Friends Forever Issue 20
 * Friends Forever Issue 28 (mentioned)

FIENDship is Magic

 * FIENDship is Magic Issue 2 (cameo)

Specials

 * My Little Pony Annual 2013 (name only)
 * My Little Pony Annual 2014 (cameo)

Trivia

 * Discord is the second character in the series to reveal their true good colors (the first being Nightmare Moon) and the first to have been redeemed via non-magical means (without the use of the Elements of Harmony).
 * He is the first being in the series so far who has been proven to be completely immune to Fluttershy's stare, the second being Flash Bees. Given that the stare has in the past reduced a full-grown dragon into submission and overpowered the magical stone gaze of a cockatrice, Discord shrugging it off like it was nothing is a testament to his incredible power.
 * He made a cameo appearance in the first ever fan-made My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode "Double Rainboom" as a front cover of the book Blossom was reading in the ending credits.
 * He is mentioned in the fan-made My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic mini-film titled My Little Dashie.
 * Discord can be seen in the intro of Seasons 4 and above inside Fluttershy's house and later in her animal sanctuary.
 * It is implied Discord was meaner in the past; one stained glass showed him dangling screaming ponies over fire.
 * He is one of the most powerful characters in the series; the others are Celestia, Luna, Sombra, and Tirek.
 * According to the Elements of Harmony book, Discord's redemption was done so new stories could be told with his character and to turn him from the known enemy into the "not-always reliable ally".
 * Discord lives in a chaotic dimension known as Chaosville, which is first shown in "Make New Friends but Keep Discord."
 * Discord's disguise as Grogar is the third character to be a revamp of a G1 villain, the first being Tirek and the second being the Smooze.
 * Discord has rarely ever been in any true danger from any major antagonist in the series, even after befriending the Mane Six, claiming he could easily end all of Equestria's conflicts if he wanted, but actively choosing not to so as to allow the Mane Six to learn and grow instead. The only time when he has ever been successfully overpowered by a villain was by Tirek and later the Legion of Doom (though even then, it required trickery on their part to achieve this victory).
 * Discord is similar to Q, another character portrayed by John de Lancie. However, one difference between the two is that Discord was far more mischievous in his first appearance, as well as his usage of less contractions in his daily vocabulary.
 * It is hinted that Discord may have had a troubled childhood.