Discord is a fictional character who appears in the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony toyline and media franchise, beginning with ' (2010âÂÂ2019). He first appears as the main antagonist of the second season premiere before becoming a recurring character throughout the rest of the series. He is voiced by John de Lancie.
Discord is depicted as a powerful and mischievous anthropomorphic draconequus who embodies chaos and disharmony. As the Spirit of Chaos, he possesses reality-warping abilities and delights in creating disorder and confusion. Initially introduced as a malevolent force who once ruled Equestria through chaos before being defeated and turned to stone by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, he is later reformed through the friendship and kindness of Fluttershy, becoming one of her closest friends and an unlikely ally to the Mane Six. His character arc explores themes of redemption, the value of friendship, and the balance between order and chaos.
More than a thousand years before the beginning of the series, Discord once ruled Equestria in a state of unrest and unhappiness until Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used the Elements of Harmony to turn him into stone. Discord first appears in the second season premiere "The Return of Harmony" when he escapes from his stone prison and plunges Equestria into chaos. He corrupts the Mane Six by turning their positive traits into negative ones, causing them to turn against each other. After Twilight Sparkle overcomes his influence and restores the Elements of Harmony, Discord is defeated and turned back into stone.
Discord returns in the episode "Keep Calm and Flutter On" when Princess Celestia releases him from his stone prison and tasks Fluttershy with reforming him. Throughout subsequent seasons, Discord develops a close friendship with Fluttershy while learning to use his chaotic abilities for good rather than evil, and occasionally helps the Mane Six in their adventures.
In mythology, Discord or Discordia is a trickster and the Roman goddess of chaos. Show creator Lauren Faust based Discord's character on Q, an omnipotent trickster played by John de Lancie in '. The production team considered casting a soundalike of de Lancie to voice the character but decided to try to get de Lancie himself, who was available. The creative team developed Discord as "the one character who could break all of the rules of the show", by making him put more modernized or contemporary pop culture references than usual in the series' "fantasy storybook" setting. He was not intended to have a recurring role; according to McCarthy, "'reforming' him allows us to tell new stories with his character. He gets to be the not-always-reliable ally instead of the known enemy". Author of My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria Mary Jane Begin commented on the "chaotic" settings that accompany the character, such as his home dimension called Chaosville, likening them to "dream-inspired Salvador DalÃÂ paintings".
Discord's introduction in the Season 2 premiere was indicative of the show's incorporation of pop culture references to appeal to adult viewers. Media studies professor Venetia Laura Delano Robertson noted that Discord's chaos-inducing abilities, including causing chocolate rain to fall over Ponyville, referenced the viral YouTube video and Internet meme "Chocolate Rain" by Tay Zonday that had been popularized on 4chan. The character's debut was part of what Robertson identified as the show's deliberate "tailoring to the geek demographic"; the series also used references ranging from ' (which the ponies' victory ceremony directly mimicked) to The Big Lebowski (whose characters appeared as background ponies).
Supervising director and executive producer Jayson Thiessen wrote of Discord's reformation: <blockquote>"What I like is that he started out as a villain and now he's not a villain, but he never really changed. It's really just whether or not he's trying to hurt the ponies or take over their world. He's still the chaos character that we were introduced to; it's just that now he's not doing it for evil purposes. He's essentially the genie from Aladdin in a way, or Loki—really, any sort of trickster. He can be either negative or positive, but it doesn't change his trickster nature."</blockquote>
Academic analysis has examined Discord's character design and mythological significance within the show's lore. According to Priscilla Hobbs, when Faust drew inspiration from Greek mythological creatures like chimeras and manticores when developing Discord, she deliberately made his body parts asymmetrical and from different animals to give the impression of disharmony. Hobbs likened Discord's character to the Greek goddess Eris, the personification of discord and strife, and applied essayist Lewis Hyde's analysis of trickster figures to Discord, describing him as "a boundary-crosser" who "will cross the line and confuse the distinction" between established social and moral categories. Hobbs also wrote that the show presents a doctrine of balance similar to Aristotle's Golden Mean, where Discord and harmony must coexist rather than one annihilating the other (cf. The Nicomachean Ethics). Hobbs wrote that Discord's transformation from chaotic villain to reformed ally represents hope and optimism for controlling real-world chaos, especially for "a generation who has spent a significant portion of its life in a state of war and chaos."
Samuel Miller used Discord as the namesake for a theoretical framework he termed "discordant masculinity." Miller argued that Discord's physical composition as a draconequus and his character arc from chaotic antagonist to reformed ally through friendship parallels how adult male fans of the show challenge traditional gender norms. According to Miller, Discord's initial appearance as "chaotic, mish-mashed, and an oddity" followed by the revelation of "something within him that is genuine and good" mirrors how the general public perceives male My Little Pony fans (also known as bronies).
Kevin Fletcher wrote that Discord's backstory reflects "a feminist impulse" and that Princess Celestia and Luna's dethroning of Discord is a form of feminist revolution against autocracy, with the sisters liberating the oppressed ponies and establishing Equestria's matriarchal diarchy. Fletcher wrote that Discord's actions (taking control of the world while altering reality in ways reminiscent of M.C. Escher and Salvador DalÃÂ) are a representation of "male culture" that contrasts with the femininity of the ponies.
Carly Olsen, writing in Screen Rant, ranked Discord as the fourth most powerful magic user in Friendship Is Magic.