Editorial: My Relatable Draconequus: Discord

Happy Chaos Never Dies Day! Since I know all of you are embracing life’s little random moments today, who better to relate to then the Master of Chaos himself.

Discord: An arrogant, selfish pleasure seeker with a habit of throwing rather volatile temper-tantrums or a misunderstood friendship novice trying to simply spread the joy of spontaneity with those who matter most?

Whether you love him or hate him, Discord is here to stay. His reign over Equestria may have long ended, but rest assure the chaos is far from over.

It’s time to forego normality and see what we share with the master of disaster himself.

This was the moment I realized I was looking at my new favorite character!

So clearly Discord’s reformation was a complete success and I can’t think of a better poster child for rehabilitation. . .

Okay, even as a fan of Discord’s I can admit his character is riddled with faults. His relatability comes from the fact that he really has to study the nuances of friendship and his struggles are just so human.

While other characters like Starlight study friendship too, Discord is different in that he displays all the negative emotion that comes with learning to be selfless. He’s resistant because being friendly to everypony honestly isn’t appealing to him.

Every encounter Discord has with others is a learning opportunity. And seeing as he probably didn’t grow up in pony society (assuming he’s aging at all) he’s starting out with less than a foals levels of communication skills.

So what's so relatable?

Justified Fun: The Return of Harmony

Chaos Captial, nah, that's just typical day in Florida.

Okay, so Dizzy just wanted to throw the whole world into unending madness and chocolate milk, what was so wrong with that? Don’t pretend like you’ve never wanted to rip apart the fabric of reality to satisfy your own personal fancy!

Discord: At least I don't turn ponies to stone, so I have that in my favor.

Discord is all about chaos and Equestria is completely against it - seriously, no room for the butterfly effect when you control the weather.

Chaos is a wonderful thing and ponies want to silence it. The only ponies he directly attacks are the ones that are after him. He's oddly enough rationalized why his actions are no more wrong than Celestia's decision to lock him up.

Discord: I'm not playing fair? Seriously, at what point in the rules did I say I wouldn't pop in and brainwash you?

We've all made bad decisions and then justified why they’re okay. Discord does this through the entire series often acting selfishly even though we know he has the ability to empathize with others. Fortunately for Dizzy and us, true friendship causes us to examine ourselves and change. Yet, I think we can all relate to rationalizing why some of our negative traits are okay.

Manipulation: Keep Calm and Flutter on/ What about Discord / Princess Twilight Sparkle

Discord: Well, I manipulated you into manipulating me.

You have to admit Discord’s really good at manipulating others. Discord is able to see the weaknesses built into their strengths and picks at those areas until he gets the desired response he wants from them.

Technically Discord’s plan worked in Keep Calm and Flutter On. Flutters wasn't going to use her element against him (luckily she employed a little manipulation herself). Manipulation sees motives and personality traits as a challenge and Discord loves games.

Twilight: I honestly didn't plan on feeling this way today.

Dizzy was able to get Twilight to admit to jealousy just by milking the perfect timing of his visit. We employ manipulation to get others acting or thinking in a way that serves our needs (hopefully those needs aren’t entertainment related like Discord’s seem to be). And sometimes we can do it to help encourage people.

Even though he technically is the cause of all the trouble, props to Discord for pushing the ponies in the right direction. Baby steps to reform, right?

Manipulating others gives us a sense of control. And let's be honest, there's a small part of us that likes it when we’re successful. You're like Discord if you can relate.

Being Lonely (Comic book)

Now I know there’s some don’t like counting the comics as canon; too bad, I’m looking at them.

Something in Discord resonates with what Sweetie Bell is saying in the Friendship Forever #2 comic. I think it’s the part about not being understood that hits home for the draconequus.

Discord is hard to understand. Most of his actions and behaviors are nonsensical. The fact he thrives on chaos in a world that seems addicted to order immediately puts him at odds with everypony he encounters.

It can be lonely when you’re not like others around you. Even if they hang out with you, there’s that lingering feeling that you can’t fully connect to others.

There feelings can lead a creature to act like . . .

I totally don’t not care what you think about me!: Discordant Harmony/ Threes a Crowd

Discord: "She gets me and you obviously do not."
Clerk: *Pressing panic button under desk.*

Discord has this interesting character trait of balancing being totally carefree and trying to behave.

Discord is able to feel insecure, uncertain and downright confused just like everypony else. He may act like he doesn’t care, but the opinions of others do weigh heavy on his mind.

Flutters: You haven't scared me once, and that's scaring me.

For all of us with rather sprightly personalities, we can relate to pretending to be different from time to time to fit in or make others feel more comfortable with us. We also understand how it feels like dying every time we have to do it!

Discord: I need your specific love and attention.

Discord suffers from what ponies are not thinking of him too. Twilight doesn't write, call or visit. Discord fakes an illness to, yes ruin Twilight's day, but also to see if she'd really go to the ends of Equestria for him. He feels she wouldn't have done that without him being sick.

And all this pretending for the sake of friendship can only lead to a desire for:

Freedom: Twilight’s Kingdom

Chaos or tea parties? If only Discord knew he could have both. Oh well, hindsight's 20/20.

I know Discord gets a lot of flack for this mistake. It was an obvious set up by Tirek, but our favorite draconequus was willing to trade his pony friends for.

But surely I must be mistaken in thinking this is relatable. None of us would ever betray our friends just for a chance to do something we love . . . if only.

Try to see it from Dizzy’s pov. If Tirek had upheld his end of the bargain, Discord would have had both friendship and chaos; two things that now make up his idea of freedom. Being free to matters to a lot of us and up to this point in the series Discord didn't feel like he had much of it.

No more “We’ll put you in stone if you don’t behave” or living at the end of Fluttershy’s moral leash. Just fun and chaos!

Later Discord had plans for them to make friendship bracelets.

If given only one chance to have that thing you most desire, would you take it? Discord did, and he didn’t care what the cost of freedom was. I know some of us can relate to mistakes like this.

Jealous Much? : Make New Friends But Keep Discord

Do you remember the first friend you made? How you said they were your best friend and you expected them to say the same thing about you? How they were supposed to share every Big Life event with you!?

Yeah, Discord’s feeling jealous and we all know exactly what that feels like. Discord is still learning the lesson that the world doesn’t revolve around him. Just like a small child, Discord’s never been in a situation he didn’t think was all about him and he expects his “best” friend to always be with him. This behavior may seem juvenile, but that’s just where Discord is social (Doesn’t give him a reason to throw Treehugger in another dimension) and you either remember being like this or you currently relate.

Please Don’t Talk to Me, I’m better than you: Dungeons & Discord

You know you've done this.

So Discord thinks he’s better than Spike and Big Mac, how does that relate to us?

Discord makes a similar mistake in viewing Spike and Big Mac as literal background characters in his life. Like any of us, Discord views himself as the hero of his own story and heros only hang with worthy co-stars. But in reality, there is no one protagonist. We’re all in this together.

When Discord finds out that Twilight’s minion and Apple Brother actually are the ones that pity him, he’s woken to the reality that everypony around him is just as complex as he is. No single creature is the star of the universe, and when Discord figures that out he finds that these 'background ponies' make for pretty good company.

We all need to quit looking down on others. That struggle is relatable

Talking to Yourself: Yeah, I know I did this ep already, but I don't like Principal of the Matter so I'm skipping it.

Anyone else have long opinionated conversations with variants of yourself?

Discord has a unique way of organizing his thoughts and feelings. Considering Discord hasn’t had a lot of friends, and he’s been trapped in stone for a thousand years, he’s only had himself to bounce ideas off of. By splitting up his ideas between his mental selves, he’s able to confront each feeling and idea individually without becoming overwhelmed by it.

If you find yourself talking and answering yourself, don’t worry, it’s a sign of genius and chaos. And if your mind works like this, you probably appreciated the representation.

The Ends Justify the Means: Best Gift Ever/ The Break Up Break Down

See how happy Fluttershy is, it was all worth it!

Regardless of how ethical it is, some of us view the end result as being worth whatever sacrifice was needed to get there. For all his chaos, Discord likes working toward goals and those goals can be reached by any crazy method Discord feels like trying at the moment. If he wants Fluttershy happy or to play a game of Ogres & Oubliettes, Discord's gonna get there.

Breaking up couple won't put people in the mood to play games, but I guess Discord didn't know that.

For those of us that get blinded by a goal, we can relate to Dizzy (And if you need that episode, you can apply it here). Discord needs to remember that the means can come with pretty serious consequences like when he broke up Big Mac and Sugar Bell, but so long as he's aiming for a good goal . . .

Chaos at its best!

... . . he should learn how to better get what he wants.

This Can’t Be Over! Chaos Never Dies!

But this post can.

While Discord still has very much to learn in regards to friendship, he’s open to staying with the group of ponies that can best show him how it’s done.

If you relate to Discord you probably don’t need me to tell you how unique you are; that thoughts and feeling can be overwhelming at times and you feel like you're constantly adjusting your behavior for the people around you. But more than that you give people a chance to view the world differently.

You're the break from routine that helps people keep their sanity, believe it or not. You're the excuse to embrace chaos and just enjoy how out of control life gets at times. Not to mention your wild ideas are just loads of fun.

Happy Chaos Never Dies Day! And remember to find the joy in the madness!