{{Short description|Fictional character from My Little Pony}} {{Italic disambiguation}} {{Infobox character | franchise = ''[[My Little Pony (2010 toyline)|My Little Pony]]'' | name = Discord | first = "[[The Return of Harmony]]" (2011) | image = Discord_S5E22.png | caption = Discord as he appears in "What About Discord?" | last_minor = The Last Problem | last_date = October 12, 2019 | creator = [[Lauren Faust]]<br>[[M.A. Larson]] | based_on = | adapted_by = <!-- for character adaption articles --> | designer = | portrayer = | voice = {{plainlist| [[John de Lancie]]<br>Peter New ([[My Little Pony: Pony Life|''Pony Life'']])}} | motion_actor = | extra-hdr = | lbl1 = | data1 = | lbl2 = | data2 = | lbl3 = | data3 = | lbl4 = | data4 = | lbl5 = | data5 = | full_name = | nicknames = | species = Draconequus | title = Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony | affiliation = {{plainlist| * [[Mane Six]] (ally) * [[Fluttershy]] (best friend)}} | fighting_style = | family = | relatives = | spouse = | significant_other = Cosmos (ex-girlfriend; comics only) }} {{My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic sidebar}}
'''Discord''' is a fictional character who appears in the [[My Little Pony (2010 toyline)|fourth incarnation]] of [[Hasbro]]'s ''[[My Little Pony]]'' toyline and [[media franchise]], beginning with ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' (2010–2019). 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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/characters/My-Little-Pony/Discord |title=Discord Voices (My Little Pony) |website=Behind The Voice Actors |access-date=2025-05-27 }}</ref>
Discord is depicted as a powerful and mischievous [[anthropomorphic]] draconequus who embodies [[Chaos (cosmogony)|chaos]] and [[Harmony|disharmony]].<ref name="Connelly-2017">{{cite book |last=Connelly |first=S. |title=Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E3VPDgAAQBAJ |year=2017 |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers |isbn=9781476662091 |lccn=2016044897 |pages=78}}</ref> 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.
==Appearances== ===Fourth ''My Little Pony'' incarnation (2010–2021)=== ====''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''==== {{Main|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 2{{!}}Season 2|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 3{{!}}Season 3|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 4{{!}}Season 4|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 5{{!}}Season 5|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 6{{!}}Season 6|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 7{{!}}Season 7|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 8{{!}}Season 8|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season 9{{!}}Season 9}} 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.
== Development == [[File:Discord Sketches by Lauren Faust.jpg|thumb|Lauren Faust's sketches of Discord in 2011, where she tried considering different concepts of the character. Her husband, [[Craig McCracken]], provided commentary and ideas for the character.]] {{Quote box |quote=He's the one character where we can break all of the rules of the show. He can have a reference to something that's a bit more modern day or contemporary. He has hands—which is a big thing. In Seasons 4 and 5, I ended up with a couple of Discord episodes, and he then became a kind of character where you could just throw him in a different costume and have him do something extra silly—it seems to work really well for him. |author=Jim Miller |source=''My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria''<ref>{{harvp|Begin|2015|p=97}}</ref> |align=right |width=400px }} [[File:Eris Antikensammlung Berlin F1775.jpg|thumb|[[Eris (mythology)|Eris]], the winged goddess of chaos.]] [[File:John de Lancie Photo Op GalaxyCon Raleigh 2023.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|[[John de Lancie]] provided the voice for Discord.]] In mythology, Discord or [[Eris (mythology)|Discordia]] is a trickster and the Roman goddess of chaos.<ref>Ruoff, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KaARAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA329 s.v. Eris, p. 329].</ref> Show creator [[Lauren Faust]] based Discord's character on [[Q (Star Trek)|Q]], an omnipotent trickster played by John de Lancie in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''. 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.<ref name="DisQord">{{cite web|url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/09/massive-jayson-thiessen-q-from-bronycon.html|title=Massive Jayson Thiessen Q&A From Bronycon|author=Cereal Velocity|date=September 24, 2011|work=Equestria Daily|access-date=September 23, 2012}}</ref> 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.<ref name="AoE-DC">{{harvp|Begin|2015|p=96}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Begin|2015|p=9}}</ref> He was not intended to have a recurring role;<ref name="AoE-DC"/> 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".<ref name="EoH54">{{harvp|Snider|2013|p=54}}</ref> 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 Dalí]] paintings".<ref>{{harvp|Begin|2015|p=97}}</ref>
Discord's introduction in the [[The Return of Harmony|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 ''[[Star Wars: A New Hope]]'' (which the ponies' victory ceremony directly mimicked) to ''[[The Big Lebowski]]'' (whose characters appeared as background ponies).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Robertson|first=V. L. D.|title=Of ponies and men: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the Brony fandom|journal=International Journal of Cultural Studies|volume=17|issue=1|year=2013|pages=21–37|doi=10.1177/1367877912464368}}</ref>
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 (1992 Disney film)|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."<ref>{{harvp|Begin|2015|p=99}}</ref></blockquote>
== Reception and analysis == 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 [[List of Greek mythological creatures|Greek mythological creatures]] like [[chimera (mythology)|chimera]]s and [[manticore]]s 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 (mythology)|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 [[Golden_mean_(philosophy)#Aristotle|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."<ref>{{cite book |last=Hobbs |first=Priscilla |editor1-last=Berti |editor1-first=Irene |editor2-last=Carlà-Uhink |editor2-first=Filippo |title=Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |date=2015-04-23 |isbn=9781472532213 |language=English |pages=197–209 |chapter=Everypony Has a Story: Revisions of Greco-Roman Mythology in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic }}</ref>
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 [[brony|male ''My Little Pony'' fans]] (also known as ''bronies'').<ref>{{cite journal|last=Miller|first=Samuel|title=Rebooting Ponies and Men: Discordant Masculinity and the Brony Fandom|journal=Journal of Men's Studies|volume=26|issue=3|year=2018|pages=1–19|doi=10.1177/1060826518773468|publisher=SAGE Publications}}</ref>
Kevin Fletcher wrote that Discord's backstory reflects "a feminist impulse" and that [[Princess Celestia]] and [[Princess Luna|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 Dalí]]) are a representation of "male culture" that contrasts with the femininity of the ponies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fletcher |first=Kevin |date=2018 |chapter=My Little Pony, Communalism and Feminist Politics |title=Orienting Feminism |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Cham |pages=25–42}}</ref>
Carly Olsen, writing in ''[[Screen Rant]]'', ranked Discord as the fourth most powerful magic user in ''Friendship Is Magic''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/my-little-pony-best-magic-users-ranked/|first=Carly|last=Olsen|title=My Little Pony: The 10 Best Magic Users, Ranked|website=[[Screen Rant]]|date=2020-04-05|access-date=2025-05-27}}</ref>
==See also== * [[List of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters|List of ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' characters]] * [[Fluttershy]] * [[Princess Celestia]] * [[Princess Luna]] * [[Twilight Sparkle]] * [[Derpy Hooves]] * [[Zecora]] * [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom|''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' fandom]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book|last=Begin|first=Mary Jane|date=2015|title=My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria|location=New York|publisher=Abrams|isbn=978-1-4197-1577-8}} * {{cite book|last=Snider|first=Brandon T.|date=2013|title=The Elements of Harmony: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The Official Guidebook|location=New York|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|isbn=978-0-316-24754-2}}
{{My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic}} {{My Little Pony}}
[[Category:My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters]] [[Category:Male characters in animated television series]] [[Category:Fictional gods]] [[Category:Fictional tricksters]] [[Category:Fictional shapeshifters]] [[Category:Fictional telekinetics]] [[Category:Male television villains]] [[Category:Fictional hybrids]] [[Category:Animated characters introduced in 2011]] [[Category:Television characters introduced in 2011]]