Dessa

You're right. There is absolutely no relationship between past and present, particularly when the present mimics accounts of the past almost perfectly. No relationship whatsoever X: Again, you're being disingenuous. We see discord acting just as Celestia warned he would. We can safely presume that she knew how he would act because he has acted that way before. it's the simplest explanation, and it doesn't require "what ifs" from left field. But maybe you're right. Remember that time he saved a baby from certain doom? Yeah, it's like that time Voldemort decided to give Harry a Horcrux. You know, that time that never actually happened. Which reminds me of the time that Emperor Palpatine let himself be killed by Anakin for the good of the galaxy. I'm pretty sure I heard in an interview with George Lucas no mention of this. Okay. I confess: I made that stuff up. But you have to believe me when I say Voldemort, Palpatine, and Discord really weren't all that bad. Because it's conceivable that the right combination of circumstances would justify the abominable things that the writers went out of their way to describe in detail.

Everything Discord says absolutely corroborates Celestia's side of the story. She says he rules in chaos, he says he rules in chaos. There is a lot of evidence to support the notion that Celestia's account is accurate, but you've got nothing but idle speculation. Nothing at all. You can come up with little crazy scenarios about how Celestia and Discord were drinking buddies at Oxford before they got in a fight over a game a Cribbage, but that's just some stuff you made up. And no "They seem to know each other" is not evidence that they were ever buds. You can learn a lot about someone with whom you disagree, including and especially what you don't like about that pony, like how much of a downer you think they are. All this "plan b" stuff is just cooked up. Do you have any evidence to present, or just unsubstantiated scenarios that could be true, and can't be disproven?

Okay, I'ma break this down: We have 2 sources of information by which to judge discord: 1. Celestia historical account. 2. What we actually see Discord do. 1. Celestia's historical account. This provides 2 potential scenarios: A. Celestia spoke the truth. B. Celestia lied. A. Celestia spoke the truth Supposing Celestia spoke the truth, then we may conclude that Discord is indeed evil, as he acted to impose lasting harm. B. Celestia Lied Then we may dismiss her testimony. Given no other information, Discord is >%50 likely to be evil (and >%50 to be good, with neutrality being the little sliver between those two). Conclusion based on Celestia's testimony: Discord is either evil, or ~50% likely to be evil. 2. What we actually see Discord do. We've covered this above for the most part, and we disagree on whether these actions actions are evil, much less whether these actions prove him to be evil. Here's the wrnech in your works: #2 corroborates #1. That is, GIVEN what we KNOW IS TRUE about Discord, and GIVEN Celestia's testimony, we can make an assessment of Celestia's truthfulness by comparing the two. ASSERTION: Discord was defeated in the past by the Elements of Harmony. EVIDENCE: We see Discord defeated by the elements of Harmony. FURTHER EVIDENCE: Discord stole the elements of Harmony when he escaped. Why would he do this if he did not know they were a threat? How would he know they were a threat if they did not defeat him once before. CONCLUSION: Celestia was telling the truth. ASSERTION: Celestia accuses Discord of ruling Equestria in a state of "Disharmony and unhappiness." EVIDENCE: "Playing fair? Perhaps we haven't met. I'm Discord, spirit of Chaos and Disharmony? ... Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Chaos to wreak." Discord states his intention here to sow chaos (disharmony), which is exactly what Discord is accused of doing in the past. FURTHER EVIDENCE: "Harmony in Equestria is dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools." Discord states he intend to rule, and declares harmony "dead." "Dead" and death are often used as metaphors to suggest permanence and loss. These two statements show Discord intends to rule Equestria in an eternal state of chaos and disharmony. CONCLUSION: Extremely plausible. You assert that Celestia is fabricating her account of history? A spurious accusation, Mr. HeBearded. Celestia has a history of honesty. Go back and watch the series, and it's very difficult, if not impossible, to find any evidence of her lying about anything, ever. She may have in "A Bird in the Hoof," but a single instance of lying as a prank is hardly evidence of her dishonesty as a character trait. IF she has lied, she has done so very sparingly, and never on matters of import. So to sum up: 1. Celestia has never lied on a matter of consequence. 2. What we CAN verify of her statements about Discord are true. Yet you SUPPOSE that she lies about history. That she is making things up about Discord. That she has it in for the guy. Why? Well, you don't speculate on that. Celestia claims that she did so because Discord intends to sow eternal chaos. An accustion which Discord not only doesn't deny, but explicitly agrees with. But somehow, she's making up all the other bits about him actually doing so in the past. I find this extremely unlikely. Fillies and Gentlecolts of the jury, Discord is guilty. He stated an intention to sow chaos in the present, and in the process, deliberately caused ponies to suffer, the very definition of evil. To suppose that he would suddenly decide to do so now, whereas he was merely "seeking justice" in the path is disingenuous. Discord is evil, and always has been.

Because it's totally not evil to bring out the worst in people using cheap no-saving-throw spells, just for the lulz.

Interesting that Pinkie had to break Discord's spell before she could again find joy in things. And telling. The little good that Discord wrought was erased by Discord, and required Captain Planet the elements of Harmony to nullify. Only because Discord failed. Had Discord had his way, he would have ruled Equstria in chaos...

I'm curious to hear how you guys got into roleplaying. How old were you? Who did you roleplay with? How did it make you feel? Follow up question: Why do you roleplay today? My story: I played my first Roleplaying game when I was in middle school, maybe 6th or 7th grade. I'd heard of them, but I had never given them a serious thought until some kid invited me to play in a game. We werent besties or anything, we were just mutually bored and happen to share the same recess period (this school was in the middle of the city, so recess there was always indoors). The game was D&D second edition, and while I thought it was kinda neat as I read through it, but the true potential of roleplaying games didn't dawn on me until I came across a picture of a thief -- a female thief. I realized suddenly that RPGs gave me the opportunity to be something I could never be (or so I felt at the time). Now, to clear up the confusion some of you might have: No, I wasn't always a girl. WHile there was always something in me that I couldn't put a finger on, that image in D&D awakened me to a longing I didn't realize was there. This being middle school, I suspected that the idea of playing female character with random schoolboys wasn't going to go over well, and I was right. I tried to play it coy at first, but I caught some heat for a while. That first D&D session didn't really go anywhere, and I was turned off of the idea of making female characters for a while, but I was still entranced by the notion of being someone or something else. As I continued through middle school, RPGs got more and more popular, until probably a third of the school was into them (I was blessed with a very geek-friendly middle school, and I loved it!). We even had the teachers getting in on it, with one of the recess periods (you could choose which class to take for recess) being set aside for Role-Playing Games, with sessions run by a goofy-fun loving teacher. Around that same time, my best friend Chris started GMing a Star Wars campaign in small groups that, if put together, might count to 20 or 25 students altogether. Chris was an arrogant prick, but effortlessly confident and very creative. I'd meet up with kids I barely knew, and we'd compare our characters' adventures in this Star Wars campaign, and somehow, Chris kept it all together and managed to build a whole GALAXY that every character got to see a different part of. Eventually, our lives went on and the magic of those early days became harder and harder to maintain or recapture, but since then, I've loved RPGs. There's just something special about seeing life through someone else's senses. For years after middle school, RP was for me much what I imagined it to be for other people, but with the added personal element of gender exploration. In many ways, it kept the demons at bay, and helped me through what might have been much more difficult without the escapism. These days, I'm LIVIN THE DREAM BABY -- I'm a woman now, so that element of RP is no longer necessary, but I still love it. From whence, then, its continued appeal? What does RPing offer me that's special and specific to my life? I don't know, but it's fun to explore. Okay, now it's YOUR turn. Go, take a moment to gaze at thy navels and regale us with tales of youthful yore!

Ah, but you didn't argue that "Discord didn't make any pony evil, you argued "No pony did anything explicitly morally wrong while under Discord's influence." I'm not saying that fluttershy's act made her evil, I'm just saying the act was evil. Evil acts needn't always be performed by evil ponies. Even good ponies sometimes to evil things. That Fluttershy's behavior didn't cause MUCH harm doesn't make it not evil, it just makes it less evil than something that does serious harm. Which reminds me: Fluttershy was not "encouraged" to this state by Discord. She resisted his provocations entirely, and he openly bewitched her with no consent on her behalf.

While Twilight Sparkle may have done evil by sowing discord, Discord quite literally is Discord. You can point out the good things Twilight has done and make a moral judgement about where she falls. What good did Discord bring? And yeah, the stories we've been told might all be lies, but they're the only information we've got. At best, we might say "Assuming what weve been shown is untrue, discord may or may not be evil." But to say he's definitely not evil because we don't know for sure that he is is a fallacy. I'll leave it up to Ginger to figure out the name of that fallacy. Someone mentioned that nothing any of the ponies did was evil. Fluttershy deliberately taunted Pinkie Pie and slapped Twilight in the face with her tail. Evil. Much of what the other poines did might be thought to cross that line as well.

Yep! Say what you will about the quality of the episode itself, but it felt like season 1. Very few episodes this season, even some of my favorites, can claim that.

The idea that that something can't be evil because its nature is to be evil doesn't make any sense at all. DO we say that Satan is not evil because its in his nature to be so? We don't, and the reason why we don't is because Satan represents the very idea of evil. Discord is a fundamentally negative element. Not only is Discord evil, but he is representative of a form of evil. He is evil in its purest, most distilled form.

Keep developing your English fundamentals. It'll make for better applications and better RP. Work on punctuation, capitalization, etc. And welcome to Canterlot!

Discord was a bully. A charming one, but a bully nonetheless.

All of the art I make is pixels, typically smaller than 150x150 and rarely more than 24 colors. A finished piece might be a couple kilobytes. I don't have my folder handy, but I'm guessing no more than 1 MB for all my art. Stuff I've saved from around the net? Well, that's not impressively large OR small.

Oh, heh. She was on MAD TV.

Hmm, might these form up into serials? I hope so. I LOVE this art.

It occurred to me. It just seemed too small to make a fuss over.

I should clear up what I mean when I use the terms "masculine" and "feminine." When I say "masculine" I mean that which is associated with the male gender, and "feminine" with the female gender. I don't mean to suggest that these always match up, or that women are feminine by default and men masculine by default. It's simply the cultural associations prescribed to the genders.

I wasn't much of a fan of Hearth's Warming Eve either, and although I liked Putting Your Hoof Down, it was only half a credit to Merriweather, but this episode goes a good way toward redeeming her.

Mmm, quite.

Well, in response to what ginger pointed out about masculine and feminine having much to do with context, I think that's a strength here. Since the episodes message was converyed via metaphor, it allows the viewer leeway to interpret this in ways that apply to their lives. In regards to what shalecrow said about rejecting feminine things (even as she was a girl), I think this is something society as a whole does. And something this show, not just this episode, but this WHOLE SHOW, challenges. One of Fausts major themes or theses here is that femininity is awesome. It's not something often acnkowledged or defended. Even old-school feminists seem not to recognize this (although younger, more modern feminists are very hip to it).