PaulloDEC wrote:The trouble with KCaFO for me is pretty simple.
1) I don't believe for a second that the Discord we saw in Return of Harmony could be reformed in the way this episode suggests, or even
at all2) As a result of this, Fluttershy looks astonishingly reckless for giving him so much rope
Do you suppose this is exactly the kind of cynical reasoning KCFO stands against in the first place?
Nearly everyone had reduced Discord to some wholly evil elemental thing that creates chaos everywhere with no rhyme or reason, but there is really no such thing as a being that operates on nothing. That's not even how
chaos itself operates, because basic cause-and-effect relationships still apply to confusion and disarray. There's no definition of chaos which suggests a lack of any cause, only a lack of understanding that cause. One thing game development has burned into my mind is that chaos is
intended to defy understanding but that never means it absolutely does. Someone is bound to figure it out eventually.
Discord doesn't have his motivations spelled out for us in RoH but that doesn't mean there are none. For a being that can supposedly cross dimensions, he seems awfully attached to the one where magical jewelry could turn him to stone for at least 1000 years at a time. It's not really hard for me to buy the very first explanation that comes to mind: He wanted to be a part of pony society in some way, but pony society didn't want him as long as he was all about making a mess, so he figured he had to become their ruler or be statue'd trying. Celestia has probably known of his basic desire for a long time, but she needed someone understanding enough to embody the element of kindness before she could help him to coexist.
Wayoshi wrote:It was hard to fully buy Discord's reformation at the time with that ambiguous ending KCaFO had, also.
PaulloDEC wrote:You didn't like his turn in Twilight's Kingdom? That bit almost justified KCaFO for me, because it showed just how easily Discord could be swayed back to his old ways. That while he is capable of changing for the better, his callous nature and thirst for chaos still lurks beneath the surface.
It was pretty obvious to me that both of these things were intentional as soon as KCFO aired. There was plenty of speculation in the episode thread that Discord would naturally come to some kind of relapse, because if anyone seriously thought at the time that they were trying to equate Discord's newfound desire to keep his only friend with a complete reformation then, um, why???