Discord is a spirit of chaos its different

DISCORD DOESNT HAVE A BACKSTORY YOU DUNCE!!!

can’t get a worse season finale than those damn sparklebugs, so don’t worry.

The thing about Discord is that he is chaos incarnate. It’s in his NATURE to be chaotic, and he’s literally fighting every urge in his body to keep his friend(s).
 
Also, only Fluttershy trusted Discord initially. It took FOREVER for the other characters to even considering giving him the BoD.
 
Starlight lost a fwend so he went on a wampage for her entire life, involving ponies that had nothing to do with her ‘grudge’, brainwashing, kidnapping, attempted theft of cutie marks and their associated talents, stalking, attempted murder (several times), disrupting the timeline, and even STILL arguing her cause after seeing what the future would become thanks to her (yeah, seeing that wastelands didn’t fully convince her…). And everypony literally forgave and forgot at the drop of a hat.

They never GAVE a true backstory to Discord. He’s ment to be shrouded in mystery

I think its because he’s a God of Chaos and thus has no real discernable motives besides causing chaos, giving leeway. Glimmer’s a normal pony, with normal problems, who reacted to them like some cookie cutter supervillain with CLEAR psychological issues. The fact she turned out to be a relatable mortal character who’s actions are utterly disproportionate to her problem is what caused people to hate on her so much.

@Jades  
look man they gave her a synonym-for-twilight-sparkle name and similar cutie mark and hairstyle and also shes super good at magic and stuff i dont know how much harder they could have sold it jeeeeez

@TexasUberAlles
 
I think what the episode could’ve benefitted from was like an episode showing Twilight interacting in some way with Starlight and try to show at least some relatability with said characters. As it stands now I don’t really feel any connection between them :/ which kinda makes Starlight listening to Twilight more baffling.

@Jades  
Twilight only offered an opinion on keep on trying with friendship  
That’s another one of the areas where I really think the episode could have benefited from at least an extra line or two of exposition to help set up the song montage; Twilight had already tried the “our differences make our friendship stronger” routine on her and it hadn’t stuck. It’s possible– and I guess intended, since that’s how it played out onscreen– that she was so shaken up by the Wasteland Timeline that her resolve crumbled all at once, and she was a snapcase after all, but a little more setup woiuld have been nice.

@Dracorex
 
Ohhhhh my bad then. That was a bad assumption on my part.

@Jades
 
No, I meant that ‘confirmation bias’ is the name of the phenomenon you were trying to describe.

@Dracorex
 
Um OK while I disagree with your assessment I have confirmation bias I have no idea why you decided that was an appropriate response to my answer. I have already conceded the fact that she could actually be talked down from how she would take revenge on them.
 
I however have yet to see a reason to believe to why she would just flat out give up her ideals on equalization when there were no actual logical arguments against her ideals. Twilight only offered an opinion on keep on trying with friendship when that definitely wasn’t the problem she had with Cutie Marks. So I see no reason to believe that Starlight would actually accept what she actually told her about her ideals because they had no proof to that they were wrong.

@Jades  

 
Confirmation bias.

@Zebasiz  

 
Yes her revenge can actually be compared to those situations. Her talking down Starlight from her revenge can be somewhat plausible to those situations.
 
However her ideals cannot. These are ideals that have been engraved in her head since she was a child well her hatred of Cutie Marks anyways. I’m pretty sure she developed the equalization thing somewhere down the road.
 
 
This is a real life psychological law, though I don’t remember the name sadly. Anyways it states that when someone holds strong beliefs to heart, when presented with evidence that counters their beliefs they will instead hold to their beliefs more than before and refuse to accept the evidence. When Starlight holds as strong to her beliefs to the point she would brainwash as many people as she could (with plans to expand into the rest of Equestria), she isn’t going to give in so easily. She seems to be proud of herself in the premiere, so admitting she was wrong would be even harder than it already is. She changed her beliefs about her cult and cutie mark without actually having her issues with Cutie Marks resolved. The only thing that was actually solved was the fact that she realized removing the mane Six’s cutie marks had disastrous effects. Starlight was never presented with a reason to change her mind regarding how she hated cutie marks, and how the standard way of society was better than her cult version. Once she shows back up at the Castle she starts to admit she was wrong without actually having evidence presented against her theories. Someone who believes this heavily in a topic would NOT come to this conclusion on their own, they would need a HEAVY intervention. This is made even worst when Twilight actually redeems her. Judging from what we got in the finale the CMC redeeming her would’ve made more sense.

@Jades  
“ All that hatred is anger is now directed at Twilight. There is no way whatsoever that Twilight could’ve had an inch of convincing Twilight.”  
With the number of times people have talked down robbers, hostage takers, bombers, people literally moments from shooting up public places, etc. I find your assertion that Starlight would be impossible to reason with to be a bit to absolute.
 
Yes, her anger and hatred towards Twilight does make it less likely that she would just listen to Twilight speaking to her. But to say it would be impossible seems to go too far.
 
Also remember that Twilight had also just given her visual evidence on her points. Which largely helped her case.

@ichingdivine
 
Firstly I highly doubt she didn’t at least Harbor a grudge of somewhat against Discord. May I remind you this is the same person psychologically manipulated her friends?
 
Second of all I never disagreed with Tex’s statement. However what Tex said does not qualify her for redemption whatsoever as I’m pretty sure any villain that unless they wanted to destroy the world wanted to stop however this does not mean they would stop their evil actions.
 
For your third point there is literally no reason she would ever even listen to Twilight’s reason. I’m actually going to use something people keep ‘informing’ me about like I don’t know but Starlight paradise was literally the Equal Town. It was her escape, a place where she thought she was helping people something she thought was actually right.
 
Cue comes this random Alicorn and her posse of friends and they completely ruin her life’s work. Her paradise everything she worked towards is now gone. All that hatred is anger is now directed at Twilight. There is no way whatsoever that Twilight could’ve had an inch of convincing Twilight. Someone on the forums said it best but the voice actor was too good. Combined with the way they wrote her and well her ever listening to Twilight seems pretty implausible.
 
I’ve addressed the 4th point many times and I’ll say what I’ve said elsewhere. Her revenge was nothing but a side project. It was not her main goal all of a sudden. That’s still spreading Equalization across Equestria. You can’t do that if the world is dead. It would’ve been pointless for her to continue.
 
You pointed out yourself she believed it was for the other ponies well being. That it’s still in its nature selfish because in that same premiere she couldn’t even handle the thought of someone going against her ideals.
 
The only thing that this finale proved was that her way of revenge was wrong. It didn’t really prove anything else was wrong.

@Jades
 
“She pretty much gave up after seeing how the world could be completely fucked not because she actually got proven wrong which imo is why her turnaround is so unbelievably bad. The way it’s executed makes it seem like her way of revenge is bad not her actual ideology, etc and her ideology barely had anything to do with this premiere anyways.”
 
 
@Jades  
“didn’t give a shit for the consequences until after she realized it affected her which is completely selfish and doesn’t even scream redeemable. Their reactions to her are completely unrealistic because they didn’t Harbor a grudge whatsoever against Starlight yet despite this they harbor somewhat of a grudge still even after Discords guilt in Twilight’s Kingdom.”
 
Firstly, Twilight didn’t hold a grudge Discord, she just didn’t believe (rightly so) that he was truly reformed, so she didn’t trust him at all. None of Mane 6 sans FS did.
 
Secondly, Texas nails Starlight’s near mental breakdown upon seeing the wasteland future here:
 
We just got completely different things from the Finale, then, because I saw her coming to the tire-screeching realization that her actions had consequences far beyond the narrow circle she’d drawn around herself and her petty motivations when her cycle of vengeance was knocked completely off its wheels by the Wasteland Timeline.
 
Thirdly, it had to take Twilight convincing Starlight to give friendship another try and that Cutie Marks and individuality weren’t the real problem for Starlight to relent. Remember, Starlight was in hard denial about the apocalyptic consequences and was about to rip the scroll when Twi convinced her that her philosophy was myopic and to try at friendship again.
 
Fourthly, assuming that Star believed the terrible effects screwing up the Rainboom would have on the future, if she truly didn’t care what happened to anybody else but her in the future (which is rebutted by the show, since Star in the S5 opener started her town and wanted to spread her ideology for the sake of ponies everywhere whom she believes will benefit from her ideas), she could have STILL trapped Twi in the future and then abused her time travel spell for great personal gain by just going back in time again and again, until old age claims her.

@toxicitzi
 
“Even if Twilight felt bad for Starlight, she still held a grudge over Discord for all he did, which I’d imagine that part of it would be because of him trying to mess her and her friends’ lives.”
 
Twilight didn’t hold a grudge Discord, she just didn’t believe (rightly so) that he was truly reformed, so she didn’t trust him at all. None of Mane 6 sans FS did.

@Jades  
The thing that bothers me about this explanation is this makes unicorns horrifically op  
Unicorns can’t drag entire houses down the street or pound house-sized rocks into pebbles with their bare hooves or have torso-sized rocks fall on their heads with no apparent effect; they also can’t fly at transonic speeds or crash into solid objects at highway speeds without serious injury or switch clouds between snow and rain and lightning and bedding at whim. All three tribes are rumpkickers in their own ways.
 
because I have no idea how an Earth Pony could be bale to counter the heroes directly without some sort of contrivance  
Earth Pony can lead a popular revolution as well as anypony else, yo, and there’s Pre-Equestrian historical precedent for a farmer’s revolt bringing Pony Land to the brink of starvation and ruin.
 
On a smaller scale, if you don’t think a combination of corrupt politicians, a hostile wealthy elite, and a biased media industry have the potential to ruin a whole lot of days, all I can say is you must have lived a charmed life far away from any newspapers or televisions.  

 
show her with the slightest hint of remorse not guilt  
We just got completely different things from the Finale, then, because I saw her coming to the tire-screeching realization that her actions had consequences far beyond the narrow circle she’d drawn around herself and her petty motivations when her cycle of vengeance was knocked completely off its wheels by the Wasteland Timeline.
 
@Starswirl  
I think it would be interesting to have a dangerous pony antagonist who didn’t have to resort to magic  
One of those barren wasteland futures is probably the result of Lightning Dust committing Negligent Horse-slaughter at the Wonderbolt Academy and Equestria being left without a strategic rainbow-based superweapon.

@Starswirl
 
I’m not sure the show or comics could handle it honestly. The comics are constantly stuck to at most 4-parters at most and it’ll most likely feel contrived and rushed as a fault. Plus most comic OCs aren’t liked in general but then again this fandom has double standards when talking about the IDW comics,the Show,and fanfiction all together.
 
If the show handled it then they would have to devote an entire season wide arc for said villain but the show has shown it can’t do this really well judging by Starlight. Basically they would have to have episodes in between about said villain instead of cameos like Starlight.

@Jades  
Precisely. Somepony who attacks them indirectly. Somepony with influence and clout, who can throw their weight around without attacking them in person.
 
It’s actually something the comics could explore rather than the show. You know, instead of giving us Unicorn Radiant Hope and Unicorn Good Sombra.

@Starswirl
 
Starlight also had the power of Plot Armor as for some reason Twilight didn’t tell anybody literally anything about Starlight which is what she was able to do comes across as really ridiculous.
 
If we’re going to make an antagonist like that then I think it would be best if the Mane 6 heard of him/her but never actually have met them. Basically a indirect antagonist because I have no idea how an Earth Pony could be bale to counter the heroes directly without some sort of contrivance.

@Jades  
Hey, Starlight managed to trail Twilight Sparkle for several episodes. You’d have to use somepony who’s not an obvious egomaniac, who can pull strings without getting caught. An Earth Pony who’s bitter about not having magic or flight, who believes their own tribe was and is seriously shafted might make for an interesting enemy.

@Zebasiz
 
True that. In fact that’s the only thing I’d consider decent about her redemption is that she gave up willingly. How they did it and how it took place on the other hand is what completely unsettles me.
 
She pretty much gave up after seeing how the world could be completely fucked not because she actually got proven wrong which imo is why her turnaround is so unbelievably bad. The way it’s executed makes it seem like her way of revenge is bad not her actual ideology, etc and her ideology barely had anything to do with this premiere anyways.
 
Basically all they had to do is show her with the slightest hint of remorse not guilt and I would’ve bough her redemption somewhat. But like I said it seems like the show doesn’t know the difference between the two concepts.
 
 
@Starswirl
 
I think the problem with these antagonist is that you most likely have to keep them in the background for them to work.

@Jades  
True that. I’m an old tribalist Unicorn dude and even I think it would be interesting to have a dangerous pony antagonist who didn’t have to resort to magic.