@Background Pony #2146
spike?

I wonder who Iago would be in this situation.

@Woofy  
That’s what I like about Pete. He takes his stupid pill right away.

@Aharon L’anglais  
I can totally see that :D

@CronoM  
I was gonna say lex Luthor and Mister Mxyzptlk.

“Tonight, the part of Twilight will be played by a tall, dark and sinister ugly centaur.”

@CronoM  
We don’t need to debate this. I didn’t take my comment that seriously.

@HyaenusDominae  
That’s kind of reaching don’t you think?
 
For one thing, Discord’s NEVER represented a greater evil, he’s represents anarchy and chaos. Sure he was pissed when he was trapped for 1000 years, but that’s expected…at his core he’s the epitome of chaotic neutral. Chaotic GOOD on his good days, and Chaotic evil on his bad days. That…doesn’t even sound a bit like Morgoth or Sauron. Not even a little.
 
Second, Sauron manipulated others out of nessesity after his body was destroyed, and only after several millenia….The body that went to the front lines and slayed hundreds of men and elves himself. But when Aragorn challenged his will to keep his attention off of Frodo, Sauron went back to his old ways and imposed his will head-on at the war front. That doesn’t sound like Discord either.
 
And third, Discord never ‘followed’ Tirek, he made himself Tirek’s partner-in-crime and kept him on at arm’s length in info, like Princess Twilight Sparkle’s existence. Heck, he even kept the box’s existence a secret from Tirek AFTER he supposedly trusted him, even though he gave the secret to opening it to the Mane 6 right before he left (Proof he knew the box’s secret from the start, and was keeping it secret as insurance).
 
Of villain duos in modern media, Discord and Tirek are as different from Sauron and Morgoth as possible. A far, far more apt example in modern media would be Azazel and Lucifer (to Sauron and Morgoth respectively) from Supernatural.

@CronoM  
My thinking is this:  
Sauron and Discord both demonstrate the ability to win by force but would rather manipulate their enemies.  
Morgoth and Tirek both demonstrate the ability to manipulate their enemies but would rather win by force.  
Also, Morgoth and Tirek both represent the greater evil.  
Plus, Sauron follows Morgoth; Discord follows Tirek.

@Aharon L’anglais  
Discord as Captain Angry Sarcasm? Instead of his fellow lord of chaos or even genie?
 
How does that make sense?
 
Plus I’m pretty sure Seabreeze fits Iago’s niche already.

@CronoM  
Discord should be Iago.

@HyaenusDominae  
I get the reference but…
 
Sauron was depicted as a classic demon lord of demon lords, which fits Tirek, especially G1 Tirek, but Morgoth was depicted more like the classic Lucifier/Devil, the most perfect of all angelic beings until his pride made him the first true evil.
 
Neither of them fit the bill of a lord of chaos like Discord. If we wanted a more accurate fit, and in the same universe no less, this would be the most apt comparison.
 

Discord: Tonight the part of Twi will be played by a tall, red and sinister, ugly centaur.

More like Morgoth and Sauron from the Silmarillion.  
Anyone? Anyone?

@Millennial Dan  
That’s as satisfying an explanation as I’ve ever heard ^_ Well done.

@Woofy  
Well, he thought his wish regarding Jasmine falling in love with him actually worked, since he didn’t allow the genie to explain, but that in itself was a little hasty I suppose.

@Background Pony #7756  
Oh yeah, I absolutely agree. You’ll find absolutely no argument there. As much as I love them and respect them as heros of their respective universe, the main six have won a good deal of their biggest and most terrifyingly serious battles (Sombra and Tirek) mostly through pure luck. Heck, in Sombra’s case, he literally made zero mistakes at all; it was just incredibly dumb, ridiculous luck and events playing out just perfectly that they beat him.  
My only point was that Jafar was falling for it hook line and sinker until he had undeniable, visual proof that she was trying to fool him. He literally thought his prisoner and known enemy was falling for him out of the blue.  
I don’t really have anything against him; he was an entertaining villain to be sure. It’s just that all of his intelligence indicated by his diligent studies into the mystic arts and ancient artifacts didn’t seem to be present much in his final conflict. I have the same issue with Scar. I freaking love Scar as an antagonist, but he really dropped the ball on all of that intellect the SECOND he finally got what he wanted.

@Woofy  
But as I recall, Jasmine’s wiles didn’t amount to jack-diddly. What really saved the day was both Jafar’s incessant need to play with his victims and Aladdin’s incredible luck, the latter being an attribute shared by the ponies, to be sure.

@Background Pony #7756  
They can tingle all they want. The fact still stands that he was still a more competent villain than Jafar.  
Choosing not to crush your enemies after they are seemingly powerless to defeat you (as in you are now a freaking Super Saiyan level badass and they aren’t even as good as they were at square one) is in no way comparable to the levels of dumb Jafar was reaching during his respective movie’s climax.  
Like I said, Tirek’s primary problems seemed more directed at the fact that he didn’t know what to do with himself after he had won. All he was interested in was playing with his laser beams at that point.  
I don’t know… Maybe they are kind of comparable on some levels. All I know is that Twilight didn’t win the day by having Tirek stupidly fall for a diplomacy check from Rarity to seduce him.

@Blissey1  
True, but at least when Vader spares Luke, he has a (somewhat contrived) sentimental reason. Tirek, a proven backstabber, had no such excuse. Even Sunset, once she was fully gone over, spared no effort in annihilating her enemies. It would have been so easy, but noooo. This forest looks like it could use a good stomping!

@Background Pony #7756  
to be fair, if that’s your criteria then like 70% of all major villains are incompetent.

You guys are calling the guy who was too stupid to squash his enemies when he had the chance “competent”? My fanboy bias senses are tingling.

@Background Pony #7618  
I don’t know; Jafar has just never impressed me much. He has certain skills and a lot of charisma, but as an actual, active villain I think he makes too many classical mistakes. A lot of otherwise fantastic Disney villains have a tendency to take their stupid pills the second they start winning.  
Tirek didn’t really make any mistakes that I can think of. Who would have possibly thought that all the magical power in Equestria would simply be trivialized by magic of friendship out of nowhere? The closest he came to the stupid pill was just the fact that all he seemed interested in doing with all that power was blowing stuff up. . . well, that and actually keeping his word to Twilight by setting them all free.

@Woofy  
I dunno, they both pretty competent, Jafar was defeated due to his lack of knowledge of Genies, and Tirek was defeated on his lack of knowledge about friendship and bonds.

Fair enough comparison, but Tirek is WAY more competent than Jafar.