Series Final Spoilers/Discord's Plan Explained and Headcanons · 5:31pm Oct 13th, 2019
Okay, give the sheer amount of hate everyone is giving the Series finale, I'm going to explain what happened over the course of Season 9 that everyone is overlooking. Mainly, WHEN he decided to do this.
Go back to the "Beginning of the End" and watch the part where Celestia and Luna told Twilight they were giving her the throne in a few days: Discord himself looks stunned and disbelieving of that rather impulsive move. Now, like the sisters, he knows Twilight is ready for this, but he knows even more than she doesn't believe that. ANYPONY would know Twilight needs a bit of time to ease into this idea.
After this, Discord initiates the plan to gather up the villains and pretend to be Grogar. This was a rush job that Discord, lets admit, pulled off pretty well. However, I have no doubt that Discord took inspiration from Celestia, who sent her against Sombra as a test....an a full grown dragon.....and Nightmare Moon, even before Twilight knew "Friendship is Magic". So, yeah, there was a basis for what he was doing.
Realizing that Sombra was a lost cause, he sent him off and allowed him to try another take over to prep Twilight and the others, to give them a warm up. One where he was the safety net as we saw.
Now, I know that people are going to complain about the Tree of Harmony getting destroyed, but I think that is not a big deal NOW. Even discounting Harmony reforming into a treehouse for the Young Six, it had long since expanded into Twilight's castle AND school. More to the point, this ties into another point.
Discord was alarmed and worried both times when they tried to rely on him: This was the one moment early on he was worried the plan wasn't working, that they were just going to rely on him instead of the elements. Now, THIS would have been an easy out. He could have gotten rid of Sombra, took the credit, scrapped the plan, and he'd be the new main hero of Equestria.
Instead, he goes out of his way to take a hit for Fluttershy and pretend its lethal(which I imagine he sees as a blow to his pride/rep if he didn't reveal he was faking it), but not to garner sympathy: Its to give meaning to that speech, where he tells them and makes them believe, truly, that the Magic of Friendship is inside them, not just something with the elements, allowing them to unleash the Rainbow on their own.
Let me reiterate this: Discord motivated them with the expressed intention of showing them they could use the VERY THING that turned him to stone for a thousand years without the elements. If that doesn't prove how invested he is in Equestria, friendship, and the mane six than nothing does.
Now this is where people start to forget things: Discord-Grogar was going to attack at the coronation in a few days. Celestia and Luna decide that, yes, Twilight does need more time. Once you realize Discordi s Grogar, you understand why he's so frustrated with Celestia at this point: He's gone through all this trouble of motivating the girls and setting up these villains to either fall one final time or be redeemed(up to them, obviously), and now Celestia goes back on the one reason, the suddenness of the transfer, that prompted him to do all this.
At this point, Discord has to improvise to keep them distracted and sends them on a teambuilding exercise in the form of retrieving the bell. Honestly, I think Discord did this to see if they would become friends on their own. Again, he was improvising, seeing if he couldn't resolve this before the coronation with some kind of positive outcome. Now four things went wrong here:
They actually got the bell
They rejected friendship when it creeped up on them
They didn't tell "Grogar" they had the bell
They later figured out how to use the bell
If even ONE of those things didn't happen, Discord's plan would have gone fine. ALL of those things had to happen for things to go wrong like they did. Summer Sun Setback truly leaves you wondering if Discord is aware of the Trio being there. After all, he can sense Tirek's magic, and he is the Lord of Chaos. but I'll ignore that until the end.
The Finale roles around and Discord appears to get tricked, but ultimately does his part to save the day by pissing off Tirek enough to richochette a beam to free Starlight. And as master of chaos, even without magic, its no surprise Discord can predict and/or cause that bounding beam to hit the exact right spot. Bad guys get beat, Discord gets his magic back- and note that he knows how to use the bell without issue- and turns them to stone with Celestia and Luna. And Discord gives a dip of the head to Twilight, showing a bit of respect and acknowledging that now not only is she ready, but she truly believes it now.
SPECULATIONS/HEADCANONS
After this, there's two ways to look at it.
1. Things are as Canon depict and Discord got truly tricked.
2. This was all part of the plan. Or a plan, at least.
The first is cut and dry. The second, while unbelievable to some, makes more sense than you'd think. I've always believe Discord was faking it in Twilight's Kingdom and did his part so Twilight could get the last key- after he told he exactly how to find the other five, might I add. This is further evidenced by Discord's eyes not turning grey like everyone else when he "loses magic"
Now, you might be thinking he can't be faking it here because he obviously lost his powers. Well, yes and no. Most obvious point, anyone noticing Discord flying before he got his magic back but only after the trio was beat? A stretch, but an interesting this I noticed.
Less of a stretch: The Bell doesn't just give you the power, the raw energy of Discord's magic like it did with Tirek, who had none of the abilities. Instead, it actually gives full access to Discord's Chaos Magic. Something that only Discord can control, as proven by Cozy Glow accidentally summoning biting pineapples. And what is the first thing Discord chaoses up?
A Biting Pineapple.
While it might just seem for comedic effect, thinking about that in universe, he had no way of knowing that happened. Which leaves three weird possibilities:
1. The only one that doesn't change anything, Discord knows what anyone does with his magic when he gets it back, like it has an internet history.
2. Discord was aware of what they were doing the whole time, implying he has more powers than just his magic.
3. Discord can control his magic even if its separated from him,
This makes a disturbing amount of sense. Discord can clone himself, he nearly vanished from lack of chaos once, and no one can control his magic but him. Which brings up the possibility that he could have gotten his magic back at anytime. But also brings up the increasing chance the endgame was his intent: Not only at the last major villains dealt with, but all of the creatures and ponies have now come together, inevitably leading to a peaceful and harmonious society for all creatures. Which, if Discord planned all of this, its his ultimate gift to both Twilight as the new ruler, and to his old rival, Harmony herself.
END POINTS
Yeah, I know, a lot of people are bummed out that Grogar wasn't real, even more so since we were all expecting a climatic battle between him and Discord. A lot are mad at Discord for being his usual unpredictable self, especially who don't think he's planning any of this and is just an idiot. Frankly, that's fine. I came out of this finale happy and surprised, and with a lot of material to work with.
So to everyone that enjoyed the finale and Discord in it, congratulations! To everyone else that's salty or plain hates Discord, your lose and I'm honestly sorry you didn't enjoy the final episodes of the series, but you still have the rest of the series to enjoy. And Season 10 comics, I think.
And, of course, we all have fanfiction for everything we don't like or didn't get enough of. XP
You make some interesting points here. In balance, I think I agree. I would go with #2 and #3 from your two lists of possibilities for making the most sense for what the 'truth' is.
Honestly...10/10 points. Especially on the whole "Celestia literally did the same thing" part, that's a VERY good point. I hope fanfic writers adopt a similar headcanon to yours, cause honestly I'm hoping we don't have ANOTHER Discord hate resurgence.
I liked the finale, though I'm still mourning the fact that we missed out on seeing Discord go HAM of Grognor. We've never seen Discord put serious effort into a battle while using magic; he's always either not taking it seriously, or his magic is unavailable. Oh well, there's always fanfics for that!
Nice analysis
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Thanks guys! Posted a new blog expanding on my thoughts regarding the Bell of Grogar.