Jadeile ponders stuff about the season finale. Major spoilers.

Okay, Imma talk about Tirek and Discord for a moment here.

I've seen a few comments around saying that they were disappointed in Discord for his betrayal and stupidity.
Betrayal = abandoning Fluttershy's friendship just like that. That one I can agree with, he has no excuse for that. Reasons for it, yes, but nothing that actually redeems the act.
Stupidity = trusting Tirek. But the way I see it makes it all make sense, at least in my head. He isn't being stupid exactly, he is just being too trustful while making an otherwise strategically excellent move. I'll explain this now.

You see, I think Discord's downfall here was indeed his new fondness of friendship. Old Discord wouldn't have fallen for Tirek's game at all.

Old Discord was a loner character who only enjoyed the presence of others for the sake of having someone react to his chaos and have someone to use as a toy. If Tirek had tried to strike a deal with old Discord he wouldn't have been interested in the first place because he already was all powerful and didn't need others to share the workload and he had little to no interest in having someone by his side just for the sake of having someone there. So there would have been nothing Tirek could have offered because Discord didn't need or want a partner back then.

Reformed Discord was powerful and could have gone rogue at any point if the wanted to but he didn't want to because he would lose his friendships, which were valuable to him by now. BUT! Tirek here offered that Discord could cause all the chaos he wants AND have a pal too, Tirek himself. So in here Discord was gaining himself complete freedom while also getting a new friend who would approve of his antics. In short, he could go rogue but he would still have a friend. This sure sounds like a better deal than what Fluttershy can offer, which was more friends but less chaos.

Now, this is why Discord teamed up in the first place. But as you may have noticed if you paid attention while watching, Discord actually held information back on the first half of his partnership. He didn't mention to Tirek when he felt the alicorn magic suddenly do weird shit behind their backs. He didn't tell Tirek about Twilight. He didn't take Tirek to Ponyville right away to deal with the Element Bearers. He just hung around and let Tirek do his evil things while keeping an eye on him, still actually indecisive about whether or not he would stay on this side or double-cross him. He hadn't made a move directly against Fluttershy yet so he could easily still switch sides.

Then. Then they get into the Castle and "defeat" the alicorns. And that's where Discord makes his move. He actually directly brings up the topic of whether or not Tirek and him are a team here. If Tirek had been an idiot and not confirmed their partnership then and there, Discord would probably have turned on him and the day would have been saved by the Master of Chaos. But Tirek was smart. He used Discord's new weakness against him and told him how much he values their partnership and how Discord is basically his BFF now. And because Discord's friendship with Fluttershy began when Flutters told him she is his friend, this is how Discord thinks it works. Tirek says they're pals = they're pals. So this is the part where Discord drops any ideas of double crossing him and goes completely friendship blinded. It's brilliant.

And that's also when Tirek begins noticing critical stuff like Twilight's existence. But because of his tactical friendship missile there, Discord is now completely willing to spill the beans about everything ever and provide him all the aces - just like at the beginning of the episode he went out of his way to provide everything Twilight needed for opening the chest (except for the last key, which he couldn't get to her) without anypony telling him to do so. Because they're friends.

So yes, when Tirek actually betrayed Discord he was honestly shocked because he fully trusted him at that point. One could argue that he should have been a little less trustful considering that he betrayed Fluttershy just earlier that same day himself, but the difference between the two cases of betrayal is that while Discord could justify his own betrayal to himself (see what I wrote at the first half of this essay) there was no foreseeable reason for Tirek's betrayal in his mind. After all, when Discord confronted Tirek at first it was made quite clear that he knew nothing about the guy - he didn't have the info the audience had about how Tirek's an asshole that even his brother couldn't tolerate in the end. So Discord didn't know how Tirek's mind might work. He honestly believed that this guy was a friend and they had a common goal here. He didn't see what Tirek would gain from the betrayal because in Discord's friendship infested mind the betrayal would cost Tirek his friend without getting anything worthwhile in exchange. In short, while Discord's own betrayal was a well calculated deal with more gain than loss, Tirek's betrayal was a bad deal because he only lost without gaining anything.

Also, there is the matter of how short a while this all took. Discord was clearly a little reluctant to actually hand Fluttershy to Tirek and seemed to feel sorry when he did, and after that was done he was immediately betrayed by Tirek before he had the time to take in just how sorry he was. If Tirek had actually kept his part of the deal and let Discord rule with him, then chances are that it wouldn't have taken long before Discord would have changed his mind and opted to have Fluttershy's friendship over Tirek's. I mean, his friendship with Fluttershy was deeper rooted and more equal/more to Discord's favour, while his and Tirek's was newly formed and actually a little abusive towards Discord. I don't see him tolerating that for long.

TL;DR: I don't think Discord was being stupid when he sided with Tirek, he was just doing cold calculations (Not much chaos+friends or all the chaos+a friend) and then trusting too much because of his new friendship weakness. And the timespan here was short so I think it was more of a case of falling into temptation rather than a lasting kind of betrayal. I have all the confidence that had Tirek kept his part of the deal, Discord would have betrayed him sooner or later because of Fluttershy.

P.S. I totally ship it

Comments

[Smaug the Golden]

Very well thought out. I agree wholeheartedly.

[Aqua Shimmer]

Agreed.