Rumpelstiltskin

I used to feel pretty much the exact same way you did about her before the season 6 finale, and then when he saw her the few times before she officially returned in season 9 I started to feel bad for her. She lost everything and just couldn't accept it. We saw she couldn't do anything by herself. How often do you suppose she tried some insane scheme like with the Mean Six clones and failed miserably each time? And the worst part, why I feel bad for her, was that she was all alone. Karma hit her hard, but still I couldn't help but pity her. I really wanted her to find a new purpose in life with Tirek and Cozy and maybe find some small happiness and slowly come around, but the writers botched that badly.

Discord can be smart when he really, really wants something. His plans are sometimes over complicated, but he does really know how to manipulate people. I had a theory that season 9 could've been a last roll of the dice for him. He really was trying to use the Legion of Doom to take over Equestria, but he did it with an ingenious way of backing out if things went wrong, and when they did he had the perfect excuse for why he was doing what he was doing. "Oh no, Twilight, I wasn't really trying to overthrow you out of jealousy, I merely gathered all these villains and made them dangerous again to teach you a lesson. The Bewitching Bell that I sent them after that they later used to drain the princesses magic? Why, I never dreamed of using it, that was merely a ploy to get them to work together."

Discord. He had everyone fooled that he'd changed, season 9 showed he hadn't changed at all and still thought of everyone as puppets and toys for him to manipulate.

I find it more that he's not so much a mentor, just someone who causes problems that people have to clean up. I'd argue he's actually closer to the devil, or at least, some sort of similar folk character. He's a powerful, supernatural being who delights in deceiving and tricking others, desires to be in control and holds those who are in utter contempt, wants to upend all of creation to pave the way for his own twisted vision, and has led several people into damnation.

Realistically the reason was the writers probably either forgot or were hoping we wouldn't notice. Season 9 has more plot holes than Chrysalis's legs. Something similar happened in the season 8 finale where ponies were losing their magic yet Pegasai were still able to fly.

As awesome as that would be, I think of Grogar as more of a creator than a fertility deity. I like to think he's more like Odin or Thor, (it was goats that pulled Thor's chariot), though perhaps a bit darker and more harsh. In a Lovecraftian sense I think he'd be closer to hoary Nodens, a grumpy old warrior/nature god who hunts Nyarlathotep for sport. Discord seems to fit the bill for Nyarlathotep in that he can be a superficially benevolent being who ultimately only brings misery and madness.

Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow should've been redeemed because the writers showed them being abused by Grogar (Discord) and they became ultimately sympathetic when you find out Discord was planning to get them all killed (or at the very least, he didn't care if they died). They had an amusing family dynamic going on, and it was interesting to see characters become friends without the influence of the Mane Six or their minions. Likewise, Discord should've suffered some actual consequences for what he did instead of losing his magic for a brief period. Hell, I wouldn't hate him so much if he had stepped in when Celestia and Luna were looming over the Legion and expressed some pity and remorse about using them. It would've made sense given how he was pitied and reformed himself. Instead we got him gleefully punishing them for something he was the root cause of and he acts like a hero when he has no right to. I didn't particularly care about Garble or Ahuitzotl, but it seemed unfair those two got redemption when they were barely even in the series.

I could make the point that Discord is indirectly responsible because he gave them the means to become dangerous again, but that's beside the point. What most people tend to overlook with Discord is that he was in all likelihood planning to get the villains killed from the start. Let's look at Sombra. Sombra was brutally disintegrated. Now, you could make the argument Discord didn't know that would happen. But he saw it happen. And he didn't care. He still went ahead with his plan knowing full well the others could be killed. This alone is proof that he's a monster.

That's because they were rushed and poorly done. Here the writers had a whole damn season showing us the trio working together and us starting to like them, then blueballed us in the name of 'Subverting Expectations'.

I have to disagree with you. The Trio should've been reformed, because the writers had a whole season to show an organic redemption, which they wasted. Besides, if you count them as irredeemable, then Discord is sure as hell irredeemable and probably worse than they are. How many chances has he been given, and how many times has he spat in their face? What makes him any different from them?

A likely answer is some kind of plague. It could be ponies stopped traveling to stop the spread and continued to remain isolated long after it passed, or it could be the plague decimated the population so badly there's only enough ponies for three towns. Perhaps the survivors were ponies who were already isolated and slightly ignorant of the other tribes, and those only grew worse over time.

As many have said, it showed that Discord is still the same conniving puppeteer he was when he first showed up and that he doesn't see anyone other than the Mane Six as people. For me, it was the wasted potential. They brought back Grogar, gave him a cool design, nice theme song, and a badass backstory, and then decided not to use him at all and ruin Discord's character at the same time. The most painful of all to me was the Legion of Doom. The writers had what could've been the most thought out, organic redemption story of the whole series and wasted that as well. They thought people hated redemptions, but the real problem was that those redemptions were always rushed. They had a whole season showing the Legion growing closer to one another and working together, making us like them and hoping they might have a happy ending, and then decided that subverting expectations was more important than good storytelling.

Grogar is a spirit like Discord is, and is Discord's 'Brother'. Discord 'helped' Gusty the Great defeat Grogar because he wanted to get him out of the way so he could do as he pleased, as Grogar was the only thing he feared. Discord then betrayed Gusty. Discord created Cozy Glow as a test for the Mane Six.

Personally, I feel like Grogar should've been more of a present leader to the Legion of Doom; like a mentor figure or a hard-nosed veteran. He could've led them to retrieve the bell, unified them better, and I think the best case scenario would've been for Twilight to come full circle and actually talk them down by pointing out they've become friends. Having the Legion be redeemed would be worth sacrificing the Avengers-ripoff ending. In any event, there's probably like a thousand ways Season 9's scenario could've been done better, it's just the writers somehow chose the worst possible way to go about it.

I had this idea that he tries to always find a better way to deal with problems in his kingdom because he still regrets what happened to Tirek and feels like he could've saved him. He may even harbor some resentment to ponykind for what happened. I imagine he'd especially hate Discord for setting up his brother and landing him a worse position during Season 9.

Because the writers are a bunch of hack-frauds who thought subversion makes things good. I wanted to see what Grogar was going to do. I wanted to see what big plan he had and why he needed the villains for it. Instead we got to see Discord showing us he's not changed at all and is still a sociopathic puppeteer who treats people like toys and because he's 'reformed' he gets away with it.

The Legion of Doom embrace their friendship and reform at the end of season 9. Grogar is real and appears, and hell, maybe he reforms as the Legion's cranky Grandpa figure. Discord shows empathy to the Legion of Doom and is the one to intervene before they can be punished. The Pony of Shadows has a more threatening voice.

For me, it will always be that they took the time to give Grogar a cool design, a nice theme, and an epic backstory where he was the driving force in the creation of Equestria's monsters, making him possibly some kind of creator spirit to rival Discord's chaos, only to screw everything up with a lack of further development beyond his initial appearance and making him a joke with that terrible plot twist. Other than that, I always wanted to learn more about how Earth Pony magic worked, and to maybe see other G1 villains or characters referenced.

I suppose that being an entity of chaos, Discord might decide to try his hand on it and rule over the Dreamlands ala Nyarlathotep in Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

Grogar was more powerful than Discord. His bell was able to withstand the Deus Ex Machina Friendship Rainbow Beam and still continued to function. Unlike with Tirek, who was drained of the stolen magic by the same beam, the bell retained everything it took and had to be reactivated to give Discord and the Princesses their magic back. If Grogar could make something more powerful than Discord, it's not beyond reason that he himself was more powerful than the Spirit of Chaos.

I really hope they come back. They deserve better after being conned by Discord.

I was hoping to see the The Legion of Doom as a reformed family somewhere instead of being left to rot forever in stone.

I meant help them in the way Fluttershy and the others helped him, try to reform them. He had more than enough power to contain them and keep them from acting out. He could've helped them become better people, but instead he purposely made them worse.

The key difference is that Discord wasn't trying to better the villains or have them prove themselves as being able to rule Equestria. They were never anything but props to him. He didn't see them as people, only as obstacles he could set up and have his friends to knock down. He was planning to betray them from the beginning, so why should they be grateful to him? Any power or advantage he gave them while disguised as Grogar was never for their benefit. Nightmare Moon escaped her banishment. And Celestia still cared about and loved her sister deeply, and wanted to help her. She didn't want her to rot on the moon forever. She felt guilt for not being able to help her a thousand years ago and it ate away at her all that time. Discord, who was once evil and was reformed, is best friends with the most compassionate and forgiving of the Mane Six, never thought about reaching out or trying to help the villains when they weren't a threat. He instead tried to use them as cannon fodder. This makes him a hypocrite at best. I could've forgiven him if he at least made an attempt to stand up for the legion of doom and persuade the sisters to show mercy with them as they did with him.