If Tirek had Discord's powers, then...shouldn't he have won the fight?

[JH24 385]

As others above me stated, Tirek likely just absorbed the raw magical energy that gave the ponies their power and fueled their abilities.

 

Discord's magic is probably one of a kind. You can absorb it and it did make Tirek stronger, but Discord's real power lies in how he uses his magic. And with him being the Lord of Chaos Tirek probably doesnt know how to use it or actually can't use it due to chaotic magic being tailored towards Discord.

 

 

Still, it likely strengthened Tirek's general use and ability of magic but didn't allow him to use Discord's magic to even a fraction of its potential. It was said the princesses couldn't do anything to stop Tirek when Discord was protecting him, showing how much potential Discord's magic has and how much it was feared.

 

Three princesses at full power and even then they believed they couldn't stop Discord, that's saying something.

 

 

In the end, Discord's chaotic magic isn't measured in raw power or powerlevels, but in the abilities it gives him.

 

Allicorn or "normal" magic has to follow certain rules, Discord's magic doesn't have to, it has the potential to make its own rules if needed.

Edited May 29, 2014 by JH24

[Shenron00 366]

The world may never know!

[SCS 7,537]

There are at least three possible explanations for this that I see. 
 
One would be something I remember ~Chaotic Discord~ mentioning in a different topic, namely the fact that perhaps you can only use chaos magic if you are born with it. Perhaps something like that would be an aspect of its nature as some form of inherent defensive mechanism. Chaos is not equivalent to total destruction. If chaos magic were infinite and wholly unchecked, it would have the ability to destroy everything, including itself. It is possible that it could have some form of self-preservation measure in place to prevent its own destruction, and one aspect of that could be only being able to use chaos magic if you are born with it.
 
Another possibility might be that chaos magic is not Tirek's style. He seems to prefer taking a brute force approach in which the overall strength of himself and his magic continues to grow. Chaos magic does not rely on strength at all, so he may have preferred to gain what strength he could from the chaos magic and then continue to use magic in the way he was accustomed to.
 
A third possibility would be that Tirek absorbing chaos magic would not actually give him the ability to use it. Thinking back on the finale, he didn't gain the true nature of the essence he drained from ponies. He drained magic from unicorns, but that didn't give him a horn, it just made his magic stronger. Similarly, he stole flight from the pegasi but that did not enable him to fly. It seemed that all of the essences he absorbed simply increased his overall physical and magical strength without altering his fundamental nature, so perhaps the same happened with chaos magic. As I mentioned earlier, chaos magic does not seem to rely on strength at all so that could explain both why Tirek was unable to use it and why he barely grew in size upon absorbing it.

[Sunny Fox 5,961]

You're assuming that the magic he drains also transfers the abilities of the pony / draconequis drained across to him, which seems a doubtful assumption. Given that he can't fly despite draining every pegasus in Equestria, although his leap at Twilight might seem to give the impression that he could actually fly.

 

Simply put, the magic he drains doesn't give him the ability to use the magic in the same way.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Sunny Fox

[FlutterDash4072 190]

I agree with the raw magic theory. He didn't gain the ability to use the spells of the unicorns he drained or flight from the pegasi. He just gained power from everyone he drained, so he wasn't able to use Discord's magic in the way that Discord does.

[Pastel 7,630]

That's interesting: even if someone doesn't have a lot of magic, the way he uses it can make a huge difference.

[Castle Bleck 19,448]

IMO:

 

Discord = technique.

Tirek = force.

[The Crimson Cross 7,533]

I recall making a post in this thread previously but considering how Discord's chaos magic works, it seems he can instantly bring things into existence, I suspect that since Discord has been using chaos magic for 1000+ years, it makes sense that Tirek doesn't know how to use them properly.

 

As a couple of members mentioned before, he didn't exactly gain powers of flight when draining the Pegasi of their power.

Though there's no way Tirek would have won the fight since The Elements of Harmony seem to be enough to defeat Discord too.

[Spinelspike 78]

Maybe just because Tirek absorbs powers, doesn't mean he knows how to utilise them. We saw him steal power from pegasi, yet we never saw him fly for example. I don't think he so much steals power directly, more like he steals it and then converts it into a specialised energy that only he can use.

[Frosty Nerd 833]

Everyone has made a great explanation about how Tirek only steals raw power and not abilities. If he doesn't know how to use Discord's magic wittingly, then he can't take Twilight's horn, wings, or strength

[Darker 1,352]

Discord's powers are not meant to be destructive because Discord is only a trickster. He's no god, he's not omnipotent or invincible. He's very overestimated