User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail 527: Emotion, Review/@comment-7405046-20170317142351

So, basically, it seems that the whole point behind revealing August and Irene as relatives of FT members was to justify their suicides, since there was no way for them to be legitimately defeated. I think the late establishment of Irene's connection to Erza also points in this direction.

I wonder when Mashima decided Irene would be Erza's mother. When they met, she was saying stuff like 'I am you and you are me' that never made any sense, even if you consider her old wish to enchant herself into her body.