Now I have some respect for villains in the show, especially Discord because he never wants to enslave anypony or hurt them. He just likes to fool around on an apocolyptic scale. However, there is some things about him and Chrysalis that took away some of my respect, which is manipulating other ponies. Deception and evil intentions are fine. Everyone has their reasons, but taking away somepony's free will to think and act on their own, to me, is just horrible. Nightmare Moon seemed like a bad child who lacked understanding. She didn't realize that the night was just as important as the day. I don't know about you guys, but if it wasn't for the peace and quiet of the night, I couldn't sleep a wink, and if I don't sleep, my day sucks and everything gets messed up. Discord didn't really have any history in the show, but I liked him for the most part. He was not bound by any limitations at all. He had the power to completely annihilate everything if he wanted, but instead he'd rather just be a jokester and poke at pony's funny-bones. I don't like that he manipulated the 5 to turn them into their opposites. That seemed really harsh. I'd rather take physical pain than have someone mess up my mind. And then Twilight lost faith in herself and her friends and became corrupted herself. Though her opposite wasn't really different than her normal self. I guess it went from having faith in friendship, to forsaking it. I mean, what is the opposite of magic? Chrysalis doesn't really seem like anything special. My respect for her lies solely to the fact that she was performing her duties as leader of the Changelings by giving them food to survive. The whole science behind them still seems really vague. Do they really NEED to feed on love, or is it more of what we would call a drug? We've seen Chrysalis eat normal food. She acted as though it was unpleasant, but not poisonous. I mean, lots of people don't like vegetables, but we need to eat them for our health. Also, are they incapable or loving each other? Are they unable to feed off of their own love that they can make for each other? I seem to have drifed off Chrysalis and started talking about Changelings as a whole. Again, I didn't like her manipulating Shining Armor. That's just too low. Her evil personality seems like it's one of the traits that comes with her leadership. She had the right motives, but the wrong methods. Pretty typical in cartoon villains these days. What are your thoughts on the subject?
My respects go towards Flim and Flam, if you consider them villains. They're salesmen, entrepreneurs, and inventors meaning that they always plan ahead. And the fact that played the Apple family into betting their own farm into a competition was devious enough, meaning that if Apples lost, Flim and Flam could've expanded and used that victory to soon rule the markets. They could've held Ponyville, and maybe Equestria, in the pockets if they played their cards right. In the end, their only downfall seemed to be that chose quantity over quality. They would've won if they would've kept calm and carried on. Also, I loved their song.
Phat, your hypothesis on the villains I found including in many places in my favorite fanfic: Fallout Equestria. That the villains truly have the best at heart or are majorly misunderstanding of how things actually work. I must agree with you with this.
To be honest, almost all of the villains in MLP are exactly the same in their downfall. Too arrogant. The only two that don't lose from arrogance are Night Mare Moon and Iron Will. Night Mare Moon's plan was folly from the start, and Iron Will wasn't trying to be a villain in the first place. All the others go down because they sit back and let the ponies do their worst. C'mon, writers! I know you can be more creative than that!
Nightmare Moon was a decent villain for a series to start off with. A young soul tortured by a sense of feeling unloved and unappreciated. While to newcomers she may seem generic at first, the pilot wisely averted this by giving her a backstory that made her seem, well, relatable. Discord is just too funny not to like. And, in response to the original post, the ability to manipulate others is a mark of how great a villain can be. I've always felt that what truly made a villain all the more dangerous wasn't how much physical harm he/she could cause more-so mental harm. Chrysalis was an okay villain (the only real complaint I have with "A Caterlot Wedding", an otherwise awesome episode), through she didn't really have a personality and/or motive other than "I FEAST ON LOVE MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!".
I don't really respect any of the villains, but i do feel kind of sorry for them. Nightmare Moon just wanted attention. Discord just wanted to fool around. Chrysalis just wanted to do her duty. Ok, they handled it completely wrong, but still.
Did the previous generations of MLP even have villains? Anyway, I'll sum up what I think: Nightmare Moon: She was corrupted by jealousy (can't blame her) Discord: He's the embodiment of Chaos (doesn't know any better) Chrysalis: She was just trying to feed her kingdom (although it did mean that another kingdom would have to be destroyed)
All the other generations were like, super toddler friendly. they never had villians. They just always had friend issues or the cupcakes got burnt. Some stuff like that.
I like all the villains Nightmare Moon was cool and a good way to start the show/series that we all love. Discord was like a less crazy and evil Joker with magic powers and Queen Chrysalis just wanted to feed her swarm sure she almost killed everyone in Canterlot as a result but none of them were truly evil.
I know that Discord get's a lot of credit, but he really is great. He doesn't underestimate the Mane 6, and his design is rather well done. I also have huge respect for John de Lancie, not only for his voice acting work in MLP, but for his acting roles in Star Trek and Breaking Bad. On another note though, I thought the Diamond Dogs were pretty funny as well, and I like fact that they are a nod to David Bowie.
Discord is my second favorite villain even though I tried to watch Star Trek once and didn't like it plus i've never seen Breaking Bad before so yeah I only seen and heard John in MLP FiM.
I have complete respect for several villians. Like Queen Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon. I love them. They are quite amazing ponies. Course I'm not sure if Changlings are ponies. Anyway, I love both of them.
If Discord had shown up on screen some more, I might have liked him better, but his introduction was quite rushed, and he didn't really appear many times in the episodes as himself, so it kind of ruined my perception of him. Also, he was pretty powerless when you think about it because all he did was use magic to spread a bit of chaos. I don't know why Celestia couldn't have handled him, seeing as how she could have easily beat Chrysalis under different conditions. And don't give me "she didn't have the elements", she has a giant beam of sun-rays, as well as Luna to back her up. Anyhorse, antagonist wise, I loved Flim and Flam. Their design was ingenious, and the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 showed the evolution of pony culture between the seasons. Not to mention they had two of the best voice actors for the job with amazing singing voices. They were charming yet conniving at the same time. Trixie I liked the design of, but that's about it. Gilda is meh. Iron Will was kind of funny. Chrysalis is by far the BEST villain. Not only did she sing amazingly alongside my favourite pony Princess Cadence, but she was so good that no-one even realised she was infiltrating the castle until Twilight miraculously escaped the caves with the princess. She actually defeated Celestia with the power of love, so damn she's got to be quite powerful in a world full of friendship. She's got a great insect design which isn't actually gross, but more evil and likeable. And she actually trapped the protagonists. I mean, Nightmare Moon, what the buck, she had the option to imprison Twilight and co way before they found the Elements but didn't. She was able to trap Celestia! And Discord practically made himself a walking target. He LITERALLY made himself a walking target at one point by giving them the option to find the Elements. He was cunning but ehhh. Chrysalis all the way really.
