Is Cozy Glow Actually Queen Chrysalis? (spoilers ahoy) · 1:57am Aug 27th, 2018
I originally covered this a bit in the previous post, but I've been doing some thinking and I want to get more in depth with it.
You may notice that the gap between my last post and this one is rather small. That's because, for one thing, this post is a bit shorter. More more importantly, it seems that the finale is going to air in Sweden, let me here, oh, TOMORROW. Or maybe it's two days from now, I'm not sure on the exact date. Obviously it will be in Ikea-speak rather than American, but that's still more than enough to be spoilers. Also, I think there will be a subbed version or something So I wanted to get this out before the episodes get released.
My standard disclaimer: I am going to be making some leaps of logic here; some sound, some extreme. Or as I put it previously, I am going to be making up bullshit based on facial expressions and single lines of dialogue.
Also, What Lies Beneath aired in Australia as I was getting ready to post this, and there's a section at the end that discusses it. So avoid that if you don't want spoilers for it; that section is clearly marked.
I'll try to keep things organized, one general theme per section. But expect some bleedover, because there always is.
A lot of the way Cozy Glow acted in Marks For Effort seemed very Chrysalis-like.
Examples:
Her attitude, in general, is a bit too cheerful and sweet. It comes off as fake, as an obvious caricature of an innocent little child. Hell, her design was based off Shirley Temple, which is about as stereotypical a 'darling little girl' as you can get. Both times we've seen Chrysalis disguised as a pony—Cadance and Shutterbug—she's acted the same way. Aside, of course, for the moments as Evil Cadance that were there to make Twilight suspicious. Cozy Glow was also crying when she got the CMC on her side, and Chrysalis is no stranger to faking tears for her plans.
Following along from that, where is Cozy Glow's sudden but inevitable betrayal going to come from? Either she's Chrysalis, or she's a monster who is spending all this time being nice and befriending people for the sole purpose of stabbing them in the back later on (I mean, at least Chrysalis has 'they ruined my life' as an excuse). So either this child is a horrible, horrible person underneath, or she's Queen Chrysalis.
Cozy Glow is, frankly, kind of a sociopath even without her betrayal in the finale. Her plan—purposefully failing a test and saying she was being tutored by the CMC in an effort to make it seem like they don't know much about friendship so Twilight will decide they need to go to the school after all—is manipulative to an extreme degree. Even Starlight said so. Is that the kind of child antagonist they're going to have on the show, even if she does get reformed in the end? Even Diamond Tiara was just a brat and a bully. She wasn't sociopathic to the levels Cozy Glow demonstrated in her first episode. That's kind of far to go if this character is supposed to actually be a child. On the other hand, it fits right in with how Chrysalis operates.
When Cozy Glow first met the CMC, she said she'd just moved to Ponyville, specifically to go to school there. Which, of course, would apply to Chrysalis too.
That whole first meeting is suspicious, actually. I mean, Cozy Glow just happens to be crying directly outside the CMC's clubhouse? Isn't that on the Apple farm? What reason would she have to go there unless she was specifically targeting those three?
On the other hand, she doesn't seem to expect anything out of them. When they offer to help her, she responds with "Why would you help me? What's in it for you?" Which, I mean, talk about a Chrysalis thing to say, right? But it also seems like she wasn't there expecting them to help her, so it actually was just a coincidence.
And later on, when trying to name the Elements, Cozy Glow said Twilight's was 'control'. This is such a Chrysalis answer that it actually makes me kind of suspicious. Of course Chrysalis would think Twilight's specialty was control; how else would Twilight have all these ponies around her that do what she says? Hell, she even became a Princess because of it!
Let's not forget Cozy's whole reason for being there crying: her lessons were too hard. The lesson? 'Do something nice for these ponies'. I mean... she literally had no clue what to do with that.
Along those same lines, Cozy Glow apparently has absolutely zero knowledge of friendship. Which is kind of odd by itself; Twilight at the beginning of the show, and even Starlight, at least knew something about friendship. Cozy Glow, however, was failing all her classes and needed to be tutored in even the most basic of things. And what's even stranger is she was still super nice. Generally, characters who don't know about friendship tend to be abrasive and mean, yet here was Cozy Glow being just as sweet as can be. That combination doesn't really make sense, until you realize it perfectly describes Chrysalis in every disguise she's been in (you know, all two).
To expand on the Starlight thing, she expressed admiration for Cozy Glow's plan before catching herself. Considering how they played up (made up) the similarities between Queen Chrysalis and Starlight in the season six finale, it makes sense that Starlight would appreciate one of Chrysalis's plans, especially one so manipulative.
As Chrysalis says in The Mean Six, the exact location of the Elements isn't known to just anyone. So how did she learn they were in the Everfree Forest at all? Well, that seems like the kind of thing Twilight's school might teach, or at least something that one of the Mane Six might let slip. So if she happened to be a student there, she'd find out. And, to read a bit too much into the airing order of the episodes, that's why Marks for Effort took place before The Mean Six; Chrysalis didn't know where the Elements were until after she became a student.
Here's me reading too much into a line of dialogue: when talking about the Elements with Evil Twilight, Chrysalis says their location isn't made know to just "anypony". Would Chrysalis really just say 'anypony' casually like that? Well, she might, if she'd been spending the last few weeks impersonating a pony.
Here's me really reading too much into a line of dialogue. Chrysalis said she 'learned' the Elements were somewhere in the forest. Where do you learn things? At a school. Checkmate atheists, Half Life 3 confirmed.
This also explains Shutterbug's presence. Spending time around the Mane Six as Cozy Glow would be how she found out about the photographer coming, giving her the cover she needed to get photos of them and their hair. It also explains her comment about knowing how busy they are; given how closely she's worked herself into their confidence as Cozy Glow, no doubt she would be familiar with their schedules.
And speaking of that, she seems to be ingratiating herself quite well with the Mane Six, seeing as how she's apparently responsible for handling all their mail in Friendship University.
Her actions in A Matter of Principals are interesting as well, even though she doesn't speak. All the students are listening to Twilight's lecture at the beginning of the episode, but only Cozy Glow has a pad of paper and a pencil and is taking plenty of notes, almost like she wants to gather every scrap of information she can in case it turns out to be useful later. Almost like she had a plan fail and needs to come up with a new one. (Like seriously, in that opening scene where Twilight pulls out the artifacts, Cozy Glow is just going crazy on her pad of paper.)
And going further, she's doing the same thing in the class at the beginning of What Lies Beneath (no spoilers). Except this time, she isn't just taking notes. She has stacks and stacks of paper around her, taller than she is.
Check out her expressions later on in A Matter of Principals, too. She reacts the same way to both Discord and Trixie showing up to teach the class: she glares at them. The other ponies look mildly uncomfortable with Discord's presence, and rather amused by Trixie, but Cozy Glow looks seriously unimpressed. Which, given Chrysalis's history with them, would make sense.
However, counterpoints to all of that:
Some of her other actions in Marks for Effort don't fit with Chrysalis. For one, why would Chrysalis go to Starlight for help when she realized her plan had gotten the CMC banned from the school? I would think Chrysalis would go to literally anyone else.
Counter-counterpoint to that: if this is all some elaborate plan, then she might have purposefully gone to Starlight so she can rub it in her face later that she helped.
But more than that, why would Chrysalis want to undo what happened at all? Why would she care about the CMC being banned from the school? If anything, I'd think she'd enjoy something like that. There would be no reason for her to want to make up for what she did.
Counter-counterpoint one: On the other hand, why would a non-Chrysalis Cozy Glow do the same thing? She's obviously an antagonist in the finale and takes over the school. So why is she being all friendly and worried about the CMC not being in the school?
Counter-counterpoint two: Perhaps Chrysalis has some elaborate plan that involves the CMC needing to be in the school, and when her first attempt to get them in messed up she had to undo it. Why would she want them in the school? Well, she wants to build a new hive. The school seems perfect for that, and so she'd want as many ponies in it as possible.
Counter-counterpoint three: Again, an elaborate plan. In this one, Chrysalis purposefully sabotages the CMC to get them kicked out of the school, then apologizes and fixes the situation—thus earning the trust of everyone involved so she can infiltrate the school further. It works, too, since as I mentioned she seems to be handling the Mane Six's mail. Also, I believe that squares the deviousness of the plan, making it four times as devious.
Next up: Cozy Glow's interactions with Neighsay.
The most likely plot I see is that Cozy Glow is working with Neighsay. I've heard people suggest she's related to him, like a niece. Considering he's an educator, she could also be some sort of student of his. In any case, she's likely a mole sent to undermine the school and feed information back to Neighsay. Thus meaning she's not Chrysalis.
Neighsay seems to arrive at Flim and Flam's Friendship University just in time to certify it as official, and doesn't seem at all surprised to find they've set it up. They based the school off Twilight's school rulebook, which no one seems to know how they got ahold of. That makes it seem like Neighsay helped them set the school up and was the one who gave them the book.
But when Rarity and Twilight are discussing the school, Twilight wonders how Flim and Flam got a copy of her book. Just as she does, the door opens and Cozy Glow walks in. That's one of those common tropes; 'Gee, who could have done this?' someone says, just as the person who did it walks in. It's also possible that Neighsay gave them a copy himself, since Twilight provided him with one in the first episode.
So either Neighsay already had a copy, or Cozy Glow used her position in the school to get ahold of one and passed it on to Neighsay, who then gave it to Flim and Flam, because... they were the best option Neighsay saw for opening a competing school, I guess?
Which doesn't really make sense, seeing as how Neighsay seemed to be genuinely inspecting the university so he could accredit it. And he seemed to be truly impressed and surprised that Starswirl was there, and that was what made him decide the school should be official. Had this all been part of some plan by Neighsay, he would have just instantly accredited the school without needing an actual reason like that.
But then why would Cozy Glow send the book to them on her own? She had no reason to do it if she wasn't working with Neighsay and it wasn't some plan of his. And there's no reason for a Chrysalis disguised as Cozy Glow to do it either.
So honestly, I'm kind of stumped by this whole thing. The end of the episode seems to imply Cozy Glow sent them the book, but I can't see any reason for it no matter who she is or who she's working with.
Now, in the trailer for the second half of season eight we saw Neighsay announcing that Twilight was no longer in charge of the school. At his side as he did was Cozy Glow, who got a surprised look on her face in the moment before the scene cut.
Cozy Glow is working with Neighsay option: he then immediately appoints her as the new pony in charge of the school. It's possible that when the scene continues we get her acting really falsely shocked—think of her as a plant in the crowd, asking leading questions they planned out beforehand. "Oh no, Twilight's not in charge of the the school anymore? Why, then whoever will run things here?"—and then Neighsay puts her in charge.
Cozy Glow is Queen Chrysalis option: she jumps in when she sees the power vacuum open. She looks surprised at the end of that clip, but then she gets all excited and talks Neighsay into putting her in charge.
Next up: Tirek.
Tirek throws some real wrenches into my theories.
We saw, in the leaked assets last year, a rock garden statue of Tirek with Cozy Glow riding on his shoulders—and it was in the assets for season nine. The obvious implication being that they're both going to be reformed in the finale. However, we also saw him in the SDCC 18 trailer at full kingdom-wrecking strength, which Four-Alicorn Twilight was only able to fight to a standstill, and which was only defeated by the Rainbow Power.
It's possible we're going to get some kind of Starlight Glimmer talky-reformation here, meaning they don't actually fight him. But, as I've said before, Tirek seems like the one irredeemable villain to me. All he wants is destruction. How, exactly, do you talk someone like that down? And convince him to give up all that power, too?
The only way I can see something like that happening is if he gets absolutely beaten down and any ability to pose a threat is removed from him. Then he can realize the errors of his ways or whatever, once he's able to actually empathize with people. And the only one who really seems capable of doing that would be Chrysalis at her full power. (The thought that really makes me scared is her transforming like the rest of the changelings to get the boost she needs to defeat him.)
The fact that it's Cozy Glow riding on his shoulders in the statue seems to imply she isn't Chrysalis, however. Although I suppose it's possible they both get reformed and become super good friends, and she enjoys turning into a filly so she can get piggy-back rides from him? That doesn't seem ridiculous at all.
The only way this works is if Tirek being free was a lie by Neighsay to trap the Mane Six in Tartarus, Cozy Glow isn't Chrysalis, and the Mane Six escape Tartarus by befriending Tirek (because that's what fans have been clamoring to see), and then after it's all over Cozy Glow and Tirek become friends. Which seems somewhat supported by one of the other leaked assets, a picture of Tirek's cage in Tartarus with a second cage hand-drawn in next to it, for scale for when the artists make the real thing. Odds are the Mane Six end up in that cage, and Tirek helps them escape.
Okay, but if you want to see me really stretch things to make something crazy work (and you know I love doing that) then follow along.
The season nine premiere has Sombra coming back, along with Grogar. We've also seen other things in the leaked assets: versions of the main characters under Sombra's spell, and shattered pieces of the Elements of Harmony. On top of that, the statue of Cozy Glow riding Tirek comes from part two of the premiere.
To stretch things a bit... that statue looks like it would fit right in at the changeling hive.
So Chrysalis is Cozy Glow and gets reformed in the season eight finale, and befriends Tirek. She doesn't get reformed all the way to the point where she transforms, but she's willing to give friendship a chance. That's where the statue comes in—the Mane Six are defeated by Sombra, and they, or at least someone who escapes from Sombra, goes to the changelings for help, which is when we see the statue. This then gives Chrysalis her big shot at redemption, and she leads the changelings in saving Equestria and is finally recrowned Queen—all while avoiding transforming, of course.
Also, I really need to bring up the Chekhov's Gun that is "Look, here's one magic artifact for each of the Student Six!" from A Matter of Principals. I mean, why not just have Twilight announce "You're going to need these to beat Cozy Glow in the finale!"?
This isn't exactly something that points for or against Cozy Glow being Chrysalis, except that I really hope the writers aren't stupid enough to instantly annihilate every shred of Chrysalis's credibility by having her be beaten by children, even if they are using these artifacts.
Take a look at the episode writers. Nicole Dubuc and Michael Vogel are two of the head writers, along with being executives of various kinds on the show. What episodes did they write?
Well...
School Daze.
Marks for Effort.
The Mean Six.
A Matter of Principals.
What Lies Beneath.
I'm also like, 99% sure they wrote the finale.
Notice a trend? They write all the big episodes. More importantly, they wrote every episode I've mentioned in this post, aside from Friendship University.
All of those episodes definitely tie or very likely tie into the finale—again, except one.
School Daze introduces the school and Neighsay, who is at least one of the antagonists in the finale.
Marks for Effort introduces Cozy Glow, one of the other antagonists in the finale.
A Matter of Principals introduces the whole 'one magic artifact for each student' thing, and I will genuinely be shocked if they don't appear in the finale.
What Lies Beneath obviously has massive implications for the finale, which I discuss further down in the super-spoiler section.
Each of those episodes is clearly involved in the finale, except maybe A Matter of Principals—but come on, it just seems really really obvious that the artifacts will play a role in the finale. The only glaringly obvious exception is The Mean Six. It doesn't really fit in anywhere in the finale—unless Cozy Glow is Chrysalis.
To contradict myself... The Mean Six was the mid-season finale. It's an episode with a higher stature than the rest, so of course one of the head writers was in charge of it.
But to uncontradict myself, the writer of the episode said Chrysalis was coming back right after the episode aired. Obviously there was no time frame given on that, but was he really saying "She'll be back!... in a year and half."? And having written the finale, he'd know if she was in it.
And lastly, the cutie mark. Cozy Glow's cutie mark is a chess piece, specifically a rook.
As I've mention, I find it hard to believe that the people running the show would be able to resist giving her a queen piece as a cutie mark if she was Chrysalis.
On the other hand, maybe they realized it would be way too obvious to do that, and actually managed to resist enough to make it a rook.
The obvious meaning of a chess piece is someone who's good at manipulating others, someone who can come up with complex plans. Which definitely fits with what we've seen from Cozy Glow and her excessively manipulative plan to get the CMC into Twilight's school.
As I mentioned previously, however, it's a tad off to make 'manipulating others' be a child's special talent. Not to mention it's got a bit of overlap with Diamond Tiara's whole "I can make others do what I want by... yelling at them, apparently?" thing.
But, obviously, ridiculously convoluted plans and tricking others into doing what she wants is right up Chrysalis's alley.
There's another meaning to the word 'rook', however. It's a slang word for a chump, for someone you've tricked. You 'rook' someone when you screw them over; and someone you screw over is a 'rook'.
So going by that, Cozy Glow is being used in some way.
Which fits in with her working for Neighsay as a mole to sabotage the school. He's just using her as a means to his end, i.e. closing down Twilight's school. That's how the Student Six beat her, by convincing her that she's just a puppet in his plan.
Alternatively, Cozy Glow is Chrysalis and is still being used. Like Neighsay said in Friendship University, he's all about "ponies first" (Man, I made that joke about Neighsay saying "build the wall" in my last post, but I didn't expect the show to go all the way with it). So, even if Chrysalis is working with him, what he ultimately wants is at cross-purposes with her goals.
Neighsay seems to want all the non-ponies out of Equestria—he even locks up the non-pony members of the Student Six in the finale. That's directly contradictory to what Chrysalis wants, seeing as how her plan is to set up a hive of ponies. Also, kicking everyone out of Equestria who isn't a pony would hurt the changelings, who Chrysalis seems to still care about—or, at least, seems to not want revenge on, which is probably the same thing as far as she goes.
To go on a bit of a tangent, that's the thing I still find interesting about her little rant at the beginning of The Mean Six. She doesn't seem to care that the changelings have a new way of feeding or that they transformed. What she's upset about is that they were "turned against her".
And since she doesn't care what kind of creature someone is (as long as they obey her) that brings me back around to the idea that she makes the perfect foil for Neighsay and his whole "ponies only" thing.
So, ultimate conclusion: is Cozy Glow actually Queen Chrysalis in disguise?
I'm leaning towards no.
The simple fact is, I think that's too complicated for the show. As much as we like it, and as good as they are at tackling issues in a mature way, it's still a show aimed at kids around eight years old. Season four's whole "we need six keys" gimmick is about as complex as any sort of overarching plot can get. And that's exacerbated by the fact that the writers don't collaborate at all, along with the fact that there's a rotating stable (horse pun!) of writers that work on the show.
Equestria Daily followups like to yell "continuity", but what they really mean is "background characters reused in an appropriate way". Episodes are largely self-contained. You don't need to see one episode to understand another, apart from a few minor things like how two characters know each other and their past. And even then, the majority of the time it has no actual effect on the plot of that episode. It's just fluff.
Season seven would be another example of a 'complicated' plot, in that seven characters appeared in the finale who had been introduced through short stories throughout the season. But again, you didn't need to see any of the other episodes to understand what was going on. It was simple; these ancient heroes locked themselves away with the evil they were fighting, and freeing them brought the evil back as well.
But 'Aha! This character was secretly a changeling all along, the former Queen of the Changelings who now wants revenge against the ponies who stole her throne, and she's been spending all season plotting to get her revenge' is a little bit more complicated than that, plus it requires more knowledge of the show's history. The reveal is completely ruined if there has to be a ten minute explanation afterwards. Chrysalis's exposition in The Mean Six was worked into the show pretty flawlessly, but they'd have to do it again if she was Cozy Glow the whole time, plus probably show flashbacks of how she infiltrated the school. Again, that seems like a bit much for the audience the show is aimed at.
And as I've mentioned before, they just don't seem that interested in Chrysalis. In fact, the people who run the show don't seem to like any character with a royal title in front of their name, unless the name is 'Twilight' (and even then they've stated they regret making her a Princess, and as we've seen from Starlight they've done their best to replace her). If I wanted to be suspicious and cynical, I could say that the entire point of the season six finale was to get rid of Chrysalis and replace her with characters the team currently working on the show had created.
On the other hand, I do love playing my own devil's advocate, so...
Maybe?
I keep going on about this in these blogs, but they were really pushing Chrysalis before the season started. This season is about the school, but what was the first thing we saw? An animatic of Chrysalis. What was one of the first (if not the first) finished scenes that was shown? Chrysalis and the evil Mane Six. Are they really going to focus on her that much if she only appears in a single regular episode?
Now, if I wanted to be cynical, I'd say yes, and for one reason only: they know she's popular. So what better way to build interest in the new season that to go "Oh man, she's totally coming back!" Which, obviously, is kind of a crappy thing to do if she's just in the one episode. To be more charitable, we can say they did it because they knew how excited and happy it would make people, not as a calculated scheme to get more people to watch this season.
But to be optimistic, the reason for all that build-up could be because she's going to be a major factor in this season, specifically the finale. There are any number of ways she could pop up, but the easiest and most likely is that she's infiltrated the school and is posing as one of the students. And the obvious candidate is Cozy Glow.
That's why they 'spoiled' her appearance this season. It's a red herring, a distraction; she's not just posing as a photographer to enact one plan, she's been under our noses the whole time.
And as I said above, a lot of the things Cozy Glow has been doing and the way she's been acting are Chrysalis-like. To the point where I'm actually thinking it's not her because some of those things are so Chrysalis-like that it makes me suspicious—specifically the part where she has literally zero clue about anything even resembling friendship, and especially her answer to what Twilight's Element is.
I can't get over that answer. What possible reason would a child have for thinking one of the Elements of Harmony at all, let alone Twilight's, is 'control'? It's just... it's the answer only Chrysalis would give. Period. The end. Like, if Cozy Glow isn't Chrysalis, then we have to get some kind of explanation as to what the hell she was thinking when she answered that. It's an answer that only makes sense if the answerer is a power-hungry Queen.
Also strange is that Cozy Glow has barely appeared in any other episodes. She had a relatively minor role in Friendship University and that was it, aside from some background appearances. That's kind of strange, considering what a large part she's going to play in the finale. You would think that a character who's so important to the season would get more episodes dedicated to them. You could almost say she's lurking in the background, plotting and scheming. (This is somewhat outdated now that I've seen What Lies Beneath, but actually if anything that episode reinforces my belief that she's been plotting and scheming.)
While I did say having Cozy Glow be Chrysalis would be too complicated, maybe I was wrong about that. Much like how they didn't explain anything about the Pillars of Equestria in the season seven finale, maybe they feel having Chrysalis in the mid-season finale is enough of an explanation that they don't need to go over her whole story again when she appears in the finale. In fact, maybe that was the purpose of that episode; it's to remind everyone of where she's currently at.
I believe in an interview or panel recently, maybe one at SDCC, one of the showrunners said something about an 'epic storyline' this season. It sure doesn't seem that epic so far, but that would change if Chrysalis has been spending the whole season disguised as one of the students. Especially if it's like I've been speculating and she learns something about friendship along the way, and ends up in a massive battle with Tirek at the end to defend the school.
I said above that the whole point of the season six finale was to separate Chrysalis from the other changelings, but maybe this whole season was why they did that. Maybe they thought having characters be secret changelings was too much when there was a whole empire of them running around, but having only one works just right.
And, again, there's simply not enough time left. There's only one season after this. I don't feel like having her as the big final boss of the entire show is right. It just seems weird to me, for some reason. I think it's the fact that all she wants is revenge. That's too personal, too... not-epic, to conclude the show with.
If she's going to be reformed, it seems weird to do it at the very very end. You get no follow up that way. How is she adjusting to being good and (presumably) leading the changelings again in their new way of life? I mean, she's got to have at least one episode where she goes back to her old ways, like Discord with Tirek. Can't get any of that if it happens in literally the last episode of the series.
(If I had to write the show finale? Either the Windigo come back, or you get some Nightmare Moon and/or Daybreaker action. End it the way it started.)
Beyond all that... honestly, it's just time to end this chapter of Chrysalis's story. It's overdue, in fact. The season seven premiere and finales should have been about Chrysalis. At this point it's kind of ridiculous that she keeps coming back every season or two.
And it sticks out like a sore thumb that she's the only villain to do so. Every other villain has been reformed on their second appearance, but she's up to three and still going. I'm not saying they all need to follow the same path, but again, she's the odd one out in that she just keeps coming back. Honestly, it kind of hurts the show. The fact that all the villains would end up reformed and make way for new ones has always been part of the shows strength. No Team Rockets around here. She's breaking that trend, which isn't bad per say, but it needs to end at some point, and that time should be now.
Anyway, I kind of went off on tangent there about why Chrysalis has to be in the finale, but that is still related to the main point here. She kind of has to appear again soon, and probably for the last time as an antagonist. And the only place that really makes sense this season is with her as Cozy Glow.
I mean, not that I can't make up other ways for her to appear. Picture this: Changelings are actually from Tartarus. They used to be utterly pathetic scavengers; they lived off pain and suffering, rather than love. (Bonus points: the original idea for Chrysalis was to have her slinking along the ground, like Gollum. But she wasn't threatening enough like that, so they made her stand upright. So use something like that as their original form.) But one changeling realized there was a stronger emotion they could feed off of: love. Upon feeding on some love, she transformed, and the rest of the changelings followed suit. As the first, this changeling, of course, became tall and regal, and was named their Queen.
That's why Chrysalis and the changelings acted the way they did. She was literally born in hell and had to fight her way out, and there was no room for friendship and kindness in those circumstances. It also explains why she didn't know what Equestria was until apparently discovering it just before the wedding; the changelings are basically newcomers to the world (ignoring the fact that the gates of hell are literally within walking distance of Ponyville; multiple entrances maybe? Or, despite their apparently centuries-long history, maybe they only left Tartarus fairly recently). It would also give the perfect cop-out for why she doesn't transform after being reformed—she already did it once, and can't do it again (I didn't say it was a good explanation, I said it was a cop-out).
So to explain all this in the show, Chrysalis is in Tartarus because... some reason. I keep picturing Neighsay somehow tricking her into switching places with Tirek, but that doesn't really make sense. In any case, the Mane Six then have to work together with her to escape and defeat Tirek, and on their trek through Tartarus they discover the changelings' past.
Anyway... gun to my head, have to make a choice? Cozy Glow isn't Chrysalis, and Chrysalis won't be in the finale at all.
It just feels too much like the whole point of Cozy Glow is that she's a student antagonist for the Student Six to fight. She's an equivalent threat for them, which Chrysalis very definitely isn't.
On top of that, it would be odd if the villain had such a personal connection with a single one of the students, i.e. Ocellus. It would put the focus too much on that student, when it should really be about all of them.
The real tipping point is that it makes too much sense that Cozy Glow is working with Neighsay, and that doesn't make any sense if she's actually Chrysalis. (Of course, plenty of other things have 'made too much sense' and then turned out differently, so who knows?)
And for one last little piece of news, whoo, more Chrysalis toys! This time it's the second wave of those little chibi... things. I've not sure if they're like foam or rubber or plastic or whatever. Of course, I consider this good news, especially if she does get reformed this season, because I assume (perhaps foolishly, considering what happened with Guardians of Harmony) that they wouldn't be releasing multiple toys of her current design if she's going to transform into some puke-colored monstrosity rainbow-colored bug.
Special section now that I've just finished watching episode 22, What Lies Beneath, which just aired in Australia.
Warning, obviously: major spoilers below.
Cozy Glow has two major parts this episode.
In the first, she interrupts the Student Six while they're studying and causes them to fight, by pointing out the differences between all of their various species and claiming that friendship isn't in their nature.
In the second, she appears at the end and apologizes for causing the fight at the start after realizing how good of friends they are. She then approaches the hole in the floor that leads to the Tree of Harmony while saying "Let me take care of everything..." in a totally not ominous way.
This actually pretty much destroys any possibility of Cozy Glow being Chrysalis.
It's the first scene that does it. She causes the fight by pointing out all the differences between the non-pony members of the Student Six and comparing them to the pony one, making the non-ponies feel inadequate. Even more, she implies that them all being different species means they can never really be friends.
To me, this reeks of Neighsay's influence. She basically parrots everything he's said about non-pony species. So it's an even more pointed indication that she's working with him. I'd even go as far as to say she's his daughter and has these opinions because that's how she was raised. Even if that doesn't really make sense given that she's a pegasus and he's a unicorn. I'm sure they'll explain that away easily enough, like they did with the Cake twins.
Someone also pointed out in some comments I read that Cozy Glow only seems to get mad and start the fight when Ocellus turns into various members of the Mane Six, as though she's upset that a non-pony is mocking ponies. Again, biased against non-ponies and just like Neighsay.
On the other hand...
The second part actually makes her look even more like Chrysalis. She hears that the Tree of Harmony is down in the cellar and pretty much instantly goes "Yes. I want that." Considering Chrysalis was all about getting the Tree earlier, it's only natural that she'd be excited about finding a direct, easy-to-access path to it. On top of that, she tells the Student Six not to tell anyone else about what they found.
Assuming Cozy Glow is working with Neighsay, what would they possibly want with the Tree? Neighsay just doesn't like the school. It seems a little extreme for him to go from trying to close the school to potentially ending Equestria by messing with its bedrock of friendship and harmony. This sudden interest in the Tree only makes sense if Cozy Glow has already had some desire for the Tree, i.e. like Chrysalis.
Also, she's a child, and not a unicorn. Why would she be so excited to have access to the Tree? It's not like she'd know what they could do with, or that she somehow came up with a plan to take over the school the second she realized the Tree was there. Unless she's Chrysalis.
And Cozy Glow goes even more sociopathic in this episode, what with purposefully causing a fight between the Student Six and then instantly being "soooooo sorry" when she finds out they made up. Like, there's a level of malice there that just does not fit in with her being a child.
It's possible to explain the part at the beginning as something other than Neighsay's influence. Cozy Glow got mad at Ocellus doing impressions. It could just be Chrysalis being upset at one of her former subjects using changeling powers to entertain others. What she says, which is the tagline for the rest of the episode, is that 'friendship isn't in their natures'. That could be Chrysalis talking directly to Ocellus, because of course she'd believe that friendship isn't in a changeling's nature.
And frankly, Chrysalis trying to break up their friendship out of spite seems a lot more believable that Cozy Glow, a child, doing it.
Also, Ocellus now loses all her good character points for saying that she looks hideous while she's trapped in Chrysalis's form.
Although the episode overall gets points for not claiming that everything bad the changelings did was solely the fault of Chrysalis, like a few episodes have hinted towards.
Also again, I still love the split-personality this show has. Big-ass hissing spiders with glowing red eyes? Totally cool and they're your friends. Original changelings? Utterly evil, no possible exceptions.
(Although, to be fair, those changelings were pretty chill.)
And actually, here's my final, definitive answer:
Cozy Glow is not Chrysalis, and Chrysalis will not show up in the finale.
Here's the thing about what we've seen of the finale. The magic disappearing isn't anything like what happened when Tirek appeared last time. Magic just stops working. In the preview clip, a bunch of the students are on a cloud, and their cloud-walking spells fail. They fall, but they're saved by all the flying characters.
There's two problems with that. One, Tirek is nowhere around when it happens. He has to physically drain the magic from ponies to get it, as we've seen. Two, all the flying characters can still fly. As we saw last time, him draining their magic took away their ability to fly.
So whatever's happening only affects unicorn magic, literal magic.
Furthermore, the synopsis for part one states that a mastermind takes advantage of the Mane Six running off to check on Tirek to take over the school.
We've also seen in the SDCC trailer that Cozy Glow is the one who mentions Tirek as being the cause of the missing magic. And we know that Cozy Glow now has access to the Tree of Harmony.
So what happens? It's simple.
Cozy Glow lets Neighsay know about the Tree of Harmony. He then sabotages it to take magic away from other ponies—the Element of Magic is in the Tree, so it's likely it could affect actual magic in some way, and as Twilight says the Tree is the 'root of all magic and friendship in Equestria'. Cozy Glow then leads the Mane Six to the conclusion she wants by mentioning Tirek, causing them to go to Tartarus and get trapped while Neighsay and Cozy Glow take over the school. To escape Tartarus, the Mane Six are forced to work with the only person ever to escape Tartarus, Tirek. He ends up becoming their friend during their escape, while Cozy Glow gets defeated and reformed by the students and the CMC. Neighsay ends up punished in some way—perhaps stripped of his own magic and forced to attend Twilight's school.
So, there you go. No more Chrysalis this season. Unless the season nine premiere has her teaming up with Sombra and Grogar, she's most likely going to be the final boss of the show.
And, to be honest, I think she's going to die, or 'die', if that's the case. She's going to be the character who utterly refuses to change even after being given multiple opportunities. They've kind of painted themselves into a corner here. She can't be reformed without transforming, they've made that abundantly clear. And if they do transform her, well, that would piss off a lot of fans. That's not exactly something you want if you're trying to launch a new series immediately after this one ends.
Also, like... how the hell do you reform Tirek? I've said it a few times, but I'm saying it again. If he actually ends up reformed (which he's going to be, because that leaked asset of his and Cozy Glow's statue is from season nine), then it's going to be the biggest asspull ever. He destroyed Twilight's house. He betrayed Discord horribly when Discord thought they were friends. And his sole goal seemed to be destruction.
How do you excuse any of that? Chrysalis did some terrible things, but it's literally nothing compared to what Tirek's done and what he wants to do.
I hate to say this kind of thing without having seen it, but I feel like this is going to be the worst finale we've seen yet. Because just from what we know now, it already seems utterly nonsensical.
(Although, want me to be a bit hypocritical? If Chrysalis does come back in the finale, gets reformed and doesn't transform, I'll call it the best episode ever no matter what happens with Tirek. Turn his personality into a Fluttershy clone, I don't care.)
Actually, there's one other possibility I see that doesn't involve the Mane Six befriending Tirek, at least not during the escape. If the plan is to get rid of magic in Equestria to lure the Mane Six into Tartarus, and the Tree is the source of magic in Equestria, and Tirek eats magic, and the roots to the Tree are now under the school... maybe Neighsay breaks Tirek out, brings him to the school, and gives him access to the roots, leading to Tirek draining the Tree of magic and affecting the rest of Equestria. Maybe it even ends with him draining too much and exploding, leaving his magic draining ability gone, and that's when he gets reformed. It makes more sense than him escaping Tartarus with the Mane Six and suddenly they're all best friends now, and also explains why we saw full-power Tirek in the trailer. And, to go back to my personal pet cause of Chrysalis fighting off Tirek, her magic wouldn't be linked to the Tree the way the ponies' magic is.
Okay, okay, utterly insane theory time.
Cozy Glow is Chrysalis. And Neighsay... is Tirek.
Note the color of Neighsay's magic: it's orange, a pretty unique color. Tirek's is also orange, though admittedly with a brighter yellow tinge to it. Both have this big mane that sweeps back, and beards, though Neighsay's is obviously more under control. Also, conveniently, Neighsay doesn't have a visible cutie mark, as it's covered up by his robes. And finally, Neighsay wears a large golden amulet around his neck, just like Tirek did when he first appeared.
So Tirek and Chrysalis are working together in this. Maybe they don't even know who each other is, for some reason. She reports the presence of the Tree under the school to him, and working together they convince the Mane Six that Tirek has returned, with Tirek draining all of Equestria's magic at once by doing it through the Tree.
Neighsay tricking the main characters into being trapped in hell is... honestly, pretty fucked up. But it makes sense if Tirek is the one doing it, locking them up in the place where they locked him up.
That's also why Cozy Glow's cutie mark is a rook—remember the slang meanings of the word. Chrysalis is getting rooked here. She thinks she's working with Tirek to get revenge on the ponies they both hate, but once he has all the power he'll immediately turn on her—thus prompting her redemption, or at least an enemy-of-my-enemy alliance.
Absolutely insane and make little sense given some of the characters obvious motivations and backstory? Yep! Must be one of my theories, then.
Okay, but seriously, guys.
Like, for seriously.
Why did Cozy Glow say Twilight's Element was control?
Seriously, who else would answer that question that way other than Queen Chrysalis? It makes zero sense for Cozy Glow to say that unless she's Chrysalis. It is 1,000,000% directly in character for Chrysalis to think Twilight's Element is control, and there's no reason why Cozy Glow, a child, would answer that way.
I mean, as I've said, the obvious twist here is that Cozy Glow is working with Neighsay, and is probably his niece or something. How does any of that explain her answer? Neighsay is just racist against non-ponies. How does that turn into Cozy Glow thinking Twilight's Element is control?
It just... it just makes no sense unless she's Chrysalis!
(Sorry for this, I know I'm obsessing over it, but that answer is just so Chrysalis that I can't get past it.)
The problem is with your theory, the Mean Six shows quite clearly Chrysalis cannot control herself around Starlight like Cozy did, therefore they cannot be the same.
4926316 Exactly. For all it seems extremely against how things should be, for the leader of a race of shapeshifting infiltrators. Chryssi is a horrible actress. She can't keep her emotions or her ego in check at all. So would never play the role of a small, helpless filly under the direct control of her worst enemies, no matter how much she could gain long term from doing so. Let alone be able to spend more then a second around Starlight without making clear how much she despises her.
Ow my head. I can't look at alot of these episodes the same way now. There's too many questions!
Honestly, Cozy Glow seems a little too good at manipulating people and improvising to be Chrysalis. It's kind of lame, but my guess is she's Neighsayer's niece or something and he sent her to sabotage the school.