Things I'd Like to See on MLP: G1 MLP Villains · 6:05am Jul 20th, 2014
Hello you all.
As you all know by now, I feel Tirek’s appearance in “Twilight’s Kingdom” opened the door for the reintroduction of other villains from G1 MLP in the brave new world that has such ponies in’t that is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The old school My Little Pony while having protagonists as bland and with as much depth as a piece of cardboard, did have quite an intriguing assortment of villains that often reached into the depths of darkness. From what I understand, this was part and parcel in the Eighties. Bringing such characters into the world of MLP:FIM, which we have all seen is not afraid to go there, could possibly manage to recapture the spectacularness that was “Twilight’s Kingdom”. I’m pretty sure the powers that be behind the show are thinking about that too. Equestria Daily recently announced that Shout Factory will be releasing the complete series of G1 MLP on DVD. Perhaps to get us familiar with these old villains before importing them to FIM.
Plus, with Tirek returned and the Princesses freed from Tartarus, it appears that there are a number of cells in Tartarus that lay empty. 
Who’s to say that there aren’t other ancient horrors that escaped from Tartarus that date back to the elder days of Equestria, the land of ponies, going all the way back to the 1980s?
Anyway, after subjecting myself to the nigh torment of actually watching a good chunk of the old school G1 MLP, I would like to share my suggestion as to what G1 villains should be imported in the canon of MLP:FIM. I’m practically an expert at this point. Without further ado, let us begin this journey into the ancient past of My Little Pony.
Grogar
Grogar is the villain of the G1 MLP episode “The Return of Tambelon” I’ve already discussed in depth a bit in a blog dedicated to him as well as in my blog on the future of MLP:FIM where I speculated we might see Grogar leading an army of Diamond Dogs as soon as next season. It needs not be said at this point why Grogar is probably the best G1 villain after Tirek to import into MLP:FIM. The only thing I will add is if we see Grogar in the future, we will probably also see Bray. 
Bray is Grogar’s sycophantic donkey lackey. It wouldn’t be surprising seeing him introduced alongside Grogar. It’s not like there aren’t donkeys in Equestria. I mean they mentioned Scorpan who was G1 Tirek’s lackey when they introduced Tirek in “Twilight’s Kingdom”. I doubt though he’ll end up as Grogar’s brother given that Bray is a donkey and Grogar is a ram or a goat. (I believe he is supposed to be a ram, but Bronies often interpret him as a goat. Probably because goats have a more demonic connotation.) In the end, it would not surprise me in the least if Grogar and Bray are the next G1 villains we see on MLP:FIM.
Catrina 
Catrina is the feline witch villain of the second G1 MLP special “Escape from Catrina”. She is the second villain introduced on G1 MLP. It’s mostly for this reason that I feel she could be the second G1 villain that could be introduced on FIM. Catrina and her reluctant shapeshifting lizard lackey Rep enslave a group of furry creatures called Bushwoolies and then after they escape the ponies to make a potion from something called witchweed that enhances Catrina’s magical power. It’s interesting to note that when Catrina ingests the potion and increases her magic, she grows in size much like Tirek did on FIM. It’s clear where FIM’s writers got that idea from indicating that they are at least aware of Catrina. Also, this witchweed happens to look a lot like marijuana. I imagine the whole point of this episode was part of that whole Nancy Reagan “Hey kids, drugs are bad; don’t do drugs” thing they had going on in the Eighties. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The most compelling thing about Catrina though is that it’s established in the episode that Catrina used to be a perfectly nice cat girl before she started using the witchweed. At the episode’s end after falling down a hole, Rep promises to help her out only if she promises to stop using the witchweed and destroy her potion making machine, which she does. If they were to use Catrina as a villain on FIM and staying relatively true to character, it could go along the lines of the whole villains undergoing reformation as we saw with Trixie and Discord. Or they could go the same route as Nightmare Moon/Luna and introduce her as a villain and have her reform or be reformed at the end as she did in G1 MLP. Plus, we all know how much the writers like to reference mythology on FIM no matter how obscure it may be. Just this past season we saw a chimera and an orthros on FIM. Catrina does happen to resemble the Egyptian goddess Bastet/Bubastis.
Perhaps then we could see Catrina reimagined as Bastet in an Egyptian-themed Daring Do adventure. Either way, I’m game.
King Charlatan
King Charlatan is the villainous penguin king of the G1 MLP episode “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. Charlatan uses a machine that enhances his magical cold stare to freeze the entire world so it is only fit for habitation by penguins and so that any creature unable to survive the cold will freeze to death. That’s right. One of G1 MLP’s villains was a genocidal Nazi penguin! The king’s son Edgar is not on board with this and so he joins Megan and the ponies when they confront Charlatan demanding that he stop this madness. He ends up accidentally freezing his son Edgar with his cold stare. After one Celestia-awful song on the part of Megan and the ponies, Charlatan shows remorse and manages to thaw Edgar free with his tears. The unicorn Galaxy is also able to reverse the effects of Charlatan’s machine, and Charlatan promises to turn over a new leaf. Much like the aforementioned Catrina, an FIM version of Charlatan depicted close to his G1 counterpart could be along the lines of villains that undergo reform. However though, given that all of the sapient creatures of Equestria are usually cloven hoofed ruminants and randomly selected mythical creatures, I doubt that penguins are sapient in Equestria. Starswirl the Bearded does briefly mention fat, little penguins living on icebergs in one of the issues of MLP comics “Reflections” arc, but that could go either way. Perhaps Charlatan would have to be reimagined as king of a group of griffons living in the Frozen North. Then again, Diamond Dogs are mostly sapient, and they are neither cloven hoofed, ruminants, nor mythical. Perhaps a Nazi penguin wouldn’t be too far-fetched for Equestria.
Arabus 
Arabus is the villain of the G1 MLP episode “Bright Lights”. Arabus is a wizard who along with his slimy zebra cohort Zeb promise a young struggling singer named Knight Shade fame and fortune in exchange for his help. Zeb ends up using a machine that steals the shadows from all the creatures that come to see Knight Shade’s show leaving them feeling all sick and empty. Arabus then feeds on the shadows and becomes giant cloud demon. Much like the aforementioned Catrina and FIM’s Tirek, Arabus also grows in size as his magical powers grow. To a certain extent we have seen a bit of Arabus on FIM. 
King Sombra certainly shared some aspects with Arabus, especially by being an evil unicorn wizard who turns into a cloud of dark smoke. Perhaps even Sombra’s name (“Sombra” is Spanish for “shadow”) is referential to the source of Arabus’s power. I imagine FIM’s writers are already pretty familiar with Arabus. Still though, I could see the potential of importing Arabus into FIM. Arabus’ name resembles the name of the Greek mythological being Erebus, and we all know how much FIM’s writers like making mythology references. They could call him Erebus. They could go the same route with Tirek whose human features were made more bovine for FIM and make this Erebus more equine. In that case, he might end up looking a bit like a Windigo. 
They could even highlight the similarities between him and Sombra by saying that he was the being that taught Sombra dark magic. Erebus would be like the Morgoth to Sombra’s Sauron. It might be interesting to see Zeb alongside this Erebus. An evil zebra might be an intriguing additon. We’ve only seen one zebra on FIM after all. There was already though an evil zebra called Braze in the chapter book Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare. To a certain extent Knight Shade has already appeared in the world of FIM. He’s mentioned briefly in one of the MLP comics. If there’s already a Knight Shade in Equestria, perhaps there’s also an Arabus or something like him.
Lavan
Lavan is the king of the Lava Demons. Lava Demon. Talk about Names to Run Away From Really Fast. He is the villain of the G1 MLP episode “The Quest of the Princess Ponies”. His modus operandi is to steal the magic wands that Princess Ponies use to maintain the order of Ponyland so he can absorb their power and become all powerful. Once he does so, he has the crystalline body you can observe above. Lavan has the distinction of being the only character that I have come across on G1 MLP so far to sing a song that skirts the borders of being decent. I don’t know what it’s called, but he sings something about “Might makes right”. I’ve always thought that was a cool thing for a villain to say. Lavan also has the second distinction of being pretty much the only other villain on G1 MLP after Tirek to straight up die on screen! Now, a creature as anthropomorphic as Lavan might seem odd to include on FIM. (Anthropomorphic monsters are much more common in the MLP comics though.) However, one of the Friends Forever comics featured a creature called a Crystal Ghost. 
This Crystal ghost happens to look a bit like Lavan in his crystalline form. Perhaps if Lavan and his horde Lava Demons were to appear on FIM, they could look like these Crystal Ghosts except made of lava.
Hydia, Reeka, and Draggle 
Hydia and her daughters Reeka and Draggle are witches, although Reeka and Draggle are rather incompetent at witchcraft. They are not very close as a family. Hydia hates it when Reeka and Draggle call her “Mother”. They are the villains My Little Pony: The Movie and the G1 MLP episode “The End of Flutter Valley”. To my knowledge they are a the only recurring villains on G1 MLP. I’ve always thought of them as akin to second tier Disney villains. In My Little Pony: The Movie, Hydia and her brood seek to make the ponies’ home of Dream Valley dark, dank, and dreary by brewing a potion to create a magical, amorphous creature called the Smooze to flood Dream Valley. The Smooze is eventually driven away by the Flutter Ponies using their utter flutter. In “The End of Flutter Valley”, they try to do the same thing again except in Flutter Valley by convincing these giant bees called Bumbles to kidnap the Flutter Ponies and steal their Sun Stone. They are eventually defeated by Megan and her pony friends returning the Sun Stone to Flutter Valley. Hydia, Reeka, and Draggle in their two major appearance on G1 MLP are accompanied by a giant, cyclopean spider called Ahgg. 
Luckily, he can be defeated by tickling him. Interestingly enough, the events of “The End of Flutter Valley” were alluded to in the MLP comic “Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair”. In the background of Big Mac’s search for nails, each of the Mane 6 are seen telling part of a tale that seems reminiscent of “The End of Flutter Valley” including mention of the Sun Stone and a giant spider. Giant spiders also appear in one of the comics of “The Return of Queen Chrysalis” arc of the MLP comics. So, at least we have seen Ahgg sort of represented in the extended canon of FIM. Anyway, the biggest obstacle to Hydia, Reeka, and Draggle’s inclusion in FIM is the fact that they’re human, and despite all the fanfictions out there, there are no humans in Equestria. Perhaps they could be relegated to making an appearance in a future Equestria Girls film or television series if that indeed is happening. The human protagonists Megan, Molly, and Danny from G1 MLP are mentioned in the Equestria Girls annual comic. Most likely though, they could be reimagined as ponies. There is already a pony named Prismia mentioned as an enchantress in the chapter book Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell.
They probably would most likely be unicorns. But perhaps they could even be evil alicorns. In that way, they could allude to that Triple Goddess motif that’s prevalent in many of the world’s mythologies. So anyway, given their status as G1 MLP’s only recurring villains, I think they’ve earned a chance for importing to FIM.
The Smooze
Speaking of Hydia, Reeka, and Draggle, there’s their monstrous creation the Smooze, which cannot be stopped! The Smooze is the source of the main conflict in My Little Pony: The Movie. The Smooze is a Lovecraftian horror! It is a purple, ichorous, amorphous blob with multitudinous eyes and gibbering mouths. Hydia creates the Smooze with a potion in the caldera of her volcano home Mount Gloom in order to make Dream Valley dark, dank, and dreary. Those who come in contact with the Smooze are made bitter and grumpy by it. To a certain extent, it has the same effect on ponies as Discord does. The Smooze even manages to swallow up the Rainbow of Light, the sort of predecessor to the Elements of Harmony and the Rainbow Power! At the film’s climax, the Smooze is blown away by the Flutter Ponies’ utter flutter and Hydia, Reeka, and Draggle end up stuck in it. If the Smooze were to appear on FIM, it might be in a similar vein to the vines that attacked Ponyville in “Princess Twilight”. Since the Smooze has a similar effect on ponies as Discord does, perhaps it could be suggested that Draconequi (if there are or were ever more than one Draconequus like Discord) rose up out of it. Discord’s magic when it was stolen by Tirek in “Twilight’s Kingdom” was colored similarly to the Smooze.
Perhaps the Smooze is the primordial chaos from which the wide, wide world of Equestria was created, much like the Chaos of Greek mythology. Either way, I don’t think anything can stop the Smooze from making an appearance on FIM. You can’t stop the Smooze. You can’t stop it!
The Gizmonks
The Gizmonks are a pair of monkeys named Gonk and Glouda who are the villains of the G1 MLP episode “The Great Rainbow Caper”. The Gizmonks collect rare creatures that they keep in cages and spend their days inventing assorted gadgets and gizmos, many of which have no real purpose. They desire to acquire the Rainbow of Light, which they consider the ultimate gadget. To that end, they kidnap Danny and the pegasus Surprise (the pony that would inspire FIM’s Pinkie Pie) in order to exchange them with Megan for the Rainbow of Light. Danny and Surprise end up escaping by destroying all the Gizmonks’ stuff. The Gizmonks are honestly the least interesting villains to appear on G1 MLP. However, there are some interesting implications that come out of including characters like the Gizmonks on FIM. The Gizmonks are clearly interested in technology, and it might be the only thing they truly understand. They consider a magical implement like the Rainbow of Light to be a gadget after all. Imagine having a whole race of technologically minded simian creatures that come from somewhere called the Gizmonks that pose a threat against Equestria. Their technology would be steampunk because that would be cool. (A lot of Bronies like steampunk.) If we were to suppose they were non-magical given their reliance on technology, the Rainbow Power might not work against them. The Mane 6 would have to solve a problem without using magic. An episode like that would avoid the common pratfall that many have seen with the Elements of Harmony and now the Rainbow Power being this all powerful magical implement that solves all their problems. An episode like that could go a long way. Perhaps this is something already on the minds of the powers that be behind FIM. The aforementioned comic “Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair” has a joke where Big Mac accidentally enters a timewarp and saves Ponyville from mutant apes.
Somnambula 
Somnambula is the villain of the G1 MLP episode “Somnambula”. She is a witch who uses a canary named Kyrie she has bound to her service to sing the ponies into a trance so she can trap them in illusions based on their fantasies. She then steals their youth to remain young and steals the unicorns’ magic to increase her own magic. She is defeated and the little ponies are freed through the action of the Big Brother ponies. It might be clear at this point why it has been said the FIM’s Tirek’s modus operandi is in part inspired by Somnambula’s, at least the stealing magic from unicorns part. We all know Tirek moved on to other ponies, and Tirek was never really interested in stealing youth. Although he does appear to grow younger the more magic he steals. Anyway, by that logic, an FIM version of Somnambula would have to have G1 Tirek’s modus operandi, which is using the Rainbow of Darkness to cast the world in eternal darkness. But wait, that was Nightmare Moon’s modus operandi.
You know Somnambula is clearly derived from the term somnambulism. There is a rare alternative name for somnambulism. It is sometimes called noctambulism. Noctambulism. It’s like Latin for “night walker”. Night walker. Nightmare. I submit that if the nightmare entity behind Nightmare Moon ever returns to FIM, it will be revealed to be named Noctambula in reference to G1 MLP’s Somnambula. The Nightmare Forces in the “Nightmare Rarity” arc of the MLP comic do make the Mane 6 experience their worst nightmares in a similar manner to how Somnambula traps the ponies in their fantasies. Perhaps it can appear as this Pony of Shadows that was teased in the episode “Castle Mane-ia”.
But then again that might have been Tirek.
So these are my ideas about how villains from G1 My Little Pony could be imported into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. What are your thoughts on all this? Tune in next time where I will talk about the possibility of seeing Flutter Ponies on MLP:FIM.
God bless you all. God bless Equestria. And God bless America.
Very interesting. I'd be up for seeing any of these villains return in the Gen 4 canon because I have hope that the current writers will be able to make them more interesting. I mean, a lot of people used to think that Meghan McCarthy couldn't write villains very well but Twilight's Kingdom sure did a good job at shutting them up about that.
I want Sonnambula and Penguin.