.Are Unicorns prone to Villainy? · 11:35am Mar 6th, 2018
No seriously, are they?
In fact, are every character with horns prone to become evil?
Because if you look through the series every villain and repeating antagonist have horns.
Let's start at the beginning, Season 1 and Series Opener the villain was Nightmare Moon is the fallen form of Luna, and she's an Alicorn. We also have in the season, The Great and Powerful Trixie, who returns as an antagonist in Season 3 with Magic Duel and antagonistic to Twilight in Season 6 No Second Prances
In season 2 opener we have Discord, he has an antler and an onyx horn. Also in Season 2, we are introduced to The FlimFlam brothers who reappear in Season 4 in Leap of Faith and Season 6 Viva Las Pegasus. And we have Iron Will who is the antagonist of Putting Your Foor Down and reappears in Season 7 in the episode Once Upon a Zeplin. Also In the Season 2 Finale, we have Chrysalis, who is the season 6 villain as well.
In Season 3 opener we have King Sombra.
In Season 4 aside from the above, we have Tirek as the finale villain.
In Season 5, Starlight Glimmer was the season opener and finale villain.
In Season 7, Stygian/The Pony of Shadows was the villain of the finale.
And from the Movie, we have Tempest Shadows and The Storm King.
All of them have horns...
So do horns make ponies more likely to be villains?
Well, with great power comes great responsibility.
Magic can be used for both good and evil.
And evil could come in different ways.
I mean think about if Diamond Tiara (An Earth Pony) or Lightning Dust (A Pegasus) weren't ever called out or made amends.
Earth Pony villains would be like plutocratic 'real-world' villains while Pegasi villains would be indirect bringers of destruction.
It's all a matter of potential.
4811008
Fair, but let's look at the stats, at most two Pegasus villains (Lighting Dust and Wind Rider) and they aren't even repeats, and at most two Earth ponies (Diamond Taira and Suri Pollimare) and only Diamond is a repeat... seriously it's like Unicorns and those with horns period have a monopoly of being evil.
4811009
I get that.
I suppose its just more noticeable. Magic being the unique force of power in Equestria and, while the unicorns are implied to not be the only race of ponies touched by it, they at least have the most understanding of it.
What one must remember is that the villains are meant to see the error of their ways.
Perhaps magic, being the fantastic force of power that it is, sends them down the path quicker.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I think it's mostly because that Unicorns tend to have the most prominent magic skills among characters.
I read a story(I'll link it below) that says that Unicorns can become evil after exposure to a mineral that increases their magic at the cost of deteriorating the impulse control centers of thier brain(as well as a few other things), perhaps overuse of magic can have a similar effect?
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/100455/stardust
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/189185/mente-materia
Honestly it is a lack of creativity from the writers because they want villains to seem dangerous and pwoerful and the easiest way to do that (without getting too violent with physical assaults) is with magic.
Think if we had a villain based around the skill sets and abilities of AJ and Pinkie. Instead of magic blasts, transformations, and other magical effects you would have kicks and weapons and the like. The show does not tend to use much physical violence as a threat, rather using it more for jokes such as slap stick. In order for an earth pony to be directly threatening they would use physical power and that is something the writers want to avoid.
You could have them manipulate characters but I think they avoid that too to an extent because I think they try to show that in general ponies are good so getting ponies to do bad things without mind control does not seem to be an option they are considering. WHich is too bad you can get some interesting stories from such as earth ponies getting led to revolt due to perceived imbalances on how they are treated as compared to other ponies.
It seem that they have access to great power and that can corrupt.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/268566/all-our-villains-are-horny