About those leaks... (obviously spoilers) · 1:01am Mar 23rd, 2018
Given that the new season starts in two days, I figure I should talk about the leaks from back in December,
Now, first off, I'm not going to talk about too much about the G5 stuff yet. I have some opinions on what I've seen (particularly about them replacing the voice actors...) but that's two years out. This is the point during FiM when Twilight had her G1 color scheme and Pinkie had wings and was named Surprise. So any speculation right now is pretty pointless.
What I am going to talk about is one of the episodes that was leaked, The Mean Six. AKA, Queen Chrysalis Gets Her Own Episode.
Two warnings: number one, I'm assuming you've seen this episode. And number two, this is going to be long. Buckle up.
Now, this episode is in a really weird place. It's not, as everyone assumed, the premiere. Instead, it's episode thirteen. Which does put it at the midway point of the season, which means it's more than likely the 'finale' before the mid-season hiatus the show tends to take. Which is a fairly decent place for a big episode (in particular, it's where Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep was also, which is one of my favorite episodes) but given that this is the return of a major villain who swore revenge, and that the rest of the episode synopses that were leaked don't seem to support her coming back, all makes the whole thing feel odd. I mean, kind of strange to take a rather popular returning villain and have their only appearance in two years be a random episode in the middle of a season (better than four years of nothing though, I guess...).
That said, I absolutely loved the episode. I never knew I wanted an episode where Chrysalis tries to lead a set of Discorded Mane Six around a forest, but apparently that was something I wanted. And you know what one of my favorite parts about it is? The episode treated Chrysalis with respect.
I mean, this is an episode focusing entirely on a villain trying to carry out an evil plan. Imagine how this would have gone on any other kids' show. At some point, Chrysalis would have tripped on all that junk Evil Rarity was carrying. She would have stumbled around the forest going "Whoa. Whoa! WHOA!" and then just as she was getting her footing (hoofing?) back, Evil Fluttershy would have tripped her with a sarcastic "Oooooops!" and Chrysalis would wind up crashing upside-down against a tree. "Well that could have gone worse," she'd say, just as a beehive falls out of the tree and sticks onto her horn. Cue her running through the forest with a cloud of bees stinging her in the butt until she finally jumps into a pond. The bees leave, and she climbs out soaked, lily pads hanging off her body, hair wet and bedraggled. A frog hops off her head as she looks into the camera. "You know, some days it just doesn't pay to be a bad guy." *sad trombone music*
But that doesn't happen here. Nothing like that happens, because she isn't treated like a joke. The villains on this show are always taken seriously, which is what makes them so powerful. They're actual threats, not just silly obstacles. It's subtle, but it's a really nice touch that makes their eventual reformations even more meaningful—because they're real characters instead of jokes. When an actual villain and not just a silly bad guy becomes a friend, that means something.
(Side note, a lot of the villains, including Chrysalis, are treated as jokes in the comics, which is one of the few things I dislike about them. In particular, Twilight in the comics tends to be a holier-than-thou prick who mocks and openly insults many of the antagonists they face. While I obviously like Twilight, the ending of the Chrysalis Fiendship special was great. Seeing Comic Twilight get straight up fooled by Chrysalis, who then beats the crap out of her, made me smile.)
Going on with things I love about this episode, this little exchange is my favorite part:
Evil Twilight: If you were close enough to get their hair, why didn't you just attack then?
Queen Chrysalis: It's not that simple! I know better than to attack alone, and with my army gone, I need—
Evil Twilight: Friiiiiiends?
Queen Chrysalis: Servants!
It's only on screen for a split second, but Chrysalis's "Oh shit, she's right" look is hilarious.
Equally hilarious: Chrysalis's plan being to kill the main characters, then build a hive of ponies.
I'll be moving onto the fact that this episode is really strange overall, but there's something that ties into that first, which is how the episode is almost sympathetic to Chrysalis. Consider these two lines:
"And don't think I've forgotten about Starlight! She stole my hive, turned my subjects against me..."
"Find the others so we can get the elements and I can ruin Starlight's life like she ruined mine!"
Now, obviously, she just straight up wants revenge. And it's not like what happened to her wasn't something she brought on herself by invading Equestria. And she also rejected the chance Starlight gave her to stay.
Still, she does have a good reason to hate Starlight. She lost her entire life. Everything she had and cared about, everything she'd worked so hard to get. Whether or not she deserved it, she has every reason to want revenge, and I find it kind of hard to blame her (because I'm biased, etc.).
And while her whole character arc is similar to Starlight's, there is a pretty big difference; namely, that Queen Chrysalis was the legitimate ruler of the changelings. She's not Starlight, who just said "You know what? I want all these people to do what I say," and then went and enslaved a town. Chrysalis was, apparently, their Queen for centuries. Say what you want about her methods, but she did everything she did for (what she believed was) the good of her people.
The 'turned my subjects against me' line is particularly telling. Remember when she comes out of the rubble at the end of the season six finale? She's got her horn lit up and she's ready to go, but something stops her: it's seeing all her changelings on the other side. She's utterly dismayed at that sight, so much that she actually cringes back at one point.
Really, she just wants to be the leader, to be a Queen (God, the part where she talks about building a hive of ponies is hilarious, I just need to say that again). That, most likely, is the exact reason she rejected Starlight's attempt at befriending her: she'd already seen that all her changelings, who had been so faithful to her, now hate her. And that seems to be the main source of her hatred for Starlight.
(Which is one of many things that make everything about the season six finale and the changelings in subsequent episodes so utterly nonsensical. The changelings went from literally cheering for Chrysalis to turning on her in less than three minutes. At no point had we ever seen a changeling, aside from Thorax, be anything but loyal. But now suddenly in all the new episodes it's all 'oh, we only did that because Chrysalis made us!' And the reason for that, of course, is that it's a kids' show. Things like continuity and consistency in how characters act are just distractions from pumping out episodes as fast as you can. You want the characters to act in a way that's completely different from everything they're done up to this point? Well now they do! No need for explanations.)
There's also that moment at the end of this episode where she finally discovers Evil Twilight's sudden but inevitable betrayal. Her line, "How dare you?! I created you!", sounds almost... anguished. Which may have been the intent, considering that she is again being betrayed by her followers (I'll talk about her next line, which is fairly important, in a bit).
If there's anything that's going to get Chrysalis a redemption, it's going to be learning to be a leader instead of just a ruler. Which is kind of the point of this episode, given that her failure to get the Elements of Harmony is due to the Evil Mane Six not following her.
And on that note... this is a really bizarre episode. I mean, it's an episode about Queen Chrysalis, one of the most dangerous villains on the show. And she's not even the antagonist of her own episode!
Now obviously she is at the start, what with creating evil clones to take over Equestria. But Evil Twilight pretty much instantly starts plotting against her, and the rest aren't exactly on her side either.
This is actually almost exactly the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' episode I've always wanted, just with an interesting twist on the idea. I mean arguably, what Chrysalis wants isn't that bad compared to what the evil clones would do. Chrysalis just wants a kingdom to rule over (and actually... would she even be evil anymore with a kingdom of ponies? Everything she did stemmed from having to find love for the changelings. With that pressure gone, what would she even do that's so bad?).
It's never explicitly stated what the Evil Mane Six would do with the Elements, but it's likely worse than Chrysalis. Rarity would steal everything she could, Pinkie and Fluttershy would torture ponies for fun, and Twilight would rule with an iron hoof that would make Chrysalis look like Celestia. On the other hand, Applejack would just lie a lot and Rainbow Dash would just nap, so not much going on there. Not to mention, Evil Twilight makes it sound like the whole world is her target, not just Equestria.
I'm really looking forward to seeing this episode finished, since the leaked version was missing a lot of sound effects and all the music (side note: the teleport sound effect just being a royalty free popping sound (like Goku in Dragonball Z Abridged using Instant Transmission) is absolutely hilarious and something that needs to become the standard on the show).
But without those musical cues, it's kind of hard to know who to root for during the final showdown. I think it's actually supposed to be Chrysalis, you know, given that the alternative is an Evil Mane Six getting ahold of the Elements of Harmony. I'm really interested to see if there's any kind of tension sting as Twilight's beam starts getting closer and closer to Chrysalis's horn. If it's implied that we're supposed to be worried about what's going to happen to Chrysalis, that's really cool.
Random tinfoily speculation: if you look at it a certain way, the Tree of Harmony actually saved Chrysalis. Whether or not it did so on purpose, rather than as a side effect of protecting itself, is up to interpretation. But the final trigger that made the tree melt the Evil Mane Six was Evil Twilight almost blasting Chrysalis. The others fighting and hitting the tree made their Elements turn black. Evil Twilight's Element didn't turn black until she was just about to beat Chrysalis.
Also, I would imagine that the Tree would know Chrysalis was the one who created the evil clones, or at least detect that she herself was evil. And while she was standing in the mouth of the cave, a good distance from the tree, it's never really shown itself to have any issues with range (it blew up the plundervines really good, even the ones in Ponyville, and sent the seed for Twilight's castle to where it is now). So the fact that it didn't see fit to attack Chrysalis as well means... something? I don't really know. I mean, it's not clear if the tree is sentient in any way. Maybe it was only defending itself against the direct attacks it was taking. Although, Evil Twilight didn't attack it, so maybe it was just reacting to the presence of corrupted versions of the Element Bearers.
Or, random idea that just popped into my head, since the other Mane Six attacking the Tree triggered their Elements to flash, and attacking Chrysalis is what made Evil Twilight's flash... maybe Chrysalis is connected to the Tree somehow? The changeling origin story in the (now probably officially noncanon) Fiendship special shows them coming out of a tree, which I have heard (but can't find any proof to now) references some myths where changelings are born from trees. If they want to go that route, maybe the tree has something to do with how Chrysalis and the changelings came to be. Although, that doesn't make much sense, seeing as how she had no idea what the Tree was or where it was. Also, it was implied in the wedding episode that she'd only recently discovered Equestria.
Or, maybe the tree coincidentally saved her and then didn't do anything to her because that's what the script said (you get one guess which answer is right).
I also found it odd that Chrysalis kind of seemed more focused on the Mane Six for her revenge. She's putting her plan into motion, and her first target is "Twilight Sparkle and her meddling friends". Followed by "Oh yeah, and that one pony who foiled my plans and ruined my life? I'll kill all her friends in front of her and then kill her too. I guess."
I mean, I suppose I shouldn't complain, since I vastly prefer them over Starlight. It's just that the whole thing makes no sense (and it didn't make sense why Twilight was her nemesis in the comics, either). I don't think she's ever even spoken directly to any of them, aside from when she was Cadance. Oh, I think she made a snarky little comment when Twilight freed Cadance and said the power of love was their only chance now. That's about it. To be honest, I always kind of had a head canon that she wasn't even 100% clear on what their names are.
Inconsistent writing, as usual, is my go to explanation here. I could also go with the writers finally realizing that Starlight isn't exactly the dynamo of popularity she was supposed to be, and trying to dilute her a bit by adding the Mane Six into Chrysalis's revenge schemes. But (and I go into this more later on) I have one of my patented wild theories that she's going to end up having to work with the Mane Six in the finale. So having her mention them as targets here plays into that.
Also equally strange about this episode: it ends with the main character saying the lesson they learned out loud, even though she didn't actually learn it. Or at least hasn't realized it yet.
The line I'm referring to is "Servants always fail you in the end". Which is probably the best summation of how Chrysalis got into this situation. She had servants, not loyal followers (even though she did, inconsistent character writing, blah blah blah.). This is probably the first time in the show where a character hasn't learned a lesson that's explicitly stated, by themselves no less. Which makes sense, given that this episode consists of a villain that never interacts with the good guys (and whose time to learn that lesson hasn't come yet).
So then, the big question after all that: is Queen Chrysalis going to end up reformed?
I don't know. Or to put it another way, both answers seem likely. Let's explore them together!
A quick summary first.
No: because she had the opportunity here to learn something, and ignored it. The showrunners have mentioned wanting to have a villain who refuses to change, and having Chrysalis refuse to learn anything here seems to be leading to that end.
Yes: because, frankly, they're going to reform all the villains who appear on the show. It's kind of the theme of the show. While Chrysalis didn't learn her lesson here, there are clear hints that she's being set up to do so.
Onto more detail.
No.
As I've mentioned before, "You can't change some people" is something the writers have expressed interest in. And given people's reactions to all the villains constantly being reformed, it makes sense that they'd pick at least one to keep permanently evil.
As far as that goes, Chrysalis is a pretty good pick.
You can't really reform her without losing a lot of what she is. They got away with turning the changelings into flutterponies (I say 'got away with', but that's probably a bit of an exaggeration) because they weren't characters. They were literally voiceless, nameless, characterless minions up to that point.
Chrysalis, on the other hand, has a lot of character (not to mention one of the most beautiful designs on the show). Reforming her like the rest of the changelings were reformed would mean losing all that. Considering that she's either absolutely loved or absolutely hated by everyone, changing everything about her would mean risking a lot of backlash (I would hope they learned from what happened when Twilight became an alicorn (even though I approved of that change)). It would, in fact, be the equivalent of killing her.
Of course, there's only one season left after this one. They might just say screw it and do it anyway; not like there's anything left to lose. But then, you could say the same thing for reforming her but keeping her mostly the same. And it could work, too; just look at Discord.
But why wouldn't they reform her without having her transform? Well, simply put, because they can't, not after how aggressively they've stated that black changelings are always evil no matter what. Pharynx was a chance to edge away from that, and we saw how that went.
Probably the biggest clue that she won't be reformed was from the end of the episode. I mean, she literally said the lesson of the episode out loud. But she didn't learn it; in fact, the next thing she did was to yell about getting her revenge. It seems pretty clear that she's going to end up being the villain who refuses to learn her lesson, even when it's right in front of her.
What really makes me think that's how everything is going to go is how they set all this up in the first place: as a (rather forced) comparison to what Starlight did. Right up to Starlight saying "I've been exactly where you are, but you don't have to do what I did". Heck, they both even have the same plan for revenge: destroy the friends of the person who hurt them in from of that person. To me, it doesn't seem likely that they're going to give Chrysalis exactly the same character arc as Starlight, which is what reforming her would mean. Instead, she's going to refuse to change, refuse to be reformed. Which, of course, will probably end with her dying.
Also, from the synopsis of the rest of the season eight episodes that were released, she doesn't seem to appear anywhere. If they were going to reform her, I'd imagine that they'd do it in the same season where they have her reappear. The fact that this seems to be her one appearance is rather telling.
On the other hand...
Yes.
Where to start with this...
As I said, this whole episode seemed somewhat sympathetic towards Chrysalis, to the point where it ends with her being the one you're supposed to root for. And given that the episode centers around the Evil Mane Six not following her commands, having her figure out that's why her plan didn't work would be the perfect epiphany for her to realize how a leader (and not just a ruler) should act. Assuming she comes back in the finale, that would be the turning point of the episode, the climax.
On top of that, there are multiple instances of her literally saying the lesson she refuses to learn out loud. There's the little exchange with Twilight I mentioned earlier, about how she needs friends; she makes a comment at one point that trying to lead the Mane Six around the forest is nothing like controlling her hive (i.e. they aren't doing what she says because they aren't really scared of her); and of course at the end she rather succinctly sums up the lesson of the episode.
The point is, Chrysalis's reformation is being set up perfectly here. All she needs to realize is the truth behind what she said and experienced, and poof. Heck, she could even be the one thing we haven't seen yet: a villain who realizes the error of their ways by themselves. Or at least without having to have Twilight get in their face and yell "hey dumbass, be friendly". After this episode, Chrysalis is halfway there already.
This is more anecdotal, but Hasbro is doing a series of videos called "Hasbro Tales" or something like that, basically interviews with various staff members. The first one with Meghan Mcarthy starts with her talking about reforming villains. She basically says that she believes everyone can be reformed, you just need to figure out the key.
And this is said over a clip from the end of the season six finale, where Chrysalis is reaching out to take Starlight's hoof.
Of course, it fades to white before the clip gets to the part where she knocks Starlight's hoof away. Odds are, someone just wanted a clip that looked like a villain was being reformed, and that was a good example when taken out of context.
On the other hand, Mcarthy is the one who wrote A Canterlot Wedding, meaning she basically created Chrysalis. Choosing that clip when she's the one talking about villains being reformed seems like it could be very intentional. Showing Starlight being reformed would have been a much better example, even if Mcarthy was working on the movie and not the show when it took place. Of course, she wasn't working on the show during the clip they used either, so...
I've mentioned before that I think Hasbro has rules that say black characters have to be evil, along with more generally evil-looking characters. But we've already seen exceptions to that: Luna isn't exactly the brightest and cheeriest pony, and I shouldn't even have to mention that Discord is literally the poster-child for 'evil' good guy.
I mean, have you seen the box art for the Guardians of Harmony Discord figure? He does not look nice on it. Oh, and here's this picture from Hascon 2017:
Rather stark contract with Fluttershy there, huh?
What I'm saying is, what if it's no so much that there can't be any evil-looking good guys, but there just can't be too many? There's a limit, in other words.
So an entire hive of black changelings with holes in their legs, tattered wings and fangs as good guys is a no. But one, as their Queen... maybe that's a yes?
And on the subject of her being a Queen... Thorax and Pharynx still don't seem to have titles. They're just 'the leaders'. So I've said it before and I'll say it again: Chrysalis as Queen, those two as Princes. Because, frankly, there needs to be two of them to balance out Chrysalis. Actually, it works out pretty well: Thorax is the nice one, Chrysalis is the mean one, and Pharynx is the neutral one.
In the end, this episode raises more questions than it answers in terms of what Chrysalis's future will be. It's actually done a spectacular job at obfuscating what's going to happen to her, given it hints towards both redemption and permanent villainy in almost equal amounts.
And whether or not any of those questions will be answered this season seems to be very up in the air. Reading through the synopses that leaked, Chrysalis doesn't seem to be appearing again.
One really weird thing involves Tirek coming back. We already knew that was happening, due to his voice actor saying he'd done more lines for the season eight finale. And the synopsis for that finale mentions magic disappearing in Equestria, and the Mane Six having to escape Tartarus. All of that obviously points towards Tirek having a big role in the finale.
But what's really weird is, in the leaked assets, there was a file showing a rock garden sculpture of Tirek with a filly (the villain from the other half of the finale, I think her name is Cozy Glow) riding on his shoulders.
So... Tirek redemption incoming? I guess?
I don't know, that seems like a really odd decision. If there was one character I was going to pick for "never being reformed", Tirek, Mr. I Destroy Kingdoms For Fun, was at the top of the list. I literally don't see how he can even be reformed; how do they excuse/explain his wanting nothing more than to reduce everything to rubble in a way that makes him seem sympathetic? He's not the other villains, who just wanted to take over. He wanted to kill everyone. Heck, he even talks like he wants to kill his brother. I mean, when your character's entire motivation is to destroy stuff "because", I just don't really see how that can lead to him becoming a good guy. The other villains, at least, have had motivations that could be shifted or reduced in scope and then they're good guys. Tirek was just an unguided missile.
Here's a pretty twisted thought. While it seems like Tirek is the main antagonist in the finale, what if it's Chrysalis who sets it all off and traps the Mane Six in Tartarus? And then Tirek helps them escape and ends up reformed, ultimately helping to defeat Chrysalis—say, by having her replace him in that cage in Tartarus because she refuses to change? This at least seems a bit unlikely, as there was a leaked asset showing a hand drawing of a new cage next to what I assume is Tirek's. Which makes me think the new cage is for the Mane Six, and they're trapped next to Tirek. Who... helps them escape, I guess? I don't know, I can't think of many other explanations for that sculpture.
Or, almost as bad, that filly who takes over the school is actually Chrysalis (the synopsis did say a mastermind was taking over the school). So that rock sculpture of her and Tirek happens after they've been reformed, and Chrysalis is somehow trapped as a filly/permanently transformed into one. However, this also doesn't seem likely to me. For one, I doubt the filly who tries to take over the school makes her first appearance in this episode. Meaning this would only work if she's been Chrysalis the whole time.
Although, those two options are pretty much the worst ways I can think of for this to go, which means I've probably made a correct guess for once.
On the plus side, there was no reformed Chrysalis model anywhere in the leaks. Obviously it wasn't a full set of assets, but still, no news is good news.
Now, I did say that it looks like Chrysalis won't be coming back in season eight, but there was one thing that hints at it. At the end of the episode, Twilight says "If our friendship can survive a day like this, it can survive anything!" as the camera pans up and we see Chrysalis flying away. Which seems like a pretty big hint at her returning before the season's over, but then again I've been burned by assuming that there's any kind of foreshadowing whatsoever in this show.
But also, they seem to be pushing Chrysalis pretty hard. When we first saw she was coming back this season, it was during Hascon when they showed that animatic. And just recently, at the toy fair, they showed a completed scene from later in the episode.
Just showing an animatic from halfway thought the season is weird enough by itself; usually the animatic previews we get tend to be from the premieres, from what I remember (we've actually started getting a ton of them now in the run up to the premiere). And then to show a completed clip from an episode that, again, is halfway through the season—rather than, say, hyping up the premiere—seems like it's a bit of a trend. It's pure speculation on my part, but I can't think of any reason why they'd be showcasing her so much if she wasn't going to be more important this season than just a throwaway episode partway through. I suppose they could just be doing it because they know how popular she is—but then, if they know that, why wouldn't they bring her back for real?
(A little bit of (possibly insulting and mean) thinking here, but the showrunners seem kind of arrogant and condescending at times.
I mean, they do great things like making Derpy a character (and even a mailmare), and pretty much all of episode 100—stuff that really shows they know how we think and what we like, and they give these little tidbits and easter eggs to the fandom to show their appreciation for our support.
But then we get stuff where everyone's been wanting an episode that focuses on the Princesses for years, and they know that and do nothing, because (and this is just a rumor) they "don't like working with the Princesses". And then of course there's the whole thing where they've been shoving Starlight Glimmer into the show as much as possible, despite the fact that her reception has been lukewarm, at best.
I mean, I'm not saying they need to let us write the show. They have their own ideas for what they want to do. But when certain characters are popular and others aren't, you need to work with that (that's literally the entire reason Trixie was ever more than a minor throwaway villain from season one, right?).
God knows I've learned that lesson—feedback from your audience is important, and while you shouldn't compromise your vision, you also need to give your audience what they want, or else what you're doing is pointless.
I went a bit off topic there, but the point I was leading up to was, I could totally see them refusing to bring Chrysalis back specifically because they know she's popular, and resent that for some reason. Like I said, they do some great stuff when it comes to acknowledging us fans, but they seem kind of... resentful at times, too. It's like there's two teams on the show, one that loves the fans and likes to show their appreciation, and one that says "screw the fans we'll do what we want and they have to like it". I don't know, just a feeling I get occasionally.)
(Not to be more of a jerk, but I wonder if it's the new staff that's replaced the ones who left or got promoted. There can be a big attitude difference between people who created something popular and those who joined something popular later on, i.e. the latter being arrogant and disdainful. I mean, consider the attitude of someone who made something popular. Then think about the general attitude and personality of the kind of person who sees a popular thing and says "I want to be part of it because it's popular and therefore I'm automatically great because I'm a part of it". I'm not saying everyone (or even anyone) who's joined up in the last few years is like that, but it's definitely a personality type.)
And while this might not be too reliable, there seems to be a new Chrysalis brushable being released:
Obviously, it's just a re-release of the toy from that wedding collection that came out a few years back. Which itself was just a recolored alicorn figure with pasted-on holes and slightly translucent wings.
They did update her eyes to be rather more show accurate. I'm having trouble deciding if they make her look more or less evil, though. I mean, she's got the V eyebrows going on, yeah. But there's also that curve to the eyelids that softens her look a bit. It's more arrogant than angry, in my opinion.
But like I said, it's not reliable. This pic came from a Chinese store, who apparently got ahold of them early somehow (most likely because, I assume, all these toys are manufactured in China). So these could be bootleg knockoffs. Also, the toy fair just got done, and there were no Chrysalis figures anywhere to be seen.
On the other hand again, there was also a Sandbar (some random student from the new season) brushable available at the Chinese store, and it was identical to the one shown at the toyfair. So maybe this is reliable.
But why show one and not the other at the fair?
One word: spoilers.
The Sandbar figure comes paired with Rainbow Dash. Maybe whatever pairing Chrysalis has is a spoiler? And on that note, maybe her title is changing, and showing the box art would spoil that (calling it now: EMPRESS Chrysalis). The boxes generally have a blurb on them about the character as well, so maybe that's a spoiler too.
But still—like I said, they're pushing Chrysalis hard this season. And it's not like she hasn't been around and had toys before, they don't need to wait for her to have another appearance on the show so everyone remembers who she is before they start selling toys. Heck, they had a Nightmare Moon toy this year, and she hasn't been around since the first episode! (Actually, out of seven seasons, I think Nightmare Moon has made some kind of an appearance in all of them except for seasons three and six. And she showed up twice in season five.)
Given how much they've been hyping up Chrysalis's return this season, and assuming Chrysalis only shows up in this one episode this season, and assuming that she's still going to be a villain at the end of the season, why not have the toy at the fair?
Going even further: I believe these toys aren't due to be released for a while. No doubt they had alicorn Twilight toys ready to go in advance of that episode, but they damn sure weren't showing them off months in advance (at least not on purpose). So this might actually be solid evidence that she's not only going to be reformed at the end of season eight, but she's also not going to be transforming. Obviously any kind of box art would spoil that, and maybe even a large part of the finale plot, so they had to leave her out (Hey, I can dream). Still—suspicious, yes?
So on that topic... I've said the synopses don't support Queen Chrysalis coming back, but that doesn't mean I can't bend them so that they do!
My first though is kind of boring: let's say she's the one who gets the Mane Six sent to Tartarus, by teaming up with Tirek. But, of course, it's Tirek, so he immediately betrays her and sends her there with them. She's then forced to work with them to escape and help defeat Tirek. Which ties in nicely with the mid-season episode—once again she's leading the Mane Six, except this time, with guidance from them, she actually does it right. Cue reformation, etc.
Like I said, kind of boring. But let's move on to everyone's favorite part: the part where I really start making up some crazy shit.
First off, let's consider episode 22 of the new season:
What Lies Beneath—The students of Twilight's School of Friendship are cramming for a "History of Magic in Equestria" exam in the school library when they discover a part of the school that no pony else knows about. When they decide to do some exploring they end up learning much more than they bargained for.
Given how spooky the episode title is, this could involve Tartarus in some way, thus triggering the events of the finale (A quick thought—given that the finale involves a filly trying to take over the friendship school along with Tirek in some way, maybe that statue is something he made to trick her into thinking he's her friend and releasing him/working together with him? Thus no ridiculous Tirek reformation after all? (I mean, he did die in the original My Little Pony movie rather than become a good guy. Should keep things consistent, right?)).
But a hidden underground section of the school also sounds like the perfect place for, say, a Queen-in-exile to have her new lair. Chrysalis is obviously somewhere in Equestria—Discord sent her that package. And she seemed to know quite a bit about the Mane Six, including that the Elements were hidden somewhere in the Everfree Forest. I doubt that's a bit of information being widely spread around, so it would make sense that she overheard that because she's made her base somewhere nearby the Mane Six, and under the school would fit in with that. Also, I'd assume being that close to all of them and the castle would mean she could just siphon off as much excess love as she needs.
Another random thought: how does the school get there? Does it get built? If it does, that would mean somebody would have to dig out this underground section ,which makes it unlikely there would be a section no one knows about. But it does seem like it would be pretty easy for a shapeshifter to alter the plans without anyone noticing. Or does the Tree grow the school for some reason, like how it grew Twilight's castle? If it does, and it includes a lair for Chrysalis, we again get that link between her and the Tree that I mentioned earlier.
(Imagine the sheer hype that will result if the season premiere ends with a shot of the school, as a song finishes and the camera pans up to the sunset above it... and then pans down again, underground, and we see Chrysalis in her new lair, saying a line about how much she loves her new home)
So, using my ability to leap to conclusions, it's possible that the episode is about the students discovering Chrysalis living under the school, and then somehow convincing her not to kill them on the spot while also deciding to keep her presence a secret.
Now, let's say that suddenly a big, mean villain like Tirek starts attacking the school while the Mane Six are away. What do the students do? Well, they know a bigger, meaner villain...
So again Chrysalis gets a chance to lead. You can't beat Tirek easily, though, especially if he's been draining magic again. They'd need something like the Elements of Harmony to defeat him. You know, the Elements Chrysalis just had a plan to gain control of? And as far as we know, those pieces of wood the Evil Mane Six turned into are still there in front of the Tree.
But why would cloning the Mane Six work this time? Because magic, especially when it comes to the Elements of Harmony, seems to work off intent. Celestia lost her connection to the Elements after using them to banish her sister. And using them to "destroy instead of heal" was going to destroy the Elements themselves in the season seven finale.
So when Chrysalis used her copy spell to create clones that were going to use the Elements for evil, she got evil clones who were destroyed by the Tree. But if she's going to use the spell to bring them back with the intention of stopping a villain, maybe they turn out to be good clones. And again we get the scenario of Chrysalis leading the Mane Six, except again this time she does it right. (This is also the funnier scenario—Chrysalis and the Clone Mane Six defeat Tirek and teaches Chrysalis at least a little bit about friendship. Then the real Mane Six show up ready to fight Tirek, only to find Chrysalis waiting there. Who charges them and sweeps them up in a big hug, calling them her friends (okay, that's probably a bit too far)).
Now, all that was obviously just me writing more fanfics.
But, they do love their surprises. So why spoil Chrysalis coming back months before the season even starts airing? More importantly, why let Tirek's voice actor go on Twitter and spoil that he's recorded his lines for the season eight finale literally a year before it will air?
Misdirection. You hype up Chrysalis returning, only for it to be a random mid-season episode. Then you let the voice actor for Tirek leak that he's going to be in the finale. Then what happens in the finale? Tirek's the villain... and boom, Chrysalis comes out of nowhere to stop him and become a good guy.
All these things that look like spoilers are just minor spoilers to distract you from what's really going to happen.
(Or, if they want to do a real mindscrew—the students discover Chrysalis under the school in that episode, and they actually reform her right then and there, complete with transformation. Then the season finale comes around, and Tirek's attacking the school. All the students, along with Chrysalis, try to befriend him, but it obviously doesn't work. Just before he can kill them all, Chrysalis Hulks out, turning back into original Chrysalis, and proceeds to go full season four final Twilight on Tirek, thanks to the power of the love her new friends are giving her. Cue the lesson, that you can't be friends with everyone, and maybe sometimes you actually need to be a bit of a mean person. And to go all the way into my fantasy, some of the changelings (including that student at the school) even change back to the original changelings, because while sharing love is great, there are times you shouldn't share it and people you shouldn't share it with. Maybe that's a bit harsh of a lesson for a kids' show, but it's something extremely important for people, maybe especially kids, to learn. And we did have that one episode with the Breezies, where Fluttershy's lesson was that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind—so maybe this kind of lesson isn't too far fetched.)
In any case... yeah, I obviously have no idea what's actually going to happen.
I'm still holding out for non-transformed reformed Chrysalis. The thing is though... there's a lot of character growth potential for her from this episode. And if she's in another episode plus the finale, as I speculated, that's the most character development we've ever seen for a villain who eventually gets redeemed. It's a far cry from Starlight running away at the start of a season, then showing up out of nowhere to be literally one of the most evil villains on the show before doing a completely out of nowhere face-heel turn and going good.
So even if Chrysalis does end up transforming during her redemption... it will almost be worth it for her to have a real character arc behind her redemption.
But there's no real reason she has to transform. Even if she does go good, it would be completely in character for her to not transform. There's plenty of ways for them to handle it, despite the precedent they've set.
They could completely sandbag it, for one. Picture a good Chrysalis reuniting with the changelings, with Starlight there. "So, now that you're sharing love, you're going to transform, right?" Chrysalis slowly turns to face her, glaring. "I mean, you're good now, so obviously you'd want to look just like all the other changelings..." Chrysalis at this point is bending down over Starlight, a death glare on her face, maybe her lips curled up to show her fangs and a low hiss coming out of her mouth. "Or, you know, you can not transform too. I mean, everyone has there own thing, right? And black is a good look for you..." Starlight slowly backs off the screen, and Chrysalis gives an angry snort.
Or Chrysalis starts to transform, doing the whole glowing and rising into the air thing. At which point she starts screaming and hissing, waving her legs all over the place and snapping her fangs. The light fades away and she lands back on the ground. "That is not going to be happening."
Or she does transform fully. She lands back on the ground, but off screen, and all we get is the barest glimpse of one of her legs. "Chrysalis, you look—" "Disgusting!" she interrupts, and all we see is a flash of green fire followed by her original design. And we never actually see her transformed look.
I mean, like I've said, it's not like this show is heavy on the canon, or even any kind of consistency. While they may have set a bit of a precedent, there's nothing stopping them from just completely ignoring it.
The only thing that's really disappointing is, even if she gets reformed exactly the way I want, there's only one season left after this. Which means, at best, we might get two episodes with her. And that's if she even reappears in season eight at all! The way things are looking, she might not show up again until the end of season nine (seeing as how the season nine premiere is titled Sombra's Return and also involves Grogar), meaning her ultimate fate would end up being the last thing to happen on the show.
Honestly, I kind of feel like this whole generation five thing blindsided the staff as much as it did us. I don't remember the exact dates on the emails, and obviously we don't have the full timeline, but I recall an email that was talking about brainstorming for the new show, and I believe that was from around August. Even if I'm misremembering the dates, let's say they were told about it in May of that year.
That still seems like awful short notice for them to suddenly find out that, oh, you only have two seasons left. Especially give that by the time season seven started airing, they'd probably already finalized all the scripts for season eight, and probably even started getting the voice actors working on it.
My point is, they've been setting up a lot of stuff for future seasons. Chrysalis is running around looking for revenge, a bunch of legendary ponies just came back from the past, and now the main characters are running a school filled with new characters. That's the kind of stuff that could fill multiple seasons, and now they're suddenly done after two—one of which was probably planned out long before they found this out.
Oh, and don't forget that they introduced Flurry Heart as the only natural-born alicorn ever, apparently, because "we want a mystery on the show". That's something that's going to need to be explained in a hurry.
So basically, all these loose threads have to be wrapped up real quick in one season. And frankly, I think it's going to be a mess—kind of like how they had to shove Twilight's ascension into a single episode.
We already know season nine will be packed—Sombra's coming back in the premiere, and there was an email about bringing Sunset back to meet Celestia again and wrap that up. So if they have to force Chrysalis into all that too, it's going to be a disaster.
Although, if everything I remember reading from the hacked stuff is correct, after season nine there are supposed to be three 45 minutes specials, followed by a second theatrical movie to close out the series (no, I'm not confusing it with the G5 prequel movie—they are separate movies, there's going to be two back-to-back. I think the FiM finale movie is Spring 2020, and the G5 movie is Fall 2020. At least, I believe that was the plan I read).
So it's possible one of those specials involve Chrysalis in some way. Or even the movie.
Though, the movie, as the finale to the series, would work better if every villain we've seen so far is reformed beforehand. Then the movie can involve all of them joining together with the Mane Six—and all the other characters we've seen on the show—to fight off whatever the threat is. I mean, what would be a better ending to the series than literally every single character we've met showing up as a friend to help?
So, there you go. A whole bunch more words that basically boil down to me complaining about the changelings reformation for like the tenth time. Words that could have been put into that sequel to the Twilestia story. Oh well!
(it's coming, I swear. The current chapter I'm finishing up is actually about this long)
Really, the best thing they could do is not reform Chrysalis in the season finale because they could use her in two or three episodes after that and use her as the Final Boss for the series finale. I think it would be acceptable if we got a couple episodes where we see her starting to piece things together.
If we run with the idea that it's possible to reform anybody, if you can figure out the key, that would bring it around to the fact that people can "reform" themselves, if they come to understand an important truth about something, finally completing the audience's training with the idea that sometimes you don't need to give someone friendship lessons, but just give them something to think about that they hadn't before. They could even use the series finale in that case to show that the reason Chrysalis hasn't reformed and refuses to reform and won't move forward is because she's holding onto something that is holding her back, because she's afraid to let go of it but is finally able to do so with help from Starlight and Thorax and Pharynx and Twilight and everyone. That she learns that sometimes in order to grow and become better, we have to take a chance and do something that scares us, but it's easier and not as scary if we have friends by our side.
That would be a perfect arc to end the series on, and that is exactly why they won't do it.
Um, aren't they permanently hungry without being transformed? Seems like a pretty crappy state to stay in.
I am looking forward to hearing your take on Gen 5!
Phew, I finally finished it. You weren't kidding when you said it was long. I've got to say, I agree with you on a lot of points. Chrysalis is, by far, my favorite villain(since Discord is reformed) with Tirek being runner-up. When I saw Hasbro had leaked an episode featuring Chrysalis, I skipped past all the other leaked episodes and went straight for that one. All and all, I was pretty pleased with the episode, too, as it did for Chrysalis what "A Royal Problem" did for Celestia and Luna and offered some dedicated character development.
As far as Chrysalis being reformed, I'm a bit on the edge. On one hand, I know they're going to have resolve her character somehow since I highly doubt they'll just let her stay a villain, but that means they'll either have to permanently incapacitate her(death/imprisonment) or reform her, which, as I said, I'm a little iffy about because I can't stand the thought of Chrysalis being anything other than the arrogant, narcissistic bug we've come to love, and I don't know if Hasbro would be able to keep that while also haveing her be a good guy. They managed it pretty well with Discord, but with him, he was never really evil, just a cocky, mischievous jerk, which is a far-cry from Chrysalis' more malicious personality.
If they do decide to reform her, however, I don't think I'd mind if they at least did it right and stayed true to Chrysalis' character. My personal preference would be having the cutie map call both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to some remote village to solve a friendship problem and have their target be Chrysalis in disguise. There are so many ways something like that could go down, but ideally, I would see it happening slowly over the course of several episodes. Personally, whichever way something like this would be done, I wouldn't want the princesses to know it was Chrysalis they were helping until the big reveal came.
A slightly more convoluted, but all the more interesting, take on this idea could have Chrysalis pull a Discord and betray Celestia and Luna, leading to the rise of the Big Bad of the season. Towards the end, Chrysalis could face a choice to either save or betray Celestia and Luna, perhaps the Big Bad could offer her a chance to help him one last time and be rewarded with her own kingdom or not and be destroyed. Before making her choice Discord could then appeal to her by telling her of his own betrayal and warning her not to make his mistake. Ultimately she could side with the ponies and serve as the piece that tips the balance in their favor, leading to the defeat of the Big Bad. When the dust settles, however, and Celestia and Luna are looking for Chrysalis, they would find that she's run away, not able to face them.
I would then have her appear secretly in the following season as some sort of cloaked pony that secretly guides and helps the mane 6 in whatever crisis of the season is occurring, eventually culminating in a big reveal at the end where Chrysalis could ultimately save the day and finally be fully reformed, preferably without transforming or changing personalities too much.
As far as Gen 5 goes, I'm just hoping they don't completely ruin the characters. Since they're essentially making it a soft reboot of G4, then I believe they should, more or less, keep the main characters as they should be, which means Twilight needs to be a unicorn, Rainbow Dash needs wings, and Applejack doesn't get either. The other pony's species could likely be shifted around a bit without changing their character too much since their personalities aren't as tied to their species as the others.
I also absolutely require that both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia be part of G5m preferably with bigger roles than that had in G4.
If I could have one aspect of G5 changed to my liking, though, I'd definitely want them to take it a bit more seriously than they took G4, which means bumping up the age demographic. I won't hold it against them too much for G4 since they had no idea it would be so popular among older audiences, but now that they know, they should definitely cater to older audiences a bit more and tell a more sophisticated and well-thought-out story, preferably with a bit more action and adventure since most episodes, with the exception of season finales and opening episodes along with the occasional other exception in G4, were Slice of Life for the most part, which isn't bad, but I would personally prefer a bit more action and adventure with a side of mystery off to the side.
P.S: Since you posted an insanely long blog post, it's only fair that I give you an insanely long response. lol
i just hope they've learned from their mistakes, and don't make the same ones in G5
Clearly thought out and well-reasoned.
I wanna steal that for a comedy piece. Probably an Infinite Loops snip, where the whole thing is being orchestrated by a very, VERY bored Twilight Sparkle and her friends.