Top Ten Villains of FiM, Version 7 · 2:20pm Oct 16th, 2018
Sorry for doing these a little out of order, I meant to update the episode rankings last night but then my wifi completely conked out on me and I couldn't get it back until this morning. I'll work to update that list later today, baring any unforeseen complications. Anyway, this list most definitely needed to be updated after how Season 8 played out. Here's the previous version, from the middle of Season 8, time to see who moved up, who moved down, who got knocked off, and who returned. As always, this list is purely the result of my personal opinion.
10. Suri Polomare (Episodes appeared in: Rarity Takes Manehattan)
Why she returned: Bet you're wondering why she returned to the list and who she's replacing, well I'll tell you who's she replacing and try to bare with me here. She's replacing Chancellor Neighsay. Now hear me out, I just couldn't bring myself to really enjoy Neighsay even on a love to hate level, he went from being a well intentioned extremist in the premiere to being a total idiot and a blatant bigot in all subsequent appearances, abusing his authority to suit his agenda. Him getting deposed and chained up by Cozy Glow in the finale was nice, but he deserved far more than that, he should've lost his title. Suri Polomare is guilty of doing somewhat similar things, she committed plagerism and exploited Rarity's generosity, but the difference is that Suri lost and Coco, her assistant who she abused ended up turning on her and ratting her out. Suri still works wonders as the anti-Rarity and a more down to earth villain. Not all evils are as blatantly obvious as fiction likes to make them.
9. Queen Chrysalis (Episodes appeared in: A Canterlot Wedding Parts 1 and 2, The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2, To Where and Back Again Parts 1 and 2, The Mean 6)
Why she moved down: Just because we've had worse antagonists now doesn't mean Chrysalis gets off the hook for hitting "Villain Decay" so badly this season in her only episode. Heck, it seems that her plots only ever work because no one is smart enough to question anything until it's too late. The first time around it may have been excuseable to an extent given the wedding and how she may have snuck under everyone's nose, but by the second time around you think ponies would learn to invest in some security so she can't just capture them. Some are saying that Cozy Glow should've been Chrysalis in disguise, and perhaps if "Marks for Effort" hadn't dropped the ball so hard that it required Cozy to explain herself to Starlight that could've worked. After all, it would make sense for Chrysalis to want the mane six gone so she could target Starlight for her revenge.
8. Lord Tirek (Episodes appeared in: Twilight's Kingdom Parts 1 and 2, The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2, School Raze Parts 1 and 2)
Why he moved up: Tirek is still a villain sue, but I like how he's become more creepy and menacing now that he's stuck in Tartarus. And I like how the mane six were able to make him realize that his plan to have them be trapped in Tartarus was actually a bad one because that meant they'd be stuck in there with him. People are saying that Cozy Glow and Tirek may team up in the next season, but there's also speculation that we might see Grogar, who in G1 was tied to Tirek (as was Scorpan, who was serving Tirek reluctantly to ensure the safety of Spike).
7. Tempest Shadow a.k.a Fizzlepop Berrytwist (Movies appeared in: My Little Pony, The Movie (2017))
Why she stayed the same: Tempest still only has the movie to herself and baring a sequel of some sort I don't forsee her appearing outside of maybe a non-speaking cameo in the show. I still feel like she could stand to smile more, and her backstory being only slightly better than Starlight's still doesn't excuse her from siding with a tyrant. The reason why Mr. Freeze in the D.C. Animated Universe became such a tragic figure is because while we didn't want to see him succeed we could understand why he was doing what he did, and we got a sense that if not for the accident he could've lived a normal life. Heck, Mr. Freeze even at one point tells Batman "This is a personal vendetta, it doesn't concern you.", he's only targeting those who wronged him or took advantage of him, never innocent people. Tempest does exactly that, targeting others for no reason other than to feel better about herself. It is interesting to see her physical dexterity though, indicating that she's highly trained and likely had to rely on her hooves when she lost her horn.
6. The Storm King (Movies appeared in: My Little Pony, The Movie (2017))
Why he stayed the same: His cameo of sorts in "What Lies Beneath" doesn't count because it was simply a projection of SIlverstream's worst fear, her fear that the Storm King will return and take away everything she holds dear. It's not unlike those whose lives are upended due to war or a conquering army. Even long after the battle is over and the conquerer is driven away, there are still lingering wounds that fade but never fully heal with time. Again though, the Storm King was sorely lacking in one big department in the movie, there was never anything to convey why he was such a threat, nothing that explained why everyone feared him so much. You don't necessarily need to give your villains a complex backstory but you do need to establish why our heroes should fear him or her, otherwise the villain is just an obstacle the protagonists have to overcome.
5. The Dazzlings: Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk (Episodes appeared in: Shadow Play Part 2. Movies appeared in: Rainbow Rocks)
Why they stayed the same: The Dazzlings remain easily the best of the Equestria Girls villains, not that they have much competition really. I've said a lot about them already, about how they don't bide their time until it's too late and let the heroes win, or expose themselves too early and reveal their plans to the heroes so the heroes can stop them. They already know how to control every aspect and get the outcome they want, and how to manipulate what they can't control. They know they're going to win and that the heroes can't stop them. But of course, Adagio Dazzle is really the only one of the three with any kind of development or character, she's a calculating mastermind who craves admiration and wants to make everyone worship her. Sonata Dusk is just the token comedic relief (though she goes along willingly with everything her sisters do), and Aria Blaze is just there, she only gets the throwaway line about a power struggle that goes nowhere.
4. Nightmare Moon (Episodes appeared in: Friendship is Magic Parts 1 and 2, Princess Twilight Sparkle Parts 1 and 2, The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2, A Royal Problem)
Why she stayed the same: There's honestly not much left to say about Nightmare Moon because she's been on the list so many times already. I still like the idea that she's a separate entity from Princess Luna instead of just a corrupted Luna, and that she can still exist in dreams if ponies think of her. It would've been nice to see Luna and Nightmare Moon have a confrontation where Luna has to accept her dark side in order to be rid of her, which is of course among the many things "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" failed to provide. It's still not known if Daybreaker is really what an evil Celestia would look like, or if it was just Starlight's projection of what an evil Celestia would be based solely off of Nightmare Moon.
3. King Sombra (Episodes appeared in: Crystal Empire Parts 1 and 2, The Cutie Re-Mark Part 1)
Why he stayed the same: Sombra has been through many ups and downs, but I think that baring a return in some way, shape, or form next season, he's going to be the antagonist with the least amount of show appearances (the Dazzlings first appeared in Equestria Girls and only briefly appeared in "Shadow Play, Part 2" so they're Equestria Girls villains by default). He's still the biggest departure from generic villains, but admittedly he's more like a natural disaster than a former tyrant trying to recapture his empire. Still, he remains the villain who probably came the closest to succeeding.
2. The Pony of Shadows (Episodes appeared in: Shadow Play Parts 1 and 2)
Why he moved down: I kept him on the top spot before because of the knowledge that he was originally planned for "Twilight's Kingdom" but then got bumped to "Shadow Play" and that presented an interesting "What If?" scenario. I still do like his overall design but there is one thing we still don't know about him. Stygian mentions "The Darkness" and towards the end seems to become possessed by it, but it's not known if the darkness is an actual entity and whether it has anything to do with the Pony of Shadows, let alone if it is tied to Nightmare Moon like "Castle Mane-ia" seemingly implied (if Applejack's story was true).
1. Gladmane (Episodes appeared in: Via Las Pegasus)
Why he moved up: In the wake of villains like Neighsay and Cozy Glow, it's nice to have one like Gladmane who actually feels believeable in his motives and actions, and one has an actual reason to think he's doing nothing wrong. Of course he admits that what he's doing is mean and that he does it solely because he wants to control all of Las Pegasus, but for a time you really got the sense that he truly believed he was doing everyone a favor by keeping them loyal only to him and keeping them from leaving to work for anyone else. An interesting detail is that he claims to have invented the "High Roller Hustle", which is why he didn't fall for it when Flim and Flam tried to pull it on him. I can't be the only one who might like a flashback showing how Gladmane rose through the ranks and the kind of schemes he pulled off to get where he was at the start of "Viva Las Pegasus". Ultimately, he moves up to number one because some other villains move down.
And there you have it. Now, I'll try to update the episode rankings for the entire show later today and then do a ranking for the songs of Season 8 tonight, but we'll see how things go.
My personal list:
1. Season 5 Starlight
2. Tempest Shadow
3. Cozy Glow
4. Capper (he counts since he was an antagonist for a brief while)
5. The Mean Six
6. The Storm King
7. Chrysalis
8. Tirek
9. The Pony of Shadows
10. Trixie
Thanks very much for sharing this list and the reasoning for your picks.
Now, I DO have a few possible ideas for rewrites for Volumes Eight and Nine of your "What If?" series:
"Marks For Effort": Made a two-parter and modified to be the MID-season finale. In addition, Diamond Tiara meets Cozy early on, gets suspicious enough to ask Twilight and Starlight for a chance to investigate Cozy DISCREETLY so she can get hard evidence one way or the other. If she's wrong, then she, Twilight and Starlight are the only ones who need to know. If she's RIGHT, then she has a chance to stop Cozy BEFORE she is in any position to do anything truly bad. Part two then has some stuff including Diamond (with some help from the Crusaders and the Student Six) actually successfully gathering the evidence to expose Cozy BEFORE she has a chance to put any plan into action. Thus, Cozy is taken care of WELL BEFORE the ACTUAL season finale and A LOT less Idiot Ball moments.
"The Mean Seven" (two-part re-write of "the Mean Six", moved to the TRUE season finale): It turns out Chrysalis has created clones of the Mane Six AND Starlight from hair samples collected from when they thwarted her attempt to engineer a multi-pronged war (re-written "School Daze" where Chrysalis kidnapped the future Student Six as we discussed in earlier posts) and then spend several months training the clones. When the clones' training is complete, they then make their move and the clones keep the real Mane Six and Starlight busy for almost the entirety of the two-parter, distracting them so that Chrysalis can pull off her REAL master plan; stealing assorted artifacts that she needs to steal Discord's powers as well as ALL the magic from every pony, dragon, changeling, griffon, hippogriff and yak on the planet (as such power would make her the most powerful being on the planet and keep her fully sustained for several millenniums). However, while the clones are successfully keeping their heroic counterparts occupied, Spike, the Crusaders and the Student Six step up to the plate and make successful use of "Home Alone" style tactics to thwart Chrysalis's scheme long enough for Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, Cadance, the Pillars and the entirety of the Royal Guard to finish defeating and capturing her. Chrysalis then gets a one-way trip to Tartarus.
Of course, I can completely understand if you dislike these ideas.
4954033 Somehow I don't think Chrysalis would be able to put together a plan capable of stealing magic from Discord, especially since I don't think she seemed to be aware of him until almost the end of "To Where and Back Again". Now, Tirek, on the other hand, I could easily see him being involved since he probably still bears resentment to Discord for betraying him.
4954092
Point taken. Though it would probably be hypocritical resentment considering that 1. he would have been (in fact, probably WAS) Genre Savvy enough to KNOW Discord would have betrayed him eventually anyway and 2. HE betrayed Discord FIRST.
Still, point taken. Of course, we could still use Chrysalis and the clones as a way to keep the usual heroes busy and give somebody else a chance to save the day without the Mane Six and Starlight looking like complete idiots. It just means "the Mean Seven" would be taking place almost completely off-screen with the Mane Six and Starlight only having speaking cameos at the START of the re-written "School Raze: Part One" and speaking cameos at the end of the re-written "School Raze: Part Two" in order to keep the focus on Tirek, Spike, the Crusaders, the Pillars and the Student Six.
And, of course, considering Discord probably wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for Tirek's lies TWICE, Tirek would need a way to absorb AT LEAST enough power to manage a stalemate against Discord BEFORE his escape was discovered. I suppose THAT could be managed by busting out every other villain and monster held in Tartarus and picking them off one by one.
Which, could, at some point in the first part, lead to an exchange like this:
Guard of your choice: Your Highnesses, we have bad news, good news, worse news and worse news still.
Celestia: All right. Bad news first.
Guard of your choice: ALL of the villains and monsters held in Tartarus have escaped.
Luna: Okay. That IS bad news. What's the GOOD news?
Guard of your choice: ALL of the escaped villains and monsters, except for one, have been recaptured within an hour of the escape.
Celestia: And I have a feeling this is where the WORSE news is going to come in.
Guard of your choice: You would be right, your highness. The reason the escapees were recaptured so quickly and easily was because they were all found completely drained.
Luna: Which tells us right away what the "'worse news still'" is: The only escapee that is NOT yet recaptured is Tirek. ARE WE RIGHT?
Guard of your choice: Unfortunately, your highness, yes, you ARE right.
And, true to the title, the school WOULD get destroyed at the end of part one (though Spike, the Pillars, the Crusaders and the Student Six manage to safely evacuate everybody that was inside the school while Discord was keeping Tirek busy).
Actually, the re-write of "the Mean Seven" would then have it be a "Direct to DVD/Blu Ray side movie" showing what the Mane Six and Starlight were up to while everybody else was dealing with Tirek.
Okay, sorry about that. Mind kind of went off on a tangent there. It happens sometimes (albeit nowhere near often enough for me to write this stuff myself).
I'm praying that Hasbro will do Grogar right this time, should he appear next season. I don't want to see that waste of a villain, stay as a waste of a villain like he was in G1... 😕