MLP villain rankings: Nightmare Moon · 11:57pm Feb 11th, 2019

Eh, already done the episodes, specials and movies. Why not the villains?

0/10 - AWFUL (unsalvageable, never should have been made, wouldn't recommend to anyone)
1/10 - HORRIBLE/BORING (tedious, hurts to watch, a bore, no reason to watch him/her, whatever positive things about him/her are tiny and not enough)
2/10 - VERY BAD (slightly less terrible, maybe there were one or two things you liked kept him/her from being a 1 but still very painful)
3/10 - BAD (the kind of bad where you're checking your watch over and over to see how much time is left before he/she gets off the screen)
4/10 - MEDIOCRE (not awful but not really that good either)
5/10 - EH (average, didn't love or hate him/her)
6/10 - DECENT (the first positive rating on this list, fine overall, glad you saw him/her once but wouldn't watch him/her again)
7/10 - GOOD (enjoyable enough that you'd maybe watch him/her again in future, had some noteworthy flaws but is overall a worthwhile villain)
8/10 - GREAT (a solid, enjoyable villain, very entertaining)
9/10 - EXCELLENT (very engaging, awesome, you definitely recommend to anyone)
10/10 - MASTERPIECE (extremely engaging, an absolute must-see)

Nightmare Moon

Source

The literal Ensemble Dark Horse.

As badly-paced as the premiere was (having to introduce the main characters, the villain, her backstory and the setting in the span of 40 minutes), Nightmare Moon was fine for the show’s first villain. Despite her limited screentime in her debut, she got the job done: show up, laugh evilly, try to bring about eternal night, get defeated à la rainbow blast.

It’s annoying how much she’s always talked about every time Luna gets a main role in an episode (seriously, can’t we just have Luna being Luna without bringing up her past even once?), along with her villain archetype being used to death in the show nowadays. But she was the very first one so I can let it slide. And really, for all the guilt Luna felt afterwards, she didn’t even do that much, if any damage as Nightmare Moon. She made it night-time for, like, twenty minutes before having her power stripped from her. None of the Equestrians even hold a grudge against her, to the point where they turned her name into their own fun version of Halloween. Though I guess that works to her advantage in that you don’t see her being evil for very long nor does she have a chance to commit the same level of atrocities as Tirek or Starlight before she gets swiftly dealt with by the Mane Six.

Honestly, what peaked my interest in her more was that alternate future in The Cutie Re-Mark, where I found it incredibly interesting that she was shown to actually be a pretty competent ruler, maybe even better than Celestia. Compared to the other awful futures (Equestria being at war with Sombra, the ponies living tribal in the Everfree Forest in fear of Chrysalis and the Changelings, Discord making Equestria his own personal playground, Tirek and the Flim Flam Brothers destroying everything), Nightmare Moon’s future is surprisingly very peaceful. Not great or terrible but stable.

This seems to imply she earned the loyalty of her subjects so that they wouldn’t even want to rebel against her, along with the lack of pretty much any chaos indicating that she dealt with the other villains already. And like the original timeline, the Elements of Harmony are the only things that can threaten her rule and as long as they’re never found, she has nothing to worry about.

Damn, Luna, you scary.

At first, I found her plan to rule Equestria in eternal night pretty silly because if ponies have a vegetarian diet, surely they’d die if their crops and plants didn’t get the sunlight needed. But given the stability of Equestria in this alternate future and there being zero ramifications of eternal night, I’m not afraid to admit I was wrong. Magic probably.

As little of her as we saw, Nightmare Moon still made the most of the ten minutes of screentime she was given, turning out both a threatening and enjoyable enough performance.

7/10 GOOD

LINKS TO OTHER VILLAIN RANKINGS

Nightmare Moon (you're already here, you kook)
Discord
Queen Chrysalis
King Sombra
Sunset Shimmer
Lord Tirek
Adagio Dazzle
Starlight Glimmer
Midnight Sparkle
Gloriosa Daisy
Juniper Montage
Stygian/The Pony of Shadows
The Storm King
Wallflower Blush
Vignette Valencia
Chancellor Neighsay
Cozy Glow
PostCrush
Grogar