Top Ten Villains of FiM, Version 10 · 3:17am Oct 17th, 2019
Well, thanks to that twist about Grogar (which apparently they had a different idea in mind for it and for Season 9 originally, but it seems Hasbro shot that down) he can't be on the list anymore and no way am I putting Discord on the list even though what he did was stupid (it wasn't really villainous persay). So this list needed to be updated again. But what villain took Grogar's place, where did they end up, and how did all the other villains on this list fare (not counting those whose redemptions we saw in the show directly)? Here's the previous version, from after "Sunset's Backstage Pass", time to see who moved up, who moved down, and who got added in Grogar's place. As always, this list is purely the result of my personal opinion.
10. Tempest Shadow a.k.a Fizzlepop Berrytwist (Movies appeared in: My Little Pony, The Movie (2017), Episodes appeared in: The Ending of the End Part 2)
Why she stayed on the bottom: Tempest was an effective villain, there's no denying that fact. Like Starlight she was too good of a villain and thus her redemption was an even tougher sell. But she was playing second fiddle to the Storm King in the movie, and once he showed up on screen she was mostly forgotten about. It seems we'll have to rely on secondary material to flesh out her time with the Storm King, which seems to paint her as his enforcer. It was great to see her in the final battle, do I have to wonder if they really couldn't squeeze a few quick lines out of Emily Blunt? But I guess they had no budget left after they brought back Quibble Pants and Cheese Sandwich.
9. The Storm King (Movies appeared in: My Little Pony, The Movie (2017))
Why he stayed just above the bottom: How much do you wanna bet that when "Rainbow Roadtrip" was in development as the planned sequel to the 2017 movie, the Storm King was planned to come back to life somehow and be behind the disappearance of color? It certainly would've made the special more entertaining and given the mission some actual stakes. I guess there's always the comics. Otherwise, nothing's really changed for him. He had a great personality, but we don't know why he's so feared. His presence carries no weight to it. And is it coincidence he seems similar in design to Tirek? Are they from similar species or something?
8. King Sombra (Episodes appeared in: The Crystal Empire Parts 1 and 2, The Cutie Re-Mark Part 1, The Beginning of the End Parts 1 and 2)
Why he stayed in the bottom three: I guess you can handwave his voice change by it being a result of Discord's chaos magic, and maybe that also made him lose brain cells (or maybe Discord delibertely weakened Sombra without telling him? Why couldn't they have gone with that?). Even so, they basically opted to play up how much of a threat the twist villain was by nerfing the one villain who had left the least to chance and until Cozy Glow had arguably come the closest to actually succeeding (had he just moved a little bit faster when the barrier faded or accounted for Spike, he would've won). "The Beginning of the End" didn't make him fight for anything, he got everything with easy and somehow knew of the Tree of Harmony's existence. I guess this is a case of "Be careful what you wish for" because so many fans wanted Sombra to get more screen time and personality, and they overcompensated in that department.
7. Suri Polomare (Episodes appeared in: Rarity Takes Manehattan)
Why she was re-added: Taking Grogar's place on the list, we have probably the best one-off antagonist that could function as a rival or an anti version of the pony she ends up being an antagonist to. Suri being voiced by Tabitha St. Germain lends further credit to the idea of her being the anti-Rarity. How come she wasn't considered for villains to bring back for the Legion of Doom? I guess that twist meant they had to keep the threats to the major villains in order for it to seem believable (why would Discord bother with lesser evils for the sake of his poorly thought out plan?). Everything that was great about Suri before hasn't changed since "Rarity Takes Manehattan", it's just that after a while she couldn't keep up with the big threats and I couldn't justify keeping her on the list. Grogar being scratched off allowed her to come back. But ultimately she is still a minor villain compared to almost all other entries on this list.
6. 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, The Beginning of the End Part 1)
Why she moved down: I did consider Daybreaker being on the list instead of Suri, but Daybreaker loses some points for being a Nightmare Moon reskin and it's not exactly clear whether she existed first in Starlight's mind or Twilight's. I do like to think that Daybreaker was Twilight's nightmare, she used Nightmare Moon as a base for what she assumed an evil Celestia would be. But Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker being Twilight's "worst fear" in "The Beginning of the End Part 1" does seem a little odd given how much she's freaked out about and become paranoid about, though I'm glad they made it serious rather than play it for laughs. I still always will consider Nightmare Moon more than just an evil Luna, and there's definitely some iconicness to her since she was the first villain of the show. But she merely set the bar that would be cleared multiple times.
5. 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, The Beginning of the End Parts 1 and 2, Frenemies, The Summer Sun Setback, The Ending of the End Parts 1 and 2)
Why she moved up: Chrysalis proved to be very sneaky and underhoofed. She was the one most obsessed with revenge and the one who basically took the Bane approach, breaking the heroes not just physically but mentally too ("When Equestria is a frozen wasteland, then you have my permission to die."). And it was interesting how this put her at odds with the other villains who wanted to immediately use the power they had, and wanted to get rid of the windigos. Chrysalis also proved to be the most defiant, and I think she was the spanner in the works for Discord's plan. But you know, considering her entire character revolves around deception and lies you'd think Discord would've seen that coming.
4. The Dazzlings: Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk (Episodes appeared in: Shadow Play Part 2. Movies appeared in: Rainbow Rocks. Specials appeared in: Sunset's Backstage Pass)
Why they stayed the same: "Sunset's Backstage Pass" did let us see them again and I like the idea that they're still bitter and resentful about being banished from Equestria, but they've learned to make the most of it. I really do wish they had fleshed out the interactions between them and Sunset Shimmer, particularly with Adagio Dazzle who if we're being honest is really the only member of the trio that is an actual developed character. Sonata Dusk is the comedic relief with very little beyond that (though she willingly goes along with what her sisters do) and Aria Blaze still has only that throwaway line about a power struggle that is ignored. Thanks to Adagio they were cunning, manipulative, and in control until the very end.
3. The Pony of Shadows (Episodes appeared in: Shadow Play Parts 1 and 2)
Why he stayed the same: There's nothing to say about him that I haven't already said before. There's still no word on whether his original planned appearance in "Twilight's Kingdom" would've been the same as what he ended up being in "Shadow Play". I'd like to think that he would be substantially different, as at that point they wouldn't have thought of the pillars or tying him to them. Everything I've said about him in previous lists still stands, and I don't want to repeat myself on him. He was great particularly because they saved him until later.
2. Lord Tirek (Episodes appeared in: Twilight's Kingdom Parts 1 and 2, The Cutie Re-Mark Part 2, School Raze Parts 1 and 2, The Beginning of the End Parts 1 and 2, Frenemies, The Summer Sun Setback, The Ending of the End Parts 1 and 2)
Why he moved way up: Tirek might just be the major villain with the most appearances, though that would be due to "School Raze" more than anything else. What I like about Season 9 Tirek is that he showed that he could learn from his mistakes, unlike other villains he wouldn't fall into the same traps that would often trip them up. Yes, he still didn't account for friendship, but he was the one who wanted to defeat Twilight before she could escape and the one who wanted to immediately dispatch the windigos. And he was the one who read up on the spell needed to use Grogar's bell. But as Discord showed it was still possible to goad him in the same way you could goad Vegeta, by playing to his pride and how fragile it is (think of it like Cell tricking Vegeta into letting him achieve his perfect form, and then wiping the floor with Vegeta as a result). If not for "School Raze" underutilizing him, he'd probably be number one.
1. Gladmane (Episodes appeared in: Via Las Pegasus)
Why he stayed on the top: Gladmane still remains for me the one antagonist who could not see him as a bad guy and have perfectly valid reasons to think so. Even though he admits that what he's doing is mean and that he's a con pony at heart, he probably does think he's doing his employees a service by keeping them loyal to him. Chances are that other vendors in Las Pegasus would've done the same if he hadn't gotten to them first, and the fear of competition led him to manipulate friendship to benefit himself. Plus, the way in which he's tricked into confessing is actually pretty clever and makes more sense than the usual cliche of the villain monologuing and telling the hero everything they need to know to win. So for all those reasons I'm more than happy to leave Gladmane on the top where he belongs.
And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll look at the Top Ten Best New Characters of Season 9, I think you'll be surprised at some of my choices.
Here are my top 8, since that's all I can rank:
1. Season 5 Starlight
2. Tempest Shadow
3. Cozy Glow
4. Chrysalis
5. Tirek
6. The Mean Six
7. The Storm King
8. The Pony of Shadows
5141057 I wish I could include Season 5 Starlight, but I can't since she is clearly reformed and spent more time reformed. As for Cozy Glow, the more I think about her the less sense she makes to me as either a villain or a character. And the Mean Six just reek of wasted potential, only Mean Twilight was something than a rehash of the mane six while Discorded.
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For me, Cozy Glow is my favorite of those who stayed villains because of how adorable and psychotic she was.
As for the Mean 6, while they ARE mostly rehashes of the discorded 6, I kind of like how they were utilized in their episode more than I did Return of Harmony. Mostly because the mean 6 were allowed to play off of some of the regular mane 6, whereas the only pony to spend time with each of the Discorded 6 before being Discorded herself was Twilight.