Symbiosis

Kembrius

Kembrius #1 · May 27th, 2020 · 2 · · Symbiosis ·

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that was a nice read

RainbowDoubleDash

RainbowDoubleDash #2 · May 27th, 2020 · 13 · · Symbiosis ·

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Fantastic.

Because this was Queen Chrysalis.

Every time we get a line along these lines for any character - about why Friendship is just wrong for them - my mind casts itself back to Digimon Zero-Two, when the kids were discussing who’d end up with the Digimental of Friendship.

Yolei: “It’ll probably go to someone with lots of friends, like T.K.!”
Davis: “Yeah, or someone with no friends…like me.”

Davis, of course, is the one who ended up with it. That basic idea has stuck with me for decades, that powerful emotional forces aren’t necessarily going to be drawn to those express them the most, but instead go to those who need them the most.

There was something strange about her demeanor. For a fallen tyrant queen she was very… subdued. Willing to listen and follow.

Wild unfounded guess: this isn’t Chrysalis at all! It’s Thorax, testing the waters to see how amenable people are to the idea of a Reformed Chrysalis.

That’s what friendship is all about: being stronger together!

Kudos to Twilight for just coming right out and saying it…

Chrysalis stifled a chuckle.

Ha! Common ground in spite of her best efforts. Drag is always funny.

Autumn snickered. “‘Cause it’s good for you? It’s good for any creature. You don’t have to be Kirin to meditate.”

Chrysalis might actually know this already - she herself had commented that it wasn’t healthy for her to hold on to all of her anger.

Autumn sighed. “You just have to. It’s a leap of faith, y’know?”

Whenever someone asks why Chrysalis directed the changelings the way she did rather than trying to make friends with others, the answer always seems obvious to me. Changelings lived by being secret and mysterious and barely known about. So what if they’d given that all up, reached out the ponies, and asked “can we be friends?”...

...and the ponies said no?

Was it worth the risk?

“Meh. I like ‘Chryssy’ better.”

Chrysalis in this fic is largely being an obstinate ass - no surprise and it fits her perfectly - but I’m with her on this one, at least. Names are important. You shouldn’t keep pushing a nickname that someone doesn’t like.

“Why does that make me feel so terrible?”

Out of every villain in MLP, except Neighsay and maybe Stygian, Chrysalis was always the one with the most legitimate reasons for being a villain. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek, Starlight, Cozy Glow, Sombra, the Storm King, the Pony of Shadows. all of them were acting out of selfish desire. They wanted power or recognition or maybe just to make their hurt go away, but they were still all focused inward on themselves.

Chrysalis? Well, later episodes with her try and convince us different, but I will never forget the very first thing she ever said as herself:

“As Queen of the Changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects!”

The first thing Chrysalis ever did was define herself by outlining her responsibility to others. Whatever later seasons did to her character, there is no denying that from the start Chrysalis as a villain had the strongest reasons for being a villain, and the easiest path to redemption if only the writers hadn’t chosen to disregard her complexity and instead flanderize her into a mere wicked witch.

Chrysalis never saw herself as the bad guy. She saw herself as acting in the only possible way she could act. So in light of that, I can totally buy that the idea that she is hated for doing the best she could with the information she had, is incredibly hurtful to her.

“I think this is simply the way I’m meant to be,” Chrysalis said softly. “I think I’m too broken to be fixed.”

Kintsukoroi - to repair something that has been broken and incorporate the repair as a visible part of it. To recognize that the thing breaking has played a vital part in making it more beautiful.

Scyphi

Scyphi #3 · May 27th, 2020 · 7 · · Symbiosis ·

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10255575

Chrysalis never saw herself as the bad guy. She saw herself as acting in the only possible way she could act.

Not saying that I'm necessarily disagreeing with this assessment...but even when considering just "A Canterlot Wedding," I feel like there was more to it than just that, because I'm not convinced she'd really considered all of the options available to her in that situation. One thing she definitely always was established as being was somewhat vain and overconfident, so I feel like she probably dismissed out of hoof some options she could've taken just because her ego told her she could do "better," for whatever reason. Maybe she was acting for "the good of the hive" as she saw it at the time, but I don't think it was really out of true desperation and thus far from her only option.

Further, it seemed very few Equestrian ponies at the time even knew what a changeling was until the Canterlot invasion, and it seemed like the two had been getting very little contact with each other up until then, so how could have Chrysalis really been so sure the ponies would turn them away if asked? I mean, after the invasion, sure, but before then? Even if there had been some failed past attempt to do so sometime before the series start, that wouldn't necessarily confirm it could happen again, depending on how long ago any theoretical past attempt might've been--a lot can change through the course of time, after all.

Of course, there could always be more to the changeling situation at the time than has ever been explicitly stated in canon, but that's sort of my point. I feel like there was some additional motivation behind Chrysalis's reasons for why she chose invasion specifically than just "for the hive's greater good." What, exactly, would obviously be open for speculation, but that's part of what lends such intrigue to her character, trying to fill in some of those blanks. Personally, I had always figured she had some sort of additional grudge against the ponies, for whatever reason, which made the idea of invading and conquering them all the more compelling in her mind, but that's just me.

But otherwise, you're right--there's more to Chrysalis than just what meets the eye, and she's certainly not as straightforward as most other MLP villains. In the back of her head--up until she was overthrown at least--there always was that hint of "I'm doing this for the hive" and one shouldn't just dismiss this out of hand. Even if she was wrong to take the specific actions she did, they weren't totally selfish.

And until she was overthrown, I don't think the show ever really abandoned that premise either. Instead, I saw it as Chrysalis convincing herself so well that her path was the only viable one left that she refused to consider alternatives, figuring that, after the invasion, she had burned all other bridges and saw attempts to stray from that as too dangerous. Not an unfair assumption to make, surely, but she got so stuck on it that, even when evidence started suggesting otherwise, she refused to bend...and it ultimately led to her undoing.

At which point, refusing to see her error, she chose to take it personally and sought revenge, losing sight of whatever her original motivations for doing what she did was.

...really, when I put it like that, how the show ultimately ended up portraying her doesn't seem so unreasonable now...there might actually have been a method to that madness after all...

RainbowDoubleDash

RainbowDoubleDash #4 · May 28th, 2020 · 2 · · Symbiosis ·

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10255918

so how could have Chrysalis really been so sure the ponies would turn them away if asked?

I mean, that one's easy: because positions reversed, in some contrived scenario where the ponies were asking changelings for help, Chrysalis would have said "no", or at best would have exploited the Hell out of the ponies so that any help came at an extreme cost, and ultimately benefited the changelings and placed them - and thus her - on top. And her ego just would not allow herself to place her changelings - and thus, her - in a subservient position.

Boltstrike58

Boltstrike58 #5 · May 28th, 2020 · 2 · · Symbiosis ·

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Twilight was looking quickly back and forth between the friendship ambassadors, unsure what could be done to facilitate a relationship. Even a professional one. “Uh… why don’t we move into the conference hall and discuss your duties?”
Autumn sniggered.

Maturity, maturity...

Utopia

Utopia #6 · May 28th, 2020 · 3 · · Symbiosis ·

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cool, I like this one.

fanreader999999

fanreader999999 #7 · May 28th, 2020 · · 1 · Symbiosis ·

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Weird

Late_Night

Late_Night #8 · May 28th, 2020 · 2 · · Symbiosis ·

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Twilight giggled to herself. From the audience, one Changeling burst into raucous laughter. The rest were silent.

i choose to believe this was either Thorax or Ocellus

edit: i need a sequel!

secury

secury #9 · May 28th, 2020 · 7 · · Symbiosis ·

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Nice read.

"Oh, nothing…" Autumn said. "It's just-- well, all those Changelings thought you were stubborn because you wanted, like, love or whatever. Turns out you just like to be difficult."

This statement fits Chrysalis's characterization perfectly.

StubobNumbers