Ah, another Nightmare Night is upon us and for the past two seasons, I have focused on villains/creatures as I think that has worked the best for these types of events and this year, we turn our attention to one of the most feared villains from the realm of Equestira and one that is still running around to this day, so we won't exactly be looking at Demise but rather defeats. While, she's been defeated twice in the show and at once or twice in the comics, Chrissy is one of the most persistent villains that the Mane 6 have ever fought. And from the look of things, they'll be facing her again in season 8 as was shown at HASCON.
Chrysalis is interesting in that regard as she is the only recurring villain that this show seems to have. And I hope upon hope that they keep her evil. With that outta the way, let's begin.
Voice Actress
Kathleen Barr
Kathleen Barr has done quite a bit of voice work including previous generations of MLP. Inside G4, she is also the voice of Trixie. And as Chrysalis, she is quite ruthless and cunning and is very cold. Now, we are dealing with a situation that is reminiscent here of Vanessa from The Little Mermaid as we don't hear the real Chrysalis until Part 2 of A Canterlot Wedding. As for most Chrysalis' debut, we are saddled with her going around as Cadance and thus being voiced by Britt McKillip.
Which was really fun and made for an interesting take here.
First Appearance
As previously discussed, Chrysalis makes her debut in A Canterlot Wedding and when we first see her, it is her parading around as Cadance.
Which okay, I gotta bring up something that kinda bugs me about A Canterlot Wedding. They state in the episode itself that everypony else was so involved in the wedding that they didn't notice something was up but seriously, none of the girls gave Twilight the time of day to listen to her. Sure, there was one scene towards the end but all they did was chalk it up to her being possessive of Shining Armor. Which okay, I can see but at this point, the girls had known Twilight longer than they had Cadance, I would hope that they would trust their friend more than just make excuses for somepony that they just met.
Personality
The Villains Wiki describes Chrysalis as being a trickster and manipulative and considering that she is a Changeling and that they can change their appearances at will makes a lot of sense for that description. We also see that as time goes on and in the season 6 finale, she has little regard for her subjects. And has resentment over Thorax leaving the hive and she is as I said one of the most persistent villains that the girls have faced. I think one of the biggest things that makes her work best is just how ruthless and uncaring she is. And in the season 6 finale, you see this even more with how she refers to her subjects as drones. As she wishes for them to have no free thought. There's a reason why, Starlight was pitted against her in that finale.
Grand Desire(s)
In her first two appearances, her grand desire is the same as she wishes to feed off of the love of the ponies. Her first attempt in season 2 starts small by just kidnapping Cadance, But in season 6, she goes big by kidnapping all of the most beloved ponies of Equestira. Now, there is certainly some semblance of revenge here, which we also see in her IDW appearance (but the comics canon up until season fluctuates. The show is canon to the comic but not all of the comic is canon to the show).
Which with where, Chrysalis is now after her defeat in To Where and Back Again, it is so obvious that revenge is her biggest driving force. This time against Starlight Glimmer. Though, I just have to wonder how powerful she is now as she has to have gone a while without feeding off anypony's love.
Villain Song
This Day Aria
While Flim & Flam were the first MLP villains to get a musical number, Chrysalis got the better one and to think that Britt McKillip had to do a duet with herself singing as both Chrissy and Cadance. That is some impressive feat as you hear the difference between the two characters and realize how close Chrysalis what to succeeding the first round.
This Day Aria (Reprise)
The reprise is short but I think it shows Chrysalis counting her eggs before they're hatched but that is common of most villains that think they have succeeded with their plan and she is not immune as she thinks that she has bested the ponies. Yeah. she's not exactly known for her humility.
Most Evil Deed
This is tough to pin down, if I wanted to go more physiological, I could go with her getting Twilight's friends to not trust her in A Canterlot Wedding but as I said earlier, I felt like Twilight's friends were holding the idiot ball throughout that finale. So, I got to go with season 7 and how, she was able to kidnap all of the beloved ponies and came this close to succeeding in her plan, had it not been for Starlight Glimmer realizing that something was up. Though, I think that is one fatal flaw in Chrysalis' plan. She even told that Starlight was not worth replacing. So, sooner or later, Starlight was going to catch on to her plan. Perhaps, faster if Starlight hadn't gone to her Town for the festival.
Defeats
Her defeats are quite similar. In A Canterlot Wedding, the love of Shining Armor and Cadance is too much for her and that sends her and the Changelings flying.
Whereas in To Where and Back Again, she is defeated after the Changelings follows Thorax's example and share the love that they have within them and that destroys the Changeling hive and Chrysalis' throne that consumes all non-Changeling magic.
Though, perhaps the most significant moment for me is Chrissy's defeat here is when she rejects Starlight's hoof at the notion to reform.
What this speaks to and what I think the animatic from HASCON confirms, she looks at this defeat as more a momentary setback. She is willing to brush aside this loss but will come back and not stop until she wins. You even get a sense of this in her final words to Starlight Glimmer.
There is no revenge you could ever conceive of that will come close to what I will exact upon you one day, Starlight Glimmer!
Let's consider this for a moment, she may have deep seated hatred towards Twilight after outing her and ruining her plan during A Canterlot Wedding (that is what the IDW arc suggests) but it seems to have been overshadowed by her newfound hatred for Starlight Glimmer. Which is larger than the hatred that she felt for Twilight and her friends. Which makes a lot of sense as you consider that Starlight lead a charge that caused all of her subjects to turn against her and destroyed her entire kingdom. With what Starlight's triumph wrought, Chrysalis so much more. She may have the title of Queen but I believe she is a queen with no subjects or to put another way, a king without a kingdom.
Which leads to something about the animatic from season 8 as we know, that she vowed revenge against Starlight Glimmer. Going by the animatic, she has disguised herself as a photographer to take pictures of the Mane 6 and take a strand of hair from all of them but the only pony that she does not take a strand from is Starlight. What does she have planned?
Is Queen Chrysalis A Good Villain?
Absolutely, and I would say before Tierk & (before she was reformed) Starlight Glimmer, she was the most evil villain that Equestira had seen. And I think that after reappearance and duel with Starlight Glimmer in season 6, she reclaimed the title of 2nd Most Evil Villain in Equestira. There is a reason why so many old school Bronies considered her and Discord the best villains of the show. And I can't refute that argument. Even if the praise for her back in the day got to be a bit much but the key there is that we see that she is able to back up her evilness. Join me next time as we start our look at the first arc from IDW's MLP comic as we look at the first 2 issues of The Return of Queen Chrysalis.
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