Trotting Towards Nightmare Night: Villains Profile: Tempest Shadow

Ah, another Nightmare Night is upon us and every year here on Trotting, we look at an MLP villain and this year, we are looking at one of the newest villains to join the pantheon of MLP villains and it's time to open up your eyes.

As we look at the breakout star of My Little Pony: The Movie,  Tempest Shadow.  Now yes, The Storm King was the main villain of the movie but nobody cares about him as he was rather underdeveloped as a baddie and honestly, he looked like a reskinned Tierk.   Fans, however, loved Tempest and she seemed to steal the movie for the most.  (FYI, Skystar was my favorite Movie character)   and that is why this Nightmare Night, we will be looking at her.   And there is quite a bit to look at from a prequel chapter book, a prequel comic and a two-part comic arc set after the movie.


With that outta the way, let's begin.



Voice Actress



Emily Blunt

Emily Blunt is what makes the character of Tempest work so well as her voice acting is what makes the character so memorable as she plays Tempest as cold and calculating and she rarely raises her voice to show that Tempest is very calm and calculating in her voice as to show that Tempest is either thinking of every move or has already thought of it.




First Appearance


Tempest first appears during the attack on the first Friendship Festival on Canterlot and even with her broken horn, she is more than able to hold her own against the princesses as she is able to turn Celestia, Luna, and Cadence into statues.  Now, this might seem like Tempest is overshadowed and perhaps she is to a certain extent and while I get the argument of that the princesses have been put out of commission during so many finales, it does make sense to have such a strong villain for the movie.

Tempest's introduction in the movie really helps to set up who she is and what kind of villain she is.  She is one that is often in control and likes being in control and will do whatever it takes to please The Storm King as only he can supposedly grant her greatest wish.




Personality


Tempest's personality is twofold as she is presented as cold, calculating, merciless as The Storm King's commander and that is what makes her so great as The Storm King's second-in-command but there is also a bit more to her as she is also jaded and cynical because of losing her horn as a filly in an attack from an Ursa Minor.  And I think this is highlighted by something Tempest tells Twilight after she captures her.

I saw the truth. My "friends" abandoned me when times got tough. Looks like I'm not the only one. Face it, princess. Friendship has failed you, too.

Tempest did have friends as a filly but she felt that her friends stopped caring about her after times got tough.  We will talk about this a bit more when we look at The Stormy Road to Canterlot but Tempest as a filly shut herself off from others around her as she felt like an outcast after losing her horn.  Tempest let the incident with the Ursa Minor consume her and dictate the actions that she took and that is what led to choosing the path of an outcast and eventually heading down the path of evil.

While Tempest was overall praised for her characterization in the movie, some fans did complain about the fact that Tempest felt similar to past MLP villains such as Nightmare Moon and Starlight Glimmer.   As the Villians Wiki states...

However, some people considered her ’unoriginal’ due to predecessors like Princess Luna, Starlight Glimmer, and Sunset Shimmer as the "misguided villainous mare" (who are often criticized because of how common misguided antagonists are in the series).

Okay, I gotta look at this here.  I love Sunset, I am a huge Sunset Shimmer fan and I'm one of the few that has been a Sunset fan since the first Equestria Girls movie but I don't think that you can exactly compare Tempest and Sunset.  Yes, they do serve as a misguided mare or character so to speak but the motivations for Tempest and Sunset are quite different.   Yes, both Sunset and Tempest are scorned by something in their past.  Sunset's desire was because of how Celestia tried to teach her first student that she wasn't ready for power that she thought she wanted whereas Tempest's motivation comes from a more tragic place.


Starlight,  I can kinda get the comparison more than Sunset as they both kinda stem from feeling as though friends leaving and they internalized how they thought their friends had left them but I dunno, when I saw the reveal of why Starlight became a villain in the season 5 finale, I hated the reveal of it felt like it cheapened who was up to one of those points, the best MLP villain.  With Tempest though, I think I am perhaps able to buy more into what happened to her as it was just more than a friend moving away.   The only one I can kinda get is Luna and we discussed Luna at length about three years ago, when I started covering villains during Nightmare Night.


While I will always argue that these villains are different, I will admit that my favorite MLP villains have one thing in common, they internalize bad things that have happened to them in the past and let that consume them for so long and they used that to guide the decisions that they made.  I like villains like Tierk, Discord, and Chrysalis but the villains that are my favorites in the series are the ones that didn't start out as villains and had something happen to them that made them choose the path of evil.  To use Once Upon A Time's most famous quote...

Evil isn't born, dearie, it's made.

This quote sums up why I like villains such as Sunset, Nightmare Moon, and Tempest.  As you can see that these characters had something in them before they were made evil and discover why they chose that path.




Grand Desire


Tempest is interesting in that she is a disabled villain and characters with disabilities are nothing new in this series as one can look at Scootaloo for another character that has a disability and we saw all she struggled during Flight to The Finish.  Scoots, at first did let that consume and try to overcome her disability.

 And that is also the case of Tempest but as we discussed with her personality,  she let losing her consume her and drive her to serve The Storm King as he made a promise that he could restore her horn.

And I can get that as Tempest feels like less of a pony without her horn and I have made mention of this before but in my past because of my seizures, I had to spend two years of high school in a wheelchair and during that time, I felt like less of a man as though part of my freedom had been stripped away from me.  I apologize to anyone that has to live all of their lives in a wheelchair as it is perhaps not fair for me to feel that way but I did.  People, well-meaning usually try to say that those in wheelchairs are given freedom and mobility and are able to still move around.  And I do understand where they are coming from with that sentiment but I once again go back to Tempest's desire and have to say that yeah, I get it.  She felt less without her horn and being someone that once felt less because of something in his life,  Tempest is one villain that I have related to more than any other.   And I wanted Tempest to have her horn restored at the end of the movie but I think the writers knew that would be a copout and not true to all characters. I might be reading into this a bit much but I like to think that characters such as Tempest after she is reformed can show kids, whether they have disabilities or not, that people that are disabled can still be strong and smart.

As Tempest is very much both, she is one of the strongest and smartest baddies that we've seen from MLP and even without her horn, she was able to accomplish a lot but at the same time, I get wanting something that you thought made you whole. Returning to what I said about Tempest being a model character for kids with disabilities,  Twilight has a great line at the end of the movie that sums up Tempest and it is a line that I like.

Your horn is pretty powerful. Just like the pony, it belongs to.

This is obviously after Tempest (real name: Fizzlepop Berrytwist) has reformed and while this could fall into the same category of the wheelchair sentiment I mentioned,  this is a good line for kids to hear.   And it's less about overcoming a disability as it is learning to accept it and that it is okay that it is part of your life but it does not define you. And I think that is the biggest thing that clouded Tempest as she let her disability define her so long, that she saw herself as an outcast and was willing to take shelter from the first creature that gave it to her. Alas, it just happened to be a creature that was willing to use her for his own personal advantage.





Lackey


Grubber

Yeah.... things were going so well up until this point.  Grubber was the worst character from the movie. He was just so annoying and served next to no purpose.  It seemed like he was to be a comic relief villain but The Storm King already served that purpose.  Grubber just seemed to undermine every threat that Tempest made throughout the movie with his dumb actions and talking, which seemed to be nothing but talking about any stupid little things.  Which, I find so fascinating as in other media featuring these two,  Grubber is shown to be the first friend that Tempest made after she ran away and joined up with The Storm King, yet in the movie, you get a sense that Tempest only puts up with Grubber because he also works for The Storm King and doesn't really like him that much.  Whereas in something such as The Stormy Road to Canterlot, Grubber is portrayed as being a bit more competent than he is in the movie as he had been working for The Storm King for some time before Tempest joined up with him and he taught her how to serve The Storm King.  We aren't there quite yet but with the movie, he is just an idiot that only serves to undermine any threatening thing that Tempest does.



Villain Song

Open Up Your Eyes





A great villain needs a great song and Tempest has a great song here as it is just so threatening and it feels like Daniel Ingram was channeling 90's Disney villains numbers with Tempest's song and it works.  The lyrics are interesting as well as you can see how much Tempest has let the incident from her past consume and allow her to lie to herself. Look at these two lines.

Don't ever count on anybody else
In this or any other land

Tempest with these lines is arguing that she could only rely on herself to get by and while the prequel comic and The Stormy Road to Canterolot before she met The Storm King do show this. The end of the movie shows, she has relied on The Storm King to restore her horn and that isn't one of the biggest reasons that Tempest is so adamant about capturing Twilight for The Storm King is that if she provides with all four princesses for his plan,  he will restore his horn or so she is told. 




Most Evil Deed



This is perhaps the hardest thing for me to pin down as Tempest did a lot of bad things and was not afraid to throw her weight around as The Storm King's second-in-command and I think that perhaps the enslavement of Canterlot is perhaps Tempest's most evil deed.

As that shows what great lengths, she is willing to go to ensure that she pleases The Storm King as she truly believes that by doing his bidding, she will get what she most desires.



Defeat/Turnaround


Tempest's defeat is interesting as it comes towards the end of the movie as this is the first time that you see her be vulnerable throughout the entire movie as she is begging The Storm King to restore her horn as he basks in the power that Tempest has provided for her up until this point and it is at this point, that Tempest realizes that The Storm King had been using her as he spells it out for her and even after everything that Tempest had put Twilight through,  the Princess of Friendship comes to the aid of her former captor.

And after Twily saves Tempest,  Tempest returns the favor.

Tempest, remembering that Twilight saved her earlier, jumps in the way of the Storm King's attack, turning her and the King into black stone. While the Storm King falls and shatters to pieces, Twilight uses the Staff of Sacanas to turn Tempest back to normal, and she helps in turning the other princesses back to normal and restoring Canterlot.

I think that this helps to show how Tempest had changed and yeah, it might a bit abrupt like Sunset's change at the end of the first Equestria Girls but I can buy it.



Current State



Now,  Tempest has not and will most likely not appear on the show but the season 8 premiere did address her. 

Starlight Glimmer: I— you— really? What about that unicorn, the one who attacked Canterlot?
Twilight Sparkle: Tempest! I invited her to come to Ponyville, but she wanted to spread the word of the Storm King's defeat! And share what she learned about friendship.

It's small and the show most likely couldn't get Emily Blunt back I do like the eighth season is acknowledging the events of the movie as for some reason, some fans thought the show was going to ignore the movie but thankfully, that was not the case as we've seen throughout a couple times in this season.  And while we may not see Tempest on screen, IDW has us covered there.

Which we will be looking at during this event.



Is/Was Tempest Shadow A Good Villian?



Tempest may not be the greatest villain from the MLP franchise but it's not hard to see why fans latched onto her out of all the new characters in the movie as she is the most interesting character and there is so much that can be done with her  after her reformation but even before that, she is quite the fun villain with cold and calculating she is.  And from point of view, she is the most relatable villain from the MLP franchise for me to date.   Join me next time as we look at one of two stories that show how Tempest ended up on the path to villainy.