Favorite villain/antagonist so far?

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

Added Pony of Shadows/Stygian to poll, upgraded Juniper as I underestimated her impact in the shorts. ^^;;

[Valeska 184]

WOW! I was expecting Chrysalis to be the fan favorite, but Discord takes the cake!

I don't consider Tempest Shadow to be a villain. She fits more in the category of antagonist because she didn't truly have evil intentions at heart. She just desperately wanted her horn back and would do anything to be whole again.

[findingbuglantis 20]

Starlight Glimmer. Starlight was a legitimately competent villain who managed to be threatening, entertaining and complex all at the same time. Manipulative and scheming, yet emotionally volatile and twisted to the point of being self-destructive. 

[Victoria Sponge 1,017]

Discord is hilarious but what Starlight did just seems so much more major and devastating; not just brain washing an entire village but almost ending Equestria as we know it. Plus I think she's better as a reformed villain than Discord is, we barely see him and he was better as a villain.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Battenberg

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

On ‎11‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 5:23 AM, Valeska said:

I don't consider Tempest Shadow to be a villain. She fits more in the category of antagonist because she didn't truly have evil intentions at heart. She just desperately wanted her horn back and would do anything to be whole again.

While I can see your point, I actually think that makes it a stronger point for her being a villain. As much as I sympathize with her intentions, she was willing to hurt others, imprison Equestria's rulers in stone, allow the citizens to be enslaved, and teamed up with someone who had forced the hippogriffs in hiding AND burned the Abyssinian kingdom to ashes.

That's a bit more than the likes of Flim-Flam or Suri. The only antagonist that would come close is Ahuizotl, IMO.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

Following changes made:

1. Added Cozy Glow, Wallflower Blush, and Vignette Valencia to villains poll

2. Added Chancellor Neighsay to antagonist poll

[Toastypk 923]

It's tough for me to pick, because you have all sorts of villain types.

You have bombastic villains and more subtle villains, and you have villains with different desires, from ruling, to jerkishness, to Sephiroth levels of wanting to attain power.

At least for the reformed bad guys, my favorites would have to be Starlight and Stygian. (though you could say Stygian is barely a villain in comparison to the others, and the Pony of Shadows.)

[Rushing cash 836]

Out of the major villains, sombra is definitely my favorite villain. I am not surprised discord got so many votes but I expected cheese legs to have more fans. Maybe we should make a new poll because I am pretty sure it will look different if all the votes happened now. 

Out of the regular antagonists its Lightning dust. 

Edited February 7, 2020 by Rushing cash

[Thrond 3,263]

Chrysalis has become my favourite through sheer perseverance. Doubling down on her hotheaded incompetence is the absolute best thing they could have done with her; it was always there, but until season 8 I wasn't entirely sure how much of that was deliberate. I really do consider her silliness to be the perfect fit for the show. Cozy Glow, Discord, and the Dazzlings are similar in that sense. 

I don't remember all of the low-level villains, but I found Flim and Flam the most consistently entertaining. Trixie is my favourite character of the bunch, but mostly for what happened after she became friendlier. 

[Rushing cash 836]

12 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

Trixie is my favourite character of the bunch, but mostly for what happened after she became friendlier. 

Agreed, I was not fond of her after boast busters, she became one of my favorite characters only after she befriended starlight(I liked her in magic duel, but not as much).

Edited January 17, 2020 by Rushing cash

[Lord Valtasar 12,690]

How dare they call Trixie lower level!

[Scootaloo9074090 501]

On 2017-11-05 at 1:46 AM, Pathfinder said:

Added Pony of Shadows/Stygian to poll, upgraded Juniper as I underestimated her impact in the shorts. ^^;;

    

 

Mean Twilight sparkle was the best Villain a embodiment of Pure evils fill with malice and hatred toward anypony who stand in her way a complete monster and also know what she doing and would try anything to achieve her goal of ruling equestria and killing off the rest of the mean 5 for nolonger being useful to her. like how she mock queen chrysalis   for her failure.

On 2017-11-06 at 10:07 AM, Pathfinder said:

While I can see your point, I actually think that makes it a stronger point for her being a villain. As much as I sympathize with her intentions, she was willing to hurt others, imprison Equestria's rulers in stone, allow the citizens to be enslaved, and teamed up with someone who had forced the hippogriffs in hiding AND burned the Abyssinian kingdom to ashes.

That's a bit more than the likes of Flim-Flam or Suri. The only antagonist that would come close is Ahuizotl, IMO.

 Mean twilight acted more like a villain than antagonist. even the tree of harmony save chrysalis from mean twilight sparkles.

an Complete Psychopath

 

 

Edited October 17, 2021 by Scootaloo9074090

[Sasoriman 136]

As much as I find Discord, Chrysalis, Tirek, etc., to be formidably characterized, my vote is for Nightmare Moon for sheer stage presence. She feels sort of like a G1 villain, but toned down. Having  Tabitha as her voice is yet another point in her favor. 

[Sweet Sweet Dreams 49]

Bug Queen best!

She's not only a character I enjoy all the time, but she's also the villain in the show I see the most in myself. I have anger issues myself and every time I get a little too angry, I think about Chrissy and I'm like "No. Don't become someone like her." Cause I'm scared of driving people away from myself like she did. Top that off with the best villain song in the show, an incredibly creative design, her interactions with Cozy and Tirek and lots of other little details I could go over, she'll always remain as not only my favorite villain but one of my favorite characters in the whole show.

[Sweet Sweet Dreams 49]

On 2017-10-21 at 11:24 PM, SoberStarlight said:

Favorite? I chose Starlight just because I love her backstory and the fact that she realized the error of her ways and became friends with the mane 6. As for least favorite, I chose other, to whom I can credit to Iron Will. Iron Will is just a lame character and really stuck up, and needless to say, he's really annoying. It's like, ease up on the roids and the weights, and stop yelling bro. The whole thing with the Zeppelin too; it was just so frustrating. I enjoyed the episodes that he was in, but I hate him as a character. Thoughts?

So I'm not the only one who doesn't mind Starlight's backstory? She questioned what having a cutie mark really means so she lead down the path to taking them away and making everyone equal.

I do enjoy Iron Will from time to time, but I can understand why you'd find him annoying.

[J.J 923]

King Sombra over Tirek as a villain? I mean the overrated nostalgia Faust goggles for Nightmare Moon I kind of understand, but really? Yikes I mean who we like "as a villain", it's simple almost xD King Sombra up to this point had literally no speaking roles and played little part himself in any of the story I. S.3, he just grumbled about crystals and got shadow banned, he sucks, ideg Sombra fans tbh...

[flutterJackdash 218]

I'll have to say Cozy Glow. I think she has great potential, and I'd have liked her even more if she never engaged in a villainous laugh. But she was a good planner, she saw the fruits to be born in stirring dissention in the Equestrian population, she worked to actually get Tirek, Chrysalis, and herself working together to any degree. She's the most progressive thinker of the lot, and she learned at Twilight's school to boot. She came quite close to victory, and really one can say that she came close twice over if one considers her part in the Legion of Doom.

She was bad enough that she was A. Sent to Tartarus and B. Sealed in stone, which means that she and Tirek are the only villains to have suffered both fates.

I don't know, there's a lot to argue how dangerous she actually is. But that's my thinking.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

14 hours ago, Reform Conundrum said:

King Sombra over Tirek as a villain? I mean the overrated nostalgia Faust goggles for Nightmare Moon I kind of understand, but really? Yikes I mean who we like "as a villain", it's simple almost xD King Sombra up to this point had literally no speaking roles and played little part himself in any of the story I. S.3, he just grumbled about crystals and got shadow banned, he sucks, ideg Sombra fans tbh...

It depends on taste, and Sombra really brings to mind villains like Sauron in regards to how he's executed. As for a more detailed explanation for why I rank Sombra as my #1; I shall quote my post from 2014~ (keep in mind this was before season 9)

On 2014-06-27 at 7:38 PM, Ashen Pathfinder said:

For me, it HAS to be King Sombra, and the reasons why are below, which I copied from another I made in a different thread.

 

1. Little to no given backstory: We're given enough to at least get a taste for him, but not too much to have an official mindset about his motivations or whatnot. It is for the most part up to us to fill the blanks (or the comics eventually). That mysterious angle about him just give him that dark edge for me.

 

2. Lack of an apparent ego: Don't get me wrong; I don't hate egotistical villains. I mean that's one reason why I love Chrysalis was that she had a colorful personality. However, that can also be their downfall. She had Twilight in her hooves, then just revealed herself to her. Had she not done that, she could've very been successful. Discord had this same issue when he basically painted a target on him at the end of "Return of Harmony." Sombra, in contract, smartly bides his time and waits. Yes, he wants the Crystal Empire, but he knows he can't do much with the shield magic going on. He knows being big and boastful will not do him any good.

 

3. Intelligence: Had it not been for Spike, he very well could've had Twilight as his permanent captive. It took her genius to figure out his hiding spot for the crystal heart, Spike's concern when Twilight wasn't answering, her magic & foresight to beat the door, and her outside the box thinking to get to the top of the tower in quick time. Had it been anyone other than Twilight (not counting alicorns) he could've came out the victor.

 

4. Presence & Threat: You didn't see him much, but you didn't need to. One of the reasons why Sauron works as a villain is that you don't see him all that much. His strength of presence comes in rumors and warnings. Remember in "Fellowship of the Ring" when Gandalf was talking about the black speech in Bag End? Similarly, Sombra's presence is felt from the instant the ponies walk into the barren wasteland of the frozen north. You hear the creepy wail and fear inches up your spine.

 

5. Fear: Just look at the crystal ponies themselves. Just the mere mention of thought of Sombra is enough to send these ponies into full-on PTSD. Just WHAT did he do to these ponies aside form slavery? How bad were their working conditions? What horrors did these ponies witness?

 

6. Power: It took both Celestia & Luna to banish Sombra; and he still managed to curse the empire to vanish. You know from Celestia's warnings and what we see his do that he is indeed a VERY powerful unicorn. What is his power was left unchecked? Would he have eventually tried to conquer Equestria proper?

 

7. Design: In a sense I can see why some didn't like his physical design, but to me it evokes the dark side of kingly power. Add in his magic and he's a terror.

 

Of course all of this is IMO. Again, I'm a big fan of Chrysalis as well, but I prefer Sombra simply because he is the better villain. Chrysalis might be the better character, if you will, but as a villain she didn't work out as well...on the show at least. Now the comics, on the other hand, she improved a great deal with her cunning and deception; not to mention her brutality. That puts her almost on level with Sombra for me.

 

Saying that; Sombra is best pony villain. <3

 

[J.J 923]

8 hours ago, Ashen Pathfinder said:

It depends on taste, and Sombra really brings to mind villains like Sauron in regards to how he's executed. As for a more detailed explanation for why I rank Sombra as my #1; I shall quote my post from 2014~ (keep in mind this was before season 9)

 

Yeah there's a lot more depth to making a character analysis, but for me it seemed like they took a "good design" and fell back on it a little bit without explaining the details that were necessary enough for you to become attached to him as a villain... I am a man of headcanon myself, but most of your reasoning revolves around it solely and he didn't have a personality more or less a story... I almost didn't even consider him a villain, his personality is completely built off the very little amount of lore they give you about him, I think "evil pony tyrant bad guy", "be afraid of Sombra, he was really bad." I mean we can headcanon literally anything we'd like in this scenario and make him seem like the coolest bad guy with the most depth, but the truth is he was the most lazily written and the most one dimensional. He doesnt have interactions with the ponies that gave us any glimpse into his actual psychology or his motives for seizing the empire initially, I mean we can headcanon him a "dark past" or whatever, but the truth may be really boring, "he was cruel, he had more power than the other ponies, he wanted more power.." he's basic imo.. but that's just me, Tirek we see interacting with the likes of Discord even manipulating him and using a sense of cunning not just sheer magic or raw strength, these are just features he also had that made him a more formidable opponent, I also think that he has a better backstory(especially since we know it's relative to actual MLP Canon) 

 

We can assume Sombra was big and bad, and that's why the Crystal Ponies fear him, that or the Crystal Ponies have never been brave competent thinkers and that's why we see them routinely rely on a baby dragon to be their literal saving grace time and again, now I know context matters, but maybe Crystal Ponies have always been kind of a "following bunch" and when a Unicorn that was simply more intimidating band had more power rose up, they fell in line and did what they were told... Lot of angles you could look at it from, 

He isn't even necessarily my least favorite villain, and I admit he "had potential" but yes when I first saw him I LOVED his design which is why I'm so disappointed with how little we know about him(before), how he would actually interact with other ponies(all pre s.9) actually love that fan made PMV animation where he is younger and before hes corrupted practicing out on the lake 

Then they made him obnoxious they didn't give him some type of tragic King Andrias like back story about losing what was closest to him or feeling betrayed, there was no rising pressures like Arthas transition to Lich King, just, "I'm bad, I like power". I don't like it that much and wanted more out of him

[EpicEnergy 23,218]

Probably Sombra pre-season 9 or the Pony of Shadows.

[Cash In 22,313]

Favourite villain was Discord when he was actually an intentional villain. I liked the fact that his goal wasn't just world domination, but just making everything as batshit crazy as possible. His method of screwing with Mane 6 was also pretty creative. It was just pretty neat to see a villain deviate from the norm.

Favourite lower level antagonist is...none of them. They all kind of sucked. I guess if I had to pick one, Trixie, because of Magic Duel. But then again she also was kind of being controlled by the amulet, so I dunno.