Queen Chrysalis: Truly evil or just misunderstood?

[Inkfeather 597]

Alright, here we go again.

 

A theory I’ve come up with from too much overthinking the episode and listening to “This Day Aria” on repeat is that Queen Chrysalis is not as evil as the episode makes her out to be. This theory is based on a lot of personal interpretations from the actual song and some of the things in the episode.

I would like to start by saying; we know only that Chrysalis intended to invade Equestria to feed her subjects, the changelings. This is an act of survival, and an act of selflessness because she was actually in the front line and the one at risk through the entire episode. We see that she only wants her race to survive, since she clearly says that they needed to feed on love, and seeing how they hungers for it, they must’ve been starving.

 

In the song, I feel that Chrysalis is not only singing against the real Cadence at the time, but also against herself. Her part of the lyrics can easily be interpreted to contain two actual opinions on the matter. She sings that she have been looking forward to “this day” since she was small, a thing we can interpret as that she’s not only doing this to feed on love, but also because she have a personal dream of marriage, as is often the dream of a princess, the title you have before becoming a queen.

She sings that she wants him to be all hers as well as she want them to be together. This would seem like she actually wish for love, but have no other means to get it other than through her evil means. She is a rather awkward species, and we see that she’s the only true intelligent being amongst the changelings we meet.

 

“Finally the moment has arrived

For me to be one lucky bride”

 

This was what triggered my initial thoughts on this theory, she actually sings this. That she’s going to be a lucky bride. This is what I see as the proof of her dreaming about marriage since she was small, since she was an innocent little princess. I believe that she have been brought up to have the evil opinion she have, since all princesses must’ve had parents. I think she was taught to be evil and therefore proceeds to fulfill her wishes through the only means she have been taught.

 

As we see, she doesn’t harm the mane six when she captures them, she actually didn’t wish to hurt anypony, she just wanted to have love. All she did was trap what was standing in her way of the love she thought she could gain by fake means. I presume that if one were to give Chrysalis real love, if someone loved her for who she was and “fed” her natural love, she would have no reason to be evil, since the only reason she was evil to begin with was to acquire love for herself and the other changelings.

 

She ends her son with “Mine, all mine” another thing that can easily be interpreted as her wish to have the source of love all for herself, and the reason she acts as evil as she does could be from jealousy towards the couple who felt immeasurable love for each other. If Chrysalis was to find love of her own, I personally think she would have no further reason to act as she did in this episode and she would retreat to being a more tolerable pony/changeling.

[Starshine 16,330]

No matter what you do, any group of predator will looks downright evil to their prey :/

 

And by she wanted to love, she wanted to 'suck the love out of you', like she did on Shining Armor. And it seemed it didn't turn out so well for him

Edited April 28, 2012 by Shefira

[Jibbs93 64]

She invaded Canterlot with the intent of overthrowing Celestia and conquering Equestria for the Changelings.

 

She also intended to feed her subjects for the benefit of her own kind through the detriment of another kind.

 

I believe she's evil.

[Inkfeather 597]

No matter what you do, any group of predator will looks downright evil to their prey :/

 

And by she wanted to love, she wanted to 'suck the love out of you', like she did on Shining Armor. And it seemed it didn't turn out so well for him

 

This is of course all just a theory, and what I would like to presume personally. I'm a hopeless romantic, such theories will always be my prefered way of thinking, I just wanted to share and back up my theory with some actual facts from the show. It's all based on personal interpetations of the things we hear. Your opinion is just as valid as my own, thanks for reading though :3

[Jadefire 2,796]

She did try to invade and murder a city full of innocent ponies, with the explicit intention to continue to do it to all the land. Not to mention that when she imprisoned Twilight in the caves, she proceeded to mock and taunt her about it instead of just leaving her there.

 

My theory: she's evil.

[Inkfeather 597]

I believe she's evil.

 

You do that, I'll stick my theory of her wanting love because it's more appealing to me :3

[Starshine 16,330]

This is of course all just a theory, and what I would like to presume personally. I'm a hopeless romantic, such theories will always be my prefered way of thinking, I just wanted to share and back up my theory with some actual facts from the show. It's all based on personal interpetations of the things we hear. Your opinion is just as valid as my own, thanks for reading though :3

 

Welp, she might got a rather bizarre approach, but she did everything just to feed her children. You can't blame a tiger for killing a goat when she wanted to feed her cub.

 

But I agreed on this part>

I presume that if one were to give Chrysalis real love, if someone loved her for who she was and “fed” her natural love, she would have no reason to be evil

But sadly I doubt there's any stallion manly enough to feed Chrysalis

[Inkfeather 597]

Welp, she might got a rather bizarre approach, but she did everything just to feed her children. You can't blame a tiger for killing a goat when she wanted to feed her cub.

 

This was also one of my key thoughts on this matter, she's not doing it to be evil towards others, she's doing it because she have to do it.

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

Is it cheating if I copy paste my reblog on tumblr to here?

 

This is a fascinating and interesting hypothesis. It would lend a greater depth to Chrysalis' character, as well as give her something of a feeling of tragedy. All she ultimately wanted was love, after all.

 

And in truth I am hesitant to label her as evil, if only because the label of evil exists mostly as a way to categorize that which you do not agree with, when you get right down to it. I have never been one to believe in the existence of such a a thing as true good or true evil, even in most fiction where it could arguably exist as opposed to reality where it clearly cannot.

 

However, there is a significant problem with this perspective, and that is: it shouldn't influence how we judge her actions. Even if she desired love not just to feed from it, but because she wanted it for her own self as we all do...so what? She still attacked Canterlot and placed a great many lives in danger. She still mind controlled Shining Armor for who knows how long and imprisoned Cadance and Twilight without food or water, a situation that likely would have resulted in their deaths sooner or later. She also mind controlled those three bridesmaids and attacked Princess Celestia. Depending upon how the Changeling feed mechanism works, it's quite possible that her and her species' feeding upon the love of Equestria could have killed everypony when they were entirely drained of love, or at least left Equestria so bereft of love that it descends into barbarism as everypone starts trying to kill each other. Her actions are not justfiable nor are they excusable.

 

That's not to say I'm disagreeing that one can have sympathy for her as a character. A good villain, or at least a villain of a certain type, should be at least somewhat sympathetic. But I'm not sure I see why it should be relevant to how we treat her. She still deserves punishment for her actions.

 

That said, I am most likely missing the point with this response. I sometimes do that.

[Pencil J. Doodle 242]

I don't believe that she is COMPLETELY evil, just a little bit selfish. When she was in disguise, she continued to take advantage of everyone even though it was not in-character of Cadence.

Plus, at one point she claimed "i don't care for him at all". Meaning that she doesn't have any love interest and just wanted to manipulate everyone in order to feats off their love

[Inkfeather 597]

Is it cheating if I copy paste my reblog on tumblr to here?

 

Nope, just means I can give it all the more likes/brohoofs.

 

About your point. Yes I understand that her actions are still cruel and can be categorized as evil by themselves, but I also believe that these prisons were not meant to be permanent, just to keep them away until she would've gained what she thought was the ultimate amount of love: a marriage. About her specific actions, there's where my theory of her past comes in, she was simply brought up to believe that this was her only available aproach on this scenario, that this was the only way should would be able to acquire her true wish.

 

I don't believe that she is COMPLETELY evil, just a little bit selfish. When she was in disguise, she continued to take advantage of everyone even though it was not in-character of Cadence.

Plus, at one point she claimed "i don't care for him at all". Meaning that she doesn't have any love interest and just wanted to manipulate everyone in order to feats off their love

 

Hence why I claimed that she was not only singing against Cadence, but also against herself. In my opinion, I think she's confused about what she really wants, if it's true love or just to feed her race we will never know, but I like to believe that she was trying to convince herself that she was only doing this to help her species to survive rather than fulfilling her wish of true love, a kind of split opinion towards her own goal I could call it.

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

Nope, just means I can give it all the more likes/brohoofs.

 

About your point. Yes I understand that her actions are still cruel and can be categorized as evil by themselves, but I also believe that these prisons were not meant to be permanent, just to keep them away until she would've gained what she thought was the ultimate amount of love: a marriage. About her specific actions, there's where my theory of her past comes in, she was simply brought up to believe that this was her only available aproach on this scenario, that this was the only way should would be able to acquire her true wish.

 

 

Hence why I claimed that she was not only singing against Cadence, but also against herself. In my opinion, I think she's confused about what she really wants, if it's true love or just to feed her race we will never know, but I like to believe that she was trying to convince herself that she was only doing this to help her species to survive rather than fulfilling her wish of true love, a kind of split opinion towards her own goal I could call it.

 

I can understand that perspective...I'm not entirely sure I agree with it, if only because she seemed a bit too happy about the chaos and destruction she was causing with her insect brethren in Canterlot, but I do like the idea in general. I wouldn't mind seeing some fanfiction that explores this possibility.

 

It makes me wonder though if true love, in that sense, is even possible for the Changelings. We don't quite understand how their mechanic of love vampirism works, after all. They may not even be capable of the emotion. Particularly given that they appear to be some form of sapient insect, it may be that the only form of love they could feel would be the instinctual adoration of the Queen for being their leader. It's certainly possible that their species is different enough from both the ponies and our own that attempting to ascribe them the same sort of emotional range would be foolish, even possibly offensive or outright racist.

 

Still, giving Queen Chrysalis that extra layer of tragedy underlying her overall cruel desires and actions is a point in her favor as a good villain, rather than a strike against her. So I overall approve of your hypothesis even if I'm not sure I can fully agree with it.

[Strafe 593]

Well maybe if she wanted to fall in love so badly, she would do it the old fashion way and not try to take over equestria.

[Discovery Dream 592]

Her kind feeds upon love: it isn't her fault. If she didn't do it, her kind would've starved. However, she also decided to take over Canterlot and conquer Equestria for the Changelings.

 

To be honest, I don't know. Could she have done it without hurting others? Probably not. Could she have done it without attempting to dethrone Celestia? Probably. I guess the Changleings are a doomed race, considering that there will always be ponies out there who will resist. Though her subjects needed love to survive, just the fact that she enjoyed seeing others' misery pretty much screams 'evil'.

[Colon Leftbracket 971]

*Slow Claps*

 

It seems that you, Inkfeather, have the pretty much the same exact interpretation of the episode that I have!

This interpretation has had Chrysalis and the Changelings grow on me for the last couple days. (Other than their AWESOME design)

 

We just never really got to know the changelings enough to truly understand them.

Seeing that they seems to have been trained that deception is their key to love, their food source, that they would appear very evil. But we as humans deceive animals all the time for our food source, so really WE are not much different than the Changelings.

 

I believe if the Changelings were raised better they could've tried to find a more peaceful agreement with Equestria to obtain the love they need! Maybe they'll learn a lesson from this that deception is not a way to get love, and they'll change their ways!

[Luurilka 325]

Well done. This about what I've been thinking as well.

Having the ponies realize this and then try to help the changelings would make a great episode idea.

 

...Though her subjects needed love to survive, just the fact that she enjoyed seeing others' misery pretty much screams 'evil'.

 

Maybe she wasn't glad that other ponies were miserable, but instead that the changelings could feed. Also, enjoying seeing other people suffer isn't necessarily evil, it's only evil if one actually does hurt others for no reason other than enjoyment.

[Twich 15]

“Finally the moment has arrived

For me to be one lucky bride”

 

This was what triggered my initial thoughts on this theory, she actually sings this. That she’s going to be a lucky bride. This is what I see as the proof of her dreaming about marriage since she was small, since she was an innocent little princess. I believe that she have been brought up to have the evil opinion she have, since all princesses must’ve had parents. I think she was taught to be evil and therefore proceeds to fulfill her wishes through the only means she have been

 

 

This pretty much sums up what I had in mind aswell.

I think she's misunderstood, or perhaps she misunderstands something - but she is not necesarily evil just because of that.

I don't know the definition of evil to be honest, but I highly doubt this is it.. And I like to think that she did what she thought was the right thing to do - even if it wasn't the right thing to do.

 

As she is the queen of the changelings, she is the one forced to take care of them. And if she cares for them, which I think she does, she sure as hay don't want them to die because they don't have enough "food."

So as the queen she was forced to make a decision, she might have taken the only one that was in range of her capabilities.

I'm not supporting her decision, All I'm saying is that: If that's what happened, I understand why she did it, and that she does not need to be evil just because she want's to save her kin, I mean, since when was trying to save your kin considered evil... I'd call that an act of love to be honest.

 

(At first I was going to write a long text about this, but then I got the time which I needed to read the original post, and ended up not doing that. I usually read, the original text and all the others, but unfortunately I didn't have the time untill a bit later. Anyhow)

Edited April 28, 2012 by Twich

[Dizzy Ditzy Doo! 1,120]

I just firmly believe she was doing what she had to do as a leader, in order to survive, as we all do, sometimes intentionally, and then instinctively. Evil is a matter of perspective, she isn't on the same level of evil as say Adolf Hitler was and his mass genocide of the Jewish population. Even then, he was highly regarded as a moving and inspirational leader.

 

Her intent was just feeding her subjects, and she was quite literally the first one to dive into a heated situation. Leading is a highly valued quality many leaders just don't have alot of nowadays. Nonetheless, she knew what she was getting into, and she did so for the over all good of her race. Was it the right way to approach it, I'd say it was a poor choice, and maybe something may have been worked out with had she tried open communication first. I'm sure Princess Celestia would've understood from another Queens perspective and possibly provided some other mean.

 

Her approach can be seen as a bad poor choice upon her behalf, but she was brave, and went forth ahead to secure a better future for her and her kind, in order to survive.

 

In short, I believe she can still be categorized as evil as she wasn't completely selfless in her endeavors, as she intended to do harm onto others without first questioning herself and perceiving other means of survival. However, she can be seen as a inspirational role-model for leadership and can garner high respect from both her subjects, and others.

I believe she did wrong, but I can respect her for what she was meaning to do.

 

Just my opinion however. I'm not quite argumental over the subject.

 

Editted: While I noticed that she may have taken joy in watching her prey become victimized, we all make mistakes and don't know other ways of seeing it, and it's my firm belief, in order to 'Open' our eyes and see both sides of it. We must have atleast once in our lives, done something coherently wrong/evil in order to understand maybe, the roots of it being seen as evil.

 

I used to think that killing was a fun activity when I was young (generally insects in this matter) but now that I've learned what I know now, I've come to value their lives, and now know, there should be reason first, before extinguishing a life...If there is no reason for it, I know not to kill it...

 

When it comes to hunting with my father, uncles and family, I can't bring myself to harm a deer or quail because we have food, and there are other means to survive, I cannot take a life for the sake of it being called 'sport'.

Boars on the other hand, I've seen how destructive they can be to life and environment, and hunt them in order to preserve the lives of everything else. I have no doubt that while I maybe seen as a bad person for taking some creatures life, I do so with firm reasoning.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Dizzy Leeane Rage

[Scootalonathan 46]

Uh yeah, she's evil. She's trying to suck all of the love out of everypony, and it's made clear she's doing it for evil purposes. The only villain I can really see being misunderstood is either Trixie or Gilda, who aren't really villains at all. Nightmare Moon was misunderstood, and that was made clear in the actual episode.

 

I thought it was made pretty clear in the episode that Chrysalis is evil.

Edited April 28, 2012 by JKonathan

[Tom 890]

Good thinking, I agree that she isn't evil, but I agree with Kyronea's post.

 

Chrysalis may not be evil, but should still be punished for attacking Canterlot.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Princess Mi Amore Cadenza

[Iris Melody 90]

"Everyone is the hero of their own story."

[Mr. Jaguar 1,402]

She's evil because she enjoys feeding off of ponies (mares, stallions, and even fillies) to feed her own kind and make her and her kind powerful, and doesn't seem to have any remorse for doing so. She trapped cadence and twilight and the 3 bridesmaids (lyra, colgate, and whatsherface) down in a cavern with no food or water, so they'd die a slow, miserable, death by starvation to keep them from finding out. She couldn't even give them a merciful death, she chose to let them slowly starve to death all alone.

 

She's pretty much the definition of evil, except we can't call her selfish because she's not just doing it for herself, but for her subjects as well.

[Lirael 13]

She's evil because she enjoys feeding off of ponies (mares, stallions, and even fillies) to feed her own kind and make her and her kind powerful, and doesn't seem to have any remorse for doing so. She trapped cadence and twilight and the 3 bridesmaids (lyra, colgate, and whatsherface) down in a cavern with no food or water, so they'd die a slow, miserable, death by starvation to keep them from finding out. She couldn't even give them a merciful death, she chose to let them slowly starve to death all alone.

 

She's pretty much the definition of evil, except we can't call her selfish because she's not just doing it for herself, but for her subjects as well.

 

^ all of this.

 

We see her laughing at their loss many times and even during her song she's smiling in a way that's supposed to mean "I love pain" and not "I'm happy I'll finally help my people". I would definately say she was misunderstood if I had seen at least one scene where we see her act sad or relunctant. Heck, I'd have settled with a "You think I like this? You think I have a choice? It's all for my people".

 

It's interesting to compare her to Nightmare Moon: she had an evil goal, which was created deep down by a feeling of loneliness and sadness. So Luna wasn't evil even though she acted so due to misguided feelings, she was misunderstood and that led to all the problems. In contrast, Chrysalis goal wasn't evil, she just wanted to help her people survive, but the way she went about doing it and most importantly, the way she acted through it showed that she didn't consider the ponies' pain to be a necessary sacrifice for her people; to her it was enjoyable, like a bonus.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Lirael

[Mr. Jaguar 1,402]

to her it was enjoyable, like a bonus.

 

Indeed, it was as if she would've done so anyway even if it weren't necessary. To make a comparison, say some guy loves eating apple pie, and he decides to take part in a fund raiser that involves eating tons and tons of apple pie. He gets to raise money to help a charity, while also eating tons of delicious apple pie as a bonus, he would still have eaten pie even if it wasn't to raise money, it's just a bonus.

[Literally Snails 2,307]

Or maybe... she's so misunderstood that it's evil!

Is that pink snot coming out your nose, or did I just blow your mind!