Do the villains' character design dominate over personality?

[TheAnimatorOfficial 567]

Because they seem to be more memorable by their awesome looks them how unique their characters are.

Edited August 14, 2016 by TheAnimatorOfficial

[Sunny Shimmer 259]

Only reason I remember Sombra is because he is my least favorite of them all.

[TheAnimatorOfficial 567]

Only reason I remember Sombra is because he is my least favorite of them all.

Kind of changed the subject to be less bland

[Megas 27,847]

Yeah a lot of them look really cool, Nightmare Moon is one of my favorite character designs in the show, and characters like Tirek, Chrysalis, Sombra, all looked really cool, and I loved how ridiculous Discord looked. But really Discord and the Dazzlings are the only ones I also loved for their character, as the rest are all one-note "I'm LEMONS!" evil guy, and the only thing they have to going for them is their looks

 

A great example is Sunset, I really loved her design, but otherwise she was one of the show's lamest villains. Thank god Rainbow Rocks really salvaged the character, because I didn't want her design to go to waste

[Lotus002 130]

The main reason that everyone remembers villains because of their looks is because they literally have no personality at all. Nightmare Moon was just the typical dark pony wanting to... make it night forever? Discord actually HAD a personality, but we all know that's how we remember him (and John DeLancie :pp), and... Sombra's the perfect example. Nothing but "crystals". I mainly stopped watching MLP and other shows because of this; why waste your time on making a villain look cool as shit, or having interesting powers and that kind of stuff without adding SOME sort of substance on the character? Take a look at Darth Sidious from Star Wars; he didn't really have that much of an amazing design, but he made it up for actually being truly terrifying with his manipulation, and his force powers. Take a look at Trixie, at least SHE has SOME personality, and I consider her a much better villain than... let's say Sombra.

 

It might just be me, but I prefer to have a villain with a personality, a backstory, SOME substance... the sorts. And, personally, I think everyone else does prefer a fun, witty villain/a truly terrifying villain rather than just a mindless shell of a "character", who does nothing but be bad. 

[Honeysuckle 135]

i think people remember the looks over personality is for two reasons:

1. They always look AWESOME
2. Their back stories are always sad/negative and people feel uncomfortable talking about sad things

[cmarston1 5,960]

To be honest I don't really think that most of the villains in the show are all that great when it comes to being well villains.

My favorites would have to be the Dazzlings, Discord, and Tirek.

But to answer the question, sometimes in cases like Nightmare Moon, Cinch, and Sunset form the first EQG film, they have better character designs than actual characters.

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

depends on the Villain, someone like Discord? Hell no, he by most standards looks totally absurd, but his personality made him incredibly memorable. Chrysalis I think leans a bit more toward the design side of things but she does have her moments if you like that kind of purely evil who ENJOYS their evil type of villain. Sombra is all Design. Tirek is a bit like Chrysalis I guess though I think he had more personality and Starlight is like Discord, pure personality. \

O to add, the Dazzlings are personality too, they REALLY benifited from being a trio that had their own inter group dynamic, even if we only got a few minutes purely of it. 

Edited August 15, 2016 by M'gann M'orzz

[Unlikeable Pony 2,699]

Its a two part affair; This is a visual medium, so BOTH looking cool and BEING cool are vital to being successful.

Its one reason I can NEVER take Azuihotl seriously; He looks (and acts) like a giant, angry blue retard. Sure he's strong, but DAMNED does he look goofy.

[Castle Bleck 19,387]

In Sombra's case, it was actually a combination of design and threat type that took prominence over personality (and even then, we now have the comics for that).