Did you prefer if some villains had a different fate\outcome?

[Rushing cash 836]

Did you prefer some of the villains to have a different fate? Perhaps a villain who was not reformed was redeemed (for example: reforming cozy glow)? Or a villain that was reformed had a different fate (like discord should have stayed in stone)? Or just have a different "punishment" (imprisonment instead of death for instance). For example, I think it would have been pretty cool if Chrysalis went insane before being defeated for the last time, she was pretty close to it in S8 and in the beginning of season 9, perhaps she did snap before she was turned to stone but I would have liked to actually see it. Also, I love Starlight in seasons 6-9, but I wouldn't have minded if she ended up imprisoned or stuck in a different timeline instead during the S5 finale.

[Megas 27,718]

Discord should have stayed turned to stone. For the terrible trio, people always say Chrysalis and Cozy should have been redeemed(because gasp, they’re Waifus, and nothing bad can ever happen to them), but honestly I’d rather have Tirek and Cozy turning while Chrysalis went full psycho, given the former two already had a pre-existing relationship prior(also because Dad Tirek sounds amusing now that I think about it). As for minor antagonists, Garble and the Daring Do villains should have never gotten redeemed, dunno if I’d redeem Lightning Dust but at the very least I’d have her settle the score/bury the hatchet with RD. 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Megas

[Concerned Bystander 2,902]

Discord and Starlight Glimmer were both great villains, but the writers seemed to struggle to find anything good to do with them post-reformation.

In my humble opinion, both of the Discord episodes in season 5 were dreadful, precisely because they wanted to bring Discord back because he was popular but he just didn't work as a supporting character to the mane 6. Maybe he was just too powerful and couldn't be placed in any situation where the mane 6 needed his help because there basically wasn't a single problem that he couldn't solve with a simple click of his fingers.  They did manage to redeem him somewhat in 'To Where and Back Again', but only be benching the mane 6 and completely nerfing his powers.

Starlight had a similar problem in that she was great as a villain, but once she was redeemed the writers seemed determined to make her a new addition to the mane 6 and she was just shoehorned in everywhere with a sort of 'we'll keep shoving her in your face until you like her' mentality and she just never really gelled with the rest of the cast because the history and chemistry just wasn't there.  Again she was made better use of in 'To Where and Back Again' where she actually had to stand on her own as a protagonist instead of being an accessory for Twilight.

In both cases I would liked to have seem these characters either petrified or sent to Tartarus, that way there is always the possibility that they might appear to disrupt the harmony once again because let's face it, they were both far better as villains than as heroes.

P.S.  Cozy Glow got what she deserved.

Edited February 8, 2022 by Concerned Bystander

[Tom Gallagher 33,588]

Discord should’ve stayed as stone and Cozy Glow was just a kid! 

[Misty Shadow 7,920]

Cozy Glow got what she deserved, enough said. I love Chrysalis, but she also deserved a punishment, enough said. I also would've preferred reformations that literally no one cared about happening for characters like Garble and Ahuizotl to not have happened, Discord absolutely deserved to be given some kind of punishment, and while Sombra deserved to be punished, it should've clearly been banishment, not something that made him look like he was killed. 

[Castle Bleck 19,376]

Sombra's final on-show appearance should've been The Cutie Re-Mark, not The Beginning Of The End (his outcome in Siege Of The Crystal Empire was superior).

And the Pony Of Shadows should've been the one to return, and go rogue.

Edited February 9, 2022 by Even Evil Has Standards

[Stancet 689]

I don't say this like my opinions are automatically better than the show's creators, but there needed to be fewer redeemed villains. Not saying like that's bad but most villains (both in fantasy and real life) don't have such happy endings.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I wish Chrysalis was redeemed and Grogar was real. I wish Discord could've been used for more episodes. 

[Reality Check 632]

I'm thinking maybe Sombra gets confronted by either Twilight or the other villains about his motives and past before he gets sent to oblivion. Same goes for Cozy Glow

[Rushing cash 836]

9 hours ago, The Wife of Kaeya said:

I wish Grogar was the main villain of season 9. I think that he would have been a much more interesting and threatening choice than the ragtag team we got.

So you preferred that the trio would have been reformed? Or stayed as they were before S9? Died\hurt\banished while fighting for\against Grogar?

7 hours ago, Stancet said:

I don't say this like my opinions are automatically better than the show's creators, but there needed to be fewer redeemed villains. Not saying like that's bad but most villains (both in fantasy and real life) don't have such happy endings.

So what villains you preferred were not reformed? And what would happen to them?

3 hours ago, Reality Check said:

I'm thinking maybe Sombra gets confronted by either Twilight or the other villains about his motives and past before he gets sent to oblivion. Same goes for Cozy Glow

I think the reason the show runners did not give the big bads a deep backstory (especially tragic ones), is because they would need to redeem them later on. We need to keep in my the audience the show is aimed for. We saw what happened to starlight, or Luna. 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Rushing cash

[Stancet 689]

21 minutes ago, Rushing cash said:

So what villains you preferred were not reformed? And what would happen to them?

Discord, for example, was a villain for one episode before Fluttershy reformed him. With the exception of Tyrek's persuasion, the writers didn't know how to use Discord more than once. But honestly... I'd be okay with reforming him somewhere later in the series.

Ahuizotl being a stereotypically cartoonish villain the whole series, only to be revealed as a misunderstood monster at the end of the series (when his actions certainly didn't hint at that) wasn't very satisfying. I'd prefer an equally cartoonish fate, like Ahuizotl accidentally banishing himself or maybe falling into one of the traps he normally puts Daring Do in.

Other villains like Gilda, Trixie, and the Changlings were simply reformed too early. Like Discord, they were villains for only one episode before they reformed. 

The only exception I think was appropriate was Starlight Glimmer because it was planned by the writers from the beginning that she would reform and discover the Magic of Friendship by first making the big mistakes.

[Orchid_Fiore 200]

The Changelings redemption should have been less forced (and fast). The show never raised us that every Changelings were "sad" with their life until the episode "To Where and Back Again".

[horses are weird 23]

For villains that were turned to stone or banished, I think those are fine, I do think that's as far as an extreme punishment would go in the MLP universe, plus they can be freed or unbanished in the future for redemption. Though the way it was handled in The Ending of the End was pretty bad. Now for villains like Sombra, Mean 6, and Storm King, those in my opinion were a bit too much. Their "defeats" made them look like they died, which doesn't at all seem like something the ponies would do to someone.

also the timberwolves from spike at your service, but that episode was ass so i'm not counting it 

Edited March 31, 2022 by horses are weird

[They call me Loyalty 1,948]

I was cool with it. But apparently the mute king and the monkey horse return in season 9? Which is unfortunate, because recycling bosses is not a good practice in my book. Especially cliche ones.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

On 2022-02-08 at 7:29 PM, The Wife of Arataki said:

I wish Grogar was the main villain of season 9. I think that he would have been a much more interesting and threatening choice than the ragtag team we got.

As much as I enjoy the finale, I can't deny that I wish we had this instead. He was built up as the ultimate BIG Bad of the world and all we got was Discord misreading the room (TWICE).

Aside from that, I would've preferred something different for the Storm King. As a villain who doesn't have any actual natural magical abilities and also relied on technology to combat those with magic, it would've been interesting to see his forces in a more forceful battle, if you will.

[Splashee 28,565]

Grogar was a really powerful and wise character that should have been the bad guy in the end.

 

Also, should have won in Season 8. That would have been more fun!

[bubbleteapony 586]

I totally agree that Grogar shoud've been the main villain of season 9. He's way more threatening than the Useless Trio we got and I was honestly disappointed when they revealed that it was just Discord pointlessly ruining things again as much as I like Discord, he needed more episodes to mellow out his character, cause his behavior in season 9 just seemed very out of place.

For Cozy Glow.... I think the "using friendship against the ponies" is a decent idea for a villain, but I think they should've just kept that reasoning to Cozy herself. The whole point of literally every villain they brought back was that they were markedly AGAINST all friendship it was very strange seeing them cooperate, or at least attempt to, and it always felt unnatural to me the way they interacted.

Also, I really don't get turning her to stone. Or even sending her to tartarus...? she's a child. if the mane 6 can reform/attempt to reform Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Starlight, and others, you'd think Cozy wouldn't be all that bad for them, no? It just seems weird to me to condemn a child to a potential eternity made of stone. Especially when Discord notes that he could sense what was around him when he was stone In my personal next gen universe, I have Cadance take in Cozy as an adoptive daughter and she's reformed by Flurry Heart, which is how Flurry gains her alicornhood. (trials of the heir to the throne of the princess of love and all)

but yeah, that's just my two cents. Season 9 was.... it's own thing. I think the show writers just weren't confident with what they were doing seeing as they were ending a massively watched show

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,986]

To have gone the approach of "Chrysalis was an evil mother. The end." was not an ideal one. There should have been some justification for why pre-reformation Changelings lived the way they did (perhaps they were evolved to survive that way), instead of having it so that their entire way of life was wholly unnecessary. It would have been more interesting if Thorax had only managed to convince some of the Changelings to accept his way, with some Changelings remaining loyal to Chrysalis with trade-offs associated with being part of either factions; that instead of "Thorax good. Chrysalis bad. The end."

And, while not a villain in the same sense, it would have been better if there were hints of Diamond Tiara questioning her behaviour towards the CMC over multiple episodes instead of having her seemingly suddenly have a change of heart in one episode.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Luna the Great of all the Russias

[mothmeatz 4]

I wish Discord had more episodes, I feel like his redemption was too fast; his redemption being motivated by his friendship with Fluttershy was great but he needed more screentime with it, seemed rushed 

 

Chrysalis should've been punished in season 6, she was a good villain but the end of it was disappointing since they just let her run away.  I think it'd be more interesting if she were imprisoned or even redeemed.

 

Cozy glow deserved it 

[Rumpelstiltskin 45]

Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow should've been redeemed because the writers showed them being abused by Grogar (Discord) and they became ultimately sympathetic when you find out Discord was planning to get them all killed (or at the very least, he didn't care if they died). They had an amusing family dynamic going on, and it was interesting to see characters become friends without the influence of the Mane Six or their minions. 

Likewise, Discord should've suffered some actual consequences for what he did instead of losing his magic for a brief period. Hell, I wouldn't hate him so much if he had stepped in when Celestia and Luna were looming over the Legion and expressed some pity and remorse about using them. It would've made sense given how he was pitied and reformed himself. Instead we got him gleefully punishing them for something he was the root cause of and he acts like a hero when he has no right to. 

I didn't particularly care about Garble or Ahuitzotl, but it seemed unfair those two got redemption when they were barely even in the series. 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by Rumpelstiltskin

[dead account 2,711]

I wish they had done more with Nightmare Moon, she really sucked at being a villain and was always easily defeated.

It was amazing to see the different timeline with her, but Twilight tricked her in the end and escaped with Spike no problem.

It should have been more difficult to defeat her, in all cases.