Opaline as the main recurring villain?

[HereComesTom 2,267]

One thing I wish G-4 had done (that it didn't do), was dabbling in having a "main villain" that the ponies face throughout a season, then defeat in the season's finale. 

I know what you're thinking:  what about Starlight Glimmer and Grogar (if I can call him that)?  Well, they're not exactly what I had in mind...

See, there are tons of cartoons I can think of that, for the most part, have a single villain that the heroes square off against in most episodes:  Pacman and the Ghostly Adventures had Lord Betrayus.  The Little Mermaid series had Ursula.  Adventures of the Gummi Bears had Duke Igthorn.  Wander Over Yonder had Lord Hater.  Miraculous Ladybug has Hawk Moth.  Having a single villain allowed these series to give their villains deeper characterization, let the villains try multiple different plans and drive different plots over the course of the series, and of course these different plots allowed us to know more about the magic/technology of the world the characters are in, or even sometimes let us learn more about the world itself and/or its history.

Starlight Glimmer and Grogar didn't drive the plots of very many episodes; I had in mind something more along the lines of a villain whose machinations drove either the A-plot or the B-plot of most episodes of the season.  That, G-4 didn't have anything like, and I really wish it had.

 

With all that context in mind, here's what I'm thinking:  what if Opaline, the evil alicorn, were the kind of recurring villain that these other cartoons had?  What if she were the Hawk Moth to Sunny's Miraculous Ladybug, the Duke Igthorn to Sunny's Cavin, the Lord Betrayus to Sunny's Pacman?  What if Opaline were continuously trying to steal the magic of the three crystals, but kept getting her plans foiled each episode, all while never really being permanently defeated herself until maybe the first season's finale?

Do you think that would be a welcome change for the MLP franchise? 

I ask because, to be honest, none of the MLP series so far has used a main recurring villain; at least, none to the kind of extent I'm talking about:  G-1 had one set of villains that were used a few times (the witch Hydia and her daughters), plus a lot of one-off villains that held the plot for a few episodes at most (Lavan, Grogar, Squirk, Katrina, etc).  G-2 was slice-of-life and rarely if ever used villains, unless you count one or more characters being jerks for the duration of the episode (and in this context, I don't).  G-3 was preschool and didn't have villains.  And G-4, again, had plenty of one-off villains, some of them came back for another episode or three or the season finale, but overall, G-4 didn't have the kind of recurring villains that drove most of the plots of a given season.

Maybe MLP trying its hooves at this trope would be a welcome change, with a lot of storytelling potential?

[Misty Shadow 7,867]

Yes, please. A character being a recurring villain in MLP has been something I've hoped for since I first started watching FiM. It's been over a decade now, we have had enough one-time villains and villains only appearing for maybe more than two specials at best. Now that we're moving onto another generation, there's no excuse not to finally have a villain who will serve as a consistent source of conflict for the protagonists for a significant portion of the series. With the comics seemingly doing this for Discord thus far, I don't see why this shouldn't happen in the series with Opaline. 

[Toastypk 923]

1 hour ago, WinterS said:

 I hope that there isn't some lazy haphazard connection to G4.

Actually, the comics

Spoiler

heavily seem to hint that she was possibly responsible for the start of pony societal collapse. Things got fixed by the end of the flashback, but so many years later, things look different.

She still needs to be fleshed out though.

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Toastypk

[Star_Quake 28]

Personally, I hate the idea of a constant villain. They're usually not written well and fall into many tropes. The best constant villain I've seen so far was Lotor from Voltron. As long as g5 do that with Opaline, I'll be fine. I can't help but feel like though Opaline will fall into the "Do my bidding my goons." Until she finds a reason to reveal herself, or the mane 5 figure her existence out on their own. Considering the first time we see her sees watching the ponies through a TV. Trope number 1...

[HereComesTom 2,267]

1 hour ago, Star_Quake said:

They're usually not written well and fall into many tropes.

If I'm being honest, seeing them use tropes for a constant villain is part of the reason why I want a constant villain! 

One of my favorite tropes is when they have a lackey who's comical and ineffective compared to the main villain (G-1 was all over that; G-4 only had Grubber from the movie meet that criteria), though I don't see that happening with Opaline's unicorn minion unless she's both (a) a lot more moral than Opaline, and (b) neither Opaline nor Misty are willing/able to terminate their working relationship---for whatever reason.

[Rushing cash 836]

The closest things we had for a recurring villain was the legion of doom in S9, but it wasn't really enough to count. I wouldn't mind that, if its written well it can be a nice change of pace. However, if she fails too many times it will be hard to take her seriously, so perhaps she can end up victorious sometimes to make her a real threat. Or make her more of a comedy villain. And I hope she will be active, not always let her minions do everything and than blame them, but actually do things herself at times.

[cmarston1 5,959]

Given how her scene in the Make Your Mark special was framed, I kinda got the feeling that she is meant to be an overarching villain.  Whether this be for just the first season, or the series as a whole, I'm not really sure.  But either way I got the sense that she was meant to be a villain that would be a part of the story for more than just one or 2 episodes.  How well this will be handled has yet to be seen, but if my prediction that the Make Your Marks series would be more adventure based and serialized story compared FiM turns out to be correct, than having an overarching villain could help to reinforce this.  And honestly I wouldn't mind having one.  I think it would be a nice change of pace to be honest.  I remember being disappointed with how technically she was a recurring villain in season 5, just how little Starlight Glimmer appeared in the season, so with that in mind I would be willing to see My Little Pony try to tackle this more properly this time around.

Edited September 2, 2022 by cmarston1

[Orchid_Fiore 200]

On 31/8/2022 at 19:42, Props said:

Ideally, there should be no connections to G4 at all.

I totally agree with your statement. On the other hand, I really hope that Opaline will be the main villian during the entire show! Or, at least the first two seasons.