Interested in advertising on Derpibooru? Click here for information!
My Little Ties crafts shop

Help fund the $15 daily operational cost of Derpibooru - support us financially!

Description

Who is the better Mlp villain? And please dont comment why they are titled “Villain” or anything relating to that, that’s just part of the meme used https://www.deviantart.com/magicalkeypizzadan/art/Who-is-the-Better-Character-Base-639791771

Comments

Syntax quick reference: **bold** *italic* ||hide text|| `code` __underline__ ~~strike~~ ^sup^ %sub%

Detailed syntax guide

AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

I’d say Chrysalis is better overall, more fun; if you’re treating them along the lines of how they’re portrayed in canon, as villains, Chrysalis is the one whose goals are more flexible in context while remaining the same (conquering Equestria). Furthermore, Chrysalis, unlike Tirek, can better facilitate a state of affairs where the focus is in exploring how she affects the world. You can treat that which happens in her wake as a corrupting influence, as is what happened to Fluttershy in her alternate timeline, out of the desperate circumstances, have an internal struggle, and she can plausibly fail due to her character flaws, with tension therein lying in if it’s enough to result in her downfall, or if she tires of it and gets too relentless, drops the games.
Tirek, on the other hand, while he’s cool and all, and fun, he has the traits of being relentlessly pragmatic in large part, not too inclined to underestimate opponents, is light on gloating, and unlike Chrysalis, his MO, left unchecked, will sooner rather than later lead to an absolute victory, where he’s pretty much a god. He’s more of an unstoppable force of nature when he gets going, with the only things that can really stop him being overwhelming power or being blindsided. You more or less are very hardpressed to do a resistance plotline with Tirek and have it make some amount of sense compared to one with Chrysalis.
It also doesn’t do Tirek many favors that his fear factor is by and large inversely proportional to how much power he has, as seen by how he in his first form generally has that creepy charisma about him in both S4 and S8, but as he grows stronger, he trades that for the generally less compelling menace ala “unstoppable force” factor. Chrysalis doesn’t have this problem when she’s powerful, due to her gleefully exploiting her inequine flexibility and sadism. She also has a sense of style that is a joy, and has a more visually appealing design… and sadistic villains are fun to me; she quite canonically wants to torture someone indefinitely.
TL;DR: Tirek more overall effective in outcome endgames, Chrysalis is more interesting to think about in terms of “roads not taken in detail by the show,” if you’re sticking to villainy. Chrysalis has a more interesting MO, thought process, and goals.
@angryprogrockbrony
Tirek and Chrysalis are evil in different ways, one might argue. Tirek is evil in that he’s a destroyer/plunderer that’s out for personal enrichment, whereas Chrysalis is a conqueror who seeks to twist what’s around her to attain that goal. One of them will simply destroy society, the other will seek to warp it to suit them, if she’s no longer in a stage where she’s simply feasting on them as cattle with her indoctrinated subjects, acting as more or less her extended hooves.
@darkstorm mlp
Also are we sure that Tirek wanted to destroy Equestria and kill everypony? I mean he was against allowing the Windogoes to turn Equestria into a frozen wasteland and absed on his lines like when he told the princesses that everypony would bow to his will it seems that his goal was to conquer Equestria and enslave the ponies which he was going to do in season 9 along with the others.
I think it’s telling in regards to Tirek, that unlike Chrysalis (where ponies will serve as primarily food/slaves or her army/subjects/new hive, depending on if it’s past S6 or before), Sombra, or Nightmare Moon , there’s absolutely nothing pointing to what a society under Tirek would look like, as if he doesn’t actually have a vision. The imagery involved in how he was gloating they would “bow to his will” was also accompanied by the subtextual imagery of him crushing the orbs representing the ponies, which is made damning by how he just seemed to be destroying everything in an alternate timeline where he did come out on top. When you think about it, literally what, unlike Sombra, Nightmare Moon, or Chrysalis (who has the aforementioned two possibilities) does Tirek want out of ponies, as part of his MO? He self-admittedly hates them in general, he seems to have zero desires for what a society under him looks like, and his goals involve making as many of them practically invalids as possible, all to make himself stronger. He doesn’t seem to particularly care about having them worship his prowess. He seems to, at best, take what he wants, and move on to the next place to then repeat the process, because he’s entitled to the power in his eyes.
Also, the Windigos objection was meant to be on the grounds of “if we leave them unchecked, that means they have a greater chance of directly threatening us, having let them grow stronger off all this disharmony” There was absolutely nothing about him caring about the future state of the kingdom in and of itself. Sure, he seemed willing as of S9 to have the others rule over what they want (and Cozy still has more inferable for what she might do), but there was still nothing on a personal level for that matter.
@Swiftgaiathebrony
Tirek’s comic can, more or less, be boiled down to showing that his grudge against Scorpan was completely unjustified, and that he was always, far as we can tell, a bad apple, and Discord’s comment about daddy issues is honestly something people take too seriously, since Discord, an unreliable narrator as it is, was trying to piss him off, and implying that Tirek actually cared about the word of someone he utterly hated for not letting him be evil would accomplish such.
Starswirl
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Derpibooru Premium - Learn about the benefits of subscribing to Derpibooru Premium membership at https://derpibo
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

That Chrysalis fell apart so hard without her Hive makes me wonder how much of her plans was actually fully of her own design, and how much was her having competent underlings to counteract her flaws, like arrogance and addiction to gloating.
OtherFritz
Lunar Champion - Led the charge of major battles for the New Lunar Republic, bringing swift and crushing defeat to the forces of the Solar Empire (April Fools 2023).

In Treue fest
I’m glad you asked.
In terms of motivation, Chrysalis blows Tirek out of the water. As she explicitly stated time and time again, she invaded Equestria to obtain food for her Hive and after Season 6, she sought to regain her status and exact revenge upon Starlight Glimmer. Since her motives are understandable, she comes across as a person as much as she does a villain, making her more interesting and potentially even sympathetic. Compare this to Tirek, who didn’t even have a motive until Season 9 and even then was said to be motivated by vanity and vague offscreen daddy issues.
I also think Chrysalis poses a more interesting kind of threat than Tirek. While he relies primarily on force and his power to absorb magic, only resorting to guile when he has no other option, she mostly uses stealth and subterfuge. This, combined with the versatile shapeshifting abilities inherent to her race, allows her to put into action a range of schemes, weakening the enemy from within their midst, replacing key figures who could resist her and using the enemy’s own weapons against them. Even the villains’ plan from The Summer Sun Setback was of her devising.
I often see people overstate Tirek’s intelligence and this thread is no exception. I think this is, in a large part, due to his habit of saying what every backseat villain in the audience is thinking, whether or not it actually makes sense. For instance, he claimed there was no reason to try climbing Mount Everhoof on his own, but had no actual reason to think it was impossible, or that it would be if he worked with the other two. His suggestion to go after Twilight in The Ending of the End was superficially genre savvy, but Twilight really wasn’t a threat at that point and if the other villains had listened to him, they would’ve left their prisoners unguarded.
His manipulation of Discord is another reason often stated, but it consisted largely of desperate bluffing, attempting to fit the square peg of “let’s be friends” into the round hole of “friendship is nothing but a control mechanism”. If anything, it says something about Discord’s intelligence that he fell for it. Chrysalis’ feats of manipulation, meanwhile, are often more impressive, or at least equally so. Her speech to the unicorns in The Summer Sun Setback is a prime example and while her performance as Cadance is often derided, the fact that she fooled everyone in attendance cannot be denied.
Tirek is good at improvising, but Chrysalis is the better planner. Both of Chrysalis’ plans to conquer Equestria brought her within a hair’s breadth of victory. Tirek, by contrast, only took part in one plan (which he shared with Cozy Glow) and he said himself that he didn’t think it through. After allying with Discord, he returned immediately to the same brute force tactics he was already using, with scale being the only difference and in the end, it was his inexplicable decision not to double cross Twilight Sparkle once he had the Alicorn magic that sealed his fate.
Another thing that Chrysalis has over Tirek is her relationship with the changelings. As the leader of a nation rather than simply another powerful magical entity, Chrysalis made a great contribution to the development of the world of MLP. She introduced a people with distinct traits and a culture of their own. When she was deposed, some changelings still supported her and her methods. She, in turn, seemed to care for them, as ruling her Hive is stated to have given her a feeing similar to friendship. All of this adds massively to both the world and her character. When compared to Tirek, a Centaur from nowhere in particular who inexplicably has a gargoyle for a brother, the difference is night and day.
I would also be remiss to mention that while Tirek also showed the potential to redeem himself, the idea of Chrysalis doing so was teased since Season 6 and could’ve been payed off beautifully in the hands of a more competent writer.
I could go on, but I’ve been typing this out for literal hours and by now I’m sure my stance is clear. To be honest, I didn’t particularly care for Tirek until Season 9 and even then, he came off as the weakest of the three villains.
TL;DR: Chrysalis > Tirek
Starless
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Champion - Led the charge of major battles for the New Lunar Republic, bringing swift and crushing defeat to the forces of the Solar Empire (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
King Sombra - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Crystal Empire!
Artist -
Non-Fungible Trixie -

Prog rock pony
@Swiftgaiathebrony
Not really since even before she lost her hive it was made apparent that she wanted an army to control and didn’t care about her subjects as she refused to listen to Thorax and even tried to kill him absorb all of his love.
Tirek might have just thought that since he didn’t want to be stuck with Twilight and her friends in tartarus, but regardless, Cozy Glow tried to drain all magic instead of keeping it for herself like Tirek did.
Swiftgaiathebrony
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Artist -

@angryprogrockbrony
Well considering they showed Chrysalis going near insane over the loss of her hive (evidence of her is talking to inanimate objects) does that make her a bit sympathetic and show that deep down she truly cared about her hive?
Also it doesnt really make sense for Tirek to think Cozy’s plan was excessive since he tried doing pretty much the same thing in Twilight’s kingdom. And he likely only gave her her magic back out of fear of Grogar.
Also Tirek in the comics was shown to be cruel even in his youth, berating and bullying his younger brother Scorpan, plotting to overthrow his father and take over the kingdom for himself and indifferent towards his mother’s feelings. He even left his mentor for dead in a cave after causing an explosion due to failing to absorb his first pony.
Starless
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Champion - Led the charge of major battles for the New Lunar Republic, bringing swift and crushing defeat to the forces of the Solar Empire (April Fools 2023).
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
King Sombra - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Crystal Empire!
Artist -
Non-Fungible Trixie -

Prog rock pony
Tirek > Chrysalis
Both Tirek and Chrysalis don’t have good excuses for everything they did. Chrysalis claims she was trying to feed her hive, but given she abandoned her kingdom after all the changelings reformed, it’s likely she didn’t actually care about her subjects and just wanted an army to do her bidding. Tirek hates Scorpan for having him locked up in Tartarus even though he brought that on himself, and although it was said that Tirek just wanted to please his dad, King Vorak, his actions far outweigh this “tragedy”.
Like Swiftgaiathebrony said Tirek is smarter than Chrysalis as he knew they wouldn’t be able to absorb Discord’s magic (since Grogar’s bell absorbs magic differently from Tirek’s own abilities), outsmarted Discord twice, didn’t uselessly try to clinb Mt. Everhoof by himself, and took Twilight and the Windigoes more seriously than the other villains.
Tirek is more powerful than Chrysalis in his fully-powered state, but the only reason he ever got there both times in the show is because Discord helped him gain all that magic. Without Discord, Tirek wouldn’t have posed much of a threat in season 4. Chrysalis was a big threat when she had her army and when that was taken away from her, she became a joke until Discord brought her back and had her work with Tirek and Cozy Glow.
Tirek’s actions are more heinous than Chrysalis’s, but he also has a few redeeming qualities whereas Chrysalis has none (unless catching Cozy Glow when she was about to fall counts as one, but that was pragmatic villainy). Tirek cared enough about his grandmother, catched a bird that fell and released it, gave Chrysalis back her magic as part of a deal even though he didn’t want to, and had standards as he said Cozy’s plan of absorbing all magic was excessive. That said, I think Chrysalis is more evil than Tirek.
Swiftgaiathebrony
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Artist -

@darkstorm mlp
Also are we sure that Tirek wanted to destroy Equestria and kill everypony? I mean he was against allowing the Windogoes to turn Equestria into a frozen wasteland and absed on his lines like when he told the princesses that everypony would bow to his will it seems that his goal was to conquer Equestria and enslave the ponies which he was going to do in season 9 along with the others.
Swiftgaiathebrony
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Artist -

@darkstorm mlp
Agree but as for mental state, Chrysalis was shown to have gone near insane after the loss of her hive and Tirek was shown to be the smarter villain of the trio, he was the only one who knew they wouldn’t be able to absorb Discord’s magic. He was the only one who took it seriously when Twilight escaped and suggested they hunt her down. And he outsmarted Discord twice and is very cunning.
darkstorm mlp
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends
Artist -

I have a way of ranking villains specific to my tastes. We have a multitude of categories.
  • Reasoning
  • Mental state
  • Level of violence
  • Threat Level
  • Types of Atrocities They are willing to commit
  1. Both have no real reason to be attacking ponykind, but chrysalis at least comes off at first as wanting to provide food for her subjects, I’d give a pass to her had she not seen how well off her hive was after reformation, then ditched it because they didn’t do things her way. I take reasoning seriously because I personally dont care much for villains who are evil because they are evil. Villains in real life never see what they’re doing as wrong in fact quite the opposite, they find themselves to be the morally just ones. Building character depth and backstory is just as important and unfortunately neither Tirek nor Chrysalis have good reasons to be doing this, so neither get a point in reasoning
  2. The mental state of villains can be considered in multiple ways, the more unhinged a villain is the more dangerous they can be, yet the more mentally sound a villain the more calculated their schemes can be. Chrysalis seems to be relatively competent at the earliest portion of the series, in fact Twilight was her only foil had she not been there during the wedding, she would’ve won, and that’s even seen in the future where she took over. Tirek never had much for direction though, he made a move the moment he got out of Tartarus, had discord not been there to help him, Tirek would’ve been an easy capture, therefore a point goes to chrysalis.
  3. Level of violence is how violent a character is, how much damage they can do. Queen Chrysalis and Tirek are both tied by outside assistance, chrysalis needs love to increase her power, and Tirek needs to absorb pony magic. As for the most violent it would have to go to Tirek, he’s shown to be a powerhouse, requiring Twilight to have the powers of all 3 other princesses just to become his equal, and they have a battle that clearly shows Twilight herself would’ve been powerless in this situation, were she to have fought him on her own using only her power. Tirek gets the point here
  4. This goes to Tirek with no contest as we see in a future where he won, that he goes on to destroy everything and presumably kill every pony in his path, unrestrained with his magic beams, theirfore a point goes to Tirek here
  5. As for Types of Atrocities, this point goes to Tirek again. Tirek has used partners for his own benefit, he destroyed everything in one universe and even potentially eradicated the entire pony population, whereas in chrysalis’s future everything is still intact, the world is taken over and her changelings remain at her side, and even offering to spare the other pony if Zecora cooperates instead of rebelling against her. Making Tirek the most willing to commit the most violent atrocities so he gets the point.
Chrysalis = 1
Tirek = 3
Tirek wins this match.
Clooud
Non-Fungible Trixie -
An Artist Who Rocks - 100+ images under their artist tag
Artist -

Damn, hard question. Villain looks better and is stronger, but Villain is much smarter so they can plan better.
Or maybe this is a trick question and the true answer is… Villain? :O