they took on equestria, just like he wanted. only difference was they decided they didn’t want the asshole who was using them as servants under threats of death to be in charge of them. besides, are we really blaming them for turning on him? if some asshole effectively enslaved you, used threats of death and violence to make you do what he wanted, but then handed you a gun and turned his back, wouldn’t you shoot him?
Are you saying Discord intended for everything to happen, “just like he wanted”?
Cozy Glow: You know, it really was super easy to get all those Earth ponies and Pegasi and unicorns to turn on each other.
Queen Chrysalis: It was, wasn’t it? Now that is something to think about…
Because they came up with that idea, and implemented it, independently, without any of his input whatsoever. That, in and of itself, is more of a “difference” than “he’s not in charge.”
Lord Tirek: Ah, Chrysalis. Another successful field trip, I presume?
Queen Chrysalis: Spreading distrust among the unicorns and Earth ponies is almost too easy. We could take down Twilight and her friends a hundred times, but as long as they have the “love” of Equestria behind them, they’d crawl back to defeat us. Not anymore.
Cozy Glow: No friendship, no magic! It’s so obvious when you think about it. I did my part freaking out the Pegasi.
Lord Tirek: And Grogar’s long absence has given me time to prepare the next part of our plan. [blows]
That’s basically outright stating “Grogar” effectively had no control over them at all, and they’re not using his plans.
Lord Tirek: Didn’t you all notice something was wrong in Equestria? We’ve been busy.
Queen Chrysalis: A whisper here, a rumor there…
Lord Tirek: Destroy some crops, cause some damage…
Cozy Glow: Turn pony against pony…
Queen Chrysalis: Until your whole kingdom is on edge, waiting for just one tiny thing to push them over the brink!
You said, verbatim, in the comment I was replying to originally:
everything the legion of doom did, they did on his orders
…when that isn’t what happened. Sombra
disobeyed him by not stopping after he lost during his “retake the Crystal Empire” bid, and the rest went rogue literally
one focus episode in by lying to him, and plotting against him
and Equestria on
their terms, and
they didn’t exactly seem mostly motivated by fear in backstabbing him, that is, Cozy being like ‘ooooh, this will be just as much fun as backstabbing Twilight and her friends.’
They collapsed snow on Rusty Bucket and his house of their
own volition, they took glee in sabotaging the Summer Sun Celebration of their
own volition, they destabilized Equestria by spreading disharmony of their
own volition (to the point of
Windigos showing up), they callously blew up a good chunk of the Canterlot Castle
for the thrill of it of their
own volition, they threatened prisoners (including a child) with both torture and inevitable murder of their
own volition, and they threatened to
rip a child’s wings off in front of his loved ones and then went on to attempt
murdering them in cold blood (I really like this shot, by the by), of their
own volition.
Cozy Glow: And now for your complete destruction! Won’t that be fun?
Queen Chrysalis: Patience, Cozy. Destruction is so… permanent. We need to show the rest of Equestria that we’ve broken their heroes first. Besides, we should have fun with our guests.
There’s nothing about the things they did that remotely inspired
sympathy to me
just because Discord got them together in the first place and threatened them.
They can’t be realistically be claimed to have been
forced (ordered) into doing over three fourths of their actions, when every scheme they actually did, they did without his knowledge (including leaving “his” unsupervised lair on
many occasions, both implied and shown, without authorization, without his direction), and without
any of his input, including the one thing they actually
did do on his orders, by lying about its outcome.
It’s not the fact they betrayed “Grogar”
(I’m not all that sure that “Grogar” was giving any big red flags of “he’s certainly gonna betray us even if we do comply”; looking through the transcripts, it’s not like he pulled a Chrysalis and went “me” instead of “our” or “us,” and in any case, he didn’t pointlessly punish them for “failing”) that makes them bad, so much as what they did
independently, that makes them worse than Discord, especially when the latter actually did show
remorse for his actions, and
risked his life to make amends for his failure.
Either Discord’s plan went horribly wrong because they were allowed to come up with their own plans independently and he lost
all control of the situation before they could attack anyone under
his supervision,
or they did “everything they did
on his orders.” It’s kind of two
entirely mutually exclusive things, those statements, no?
TL;DR: The main point of contention here
isn’t that Discord threatened them as “Grogar,” it’s that what they did seems to be classified by you as “following his orders,” because it can’t be that.
It just feels like your bias is showing when you’re saying things like “discord was guilty of more evil and wrongdoing than all of the members of the legion of doom combined,” and claiming that “it’s
all on his orders.”
@Egil
Chrysalis probably should’ve kept her mouth shut, when it was obvious that they’d just lost. They’d had enough of her bloviating revenge promises to last a lifetime after S6 happened.
Cozy Glow literally
couldn’t care less about throwing everything away (top student, assistant, many friends), and she didn’t even seem to
care much at all about
being defeated the first time, and being thrown in Tartarus. I think it’s kinda telling that she showed signs of being a pathological liar at multiple points.
Tirek, going by the comics, seemed like he had a loving family… and he didn’t let any of that sway him from being a power-hungry monster; when his brother pleads with him to stop, it’s a “betrayal” because he wouldn’t let him continue unimpeded, even if it was really him being offered a way out.
The prospects of talking any of them down, especially Chrysalis, are kinda laughable.
Maybe one or two of them could submit to being “reformed” in the sense of being sick of failing, but it wouldn’t work in the sense of “I can trust them to not backstab me for personal gain.”
