Discord at least kind of has an In the Blood excuse and is a bit more versatile in his ass-ery. He just likes causing goofy stuff to happen, it just wavers whether that comes down to being a jerk someone. He's the definition of It Amused Me (outside the Joker of course).

A lot of villains in the show just seem to be driven to be nasty or hateful to someone without much explanation to it. Yeah bullies like that do exist, but surely there's some villains without completely petty motivations.

edited 10th Aug '12 8:14:32 PM by Psi001

@Swas: Just go look at the our Les Yay page

I never really liked Tiara, maybe since I was bullied, and it leaves a bad impression on me, even though she usually gets her comeuppance. Other than that, yeah, she's really bland.

Asstastic.

I miss him. The new dude will probably surpass him though.

Wolfluttershy.

Still at least Chysalis had legit motivations. She was still ind of an ass, but had reasons for what she was doing.

And a fucking kick ass Villain Song

I have to say I really don't mind the "douchebag" antagonists as long as they're interesting. I mean, the show as a whole is a lot more about everyday social conflicts rather than big epic "villain threatens the world" conflicts. There's nothing wrong with having an antogonist who's merely a jackass as long as they're an entertaining jackass and have motivation beyond For the Evulz. I.e. Trixie worked because she actually had a reason to be a jerk (she wanted to puff herself up).

edited 10th Aug '12 8:16:13 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Chrysalis had some motivation, but her sadism and one dimentional evulz towards the whole thing took out any chance of it becoming a complexity.

I agree, but still some are too bland and make the show a bit too goody goody. I would at least like one genuinely sympathetic villain (so long as it doesn't reverse and make the heroes look like asses themselves).

edited 10th Aug '12 8:16:51 PM by Psi001

Yeah, Chrysalis had motivation to be evil, but she was obviously enjoying herself. A more conflicted villain would certainly be interesting.

It can obviously be done badly, I'm just saying that it can be done well. You have to be careful not to make the heroes look bad, but I think it's entirely possible.

edited 10th Aug '12 8:17:45 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Hopefully DT&SS will get more development.

You guys know that Oppa Gangnam Style song?

After hearing so many people on this very website talk about how the villains are "always" more interesting than the heroes, it's amusing to see how exactly the opposite is true of this show.

I've actually been more or less ok with the set of antagonist we have had so far. I don't really see them going for a genuinely sympathetic villain in this show. I imagine even if they had a sympathetic motive they would still be clearly "evil".

YMMV, of course.

edited 10th Aug '12 8:20:54 PM by Mio

I'd really like to see an episode where the CMC have to interact with Silver Spoon and realize that if not for the fact that she hangs out with DT all the time, she'd actually be pretty cool. Sort of force them to realize "holy crap she isn't as much of a bitch as we thought" and have them deal with it. Maybe split the CMC down the middle for once.

I don't think being sympathetic and being definitively evil are necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, I think they could have pulled it off with Gilda if they had developed her more. Explained that she was really jealous of Pinkie's friendship with RD and such, but at the same time her behavior still makes her definitively jerky.

edited 10th Aug '12 8:23:00 PM by JapaneseTeeth

I can sort of understand why they may want to avoid making villains too sympathetic, since they tend to dangerous in rather saccharine shows and deract entertainment value and sympathy for being more flawed and normal characters than the cutesy ones (eg. LazyTown, Care Bears, The Dreamstone). FIM may be able to avoid this more due to the ponies complex heavily flawed personalities however. Hell a more developed version of Dragonshy where they take pity on an antagonist may even work.

Somehow I like the idea of SS being DT's Minion with an F in Evil, still loyal and friendly to the latter, but forgetting to be nasty around the CMC or screwing up insults or mean spirited plots due to comically missing the sadistic point of it. Probably a lot of Go Karting with Bowser moments.

edited 10th Aug '12 8:24:42 PM by Psi001

Flim and Flam had more of a motivation than being asses. They wanted money. Which really is a pretty realistic reason for being an ass.

I agree i love the charactetization even chrysalis had a good reason.

...I call BS on almost all of the entries I read there. *

Way too much shipping goggles going on there.

I actually really like Diamond Tiara and always enjoy it when she appears. I've never really understood why, but she's definitely not bland.

@J Teeth: That is more or less what I said. Not saying that it was a bad thing or a good thing.

And personally I thought that came across quite well in Gt BO, even if it was at most only implied.

But in order to build up the villian they need to focus more time on them, and the single biggest complaint that is said over and over, episdoe after episode is that they arelady have to much they nee to fit into the alloted time. they simply dont have the aritime it would take in a single episode to really build up a complex villain to much, while still keeping the Mane 6 in the action for a good chunk of the episode.

I think as mentioned above, it's not so much they're jerks, but they are unmotivated jerks. Gilda is a jerk but despite having a decent motive, isn't very consistant about it, or even her hatred of Pinkie.

Characters like the Looney Tunes villains are good examples. Daffy is a bastion of negative qualities, but they are almost all motivated by his sense of self entitlement and his insecurities against Bugs. Even when he does pick on someone for fun it's more in an inpersonal prankster sense like Discord than "I'm a jerk so will be nasty to that guy over there". Similarly Elmer and Sylvester hunt out of an ambition and are usually tranquil beings outside of it.

edited 10th Aug '12 8:30:02 PM by Psi001

@van: One thing you should know is that S2E11 through S2E13 premiered Out Of Order, so there's a choice of whether to watch them in order ("Family Appreciation Day" -> "Baby Cakes" -> "Hearth's Warming Eve") or by airdate ("Hearth's Warming Eve" -> "Family Appreciation Day" -> "Baby Cakes"). Another thing you should know is that there are two versions of S2E14 "The Last Roundup", the difference being that one scene was redone.

Discord is cool. I like him.

What's the difference in 214

edited 10th Aug '12 8:29:51 PM by vanthebaron

@Swas: I have to say, the Les Yay page should probably be trimmed. I can easily see stuff like "You don't have to hide your feelings for me" and RD's face being framed in a heart in Pinkie's door could count, but stuff like "Pinkie asks Twilight for advice because she respects her opinion" has nothing to due with shipping.

edited 10th Aug '12 8:29:13 PM by JapaneseTeeth

@van Did you know he's voiced by John De Lancie (Q from Star Trek: TNG)?