Well, I’d say Sunset is more than meets the eye (no reference intended). Though I feel like she could’ve came off as less than an Alpha Bitch.

wasn’t there a movie that went exactly that way? Oh yeah, I think it was Jawbreaker.
 
 
@SolidTrig  
Yeah Hasbro seems intent on running it into the ground to make themselves more like Disney. You would think they could see what happened with gaming trying to be ‘more like Hollywood’ and seeing how imitation usually falls apart in the end. It just runs counter to Hasbro’s original stylings.
 
 
@bboifatz  
I’ve only allowed myself to see the artwork and bits of spoilers here, but when I get the whole thing at once I really hope they didn’t go the ‘haha she was too weak, she got overwritten until I was thrown off” kind of thing. I hope bits of Rarity leak through.  
I can see the Nightmare eventually running through all of the mane six down the road and becoming a ‘full pony’ as a result of latent memories, myself. Possibly still ‘wicked’ but not an antagonist. It’d give them a good recurring-villain-that-doesn’t-always-need-a-defeat excuse at least, ala Shere Khan on Talespin as one example, or Penguin in Batman. We know when they aren’t the focus they’re still off doing ‘bad’ things but it doesn’t affect Ponyville or the princesses (at this time) so the elements couldn’t be bothered to go mess them up some. I figured Discord would wind up being that, but then Flutter On came up.

@Amber  
Trixie being reformed was not bad. If they want to bring her back again then she can be a friendly rival, and a theme with her character can be that she has to try not to let her arrogant tendencies get the better of her. There is plenty you can do with her character without her being hostile towards Twilight.
 
Discord on the other hand… he is a purebred villain. Making him do a heelface turn not only means that we can’t get new episodes with him as a villain, but it also means that the writers are going to have to figure out what to do with him. We had one episode where he got reformed, and then he was quickly forgotten about– he will probably not be mentioned again until they actually figure out an episode to write around him.
 
I just hope that in the IDW-verse they keep Discord as a villain. There’s a lot more that can be done with him as a badguy, and the comics are a great place to do that since they have their own canon outside Season 3 (and by extension, Season 4).

@kassarc16
 
I don’t actually mind Trixie doing a 180,if they keep her as a friendly rival of sorts(though I would have preferred her keep her bitchy that’s why I’m hoping Sunset Shimmer will become an antagonist if she becomes a S4 character).
 
The real one big mistake the writers made (in my opinion) is to make Discord a 180 too.

@SolidTrig  
See? Lame.

@kassarc16  
Eh, point. She was a real bitch in S1, I guess all the shit she went though (being run out of town, laughed at, the rock farm, the amulet) made her humbler.

@SolidTrig  
Even after the amulet fiasco, I don’t think that someone like her would flip so easily. She was incredibly antagonistic in Boast Busters, where instead of just trying to show up the others, she assaulted them with her magic. Now she’s all humble, and it seems like a cop-out.

@kassarc16  
I get Discord, but Trixie? She’s just a local blowhard, what’s so wrong with her not being all bad?

@SolidTrig  
Wouldn’t be surprised, as the worst ideas they’ve had have been Trixie and Discord doing 180s.

@bboifatz  
Well, she’s an ex-student of Celestia’s. Considering how forgiving Celestia is (NMM and Discord), it’s very possible that SS could be redeemed.

@SolidTrig  
Maybe they will surprise us. I doubt it, but it would at least be more interesting if something happened to make her sympathetic rather than being a cookie cutter school bully villain.

@bboifatz  
True enough, I actually like the NMR and Chrysalis arcs in the comic. I just meant that calling SS “generic bitch” is a little hypocritical, given the personalities of the baddies so far.
 
@kassarc16  
That I’ll have to agree with. SS’s “I want revenge on Celestia” or “I want to be the princess!” is liable to be a pretty bleh plotline.

@SolidTrig  
They all had their own, if similar, desires. Much better than what SS is most likely going to be.

@SolidTrig  
I would argue that they did do something unique with Chrysalis. She finds the Cutie Mark Crusaders to be unbearably annoying, and the way they played with that idea was quite amusing– particularly because the story was about her kidnapping the CMC.
 
Nightmare Rarity, I have not read the full arc so I don’t know where they are going with her. However, I will say what sets NMR apart from her predicessor is the fact that it’s Rarity, and that gives the whole situation a lot of weight even though she is a revisit of Nightmare Moon. She’s also a manifestation of Rarity’s insecurities about her friends– Rarity on some level thinks that she’s replaceable, and secretly fears that her friends just see her as “the pony who makes pretty things” and don’t actually value her as a person.
 
Is Nightmare Rarity on her own a unique villain? No– she is basically Nightmare Moon with a different body, and access to Rarity’s mind. That is what she is supposed to be. However, the fact is that Rarity is what’s at stake this time, and that is something a lot more meaningful and personal than “the night will last forever.” We care about Rarity, and as a result we want to see her friends succeed.
 
I originally had for a long time hoped that Trixie would become Nightmare Moon in some way– it seemed like a logical fit. However, I am very glad that IDW went with Rarity instead, because the end result is something that has actual gravity, and I feel a lot more emotionally invested because it’s one of my favorite characters and her friendship with the other characters that is on the line, and they have also used the story as a means of exploring Rarity’s personal doubts and insecurities about herself.

@kassarc16  
It’s not like NMM, Chrysalis, or Nightmare Rarity did anything new with the “cackling evil queen” role. We’ve seen it all before.
 
@Greenjack  
I’m not talking about Discord or Sombra. I’m saying that NMM, Chrysalis, and Nightmare Rarity all have the same “arrogant evil queen” personality, regardless of their respective motives and backstories.

@SolidTrig  
what defines a villain is not what they look like, nor what they do when they’re trying to be intimidating (i.e. the whole “talk circles around the one person that has the power to destroy me in hopes that it breaks their spirit allowing me to use them, or convince them to destroy themself) it’s in their motivations, their actions, and their personalities.
 
NMM was the traditional arrogant evil order, but she became that way because everyone at best ignored her existence. she decided that if they wouldn’t love her then they would fear her. this is actually quite the common train of thought in those taht are shunned, and usually it ends with you facing an angry mob of some sort.
 
Chrysalis wasn’t even evil, she was a smart predator that outwitted her prey, up until apparently someone got shining armor drunk or something because she went from espionage and infiltration (which would have kept her prey unsuspecting) to a full frontal assault on the renewable foodsource which would at best have left everyone extremely fearful and distrusting.
 
discord… he was also the traditional trickster, but honestly, where most compare him to Q from startrek… I see a lot more of a parallel between him and the master from doctor who, or at least the new who version of the master.
 
sombra… sombra was sauron (from lord of the rings if you somehow have never read a fantasy novel in your life yet somehow like a show filled with mythological creatures) hell, the entire plotline had tons of similarities with the lord of the rings trilogy in general.
 
in conclusion, they were all based on archetypes, but all of them (except for sombra) were not merely “evil”, they had a reason, a purpose, behind their actions.
 
(… did I just write an essay? what the hell am I doing with my life!?)

@SolidTrig  
You have s broad definition of generic.

@Amber  
I don’t really watch all that stuff, but the female villains on MLP are pretty much interchangeable. Even Nightmare Rarity in the comics is just another tall, dark-colored grandiose ranter. Trixie is the only one with real depth, and that was just because she was played for laughs.

@gasmaskangel  
Their personalities were the same. It’s just a matter of degree.
 
@donut64s  
Only a little. The whole “I will feed my subjects!” thing was just a throwaway line in the episode. We don’t see her get affectionate with them until the comics.

@SolidTrig
 
Saying that like saying Regina George(Mean Girls),Miyabi Aizawa(Great Teacher Onizuka),Nanette Manoir(Angela Anaconda),Cleopatra Smith (Clone High),Sandi Griffin(Daria),Pacifica Northwest(Gravity Falls),Bonnie Rockwaller(Kim Possible) and the Biskit Twins(Littlest Pet Shop) were doombringers,changelings who would suck your love out until you are left brainless.
 
Sure,they are antagonsit and some of them represent certain degrees of danger.But one thing is Mean Girl and another a Female Villain.
 
Diamon Tiara is a mean Girl and generic bitch while Chrysalis is a villain (while also a bitch).

NMM was pretty much generic bitch.
 
Chrysalis was a little deeper.

@SolidTrig  
Well there was the whole “bring about the apocalypse” and “enslave pony kind so we can devour their love” thing. Those are a few dozen steps above just being a bitch.

Meanwhile, Trixie is immune to criticism because her episodes didn’t take place in high school.

You call Sunset Shimmer “generic bitch” as though that didn’t apply to NMM and Cheeselegs.