History Characters / FriendshipIsMagicMajorVillains

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In her original appearance, Nightmare Moon is treated more as a MadGod and her conquest of Equestria will innevitably result in the end of all life on the planet due to eternal night. When she reappears in season 5, she's treated less like a generic doomsday villain and more like a tyrant. Equestria is doing fine under her eternal night, the reason it's bad is more because her reign is authoritarian and cruel.

* BeneathTheMask: The evil and confident Nightmare Moon was actually a scared pony who missed her sister.

* ClassicVillain: Envy and Wrath.

* DarkIsEvil: In contrast to Luna being TheSacredDarkness.

* TheDreaded: During her absence she has become ponykind's boogeyman. "Nightmare Night" is dedicated to how scary she is.

* EvilFormerFriend: Towards Princess Celestia. She used to be a co-ruler, prior to her FaceHeelTurn.
* EvilIsBigger: Turning into Nightmare Moon makes her about the same size as [[LargeAndInCharge Celestia]].
* EvilIsHammy: While hammy, "Luna Eclipsed" subverts this by showing Luna was hammier before she turned evil.
* EvilLaugh: A big fan of it; see her page quote.

* ExoticEyeDesigns: Hers look more like dragon eyes than pony eyes.

* FusionDance: The fusion of Luna and the Nightmare Forces, as revealed in the comics.
* GodOfEvil: Downplayed; there is nothing ''evil'' about night or dreams (again see TheSacredDarkness) but she uses them for evil.

* MenacingStroll: Performs a brief one towards Celestia shortly after her transformation.

* TheNightThatNeverEnds: Her ultimate goal.

* OneWingedAngel: Serves as this for Princess Luna.

* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: [[invoked]]WordOfGod confirms that ponies couldn't grow food without sunlight, which would ultimately kill off everything. It's unknown if she knew or cared about the consequences.

* EvilPlan: [[TheNightThatNeverEnds Eternal Night]], with an [[WordOfGod era of evil]] [[http://comments.deviantart.com/4/1603670/2282739345 as a side dish]]! Not to mention it would've actually [[ApocalypseHow killed every living thing under the sky]].

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TabithaStGermain; Creator/TakakoHonda [Season 2, ''Equestria Girls'', ''[=MLP=]: The Movie'']

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TabithaStGermain

* GoneHorriblyWrong: She was born of Princess Luna's resentment of her sister, Celestia, being appreciated more than her. Her actions left Celestia the [[HundredPercentAdorationRating universally loved]] {{Big Good}} and her being banished and forgotten; backfiring in every way.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Most of them, especially Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, seem to have Narcissistic Personality Disorder, being so entitled and power-hungry that they completely disregard others and are willing to usurp a kingdom for their own desires.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: They want to conquer and rule over Equestria, not destroy it, and for the most part, draw the line on actually hurting or killing the Ponies, opting to just imprison or enslave them. "The Ending of the End, Part 2" has Cozy Glow threaten her captives with "complete destruction.", but Chrysalis shoots this down on grounds that would be [[NeverSayDie "too permanent"]]. Even Pre-Face Turn, Discord considers [[TakenForGranite stone-turning]] to be cruel, and said he would never do such a thing to ponies.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Nightmare Moon is admittedly a pretty awesome name.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: For the most part. They want to conquer and rule over Equestria, not destroy it, and for the most part, draw the line on actually hurting or killing the Ponies, opting to just imprison or enslave them. "The Ending of the End, Part 2" has Cozy Glow threaten her captives with "complete destruction.", but Chrysalis shoots this down on grounds that would be [[NeverSayDie "too permanent"]]. Even Pre-Face Turn, Discord considers [[TakenForGranite stone-turning]] to be cruel, and said he would never do such a thing to ponies.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: For the most part. They want to conquer and rule over Equestria, not destroy it, and for the most part, draw the line on actually hurting or killing the Ponies, opting to just imprison or enslave them. "The Ending of the End, Part 2" has Cozy Glow threaten her captives with "complete destruction.", but Chrysalis shoots this down on grounds that would be [[NeverSayDie "too permanent"]]. Even Pre-Face Turn, Discord considers turning [[TakenForGranite stone-turning'' to be cruel, and said he would never do such a thing to ponies.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: For the most part. They want to conquer and rule over Equestria, not destroy it, and for the most part, draw the line on actually hurting or killing the Ponies, opting to just imprison or enslave them. "The Ending of the End, Part 2" has Cozy Glow threaten her captives with "complete destruction.", but Chrysalis shoots this down on grounds that would be [[NeverSayDie "too permanent"]].

* MightMakesRight: The [[TheSocialDarwinist general viewpoint]] of the villains. They [[EvilCannotComprehendGood don't believe'' in the magic of Friendship and believe that power and strength through conquest is the end-all decider of who runs things and there is no room for love, friendship or kindness.

* PyrrhicVillainy: The show has shown on a few occasions that even if the villains succeeded with their plans, they would be [[EvilWillFail led to ruin]] in ways they never fully accounted for. [[spoiler: Starlight Glimmer's "victory" nearly destroys the world several times over, and if the The Legion of Doom "won" over the heroes, their complete inability to get along would lead to the Windigos returning to Equestria, who would freeze the land and render their conquest pointless.]]

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The list goes: Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, and Lord Tirek. Subverted with Starlight Glimmer and Cozy Glow, but then [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse that's the]] entire idea. [[spoiler:Starlight Glimmer then ends up subverting this again when [[HeelFaceTurn she truly becomes a good guy]], but Cozy Glow... [[RedemptionRejection doesn't]].]]

* ShoutOut: To [[[[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]]. "STAND BACK, YOU FOALS! [[EvilLaugh BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!]]"

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The list goes: Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, and Lord Tirek. Subverted with Starlight Glimmer and Cozy Glow, but then [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse that's the]] entire idea]]. [[spoiler:Starlight Glimmer then ends up subverting this again when [[HeelFaceTurn she truly becomes a good guy]], but Cozy Glow... [[RedemptionRejection doesn't]].]]

* AffablyEvil: In her BadFuture from "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 2". She's surprisingly polite and reasonable for an evil megalomaniac. Not to mention that her BadFuture is by far the least "bad" of all the timelines (Rarity even comments that Nightnare Moon's castle "isn't open for view" at the moment, implying that it is somewhat of a touristic attraction).

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: No matter how close they come to victory, ThePowerOfFriendship (and occasionally ThePowerOfLove) blindsides them and spells their doom after they've written it off as empty hope. Grogar on the other hand realizes this weakness and attempts to use this to his advantage, by getting his [[LegionOfDoom own group of villains]] to work together. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption That doesn't]] [[TakenForGranite work either]].

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Enforced. A general rule of thumb considering the subject matter. The villains are only allowed to do three things: 1) Appear 2) Cause trouble and maybe 3) Come ''close'' to winning. When it comes to actually ''succeeding'', that just isn't happening. About the most "victory" they can get is [[VillainExitStageLeft getting]] [[RedemptionRejection away]] after their defeat, but it is [[PyrrhicVictory costly]], and trying again will only result in inevitable failure once more. [[spoiler:Grogar's LegionOfDoom doesn't even get [[TakenForGranite the chance to try again]]]].

* MonsterOfTheAesop: The villains may be evil, but they aren't braindead. Some of them have their own cynical (and [[VillainHasAPoint not totally illegitimate]]) gripes and viewpoints, generally viewing Friendship as flimsy and a waste of time. The Legion Of Doom even boast to Twilight that fear is a just as powerful tool as friendship. Their issue is that the villains are too one-track minded on their views that they completely fail to account for other factors, which is what [[VillainBall consistently leads]] [[StupidEvil to their downfall]].

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The list goes: Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, and Lord Tirek. Subverted with Starlight Glimmer and Cozy Glow, but then [[VillainWithGoodPublicity that's the]] [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse entire idea]]. [[spoiler:Starlight Glimmer then ends up subverting this again when [[HeelFaceTurn she truly becomes a good guy]], but Cozy Glow... [[RedemptionRejection doesn't]].]]

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Her first appearance presented her as more of a ColdHam with a deep reserved voice. After Princess Luna's personality had been established, later appearances made her more of an [[EvilIsHammy evil]] [[AffablyEvil mirror]] [[HotBlooded of her]], as well as benefiting from the show's increasing AnimationBump and gaining more details to her design such as fangs.

* ShoutOut: To Maleficent. "[[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty STAND BACK, YOU FOALS!]] [[EvilLaugh BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!]]"

* DarthVaderClone: Her backstory is somewhat similar to Anakin Skywalker's, her status as a FallenHero who pulls a HeelFaceTurn, and her design (her black and blue armour and deep voice) and relationship to her sister.