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Queen Chrysalis
Fictional character from My Little Pony From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Queen Chrysalis is a fictional character who appears in the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony toyline and media franchise, beginning with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–2019). She serves as the main antagonist of the second season finale and a major recurring villain throughout the series. She is voiced by Kathleen Barr.[1]
Chrysalis is depicted as a malevolent and manipulative anthropomorphic changeling—a shapeshifting insect-like creature—who rules over a hive of changelings. As the Queen of the Changelings, she possesses powerful magic abilities including shapeshifting, mind control, and the ability to feed on love and positive emotions. She is characterized by her distinctive black appearance with holes throughout her legs and translucent insect-like wings, her curved horn, her fanged teeth, and her long flowing mane. Throughout the series, she is a recurring threat to Equestria and the Mane Six.
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Appearances
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![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2025) |
Fourth My Little Pony incarnation (2010–2021)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Chrysalis first appears in the second season finale "A Canterlot Wedding", where she impersonates Princess Cadance and imprisoned her in the caves beneath Canterlot. Having disguised herself to infiltrate Cadance and Shining Armor’s wedding, Chrysalis planned to feed on Shining Armor's love and use him to lower Canterlot's magical defenses, allowing her changeling army to invade and conquer the city. Her plan is ultimately foiled when Cadance is freed and she and Shining Armor use the power of their love to repel Chrysalis and her army from Canterlot.
Chrysalis returns as a recurring antagonist in later seasons, continuing to plot against Equestria and seeking revenge against those who thwarted her initial invasion. She appears in various episodes either directly or through her changeling subjects, maintaining her role as one of the series' primary villains.
In the ninth season, Chrysalis teams up with Lord Tirek and Cozy Glow to launch a final assault on Equestria. In the series finale, "The Ending of the End", they use the magic of the Bewitching Bell to make themselves all-powerful and take over Equestria, but are eventually defeated by Twilight and her friends, and turned into stone as punishment for their crimes.
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Development
When I designed Queen Chrysalis for "A Canterlot Wedding" in Season 2, initially she was drawn as being wet and hunched over, and it made her look weak and a bit Gollumesque. I also wanted to make her look rotten, like she crawled out from under a log, because she's buglike-that's why she's all moth-eaten and full of holes... I saw a note from Hasbro that said she wasn't scary enough, so I had to do a special pose of her rearing up to prove that she could be a super villain. Just putting her upright made her more commanding.
Rebecca Dart, My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria[2]
Character designer Rebecca Dart drew Chrysalis and the other changelings with an insect-like design after reading the character's name in the script, drawing inspiration from manga artists Junko Mizuno and Hideshi Hino.[3] According to Ridd Sorensen, the art director of Friendship Is Magic, he enjoyed working with Dart in creating the character, though "all [he] had to do was approve the amazing design".[4]
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Reception and analysis
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In his 2018 essay My Little Pony, Communalism and Feminist Politics, media scholar Kevin Fletcher analyzed Queen Chrysalis's portrayal in "A Canterlot Wedding" within the context of gender representation in children's media. Fletcher argued that the character's behavior while impersonating Princess Cadance could be interpreted regressively, similar to evil Disney queens, noting that her transformation at the wedding to her true form—which he described as "a decaying mare with insect wings"—draws visual inspiration from Maleficent's transformation scene in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. He also examined her role as ruler of the changeling hive, observing that the Changeling Kingdom resembles a termite mound and referencing feminist science fiction writer Joanna Russ's observation that matriarchal societies in science fiction are often modeled on termites. Fletcher interpreted Queen Chrysalis's song lyric "Who says a girl can't have it all?" as demonstrating the show's awareness of post-feminist discourse around "having it all" while associating this concept with villainy.[5]
A 2015 content analysis study by Christian Valiente and Xeno Rasmusson examining gender roles in Friendship Is Magic identified Queen Chrysalis as an example of the show's challenge to traditional gender stereotypes by featuring female characters as both heroes and villains. In their analysis of "A Canterlot Wedding," the researchers observed that despite the presence of male characters including an army of male changelings, "the main dialogue and action belong to the females Twilight and the shape shifter," with Queen Chrysalis driving the plot forward while male characters are "rendered inept or under the command of females." They remarked that the show consistently depicts "girl characters as the menacing villains" alongside female heroes.[6]
In a collection of essays on Friendship Is Magic, author Jen A. Blue examined Queen Chrysalis and the changelings within the context of power versus love dynamics. Blue argued that Chrysalis represents pure power without the capacity for love, citing the character's song "This Day Aria" where she declares "No, I do not love the groom / In my heart there is no room / But I still want him to be all mine!" Blue wrote that Chrysalis lacks any humanizing desires beyond the need to possess, control, and dominate others. According to Blue, the episode presents love as a potent force against power, with the changelings representing creatures of power and manipulation who are ultimately defeated when Cadance and Shining Armor's genuine love overcomes Chrysalis's control. Blue characterized the episode's resolution as a "utopian dream", but ultimately acknowledged that "but it has happened, in a small and temporary way, so many times. So, I say, dream on."[7]
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In popular culture
Queen Chrysalis has become a popular subject within the brony fandom. Academic research has documented positive fan identification and intensive parasocial relationships with the character. The character quickly became a subject of fan art following her debut. For example, fan art titled "Chrysalis Hearts" was posted on DeviantArt within days of the character's first appearance, with the artist captioning it "our lovely new queen". Fans described her as "evil yet charming" and praised her complex scheme to take over Equestria.[8]
Queen Chrysalis has been featured in other fan-created content, such as the popular Tumblr blog Ask Fluffle Puff, which features a fictional relationship between Chrysalis and an original character named Fluffle Puff.[8]
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See also
References
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