"Frenemies" Review: We have officially reached "Game of Thrones" level of speculation. · 9:57pm May 19th, 2019
"Frenemies" is finally here! The long-awaited episode to see more of Grogar's plan! And, wow, it dropped SO MUCH epic stuff on us! And it delivered a lot of interesting hints what could await us in the future and what we might see in the season finale.
The biggest thing is definitely that Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis decided to betray Grogar after they finally managed to work together as a team. This is a very unexpected development. So far, it looked like the four of them would simply march into Canterlot, with each of them enacting their part of the plan. But now, everything has gotten a lot more complicated. This development now makes room for a lot of interesting and complex possibilities:
1. Cozy, Tirek and Chrysalis use the bell against Grogar and manage to overthrow and defeat him in his lair, then march to Canterlot and try to take over Equestria by themselves with the help of his bell.
2. They wait and march to Canterlot together with him, let him do a lot of the dirty work and only then use the bell against him, when he has paved the way for them, manage to defeat him and then attempt to take care of the rest themselves.
3. They fail to defeat him with the bell in his lair, Grogar takes care of them and eliminates them using his bell, then marches to Canterlot and tries to conquer Equestria by himself.
4. They fail to defeat him with the bell after invading Canterlot, then pretend to play nice and team up with Celestia, Luna and the Canterlot guards and manage to defeat Grogar that way, then turn on their new allies again, but get defeated, as well, and end up being imprisoned in Tartarus (again), which finally eliminates the threat of Chrysalis too.
Most of these possibilities assume that Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow will keep working together after defeating Grogar, though. Which is possible if they get even better at teamwork and then they would likely be okay with ruling Equestria together, but Tirek also said that they can go back to destroying each other after they took care of Grogar, so they could also end up working against each other:
1a. In the scenario that they defeat Grogar with the bell in his lair, a fight between Chrysalis and Tirek would break out.
- If Chrysalis wins (and leaves Tirek alive), she would flee with the bell and invade Canterlot with it and Tirek and Cozy Glow would stay behind.
- Chrysalis wins and kills Tirek. Then she kills Cozy Glow, as well, takes the bell and invades Canterlot.
- Tirek wins and Chrysalis, if she survived the battle with him, flees, as it is usual for her if she knows she can't win. Then Tirek and Cozy Glow will try to conquer Equestria with the bell.
- Tirek wins and Chrysalis dies, the threat she poses for Equestria finally eliminated by another villain. Tirek and Cozy Glow try to conquer Equestria with the bell.
- Tirek and Chrysalis will kill each other in the fight to retrieve the power of the bell for themselves and Cozy Glow is left alone again.
2a. The same five possibilities, but in Canterlot instead, in which case Canterlot would deal a lot of damage and see a lot of destruction, thanks to the power of the bell and the resulting battle between Tirek and Chrysalis, with possibly more deaths than Grogar and Chrysalis/Tirek (I hope not).
4a. Chrysalis and Tirek battle each other for control of the bell in Canterlot again and the same destruction and possible deaths would occur, but after they defeated Grogar by working together with their shared enemies.
- Chrysalis wins and takes the bell, but gets defeated anyway, and imprisoned in Tartarus with Tirek (if he survived) and Cozy Glow.
- Tirek wins and takes the bell, but gets defeated anyway, and imprisoned in Tartarus with Chrysalis (if she survived) and Cozy Glow.
And there are more possibilities if we take the role of Cozy Glow in all of this into account. This episode has shown us a few new aspects of her personality. Most importantly, we have gotten an insight into Cozy's perception of herself, as well as where she draws the line in regards to being evil. There are two defining moments in which she clearly distincted herself from Chrysalis and Tirek. One is when she observed how Chrysalis has trapped the lamia in a cocoon to feed on it later. If you look at her eyes in that moment, you can see that she gave Chrysalis a judging, doubtful look, before she showed a fearful expression and cowered a little. She very obviously didn't approve of it that Chrysalis sees other living beings only as a food source.
Even before that, she rejected Tirek. When Tirek said to Cozy that she is showing her true self now, he compared her to him and Chrysalis. And Cozy Glow screamed at him, told him that this isn't her true self and that she is cute and loveable.
What can be taken away from this is that Cozy neither sees herself as evil but, despite the things she did, still as cute, innocent filly and that she still has a certain set of morals. She tried to conquer Equestria by sweet-talking everypony into supporting her and by removing all magic from Equestria, but she wouldn't kill her enemies like Chrysalis does.
If you are one of those who think of Cozy as completely evil and irredeemable, you should take a close look at these moments, because they show that there is indeed some hope for Cozy.
In an interesting contrast to this, it still means a lot to her to stay with Tirek, Chrysalis and Grogar, which became apparent at the beginning of the episode when we saw her expressing some worries that Grogar could get rid of her. This not only shows the reason for why Grogar chose her to join his team, he clearly freed her so she would use her abilities to make Chrysalis, Tirek and Sombra get along with each other, but also that she has a specific reason to stay with them.
All of these new infos combined; that she has personal moral limits in regards to be a villain and that she desperately wants to stay with Tirek, Chrysalis and Grogar despite not being like them, the things we've seen her doing in this episode make her behavior again perfectly in line with my theory about her. Being in the company of such strong villains is, even after she failed with her plan, definitely something that suffices to keep herself protected.
And even more interesting than that, there might already be a weak link in Grogar's entire plan with Cozy Glow. We've seen in this episode that she distincts herself from Tirek and Chrysalis, that she doesn't see herself as much as a villain as they are villains and that she wouldn't commit the heavy crimes they havecommitted. But we've also heard her say how much she loves backstabbing. If we take all of this into account, the upcoming events will be even more complex:
1. Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis have defeated Grogar in his lair with his own bell. Afterwards, Cozy Glow backstabs both Tirek and Chrysalis and the two keep working together.
- Cozy Glow takes the bell, but doesn't kill Tirek and Chrysalis, and flies to Canterlot with it to try and conquer Equestria again, with Tirek and Chrysalis on hot pursuit. Cozy arrives in Canterlot, seizes control with the help of the bell, then Chrysalis and Tirek catch up. They work together one last time and manage to get the bell back from Cozy.
Then they decide to rule over Equestria together, but get defeated, and all three of them; Cozy, Chrysalis and Tirek, are imprisoned in Tartarus.
- Chrysalis and Tirek plot to get the bell back from Cozy after following her, but it fails because Cozy uses the bell and kills them. But the guards somehow manage to steal the bell from her and she gets imprisoned in Tartarus again.
- Cozy Glow takes the bell and uses it to kill Chrysalis and Tirek as a preemptive measure. Then she flies to Canterlot to conquer it. She holds control for a while, but the guards manage to get ahold of the bell and she gets imprisoned in Tartarus again.
- Cozy Glow kills Chrysalis and Tirek when they try to get the bell back after following her. But instead of getting the bell stolen from her by the guards; Celestia and Luna, and likely Twilight, point out to Cozy how she has sunken so low that she ruthlessly kills her enemies now. Cozy, who has previously distincted herself from the likes of Chrysalis and Tirek, realizes that she has become just like them at the peak of her crave for power, drops the bell and gives up, horrified over herself.
Cozy Glow gets a second chance because she shows remorse and because she has become turned around by realizing she is a murderer and is accepted back into Equestria's society and Twilight's school.
- Cozy Glow kills Chrysalis and Tirek with the bell before flying to Canterlot and attempting to conquer it. She seizes control and flaunts how she killed Chrysalis and Tirek with Grogar's bell. Celestia, Luna and Twilight point out that she is a murderer. Cozy realizes what has become of her, drops the bell and gives up, horrified over herself.
She gets a second chance because she shows remorse and because she has become turned around by realizing she is a murderer and is accepted back into Equestria's society and Twilight's school.
- Cozy Glow kills Chrysalis and Tirek in either Grogar's lair or in Canterlot when they try to get the bell back from her, gives up when she is made aware of what has become of her, but doesn't get a second chance and she ends up with a lifelong sentence in Tartarus.
1a. Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis have defeated Grogar in his lair with his own bell. Afterwards, Cozy Glow backstabs both Tirek and Chrysalis, but Chrysalis and Tirek start working against each other.
- Cozy Glow takes the bell, but doesn't kill Tirek and Chrysalis, and flies to Canterlot with it to try and conquer Equestria again, with Tirek and Chrysalis on hot pursuit. Cozy arrives in Canterlot, seizes control with the help of the bell, then Chrysalis and Tirek catch up. They work together one last time and manage to get the bell back from Cozy.
But then each of them wants to have the power of the bell for themselves. They fight and the same battle happens, with the same destruction and the same losses. The winner takes the bell, but gets defeated anyway, and all three of them are imprisoned in Tartarus (or only two, if either Chrysalis or Tirek die in the battle).
- Chrysalis and Tirek fight for the bell in Canterlot after following Cozy and working together to get the bell back from her. They kill each other and Cozy Glow is suddenly left alone again. She takes the bell back for herself and seizes control once more. But the guards steal the bell from her and she gets imprisoned in Tartarus.
2. Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis defeat Grogar after taking over Canterlot, then Cozy Glow backstabs both Chrysalis and Tirek and the two keep working together.
- The same seven possibilities as in 1., but everything happens in Canterlot and Cozy, Tirek and Chrysalis don't have to travel to Canterlot, but are already there.
2a. Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis defeat Grogar after taking over Canterlot, then Cozy Glow backstabs both Chrysalis and Tirek, but the two start working against each other.
- The same two possibilities as in 1a., but Cozy, Tirek and Chrysalis don't have to travel to Canterlot and are already there.
3. Grogar kills Tirek and Chrysalis when their plan to eliminate him with the bell fails. But before he kills Cozy Glow too, she sweet-talks him into believing that it was all Chrysalis' and Tirek's plan and that they forced her to play along. He lets her live and incorporates her in a new plan.
Cozy Glow stays with Grogar, even though she knows that Grogar will ditch her once he doesn't need her anymore and that Tirek and Chrysalis can't protect her anymore, solely to not get killed by him. Together, they march into Canterlot.
- Grogar gets defeated, Cozy Glow takes his bell to seize power and to protect herself that way, now that she is completely alone and doesn't have to fear anymore that Grogar kills her for taking his bell. But she gets defeated, too, and is being imprisoned in Tartarus.
- The same scenario, but Twilight talks to Cozy after she noticed something in her behavior that indicates she wasn't happy about staying with Grogar. Twilight has an epiphany, puts 1 + 1 together and tells Cozy that she doesn't have to stay with villains or be a villain to get protection and that true friends will always protect her anyway. The words get through to Cozy, she gives up, drops the bell and flies into Twilight's arms, crying.
- Grogar succeeds and successfully conquers Equestria. But Cozy Glow backstabs him, takes his bell and, under the assumption it will work because she couldn't try it out yet, tries to kill Grogar with it so that he can't ditch her and she can protect herself with his bell. But her attempt fails, Grogar survives, takes his bell again and attacks Cozy to kill her for this betrayal.
But Twilight fends off his attack and saves Cozy, in the belief that Cozy has turned on Grogar and tried to save them all. They somehow manage to defeat Grogar and Cozy Glow develops trust in Twilight and learns that she can trust some ponies despite her experiences that led her on the path to become a villain, which makes her join the good side again. As a result, she is welcomed back into Equestria's society and into Twilight's friendship school.
4. Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis manage to defeat Grogar by working together with Celestia, Luna and the guards, after their attempt with the bell failed, then turn against them again. Cozy Glow then backstabs Chrysalis and Tirek and the two keep working together.
- The same seven possibilities as in 1., but everything happens in Canterlot after they temporarily teamed up with Celestia, Luna and the guards.
4a. Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis manage to defeat Grogar by working together with Celestia, Luna and the guards, after their attempt with the bell failed, then turn against them again. Cozy Glow then backstabs Chrysalis and Tirek, but the two start working against each other.
- The same two possibilities as in 1a., but everything happens in Canterlot after they temporarily teamed up with Celestia, Luna and the guards.
5. Chrysalis and Tirek kill each other while fighting for the bell after defeating Grogar with it and Cozy Glow is the only one left, lost and alone.
- Cozy Glow stays alone in Grogar's lair. She takes the bell and flies to Canterlot to conquer Equestria, but gets defeated and is imprisoned in Tartarus again.
- Same scenario, but she stays alone in Canterlot.
- Same scenario again, but not only did Cozy stay alone in Canterlot, they also didn't defeat Grogar with the bell and instead had to team up with their enemies.
- Cozy Glow stays alone in Grogar's Lair. She suddenly feels weak, vulnerable and helpless, with her two protectors gone. In that moment of weakness, she leaves the lair, flies to Ponyville and to the Friendship School. She shows up in Twilight's office and remorsefully asks for asylum and protection, while at the same time telling what happened.
Twilight listens to her, lets her stay and convinces Luna and Celestia to not imprison Cozy in Tartarus again. But she keeps her under close observation until she is sure that Cozy isn't a threat anymore, like she did with Starlight.
- Same scenario, but she stays alone in Canterlot and talks to Twilight there in the aftermath of the invasion.
- Same scenario, but not only did Cozy stay alone in Canterlot, they also didn't defeat Grogar with the bell and instead had to team up with their enemies.
Overall, this leaves us with 30 main possibilities for how everything will play out exactly and with 7 possible turnouts for Cozy Glow. And it could get even more complicated. One particularly interesting observation that can be made in this episode is that Chrysalis still has the piece of wood Twilight's clone turned into after the Tree of Harmony killed it.
This leaves open the possibility that Twilight's clone will return somehow and play a part in the events. If that is the case, everything I just said could get jumbled even more.
I am convinced that, whatever will happen exactly, Equestria will come out more or less unscathed by this, because it managed to survive every threat so far, both in the present and in the distant past. But what it really comes down to here is the question:
Who will succeed in wielding Grogar's Bell at the end?
Does this remind you of a question fans of a certain other TV show that is also in its final season ask right now? Yes, we have truly reached "Game of Thrones" level of speculation. I'm hyped.
Made my review of this special.
This is some really great insight into Cozy's character.
We can only wait and see. I loved how She was Dressed in Winter Clothes. And Yes, equestria has Survived so much, it will survive this too
Whatever else Cozy Glow happens to be (and in the Shadowverse, I'd suspect her of being symbiotically merged with a Shadow, like the Shadowverse Cloud Kicker), she's still Pony. Something that takes the form of somecreature one loves and then uses this to seriously harm oneself horrifies her viscerally. (This is one way in which Chrysalis is worse than most even unreformed Changelings, as Chrysalis seems to be truly sadistic about it).
She and Tirek are also IMO closer to being real friends than any of the other members of the Legion of Doom. This is in part because they have known each other longer and more socially than either of them has known Chrysalis. I could easily see Cozy Glow and Tirek seriously turning on each other, but there would be genuine regret there when that happened. Unlike the case with Discord, Cozy Glow doesn't seem to have enough inherent magic for to be dangerous to Tirek if allowed to keep it, or worth it for Tirek to forego her aid to get it.
I'm honestly not sure just what Cozy Glow is supposed to be. Pegasus female, yes, but why and how is she so terribly smart, cunning and manipulative? I find it hard to believe she's an unmodified filly around the age of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, which is what she seems to be.
One possibility is that she's actually a full-grown mare suffering some sort of developmental disability; a variant of dwarfism. This is what was going on with Baby Doll, her DCAU equivalent from WB's Batman. A variant possibility is that she may have been some sort of evil sorceress who bargained with dark forces for eternal life and youth (and forgot to specify "in the form of an adult female") which is IMO one likely explanation for Darla Dimple (and her ownership of the Max-thing) in Cat's Don't Dance.
Whatever she is (maybe even the incarnation of a malign Cosmic Concept, in my Shadowverse's terms) she's a lot more dangerous than she looks, the more so because of her apparent youth and innocence. Even Tirek (who knows far, far better) sometimes seems to be taken in by her act. And Chrysalis frankly underestimates her.
5061316
Exactly! I was joking when the episode aired and said that Chrysalis is becoming a pony when I saw how she developed a craving for cupcakes. But then she felt righteousness and benevolence creeping up on her and she actively pushed away both and decided to stay evil. This was already the second time that she chose Evil when she could decide between both options.
As she said it herself, friendship and being good is a disease for her. Chrysalis feels corrupted when benevolence is tempting her, like a good creature would feel corrupted if malice is tempting it. She is not just evil, she is the antithesis to everything that is good.
Chrysalis is the ultimate evil of Equus and there are really only two ways how it can end for her.
After seeing the season opener, I think of them more as father and daughter. That seems to be how Cozy views Tirek, as her dad. But these feelings are probably not mutual (yet?).
I see a bit of unfortunate logic in this statement, as it sounds like belittling children. Children can be capable of the same things as adults. We've seen Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle do a few things you wouldn't expect from fillies their age, too. Equestria especially has a very high ratio in regards to intelligent and capable children.
About the reason for Cozy's intelligence and her manipulative abilities, did you read my theory about her? I have a smaller one that builds on that, which is that it's her own abuser/rapist who, indirectly, taught her how to be manipulative.
He abused Cozy and when that abuser was confronted with everything after Cozy told what happened to someone she trusted, he always managed to talk himself out of it and to portray Cozy as a liar, because he knows how to play other ponies. Cozy Glow observed that and, being a young, impressionable foal, learned from it and eventually started utilizing it to protect herself.
If my theory about her past is right, then we have a classical case of one evil breeding another evil here. It's also clear that Cozy's abusers are very likely her own parents, as I realized recently after a comment under my experimental fic "Letters to Cozy Glow" made me aware of something I didn't notice before.
That's something her plan to drain all the magic from Equestria and to create a gigantic friendship army, with her as the supreme Empress of Friendship, made abundantly clear already. This also lets me think on her skull again, which still gives me the impression that she killed somepony once. Likely (and hopefully) one of her own abusers in an act of self-defense.
And it's not unlikely that we will see more of that in the future. I described above that one of the possibilities is that she ends up killing Chrysalis and Tirek with Grogar's bell, which would make her self-aware in an instant once the deed is pointed out to her.
But whatever depths Cozy should explore in her villainous journey, she will not do anything that makes her as irredeemably evil as Chrysalis is. Deep inside, there is a good filly, one who is "cute and loveable".