Fwelin 
[bq]
> In A Canterlot Wedding, the very first thing she said after revealing herself was that finding food for her subjects was her duty as queen. In To Where and Back Again, when questioned about her motives, she answered "So I could feed, of course!" and added that once her plan was complete "my subjects and I will feed on their love for generations!".[/bq]
That is the duty of the queen, but her numerous statements, including in that episode, make it abundantly clear that she does it not because it enhances their livelihoods, but because it grants them (and by extension her)_*power_*. She doesn't care about whether they're hungry or not, just whether they're strong and fed enough to participate in her plans for conquest. Every time she talks about feeding, it's about her first, and her subjects as an afterthought.
[bq]
> This is an absurd comparison. As mentioned above, Chrysalis wasn't just feeding her army, but her whole Hive. Also, if you want to argue that Chrysalis only cared about personal power, it would probably be best not to compare her to an ideologically motivated dictator. In the words of an altogether different cartoon character "even Hitler cared about Germany o-or something".[/bq]
From every single portrayal of the hive's situation and hierarchy we've seen (The Times They Are a Changeling, To Where and Back Again, To Change a Changeling), the army IS the hive, with the only exception being the grubs too young to fight (but are being raised to be soldiers for Chrysalis anyway). They are not a society separated into military and civilian sectors like most real life societies, but a that Chrysalis uses for her own desires. The culture of Chrysalis's army was so ingrained in them that it was even to the point that not wanting to participate in the army was seen as as reason for bullying by_*small children_*.
No, it's accurate; Hitler did not actually care about Germany, the collection of people, but only Germany, the engine by which he could execute his ideological plans of spreading the superior race and stamping out everyone else; the actual well-being of his people was only desired because it's required for a well-oiled war machine.. Hitler's propaganda and personal writings had a consistent theme of he considering himself to BE Germany, which is why when is army started to lose and was retreating through German soil he ordered them to literally burn everything as they passed: if Hitler was to die, then he wanted Germany to die as well because it was worthless without him.
[bq]
> Hardly. Remember, Starlight and Thorax were trespassing and attempting to destroy her throne, a powerful asset for the defence of the Hive. Why would she believe a claim made by the two hostile agents she just apprehended, without any reason to think it's even possible. Would you have believed them if you were in her position? Somehow, I doubt it.[/bq]
I didn't say she would have believed it, only that she would have considered it, even slightly, instead of instantly pulling the "I know better" card and immediately jumping to saying it's impossible without giving a reason why. If she was someone whom was legitimately fighting against a years/decades/whatever long hunger that plagued your subjects instead of just using it to keep them in line for your army, even the slightest glimmer of hope of escaping it permanently would be incredibly attractive, regardless of who it was coming from.
[bq]
> For the sake of argument, let's assume the part about remaining queen is true (which is hard to say based on the wording of Starlight's offer in the episode). If she truly only cared about herself, why wouldn't she take it? She'd keep her position and be rid of her endless hunger. If she still wanted to conquer Equestria, she could've contrived any number of reasons to do so.[/bq]
No, it's very clear that Starlight was offering her to stay as queen; she says "You can be the leader your subjects deserve", and Luna was immediately reinstated as one of Equestria's princesses after she turned back to good.
She wouldn't take it because without the hunger that Chrysalis was using to keep her army under her control and the power said love was giving them, she would have no more ability to use them for her plans of conquest, especially with the closer contact they would have with the ponies from then on. As such, her going it alone where she has the freedom to plan revenge and to start over was the better choice for her current priorities. If she had_*actually_* cared about her subjects' well-beings, that was the perfect chance for her to show her true colors; whether she'd accept her old position back as the caretaker of her people even if it meant her opportunity for conquest was no longer there, or whether she'd abandon her people and find ways to find new tools for conquest alone. She chose the latter, definitively showing her true colors (though it was plenty clear enough already).
[bq]
> It seems to me that you're assuming a bit too much. Why assume she's abandoned the Changelings completely? Even assuming she had, why do you assume that specifically is the reason?[/bq]
I'm not assuming; her eventual goal as given in the episode is to completely replace her former subjects with an entirely different set of species for her new hive. She could have said she was going to retake the changelings, or maybe create a new hive of them, but no, she immediately moved on to normal ponies as her planned subjects, showing that she doesn't care who she has under her as long as she has control.
[bq]
> She said herself that the feeling was familiar to her and that she hadn't known it since she ruled the Hive.[/bq]
That statement was specifically about having others that would be there for her, not friendship or a reciprocal desire to be there for them as well. That specific statement was more about her not being completely alone anymore (as she had been for multiple seasons), not anything specific about caring for others, and she immediately stamped down on the feeling before it could progress to anything else simply out of spite for the concept of friendship.
While the show at times dealt with more multi-dimensional characters and villains (such as Starlight, Discord, Stygian), it also was not afraid to use pure evil villains as well. Chrysalis was clearly put into this bucket of characterization along with Sombra and Tirek, where she had no redeeming features in basically every appearance so as to create a villain that people could root against completely, with many parts of the show being the writers' way of emphasizing that she's evil and selfish to the core. See the following:
The point of Starlight's mini-speech (the "I know what it's like to lead by fear and intimidation! And I know what it's like to want everypony to do what you say! But I was wrong. A real leader doesn't force her subjects to deny who they are! She celebrates what makes them unique and listens when one of them finds a better way!") was to act as a speaking piece for Chrysalis being a horrible leader for her people, not one that does bad things because they are necessary. Thorax, the pre-reform changeling that has morals and view closest to us as humans, called her an evil queen.
There's also this line from To Change a Changeling that states that they had no freedom of choice, with their only option being to obey Queen Chrysalis at every point in their lives: "But remember when you didn't have a choice! When you were forced to obey Chrysalis! You might have been unstoppable, but you weren't free to choose!"
Finally, not a single changeling defended or desired to have Chrysalis back; even the most anti-change one, Pharynx, simply wished for a return to the lifestyle of conquering because he liked subjugating ponies, not because he wanted Chrysalis back. If Chrysalis had actually been doing things for the betterment of the changelings, there would have been SOME kind of sign of loyalty, but no, she was immediately cast away as soon as they were presented with a better alternative.
People wished more for Chrysalis to be redeemed because of of the popular view that she was doing it for her people; this was possible (if unlikely) back when we only had her initial appearance (which had real life years to cement itself in peoples' minds, helped along by popular fan works like Fluffle Puff), but even after it was shown to truly not be the case by later appearances, it was too ingrained in many people's views by then, which they put over what the show was presenting about her. This is the biggest reason why people object to not redeeming Chrysalis, but stay completely silent about Tirek and Sombra when they're all similarly as vile and selfish. It didn't hurt that Chrysalis was a "sexy" and mysterious bug queen in the same vein as [The Vamp](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheVamp), while Tirek and Sombra were just evil males that didn't have that kind of side appeal.
> In A Canterlot Wedding, the very first thing she said after revealing herself was that finding food for her subjects was her duty as queen. In To Where and Back Again, when questioned about her motives, she answered "So I could feed, of course!" and added that once her plan was complete "my subjects and I will feed on their love for generations!".
That is the duty of the queen, but her numerous statements, including in that episode, make it abundantly clear that she does it not because it enhances their livelihoods, but because it grants them (and by extension her)
[bq]
> This is an absurd comparison. As mentioned above, Chrysalis wasn't just feeding her army, but her whole Hive. Also, if you want to argue that Chrysalis only cared about personal power, it would probably be best not to compare her to an ideologically motivated dictator. In the words of an altogether different cartoon character "even Hitler cared about Germany o-or something".
From every single portrayal of the hive's situation and hierarchy we've seen (The Times They Are a Changeling, To Where and Back Again, To Change a Changeling), the army IS the hive, with the only exception being the grubs too young to fight (but are being raised to be soldiers for Chrysalis anyway). They are not a society separated into military and civilian sectors like most real life societies, but a that Chrysalis uses for her own desires. The culture of Chrysalis's army was so ingrained in them that it was even to the point that not wanting to participate in the army was seen as as reason for bullying by
No, it's accurate; Hitler did not actually care about Germany, the collection of people, but only Germany, the engine by which he could execute his ideological plans of spreading the superior race and stamping out everyone else; the actual well-being of his people was only desired because it's required for a well-oiled war machine.. Hitler's propaganda and personal writings had a consistent theme of he considering himself to BE Germany, which is why when is army started to lose and was retreating through German soil he ordered them to literally burn everything as they passed: if Hitler was to die, then he wanted Germany to die as well because it was worthless without him.
[bq]
> Hardly. Remember, Starlight and Thorax were trespassing and attempting to destroy her throne, a powerful asset for the defence of the Hive. Why would she believe a claim made by the two hostile agents she just apprehended, without any reason to think it's even possible. Would you have believed them if you were in her position? Somehow, I doubt it.
I didn't say she would have believed it, only that she would have considered it, even slightly, instead of instantly pulling the "I know better" card and immediately jumping to saying it's impossible without giving a reason why. If she was someone whom was legitimately fighting against a years/decades/whatever long hunger that plagued your subjects instead of just using it to keep them in line for your army, even the slightest glimmer of hope of escaping it permanently would be incredibly attractive, regardless of who it was coming from.
[bq]
> For the sake of argument, let's assume the part about remaining queen is true (which is hard to say based on the wording of Starlight's offer in the episode). If she truly only cared about herself, why wouldn't she take it? She'd keep her position and be rid of her endless hunger. If she still wanted to conquer Equestria, she could've contrived any number of reasons to do so.
No, it's very clear that Starlight was offering her to stay as queen; she says "You can be the leader your subjects deserve", and Luna was immediately reinstated as one of Equestria's princesses after she turned back to good.
She wouldn't take it because without the hunger that Chrysalis was using to keep her army under her control and the power said love was giving them, she would have no more ability to use them for her plans of conquest, especially with the closer contact they would have with the ponies from then on. As such, her going it alone where she has the freedom to plan revenge and to start over was the better choice for her current priorities. If she had
[bq]
> It seems to me that you're assuming a bit too much. Why assume she's abandoned the Changelings completely? Even assuming she had, why do you assume that specifically is the reason?
I'm not assuming; her eventual goal as given in the episode is to completely replace her former subjects with an entirely different set of species for her new hive. She could have said she was going to retake the changelings, or maybe create a new hive of them, but no, she immediately moved on to normal ponies as her planned subjects, showing that she doesn't care who she has under her as long as she has control.
[bq]
> She said herself that the feeling was familiar to her and that she hadn't known it since she ruled the Hive.
That statement was specifically about having others that would be there for her, not friendship or a reciprocal desire to be there for them as well. That specific statement was more about her not being completely alone anymore (as she had been for multiple seasons), not anything specific about caring for others, and she immediately stamped down on the feeling before it could progress to anything else simply out of spite for the concept of friendship.
While the show at times dealt with more multi-dimensional characters and villains (such as Starlight, Discord, Stygian), it also was not afraid to use pure evil villains as well. Chrysalis was clearly put into this bucket of characterization along with Sombra and Tirek, where she had no redeeming features in basically every appearance so as to create a villain that people could root against completely, with many parts of the show being the writers' way of emphasizing that she's evil and selfish to the core. See the following:
The point of Starlight's mini-speech (the "I know what it's like to lead by fear and intimidation! And I know what it's like to want everypony to do what you say! But I was wrong. A real leader doesn't force her subjects to deny who they are! She celebrates what makes them unique and listens when one of them finds a better way!") was to act as a speaking piece for Chrysalis being a horrible leader for her people, not one that does bad things because they are necessary. Thorax, the pre-reform changeling that has morals and view closest to us as humans, called her an evil queen.
There's also this line from To Change a Changeling that states that they had no freedom of choice, with their only option being to obey Queen Chrysalis at every point in their lives: "But remember when you didn't have a choice! When you were forced to obey Chrysalis! You might have been unstoppable, but you weren't free to choose!"
Finally, not a single changeling defended or desired to have Chrysalis back; even the most anti-change one, Pharynx, simply wished for a return to the lifestyle of conquering because he liked subjugating ponies, not because he wanted Chrysalis back. If Chrysalis had actually been doing things for the betterment of the changelings, there would have been SOME kind of sign of loyalty, but no, she was immediately cast away as soon as they were presented with a better alternative.
People wished more for Chrysalis to be redeemed because of of the popular view that she was doing it for her people; this was possible (if unlikely) back when we only had her initial appearance (which had real life years to cement itself in peoples' minds, helped along by popular fan works like Fluffle Puff), but even after it was shown to truly not be the case by later appearances, it was too ingrained in many people's views by then, which they put over what the show was presenting about her. This is the biggest reason why people object to not redeeming Chrysalis, but stay completely silent about Tirek and Sombra when they're all similarly as vile and selfish. It didn't hurt that Chrysalis was a "sexy" and mysterious bug queen in the same vein as [The Vamp](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheVamp), while Tirek and Sombra were just evil males that didn't have that kind of side appeal.