Lord Tirek

**Lord Tirek** (also simply known as **Tirek**) is one of the main antagonists of *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*. He is G4's incarnation of Tirac; the first antagonist of the original series.

He is a power-hungry centaur with the power to drain the magic and abilities out of other creatures. Long ago, he invaded Equestria alongside his brother, Scorpan in an attempt to rob its inhabitants of their magic, but was betrayed by his brother and then imprisoned in Tartarus by Princesses Celestia and Luna. A thousand years later, he escapes to terrorize Equestria again, even convincing the reformed spirit of chaos, Discord into helping him steal all the magic he could until he betrayed him and took his magic as well, but was then defeated, de-powered and returned to Tartarus by Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Mane Six. He is also the archenemy of Discord and second archenemy of Twilight Sparkle.

In Season 8, he conspires with his new protégé, Cozy Glow for the sake of revenge, but his plan backfired, thus forcing him to help them escape. In Season 9, he and Cozy Glow were released from Tartarus and becomes a member of the Legion of Doom, a team of villains bent on conquering Equestria, but is defeated once more by the Mane Six and their allies and petrified with his allies by the Princesses and Discord.

## Appearance

Similarly to his original incarnation, Tirek is a demonic-looking being with elements of a centaur. His lower body is black, with a white horse tail and cloven hooves. His upper body appears to be covered in black fur, except his arms and face, which are crimson red. He has a pair of horns and a white beard, his eyes are jet black with yellow pupils.

In the beginning, Tirek appears far smaller than he was in the original series. He is also scrawny and old-looking. However, the more power he absorbs as well as after enhancing himself with the Bewitching Bell, the bigger and nastier he gets. He dons steel bracelets which seem to be all that remains of his shackles, a steel collar, and a ring in his nose. He also wears a gold amulet that is a keepsake from Scorpan. Unlike his bestial yet human-looking face from his original incarnation, his face has a more primate/bull-like shape.

## Personality

Tirek is extremely power-hungry, oppressive, brutal, abusive, and obsessive. He wants to have complete and utter dominion over all of Equestria, and he will stop at nothing to accomplish this goal. However, he does not kill his enemies, preferring to leave them alive, but powerless, to better oppress them. Tirek is also quick to anger, and his wrath is absolutely terrifying to behold.

Despite this, Tirek isn't purely a brute as he is patient enough to wait for a long time after escaping Tartarus, recovering just enough power to become able to launch an assault on ponies. He is also shown to be an expert manipulator, He was even able to persuade Discord, himself known as an expert master of puppets, into joining him, only to betray him and consume his power after gaining enough magic to do so.

Tirek seems to be quite lucid because he did not understand how Twilight could still consider Discord as his friend after the way he betrayed him. It is unknown if he truly values honestly or if he simply could not grasp the concept of forgiveness. In "The Beginning of the End", he shows fear when he is awed and intimidated by "Grogar", having heard stories of the villain's reign of terror when he was a child. At the end of the episode, his laughter, along with that of Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, is less maniacal and more reluctant.

Tirek also seems to have a high opinion of himself. In "Frenemies" during the song "A Better Way To Be Bad", he calls himself Smarter and Stronger and did not need Chrysalis or Cozy, at least until he has to team up. He begins to learn how to cooperate with his allies to get things done. "The Summer Sun Setback", Tirek steals magic from the ponies secretly to help his allies retrieve the book about the Bewitching Bell. After they succeeded, Tirek was forced to return the magic to the ponies to avoid suspicion from "Grogar", which he personally dislikes.

In "The Ending of the End", Tirek is proven to be more cautious and pragmatic than his allies, suggesting that they should hunt down Twilight and deal with the Windigoes immediately. Tirek is shown to be hypocritical, as he deems Scorpan worthless for turning on him even though he tried to talk him out of his plan and left him with a final gift as a sign of their former bond yet he shamelessly turns on Discord just to take his magic and become stronger, making it clear that he never saw Discord as anything more than a pawn.

Despite his evil, Tirek did have some redeemable qualities. In the episode "The Summer Sun Setback". a bird lands in Tirek's hands and he allows it to fly free, though it's uncharacteristic of him. He also was shown capable of honouring a deal sometimes, such as when he returned Chrysalis's magic back to her (even if he wasn't even gonna do it at first) and kept his end of the bargain by releasing Twilight's friends.

In the case of the latter though, this was clearly because he saw killing them as pointless since there was no longer an apparent way to stop him. Tirek even almost came close to reform in "The Summer Sun Setback" before Chrysalis snapped him out of it and maintains his villainy for the rest of the series. Tirek also cares about his grandmother as when Cozy Glow was taunting him about having dreams of his grandmother, Tirek told her to leave his grandmother out of it.

## Trivia

* Tirek is the third most recurring main antagonist in the series, appearing in 11 episodes. He is also the most recurring male unreformed antagonist in the series.
* He is considered to be one of the evilest villains in *Friendship is Magic*, along with Queen Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, King Sombra and the Storm King. Tirek is shown to have consciously flat-out rejected the very concept of friendship with the ponies of Equestria, his brother Scorpan, and Discord, believing it to be a weakness. Also, without any rain or food (due to stealing flight from Pegasi and strength from earth ponies), the ponies of Equestria would likely die early into his rule if he stayed in power (And in the alternate timeline he was shown destroying a lifeless wasteland).
	+ However, he is later willing to cooperate with Cozy Glow and Queen Chrysalis to achieve his goals and he did come close to reforming in the episode "Frenemies" before Chrysalis snapped him out of it, thus making him not as evil as his G1 counterpart.
* In his debut, Tirek is shown to be very serious, traitorous, and threatening, though not as evil as his G1 counterpart. In his later appearances, Tirek is shown to be a little more comedic, but he still maintains his seriousness and threatening demeanour. Perhaps the most comedic Tirek has ever been was in the non-canon Most Evil Q&A Instagram videos, where he is shown to be a fan of the Rock and wants to open up a Yoga studio (Though this was likely a joke video non-canon or not meant to be taken seriously).
* Despite the difference in backstory and his relationship with Scorpan from G1, it is given a nod in FiM with Scorpan betraying Tirek for the ponies, though Scorpan never appears in the series.
* Aside from the real Grogar, Tirek is the oldest villain in the *My Little Pony* franchise as he was his age when Star Swirl the Bearded was a young unicorn. The second one is the Dazzlings, who were their age when they were defeated by Star Swirl.
	+ However, in *FIENDship is Magic Issue 3*, Discord is shown to be present when Tirek was younger, meaning Discord is older and thus, the oldest villain (though he is later reformed). Furthermore, in the show, Tirek is familiar with Discord and is well aware of his imprisonment in stone.
	+ Also, in *FIENDship is Magic Issue 4*, it is shown that when Starswirl banished the Dazzlings, they appeared in the present day, meaning that they never aged, to begin with.
* Tirek's claims of friendship being a form of imprisonment in which those involved are forced to surrender their true nature was eerily predicted in the Season 5 premiere episode "Cutie Map," in which the residents of an unnamed village are made to believe that they must give up their unique talents in order to remain friends with one another by Starlight Glimmer.
* Tirek is the first antagonist to steal the Alicorn magic followed by the Storm King and Cozy Glow.
* Tirek's second form resembles his G1 counterpart's appearance the most.
	+ However, Tirek's third form appears to be his main physical appearance as shown in a flashback of when he and Scorpan came to Equestria, he was in his third form already before being stripped of it and sent to Tartarus.
* In Season 4, when Tirek is in his third form, his voice is deeper. However, in Season 9, when he is in his third form again, he oddly still has the voice of his second form. This might be because Mark Acheson decided to voice his more powerful form a bit more normally and not as over the top as in Season 4.
* Tirek's backstory is somewhat explained in "The Ending of the End", where Discord reveals that deep down, Tirek feels like he is not enough to live up to his father King Vorak's expectations, though this may have not been true and simply Discord trying to get under his skin. This is one of the few times the series actually referenced the IDW comics.
* Tirek, alongside Queen Chrysalis respectfully, is the third major villain to be the main antagonists of the whole season, the others are Starlight Glimmer and Cozy Glow. In Tirek and Chrysalis' case, it was for the entirety of Season 9 alongside Cozy Glow.
* Tirek, alongside Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, is the final antagonist of *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*. This is fitting, as he was the first antagonist in the *My Little Pony* franchise.
* Unlike Grogar, who turned out to be Discord in disguise in Season 9, and the Smooze, who was not antagonistic in G4, Tirek is the only major antagonist originating from G1 that stayed as a villain through and through in *FiM*. Despite this, Grogar was a real historical figure in Equestria's past and Discord poses as him in Season 9.
* Tirek can be considered a darker reflection to Discord. Both were powerful and dangerous tyrants and were rejected by someone close to them. (Fluttershy rejecting Discord out of anger for flooding Sweet Apple Acres and then turning it into ice. Tirek rejected by Scorpan after Scorpan turned good.) But the difference is that while Discord made up for his mistakes buy turning Sweet Apple Acres back to way it was, Tirek became angry and bitter when his brother betrayed him and wanted to destroy everything in his path. And while Discord had some sympathetic and redeeming qualities (such as feeling remorse when Fluttershy rejected him and when he betrays her along with the other Mane Six along with helping them figure out how to open up the Chest of Harmony) Tirek was far more despicable, as he wanted power for himself and feeling no remorse when he betrayed Discord. Ironically, In Frenemies it showed that Tirek also had redeeming qualities but unlike Discord, he would still retain his villainous nature. And while Discord still made mistakes after being reformed he had good intentions (bringing back Tirek along with King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis and Cozy Glow while posing as Grogar to help Twilight be more confident of being ruler of Equestria) Tirek's intentions were purposely to harm others and to have power and ultimately Tirek (along with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow) were turned to stone like Discord, presumably for eternity. Thus, Tirek serves as an example of what Discord would've become if he became angry and bitter after being rejected by Fluttershy and didn't feel any remorse for his actions. Tirek also serves as a lesson to Discord, because if he hadn't learned the values of friendship, he would've ended up like Tirek.

## Quotes

* *“DON'T LET THEM ESCAPE!” (Last words)*

## Gallery

Tirek in his second formLord Tirek, along with Crystals and Cozy Glow turned to stoneLord Tirek in his third formLord Tirek in his fourth and final form