"...I think of Chrysalis more as selfless than selfish."



That's part of what makes her character so interesting to me.



On the one hand, she is working to enhance the lives of the changeling race. But her her attitude and manner of speaking make her seem to be extremely prideful and egomanical.



Consider her first song. As she admires her lovely wedding dress, she sings that



"Everypony will gather 'round,

say I look lovely in my gown.

What they don't know is that I have fooled them all."



She is clearly quite proud of this achievement- the look in her eyes as the scene fades to Cadence reveals that.



(Cadence) "Oh the wedding we won't make,

he'll end up marrying a fake!

Shining Armor will be..."



(Chrys) "Mine, all mine! (laughs manically.)"



Greed. Pure greed.



It is not material objects which she desires (clothing, jewelry, etc), but rather power and control, and the sense of superiority which accompanies having them.







Then, during the reprise, as she looks out the window (having revealed her true form) at the destruction of Canterlot taking place before her:



"This day has been just perfect,

the kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small.

Every Pony I'll soon control, Every Stallion Mare and Foal,

Who says a girl can't really have it all? (giggles)"



To me, there is no question here. Yes, Chrysalis is building a new empire for her subjects, but it's clear that she is also enjoying the suffering and destruction which this entails.



Chrys is clearly a sociopath, but she's not a shallow, one-dimensional character either.



She has some qualities which make us sympathetic to her plight. We don't know, for instance, how or why the changelings exist as they do. Perhaps they are a race which has unjustly suffered at the hands of a tyrant, or come from as land which has been ravaged by famine and disaster?



Detail such as this is the hallmark of good and interesting character development, and I am genuinely grateful to the writers that the "villain" characters in MLP do tend to break the stereotype of being simple and shallow, without any mystery beneath the surface of their appearance.







I just hope that people can interpret what I'm saying with a level of emotional maturity, and not leap to conclusions about it.