Tirac (My Little Pony)

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The name or term "Tirek" refers to more than one subject. For a list of other meanings, see Tirek (disambiguation).
Tirac
My Little Pony character
Biographical information
akaTirek
SpeciesCentaur
GenderMale
AgeAdult
OccupationKing
NationalityMidnight Castle
Relationships
FamilyTirek's family
AffiliationMidnight Army[note 1]
Real world
DesignerUnknown[note 2]
VoiceVictor Caroli
First
My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle
Last

Tirac was the king of the Midnight Castle and emperor of a vast portion of Pony Land. As the Lord of Midnight, Tirac was an incredibly cruel and wicked individual who managed to corrupt many nations, turning the populace from gentle butterflies to vicious creatures. In his final conquest however, Tirac found himself dying at the hands of the Rainbow of Light, ending his campaigns.

History

King of Midnight Castle

Tirac was a powerful wizard, capable of corrupting entire countries with the Rainbow of Darkness. At some point in the past, he conquered Scorpan's kingdom and soon set his eyes on Dream Castle. Tirac's ultimate ambition was to unleash the night that would never end, so he could consume the world with his darkness. For unknown reasons, he desired four ponies for his plan to succeed, only three ponies was not enough. Angered by Scorpan's incompetence at only getting him three ponies, Tirac threatened to kill Spike by cutting his head off.

Nearing midnight, Megan and her friends breached his castle. Angry or desperate, Tirac burst out of his throne room with his own two hands to attempt to enact the eternal night prematurely with the Rainbow of Darkness. Megan and the others used their Rainbow of Light, but at first it seemed like the Rainbow of Light was consumed by the darkness. Soon however, the light overpowered the darkness and Tirac was hit with the full power of the rainbow. The pure goodness of it caused the centaur king to explode and undid all the destruction he did.

Personality

Tirac was pure evil. He had no qualms with threatening to murder children like Spike and despised the kindness Scorpan showed to others. He was however, a smooth talker and was generally calm. He only lost his tempered near Midnight, which was the time limit for his plan to succeeded.

Powers and abilities

Tirac was incredibly powerful. His screams alone were capable of shattering stone gargoyles several meters away from him and his fist were capable of knocking huge holes in stone walls. With the Rainbow of Darkness, Tirac was capable of transforming objects and beings into his monstrous army.

Behind the scenes

Name and etymology

Although Tirek, an alternate seppling of Tirac, is an actual word in a handful of Turkic languages such as Old Turkish and Kazakh, that appears to be a coincidence as the meaning in those languages tend to refer to botanical sciences. The name "Tirac" is likely derived from "Tyrant". Prior to Generation 4 codifying the spelling Tirek, his name has also been spelled as Tirac and Tyrek. The use of the hard /k/ would become a norm in Centaur linguistics, as other centaur names such as Sendak and Vorak share similar sounds.

Franchise legacy

Tirac would become a multi-generational character, appearing in Generation 1 and 4 media. He was the main villain of the Twilight's Kingdom arc of Friendship is Magic and got his own prequel story in the form of Fiendship is Magic #2. Tirac also appeared as a parody of the Diablo video game series in Equestria Girls, spawning his own series of video games.

In the 9th season of Friendship is Magic, Tirek returned as a recurring villain, teaming up with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow under the ironhoof of Grogar, the first king of Equestria. Within his character arc, Tirek, though still evil and wicked seems to be growing to accept Chrysalis and Glow as his allies and appears to care about them, at least to some extent.

Reception

Tirac is usually considered to be one of the darkest villains of children's media, appearing on several lists for such a subject. Cracked.com listed Tirac as #1 on their "Top 7 Badass Cartoon Villains Who Lost To Lame Heroes", beating out Gargamel and Dr. Claw, though the article seemed to have confused Tirac for Scorpan.

Tirac was mentioned in an episode of the third season of Stranger Things when Dustin Henderson described the plot of "Rescue At Midnight Castle" in relative detail to Erica, calling her a nerd. This interaction was later the basis of a crossover toy.

In Transformers

For one reason or another, Tirac was called a "planeswalker" by Vector Prime when the elder recounted the most evil entities of the universe. Prime described him as "demoniac" and compared him to Koh-Buru-Lah, The Hytherion, Dr. Herman Manglar and Hori-Bull. This makes Tirac one of the handful of villains directly referenced in Transformers media before the official crossovers happened, the other being Discord who appeared in The AllSpark Almanac.

Multiverse

Tirac has appeared in the following alternate timelines:

Notes

  • Tirac is often spelled Tirek, as the original pilot in which he appears in had no credits, leaving many to wonder how his name was spelled. However, it has been confirmed by the MLP cartoon bible as well as multiple VHS covers, plus how it is pronounced in the episode, that it is indeed Tirac and not Tirek.
  • Tirac, like other names in the Centaur dialect, has a strong "/k/" noise. Other examples include Sendak and Vorak. This is likely due to the "Bouba/kiki effect", in which words with a /k/ noise naturally sound harder, sharper and thus, eviler than softer sounds. Another literary example of this can be found in The Lord of the Rings book series, with villain names like Melkor.

Appearances

References

Footnotes
  1. Conjecture title for the army/empire Tirac operates.
  2. Likely one of the following: Takashi • George Goode • Jerry Eisenberg
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