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My Problem with King Sombra
(WARNING, SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING WRITING)
So, I just say the first episodes of season three for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and while I thought a good start, the one thing I found most disappointing was ironically the very thing I was anticipating the most the villain.
Let me explain, when I first heard of the brony thing that's going around on the internet, I thought it was strange, but I accepted it. After all, it is the internet age after all. But what originally attracted me to the series were the villains. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, all these villains to me I felt did not belong in this kind of series, but when I finally watched some episodes, I actually liked the series. I watched all episodes from both seasons one and two, I love all the characters (Twilight Sparkle is best pony, and Princess Luna is best princess), the life lessons, the animation, and of course, the villains (Discord is best villain IMO, can't go wrong with John de Lancie), and I eventually became a brony myself, and will soon be posting MLP related pics on my account.
But that's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about my feelings about the season three villain, King Sombra. To me, the good king might be the weakest of the MLP:FiM rouges gallery. The first reason is because of what he is, and what he is, is a unicorn, just a bit shadow demon like. Previously, we had a royal alicorn sister who turned to darkness and vows to blight the world in eternal night, a chaotic god-like entity who spreads chaos like the plague and manipulates the Mane 6 into corruption, and a shapeshifting insect pony who feasts on positive emotions and defeats on of Equestria's most powerful beings. Compared to all of that, Sombra just doesn't seem that interesting.
The second problem I have with Sombra is that he has too little screen time. And yes, I know they were trying to introduce this new important part of Equestria and they couldn't devote too much time to the villain, but because of this, it just seems like it was kind of rushed to the point Sombra barely appears on screen for more then a few minutes. For this, lets not count the flashback Celestia had of Sombra, nor do we count the spells he had on Twilight and Spike. What does the good king do, he chases the Mane 6 through the Frozen North, deactivates Shining Armor's magic, tries to break through Cadance's barrier, breaks through said barrier, and then gets shattered by the Crystal Heart. In almost none of that does he interact with Twilight or her friends, he doesn't even have much to say aside from his evil laugh, and him saying "Yes, grow.", and the obligatory "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" that all villains say when defeated. I've seen OCs that have better development and dialogue then Sombra, and I should know, I have an OC.
My third and biggest problem with King Sombra is just the fact that when you think about it, he's wasted potential. When I first say images of Sombra, I got excited just because of the design alone. Also there's the fact that he's a shadow beast, which is an awesome concept itself. I also like the idea that he can trick other ponies with fear, a concept I was hoping a villain for season 3 would have. I also would have loved to see some backstory of this guy, like maybe he was one of the ponies who embraced Discord instead of fear him, or if he was somehow involved in creating Nightmare Moon, but none of that was shown, so we get nothing.
Now by this point, you probably think I hate King Sombra, well no, if anything he kind of grew on me when I think about it. Like I said before, he may be the weakest of all the MLP:FiM villains, but when it comes to being the worst villain in the My Little Pony franchise in general, I have seen worse (seriously, a magma monster that surfs on lava). And like I said in my third problem, Sombra did have some good ideas going for him, he also has a pretty cool design to him, as well as a cool voice. And also I really liked the scene where he chased the Mane 6 through the ice storm, that was the closest they got to actually making him threatening. And while I'm on the subject, at least he got defeated by some magical artifact, unlike Chrysalis who met her demise at the hands of the power of love (seriously, I still cant get over that).
So that's my problem with King Sombra, if they had more time to flesh out his character, then maybe he would have worked. But as it stand, Sombra is a good example of a good idea not utilized to its full potential.
(WARNING, SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING WRITING)
So, I just say the first episodes of season three for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and while I thought a good start, the one thing I found most disappointing was ironically the very thing I was anticipating the most the villain.
Let me explain, when I first heard of the brony thing that's going around on the internet, I thought it was strange, but I accepted it. After all, it is the internet age after all. But what originally attracted me to the series were the villains. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, all these villains to me I felt did not belong in this kind of series, but when I finally watched some episodes, I actually liked the series. I watched all episodes from both seasons one and two, I love all the characters (Twilight Sparkle is best pony, and Princess Luna is best princess), the life lessons, the animation, and of course, the villains (Discord is best villain IMO, can't go wrong with John de Lancie), and I eventually became a brony myself, and will soon be posting MLP related pics on my account.
But that's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about my feelings about the season three villain, King Sombra. To me, the good king might be the weakest of the MLP:FiM rouges gallery. The first reason is because of what he is, and what he is, is a unicorn, just a bit shadow demon like. Previously, we had a royal alicorn sister who turned to darkness and vows to blight the world in eternal night, a chaotic god-like entity who spreads chaos like the plague and manipulates the Mane 6 into corruption, and a shapeshifting insect pony who feasts on positive emotions and defeats on of Equestria's most powerful beings. Compared to all of that, Sombra just doesn't seem that interesting.
The second problem I have with Sombra is that he has too little screen time. And yes, I know they were trying to introduce this new important part of Equestria and they couldn't devote too much time to the villain, but because of this, it just seems like it was kind of rushed to the point Sombra barely appears on screen for more then a few minutes. For this, lets not count the flashback Celestia had of Sombra, nor do we count the spells he had on Twilight and Spike. What does the good king do, he chases the Mane 6 through the Frozen North, deactivates Shining Armor's magic, tries to break through Cadance's barrier, breaks through said barrier, and then gets shattered by the Crystal Heart. In almost none of that does he interact with Twilight or her friends, he doesn't even have much to say aside from his evil laugh, and him saying "Yes, grow.", and the obligatory "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" that all villains say when defeated. I've seen OCs that have better development and dialogue then Sombra, and I should know, I have an OC.
My third and biggest problem with King Sombra is just the fact that when you think about it, he's wasted potential. When I first say images of Sombra, I got excited just because of the design alone. Also there's the fact that he's a shadow beast, which is an awesome concept itself. I also like the idea that he can trick other ponies with fear, a concept I was hoping a villain for season 3 would have. I also would have loved to see some backstory of this guy, like maybe he was one of the ponies who embraced Discord instead of fear him, or if he was somehow involved in creating Nightmare Moon, but none of that was shown, so we get nothing.
Now by this point, you probably think I hate King Sombra, well no, if anything he kind of grew on me when I think about it. Like I said before, he may be the weakest of all the MLP:FiM villains, but when it comes to being the worst villain in the My Little Pony franchise in general, I have seen worse (seriously, a magma monster that surfs on lava). And like I said in my third problem, Sombra did have some good ideas going for him, he also has a pretty cool design to him, as well as a cool voice. And also I really liked the scene where he chased the Mane 6 through the ice storm, that was the closest they got to actually making him threatening. And while I'm on the subject, at least he got defeated by some magical artifact, unlike Chrysalis who met her demise at the hands of the power of love (seriously, I still cant get over that).
So that's my problem with King Sombra, if they had more time to flesh out his character, then maybe he would have worked. But as it stand, Sombra is a good example of a good idea not utilized to its full potential.
My thoughts on the MLP:FiM season 3 villain. If you have different opinions of Sombra or anything I say, please comment to me in a nice, orderly manor without any swear words, name calling, or insults.
King Sombra and MLP:FiM belong to HASBRO
King Sombra and MLP:FiM belong to HASBRO
© 2012 - 2024 MorriganXWarden
Comments7
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Let's look at what we do know. The fact that we know nothing about him is exactly like sauron. And the fact that he growls and rarely talks is like Ganondorf. A mixture of the two is perfect. Crysalis is the only villain that could be as evil as sombra, as sombra almost killed spike ( I have the image), in slaved an empire as slaves unlike discord who, as we've seen, the ponies are able to Simpley move away ( which explains how equestria expanded outside of pony ville.) and even when he lost, he made the empire vanish, like what a kick in the nuts to the heros. Since he's directly based of sauron, we can asoome he's too weak to do much until his body is back. Finally, the simple fact he was always a more serious and mysterious villain is in itself, a good villain. But your right, such little screen time, and his defeat is more straight forward than all the others. Wrong setting, wrong time. Why the writers haven't brought him back to improve, or even crysalis for that matter is beyond me. We saw him get his form back, and his horn survive, so he could come back like a star fish as one of his powers. But nothing from the writers, so the revival of crysalis and sombra coming back, even together as a team is up in the air, waiting to be done. If we don't see him or crysalis in season 5, it's safe to say the writers completely forgot about them. Sorry for the long comment...