Talk:King Sombra/@comment-5732533-20121112004020

I think what people need to realize is that for this particular episode, it's not about the character of "King Sombra." It's about the Crystal Ponies.

Sombra shouldn't be compared to the other villains, really. He isn't like Discord or Nightmare Moon, whose motives boil down to changing Equestria according to their preference, or Chrysalis, who is simply carrying out the logical end to her species' requirements for sustenance.

King Sombra, now in his shadowy form, is more of a transcendant entity, and is representational of the fear in the hearts of the Empire's citizens. Sombra is strong when the Empire is weak, and vice versa. And the Empire's strength seems to be dependent on the citizen's goodness, love, and remembrance of their own heritage.

I imagine the Empire fell to Sombra when they became indifferent or began taking things for granted (not unlike our own society today), allowing Sombra's power to overtake what little power the Crystal Heart had left. And his tyranny only served to weaken their spirits even more, causing them to be helpless to defend their Empire. So Sombra had to be overthrown Celestia and Luna.

People say "why not send soldiers," but soldiers would be useless against a force that is mostly psychological, which is why Twi and her friends are the best possible ones to help.

People are very quick to dismiss the most recent villain is "generic" or "lacking development," yet they don't even seem to recognize that the way they analyze episodes is grossly formulaic, taking into account only a fixed set of shallow variables, such as "good song, number of cameos/references, memorable lines, etc."

Instead, we should be trying to understand the message of the episode and analyzing how effectively they utilized the various characters and events in order to get that message across.

People continue to raise their expectations of the next villain, as if they can just keep stacking them up like a tower. But In reality, the other 3 villains are just as "generic" as Sombra. The community's love for them is driven by choice. They CHOOSE to elevate those villains by pointing up their merits and ignoring their flaws. In this case, people just keep talking about the lack of dialogue, when they don't seem to recognize that Sombra actually does something the other villains don't.