| “ | Sombra: No! This can't be possible! Your magic can't defeat mine! I DESTROYED THE SOURCE OF YOUR POWER! Twilight: You can't destroy our friendship, Sombra! Rainbow Dash: And we keep telling bad guys... Applejack: But y'all just don't seem to remember. Mane Six: Friendship is Magic!! Sombra: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! |
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| ~ King Sombra's villainous breakdown and last words before being destroyed by the six's power for good. |
King Sombra is a major antagonist in the 2010 animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
He is a sadistic, black-hearted and ruthless dark unicorn who once conquered the Crystal Empire. Before being dethroned and imprisoned by Princesses Celestia and Luna, he had cast a curse that made the empire and every pony in it disappear for a thousand years. Once it had returned, Sombra broke free and attempted to reconquer it, but was stopped by Princess Cadance, who with the help of the Mane Six, Spike, Shining Armor and the Crystal Ponies, who all then destroyed him. Later on, Sombra was revived by Discord (disguising himself as Grogar at the time) to join his team of villains, though he refused and went out to conquer Equestria on his own again. He managed to destroy the Tree and Elements of Harmony and succeeded in taking over both Ponyville and Canterlot, but ultimately was defeated once again by the Mane Six.
In the IDW MLP comics, he appears as the secondary antagonist in the 13th story arc Siege Of The Crystal Empire; the real main antagonist being his "mother" Rabia. In the IDW comics, it is stated that Sombra is actually an Umbrum created to destroy the Crystal Heart and release the Umbrum army trapped underneath the Crystal Empire; although this is considered to be non-canonical to the series. King Sombra reappears as the main antagonist in IDW's crossover comic series, My Little Pony/Transformers: The Magic of Cybertron, also titled Friendship in Disguise II.
He was voiced by Jim Miller in Season 3, and was voiced by Alvin Sanders in Season 9, who also voiced Demolisher from Transformers Unicron Trilogy.
His Qualities[]
What Makes Him Entertaining?[]
- He has a cool design and impressive feats of power, essentially since he took over the Crystal Empire without any extra assistance.
- He is an homage to Sauron.
- He has a good voice performance from both Jim Miller (season 3) and Alvin Sanders (season 9)
- While taken fully seriously by the narrative and characters, he has a few comedic moments in season 9 due to his more pompous and arrogant personality even though these moments drop his magnificense.
- His few lines of dialogue in the season 3 premiere, especially “CRYYYSTALS!” are memetic and he makes some good references to other media in the season 9 premiere.
- He is very cunning and manipulative both themes he appeared and even got closer to winning than most villains in the franchise
- He made sure that the Crystal Empire goes down with him in the event he was defeated until it was time for him to reconquer it.
- He hid the Crystal Heart on top of a tower and rigged said tower with three traps (a door to the victim’s worse fear, continuing staircases, and a dark crystal trap that voids teleportation) in the event any pony tried to find it, patiently waiting for Cadance’s shield spell to fade while his sliced horn stole. He would’ve actually won if not for Spike going along with Twilight and quick thinking from Shining Armor.
- Despite having less magnificent traits in the season 9 premiere, he's still cunning, manipulative and strategic enough to be one as he used his invasion of the Crystal Empire again as a ruse to secretly follow the Mane Six to the Tree of Harmony so he could destroy it and brainwashed the whole Equestria populace in order to keep them from reaching him when he takes over the Canterlot Castle.
- He is brave enough to either fight himself against many oponents at the same time or lead an army of brainwashed ponies from the front lines and glare at Grogar stoically despite him threatening him.
What Makes Him Detestable?[]
- Unlike Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis who have at least some mitigating factors, Sombra has none.
- While he is played for more sympathy and even redeems himself in the comics, they are deemed non-canon by the season 9 premiere, so they don’t count.
- He can't count for Magnificent Baddie because:
- He's too cruel and sadistic to count, even nearly coming across as a "For The Evulz" since he lacks a reason or motivation for his seek of power and inflicting pain onto others, only doing it because he can and no one is willing to stand up to him.
- He enslaves for seemingly no reason as seen in the first time with the Crystal Ponies and even his sole name was more than enough to scare and traumatize them.
- One of his worst moments was in the alternative timeline in Season 5, which envolved enslaving the crystal ponies and using them as his own personal army to fight against Princess Celestia and her army while being aware of everything they were forced to do and not being able to do anything. Which makes this a fate worse than death given that he hurts them in the process and he outright endangers their lives.
- He became a lot more arrogant when he’s revived in season 9, and while the Mane 6 definetly wouldn't have won against him without help he still retains his smugness.
- While he's far from being considered a coward, his paranoical breakdown during his defeat against the Mane 6 also drops his magnificent side.
- He's too cruel and sadistic to count, even nearly coming across as a "For The Evulz" since he lacks a reason or motivation for his seek of power and inflicting pain onto others, only doing it because he can and no one is willing to stand up to him.
 Entertainingly Detestable
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