User blog comment:VillainNut/PE Proposal: King Sombra from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic/@comment-27059900-20200217235824

I disagree with the arguments that he's not among the worst in the series. He enslaved an empire and left the victims in a state of PTSD, nearly killed Spike, placed all of Ponyville and Canterlot, including the infant Cake twins, under And I Must Scream brainwashing, forced the heroes to fight their loved ones, threatened the life of a baby (Flurry Heart), tried to blast Fluttershy when he learned Discord cared about her, and caused a war in an alternate timeline. That should make him one of the worst FIM villains by far, and he shouldn't have to compete with G1 villains since they are in a different continuity.

That all being said, no. He's not quite heinous enough. He doesn't go the full mile of being as bad as possible. There is no indication he knew the Everfree forest would grow out of control and threaten Equestria if he destroyed the tree, he did not try to harm the Mane 6 after seemingly defeating Discord, and he never tried to harm Cadence, Shining Armor, or Flurry Heart after taking over the empire. He could have used his fear spell to psychologically torture them without breaking the show's guidelines, but he didn't. Even with the censors the show has, he could have done a little bit more. He doesn't go all the way. If he had made it clear he did know about the forest and that he wanted the rest of Equestria destroyed, maybe he could have counted.