NOTE: This article is about the TV version of the character. If you wanted to visit the comic version of the character, visit here at Heroes Wiki. |
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This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains. Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban. |
“ | Ahh... Long live the king. | „ |
~ King Sombra's most famous quote. |
“ | Ha! You're no match for me! I will finally rule the Crystal Empire. (gasps) Wait, with you out of the way, I will rule ALL of Equestria! | „ |
~ King Sombra to Mane Six after trapping them in a crystal cage. |
King Sombra is a major antagonist in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
He is a sadistic, cold-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.
Appearance[]
“ | King Sombra's design depicts his incarnation as both a solid creature and a flowing mass of smoky darkness. His lack of color suggests his evil demeanor, punctuated by his blood-red eyes and royal cape. As a pony, he has a body structure that is bulkier and more eleongated, alluding to his status as a once-powerful ruler of the Crystal Empire. | „ |
~ The description of King Sombra's appearance in The Art of Equestria. |
In his true form, King Sombra is a fierce-looking demonic unicorn with a gray coat, red eyes with dragon-slits, a flowing black mane and tail, a red curved horn and sharp teeth. His attire consists of metal armor, a red royal mantle and a grey helm with two curved spikes on each side, a tiny cylinder on the front between two red spikes and three black parts that cover his muzzle and sides of his face. By Season 9, the grey lines on the muzzle part of the helm are gone.
At some points, his irises become green with purple smoke coming out, and when forcing anypony to see their worst fears, his eyes turn completely green with the pupils disappearing for a moment.
In shadow form, Sombra appears as a shadowy mass with only his eyes visible. Later, he shows off his muzzle, two fangs and his horn.
Personality[]
In his debut, King Sombra's personality was not too elaborated on since he is little more than a dark and looming menace for most of the episode. He has very few speaking lines, some partially incoherent, and is a very mysterious character, whose backstory is limited to the fact that he enslaved the crystal ponies in the past. The source of his dark powers and his motivations remain an enigma. However, he is shown to be extremely cruel, vile, sadistic, ruthless, tyrannical, heartless and power-hungry; viewing crystal ponies as nothing more than his slaves, using fear on them and other characters, and licking his lips at the prospect of getting the Crystal Heart. In an alternate future, he tried to conquer the rest of Equestria upon retaking the Crystal Empire, starting a dark age of war and conquest.
After his resurrection, he is shown to be pompous and dangerously overconfident, denying taking part in the evil alliance formed by Discord masquerading as the ancient Grogar, in favour of taking Equestria for himself and ignoring his advice about working together, which ultimately proved to be his downfall. Examples of his inflated ego include leaving the Mane Six trapped in a crystal cage instead of brainwashing or destroying them when he had the chance in favour of making them watch him conquer Ponyville. Sombra even immediately assumed the Princesses are afraid of him as finds the throne room empty in Canterlot Castle when they were really otherwise engaged, and quickly boasting that he is the most powerful creature in Equestria when striking down Discord (who was really faking it), ignoring the fact it was just a lucky shot because Discord was protecting Fluttershy.
Despite his arrogance, Sombra appears to be intelligent, as he seemingly thought ahead of his enemies and placed a curse upon the Empire to disappear if he gets defeated, and cleverly booby-trapped the path to the Crystal Heart. After his return, recognising that the Elements of Harmony would threaten him, he pretended to be vanquished to secretly follow them to the Tree of Harmony so he could successfully destroy it and the Elements. However, his arrogance still remains, making him think he can defeat the Mane Six on his own, only for Twilight and her friends to destroy him again by harnessing the Magic of Friendship without the Elements, much to Sombra's shock.
Comics[]
In the comics, Sombra's personality is quite different from the show, depicting him as more sympathetic. Before he turned evil he didn't want to, and in contrast to the show where he was about to murder Spike for being in his way, he is unable to bring himself to kill Amore (which he is implied to have done in the show given her absence) so he turns her to crystal and non-fatally shatters her instead, also turning Celestia and Luna to stone instead of killing them and threatening the same to Chrysalis if she betrayed him. He also still seems to care for Radiant Hope, which led to his redemption.
The villainous version of King Sombra reappears in IDW's crossover story arc, My Little Pony/Transformers II. This version of Sombra retains his antagonistic ways from the TV series. After the loss of his physical body in Season 9's premiere, Sombra reconstitutes himself in an immobile crystal form. After he was able to regain his physical body after absorbing Twilight's magic, he mind-controlled some of the Mane Six, including Twilight Sparkle, and the Decepticons, including Megatron himself, and he now sets out to conquer the planet Cybertron.
Powers and Abilities[]
Dark Magic: Like all unicorns, King Sombra could utilize magic for many purposes. However, he has access to a plethora of dark magic based abilities. Because of this, Sombra was likely the most powerful unicorn in the series, whose own magic is great enough without any outside empowerment even being as powerful as Celeatia and Luna together. Only magic like what is held by the Crystal Heart, Discord, or the Magic of Friendship were capable of destroying him and breaking his spells.
- Fear Empowerment: King Sombra could feed off of other ponies' fear to make himself stronger.
- Energy Blasts: King Sombra could fire powerful green energy blasts from his horn.
- Levitation: King Sombra could also use his magic to levitate objects.
- Shadow Form: King Sombra could assume a mist-like form and transform back into his true form at will.
- Flight: In his shadow form, Sombra was able to fly through the air at incredible speed.
- Engulfing: King Sombra could engulf entire areas in his shadow form, allowing him to influence and harass others.
- Sealing Curse: King Sombra's most powerful known curse which allowed him to banish the Crystal Empire for a thousand years.
- Resurrection: King Sombra's spell also made it so that he would be released when the Crystal Empire returned.
- Memory Erasing: King Sombra's spell also stripped the Crystal Ponies of any memories they had from before his reign.
- Dark Crystal Summoning: King Sombra's most often used ability which allowed him to generate enormous black crystals from the ground to intimidate or attack his enemies. These were strong enough to instantly destroy the Tree of Harmony and shatter the Elements of Harmony with a single hit.
- Magical Neutralization: King Sombra's crystals could cover a unicorn's horn and render it powerless. These crystals would disappear upon his defeats.
- Entrapment: King Sombra could also trap his enemies into his crystals as if they were cages. Normal magic and teleportation are rendered useless to the prisoners trapped inside.
- Mind Control: King Sombra could use his dark magic to brainwash other ponies into following his command. He could do this either through traditional mind control spells or through mind control helmets.
- Hypnosis: King Sombra could cast spells on objects that would hypnotize ponies to show them their own worst fears.
- Energy Orb Entrapment: As seen in the Season 9 premiere, King Sombra could trap at least six ponies in a single large pink energy orb.
Weaknesses[]
- Hope: When his subjects experienced hope and other positive feelings, King Sombra would grow weaker.
- Crystal Heart: King Sombra was able to be destroyed when he was exposed to the Crystal Heart since the love and kindness contained within annihilated him and his evil.
- Elements of Harmony and Rainbow Power: For the same reason, King Sombra was vulnerable to the Elements of Harmony and Rainbow Power so sought to destroy both by destroying the Tree of Harmony. However, the Mane Six's resolve allowed them to destroy him for good even without the Elements.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
Like most of the main antagonists of the series, King Sombra doesn't have any friends, he only cares about himself and being better than any pony, the TV series version of King Sombra hardly has any allies whatsoever. The closest he ever had to allies were his mind-controlled Pony slaves who do his bidding. But they are more pawns than allies. In the non-canonical Siege of the Crystal Empire comic arc, King Sombra does have one ally before his redemption.
Radiant Hope[]
In the comics, Radiant Hope is King Sombra's former childhood friend. They first met as children and quickly befriended each other and play together since no other filly wants to play with them. After Hope tells Sombra about the Crystal Faire and the Crystal Heart, they both visit the Crystal Heart and see visions of themselves in the future, with Hope seeing herself as a beautiful princess while Sombra sees himself as a monster.
Sadly, every year when the Crystal Faire happens, Sombra falls ill with Hope by his side. One year, Radiant Hope heals Sombra with her newfound healing abilities, and she gains her cutie mark. Later, the Princesses of Equestria invited her to study with them in Canterlot. However, she witnessed Sombra's descent into evil and shattering Queen Amore so he can take over the Crystal Empire. Heartbroken and upset about this, Radiant Hope had no choice but to warn the Princesses and they went to defeat the new Tyrant of the Crystal Empire. The remorseful Radiant Hope meets the Umbrum and they invited her to their realm so she can remain in their realm for thousands of years until she is ready to return to Equestria.
In the "Siege of the Crystal Empire" story arc, Radiant Hope resurrected King Sombra and they eventually fix their relationship after Hope reveals that she never fulfilled her own destiny in the Crystal Heart's vision. Thanks to Radiant Hope, King Sombra redeems himself, defeated the Umbrum, gets rid of all his dark magic, and he joins Radiant Hope on a quest to find the missing pieces of Queen Amore's statue.
It is currently unknown if Radiant Hope ever existed in the canonical TV series, due to the fact that the comic story arcs that King Sombra and Radiant Hope appeared in were contradicted in Season 9.
Enemies[]
The Mane Six[]
King Sombra proves to be one of the most challenging and biggest enemies the Mane Six has ever faced. They hardly interacted in his debut in the Season 3 premiere. But Twilight is the only one in the group Sombra interacted with the most from the start, making him one of Twilight's possible archenemies. But in the Season 9 premiere, the resurrected King Sombra physically encountered and fought the Mane Six a couple of times and he managed to almost beat them by destroying the Tree and Elements of Harmony and almost conquered all of Equestria (well only Ponyville and Canterlot, not as much taken over like in the movie). But the Mane Six, with the help of Discord and their newfound confidence with each other, managed to defeat King Sombra one last time at Canterlot Castle. Showing they were still able to defeat him without the elements the whole time when they work together, as Sombra gets scared and desperate as the Mane 6 can still power up with no elements as Sombra gets scared, shocked and deseprate as his plan didn't work as he yells at them that he destroyed the source of their powerful rainbow magic, but they tell him that it's their teamwork and friendship is what makes them stronger than him, and Sombra was too much of a fool to think he can defeat them all by himself, then they defeat Sombra once and for all with the rainbow magic, as Sombra screams and disappears in the shadows again.
Princess Cadance and Shining Armor[]
King Sombra considers both Princess Cadance and Shining Armor two of his biggest archenemies. In the Season 3 premiere, Cadance and Shining Armor attempt to protect the Empire after it has recently returned. When the Mane Six arrive to help, King Sombra attacks them in shadow form and when Shining Armor stayed behind to defend his friends and distract the King, the Unicorn shoots a blast at the shadowy figure. But Sombra dodges his magical blast quickly and places a curse on Shining Armor's horn, blocking his magic with small dark crystals on his horn. Later, when Cadance's magic gave out, the magical barrier that protects the Empire breaks apart, allowing King Sombra to breach inside and attempt to retake the Empire.
Before he was able to grab the Crystal Heart from Spike and regain his power, Shining Armor tosses Cadance right at a nick of time and grabs both Spike and the Crystal Heart quickly. Cadance then encourages the ponies to use the light and love within themselves to ensure that King Sombra does not return. The Crystal Ponies soon powered the Crystal Heart and its power managed to save the Crystal Empire and destroyed King Sombra and his dark influence across the Empire.
In the Season 9 premiere, King Sombra was recently resurrected and attacks the Crystal Empire again. He managed to capture Cadance's and Shining Armor's daughter Flurry Heart, so he can threaten them to surrender. Cadance and Shining Armor reluctantly do so and King Sombra briefly succeeded in reclaiming his kingdom. But this victory was short-lived when the Mane Six arrived to challenge King Sombra and they managed to defeat him easily with the Elements of Harmony and save the Empire. Little do they know, that King Sombra tricked them into thinking they defeated him, so it can lead him to the source of their power and destroy it. Sombra never encounters Cadance and Shining Armor again after that.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna[]
The two sisters proved to be one of the biggest enemies to King Sombra and he has a history with them. He has done battle with them one thousand years ago, during the end of his reign. But Celestia and Luna managed to defeat Sombra, turn him to shadow, and banish him to the ice of the Arctic North, where he is to remain there for thousands of years. But it was not before Sombra put a curse upon the Empire, that caused it to vanish in thin air.
Thousands of years later, Sombra and the Crystal Empire return and he attempts to retake it. So, Celestia and Luna send Twilight and her friends to the Empire to help Cadance and Shining Armor protect it from harm. It proved to be successful and King Sombra was defeated once more.
In the Season 9 premiere, the recently resurrected King Sombra managed to destroy the Tree and Elements of Harmony and he corrupted all the inhabitants of Ponyville so he can lead his hypnotized army to conquer Canterlot castle. When Sombra enters the throne room, Sombra was surprised to see that Celestia and Luna were not there and assumed that they fled, too cowardly to even stand against him, increasing his mighty ego and overconfidence.
What Sombra does not know, is that the true reason Celestia and Luna left the Castle defenseless is to respond to the Everfree Forest's overgrowth after the Tree of Harmony was destroyed. Celestia and Luna heard the news from Twilight Sparkle about King Sombra and the two Alicorn sisters inform Twilight and her friends to go and defeat Sombra while they, with the help of Star Swirl the Bearded, deal with the forest. In the end, King Sombra is destroyed again and Equestria was saved. Sombra only physically met and fought the Princesses once in his lifetime.
Discord[]
Discord and Sombra never physically met each other up until the Season 9 premiere. Discord decided to come up with a misguided plan to prepare Twilight for anything when she becomes the ruler of Equestria. Not only did he bring back some of the previous antagonists of the series, but Discord even used a magical stick that drew a blue rune on the ground. The rune glows and a black crystal forms out of the ground. Smoke starts spiraling everywhere in the cave and King Sombra is successfully resurrected.
Discord, who was posing as the ancient evil ram sorcerer named Grogar, plans to have King Sombra join his team of baddies in his fake plan to conquer Equestria and defeat Twilight and her friends once and for all (when in reality, he just wants to pose a threat so Twilight could be confident enough to rule Equestria). But King Sombra rejects the offer and proclaims that he only does things on his own and will destroy anypony who gets in his way. Discord finds Sombra's arrogance ironic since he too was defeated for being too overconfident in the Season 2 premiere. So as "Grogar", Discord allows King Sombra to go and try to take back his Kingdom and will send him there himself. "Grogar" also made a deal with Sombra that if he wins he will keep the Empire for himself. But if he fails, he will submit to "Grogar". He also warns Sombra that if he refuses the deal, he will personally send him back into the Ether. This causes the King to finally agree with him and boasts towards the other villains that no one can stand in his way and will defeat all who will oppose him, much to the annoyance of "Grogar" and he uses his magic to quickly teleport Sombra to the Empire.
Later on, Discord, back in his true form, hears that King Sombra has destroyed the Tree and Elements of Harmony and has successfully conquered Canterlot and Ponyville. Discord was forced to help the Mane Six defeat King Sombra, even if Discord was unsure about it. Discord fought off Sombra's magical attacks, but when he brings up that Fluttershy is his favorite friend, King Sombra gets a very devious idea and he shoots a blast, heading towards Fluttershy. Discord blocked the blast by taking a hit and pretends to be injured by Sombra's dark magic to encourage his friends into action. This causes the Mane Six to realize that they still represent the spirit of the Elements without using the artifacts. Discord witnessed Sombra's final demise.
Later, Discord poses as "Grogar" again and returns to his "lair" to show Sombra's demise to the other villains as a warning of what could occur to them if they foolishly try to attack them on their own again and do not work together to defeat the Mane Six as Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy fearfully join, seeing how powerful the Mane 6 are now. Later on, "Grogar" was betrayed by Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy, thanks to their newfound powers gifted by the Bewitching Bell and they use the Bell to steal Discord's magic, revealing his true form to all of them, much to their surprise. Discord managed to run away to Canterlot and confessed that he was the one who resurrected King Sombra and confesses his motives, much to the shock and horror of the ponies. Luckily, in the end, Discord was forgiven for his actions since impersonating "Grogar" and the other three villains that he brought them back were defeated again. Since Sombra was defeated before the revelation that Discord posed as Grogar all along, it is unknown how Sombra would react if he was still around and learned the truth about "Grogar". It can be assumed that he would be both confused and outraged that he was being used in order to boost Twilight's confidence. If he were to be resurrected again and found out the truth, he would've blamed Discord for his defeat and possibly seek revenge on him.
In the end, like with Queen Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow, Sombra and Discord had a very poor relationship from the start.
Rabia[]
In the IDW comics, Rabia is King Sombra's "mother" and is the leader of the Umbrum. Their relationship started off as neutral, but after Sombra's change of heart, they become enemies. Rabia disguised the Umbrum King Sombra as a pony so he could go through the prison door and release them. When Sombra did not want to turn evil and ran, Rabia communicated with him through the Crystal Heart and he embraced his dark side, although he instead decided to rule the Crystal Empire instead. Eventually, King Sombra set Rabia and the Umbrum free during the events of "Siege of the Crystal Empire". She acts as an advisor to Sombra during his time as the "Emperor". Rabia tries to convince Sombra to destroy the Crystal Heart, so that the Umbrum can conquer the rest of Equestria, though this could also lead to the destruction of the Crystal Empire by the frozen north's weather, as shown in the TV Show's Season 6 premiere, thus contradicting the show and the comic's story arc. However, after Radiant Hope's words of choosing one's own destiny deeply affecting him, he has a change of heart and he activated the Crystal Heart. Rabia screamed Sombra's name before she and her fellow Umbrum were banished back to their prison.
Others[]
The Crystal Ponies[]
King Sombra is shown to be one of the biggest threats to the Crystal Empire and thus he had a poor relationship with his own subjects, the Crystal Ponies. In the Season 3 premiere, the Crystal Ponies feared King Sombra greatly to the point that they never wanted to remember the time he ruled over them. It is not shown what Sombra actually did to some of the slaves, but he was a cruel and heartless King as he enslaved the Crystal Ponies. He will even go as far as to corrupt them to do his bidding.
Grogar[]
Like Queen Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow, King Sombra and the real Grogar have never physically met, but King Sombra has heard about him. Sombra has heard tales that he was once the first Emperor of Equestria and the Father of Monsters. The real Grogar could be one of the main inspirations for King Sombra to conquer all of Equestria for himself.
Queen Chrysalis[]
In the TV series, Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra only met physically in the Season 9 premiere when they were both summoned to "Grogar's lair". They didn't interact much, but whenever King Sombra is boasting or being arrogant, Chrysalis and her fellow villain Tirek was very annoyed. It is currently unknown what Sombra thinks of Queen Chrysalis, but he felt he is more superior to her and he does not need her help. Because Sombra decided to not join the Legion of Doom, their relationship never truly went anywhere and thus they barely have a relationship.
In the comics, King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis interacted much more in the "Siege of the Crystal Empire" four-issue story arc. After he was resurrected by Radiant Hope, Sombra set Queen Chrysalis, Iron Will, Lightning Dust, and the Flim Flam Brothers free from being imprisoned, and teams up with them to defeat Twilight and her friends. Sombra was forced to team up with Chrysalis to battle Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but he managed to defeat them by turning them to stone, much to Chrysalis's delight. However, he was briefly in odds with Chrysalis when it was revealed he will set the Umbrum free to conquer Equestria. Chrysalis points out that the Changelings feed on love, while the Umbrum feeds on despair. Without any pony to stop the Umbrum, all the love of Equestria will be gone and thus it will leave her and her Changeling hive to starve. Sombra has an imperious attitude towards Queen Chrysalis, calling her the Queen of "Vermin". They were about to battle, until Radiant Hope puts a stop to it. Chrysalis and Sombra go their separate ways, but not before Chrysalis warns him of what the Umbrum are capable of.
Lord Tirek[]
King Sombra has heard about Lord Tirek and claimed that he is a "better villain" than he is, as said by Big Jim Miller on Twitter. He feels superior to him and does not need his help. Lord Tirek and King Sombra also only met physically in the Season 9 premiere when they both were summoned to "Grogar's lair". Though they don't interact much, King Sombra does not seem too surprised or intimidated when "Grogar" fed Tirek a small sample of magic and he grew into his second form. Sombra even helps Tirek explain to Cozy Glow who Grogar truly is. Tirek was shown to be annoyed with King Sombra when he starts boasting about how he will defeat all who will oppose him. Because Sombra decided to not join the Legion of Doom, their relationship never truly went anywhere and thus they barely have a relationship.
Cozy Glow[]
Cozy Glow and King Sombra only met in the Season 9 premiere and they barely have any relationship whatsoever, since they don't interact much. It is unknown what Sombra thinks of Cozy Glow, but it can be assumed that he disliked the fact that she is a normal Pegasus filly. Like the other villains, Sombra thinks he is more superior than Cozy Glow and that he does not need her help. When Sombra boasts about how he is gonna destroy all who stand in his way, Cozy was the only villain in the team who is not annoyed but more concerned by him. Plus, in The Beginning of the End - Part 2, when Tirek and Chrysalis asked "Grogar" if Sombra succeeded in his plans, Cozy Glow has a strange smile on her face, as if she hoped he win somehow. Because Sombra decided to not join the Legion of Doom, their relationship never truly went anywhere and thus they barely have a relationship.
Episodes and Appearances[]
Appearances in the Show |
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic[]Season 3[]
Season 5[]
Season 6[]
Season 7[]
Season 9[]
Comics[]Friendship is Magic[]
Friends Forever[]
My Little Pony: FIENDship is Magic[]Nightmare Knights[]
|
Quotes[]
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic[]
Season 3[]
“ | Yes... Crystals... | „ |
~ Sombra as his dark crystals begin spreading into the empire. |
“ | Crystal Heart... | „ |
~ Sombra as the barrier weakens. |
“ | My crystal slaves... | „ |
~ Sombra terrorizing the crystal ponies. |
“ | (growls) That is mine! | „ |
~ Sombra going after Spike. |
“ | What? No. No! Stop! | „ |
~ King Sombra upon his defeat. |
Season 9[]
“ | I've heard of you. | „ |
~ King Sombra to "Grogar". |
“ | I have also heard of the first Emperor of Equestria. The "Father of Monsters". | „ |
~ King Sombra stating how he's heard of Grogar. |
“ | Sombra: I don't do "ours"; I only do mine! I will take back the Crystal Empire on my own, and I will destroy any pony who gets in my way! "Grogar": Such confidence. Go! Try to take back your kingdom. I shall send you there myself. If you prevail, you may keep it. But when you fail, you will submit to me! Sombra: And if I refuse this... deal? "Grogar": Then I shall return you to the darkness from which you were summoned. Sombra: Fine! But this is a waste of time, as I will crush those who defy me. I will defeat all who get in my way! I— |
„ |
~ King Sombra to "Grogar" (Discord) before the latter banishes him in The Beginning of the End. |
“ | 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!!!! |
„ |
~ King Sombra's last words before being destroyed by the six's power for good. |
Comics[]
“ | What do I do with this power? Why am I the only one with it? | „ |
~ King Sombra. |
“ | Restore her? Help me? You've got it all wrong, Hope. I don't need help anymore. And as for Princess Amore, she's not the saint you think she is. Inside she was... broken. | „ |
~ King Sombra. |
“ | I am not just any monster, Hope. I am king of the monsters! | „ |
~ King Sombra. |
Reception[]
In his debut episode, Sombra received a mixed reception from both critics and viewers alike, with much criticism going towards his lack of screen time, lines, and character development. The main counter to this is that Sombra was not meant to be a "talkative" villain but a more Sauron-like looming threat and an evil presence. King Sombra's design has also been criticised by some fans, many calling it uninspired. This is most likely due to the bias against red-and-black Original Characters, as the rest of his design is quite distinct. Tempest Shadow and IDW comic villain Shadowlock received similar criticism regarding their designs, names, backgrounds, and personalities.
Despite his criticism, King Sombra has gained significant popularity among the MLP fandom, and these fans often denied his death and speculated that he survived. In Season 9, it is confirmed that Sombra was banished into the Ether and is revived by Discord, who disguised himself as Grogar. It is another way of saying "killed" but they tone down the word. He was killed off twice in the series.
Complaints of his lack of screen time and development were likely what drove the comic writers to feature him in “Fiendship is Magic #1” & “Siege of the Crystal Empire”, as well as take the opportunity to explore him and make him in a way that they see fit. Despite the success of his comics, though, fan criticism towards him grew, with many complaining about what the writers modified his character into as well as his redemption.
Sombra gained some slight popularity from The Cutie Remark, when it showed what would have been if Sombra had taken over the Crystal Empire in one of the darkest moments of the show, despite having no lines and less screen time than Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon in that episode.
Sombra's appearance in Season 9's premiere has again gathered a mixed reception from fans and critics. While many were pleased that Sombra has gotten more screen time, dialogue, and did much more than in Season 3's premiere, others have criticized the inconsistent utilization of his character, saying that Season 9 has reduced Sombra to another over-the-top, stereotypical bad guy (compared to his original appeal, as a no-nonsense threat) - and too one-dimensional compared to how the aforementioned comics had depicted him. Many also criticized Alvin Sanders's performance as King Sombra in the episode, calling his voice not fitting for the character. In response to this, Jim Miller explained that when he voiced Sombra, he voiced him as an ethereal and not completely formed being, like a ghost, while Alvin Sander's voice is his real actual voice.
Despite the overall mixed reception of his character, King Sombra remained as one of the most popular and fan-favorite villains in the series.
Theories[]
- Some think King Sombra might have been the "outside force" that magnified Luna's jealousy to turn her into Nightmare Moon. He could have sensed Luna's resentment toward her sister during his battle with them, and cast a curse to magnify it before he was banished (his curses are established to survive his banishment). Others suspected it to be the G4 incarnation of Tirek, but he eventually did appear and does not possess the same powers as his G1 counterpart.
- Some suspect that Celestia and Luna actually killed him the first time, and that he was a ghost when Celestia and Luna banished him, and all throughout “The Crystal Empire,” hence his shadow form. In addition, in relation to his changed voice in Season 9, Jim Miller explained that, in Season 3, Sombra is "ethereal and spectral" which could support this theory though he may just be referring to Sombra being in a disembodied state.
- Others suspect that Sombra originated as a shadow entity who took pony form.
- In Fiendship is Magic Issue 1, this is proven to be somewhat true, as Sombra is revealed to in fact not be a real pony, but instead a shadow creature who was created to resemble a pony, explaining his lack of a cutie mark. However, its canonicity is retconned by Season 9.
- There is a theory based on his voice and his more arrogant personality that Sombra in Season 9 is a clone or illusion created by Discord as Twilight's "warmup" round. Evidence to support this theory is that he did not kill the Mane 6 after trapping them (supposedly so that they could experience their greatest fear), stood by when Discord made his speech before trying to kill them at Canterlot (though both points could be attributed to overconfidence thinking the Mane 6 were no threat without the Elements), and there is no explanation as to how he faked being destroyed by the Elements (leading to the idea that Discord kept the Sombra battle going long enough for the Mane 6 to realize they could defeat their enemies without the Elements), as well as "Grogar" putting up no argument when Sombra said he would take over the Crystal Empire on his own. That, or Discord had some way of altering his personality or intentionally bringing him back wrong.
- Some think that there used to exist crystal unicorns and pegasi on the Crystal Empire given that Radiant Hope and Princess Amore were both unicorns and Cadance who was born a pegasi had some kind of conection with the Crystal Empire, considering that in the Crystal Empire were only shown that its inhabitans were all crystal earth ponies. If there really existed crystal unicorns and pegasi, it could be implied that King Sombra either exiled them or commited a massacre to prevent them from fighting him, which may justify why there were too many houses while the original residents after the return of Crystal Empire weren't shown to be that much even if other ponies later decided to reside there.
- However, it's left ambiguous if Radiant Hope and Princess Amore canonically existed on the TV show, so it's unknown if there really were crystal unicorns and pegasi.
Trivia[]
- "Sombra" is a Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician word for "shadow", which comes from the Latin umbra.
- "Umbra" is also the inspiration of the name "Umbrum", which is Sombra's species in the comics.
- Prior to his introduction in the series, Sombra first appeared on Hasbro's Pony Wedding micro-site before any information about the character was released publicly. The quiz does not refer to him by name. In the microsite's Wedding Quiz section, the quiz "Your dream wedding location!" includes the question "Who should be the MC?", with Sombra as the choice that steers the quiz's result to the Crystal Empire. Writer M.A. Larson wrote on Twitter regarding the quiz's image of King Sombra that was presented to him: "Interesting. I read about that in a script but never seen it before."
- Sombra is also mentioned by one of the Crystal Ponies and Twilight Sparkle in the promotional clip for The Crystal Empire shown at Hasbro's My Little Pony panel at the New York Comic Con 2012 and later uploaded to Hasbro's My Little Pony Facebook page. His distinct eyes briefly flash over the crystal pony who mentions his name.
- Sombra has a few distinctions as being the first major antagonist in the fourth generation who is:
- A male character associated with darkness (Discord is more associated with chaos and based on Q).
- A pony who is not an Alicorn (Trixie, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and the Flim Flam Brothers are minor antagonists).
- Inspired by a Lord of the Rings villain (the Diamond Dogs are minor antagonists).
- The first character in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to die (not counting the Windigos, who were never truly destroyed). He also dies a second time in the "The Beginning of the End - Part 2", only this time, he dies a permanent death, being completely atomized by the blast of energy.
- Sombra appears to be a blank flank, as he has no visible cutie mark during the scene when he is turned to shadow. This is shown in more detail in "The Cutie Remark".
- In Fiendship is Magic Issue 1, his status as a blank flank is revealed to be due to him not being a real pony. This is confirmed to not be canon to the show, however, and his past remains a mystery.
- Prior to the episode "Magic Duel", many fans believed Trixie's Alicorn Amulet to have a connection to him. One common theory is that Sombra was corrupted by it and was so far gone that he gained its power and malevolence permanently, another state he was the creator of it. The Amulet also shares the King's color scheme.
- A differently-shaded version of the armor around King Sombra's neck is used for the 2012 Design a My Little Pony Finalists poster, as part of Steel Masquerade's armor.
- When he is destroyed, his horn is shown flying past the screen, giving some the impression that he survived and would regenerate from his horn. However, at Unicon 2013 Meghan McCarthy confirmed that Sombra is dead. The Friendship is Magic comic books have, in response to this theory, depicted him as a ghost tied to his horn, from which he is revived. In the show, his severed horn is not shown when Sombra is revived by "Grogar", and thus does not seem to be significant.
- Since he has no known motivation for acts of unspeakable cruelty, he is, along with Tirek, Chrysalis, Cozy Glow and the Storm King one of the darkest and most evil villains in Friendship is Magic. In fact, he could even be the most evil antagonist in the series as he has no redeemable qualities whatsoever. Sombra does not show any compassion towards anyone and he refuses to ally with others, unlike the other villains in the series. This shows that the TV Series version of King Sombra has no allies whatsoever.
- However, his evil intentions are revealed in the Fiendship is Magic comics. Though his origins in that comic and the comic arc that follows are no longer canon to the show, this incarnation of Sombra was tragic and redeemable. The comics also show Radiant Hope, Sombra's only true ally and former childhood friend.
- It is possible that King Sombra murdered Princess Amore, the Crystal Empire's previous ruler when he took it over since she is never seen in the Crystal Empire, which Princess Cadance and Shining Armor take over after Sombra's death.
- In the Fiendship is Magic comics, he turned Amore into crystal and shattered her into pieces, though it is confirmed this did not kill her. However, as of Season 9, the comic featuring his backstory is non-canon due to having a wildly different personality on top of his reformation arc being retconned via being brought back from the dead.
- Ironically, the pony who defeated him the first time, Princess Cadence, is a distant relative or descendant of Princess Amore.
- Sombra was intended to appear in Octavia's dream in the episode "Slice of Life" and have a Devil Went Down to Georgia style cello battle with her, but this was cut due to time constraints.
- He, along with the Storm King and the Mean Six, are the only characters on the show to actually die. Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow get something close but not technically the same.
- Sombra is also the only villain to actually be destroyed by the Mane Six.
- He died twice in the show. First is in Season 3's premiere, where he was shattered to pieces by the Crystal Heart powered by the Crystal Ponies. He was resurrected in Season 9's premiere but was killed again by the power of friendship, powered by the Mane Six, and is turned to dust. Since "Grogar" decided not to revive Sombra, this proves that Sombra is gone for good.
- Some fans believed Sombra was brainwashed by the crystal that claimed itself to be his mother when it unlocked his shadow powers, and Sombra having already been in emotional turmoil made it easy for this dark power to take him over; in which case he could be considered a tragic villain. However, this was proven to be false.
- Sombra and Nightmare Moon swap villain defeats in the comics; in the show, Sombra died and Nightmare Moon reformed, as she and Princess Luna are established to be one and the same. In the comics, Sombra is resurrected and reformed, while Nightmare Moon is a separate entity from Luna and Rarity and is killed by Spike.
- Meghan McCarthy has stated in an interview that Sombra was inspired by Sauron and was only meant to be a dark presence that brings fear to the crystal ponies.
- Elements of darkness and shadow have occurred in several other previous MLP villains - most notably Nightmare Moon and Tirek. Interestingly enough, both Tirek and Sombra (though the former comes from a different generation of My Little Pony) have tried to kill Spike and are the darkest antagonists in their generations. Both are also ultimately destroyed.
- He is the third villain to be the main antagonist of two separate two-part twice, the first two being Starlight Glimmer and Queen Chrysalis. He would be followed by Tirek and Cozy Glow in "The Ending of the End".
- As displayed in "The Ending of the End - Part 1", of all the villains to be summoned by "Grogar" (who, as revealed in the episode, was really Discord in disguise), Sombra was the only one who actually played into his true plan of making the Mane Six confident rulers of Equestria, since his return served to push them in this direction.
- The only reason the elements didn't work on Sombra in season 9 is because he already got defeated the first time by the Elements from his enemies Celestia and Luna, and he knew what kind of powers that come from them (although he was still dumb enough to think it was power that made his enemies powerful), and used his shadow powers to phase through the rainbow lasers when the Mane 6 blasted, knowing that trick won't work on him a second time, explaining why Twilight and her friends couldn't use the elements on him in season 3.
- In the Season 9 premiere, Sombra appears to love fruit as he is seen eating grapes while relaxing on his throne room in the Crystal Empire.
- As confirmed by series writers Michael Vogel and Josh Haber, Sombra is bisexual.
- Strangely, despite his magic-nullifying crystals being able to subdue Alicorns (who seem to be semi-Discord in terms of power) and even incapacitate the Tree of Harmony (despite the Mane Six removing the Elements, it should still have enough magic left to hold-off both Discord and the whole Everfree Forest for centuries - given the lore since the Season 4 premiere), he never even tries to use them against Discord (who's repeatedly succumbed to similar effects, such as Chrysalis's throne).
- Sombra is the only villain who debuts in a season premiere that isn't reformed in any way.
- Given the shape of his horn, it is possible that Sombra came from the same region as Mistmane and Sable Spirit, who also possessed curved horns.
- Whenever Sombra was mentioned, he was always mentioned with his king title but in season 9, people rarely addressed him as a king.