Twilitlord wrote:
*Sombra
You're missing what I said about the characterization I wanted. We don't have a terrible amount of strong backstory for Sombra, so I'd like some more personality. Nothing you pointed out gives him any sort of personality.
We know a lot about Big Mac. He's honest, hardworking, he's friends with Cheerilee and they've got a lot of stories, he's skilled at repairing things along with his obvious farming skills…
As for Sombra:
- "Fucking evil"
- Jack shit else
They had plenty of opportunity to give him some personality. Have him show up during the door scene and talk to Twi. Have Celestia give more backstory, better yet, Luna, since she seems to be worried about something. Give him more lines, I don't care if you had to cut some of the fair. As it is, I don't see what reasons he even has for conquering the Empire, as Celestia seems to suggest the spreading of dark magic and hate is merely a side effect.
He's literally the first character with a semi- or more important role with no characterization, and that bothers me.
I think trying to compare Sombra to Big Mac is inappropriate because they are two characters with fundamentally different roles in the show. Big Mac started off as a side character, his job was to help move the story along at parts, add a bit of humor with his stoicism and its occasional subversion, and just generally thicken the character roster a bit. Is his character well developed? Compared to the mane six or the CMC, no, but that's alright. Big Mac is beautifully developed to serve his role to the story, I don't need to know his life goals, quirks, and flaws in order to find it humorous when he decides to steal the smarty pants doll. He's like Boba Fett, not much of a character, but he really doesn't need one for us to think he's awesome. In fact, part of what makes him cool is that he's a little mysterious, that we don't know everything that's going on there.
Sombra is a different beast entirely. Sombra is the villain whose job it is to be in conflict with the protagonists. Without conflict, there is no drama, and without drama, there is no story. Now in a character story like mlp 9 times out of 10, the conflict is going to come out of personalities clashing. Villains like Trixie, Gilda, and Diamond Tiara need personalities because the drama stems from their personalities clashing with our protagonists'. With Sombra however, the conflict doesn't stem from his personality, but from his mere presence. He's more like the Windigos, an anthropomorphised (equineomorphised?) representation of a more abstract concept which is the real threat. The story would have been just as functional if you replaced Sombra with a non-sentient dark cloud of evil that is threatening the crystal empire.
This isn't a story of 'Twilight Sparkle vs. Sombra' but a story of 'Twilight Sparkle vs. Twilight Sparkle.', with the physical threat provided by Sombra serving merely as the catalyst that allows her to explore herself and overcome her shortcomings. Coming off the heels of such great villains as NMM, Discord, and Chrysalys, it would have been nice to have a villain with an equally colorful personality, but it wasn't neccesary to the story.