5 Perfectly Great Characters who were wasted in canon

5. Rarity - This may seem like an odd choice, being that she is one of the Mane 6 and as such features in most episodes of the show. She has also spawned a many memes and is full of memorable moments, such as whining, Tom the Rock and "Of all the worst things that could happen..."

What these do not account for is how neglected her character is by the scriptwriters. In any episode that does not centre around her, she does little, except for remind everyone how elegant and posh she is trying to be: a good example is "This is why a girl always packs extra accessories. Oh, please tell me I brought the tiara that goes with this." in Dragonshy. In this frequent process, she rarely (no pun intended) adds anything of interest. Hell, we barely even got to know Rarity before "Suited for Success," the 14th episode of Season 1, and she had no episodes in Season 3. The only writer who seems to have her nailed is M.A Larson - as shown in the episodes "Sonic Rainboom" and "Secret of my Excess," in which her passionate and feely self really shine. It's quite possible that Season 4 will change this, but really, who's to know?

4. Princess Celestia - I'm not totally sure how I'd describe Princess Celestia. She has a good sense of mischief and is usually very jovial, despite her very calm and tranquil exterior. I ultimately imagine her as some sort of Lord Vetinari; a Magnificent Bastard who masterminds everything, whom nopony wants to get on the wrong side of. It's even implied that she schemed to have the Grand Galloping Gala destroyed by the Mane 6, solely for her entertainment.

So where does the problem lie? Namely in the fact that she's a very behind the scenes character, and thus her appearances are few and far between; meaning that usually she is merely greeting the Mane 6. Her character shows strong potential, but we are never given the chance to see who she really is.

3. Princess Luna - Deciding which order to place the two alicorns was tricky, but Equestria Daily seems to believe that Luna will be discontinued from the show; meaning that her character has ended up far more wasted than Celestia. Luna clearly looks up to her sister, that much we've deciphered. She's also clearly a socially awkward monarch who is continuously trying to fit in with modern society, having been banished to the moon for 1000 years. It is clear that Luna became jealous through her perception of Celestia's popularity. She can enter a pony's dreams at will.

Unfortunately, these factors create a character with a strong background, but create little personality. In the end, Luna seemed underdeveloped, largely because much like her sister, she is such a behind the scenes character. It is rather sad that Luna is quite possibly gone forever; she was a potentially strong character who did not deserve to be axed by Hasbro. Tellingly, on popularity polls within the brony community, Luna frequently outscores Applejack and Rarity, both of whom have far more appearances and opportunities to leave their mark than Luna ever got.

2. Lightning Dust - Cruelly treated; largely due to the show's structure. The structure of the episodes, always involving some sort of moral meant that they had to turn Lightning Dust into a complete sociopath who was portrayed as completely irredeemable, since her character served a purpose much more than it did to create an interesting and deep character. Granted, this has been done before, with the overly perfect Princess Cadence and the almost-just-as-perfect Shining Armour in A Canterlot Wedding. However, Lightning Dust's character seemed far more interesting, mainly because she was so similar to Rainbow Dash despite her negative representation.

This is unfortunately, also where the problem comes in. Having such a similar personality to Rainbow Dash made her irredeemablity seem unrealistic and ruined her character; if she seemed so similar, there is every reason why she would've proven to be kind beneath the surface. In a show of love and tolerance, Lightning Dust was given none and her character was ruined. I'd love it if she gets redeemed in Season 4, but my gut feeling is that this isn't happening and that she will be forever left in the dust, much like everyone at Wonderbolt Academy who stood in her way.

1. King Sombra - "Who was King Sombra again?" I wouldn't be surprised if some people forgot him. Unlike Discord, with his Faux Affably Evil persona and Queen Chrysalis, who received a large amount of screentime, King Sombra was given no chance to stand out. We know that King Sombra can bring fear simply by thinking about him. We know that King Sombra rules over the dystopian Crystal Empire, caring nought for his beings. King Sombra was also an incredibly competent villain; he succeeded in trapping Twilight Sparkle and Spike was extremely lucky to survive.

Yet all of this has to be thought about; without being thought about, it is not all that obvious just how clever Sombra is. The trap was set up already; King Sombra does little activity within the episode and only appears for a couple of minutes.

The character had a tremendous amount of potential. You cannot go wrong with a pony version of Sauron, nor can you go wrong with some mad unicorn who brought a thousand years of darkness to an empire. You also can't go wrong with a unicorn who designed a labyrinth with an absolute ton of stairs, that sooner or later one will slip down, makes you face your greatest fears and if you can somehow endure all of that, seals the crystal heart in a place that is virtually impossible to access without magic of Twilight Sparkle's calibre. The crystal ponies are far too afraid to even go near where that crystal heart is stored. Everything adds up to a completely terrifying and memorable villain. Unfortunately, in 42 minutes there is simply not enough time to give him any depth.