Character Profile: King Sombra (King Sombra's Fantastic Movie Universe)

King Sombra is the main “protagonist” of the fictional film franchise, King Sombra’s Fantastic Movie. He is an anthropomorphic gray unicorn who originally appeared in the cartoon show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Appearance:

Sombra, or as he likes to be called, King Sombra, is a tall gray unicorn with red and green eyes and a dark red hooked horn. His mane is black and he has two fangs that protrude from his mouth at all times. He wears a red and white cape as well as armor and he has a spiked crown on his head. Unlike most MLP characters, he does not have a cutie mark on his sides. 

Bio: 

Sombra inhabits the Crystal Empire castle and is always getting himself into various situations. 

Size: He’s about the size of a large gray wolf.

Gender: Stallion (male) 

Age: 1,000+ 

Species: Shadow unicorn 

Hobbies: Ruling his empire, writing in his diary, collecting Crystals, ordering his slaves around, controlling Radiant Hope, eating cake, getting drunk, peeing in front of others, being a jerk, acting insane, messing with everybody, looking in the mirror, talking about himself

Significant Other: Radiant Hope

First Appearance: King Sombra’s Fantastic Movie 

Sexuality: Bisexual or straight (depending on your view) 

Voiced By: Unknown (in this incarnation at least) 

Why He Sucks:

1. He is incredibly egotistical, maniacal, greedy, sadistic, cruel, and selfish.
2. He treats absolutely everyone around him like crap.
3. He acts very much like a fascist dictator, being the leader of an oppressive tyrannical regime.
4. It’s implied he has some sort of mental illness or behavioral disorder such as narcissistic personality disorder. 
5. He’s the main reason why the movies he appears in are so horrible to watch.
6. He acts extremely childish at times, throwing fits when he doesn’t get his way.
7. He talks in such a hammy and obnoxious manner that will drive you absolutely nuts. Not only is it annoying, it’s incredibly corny. 
8. He’s very cruel and it’s implied that he frequently tortures and executes those who disagree with him just because they don’t do what he says. 
9. He has been greatly flanderized from his original incarnation in MLP and acts nothing like his canon counterpart. 
10. He is extremely unlikeable and it’s impossible to justify any of his behavior whatsoever.
11. He is a terrible king and he actually ENSLAVES his subjects and forces them to do his bidding. 
12. It’s quite possible he’s insane. 
13. He has strange and bizarre ideas that make zero sense.
14. He often gets drunk and does awful things when he does, such as peeing everywhere. 
15. He’s extremely inappropriate most of the time, harassing random ponies and exposing himself to everybody.
16. He has horrible anger issues and can be very dangerous when he’s mad. 
17. It’s been shown that he’s not that smart, given that he actually thought he was pregnant when he discovered a large lump on his stomach (he is biologically male, so he should know this would be impossible). 
18. He treats Radiant Hope horribly, even though she is supposedly his girlfriend and she devotes her entire life to him. In fact, he could even be called abusive towards her.
19. He only cares about himself and even enjoys treating others poorly. If he wants something, he does not care whose lives he’ll have to ruin in order to reach his goal.
20. In KSFM2, he developed a crush on Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, who is a child, which could possibly mean he’s a pedophile. 
21. He acts very pathetic sometimes and can be a huge crybaby. 
22. He is actually HAPPY when he finds out everyone in his kingdom supposedly died in a nuclear explosion except for him. 
23. He has an enormous ego and has to make literally everything about him. When you’re around Sombra, it’s all got to be about Sombra.
24. He’s supposedly the protagonist of these films, but he’s hardly a character to root for. 
25. He is way too talkative and never shuts up. On that note, he’s very verbally abusive to everybody he meets.
26. He can be very disgusting, such as when he brags that he ate month-old rotten meat and got a tapeworm as a result.
27. He can be incredibly cowardly even though he likes to think that he’s brave and fearsome.
28. He’s way wackier and sillier than how he was supposed to be portrayed in his show of origin, defeating the original purpose of his character.
29. Considering these films are meant to be targeted at children, it’s disturbing that they would feature a character like Sombra since he’s an atrocious role model for kids.
30. He has a bizarre fixation with stairs and crystals. He’s often shown making out with his crystals and kissing his castle’s staircases.
31. He has sharp, pointed fangs despite being based on an herbivorous species, which gives him a strange appearance.
32. He is most likely a sociopath or a psychopath since he shows little to no remorse for how his actions affect others. 
33. He is extremely arrogant and boastful and his ego is so huge that he practically thinks of himself as a deity.
34. He claims he’s a wonderful king and a great ruler, but this is clearly not the case at all.
35. Since he’s meant to be the same King Sombra as the one portrayed in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, all of the negative qualities of his canon counterpart apply to him here, such as his destruction of the tree of harmony in season 9 and his eagerness to possibly murder Spike in the season 3 premiere.

Redeeming Qualities:

1. He would make a far better villain than a protagonist, which makes sense given that he was designed to be a villain in the first place.
2. He often ends up facing consequences for his actions in the end.
3. His antics can be very entertaining to watch, considering he has no filter and just doesn’t care what he says or does.
4. He still maintains his sleek, threatening design from the original show, with a few upgrades such as having visible ears.
5. It’s shown that when he was a kid, he was actually quite nice, and that he apparently only turned evil due to his difficult childhood and finding out that he was an umbrum and not a real pony.
6. He gets far more development and personality than he ever did in the original show.
7. We get to see a bit of his good side in the fourth film when he has a temporary change of heart.

Reception:

This incarnation of Sombra is often considered to be one of the worst animated characters of all time. However, he has developed a small cult following among those who find him funny to watch.
In-universe, he is hated by just about every other character, and the only reason why characters ever act nice to him is usually because they’re afraid of what he’ll do if they defy him. The only character who actually likes Sombra is Radiant Hope, a purple unicorn who grew up with Sombra.

Trivia:

1. He is bisexual according to the films, with a preference for females.
2. His favorite food is black licorice.
3. He enjoys writing in his diary, as seen in the fourth movie. 
4. He is actually very gifted with magic, although he mainly uses it for his own selfish desires. 
5. According to the first film, he had more than a dozen wives over the course of his reign, all of which he had murdered.
6. His first name is Erebus, making his full name King Erebus Sombra. However, he never uses this name and instead uses Sombra as his primary name.
7. Sombra has a sister named Ira who is a few years younger than he is. He and Ira are said to not get along very well, though.
8. He’s said to be an umbrum (a shadow pony) just like what was said in the MLP comics.
9. He’s supposedly around 1,037 years old, meaning that he was probably around 37 years old when he was frozen for a millennium, so this is probably his biological age. 
10. The original King Sombra was based off of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings.
11. In this incarnation, it isn’t known who voices Sombra.
12. He’s mentioned multiple times that he really likes cake and candy.
13. He is revealed to be a very talented dancer and is also shown to be good at strategy games such as chess.
14. He’s been close to Radiant Hope ever since the two of them were children.
15. He shares some aspects of his personality with real-life monarchs such as Julius Caesar and Henry VIII.
16. As an adult, he has red eyes, but as a child, he was shown with bright green eyes. 
17. His mother is an umbrum named Rabia.
18. In his original umbrum form, he had wings.

Quotes:

• “I am King Sombra, kneel before my might!”
• “I can’t have cancer! I’m too young to die!” 
• “Where’s my damn cake? Get me my cake you felt-brained buffoon!”
• “Hello my pretty little flower. Wanna smooch?”
• I am the glorious leader of the Crystal Empire, the most powerful kingdom in all the land!” 
• “Behold my slaves, I’m pregnant!”
• “You’ve been very naughty, it’s time for your king to administer punishment.”
• “I, Sombra, am going to create the most amazing movie the world has ever seen!”