When you look at Sombra only when he appears in Seasons 3 & 5, did he ever seem like the kind of guy who’d want to make friends? Have love? Or do something for others?

The reason I ask is because, as I’ve been thinking about Sombra while putting aside his appearances in both Season 9 and the comics, he never seemed like the kind of villain who’d be redeemable. To me, he didn’t seem like a villain who became evil based on a friendship problem or because he’s doing something for someone else. Granted, I’ve often seen his appearance in the first Fiendship is Magic comic as optional in terms of origin, but yet...I recently found myself constantly questioning whether it actually fit the character based on how I’ve always interpreted him. That, and it seemed to carry some plot holes that have been leaving too many questions in my head.

But, what do you guys think?

Depends on one's interpretation. I see the Sombra in the show as more of an evil 'ghost', more force of nature than stallion, but he probably wasn't born evil.

7576546
What about with Season 5?

7576549
Hard to gauge since it wasn't in mind when the character was conceived. He's at his height of being a tyrant in 5, but we don't know what led him to that point. My headcanon is he messed around with dark magic too much and it corrupted him.

My interpretation is that hes a tragic character or in some ways he could be a different sub species of pony that no one wanted to acknowledge because of the sub species history.

Sombra was wasted potential and cannon fodder

They only brought him back just to kill him off, and they never bothered to really give him any depth at all in the first place, which absolutely infuriates me!

A lot of the show was wasted potential and poor decisions, really, as well as a lot of unanswered questions and things that just plain didn't make sense or rendered what character development there was irrelevant!

I think Sombra could have become a great character if they'd handled him right and gave him actual depth. Taking elements of his character(s) from the comics but not entirely go in those directions might have helped.

As a matter of fact, something I absolutely wished we'd seen before the show ended... was a glimpse of a shadowy unicorn garbed in a hooded cloak, going off to parts unknown and you get the implication that it's Sombra going on a journey to find redemption; his ultimate defeat (had he survived it) would have affected him into realizing the true and undeniable power that is the Magic of Friendship and that would have inspired him to perhaps turn over a new a leaf and find his place in the world as a better pony instead of continue the dark path of a megalomaniac because he finally learned that friendship was a better goal to strive for while power and conquest was ultimately meaningless

But no... Hasbro made a lot of bad decisions and so let us hope G5 will do its predecessor proud and the showmakers learned their lessons from the last Gen

7576566
Speaking honestly here, I don’t like the idea of Sombra reforming in the slightest. Especially in show canon. The kind of idea you mentioned is pretty cliche, and the way it was handled in “Siege of the Crystal Empire” is one of the reasons as to why I despise that arc more than the Season 9 premiere.

7576573

I've always thought it was how you interpreted the character. Me I see him as pure evil and he's evil because he likes being evil.

7576545
Sombra remains to be one of the characters that can be given multiple interpretations and still remain, mostly, a solid villain, in my eyes. The show did, at first, leave him very open ended for the rest of us to see nothing more than a Malevolent Force.

When Season 9 came along and he took centre stage again, I was both impressed and not at the same time.

Still, I will thoroughly enjoy a solid story with him in it any day when I want to read some Sombra

In my head - canon, redeeming Sombra is like finding a single diamond among a million jemstones. Meaning: it's a BIG challenge. In my view if Sombra were to be evil, he would be the type of villain that isn't cocky, impatient, and stupid. The Sombra I see is certainly clever, powerful, mysterious, violent, quiet, and reserved. He won't start laughing like a maniac right the minute he thinks he's about to win because he knows that there is still a possibility of losing. So in other terms, Sombra thinks twice before doing something he might end up regreting. And even if he does become victorious he will be proud of himself but he won't express it so much, as he prefers more to show a serious, threatening, and "not-the-type-of-guy-you-wanna-mess-with" look.

I liked Sombra as irredeemably evil, but I did not like his whiny ass S9 variation.

I think my stories speak for my opinions on the matter, but I'll sum it up here. I could never see a fully redeemed Sombra as being in-character. An Anti-Hero or Byronic Hero is the best I could ever see for him, concepts that would never be done justice in the canon of a show like this, unfortunately.

There's no certain way to define Sombra. As a concept/trope, you can do many things with him. Dark edgelord in a world of happy-go-lucky and cutesy-daisy folks. From here you can put him in any role you want: rival, antagonist, minor antagonist, main antagonist, psychological foil, superficial foil, gatekeeper, jobber, hero, anti-hero, anti-villain, pure evil, morally grey, sympathetic hero, sympathetic villain, etc. etc.

As for the actual Sombra: We don't know. His character arc is so shallow and superficial and devoid of interesting plot-lines that he's written as 4 different characters: S3 - Malevolent force of nature; S9 - cliche conqueror with cheesy one-liners; comics main timeline - cliche misunderstood edgelord. AU comics - cliche bland good guy;

I'd say at the end of the day, if you like the concept of Sombra, but don't like his portrayal, you should stick to your own head-canon. Sombra fans certainly care more about this character than the people who wrote him did.

Since you asked for my opinion, I am going to be completely honest here. I think S3/S5 Sombra is boring. I watched MLP up to S4, and dropped out of it until I read Siege of the Crystal Empire for the first time. I didn't care to acknowledge Sombra until then. So it's hard for me to think of him as anything other than the tragic character the comics introduced.

I suppose you can say he's irredeemably evil, because he's a one dimensional malevolent force that just existed as an obstacle for Twilight. I can say S5 gave him a bit more depth, in the ways of a motive to rule Equestria, aka every other villain's ultimate goal. The Crystal War timeline is an interesting thing at least, certainly something I'd like to see written more on the view of Sombra's side.

Honestly, it's hard for me to have an opinion on him if I ignore the parts of him I like. It's why people give him much more personality in their stories, because there's basically nothing to work with otherwise. No backstory other than 'tyrant', very little personality other than 'evil', and a motive that's just as generic as all the others. And there's nothing wrong with any of that, it's just not something I care much for. Had I never read the comic, I'd simply never acknowledge Sombra (and, most likely would've never written any pony fic at all).

Basically my opinion is the same as mentioned above: Fans care about Sombra more than the (show) writers did, and it's those non-canon portrayals that makes me enjoy the character.