Talisman

Eenope. It was all about Twilight. Sombra was the threat to force Twilight's actions. That entire two-parter was building up to whether Twilight was enough of a leader to sacrifice her own dearest wish to save the Crystal Ponies. You keep insisting that Sombra was never threatening and dismissing examples I and others offer. Your logic seem to be, he never harmed anypony, therefore, he's not a threat. Double standards much? The only I think we can agree on is Discord. You dismiss Sombra and Nightmare Moon at the same time as you say Chrysalis "came very close to conquering the whole of Equestria." This is blatantly untrue; she came close to conquering one city, at which she signally failed. Explain to me how Bugpony is scarier than Shadowhorse? And you constantly dismiss Sombra's traps because . . . um . . . not following your logic here. He out-planned and out-magicked Twilight Sparkle. He just did. It happened. . . . yeah, I think we've reached a stalemate here. Clearly, my arguments aren't going to sway you, and nothing you've said has altered my opinion. I thought Sombra did a good job as the Looming Threat; you clearly didn't. Agree to disagree? (and no way am I starting a debate on whether Celestia's a badass; I don't entirely trust myself to stay calm)

If you react to a spider as if it's Satan incarnate, it means nothing. If an established badass like Celestia reacts to a spider as if it's Satan incarnate, I'm going to assume it's a valid threat. By that logic, none of the villains were the least bit threatening. Nightmare Moon? Did nothing, got pwned by the Elements. Discord? Nopony got hurt; nopony died. Chrysalis? Put Celestia down (but it seems that you don't consider Celestia very impressive), then got banished by True Love. Therefore, none of these villains were threatening, since we never saw them carry through on any Evil Deeds of Evilness. The nature of the TV-Y rating prevents any violence or gore. Sombra was never going to be able to be shown doing evil things as a Sauron stand-in ought to do. From the sound of this, this automatically kills any chance he ever had to be threatening in your eyes. He neutralized Shining Armor. He also beat Cadance in raw power, which you keep ignoring. He also beat Twilight through cunning, which you also keep ignoring. He also left a failsafe trap around the Crystal Heart which made Cadance's shield utterly meaningless. It's fine that you don't like Sombra, but please stop denying things he legitimately accomplished. On this we agree, though I wonder what he could have possibly done within the bounds of TV-Y to satisfy you.

She's like Bon Bon's voice: different every time we see her. Rainbow Falls did not show a very pleasant facet of her. Not totally out of character, I think, but . . . disillusioning.

Okay, let's take this point-by-point. You are wrong there. Sombra did neutralize Twilight. Again, it's easy to dismiss traps after the fact, just like it's easy to dismiss riddles after the solution has been handed to you. Twilight didn't have that luxury, and the fact that the writers had to cram all this into a 40-minute timeslot didn't help matters. I don't know what you expected. Sombra was never going to raven through town, tearing ponies apart. The crystal ponies evinced actual pain when asked to remember his reign, and flew into a panic when they realized he had returned. Celestia considered him a dire threat. If you're not willing to accept the reactions of the characters, what do you want? Also, I think you do not know what "informed attribute" means. To qualify, a character must show no evidence of said attribute, but Sombra demonstrated power, cunning, and malice. Well, I found him to be very threatening. He was visually quite impressive, with his blackfire mane, glowing eyes, and evolution from cloud of darkness into physical unicorn. He canonically fought Celestia and Luna together, and they were only able to achieve a Pyrrhic victory against him - they beat him, but lost the Empire. He straight-up beat Shining Armor, a unicorn of tremendous power, and very quickly. He beat Cadance, an alicorn. He beat Twilight through pure planning - and suggesting that Twilight "stumbled into some traps" is pretty insulting to her. How, pray tell, was she supposed to pass the Fear Door without both dark magic and Spike to show her how it worked? How was she supposed to escape that final trap, the one that started generating dark crystals inside Cadance's shield? That's right - she didn't. Sombra flat-out beat Twilight. I realize we disagree, and that's fine. I'm never going to convince you. Different opinions, right? I do, however, feel that your assessment of Sombra ignores or trivializes several important elements.

I think he wanted to impress her. He wanted to show his idol what a great party pony he was, then reveal that she was his inspiration. If he'd told her from the beginning that she had inspired him, it would have been less of a surprise than if he pulled off an amazing party, then turned to Pinkie and said "And it was all thanks to you."

Here's an alternate take on that: What if Discord reverted to his old ways, and the only thing that could stop him was an alicorn wearing the Alicorn Amulet? See, the amulet is corruptive, but not permanently. I could theoretically see Celestia taking it up to put Discord down, but only after leaving some sort of failsafe with Luna or Twilight in case she went darkside.

The teenage dragons were jerks, and the adult dragons were jerks. Dragons are jerks. Spike was lucky to be raised by ponies. I do find it interesting that the teen drakes did accept Spike. They were jerks but not totally hateful a**holes. They respected Spike's tenacity and eventually let him into their "club." The diamond dogs I find interesting because they're mortal-level antagonists. Sombra, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis and Discord are supervillains, but the dogs are merely big and strong. One-on-one a dog might beat a pony, but I bet a pony like McIntosh could hold his own. Frankly, I want to know more about the diamond dogs' culture. Where do they live, what do they do, what do they want? Is there a king? Are they scattered tribes, or a unified nation? Were the ones we saw representative of them as a whole, or was that an outlaw band? Too many questions, not enough answers.

Eenope. Sombra was a constant threat. He neutralized Shining Armor's magic the first time we saw him, leaving only Cadance to maintain the shield. We clearly saw Cadance growing weaker and weaker under the strain, while Sombra grew stronger and constantly tested Cadance's shield. The Crystal Ponies' reactions leave little doubt that Sombra, had he gotten in, would have devastated the Crystal Empire. Twilight and the others were fighting for time the entire way, and had they been even a minute or two late, Sombra would have won. It's easy to look at a challenge like that after the fact that say that, since Sombra didn't harm anypony he wasn't a threat; since Twilight did bypass his traps they were weak and pointless. This, IMO, is an unfair way to view it. It's like saying, since [Olympic athlete] won the gold, everyone else was retroactively dumb for even competing. Sombra neutralized Shining Armor, Twilight, and Cadance. He took out the three biggest threats to himself - an alicorn and two enormously powerful unicorn sorcerers - and in Twilight's case, he did it with traps and failsafes laid down centuries ago. Dude was hardcore.

I think it's a trope of team-based shows to eventually have the leader have to deal with a problem on their own. Lonely and demanding? Yes, definitely, and Tia seems determined to teach Twilight that. In particular, I'm thinking of The Crystal Empire parts 1 and 2, where Celestia gave Twilight an impossible situation, knowing - or at least suspecting - that in order to do the right thing, she would have to sacrifice her own well-being. Also, in Magical Mystery Cure, Celestia specifically points out that Twilight has demonstrated the leadership of a true princess. Being a leader means taking the responsibility and making the hard, painful decisions. However, I disagree vigorously with the second half of that: that "Being a leader means having only sacrificial pawns, and not full-fledged friends." It's not true in the show and it's not true IRL. In fact, the Mane Five make a point of sticking by Twilight even as she evolves into a new species. Friendship is what got Twilight where she is, and friendship is what makes it worth staying there.

Sorry; too busy staring at adorably cheering ponies.