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chickentech — Sombre
Published: 2014-07-27 05:10:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 3434; Favourites: 182; Downloads: 164
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Thoughts of King Sombra's heinous depravities torment the mind even after his demise.Another quicky...that ended up not such a quicky. But eh, still faster than doing a fully detailed painting.
I don't know what it is about mlp that causes me to keep putting such emotions into the paintings. From my gallery you'd probably never think its a bright happy show.
Photoshop CS6 || Wacom Inuos3 6X8
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Comments: 18
Wait, what depravities are these? He could barely talk.
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You say that as if one depends on the other. Mute people can be just as depraved as anyone else.
In all honesty though this 'fanimation' inspired this more than anything. Love that animation. Interestingly enough, still no dialogue from him.
We'll go with this one then. He actually has some cool dialogue in it.
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Could be but scientific studies show that they're not, by a wide margin. (They tend to be about 1/3 as violent as unmute people for various reasons.)
The problem with Sombra is there is evidence he was a powerful and accomplished villain, he 8succeeded* in taking over a kingdom. (Take THAT Nightmare moon and Chrysalis!) but in the show we see... well nothing. Really nothing. He doesn't do anything, even as far as looking threatening goes. He's as 2D as a sheet of paper.
Of course this leaves the door open for fans, but I don't expect show!Cadance to even remember his name.
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Citation? My google searches proved futile. The closest I could find was a research paper behind a pay wall whose description indicated an increase in violence among the deaf. That's rather interesting though, I'm curious to see the reasons the mute would be less violent.
Yeah in the show Sombra was quite lame. He had a vocabulary of two words. Again that's an interesting point he's the only one to actually succeed in taking a city over, so that is strange he's given such a terrible role in the show. Being a huge fan of the fandom I don't mind so much because of how it expands upon his character, or in this case makes his character because the show forgot to.
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Yeah paywalls suck, the work of Dr. William Walsh is informative but the specific paper that I have read is by Marc Hillbrand of Yale University. ZBasically they looked at the rates of violent offending and being victims of violent offending for various groups afflicted by mental, developmental and physical disorders. Primarily the focus was on the autism spectrum. (There is a common view of the mentally disabled as drooling morons prone to spazzing out and hitting people for no reason.) but they also examined other groups including the mute. Of course these mute people were so for a number of reasons so it may not parallel your point exactly.
But Sombra as autistic would be interesting; how would a pony in Equestria act if they were not (at least initially) bad or mean or what-have-you but instead lacked social skills?
The problem with the Crystal Empire, Cadance and Sombra is that it's too much like a bad fanfiction. Remember when there were ruors of discord as a black alicorn? 'Haha, lame' was the universal reaction and instead we got a much better villain. But Sombra is a bad OC, spiky, black and smoky he exists only to be a vague threat to be destroyed, pushed aside as if of no account. We have to rely on the fandom to provide any sort of characterization because he was never intended to have any.
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That's interesting, this has been an enlightening conversation. I may have to go look up Dr. William Walsh and that paper if it's available for free.
Hum, even more so, ponies are meant to be a bit nicer than our society so it'd be even more interesting to see how equestrians treated said ponies. Would they be more tolerant of their antisocial behavior? (Come to think of it, does the definition of antisocial apply to those who are mentally unable to control said behavior? Not to be confused with asocial of course.) Would they easily be able to integrate into the society? The thought of Sombra being like an idiot savant in the realm of magic and doing bad things because he just happens to have an uncontrollable temper would cast an interesting light on the story.
Yeah I totally agree that Sombra seems like he was just ripped off of fanfiction.net. His design and color scheme are atrocious. And his character development is completely missing. But I am pleased with what the fandom's done for him.
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I feel the loss of my access to journal subscriptions. Many had tools for literature search that made finding things a breeze. Now I'm stuck on page 47 of google results.
Ponies, in many ways, behave like (the show's writers imagine) we should as opposed to how we do. Of course they also tend to act how the show's writers think we shouldn't so that a lesson may be demonstrated. Note for example their tendency to mindlessly panic, turn hatefully against outsiders or those who commit minor wrongs and their subjection to a monarchy. So how things panned out I imagine would depend on the proximity to Twilight Sparkle. Imagine how Zecora would still be treated had she been near say, Trottingham and not Ponyville. It would be nice to think that ponies are all accepting and tolerant but I think from observing the show they would likely be worse than us on average simply due to their mob mentality and immaturity. (The more I love the Us the more I hate the Them...)
I have always thought of Sombra as a Twilight Sparkle that never got any friends. Naturally talented, dedicated to his work and study, prone to flights of madness. (What exactly would have happened in Lesson Zero without Celestia and the elements...?) It would be easy enough I image to grow from a talented loner with no friends to a distant ruler to a dictator. We know not all ponies were slaves under his rule after all and he was smart enough to do a lot of things. It would be interesting to see that Sombra had a sympathetic (canon) backstory because he was destroyed; for some people there is no happy ending. Sometimes the good go bad and they can't go back. (This is why I like Vervain from the 1994 Watership Down TV series.)
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Journal subscriptions sounds like a dream come true. I can't tell you how many times Google's failed me because I tried to look up some obscure statistic, technological principle, or strange physics application.
Well that is an interesting observation. I've always viewed them as just awesome beings much nicer than humans except for the occasional jerk. It's strange to think of them as immature and naive. I guess it's the huge catastrophes in the show they've dealt with that obscure just how immature their tendencies are. So yeah, you're right, they wouldn't be too kind to those different from them.
Again a very cool perspective on Sombra. Though I'm drawn to the thought if Twilight lacked the support she could very easily have slipped into madness and would've had to be taken out by Celestia and Luna. I kind of hope they touch on Sombra again in season 5. If I recall correctly he's the only villain so far who's actually been destroyed, not captured or pushed out of equestria. So was he actually killed? And if so why did he deserve it when someone like Tirek only got thrown into prison? These questions need answering.
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Yeah but they often cost money is the problem. There's a nice infrastructure out there but it's kinda intended for those whose jobs involve literature searches. And of course with google you can often get a torrent of nonsense. (Vitamin K... blood clotting... dietary sources... dietary supplements... don't let your baby have he standard injection it causes autism... wait what?)
It's always hard to judge another group; you're faced with the questions of how representative what you're seeing is, and whether your own judgement is biased. A good example is Blueblood and Gilda. Both are 'jerk' characters. One is later seen with Rarity on good terms and it seems that somewhere behind the scenes the whole gala incident was dealt with. (Frankly I think Rarity used her 'Let us never speak of this again' line.) which shows a great deal of maturity. On the other hand (hoof?) Gilda is out. Gone. She didn't act that much different from how I think RD would have in that situation. (Made Fluttershy cry though. Whoah, only Pinkie has done worse! Wait...) but it's not likely they will ever make up; both are too emotionally immature and proud to ever seek reconcilition. That's a good friendship destroyed over a few pranks. (Again of course the fandom has stepped in.)
Storywise Sombra was destroyed because he was so little. The team has stated that they're uncomfortable with reforming everyone, 'some people are just bad' so they sought to actually obliterate a villain, remove all chance of their recovery. I could argue with this (Is not the spirit of MLP a world better than our own? Why *can't* all their villains be helped?) but how they did it was rather poor. If they had destroyed a developed villain like Tirek or Discord it would have *meant* something. There would have been a feeling of loss, of someone who could have been more instead being wasted. As it is Sombra seems *designed* to be tossed aside. Little dialog, uninventive design, short screen time, his destruction carries no weight, no depth of feeling.
The question of whether Sombra 'deserved it' has no merit because as a character in the show he isn't worth considering. He's a plot point, a strawman. This is why I doubt we'll see him or any mention of him in the show again. He was designed to be used once and thrown away. (Darn you shows, recycle your characters! Did you know Tirek is made of 40% recycled material?)
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All fascinating points I've never thought to consider. An interesting parallel between how the mane six behaves sometimes similarly to how 'jerk' characters behave. I guess the only difference is between the attitudes of both parties involved at the end of the conflict. Gilda and Dash had no interest in making up while Pinkie and Fluttershy, AJ and Rarity, Twilight and Trixie, etc. did ultimately decide to make up. I guess what Gilda did was no worse than what many of them did to each other. Yeah I can see why it would be hard to judge a group, especially without seeing the full story.
It is too bad the writers don't treat every character they design with the same amount of attention and care. Even if Sombra was always meant to be destroyed they really could've made him mean something to us with a little work. I feel half of that episode was filler anyway. Pity really.
Well this response took way too long to write. That probably means I have nothing else I can really add. Must admit I'm not very well read on this type of subject. I find it fascinating though, and your insight quite refreshing. I'd love to learn more about all of this. Especially since I'm trying to write the story for a 3d animation and I want to avoid these types of mistakes.
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Yeah, you'll see a few people commenting on 'the townsponies' (Notably After The Fact's Silver Quill.) and how they seem to be awful inconsistent. This is partly because they as a group aren't characters but more environment; they're whatever is needed at the present time. Critic, friend, crowd... On a persona note I've gone through a few Gildas in my time, sometimes all it takes is one wrong move to ruin a friendship and neither of you are in a position to make up.
I don't blame the writers for their treatment of Sombra; in the main he was *designed* to not need attention and care. For what he is he works. But we've come to expect in MLP that every villain have some sort of interesting solution. He's a shock by contrast even though many other writers in many franchises do the same.
I have found that one of the best ways to hone a story is to find something that you like and is similar to your own plot then google how it sucks. You'll find a lot of blah but you'll also tend to find people pointing out the weak points that you overlook because of your adoration. (The biggest problems in stories are those you don't notice because you think you're too awesome.) TVTropes is also a good resource since it has a vast list of Bad Things to take note of. (For example I do a lot of 8-bit games, TVTropes pointed out to me how white, middle aged and male protagonists usually are and moved me to be more inventive when designing that most basic part, the Big Good guy.)
In the main though you can only learn by making mistakes. (And oh BOY have I made mistakes. My stuff from 10 years ago is utterly cringeworthy.) Never be afraid to admit you're wrong and even redo something. Seek criticism and study it, separate the hate from the good points and absorb them to grow stronger. (Like some sort of story-writing blob monster.. thing!) It was a pleasure chatting to you, you have some very developed and nuanced opinions.
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Nice anthro style here, and that dress is perfect for her. Great work!
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Hmm actually never thought about this but Cadence being trapped in those crystal caves were actually a foreboding to her rule xD
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That's some interesting insight I've never thought of either. Huh. I love when they layer in detail like that.
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