Would Opaline be better if she were written like the Joker to Sunny’s Batman? A villain that’s the antithesis of everything Sunny stands for?
It could be framed as Hope vs. Fear, or Peace vs. Chaos.
She already is, we saw that in C2 when Sunny and Opaline “meet” for the first time in “Ali-conned”. Even then we understood the contradictions between them and their ideological conflict - one does not want power and wants to help, the other wants power and self-interest. Sunny will never accept Opaline’s goals, and after realizing this, Opaline believes that the young alicorn is her biggest obstacle to her ambitions. So far it turned out to be correct.
But Opaline did not represent Fear or Hope, she can be considered a representative of tyranny and oppression as she is of the old school that the alicorns have exclusive rights to all magic, that the ponies must submit to her ideals. That’s how her personality is built, as a self-interested narcissist at the detriment of others, with manipulative abilities and inferiority complexes as a result of past defeats - especially against Twilight. Also, she is not completely mentally stable, she had been imprisoned for many centuries without magic. Her treatment of Misty seems like a yo-yo literally. After so long, Opaline had reached the point where nothing is unattainable for her ambitions, thus willing to commit crimes.
Which is why she needs a big shock if she is to be able to be “reformed” as seen when Starlight saw the ruined future as a result of her time manipulation in G4. But there are only three episodes left, the last one - the special - is distinguished from MYM by having its own title, SoS and possibly not being in the Opaline Arc. That means there are only three episodes left.
With the map and Misty’s discovery of the Together Tree’s ability to teleport ponies to the Dragon Lands, the New Mane 6 can get there as early as the first episode only to find they were too late. Because it seems that Opaline, who does not trust others, may have become suspicious of Misty’s betrayal. Considering the cutie mark theft, it is possible that the first episode will be about Posey, Misty’s espionage and the discoveries while Opaline went to the Dragon Lands, and the second episode could be about the meeting between the New Mane 6 and the dragons.
The third episode can happen in Maretime Bay or in the dark castle where Opaline will be at full strength, which even Sunny couldn’t fight and they will lose to her in the end. But from what Twilight had warned against, it’s possible that Opaline could make a fatal misjudgment and “open” something that she couldn’t control. Sunny may have the Rainbow Locket, but she had not been instructed to use it which may be the only thing that can stop Opaline. Should Opaline be killed? Or will she end up in another prison - Tartarus this time? The last option seems the most credible. It is possible that Sunny and her friends had to save the world not only from Opaline, but also from her wrongdoing.
SoS can be about the aftermath of the Opaline Arc when the New Mane 6 sit with many questions as the Wishing Star emerges. There is little time between the Nightmare Night and the Winter Wishday, the timing between C5 ep.6 and SoS suggests that.
