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Apology accepted. :)
As for the second part, I can understand that reasoning. Always Chaotic Evil races are sometimes a necessity for some types of stories, but they aren’t for everyone.
While its true we are often given little info on the reason for ‘sole noble member of my race’ thing, that’s never really bothered me. Why would it? No matter how much hundreds or thousands or millions of years of programming any god or demon or whatever puts in such a Always Chaotic Evil race, once you have something that’s sentient, all bets are off. 100% is an absolute, and having a sentient will often manages to screw that up the butt even if its a million to one chance. It always comes down to a double edged sword. Breeding an army of sentient, completely evil monsters? Chrysalis is all into that shit. But toying with sentience is a dangerous thing, and its going to backfire cause free will is not so easily controlled.
Hellboy and Sombra’s situation are far more ‘stuck in the middle between evil nature and good nurture’. Sombra was sent into Equestria to be the Umbra’s tool of release and destruction, an umbra with a pony’s body. But they lived as ponies/humans, so free will was an inevitability even with a dark destiny to bring evil to the living world. Another double edged sword.
Edited
On the first bit, yeah, you kinda caught me red handed. I said something stupid, and then tried to cover my ass by going meta. Sorry.
On the second bit though, I think you’re misinterpting things. While the Always Chaotic Evil races have never been a favorite of mine, especially in High Fantasy where non-human races tend to intentionally or not become stand-ins for human ethnic groups, I won’t deny it has its place. As for the whole “sole noble member of my race” thing, I didn’t say that it couldn’t be done well. I acknowledged Hellboy after all. I was just saying that personally, most such stories aren’t for me. My reason? Because of how often we are given no info on what allows this one to be so special.
How is it criticism to the IDW author in one sentence but NOT criticism for the IDW author in another?
The fact is we ARE given context for Sombra’s act towards the Umbra, so it sounding bad when you remove the context doesn’t matter. Except to youtube trolls of course, how many of them give a shit about context, am I right? So long as they have something to complain about, removing context when complaining is a troll’s bread and butter.
Unfortunately, its become sort of a Derpibooru and Equestria Daily tradition to go ‘full-on youtube troll’ on the IDW comics because, lets face it, its unpopular not to do so. Me? I don’t give a flip. I judge things as they are. “from an out of universe sense, having someone’s redemptive act be something that would sound like racial internment camps without context” doesn’t actually mean anything to me at all since I can read and I DO learn the context. Tons of amazing stories can sound horrible if you completely remove the context.
….
On your other note, I don’t want to be rude, but I call bullshit. Demons and devils have existed in fiction in some form or another for thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years. The idea that there are servants of evil that are naturally predisposed to cause harm to others is used in thousands of well-written fiction. The idea that there any large group or type of creatures that lack morality for some reason allows for conflicts between man and monster. Did every orc or goblin in lord of the rings have individual reasons for being murderious pricks for generations? Of course not. Its more species-ist then racist, and if this species are breed to naturally lack anything resembling human conscience, then its stretching even species-ism. The idea that a unique will can form in a species predisposed to be monsters/demons (ex Thorax), or grow to be more human then monster despite instincts cause they had friends or family that gave them those experiences(ex. Hellboy had Prof Broom, Sombra had Radiant Hope), or a combination of both, are all inspiring stories.
Hellboy’s conflict was evil forces keep on wanting him to go full demon whenever he says his own real name and end the world. Sombra’s conflict is that he was born 1000 years ago into a world that wishes to be TOO pure. Like, Sailor Moon Crystal Millennium pure. No room for balance between light and dark. Thus, the calls to become full demon eventually became louder in his psyche then his friend’s support because of the constant torture from the Crystal Heart.
1000 years later, the elements of harmony broke the cloud of darkness in Luna’s mind instead of outright banishing her. Its a slightly more balanced world, but its still a work in progress. Thus, the xenophobia in Thorax’s episode extended to all changelings that fought on Chrysalis behalf, not just Chrysalis herself.
Edited
No no, that was more a criticism of how it was handled by the author than anything else. Yes, in the circumstances of the story, Sombra was perfectly justified morally to banish them. It’s just that, from an out of universe sense, having someone’s redemptive act be something that would sound like racial internment camps without context doesn’t strike me as the best idea. Not demonizing Sombra, or IDW for that matter. Just calling out shitty writing.
Because seriously, the whole “only good member of my race” trope is dumb. If none of the others are apparently biologically incapable of not being evil, why the Hell are you special? I mean, like all tropes, it’s been done right before (Hellboy comes to mind), but it usually breaks of Suspension of Disbelief.
Exactly, which is why Sombra was leaning away from that umbra-prerogative imprinted in his mind due to Radiant Hope’s influence until Twilight nearly killed Radiant Hope. Then with Hope’s faith in him later, he freed the Crystal Empire for good.
Oh, are you talking about the Crystal Ponies or the Umbra themselves? Oh please, the Umbra were raw incarnations of evil even by Chysalis’ standards, and that bar is preeeeeeeetty damn low for her. (That was an interesting commentary on her part since it proved once again, like the unicorn tunnels under Canterlot, that her original existence is likely WAAAAAY older then Celestia or even Star Swirled) Its like generic demons lords from a generic demon world saying even they don’t want anything to do with devils that work directly under Satan in hell.
You aren’t seriously trying to demonize Sombra over that when that action saved the world are you?
I doubt any Umbra that grow a conscience would have as much problem crossing the barrier. Heck, Sombra was the only umbra born without a completely evil soul, and that’s how they were able to make him an umbra pony living in Equestria in the first place. Heck if Cadence, Sombra, Celestia and Luna want to weaken the barrier slightly just enough so that any non pure evil umbra’s can go to Equestria, in theory they can do that. Still not completely advised, its the equivalent to digging a small hole in a hornets nest with a million times the danger.
Edited
Yeah… Imprisoning an entire ethnic group without appeal doesn’t strike me as a redemptive moment.
@Darth Sonic
To be quite honest, I liked the middleground they took with her.
She was a revolutionist. And not a sociopathic, cultist like Glimmer, (although Glimmer did had a few justified concerns considering how many in her villagers stayed away from the rest of society). She was destined to be a princess just like Cadence, but her best friend had a kind heart but his very being as an Umbra Pony was an abomination the princesses deigned unworthy of help. For years he lay sick because the crystal heart was killing him, until the Umbra’s call became too strong to ignore.
Radiant Hope didn’t know about the umbra. No one but Amore and her bloodline could see through their glamour.
In the 1000 years of near timeless exile, all she saw was her best friend being ignored by the princesses and tortured by the crystal heart, while she was being overly praised until Sombra went mad with pain and dark power.
She saw Sombra as a best friend and more who was never given a chance to be good because of the princesses cause, like changelings, saw umbra ponies as predisposed to evil even though he personally isn’t. Instead of becoming a princess, once she escaped exile she decided to right the wrongs and give Sombra back his first chance, even if she had to break a few laws. She rounded up mostly harmless troublemakers and a villain weaker but evil enough that Sombra wouldn’t want anything to do with her(chysalis) as a distraction to free Sombra and revive his body as well. And no matter how many things went south(Twilight’s trigger magic finger escalated things to 100x worse when Sombra initially started to consider giving up on conquest) she decided to stay by his side and convince him he was still worthy of redemption, and more importantly, choice. That he was worthy of a second chance even when he was never given a first due to the princesses like Amore back then.
And in the end, her quiet support in Sombra’s good side made him banish the Umbra that created him for all eternity. And, to finish their redemption, they decided to not be hypocrites and give Princess Amore a second chance on life when she was the main pony that ignored Sombra’s childhood.
Radiant Hope discarded her destiny as princess and managed to completely reform a guy destined to be the lord of all monsters.
Was radiant hope a villain? Was Radiant Hope a true hero? That’s the beauty of it, in Celestia and Amore’s perfect society which had no place for a kind soul like young Sombra, she was inevitably both.
why do you think her name is hope ;)
I honestly thought it was going to be a variety of the first one. I wanted her to be all openly villainous and stuff.
Would be better if they had written her as the girl who bears a grudge because of the Princesses’ decision to banish her friend, or write her as a returning long time friend trying to reconcile Sombra with the other ponies.
I still ship it.
I want Radiant Hope to go the Harley Quinn route (without the abusive subtext). The world did her lover and herself no favors, so fuck them, I’ll be my lover’s villainous healbot, Lieutenant, and bedwarmer.