Following the negative things I've been saying about Radiant Hope, Comic-Sombra, and "Siege of the Crystal Empire", I figured that I may as well go ahead and show the pictures I modified and shared on DeviantArt. If you click on the links below, you'll find the pictures. And below the pictures themselves, you'll find what I think of Hope, Sombra, Princess Amore, and the Sombra comics by Jeremy Whitley in greater detail:

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I don't have a DeviantArt account, but I've read through what you've written about the characters and I felt like sharing my own thoughts. I'm breaking it down into several comments just so it isn't so long.

On Radiant Hope:

I don’t understand why anyone would like her in the first place. She’s bland, infuriatingly naive, and hopelessly one-dimensional. Or two-dimensional if you consider her backstory.

I like her because she makes a good flawed character, going from judgemental to naive, back and forth, again and again and taking time to learn her lessons. Or that's how I picture her in my headcanon.

In the first Fiendship is Magic issue, there were moments where Hope came across as a naive bimbo. A prime example being after Sombra turns Princess Amore to stone, because Hope literally just straight up talked to the princess and asked her to snap out of it despite how impossible that’d be.

... Rude much? I get your point, but if that was rare magic that the Crystal Ponies weren't used to seeing, then I'd expect a lot of ponies to react like that and not immediately understand the full effects of the spell. They could easily think that it was a more dangerous form of Sombra's mind magic and that Amore could be freed from the statue. Something I see a lot of people forget about MLP (and which I myself also forget) is that Twilight is a nerd who's spent years studying magic, while a lot of the other characters don't have the same knowledge or experience with magic. So I don't see that particular point as a proper example of Radiant Hope being a "bimbo."

Siege of the Crystal Empire openly painted Hope as an unlikable and morally bankrupt hypocrite. She not only kept putting her trust in the darkest of souls despite the fact that they couldn’t be trusted at all, but she literally had an incredibly warped view on Friendship despite her personality.

I like playing on this idea in stories, with her being hypocritical and making rash decisions on who she places her trust in. Having other characters call out her behaviour makes for interesting interactions. She's a flawed and dangerous character, yes, but then again, hope can be dangerous if people use it to overlook important details and allow themselves to become naive.

she hardly learned a thing from what she did. The fact that she actually got Sombra back in the end only fueled that impression more, because it made her come across as a Mary Sue who secretly only cared about herself and what SHE wanted.

In life, a lot of people don't learn from their mistakes, sadly. Despite being narcissistic and selfish and really in need of someone teaching them a lesson, they can get lucky and escape without having any huge trials that force them to change their behaviour. For better or worse, Hope got lucky that time. It doesn't make it right, no, but in my mind it's actually more realistic in a dark and twisted way. Then again, maybe that's just me. I don't make the rules.

Hope never did anything to make up for her mistakes either. It basically made her more deserving of a life in prison or an eternity in Tartarus rather than a happily ever after.

I agree with you there that she needed to be pulled aside by our Princess of Friendship and spoken to about the way she acted at the very least. Some kind of punishment probably was in order. On the other hand/hoof, I don't have a copy of Siege of the Crystal Empire right in front of me but I'm pretty sure it was implied that she was manipulated by the Umbrum. She was stuck with them for about a thousand years, wasn't she? That's a long time to be brainwashed into thinking a certain behaviour is ok when it's not.

Everything she did also gave “friendship” a bad name, as well as cause the morals to come across as openly toxic, especially to where it seemed like the story was teaching that it’s okay to be doing bad things as long as its to “help a friend” and that you’ll get no punishment afterwards.

I agree somewhat with what you're saying here. In terms of morality, immediate forgiveness for her actions from the princesses probably wasn't the best thing to show in a comic directed at kids. But as I said earlier, people don't always learn from their mistakes. It takes a long time, if it ever happens at all. Maybe the discussion of punishments and "villain rehab" as I call it took place behind the scenes and just wasn't portrayed in the actual comics.

I’m well aware that this sort of thing is what people have been saying about Discord because of what he did in “The Ending of the End”, but at least HE paid the price for his mistakes and actually made up for the wrong things he did. Heck, unlike Radiant Hope, HE actually showed sincere and genuine regret for all the things he did.

Agreed. She didn't really show regret for her actions, and due to the structure of the storyline and her extremely lucky break, she didn't learn from her mistakes. However, in the pictures I've seen of the last part of the comic, Sombra appears ready to learn from his mistakes, so maybe while he's learning how to fit back in with pony society, he could act as some kind of role model for her to change her behaviour as well.

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On Sombra:

Every attempt Jeremy Whitley made at giving the character more depth only seemed to make him come across as pathetic beyond anything.

Poor Sombra. You hurt his feelings.

No matter how many times people say that he was relatable, I couldn’t find anything even REMOTELY relatable about him.

I feel like the relatability of characters to different people is mostly, if not completely subjective because everyone has different life experiences and personalities. It's great if someone relates to a character, but not everyone will. That's just down to your life and the way that it's shaped you as an individual.

He had little in the ways of personality

In the season 3 premiere, his personality was "maniac psychopath." Comic Sombra has parallels with Shakespeare's Macbeth: ruthless and relentless because that's what he's good at and how he's been taught to act by his life experiences, but also regretful, nursing silent guilt and stuck in a battle between fate and free will. Maybe I'm biased, but I personally saw that as an improvement.

his reformation was forced and unnecessary,

Maybe?

his portrayal as a tragic figure was irritating and bland.

Perhaps to you, it was. I personally thought it was interesting and had a lot of potential.

Seriously, I’ve seen portrayals of tragic villains done better through the likes of Loki in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” and Darth Vader in “Star Wars”!

I'm not a Marvel or Star Wars fan, therefore I can neither agree nor disagree.

People also say that in both “The Crystal Empire” and “The Beginning of the End”, Sombra was clearly more like a pawn than a character. In my opinion, though…the comics were where Sombra was more like a pawn, and not just for the Umbrum, but for the story as well!

Who says he was a pawn? I've never heard that said before. How was he a pawn in Season 3 and the comics? In season 9, I get that his resurrection was just a part of Discord's plan, but in Season 3 the only way I see him being used for anything was Celestia taking advantage of the opportunity for her to teach Twilight and see if she was capable enough to become a princess. Unless Celestia was the one who brought back Sombra and the Crystal Empire (and I don't see any evidence for that), that was more of a spontaneous decision which Celestia probably didn't think through that much. As for the comics, I still don't get how he was a pawn for anyone but the Umbrum, who were just trying to manipulate everyone into getting what they wanted.

any time I’d ever think back on Sombra’s origin comic in the first “Fiendship is Magic” issue, I’d find myself scratching my head on it. Instead of helping me get a better understanding of Sombra as a character and provide decent world building, all the comic did was make me confused no matter how much I tried to understand it. Basically, NOTHING about it made a lot of sense in my head.

I don't remember much of it now, but I know I understood it fairly well. Apparently I have some comics to reread.

It certainly doesn’t help that just about every aspect regarding the story didn’t age well in the slightest, because even before “The Beginning of the End” came along, the show presented a great many things regarding Sombra and the Crystal Empire that openly retconned the origin comic.

Such as?

People say that Starlight Glimmer's backstory and reformation were each openly underwhelming and badly-worked.

I've never heard that said before. Am I living under a rock or something?

In my opinion, though, both Comic-Sombra's backstory and reformation really take the cake. I pretty much find it laughable that anyone would like the comics, and that Jeremy Whitley would even express fondness for them and consider them a favorite of his to write

Most people would find it laughable that grown adults like a cartoon about multicoloured horses. Also, I think it's great that Whitley actually appreciates his own work, while so many other artists, authors, musicians and other creators despise everything they make.

because I personally found both stories to be SO terrible that I want to find a copy of each arc and burn them up.

Personally, I don't agree with destroying books. How about just re-gifting them to someone who would actually enjoy them? Idk why this bothers me, but I like these comics and the thought of them - or anything that anyone's worked hard on - being destroyed just doesn't sit right with me.

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On Amore:

I mean, Sombra was in so much pain for years, and she knew about it but never did anything to help him?

Maybe she couldn't. I don't remember off the top of my head if anything like this was explicitly mentioned, but there could've been any number of factors preventing her from helping him. Maybe there was an Umbrum or some kind of traitor in one of her close circles who blackmailed her. Maybe she tried speaking to Sombra and helping him but he wouldn't listen to reason. Or maybe she was neglectful, and that idea wasn't explicitly portrayed in the comics. FiM ended with the closing of a book, but we don't know who wrote that book, and the entirety of FiM could've been a biased representation of Equestrian history for all we know. Maybe a few details were smoothed over to paint Amore in a better light or make Sombra seem more evil. We don't know that, which is where fanfiction comes in.

Sombra was in so much pain for years, and she knew about it but never did anything to help him? ... What kind of ruler does that?

I think it's fair to say that Celestia knew her sister was struggling with something before the NMM incident. Instead, Celestia ignored that, and then banished her to the moon for a thousand years so that six (then) inexperienced subjects of hers who barely knew each other could deal with the problem on her behalf. Seems like Celestia is the kind of ruler who neglects those around her, too.

it seemed like there was supposed to be some sort of close relationship between Amore and Sombra, especially at their final confrontation. But, the story itself literally gave no foregrounding as to what the relationship between the two of them was and why Sombra took the things Amore said so personally.

I personally thought they had a relationship similar to that between Celestia and Twilight: mentor and student but also friends, and Celestia (or in Sombra's case, Amore) acting almost as a parent figure. But that's just me.

my complaints towards Amore is pretty much another example of why I believe Sombra’s origin comic was more like an incomplete blueprint than anything else. Everything appeared to be in place, yet Jeremy Whitley never took the time to help the pieces come together or fully form.

Maybe he wanted to add more, but because Hasbro is a massive corporation that cares about making money more than allowing people to create beautiful pieces of artwork to share with the world, he had a deadline to work to and wasn't able to complete everything in the way he would've wanted. Or maybe I'm just really over-critical of giant companies.

Anywho, those are my thoughts on what you've said.

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Such as?

This part of the episode shows a Sombra with no Umbrum army, or any ponies digging for them underground.

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I think it's fair to say that Celestia knew her sister was struggling with something before the NMM incident. Instead, Celestia ignored that, and then banished her to the moon for a thousand years so that six (then) inexperienced subjects of hers who barely knew each other could deal with the problem on her behalf. Seems like Celestia is the kind of ruler who neglects those around her, too.

That was different. Celestia and Luna’s relationship as sisters and co-rulers was confirmed to have been strained for quite some time, and rather than communicate her problems with Celestia, Luna ultimately decided to give in to the darkness within her.

It’s a prospect that I can actually relate with, in that I struggle with communicating my problems with my family at times.

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Celestia still could've shown more support for Luna in my opinion, and made it easier for Luna to share what her worries were. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Like I said, Luna should’ve communicated her problems to her sister rather than the opposite. It’s been confirmed in the show itself that Celestia had no idea what was going on with her back then or why she often acted so cold towards her.

Amore, on the other hand, already knew what was going on with Sombra from the beginning and what his heritage was. If she could create the Crystal Heart, then she should’ve done something to help Sombra not get hurt by it so much.

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On Amore:

I personally thought they had a relationship similar to that between Celestia and Twilight: mentor and student but also friends, and Celestia (or in Sombra's case, Amore) acting almost as a parent figure. But that's just me.

I hardly recall such a relationship being depicted between them. They only shared up to two scenes in the story, and hardly any kind of crackle was given.

On Sombra:

Maybe I'm biased, but I personally saw that as an improvement.

I didn’t. It seemed like a complete degrading from Sombra’s dark nature and intelligence, because I’m pretty sure that anyone with his intellect would know that he could choose what pony to be.

Also, I think it's great that Whitley actually appreciates his own work,

He says that, but he never seems to acknowledge the flaws his stories have or how many terrible writing choices he made. I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason for why is because he’s a writer who rarely wants to acknowledge criticism.

On Radiant Hope:

She was stuck with them for about a thousand years, wasn't she?

Yes, but that’s still no excuse. She should’ve gotten some sort of retribution for her actions, otherwise she’d probably think that it’s okay to always do bad things as long as it’s to “help a friend”.