I'm going to remove all the Friendship Is Magic examples for not involving a real contrast between what the characters did and a hypothetical alternative Villain Ball or Hero Ball action.
Nightmare Moon: It says she was Just Toying with Them, which is probably not true, but anyhow kind of defeats the point of saying this trope applies. At the closest to this trope, she might have been doing the most effective thing at each moment that she could (if you describe the things she did, they don't sound half-hearted so much as trying everything possible: first try to kill off everyone outright, then send a monster upon them, then try to scare them away, block their path, tempt them aside, then just appear personally) — but you have to go through an interpretation to even get to describe this as acting directly.
Princess Celestia: Sure she didn't hesitate at a time when it would have been incredibly stupid, but that's not exactly a special character trait.
King Sombra: He was sitting in the sidelines desperately trying to get in — at what point did he have a choice between trying to be efficient and doing something stupid like Evil Gloating? See the McGuffin about to be used by the other side, go for it immediately — well, what else was he going to do? Monologue?
Edited by VVK
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Duplicate of DangerouslyGenreSavvy
, started by Valentine on Jun 16th 2011 at 9:38:25 PM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman