Thread:LucidPigeons/@comment-27586321-20151025011431/@comment-27560932-20151025023223

Yes, despite all the whopping praise the Horned King gets for being such a "dark" villain (actually, thinking about it I should include him on my blog on villains I dislike that everyone else loves) I found him horribly bland and underdeveloped. And not even that much of an effective villain, at that; I'll compare him to two similar animated "dark" villains who lacked characterization like him but were still infinitey better villains than him: King Sombra and the SATAM Robotnik. King Sombra may have done little in the plot itself, but it's shown that he's a deadly competent villain, perhaps moreso than any of FIM's other villains (bar perhaps Adagio, but to be honest she's one of the villains I haven't researched), primarily due to the use of his incredibly well-thought out traps and the fact that he's a deadly no-nonsense nemesis. There's also the fact that he's the dreaded to the extent where those he oppressed actively suppress memories of his rule. That's an excellent example of a villain being defined by influence; personally, I found Sombra to be a better Sauron than Sauron himself.

The SATAM Robotnik is a similar matter. While he might not be the funniest or the more fleshed-out Robotnik (although, contrary to what you might think, he's not the most evil Dr. Robotnik; there's the Archie Sonic Robotnik, which was essentially the SATAM Robotnik ramped up to an even higher level, the Sonic the Comic version whom enforced mass executions, and the Archie Dr. Eggman, who, in interfering with Sonic's attempts to restore reality which Eggman had previously damaged, manages to successfully (albeit inadvertantly) cause the mass alteration or even destruction of almost all reality; something that wasn't undone) the SATAM Robotnik is still capable of being extremely cunning and still being a very effective villain, especially given how this incarnation already has taken over the world.

...the Horned King has none of that. He's flat, boasts a very generic design, even when it comes to the obviously-evil looks of Disney Villains in general, and isn't even that much of a threat. While King Sombra and Robotnik were excellent schemers and in general very effective villains, the Horned King wasn't. Tell me; what did the Horned King do? He doesn't do many feats of magic, he's never physically confronts the heroes (and for that matter, has no meaningful interaction with them aside from attempting to kill a pig) and aside from scaring the bejesus out of everyone, all the Horned King does is walk around, look evil, and order around his servants. When his plan does succeed, his Cauldron-born army can barely take two steps out of the Cauldron before being hilariously and anti-climactically defeated by Gurgi's sacrifice. The final fight between Taran and the Horned King is literally thus; the Horned King grabs at Taran and all Taran has to do is push the Horned King, causing him to get sucked into the Cauldron and die. That is pathetic. Any die-hard Horned King fan can rant on about how he's so threatening and so evil, but all I have to do is remind them that he was ultimately defeated by getting shoved and... I'd love to see a defense for that.