The storm king was a let down.

[RemixThePegusas 2]

I don't like the storm king. In all of FIM he's one of my least favorite villains. He barely has any character, seemingly no motive, and he's just boring. It felt like there were no stakes to it. Does anyone actually like him? I'm not trying to be rude, I just NEVER see anyone talking about him

 

[Megas 28,091]

He's nothing special, he's a bit goofy but that's really about it. It's not good when everyone was calling him Discount Tirek when he was first revealed.

It was obvious they wanted to push Tempest Shadow as the de facto antagonist of the Movie.

[Snow 8,447]

I don’t mind that he doesn’t fit in with the bigger picture all that well. I view him as a throw away villain who only had a place in the movie.

Could they have done a lot more with the films villain in the series? Sure. But a whole different and more interesting villain would be required.

[Night Sky 855]

The whole thing was kind of a now you see him, now smash his pieces into pieces, and then smash the pieces into pieces, into pieces. Of course, no one saw him coming, and that was sort of the whole point. It was a sneak attack designed to decapitate Equestria at the capital. The ponies hadn't seen him coming either.

We don't like to think that the Princesses were capable of being so incompetent, especially since Canterlot had recently suffered a sneak attack, amid other invasions and infiltrations. But apparently they were and the EUP failed, utterly. 

What does all this have to do with the Storm King himself? Well everything actually, and it shoots him in the foot. 

I enjoyed the film for what it is, I really did. But one gets the sense that the show didn't want to walk away from the film with new problems, and Hasbro wanted a film that would be watchable for people who hadn't seen a single episode. 

A one off thing. Like a concept album by a metal band. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it can lead you into Deus Ex Machina writing, and that includes an, as it were, disposable villain who we just don't get to know so well. 

We'd never seen V'ger before Star Trek: The Motion Picture, even though it was spun off from an iconic TV show. Notice, you don't necessarily NEED to have been into Trek to follow the first film. It would have helped, but it wasn't critical. 

Some people find V'ger to be an awe inspiring, mysterious threat, sort of an antagonist till it finds redemption at the end. Other people called it Star Trek the Motionless Picture, and said that the story was frightfully dull, regardless of the special effects. 

The MLP movie followed more or less the same playbook. And, the Storm King is only one issue about the film which fans remain divided about. 

Later on, IDW just had to go and speculate a little more about the Storm King in the comics, is that canon? Depends on who you ask. 

If I had a staff like his, I absolutely would be playing with the sun and moon like that. But I would not otherwise be as childish, arrogant and seemingly oblivious as he was. 

He seemed genuinely surprised that any pony would seek to stop him, or at least honor his side of the bargains he had struck. Keeping him from being too astute helps to contain his arc entirely within the run time of one film.

This makes it easy to dispose of him at the end. But it also makes him rather unsatisfying. I thought that he got off to a pretty villainous start at the beginning, but he was actually rather hapless once the Mane 6 pulled themselves together and reengaged. 

The fandom tends to be allergic to this apparently, but perhaps he was really just playing second fiddle to the real villainess who was Tempest Shadow. Without her, he certainly would never have been so successful for even that brief moment. I don't see why talking about her as a villain remains taboo when we already had Discord, Starlight Glimmer and Trixie start oit as villains and then become allies. 

Tempest was just like Trixie and Starlight, someone who was dissatisfied with their lot and took it out on others. So while effectively played and realized, she wasn't terribly original or satisfying either, if you had been following the show. That's nitpicky and I am only half serious about it. 

But yes, the Storm King was a goof, and a bully and a thug, kind of a Supreme Microwave Burrito Snoke. And it's somehow both annoying and not terribly believable that he was the absolute best they could do for an epic MLP movie.

None of this means I don't enjoy the film, but great villains require a Bill Shakespeare, and such was not the goal or intent of a kids film based on a line of child's toys.

Edited Saturday at 10:43 PM by Night Sky