Heh. He was more Lord Tirek with the serial numbers filed down (they didn't even bother to file them completely off). Exact same goals, mostly the same means. Tempest was far nastier and far more competent.

The Triumvirate falling instantly, without so much as a whimper, is getting old fast, though. They're supposed to be living deities, not pinatas. I think Jayson Thiessen needs to get some new writers at this point in the cycle.

All that being said, I quite enjoyed the movie, and it's given me some extra settings to use on my own RPG! Yay!

^This. He was a Job Lot Discord. Also-yay rpg. Please tell me it involves adding a certain pirate crew, their airship and a certain honorary buccaneer weatherpony?

Well, it involves the brand-new setting and brand-new kingdom revealed at the end, but I don't want to spoil for readers who might not have seen it yet.

It's a very little one, with a couple of friends, playing alongside my OC the Dark Griffon. He's a free trader and Lore Keeper (oral historian). He'd have seen through Capper in a Manehattan Minute. "Well met, Free Trader! What's your angle?"

(I rarely actually put major canon characters in the RPG simply because it's meant to be background to the events in the show. Dark and his partner the Silver Brumby don't traipse around saving Equestria - that's for the Princesses and their friends. They just make a living. However, ANY time a new village or kingdom opens up, there's a 'Gong Call' - a call for a Trader's Forum wherever there's a brand new market, or a major trader's event in an established one. And Dark will be there, wheeling and dealing and helping where he can. He's already traded with Starlight Glimmer's old village, though hasn't met Glim Glam herself yet, and the Love Bugs and this latest new kingdom are also soon to be visited. Might he meet the Pirate Parrots? Quite possibly. Pirates are often very good for trade - they need basic supplies and have treasure to trade with - and they're even better for sea tales and other such lore. They can be dangerous, too, but not that lot.

Sounds like our Ponyfinder campaign. :) I wish you and your group all the best. ^_^

Storm King was the weakest link to the movie. No backstory outside of the prequel comic, no motivation beyond what Tirek already did better. No character beyond what Discord already did better.

Tempest stole the show in almost every way. My only quibble is Celestia and Luna being subjected to the Worf Effect yet again to show what a dangerous, sexy badass Fizzle-chan is.

I rather liked Storm King, though I agree he should have played a bigger part in the story. Even so, he was a better character than Tirek, who was little more than a bull in an Equestrian china shop.

I also found the petty, self-absorbed tyranny of Storm King amusing -- and very reminiscent of a certain Chief Executive.

I love how annoyed Tempest looks here. "'His' movie? And who did all the heavy lifting?"

Exactly!

One of the bigger disappointments was the ending. I was fully expecting, by the time it was over, for Tempest to simply tell the Storm King, "I'm doing just fine WITHOUT my horn. I'll take that staff and you can just eat dirt," and whack him with one of the crystallizers. THAT certainly would have been a twist over the typical kid's movie ending!

Lotsa lost opportunities to simple lazy writing. The movie could have been truly groundbreaking - as the TV show was - but it spent its mojo on whiz-bang animation instead of good writing.

I have heard a lot of other people describe the film's plot as being 'okay' at best.

Yeah, "Okay" is the best description. Some great worldbuilding but as an actual story it was fairly rote for a kid's show.

I like how the Storm King's first use of his powers is just to dick around with the sun and the moon. That was funny.

He is what I describe as "undercooked". He's noticably absent for most of the movie! A half-minute of stylized pictographic backstory showing what kind of power he already wielded to consolidate a kingdom would have helped, because none is evident before he aims to steal alicorn magic to power his twig. He is amusingly unique in his concern with marketing strategy over acquiring raw power, which gave him some touch of charm.

"Undercooked" -- that's a perfect description. Not that Storm King was a bad character; in fact, he was a good character. Much better than, say, Tirek, who was little more than a bulldozer out to flatten Equestria. What he lacked was, as you said, a solid backstory, along with a little more screen time. His obsession with marketing is funny, especially when you consider that the film he's in is part of an enormous marketing strategy by Hasbro, Inc. "Meta" -- i think that's what the kids call it, these days. :)

Also, his petulant, self-absorbed megalomania reminded me very much of a certain Chief Executive...

Tirek was much more interesting when his power amounted to manipulating Discord into allying with him. It's only later when he has no need for guile that he becomes all brute force.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IA_tFo_tJ0 XD

HA!

That is the look of a very unhappy minion.