User blog:TeamUnitedNerds/Why the Lich Sucks, a character study

Well, that's it for season 4. I'm sad to see it go, for it was easily my favorite season. However, I found myself hating the season finale, and the Lich in general. And here's why

Let's start with the obvious. The Lich has no personality. Why is he evil? Why does he do what he does? Who cares, right? Now, Flame Princess is a pretty dull character, but she has traits (Easily angered, passionate, ect ) the Lich has just...evil (I'll talk about what makes a good villain later). But not only that, but the Lich is never a legitimate threat, and here's why. He was defeated by luck. He wasn't killed by effort, or planning, or cleverness. Finn just happened to have the right Deus Ex Machina, in the form of love, to destroy the Lich. That's it. When Finn tried to take down Hunson in the Nightosphere episodes, however, he had to actually think and manipulate. The fact that the hero had to put actual effort into his defeat made him a threat. However, all you need is a really common emotion to defeat the Lich, therefore taking away all of his threat status.

And now let's talk about good villain motivation. The Ice King feels lonely, and cold, so he has to capture princesses to feel loved. This is an understandable motivation, because most of us have felt unloved at one point or another. Have you ever felt like you just wanted to destroy everything for no ****ing reason? No? Exactly. The Lich doesn't just have an unrealistic motivation, he has no motivation. He's evil because he is. Now, other villains may seem like this. The Joker for example. His only motivation seems to be madness/insanity. However, he also does evil things for the sake of standing out from the crowd, or because he doesn't want to appear weak. Those things we can actually feel, and understand.

But the worst part is, he could have been great. He actually made PB afraid of something, and he destroyed Finn's niave worldview. A big dark and realistic enemy in a world of silliness could have been a great character, but his lack of personality and whatnot makes him terrible.

And that's why, in my opinion, the Lich is one of the worst characters in all of Adventure Time. If you care to debate me, do so in the comments.