If there's something I've never really understood, it's what made the generation 1 villain Grogar a fan favourite in the first place?

(Oh, and for clarification, I'm not talking about the character we saw (or technically didn't see) in season 9, but the original version from way back when)

With Tirek, I get it. He showed up in the first ever My Little Pony television special and was ridiculously hardcore for being from something called 'My Little Pony', with his sinister voice, being kept in the shadows and turning innocent ponies into freaking dragons! Plus, a lot of bronies have watched 'Rescue at Midnight Castle' and I think Lauren Faust even used that special as the basis for Friendship is Magic, so having Tirek show up in G4 as a major villain made sense.

However, Grogar is rather different. He showed up way later in one small arc of the follow up series 'My Little Pony 'n Friends', where he was only one of many bad guys like Lavan, Arabus, Squirk, King Charlatan and others to show up. Yet, even after watching 'Return of Tambelon', I really didn't find anything that made Grogar stick out from the others. He isn't that terribly more intimidating than the others, he's no more competent, and he only shows up for four episodes. Not to mention the fact that he doesn't even have that much screentime, as most of the time, the arc gives way more time to Bray, his annoying donkey minion with an ear-grating voice instead of Grogar himself.

More than that, it also seems as though many of Grogar's fans haven't even seen the four episodes he was in, as a lot of fanfics involving him just end up making up stuff about him that has nothing to do with the character they're using. The most obvious of which being all the people calling him a necromancer...which came the heck out of nowhere.

It's like he's an OC using the name and basic design as the character, but then the author just makes him into whatever they want him to be.

So why did Grogar, and only Grogar, not Lavan, Arabus, or Squirk, get so much attention from the fandom even way before he was even mentioned in G4? This is not a critique on his character, more a genuine question which no one has properly answered me yet.

Honestly, it's probably purely his visual design. Dude is blue with glowing eyes. That's dope.

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I think it's a combination of things. Tirek and the Smooze were the most well known of the villains from G1, being the villain of the original special, and the movie that the TV show followed.

For the show itself, I think Grogar got attention for his design for one thing. He does look a bit more intimidating and near demonic than the other villains in the show. And since this fandom loves to take stuff from past generations and reinvent it, he's a prime candidate. Heck, he even looks a little like an animal versionj of Darksied.

Not to mention the possibilities for lore that could be attached to a villain from the past who ruled all ponykind from a lost city that was banished into another dimension. You know how this fandom loves lore.

He's also one of the more serious villains of the show, being one of the few who doesn't have a villain song, comedic moments, or was redeemed or defeated in a comedic fashion at the end.

It might also be that he was the only other villain that the fandom thought would transition well to G4. Some of the other villains like Charlatan the Penguin King or Crunch the Rock Dog didn't seem likely to make the leap and be compelling characters. Squirk the evil octopus monster wasn't likely since they'd need to have a whole underwater based adventure to include him as a villain, which only happened in the movie. And since they stated many times that the world of Equestria didn't have humans, that ruled out the Witches from the Volcano of Gloom... at least until they retconned that for the Generations comic. After Tirek made the leap in Season 4, and the Smooze was reimagined as Discord's college buddy, he was the only option left.

I don't know where the whole necromancer thing came from. I think it's a Mandela Effect brought on by things fan artists made up. Sort of a "Beam me up, Scotty" thing.

I think it's just a perfect storm of circumstances that brought Grogar to the forefront.

The funny thing is, Grogar's whole deal was done with King Sombra's backstory. The evil ruler of an enslaved city that was banished to another dimension only to come back when the city returned and begin his conquest again.

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The funny thing is, Grogar's whole deal was done with King Sombra's backstory. The evil ruler of an enslaved city that was banished to another dimension only to come back when the city returned and begin his conquest again.

Come to think of it. If you changed the name and the character model for King Sombra to Grogar in the season 3 premiere, then he would have been a pretty faithful adaptation of the original character.

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I don't know where the whole necromancer thing came from. I think it's a Mandela Effect brought on by things fan artists made up. Sort of a "Beam me up, Scotty" thing.

I've heard that the Necromancer thing was due to hasbro using the word on some sort of merchandise featuring him, but I can't find the source at the moment so it might just be a mandala thing, yeah.

Still. It lets me use the phrase "Nec-RAM-ancer", so I am content.

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Still. It lets me use the phrase "Nec-RAM-ancer", so I am content.

...and here I thought my puns were bad.

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Still. It lets me use the phrase "Nec-RAM-ancer", so I am content.

I gotta remember that one.

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Original joke DO NOT STEAL!

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I won't. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.

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