Sorry, was away for a while there. While I'm all for subtle hints at a character's backstory, personality, and desires (its one of the things that drew me to Dark Souls) but its a little different here. They went for the most generic and, in my opinion, uninteresting back stories they could make. Maybe if they had more time with him they could have made this a more interesting character, but with just two episodes nothing about him impressed me.

Isn't power a motivation?

1109333
He has a motivation. He wanted world domination and the crystal heart was said to gave the power to controll equestria.
And as for the whole no character devolopment part, you are wrong. Look at the traps he set up, they show you that he is smart, sadistic and paranoid, those negative traits but character devolooment doesn't mean positive traits.

1106078
Simply that there was no character. He was there, looked menacing, said two words, laughed a bit, and was defeated. Nothing was no character development, no real backstory beyond saying he was a tyrant, no motivation, and no real consequence for anything he did after his return.