@StrutEggStealer May I just say I love your username?
Anyway, my Pterano views:
1) Pterano seems to be one of those characters in the fandom for which there is a lot of polarization. He has numerous fans, but also detractors. Why do you think he is so polarizing in terms of how fans see the character?First off, I think that a character's popularity alone can, in itself, cause detractors to appear. Some people just quickly get sick of things that are popular. (
Frozen haters, anyone?) While I've never been a flat-out troll/hater of popular stuff, I myself have a habit of not getting very excited about things that are wildly popular
because they're so popular (which, yeah, I've realized is irrational of me). Secondly, Pterano's melodramatic personality is hardly subtle. "BESTOOWWW UPON MEEEEE YOUR GIFTS!"
If you don't love it, you're probably gonna hate it. The less subtle the character, the less subtle the reaction, for better or for worse, seems to be the general rule of fandoms.
2) What is your own personal view on Pterano as a character?My opinion of Pterano has fluctuated over the years. Of course, he had a big part in my childhood, being the villain of my favorite movie. Even though he was never the main attraction of LBT VII in my eyes, I definitely remember enjoying him when I was a kid. (Funnily enough, I recall thinking that it would be fun to dress up as Pterano for Halloween, which wasn't something I remember thinking about any other specific LBT character. Guess I must've enjoyed Pterano to a somewhat large extent, even though he was no Rainbow Face.)
Once I'd gotten older and I started looking around the LBT fandom online, though, I realized just how popular Pterano was...and yeah, I'm embarrassed to say that was enough to put me off him for a while, thinking he was just overrated. Since then, however, the Pterano fan in me has gradually made a comeback, and he currently holds the #8 spot on my Top 10 Characters list. He's so entertaining, and he's quite a unique villain for LBT!
Having an overdramatic power-hungry villain in the series was fun, and better yet, he ended up not being all bad after all.
Plus, "Very Important Me" is one of the best LBT songs ever IMO--it's so powerful and majestic!
I do think the "tragic backstory" aspect of Pterano is overrated, though. It's supposed to be a backstory, yet it fails to answer what might be the most important question about the guy--why was he so drawn to leadership and power in the first place? But I guess the flashback still served the purpose of setting up Pterano's redemption arc, so I'm not gonna complain.
One last note: when I was little, I remember it being tricky for me to understand what Pterano was saying at times due to the emphasis on his accent. Same with Sierra and Rinkus, actually. I guess I probably was just too young to decipher accents the first time I saw this movie, and the way certain lines from the characters got butchered in my head so early on had me messed up for ages, until one day I finally saw the movie with subtitles on.