>Has, like, 10 minutes of screentime, and manages to die twice over the course of it.
>Has simultaneously enough power to posess the entire nation and make it rebel against an innocent Tsar (LOL) and not enough power to prevent himself from accidentally drowning.
>Is in the movie [ostenshibly] based on a real nation's 20th century's history and yet has a talking bat as a minion. Which is even more cursed that is Disney's Pocahontas that is [ostenshibly] based on a real nation's 17th century's history having sapient animals as part of the story.
>Said bat is his ONLY shown minion and the only person he really interacts with, despite him boasting in his villain song about having multiple "minions".
>Talking about his villain song, it has such a banger as "It scared me out of my wits; A corpse falling to bits! Then I opened my eyes; And the nightmare was, me!". How am I supposed to be scared of this guy when he literally admits of being scared of himself?!
>His curse makes him unable to die while at least one of Romanovs is still alive. Wants to kill the last of Romanovs. But does not want to die. WHAT? …Voldemort a decade later did a similar trope better.
>Also, makes Voldemort look like a genius when it comes about caring about the safety of his phylacteria.
>Hey, why a 100% Slavic dude is a literal D&D-esque Lich there? …At the second thought, this one actually makes sense since Liches in D&D are partially based on the Slavic tale of Koshey the Immortal… unlike all of the points listed above.
>The movie probably really doesn't even need him, with its real conflict being Anya/Anastasia having to choose between her royal birth family and her commoner found family/love interest since she can't have both at the same time.