The king of the swamp 🌸

In both kingdoms, the Swamp King is known for being loud, cruel, and terrifying. He is shown to be quick to anger, yelling and roaring at the slightest bit of bad news, even the most timid. Ever since the woman he fell in love with rejected his advances, the Swamp King has developed a militant cynicism of love, believing it was because he was too ugly to be loved.

Compared to the other sprites and sentient creatures of the Dark Forest, the Swamp King appears to be the most anatomically fairy-like. He wears no clothing, his body covered in an armor-like exoskeleton that resembles splitting leaves and bark. His limbs are slender, a match to the rest of his body, making him the tallest humanoid character in the film. He possesses ears, a chin, and a nose, a match to his angular anatomy. He has four dragonfly-like wings on his back with various rips and blemishes that do not seem to impede his ability to fly. Later in the film, his wings appear to be tinted purple.

While he possesses no magical powers, the Swamp King is shown to possess impressive fighting skills with his staff, defeating nearly everyone in his path. He is also shown to be very strong, lifting the skull entrance to his castle long enough for the others to escape.

The Swamp King's prisoner, the Sugar Plum Fairy, brews a love potion and gives it to an elf named Sunny who, along with a fairy named Roland, wishes to use it to do just that. Mariannese falls in love with Roland and her sister Dawn falls in love with Sunny, but the King recaptures the Sugar Plum Fairy. However, Sunny is able to escape back to the Fairy Kingdom with the potion.

Determined to get the potion back, the King takes Dawn hostage, but during the kidnapping, the potion sprays Dawn's face and she ends up falling in love with the King, much to his chagrin. Marianne arrives at the King's castle to rescue Dawn and battles the King (Straight On). Though the battle turns flirtatious, the King respects Marianne for her swordsmanship and sarcastic comebacks. Her mother notices her smiling at him. Griselda decorates a room with tacky romantic gifts and leaves him alone with Marianne. He and Marianne are uncomfortable by this, but bond over destroying the decorations.

The King orders the Sugar Plum Fairy to prepare an antidote to prevent Dawn from falling in love with him, but she tells him that the only thing more powerful than the potion is true love. She narrates this point by revealing that the Swamp King asked her to use the Love Potion on a girl he loved years ago. The creature refused anyway, revealing the King's broken heart. Marianne empathizes with his pain and shares with him their mutual cynicism and distrust of romance.

Despite both saying they trust no one, Marianne suggests they take a flight for some fresh air. The King shows Marianne the secret beauty of the Dark Forest; they fall in love as they sing the title song, Strange Magic.

They are interrupted when Roland and his army arrive to rescue Dawn and deliver the potion to her. Thinking Marianne set him up, the King throws her into a spider web and returns home, where he finds Roland there with the potion. Roland refuses to hand over