Black Hat (Shining Bonds)

**Black Hat** (ブラックハット) is the approching antagonist of the *Shining Bonds a la Mode* series. He is the leader and founder of the Black Hat Organization and left-hand man of Queen Vera alongside Event Horizon and Necrosis (before both of them are freed), together to revive Malachor and terroizing the Multiverse.

## Appearance

Black Hat wears a black top hat with a maroon band (along with a menagerie of other hats underneath), as well as donning a rimless monocle. He has somewhat dark grey skin, sharp, pointy teeth with a greenish tint, and a forked tongue. He wears a black trench coat with inner red lining, a light grey waistcoat, dark grey pants, a red dress shirt and a black tie. He also appears to wear dark grey gloves, and occasionally carries with him a black walking stick that he forms from his shadow. His shoes are black with white spats.

## Personality

Black Hat is extremely manipulative and sarcastic, and enjoys causing pain towards others. He also seems to be very spiteful, lashing out at anyone who defies him. In addition, he also has a short fuse and seems to only tolerate the other members of the organization. He has a massive ego, looking down on other villains he feels are inferior to him.

## Role in the series

### Pre-series

It was revealed on Techno's Harmony Book. It was revealed that Black Hat is actual to be known as Prince Saros, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s younger brother; the alicorn of eclipses, the dusk and the dawn.

In the past, Saros was a mischievous, intelligent young colt who enjoyed playing elaborate magical pranks on his sisters to get them to laugh. He especially enjoyed pranking the (at the time) humourless, steely and severely stressed Princess Celestia.

One day, Prince Saros was captured by the evil Queen Vera while researching into the origins of the “Pony of Shadows” that rumours stated was responsible for the disappearance of Star Swirl the Bearded in the deep dark forest near her evil dark castle. As the result, Queen Vera used her power to corrupt him and making him as her servant to revive Malachor.

### Shining Bonds A La Mode Season 1-4

In the first episode, Black Hat appears sitting on a park bench, disgusted by the light he sees. Then he sees a dream power and summons a Yume-Akumu to steal Dream Magic from a group of runners in order to suffering them. He then spots his treasure Nijimia, and has the Yume-Akumu capture her to steal her Dream Magic too. However, before that can happen, Techie interrupts the stealing Dream Magic, attacking him. But Nanette shouts her courage and he watches as she becomes Faith Idol. He then decides to make the Yume-Akumu steal Faith Idol's Dream Magic, but the plan backfires. After his Yume-Akumu was defeated, he retreats to the Castle of Nightmares to report what happened.

## Magical Abilities

### Use of Magic

* **Shapeshifting**: Black Hat, on various occasions, changes his appearance in order to fool or torment others. The most notable example of this being when he changed himself into a perfect replica of 5.0.5. in order to terrify Demencia in *Wearing Evil*.
	+ **Size Manipulation**: Likely as another form of his shapeshifting, Black Hat can change the size of his body to that of a giant, although he has only been shown using this ability once in *Sculpting Evil* and in one of the *Villainous Comics*.
* **Black Magic**: As seen in *Ice Cream of Fear*, he has some sort of proficiency in black magic, as he is able to bring back 5.0.5.'s ice cream to a seemingly normal state, while also giving it demonic qualities.
* **Laser Vision**: In *Bad Security*, Black Hat killed a blue jay by shooting deadly lasers out of his eyes.
* **Charisma**/**Manipulation**: Black Hat, as a salesman, uses various forms of charisma and manipulation to convince other villains to buy his inventions.
* **Portal Creation**: As shown in *Squeak*, Black Hat seems to be able to open portals (possibly to the underworld, as shown by the ghosts coming out of the portal he opened).
* **Instrumentalism**: As seen in *The Note of Destruction*, Black Hat appears to be proficient in playing piano/organ.
* **Singing**: He has the ability to proficiently sing. He also tends to make people go insane with his singing.
* **Shadow Manipulation**: As shown in The *Lost Cases of Elmore*, Black Hat can teleport via his shadow. He also can transform his shadow into a cane.
* **Telekinesis**: In the same episode, Black Hat is shown to have the ability to choke people by simply using his mind. He does this to Dr. Flug as a way to caution him not to boast about himself.

## Relationships

### Nijimia

Black Hat dislikes Nijimia and he is one of his treasure to get her.

## Trivia

* Counting his appearance as a living painting in "The Portrait of Evil", Black Hat has never been absent from an episode, and is the only character to never do so.
* The reason why Black Hat is always mad is because that Cartoon Network villains can't defeat Cartoon Network heroes and also because his minions are always incompetent. However, Black Hat is the only Cartoon Network villain that never faced a hero.
* He bears a resemblance to Count Bleck from the video game *Super Paper Mario*, namely in the sharp teeth, monocle on their left eyes, large top hats, formal attire, and of course in the fact that they are both evil. (Count Bleck however changes his ways later in the game)
* He is named after the term "black hat", which refers to the villain of a Western film.
	+ Black Hat's name is also akin to the term "black hat hacker", a type of hacker that uses their extensive knowledge of breaking into computers for their own malicious gains, as he is almost always seen advertising some kind of invention that was built for malicious purposes.
* He can play both the organ, and the violin. The one he owns has strings made out of cat's guts.
* He likes neither dogs nor cats.
* He doesn't need to sleep.
	+ Whether or not he actually *can* sleep is debatable.
* A "prototype" of Black Hat's design was designed back in 2008 by Alan Ituriel and uploaded to DeviantArt.
* Black Hat's modern design was made at some point around 2015, as art posted by Ami Guillén depicts him as such.
* Black Hat is said to be in retirement, however, he is still attempting to run a business by selling evil items to villains despite this. This is due to boredom.
* He has been confirmed to be 2.03 meters, or about 6.66 feet tall. (invalid names, e.g. too many 666 is a number often associated with sin, the devil, and demons in general, fitting his appearance and mannerisms.
* Taking his confirmed height with his top hat (2.03 meters) invalid names, e.g. too many and subtracting that from his approximate height without his top hat (≈1.77 meters) places the height of his top hat at 26 centimeters, ≈0.85 feet, or ≈10 inches tall.
* Black Hat is very, very old.
* Despite being a villain, Black Hat is referred to as a hero in the *OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes* episode "Crossover Nexus". This is most likely due to having no heroes in the main cast of *Villainous*.
	+ The same can be said for Major Dr. Ghastly from *Evil Con Carne*, who also had a cameo in the episode.
	+ According to Dr. Flug in Q&A Black Hat Organization replies, the Black Hat that appears is actually the clone the original Black Hat made with the evil ray and he is still a stone statue.
* Alan revealed in the June 28, 2019 AI Animations live stream that Black Hat melts puppies when he is bored.
* Alan also revealed on his stream's that:
	+ (July 23, 2019) Black Hat doesn't like any living being and only enjoys their presence when they're suffering.
	+ (July 20, 2019) After you sign a contract with Black Hat your perception of him changes.
	+ (July 20, 2019) Black Hat has attended meetings of his own cult.
	+ (July 20, 2019) Black Hat won't praise Flug even if he does it perfectly. If Black Hat can't find a flaw with Flug's work, he'll be like 'it's your job anyway'.

* Black Hat is the only member of the villain trio to not redeem himself, and shows no remorse for his actions.