Complete Monster Proposal: Queen Ima
What is the work?
Primal is an adult-animated series by Genndy Tartakovsky. In it, the first two seasons follow the adventures of a Neanthradal caveman named Spear who joins forces with a Tyrannosaurus rex named Fang after they had both suffered great losses.
The first season consists of them trying to survive in the death world the show takes place in until they meet a human named Mira who had escaped from a slave ship. After being recaptured, Spear and Fang embark on a journey to save their friend. Along the way, they come into enmity with new threats like the Vikings, and the candidate in question.
Who is she? What has she done?
The Egyptian Queen, or Ima, is the ruler of Ancient Egypt and the antagonist of a three-episode story arc. Wanting to rule everything, she invades Kamau's village, has her men kill some people and take others as slaves, and forces Kamau to become her means of conquering. She captures Spear, Fang, and Mira to use them as slaves as well.
During one instance of her rule, she holds the Sea King hostage and forces Mira to dance for him. When she doesn't, Ima performs the seductive dance...and then kicks the Sea King to his death.
Spear and the others try to rebel only to get overpowered. Ima tries to force Kamau to execute Fang, once again reminding him of the cost he would be making if he refused. But he does which leads to the final conflict.
Kamau ends up convincing his people to fight back after they saw him demolishing several Egyptian guards. Ima tries to fight back, but she is grossly out-maneuvered by the behemoth of a man.
He grabs her and tosses her off her main ship and her body smashes through the roof of the boat Spear and the gang was escaping in.
Freudian Excuse? Mitigating factors?
None. The season makes it a fact she is a sociopathic, egomaniacal antagonist who is motivated on conquering as many lands and stealing their gold as possible. Even the leopard cub she adopts is just her guard animal.
Heinous standard
So, it goes without saying that Primal is a dark show with a heavy amount of violence. For instance, Spear and Fang are forced to completely massacre an entire Viking village when the inhabitants push their hand(s). Spear also massacred the ape-men in the first season and is forced to kill several soldiers when Ima wanted to control their lands. Fang also assists her mate in killing a few early humans but that is largely out of her belief that Spear died. Having said that, Spear and Fang do show altruism and are willing to save others.
The Viking Chieftan is heinous enough. He has a whole business of invading other lands to acquire slaves and killing the rest even when they are not resisting. However, he truly loved his family and that drives his thirst for vengeance against Spear and Fang.
For any other antagonist, there was the Ape Shaman who oversaw death games, and the Night Feeder who apparently hunted for sport rather than for hunger. The Ape Shaman appears to be less evolved than later hominids, especially Homo sapiens so could be argued that he lacks moral agency. And the Night Feeder is a predator who suffers from the moral agency argument as well (though Fang seemed to have some basic understanding of what is good or "in her interest").
There was also the Mad Man from the disconnected "The Primal Theory" who is a psychotic monster who also eats chunks from his victims. However, he had a low kill count and seemed genuinely insane.
Ima, on the other hand, has no setbacks. The show makes it clear that she is evil. She is also one of the more personal of the antagonists since she uses Kamau's daughter and Fang's eggs (later children) as leverage to keep them in line.
She forces the group to decimate villages and civilizations so she could benefit from their gold and other riches. Where she truly demonstrates her evil, however, is when she forces Kamau to kill off a tribe of people even though they were not hostile and gave her a peace offering. She also has no hesitation when it comes with killing children such as her holding a dagger to Kamau's daughter's throat making it clear that she will kill her if he did not stand down.
