#ktron

There are many different villains I could describe that fit the bill to each parts of what makes a good villain.  One that I believe many reasonably understand and agree with in terms of villainy is the MCU character Killmonger, a tragic character forced to live under the weight of being orphaned by the very people he was born into, and realizing the true extent of the racism bred all around the world.  Though, in my opinion, his actions were underwhelming in terms of the fear he wanted to create.  While he did display his strength in defeating T’Challa single-handedly and almost created a genocidal raid across the globe, there wasn’t enough screen time with him to truly show just how much of an imposing threat he was (killing civilians does not count, it’s an easy way out for them).  A menace requires fear instilled from consequence.  If you build up a villain to do something monumental and with tons of repercussions and stop it at the last minute where everything is peachy keen, his imposing-ness is null despite any of the speeches he (convincingly) makes.  Ultron is a villain I think that I think is in a similar vein, but very close to being a true villain in my eyes because the dude was literally about to destroy Earth with a hand-made meteor and that was a sight to behold.  But, despite having a charming(?) personality for a robot that’s supposed to display overblown (not subtle or underwhelming) cynical, nihilistic, and misanthropic tendencies (and yes, that is a very big gripe of mine as a fan of Ultron from the comics!), Ultron didn’t do much in his time to show how villainous he was aside from killing off Quicksilver (which wasn’t much of an impact considering that it was his first time appearing on the main screen and was killed off right then and there.  It’s more of a shock for the movie industry than it is in terms of story).  Also, that movie design was absolutely hideous!  His robot army design was perfect, but his main design completely goes against who he is!  He’s not supposed to look more human, he’s supposed to be a robot that hates humans!  He shouldn’t look like them with fucking teeth and pupils!

Those last two were hard to find at the top of my head, but for these villains it’s pretty easy to find.  There are plenty of villains that can create monumental and horrifying destruction, but still be underwhelming in terms of personality.  While they don’t have to necessarily be agreeable or even have understandable motives, personality is what drives the character across.  The standard “I’m evil because I’m evil” could work as long as they have the flair for it.  Darth Vader fits the mark as a terrifying villain with a “evil” personality but gets away with it by being a tragic character in his own right.  Exdeath from Final Fantasy V I believe fits this bill rather well considering the amount of destruction he causes in the world, but has an underwhelming personality of “I WANT TO DESTROY EVERYTHING BECAUSE I’M EVIL,” even thought he’s my personal favorite FF villain.  But sometimes it’s okay to have a standard villain of being evil for the sake of being evil if the actions that they do are monumental to the plot.  But, this is just a personal opinion of mine.  Kefka and Sephiroth can be argued to be great FF villains, creating mass chaos and killing important characters with evil intent and ruthless personalities.

And then, there are ones that do absolutely neither.  Snoke, having an underwhelming personality and no threats to show for it (the Starkiller base represents the First Order, not Snoke himself personally).  This, unfortunately, goes the same way for the Night King in Game of Thrones.  An interesting and fearsome character and exudes fear from his mere appearance, shows little to nothing about how fearsome he is.  Despite being the brains for the White Walkers, he himself doesn’t do anything monumental or show the personal fear that he himself could instill regardless of his army.  A villain is only imposing by himself when there’s no one to help him.  If he can get the job done himself, he’s sure to be feared.  The Night King hasn’t succeeded in that.  Despite him making an attack at Hardhome, killing one dragon and weaponizing it on the Wall and at Winterfell (briefly, I should say), he doesn’t show anything that he can personally do that would create fear when it’s just him and with no army.  Other than raising people from the dead, we haven’t even seen him fight anyone!  Nothing that shows how he can personally hold his own in a fight.  And I’m sure some can argue that maybe he doesn’t care or need it, but why focus on him at all then?  Why go through the effort to make us fear the White Walkers (a foe that EVERYONE fears) and find the leader that gets killed so quickly and so easily without even making people suffer the consequences of crossing him?  The Golden Company was something far worse, however!  A so-called “fearsome” sell-sword faction completely annihilated in one episode of their physical introduction?!  Bullshit!  There are plenty of villains here that I could mention that can’t achieve fear or motive here, but I’ll save it for these two examples considering that these two were the ones I was very frustrated with.

But, there are two villains that I can think of right now that fulfill motive and fear right off the bat.  The main one (that I’m sure many of you saw coming) is the MCU’s version of Thanos.  No doubt, someone that has an understandably flawed and warped sense of destiny and justice, believing genocide of an entire universe to be “merciful” and saving it from destruction.  It’s absolute brilliance, especially compared to Thanos in the comics, that really fulfills the role of “the Mad TItan” more than the MCU version.  And that’s not to count just how much chaos he has created over the course of 22 films.  Despite being seen in small cameos and brief snippets and mentions, Thanos was someone to be feared in the MCU that many people were eagerly awaiting to see finally revealed in Infinity War.  And he achieved it in spades.  A villain that is absolutely ruthless with his enemies, despite being understanding and honorable about their goals. Imagine beating up the Hulk in 1-on-1 combat so much that he’s not angry anymore and refuses to be.  That’s a feat in itself.  And even while utilizing the Infinity Gauntlet, he can hold his own in a battle against 7 of the greatest heroes in the universe that almost got it off of him!   He pulled a fucking moon down on a planet right after, too!  And the coup de grace of it all was of course the snap heard throughout the universe: the Decimation.  And he succeeded in his mission and rested, like he said he would.  He wasn’t evil because he wanted to be or was vengeful about what happened: he believed himself to be a savior, someone that was willing to do what others wouldn’t.  And even without the Infinity Gauntlet, the guy won’t quit and is still ridiculously strong in a fight with just a double bladed sword in Endgame!  A perfect movie villain rarely shows itself, and Thanos was definitely one of those and I hope we see more that follow in his footsteps.

The secondary villain that I think of (that not many would understand) is Ardyn Izunia, or Ardyn Lucis Caelum, from Final Fantasy XV.  Hajime Tabata aimed to make FFXV’s villain to be better than Kefka and Sephiroth combined.  Now, that’s a gamble.  Considering how memorable and iconic both villains are, it would be very hard to accomplish something like that.  But, in my eyes, I believe he did.  Ardyn is a very tragic character, a Christ-like figure that wanted to cure the people of the land from the Starscourge that plagued them.  He would absorb the disease and cure them, unlike his brother Somnus that would kill them mercilessly.  After his fiancee was killed by Somnus himself, branded as a traitor and demonized by the people that he cured, denied ascension to the throne by the Crystal, and abandoned by the Astrals that were by his side.  Fueled by hatred for his betrayal on almost all fronts (including his fiancee, he believes), he seeks to end the Lucis bloodline and destroy the world that the Astrals created out of vengeance.  Hey, if you found out that you were simply a tool used for the gods to fix the shit that THEY fucked up themselves, you’d be pissed too (*cough*Noctis*cough*).  And boy did he show them what for.  He becomes chief commander of Nifleheim’s military, including weaponizing people as daemons, using Magitek to ascend to military supremacy, and seizing all of the crystals in the world until all point to the last one located inside Insomnia.  Not only that, but he kills Noctis’ childhood sweetheart and he brings the entire world to ruin for years to come while Noctis was inside the Crystal.  Ardyn basically did what both Kefka and Sephiroth achieved individually: bring the world to ruin and kill a pivotal character/love interest, respectively.  And he can seriously hold his own in a fight, able to use the same powers that Noctis can easily.  He even used Ifrit (an infernal Astral!) as a puppet!  That level of hatred for a bloodline is something palpable.

That’s why it’s so important to show your intent just as much as it is to say it.  Both go hand in hand and it’s what creates arguments and discussions like these, so we are able to analyze and study villains as integral and important characters in entertainment.  And to discover the darker sides of humanity that lives and resides within all of us, so we can better learn ourselves and how to control the demons inside all of us.