History Characters / SwordArtOnlineAntagonists

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Less friend and more acquaintance. While he is on the same side as the Integrity Knights and technically their boss, none of them like him given he [[BadBoss treats them like trash]]. Bercouli in fact outright despises him and when given the chance doesn’t shy away from directly insulting him.

* GlassCannon: He is one of the most powerful Sacred Users of all time (and possibly the best other than Quinella and Cardinal). However he had nothing in the way of physical combat, and goes down very easily if he takes damage.

* JerkassAtYourDiscretion: He's a very rude and abusive BadBoss who torments anyone in sight... until Quinella appears where he suddenly piles on praise and polite language. [[spoiler:The most direspectful he ever gets is asking if she'll sleep with him if he disposes of Kirito, Eugeo and Alice, and even then he phrases it like a humble request]].

[[WMG:[[center: [- ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' '''[[Characters/SwordArtOnline Main Character Index]]'''\\

'''''[[LightNovel/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline Alternative Gun Gale Online]]''''' '''[[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline Characters]]''': [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnlineTeamLPFM Team LPFM]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnlineTeamSHINC Team SHINC]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnlineTeamMMTM Team MMTM]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnlineOthers Others]]\\

* {{Badass in Charge}}: Of both [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Glowgen Defense Systems]] and [[TheEmpire The Dark Territory]]. Gabriel is hands down the most powerful villain in the entire show and goes almost unchallenged until he faces Kirito.

** To Bercouli. Both are the BadassInCharge of the Human Realm and Dark Territory respectively, both are god-like compared to most other folk, both assumed command of their forces very recently, and both make it their top priority to keep Alice out of the hands of the others. However, while Bercouli is a FrontlineGeneral who puts his own life at risk, Gabriel for a large part of the war was an OrcusOnHisThrone who left the fighting to his [[WeHaveReserves expendable army]] and doesn't get involved himself until Alice is in his grasp. While Bercouli is still very much human, Gabriel is a true PhysicalGod thanks to his Vecta Super Account, with their fight being an extreme mismatch. While Bercouli was [[YouAreInCommandNow put in charge]] due to the death of Quinella, Gabriel abruptly showed up in the Underworld and stole command for himself while killing Shasta the Dark Knight Commander. Bercouli sees himself as a father figure to Alice and is willing to give his life to keep her safe and wants to reduce as much lives lost as possible, Gabriel only values Alice for the tasty soul which he wishes to indulge in and sends thousands upon thousands to their deaths to achieve his petty goal.

* NoPronunciationGuide: Several characters have had trouble pronouncing Death Gun's player name, Sterbern. Both Sinon and Kirito pronounced it as "Stee-burn", while Asuna thought it was a misspelled "Steven".

--> "''Your soul will be so sweet.''"

* AdaptationalVillainy: As much of a bastard he is in the lightnovels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler:rape]] that was never present in the lightnovels.

* ArchAngelGabriel: Named Gabriel and has a backstory and personality painting him as a SatanicArchetype, making him a FallenAngel so to speak. He even takes on an angelic form when he goes OneWingedAngel, termed his "Angel of Death" form where he gains a dark shadowy form with six wings and a halo.

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: To Quinella. Both are the main villains of the Alicization arc and both are [[PhysicalGod physical gods]]. But while Quinella was a tyrannical ruler of Underworld, Gabriel seeks to invade Underworld and become its new ruler. And while Quinella is one of Kirito's [[ArchEnemy most personal enemies]] and isn't an obvious EvilCounterpart to him, Gabriel is very much another EvilCounterpart to Kirito and had no personal relation to the boy at all.

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: To Quinella. Both are the main villains of the Alicization arc and both are [[PhysicalGod physical gods]]. But while Quinella was a tyrannical ruler of Underworld, Gabriel seeks to invade Underworld and become it’s new ruler. And while Quinella is one of Kirito’s [[ArchEnemy archenemies]] and isn’t an obvious EvilCounterpart, Gabriel is just another EvilCounterpart to Kirito and isn’t one of Kirito’s most personal foes.

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: To Quinella. Both are the main villains of the Alicization arc and both are [[PhysicalGod physical gods]]. But while Quinella was a tyrannical ruler of Underworld, Gabriel seeks to invade Underworld and become it’s new ruler. And while Quinella is one of Kirito’s [[ArchEnemy archenemies]] and isn’t an obvious EvilCounterpart, Gabriel is Just another EvilCounterpart to Kirito and isn’t one of Kirito’s most personal foes.

** His sword as Dark God Vecta looks especially impressive, being a OneHandedZweihander with a cross-guard in the shape of a cross in with a ring around it and a blue jewel imbedded in the pomel. It's also [[spoiler: powerful enough to match Bercouli's Time-Splitting Sword.]]

* CurbStompBattle: Any battle involving him is bound to go in his favor. Case in point, in the first [=BoB=] tournament, he won bringing only a knife and a handgun with him, whilst in the fourth, he won bringing ''nothing'' with him, instead stealing weapons from his opponents.[[spoiler:The only people who were able to stand up to him were Bercouli and Kirito]]. Justified in GGO as he's an experienced soldier in real life and thus can apply real life tactics from the battlefield into the game.

* DarkIsEvil: In contrast to Kirito's DarkIsNotEvil. He plays this more straight than any other villain, being Vecta the darkness based GodOfEvil, as well as having the PowerOfTheVoid.

** The anime features him in Episode 1 of ''Alicization'', as leader of the squadron in GGO fighting against Sinon and the rest of the SAO gang. This is a whole two cours before he's scheduled to properly appear.

* GodhoodSeeker: His end goal is to steal Alice's lightcube to place her in a virtual world of his own design. Afterwards, he plans on kidnapping real world people, killing their physical bodies, and placing their souls in his virtual world too, all so he can manipulate their souls as he sees fit. [[spoiler: He even boasts himself as one during his fight with Kirito.]]

* InvincibleVillain: Gabriel is by and far the toughest out of all the antagonists. Across his appearances, he has been steamrolling over nearly every member of the main cast, even those with super-accounts, whether via proxies such as [=PoH=] or by himself. [[spoiler:Ironically, Gabriel ends up being outclassed by Kirito despite giving him the toughest fight of his life.]] Fittingly, he served as the FinalBoss of the original web novel series.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: He's established to be an uncaring sociopath who sees his soldiers, both in the real world and UW, as disposable pawns. The only time he comes across as sympathetic is his flashback of his ChildhoodFriendRomance with Alicia, and he even seems to be sad that she has to move away and endure a life of poverty. This sympathetic moment is soon negated [[spoiler:when he decides that he doesn't want Alicia to belong to anyone but him, leading him to [[IfICantHaveYou kill her]] and revel in the beauty of her soul. In the end, his "love" for Alicia is really just selfish possessiveness over her soul.]]

* JustAKid: He thinks that Sinon and [[spoiler:Kirito]] are nothing more than just "brats". [[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, the latter is NOT someone who should be taken lightly.]]

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler: Despite his partial obsession with Sinon and that fact that she very clearly pissed him off after destroying his arm and [=XM500=] in addition to charring his face, he decides to cut his losses and take advantage of the fact that she can no longer use Solus' {{Flight}} ability to continue pursuing Alice.]]

* LeanAndMean: As Subtilizer, he has thin build compared to his real life counterpart. He is also arguably the most sadistic and ruthless character in the entire series.

* PromotedToPlayable: He is a playable character in several mobile games.

* BroughtDownToBadass: [[spoiler: Even after Bercouli pulls a HeroicSacrifice takes out his Vecta Avatar, he's still a massive threat even when using the comparatively weaker Subtiliser Avatar due to his powerful Incarnation.]]

* {{Badass in Charge}}: Of both [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Glowgen Defense Systems]] and [[TheEmpire The Dark Territory]]. Gabriel is hands down the most powwerful villain in the entireshow and goes almost unchallenged until he faces Kirito.

* AdaptationalVillainy: As much of a bastard he is in the lightnovels, he actually manages to be worse in the anime, having a penchant for [[spoiler: [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]]]] that was never present in the lightnovels.

** Weird [[ZigZagged Zig Zag]], with two scenes swapping his reactions to certain events. [[spoiler: When he presented Lipia's head to lure out the treasonous general, he actually displayed concerned when Shasta attempted to kill him and turned into a murderous tornado, trying to strategize a way out before determining there is none. Later on in his fight with Bercouli, he's noted to have a completely expressionless face when Bercouli finally kills him with the Uragiri, dying with nary a sound. In the anime, his reactions to both of these are swapped, with him keeping a straight in the face of Shasta's charge yet displaying surprise and even howling in pain when killed by the Uragiri.]]

* CutLexLuthorACheck: He was living a very comfortable life with his wealth and would have had a lot of monetary gain from completing the mission to the NSA to deliver Alice, but he's more interested in capturing her for himself and enjoying her soul, as well as creating his own world using the stolen STL tech where he's basically god.

* ColdSniper: During the [=BoB=] tournament, he shoots his targets with stun bullets from his "Silent Assassin" (a very rare and high-level sniper rifle according to Sinon) before moving in for the kill with his handgun.

* CoolGuns/SniperRifles: His rifle of choice is the [=L115A3=], the British Army designation for the Arctic Warfare Super Magnum sniper rifle. His particular rifle is unique in that it has a custom integrally suppressed barrel akin to the [=AWS=] variant. This is what gives it its unique "Silent Assassin" moniker in-game.

'''Main series''': [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineMajorCharacters Major Characters]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineKazutoKirigaya Kazuto Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAsunaYuuki Asuna Yuuki]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineSuguhaKirigaya Suguha Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineShinoAsada Shino Asada]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineEugeo Eugeo]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAliceZuberg Alice Zuberg]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAincrad Aincrad]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlfheimOnline Alfheim Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineGunGaleOnline Gun Gale Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineUnderworld Underworld]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineIntegrityKnights Integrity Knights]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineDarkTerritory Dark Territory]]) | '''Antagonists''' ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAkihikoKayaba Akihiko Kayaba]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin Laughing Coffin]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou Nobuyuki Sugou]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineQuinella Quinella]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineBosses Bosses]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineOthers Others]]\\

* InexplicablyAwesome: [[AdaptationalBadass In the Anime]], he displays an amazing amount of skill in swordsmanship, in spite of the fact that he mainly played GGO and didn't rely on anything resembling a sword, the closest being his [[KnifeNut Combat Knife]].

* KnifeNut: In the 1st [=BoB=], he's stated to have made a name for himself wielding only a pistol and combat knife. [[spoiler: Said knife is presumably what turned into a sword when he transferred his Subtilizer account to the Underworld.]]
** In the Anime, he used one when he encountered Sinon in the 4th [=BoB=], throwing it at her arm she pulled out her Glock.

* MasterSwordsman: A part of his {{Adaptational Badass}}ery in the anime. Despite primarily handling guns and at best a [[KnifeNut knife]] in GGO, Gabriel proves to be an exceptional swordsman too, managing to overwhelm [[spoiler: Bercoui and later Kirito in melee combat.]]

* SatanicArchetype: His obsession with souls easily parallels the Faustian depictions of Satan, his {{Chessmaster}} abilities parallel some contemporary depictions of Satan as a sophisticated, Machiavellian smooth-talker ''a la'' Music/TheRollingStones's depiction of the Devil from ''Sympathy for the Devil'', and, as Vector, he's a God of Darkness with an EldritchAbomination true form who leads an army of demihumans and monsters like the traditional depictions of Satan. To finish it off, considering that ''Alicization'' was the last arc in the original web novel series and the Book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible, if Gabriel is Satan then Kirito is the Messiah who ultimately defeats Satan in the FinalBattle.

!!!'''Hans Voiced by:''' Creator/YasunoriMatsumoto (Japanese), Ben Lepley (English)
!!!'''Brigg Voiced by:''' Creator/YojiUeda (Japanese), Creator/KellenGoff (English)

* {{Foil}}: To Vassago. See Vassago's folder on [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin this page]] for more details.

* {{Foil}}:
** To Vassago. See Vassago's folder on [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin this page]] for more details.
** To Sugou. Both are {{Mad Scientist}}s who come from privileged backgrounds, and are [[EntitledToHaveYou obsessed with a girl]] including one they were [[BastardBoyfriend betrothed to]]. Both end up using super accounts with godlike powers, and both are {{Godhood Seeker}}s who desire to trap people in virtual worlds. The difference however is Sugou [[AGodAmI declared himself god]] of the world he had stolen, but is firmly dependant on his admin powers and is otherwise [[UnskilledButStrong completely useless when stripped of them]] while [[DirtyCoward being reduced to a blubbering wreck]]. Gabriel by contrast really only needed the Vecta super account to command the Dark Territory, and is otherwise StrongAndSkilled no matter which avatar he uses or world he is in, as his Incarnation is so overwhelmingly powerful that he may very well be a true god when he is in the Underworld. In essence, while their motives and paths are very similar, Gabriel is a far more competent version of Sugou. If Sugou is a false god, then Gabriel is the '' real deal''.
** To Quinella. While both became a PhysicalGod of the Underworld and were {{Mad Scientist}}s, they are otherwise polar opposites. Quinella wanted to preserve her rule over the Human Empire for all eternity, with a war against the Dark Territory or the destruction of the Underworld opposing her interests, while Gabriel actively pushed for the War due to seeing it as a means to acquire Alice and intended to destroy the entire Underworld once he had achieved his goals so he can remake it to his liking. While both are unable to [[TheSociopath understand the concept of love]] their resulting actions are very different, Quinella interprets love as attempting to control everything and making people her obedient dolls, while Gabriel only saw people for the [[YourSoulIsMine delicious souls that resided inside them]] and [[SerialKiller has killed countless people]] to try and satiate his urges. Quinella was a VillainWithGoodPublicity revered as the benign Pontifex of the Human Empire and embodies LightIsNotGood, while Gabriel as Vecta was a GodOfEvil embracing DarkIsEvil and was [[HatedByAll despised by everyone]] and governed solely out of fear and the Taboo Index. Furthermore, both ended up losing their right arm to one of Kirito's friends before facing him in battle, with Quinella transforming her severed arm into a new weapon, while Gabriel manifested a new shadowy arm through Incarnation.

'''Main series''': [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineMajorCharacters Major Characters]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineKazutoKirigaya Kazuto Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAsunaYuuki Asuna Yuuki]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineSuguhaKirigaya Suguha Kirigaya]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineShinoAsada Shino Asada]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineEugeo Eugeo]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAliceZuberg Alice Zuberg]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAincrad Aincrad]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAlfheimOnline Alfheim Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineGunGaleOnline Gun Gale Online]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineUnderworld Underworld]] ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineIntegrityKnights Integrity Knights]]) | '''Antagonists''' ([[Characters/SwordArtOnlineAkihikoKayaba Akihiko Kayaba]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineLaughingCoffin Laughing Coffin]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineNobuyukiSugou Nobuyuki Sugou]], [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineQuinella Quinella]]) | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineBosses Bosses]] | [[Characters/SwordArtOnlineOthers Others]]\\

!!!'''Voiced by:''' Isshin Chiba (Japanese), Jon Allen (English)

* DarthVaderClone: Clad in dark clothes, namely a BadassCape (complete with a [[InTheHood hood]]) and a CoolMask, "Death Gun" sports a VaderBreath as well as a CreepyMonotone voice, [[spoiler:and is related to Kirito by way of having faced him before in Aincrad as part of the Laughing Coffin guild]]. The fact he faces a boy wielding a LaserBlade drives the ''Franchise/StarWars'' homage even further.

* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Death Gun is effectively the series' equivalent to Ghostface from ''Film/{{Scream}}'', being another SerialKiller with a dark robe, mask, voice changer, and an arsenal that includes blades and guns. And like Ghostface, [[spoiler: Death Gun isn't limited to being one person, [[TeensAreMonsters or even an adult]]]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: He has nothing for respect and praise for the ''old'' Kirito of SAO. Though he seems disgusted by how weak the present day Kirito of GGO is.