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The Votan characters of the TV series Defiance outside the main cast:
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Castithans
Skevur
Skevur
Played By: Michael Dyson
An adreno cook working for the Tarrs.
- Butt-Monkey: Something bad happens to him every time he shows up. Granted, he brings a lot of it on himself.
- Character Death: Alak stabs him a dozen times with his father's blade.
- The Dog Bites Back: He tries to blow Stahma up after getting beaten.
- Eye Scream: After Stahma has him beaten up, one of his eyes is hanging out of the socket.
- Jerkass: He treats Alak with no respect and is basically a nuisance.
- No Kill like Overkill: When Alak goes to kill him, Skevur gets free and the boy ends up stabbing him a dozen times in a panic.
- Straight Gay: He displays no stereotypical homosexual traits. Of course, it's unclear what the Castithan attitude is toward homosexuality or if they even have such a label.
Shigustak Kurr
Shigustaknote Kurr
Played By: Domenic Cuzzocrea
A Castithan religious leader opposed to Stahma, and the late Kupack's father.
- Ascended Extra: When he initially appears, he doesn't show his personality or even his face much due to his traditional mask. In Season 2, he becomes Stahma's nemesis for an episode.
- Bullying a Dragon: He strongly opposes Stahma, the most powerful crime lord in Defiance, with threats and insults. Of course, it makes sense from his point of view since he's a rigidly fundamentalist spiritual leader of a patriarchal society.
- Domestic Abuse: To his silent, brow-beaten wife.
- The Fundamentalist: He's one of the more hardline traditional Castithans.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Kurr's got no problem with crime and vice; he just doesn't like a woman being in charge of it.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Quite literally. He winds up hanging from a cleansing rack, framed by Stahma for the murder of three women, including his wife. It's the same cleansing rack he was eager to tie Stahma to, and had previously used to on Elah Bandik.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's extremely chauvinistic, but then, so is Castithan culture in general.
Kupack Kurr
Kupack Kurr
Played By: Kyle Mac
Alak Tarr's main "dudebro" friend, un-named until episode 11.
- Character Death: Nolan shoots and kills him when he plays a Deadly Prank.
- Deadly Prank: He shoots at the Mayor with a paintball gun as a prank, but Nolan mistakes it for a real gun and winds up killing him.
- Unwitting Pawn: Was set up to be shot by Nolan in what looked like an assassination attempt on the Mayor but was just a prank, so he thought.
- Too Dumb to Live: The poor bastard thought it would be a fun idea to pretend to shoot the town's Mayor while she's under protection from dangerous people. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
Elah Bandik
Elah Bandik
Played By: Robert Clarke
A Castithan who has dealings with Datak Tarr.
- Butt-Monkey: In his very first appearance, he almost has his arm broken. From there on, he's never in a good position in life.
- Character Death: He's murdered by Datak Tarr.
- Dirty Coward: Datak accuses him of being this, as he runs from battle. Nolan however disagrees with this, citing that the fact that he volunteered to fight at all is a sign of how brave he is, and sometimes people panic in battle.
- Face Death with Dignity: Despite running from battle earlier, he accepts his Castithan cultural responsibility and merely thanks Datak Tarr for giving him some time with his family, before going to his death.
- Nervous Wreck: He's constantly on the verge of a breakdown, which makes sense considering he's in business with Datak Tarr.
- Slashed Throat: Via Datak Tarr. Notable for the blade being a laser, so the wound seared up.
Jalina
Jalina
Played By: Kelly McCormack
A female Castithan and a servant of the Tarr family.
- Blatant Lies: Wisely lies to Datak.Datak: Do you think I'm some kind of egomaniac?
[beat]
Jalina: ....no. - Character Death: Murdered by a back-alley eye harvester and shortly replaced by Andina.
- Eye Scream: A back-alley doctor harvests her corneas to sell on the black market.
- Happiness in Slavery: She was sold to the Tarrs by her family, but is clearly happy with her life.
- Made a Slave: The Tarrs bought her from her family when she was a child.
- Nice Girl: Always eager to please.
- Undying Loyalty: To the Tarrs. Surprisingly, the Tarrs return this loyalty, and immediately band together to hunt down her killer.
Andina
Andina
Played By: Amy Forsyth
A female Castithan and the newest servant of the Tarr family.
- Beware the Nice Ones: In "Of A Demon In My View", she demands a gun from Datak (who has a habit of killing people who demand things from him) so she can protect Stahma's life if Kindzi breaks in. He gives her one.
- Hidden Depths: She wishes to eventually marry into the family and drink tea with Stahma as equals.
- Killed Off for Real: Charges Kindzi when she breaks into Alak's home, only to be on the receiving end of a Neck Snap.
- Made a Slave: The Tarrs make her a handmaiden after her father is falsely imprisoned for Dierdre Lamb's murder.
- Nice Girl: Certainly sweeter than the ones she serves.
- Replacement Goldfish: For Jalina after her murder.
- Took a Level in Badass: In "Of A Demon In My View"; see Beware the Nice Ones.
Pol Madis
Pol Madis
"I just like killing people."
Played By: Daniel Kash
A weapons developer.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He's refreshingly upfront about his sadism."I couldn't give a Kanga-rat's balls about the Votanis Collective. I just like killing people."
- Character Death: Nolan shoots and kills him to prevent the Earth Republic from taking him alive and giving him the opportunity to kill more people.
- Deadpan Snarker: Extremely so. Every other line is deeply sardonic or mocking.
- Evil Gloating: Madis can't seem to resist smugly throwing his genius in other people's faces.
- Mad Bomber: He's a weapons developer, in fact, Nolan describes him as the weapons developer.
- Manipulative Bastard: In a very short amount of time, he causes a lot of chaos mostly just by tricking people with his sneaky nature.
- Two-Faced: Madis throws an explosive which allows him to escape Braddock, but leaves one side of his face partially scarred.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Yewll is disturbed when Madis claims to be a 'big fan' of her work.
Rahm Tak
General Rahm Tak
"I'm going to kill all the humans and burn the disgusting place to the ground."
Played By: Lee Tergesen
Leader of a Votanis Collective expeditionary force.
- Arc Villain: The main threat of Season 3's first half, after which he dies and Kindzi replaces him.
- Ax-Crazy: He makes Datak look sane and reasonable.
- Braids of Barbarism: Just look at that hair...
- Dead Guy on Display: In one of his many lovely habits, he's known to leave dead bodies strung up to mark his passage.
- Decapitation Presentation: He keeps severed human heads on display in his camp, and later sends his wife's head back to the VC after killing her.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Looks to be the Big Bad for season 3 but gets killed off about half way through.
- Fantastic Racism: Hatred of humanity drives him. It's quite annoying to him that they just didn't all die like the vermin they are when the Votans came to Earth.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's oh-so-pleasant...and then he gets in a mood.
- Four-Star Badass: He's a renowned general in the Votanis Collective, and doesn't shy away from dirty work.
- General Ripper: His human genocide bent is a little much even for the VC, to the point they never actually ordered him to slaughter Defiance. His orders were merely to scout it.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Some decidedly evil ones on his left cheek.
- Happily Married: He has an Irathient wife and two kids back home. At least until she tried to talk him out of his crusade and he killed her.
- Hero Killer: He's responsible for the death of the entire McCawley family, leaving only Pilar.
- I Have Your Wife: He blackmails Datak into betraying Defiance by holding Stahma hostage. When both decide to kill him instead, he anticipates the attempts and reveals that he now has their son, using that to get both of them to do as they're told.
- It's Personal: He had friends at Yosemite, the site which Nolan massacred. It only gets worse when Nolan and Irisa embarrass him by attacking his camp and blowing up his artillery.
- Jerkass: Even without the whole "Ax-Crazy genocidal psychopath" thing, Rahm Tak is a huge dick, which he cheerfully demonstrates by taunting Alak about his dead wife.
- Karmic Death: Vaporized by the stasis net explosion along with the rest of his camp.
- Kick the Dog: Murders Quentin just because he was Rafe's son, and follows up by having his men kill Rafe and forcing Stahma to kill Christie.
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: Dark version: he absolutely loves Earth culture. So much so, that he wants to take it away from the humans and make it his own.
- Knight of Cerebus: The show gets even darker than before when he steps onscreen. No other Big Bad has casually murdered an entire family of main characters for laughs before.
- Oh, Crap!: When he realizes that Datak left a beacon in his severed arm.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Like all the Castithan villains we've seen so far, he's extremely chauvinistic. He treats Stahma like a serving girl, and constantly seems to be one move away from pawing her right in front of her husband. (On the other hand, he'll also point out Datak's lower social standing and act like Stahma's the one who deserves respect, just to be a jerk.)
- Pop-Cultured Badass: Despite his genocidal hatred for humans, he really likes human popular culture, even cheerfully quoting a Johnny Cash song while talking to Datak. In fact, Rahm likes human culture so much, he wants the Votans to assimilate it after he wipes out humanity in his own twisted view of manifest destiny.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He reluctantly works with an Earth Republic turncoat dealing weapons despite his hatred of humans, as it's better to have a healthy supply line than to kill a potential supplier just for being human.
- Red Baron: His viciousness has earned him the title "The Beast."
- Rogue Agent: It's eventually revealed that the VC only sent him on a scouting mission. The mission to destroy Defiance is him acting on his own initiative.
- Slasher Smile: Wears one quite often, but special mention goes to when he orders his men to slaughter hostages in the NeedWant.
Irathients
Sukar
Sukar
Played By: Noah Danby
Leader of the Spirit Riders and Rynn's adoptive father.
- Anti-Villain: A very subdued one and only in that he and his Spirit Riders have lukewarm relations with Defiance. But when push comes to shove, he'll help out against true villains like the rampant Hellbugs and the Volge.
- Ascended Extra: Quite possibly a prototypical one. The character was originally intended to be a one-off but Noah Danby provided so much extra input and development of Irathiant culture behind the scenes that his character became recurring during season one. And then he was suppose to be Killed Off for Real during season one but his praiseworthy performance meant he came back for season two.
- Badass Boast: A quiet one. When Amanda asks him to stop provoking people and assimilate into Defiance, he agrees... then says that when the city inevitably turns on his people, they'll know where all the food and weapons are kept, and fight back much more effectively than last time.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: For all his size, lifestyle, and badass status, he's actually goes against the grain (for his character archetype but particularly for Irathients in general) and is fairly soft spoken and cool headed. But that doesn't mean he won't be the first one on the battlefield.
- The Dragon: He gradually becomes this to an Irzu-influenced Irisa in Season 2.
- Enemy Mine: Sided with Defiance against the Volge. It would become the start of renewed bonds with the city.
- Father to His Men: Cares deeply for his people and those he has given his loyalty to - when one goes down under razor rain, he immediately rushes out of his own car to check on the fallen.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a large scar across his face, though he's only evil in the pilot.
- Hidden Depths: He's a massive, scarred, bike-riding outlaw and scavenger. He's also a well-spoken and responsible leader who values his cultural traditions and loves his surrogate daughter.
- Large and in Charge: One of the biggest characters who isn't a Sensoth.
- Mission from God: After waking up from an acid bath, he believes he's been given one. In reality, nanites from an Ark-brain interface which got lodged in his throat are driving him to save Defiance from an Arkfall, and Sukar can only interpret their commands within his own knowledge of his situation.
- Put on a Bus: Ends up in a coma as of "Goodbye Blue Sky" with little chance he'll recover. There are dormant nanites in his bloodstream, however, and he shows up again at the end of the season.
- Real Men Love Irzu: Many of his actions and motives are drawn from his deep religious beliefs.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- He is willing to make an effort to integrate his people into Defiance, despite still being bitter about the Irathient massacre.
- Later, he signs an agreement with Mayor Amanda to have the land stolen by claimjumpers years ago and sold to McCawley returned to his people but still lease it out to the current residents.
- Religious Bruiser: Sukar is an intimidating and powerful fighter, but also deeply religious.
- Thicker Than Water: Subverted. Despite wanting to protect Rynn, who he sees as an adopted daughter, even when she was committing murder via Hellbug, he considered Irisa's visions a sign from their god that he should help apprehend her (non-lethally, of course).
- Warrior Monk: Rides into battle with his men, but also well-versed in the traditions of his people. He aids Irisa in learning to control her visions.
- Wrestler in All of Us: He busts out several wrestling moves when fighting, including a sleeper hold on Nolan and a chokeslam on Tommy that would make The Undertaker proud.
Rynn
Rynn
Played By: Kaniehtiio Horn & Romy Weltman
One of the Spirit Riders. Sukar took her in after her parents were murdered.
- Anti-Villain: Noble, but villainous.
- The Bus Came Back: After spending some time in the game, she comes back in "Past is Prologue" to kill Irisa in retaliation for Nolan's attack on Sukar. Except she doesn't.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She's a war orphan whose parents were tragically killed.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being willing to wipe out Defiance for the acts of two of its citizens, she rescues Nolan in "The Serpent's Egg" because he risked his life for another. In the game, she teams up with the player to keep a rogue faction of E-Rep soldiers from weaponizing Hellbugs.
- Eye Scream: A back-alley doctor harvests the cornea of her right eye, but Nolan stepped in to rescue her before he could get the other one.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The scar across her left eye, from when her parents were murdered. She also switches between good and evil.
- Improbable Weapon User: She uses Hellbugs to kill her enemies. Points for gruesome creativity.
- Revenge Before Reason: Was willing to sic a Hellbug nest on Defiance in retaliation for her parents being murdered by claimjumpers (whom she had already killed).
- Revenge by Proxy: She reappeared in the second to last episode of season one claiming to be there to kill Irisa to get back at Nolan for leaving Sukar comatose. Later averted as she takes her to the Spirit Riders' camp to tend to her wound.
Mahsuvus Gorath
Mahsuvus Gorath
Played By: Merwin Mondesir
A male Irathient, an employee of the NeedWant and a spy for the Votanis Collective.
- Affably Evil: Despite trying to detonate a nuke in New York, Mahsuvus carries on a very civil conversation with Nolan prior to being tortured. He even says there are no hard feelings between them, accepts that Nolan is just doing what he feels he has to just like Mahsuvus, and even laments that in a different life they could have been friends.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: He withstands it with alarming ease, enduring agony but never breaking.
- Forced into Evil: The Votanis Collective are holding his family.
- In the Back: From Datak's sniper shot.
- The Mole: For the Votanis Collective, within Defiance.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Lampshaded by Amanda during his interrogation session. He specializes in BDSM at the NeedWant, so his tolerance for pain is simply too high for torture to have any kind of effect.
- Villain's Dying Grace: With his last breath, he gives Nolan the location of the nuke.
Cai
Mordecai "Cai" Haipern
Played by: Robin Dunne
A traveling attorney who specializes in Irathient interests. An encounter with Irisa gets him deeply embroiled in the Kaziri's Assimilation Plot.
- Happily Adopted: Raised by Humans in a kibbutz.
- Living MacGuffin: He's the other half of the equation required to shut down the Kaziri.
- Nice Jewish Boy: Despite being Votan by species, he's a faithful Jew and has nearly all the requisite mannerisms.
- Non-Action Guy: He's almost completely useless in a fight, though he steps up in the end.
- Psychic Link: With Irisa, thanks to the Kaziri.
- Reluctant Hero: He just wants to be left alone, but Irzu has other plans.
-
You Look Familiar: Robin Dunne previously played Miko, an ill-fated Adreno cook, in the first season's "A Well-Respected Man." He's familiar even under the Irathient makeup.
Zero
Zero
Played By: Spencer Mac Pherson
A young Irathient male who joins Nolan's volunteer militia during Rahm Tak's incursion into Defiance. He dies tragically along with the rest of the strike force before he even gets to fight.
- The Ace: He's a crack shot with his ancient rifle.
- Friendly Sniper: Probably the nicest kid who can put a bullet through your eye socket from a mile away you're ever gonna meet.
- I Call It "Vera": He named his rifle "Lucy," after a girl he was in love with.
- Jumped at the Call: He's one of Nolan's most enthusiastic volunteers.
- Meaningful Name: "Zero" is a nickname: it's the number of times he's missed something he was aiming at.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Bebe torches him and the rest of the strike force before they even fire a shot.
Indogenes
Ben Darris
Ben Darris
Played By: Douglas Nyback
An adviser and general secretary to Amanda Rosewater.
- Bald of Evil: He's bald, like all Indogenes, and betrayed Defiance to the Volge.
- Back for the Dead: Comes back in the second episode...only to be Killed Off for Real.
- Character Death: He's killed by Rafe.
- Convenient Coma: He falls into a coma before he can give answers on the conspiracy.
- I Have Your Wife: He's forced to betray Defiance because his family is being held hostage.
- Not What I Signed on For: Makes this declaration after being woken up and forced to implement Plan B.
- Suicide by Cop: Tries to goad Rafe into killing him by insulting his dead son, and when that fails jumps up and grabs his gun so Rafe will fire on impulse.
Lev
Lev
Played By: Hannah Cheesman
An Indogene scientist and wife of Meh Yewll. They worked together during the Pale Wars.
- Character Death: During the war she killed herself.
- Dead All Along: 'Lev' is just a hallucination built from Doc Yewll's memories. She died years earlier.
- Deadpan Snarker: It's probably what made Yewll fall in love with her.
- Driven to Suicide: She couldn't handle the guilt of her experiments, and subsequently opened her wrists.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Her attitude to the experiments she helped Yewll perform, and the reason she kills herself.
- Posthumous Character: Lev committed suicide years prior to the start of the series.
- The Reveal: Not only is Lev a hallucination caused by a defective ECO device in Yewll's neck, she's also been hijacked by the Kiziri and tries to get Yewll to join the chosen in their pods.
- Straight Gay: Demonstrates no stereotypical traits.
Bebe
Lieutenant Bebe
Played By: Billy Mac Lellan
Votanis Collective solder and member of Rahm Tak's expeditionary force.
- Body Horror: His face is a mass of burn scars and discolored flesh, so much so that it's hard to even tell what species he is. If Tak hadn't expressly pointed him out as Indogene, a viewer would be hard pressed to figure it out.
- Climax Boss: The last V.C. enemy directly fought and killed by the protagonists before Rahm Tak's demise, and certainly the toughest opponent.
- Deep Cover Agent: He was an "Indo-Sapien," an Indogene spy surgically altered to pass for human. He still has pieces of human skin attached to his face. With an injection, he's able to look completely human, which he uses to infiltrate Defiance and wipe out Nolan's strike force.
- The Dragon: To Tak.
- Hero Killer:
- He's the one who actually delivers the killing blow to Rafe McCawley.
- In "My Name Is Datak Tarr and I Have Come to Kill You," he manages to wipe out Nolan's entire strike force, including Zero. Immediately after, he overpowers and nearly kills Nolan before being killed by Irisa.
- Karmic Death: Brutally stabbed by Irisa immediately after shooting Alak and incinerating Nolan's strike force.
- Suicide Attack: His deep cover mission was supposed to be this. Somehow he survived, albeit with massive scarring.
SPOILER CHARACTER
Indogene Kenya
Played By: Mia Kirshner
A Votanis Collective spy modified to look like and believe she is Kenya Rosewater.
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: When Amanda tries to convince her to say, she puts Amanda in an arm lock, claiming she doesn't want to play house with a human and threatens to break her neck the next time. However, she's shown to have kept a photo of Kenya and Amanda, indicating she did it so Amanda would move on.
- Fake Memories: Not fake, but implanted.
- Tomato in the Mirror: She had no idea she was an Indogene until Nolan helps her put the pieces together.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She's last seen on a train to an unknown location, with only a few months left to live. This is the last we see of her, but her future doesn't look bright.
- Your Days Are Numbered: As a flaw of the process that created her, she only has a few months to live.
Liberata
Bertie
Bertie
Played By: Jessica Nichols
A Liberata maid employed by the McCawley family.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be a bit surly and is not afraid to talk back to Rafe, but she genuinely cares for the family and is delighted when she finds out that Christie's pregnant.
Jered
Jered Kikema
Played By: Jessica Nichols
A male Liberata, a resident of Defiance and a bartender at the NeedWant.
- The Bartender: Of the NeedWant.
- Character Death: Nicky murders him because He Knows Too Much.
- He Knows Too Much: The reason for his death.
Omec
T'evgin
Eksu Tsuroz T'evgin
Played By: Conrad Coates
Commander of the Arkship Tsuroz and Patriarch of the Eksu Clan.
- Acquired Poison Immunity: Thanks to his long life, he's immune to most if not all forms of poison. He implies that there are some things that can kill him, but he's not about to tell Stahma what they are.
- Affably Evil: He's very personable and reasonable; he just intends to conquer Earth and kill and/or eat everybody as soon as he's able. Drops the "evil" part later in the season, and tries to change his conquering plan into one of coexistence.
- Bald of Evil: T'evgin is bald, and he plans on conquering Earth before pulling a Heel–Face Turn and becoming an ally to Defiance.
- Berserk Button: Nothing matters to him more than family. Harm his daughter at your own risk.
- Big Good: After he drops his ambition of conquering Earth in favor of a peaceful plan, he becomes Defiance's most powerful ally and one of the few who can stand in Kindzi's way.
- Blatant Lies: He claims to be the last of his kind and he just wants a new life with his daughter. We viewers know he's lying through his second row of teeth.
- Character Death: Stabbed by Kindzi after having his blood drained.
- Cultured Badass: A skilled warrior and experienced battle commander, and can very easily hold forth on Omec literature and have civilized conversations with Stahma and Amanda.
- Depraved Bisexual: Tells Stahma he's had his way with Castithan boys and girls alike. He even has sex with his own daughter, Kindzi.
- The Dreaded: Omec are this to the Votans by default, but he himself is scary enough to Rahm Tak that he decides that eliminating him is more important than destroying Defiance.
- Heel–Face Turn: He's come to respect the town so much that he's apparently called off his Dread Harvest scheme, and is willing to put his beloved daughter into a coma and lock her up with the other Omec to stop her from rampaging. When the latter doesn't stick and Kindzi becomes a threat once again, his first priority is protecting others — Stahma in particular.
- Hidden Depths: Like all Omec, he's an intimidating brute, but he's actually quite erudite, and even charming. He's also willing to redefine his goal of destroying Defiance, unlike his daughter.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: Kindzi finishes him off with this.
- The Juggernaut: The Omec become Stronger with Age, and by the time he shows up, T'evgin is all but unstoppable. Even after being drained of his blood continuously for several days, he's still more than a match for Kindzi, who only kills him with a cowardly trick.
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: He's got a thing for pancakes. Go figure.
- Long-Lived: The Omec naturally live for quite a long time, and by the time he appears in the series, T'evgin's age can be measured by centuries.
- Pet the Dog: Saves a human family from Rahm Tak's infiltrators. T'evgin had previously made it clear that he didn't consider the conflict with Rahm Tak to be his problem, and Tak's soldiers posed no threat to him, so he had no motive for this than simple kindness.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Under normal circumstances, Defiance would be a buffet, not an ally. But since he needs gulanite and the town could certainly stop him if they really put their minds to it, he has to play nice. Later on, however, he seems to genuinely come to respect the town and ceases his plans for a new Dread Harvest.
- Renaissance Man: A warrior, a scholar, a pretty good cook, and an awesome lover, judging by Stahma's reaction. He's actually called as much in dialogue.
- Stronger with Age: The older an Omec gets, the harder they are to kill. Being "many centuries old," by his own admission, he is immune to poison and implicitly far more resistant to firearms than his much younger daughter. Stahma speculates that a bullet to the head would probably just annoy him; though Datak is willing to risk it, she is not. It takes a vicious stab to the neck to put him down, and even then, only when he'd had most of his blood drained by his daughter. After she takes his strength, she shrugs off multiple bullet wounds, including a shot through the head, without so much as being slowed down.
- Time Abyss: He says he's "many centuries old."
Kindzi
Eksu Tsuroz Kindzi
Played By: Nicole Galicia
T'evgin's daughter and second-in-command.
- Action Girl: Gives Irisa a run for her money.
- Dark Action Girl: Morally questionable at best, and becomes the Big Bad later.
- Ax-Crazy: Much more willing to casually take lives than her father. Her murders in "Ostinato In White" are so brutal that they're initially attributed to wild animals. In the same episode, she uses a sample of Yewll's skin to repeatedly clone, hunt, and kill her; she also reveals her desire to awaken the Omec early and start another Dread Harvest against her father's wishes.
- Bad Boss: One of Kindzi's lieutenants questions her, so she slashes his throat and forces some other Omec to eat his corpse.
- Big Bad: The main threat of the third season after Rahm Tak is incinerated.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Once Stahma starts hanging around, she takes every opportunity to terrorize her.
- Creepy Blue Eyes: Most Omec have light blue eyes, but they're especially creepy on Kindzi.
- Dirty Coward: After being subdued by T'evgin, she begs for mercy and promises to obey him, then stabs him in the throat when he forgives her and lets his guard down.
- Establishing Character Moment: Trying to eat Nolan immediately after waking him up from stasis.
- Evil Is Petty:
- Stabs a child in the eye with a stick because he was poking her with it.
- Pretty much everything she does to Stahma is out of simple jealousy. Kindzi is even willing to eat Stahma's grandson right in front of her, just to spite Stahma.
- While she already hated Stahma, Kindzi later decides to spite Datak (who gave her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech) by hunting down and trying to kill Stahma.
- Fangs Are Evil: In Kindzi's case, definitely.
- Fantastic Racism: Kindzi sees humans and the other Votan races as little more than animals for the Omec to enslave or devour.
- Faux Affably Evil: On the rare occasion that she bothers to be polite or personable, it's completely fake.
- Final Boss: For both season 3 and the entire series.
- Freudian Excuse: T'evgin raised her on tales of bloodshed and promises of revenge against the Votan races, barely even touching on the Omec's rich history of science and culture. This provides a subversion of the standard "Child betrays their racist, evil parent" trope. T'evgin is hundreds of years old; a few decades of hatred aren't that much to him, and fade away when he sees what the Votans and humans have accomplished on Earth. But Kindzi's entire life was filled with nothing but thoughts of bloody conquest.Nolan: What's she want?
T'evgin: Conquest. It is what I promised her. Tales of revenge and bloodshed as bedtime stories... I fear I have failed as a father.
Nolan: Yeah, well, we all make mistakes. - Hero Killer: Murders her father when he tries to stop her from awakening the remaining Omec.
- Hot-Blooded: More so than her father; at one point she complains that he "has too many rules."
- The Juggernaut: After assuming T'evgin's strength; a sniper bullet just pisses her off, and being impaled through the head just leaves her pinned for a while. It takes being torn apart by the engines of her ship to finally kill Kindzi.
- Karmic Death: Nolan stabs her in the head and throws her into the engines of her own ship.
- Male Gaze: Alak can't help but admire the goods in "Where the Apples Fell". T'evgin naturally notices.T'evgin: It's rude to stare.
- Moral Myopia: When Nolan tries to stop the Omec army from waking up, Kindzi describes this as "murder". Kindzi has a pretty steep bodycount in her own right, and she was planning to use this army to conquer Earth.
- Never My Fault: Blames both Stahma and Earth's influence for T'evgin's Heel–Face Turn and his death at her own hands. Both Stahma and Nolan call her on it.
- No Sense of Personal Space: One of her Psychological Warfare tactics on Stahma is to get all touchy-feely, including bathing her. Yeek.
- Parental Incest: Practices and enjoys it with her father. It's apparently Omec tradition.
- Sadist: It's made very clear over the course of her appearances that Kindzi greatly enjoys killing and inflicting pain. The most vivid examples of this are breeding clones of Yewll just to hunt and savagely kill, moving on to citizens of Defiance when this gets boring, and her ordering an enslaved Yewll to impale her own hand with a pickaxe.
- The Sociopath: Kindzi is sadistic, superficially charming, has a very short fuse, and only values others as long as they do as she wants.
- Stronger with Age: An inverse example to her father: she's vulnerable to bullets and can be fought by some of the main cast. After killing her father, she inherits his power.
- Took a Level in Badass: After killing T'evgin and eating his heart to absorb his power.
- The Unintelligible: She only speaks in Kinuk'azz, the Omec language, at first. She eventually switches to English. This is lampshaded at one point when she's arguing in Kinuk'azz with her father, only to be told to switch to English because she "needs the practice".
- Villainesses Want Heroes: Kidnaps Nolan from a VC convoy just because she finds him attractive. Once he sees through her story about working with Irisa to rescue him, however she changes her plans to simply eating him.
- War Hawk: Kindzi is absolutely obsessed with waging war on Earth. Even when it's pointed out that she can't possibly win with only 10,000 Omec against the entire population of Earth, Kindzi stubbornly keeps going.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She gets on her father's case for sleeping with Stahma; not because she disapproves, but because he didn't admit to it until someone else pointed it out.
- Would Hurt a Child: Impales a boy through the eye because he poked her with a stick, and later tries to eat baby Luke just to spite Stahma.
Other
Irzu
Irzu
Played By: Katie Douglas
Irisa: My people have a god called Irzu. He has a path for each of us. Where it takes us is not always where we imagined. But there is a reason. Nolan's people call it fate.
The Irathient god of fate. Many Irathients (Sukar in particular) mention walking "Irzu's path," and consider him a benevolent deity. Irisa is the chosen of Irzu, gifted with the Sight—the ability to see the past, the present, and even limited amounts of the future.
Midway through the first season, he begins appearing to Irisa as a younger version of herself, and plays an important role in the second season.
- All-Loving Hero:
- He loves all life, not just Votan life. His original crew note that this will cause some problems with Earth, as he will try to protect the humans as well.
- Subverted later, when he reveals that his plan is to terraform the world, saving only a chosen few, not including humans. This, however, is actually the Kaziri posing as him.
- Anti-Mutiny: This Irzu is actually the Kaziri AI, fulfilling its original purpose. The keys were taken apart to prevent it from terraforming Earth.
- Brain Uploading: He uses Irisa to download minds to his stores, where he uses nanotech to build them new bodies that can then do the same to others.
- Creepy Child: He spends most of his time in the form of a younger Irisa, engaging in Troubling Unchildlike Behavior.
- Green Aesop: He is horrified at what humans did to their world, and refuses to save them.
- God Guise: As shown in "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", Irzu will impersonate whatever relevant deity he needs to in order to convince others to do as he says.
- Pet the Dog: When Irisa tries to kill herself and is being painfully repaired by her nanotech, Irzu stays behind and sings Irisa's favorite song.
- Sufficiently Advanced Technology: The majority of his miracles can be explained by really really good nanotech. He's actually the AI of a Votan ship, sent to reach Earth thousands of years before the colony ships in order to pave the way for the rest. However, humans had unexpectedly evolved at that point, and his Votan crew knew that they'd advance enough to be a threat by the time the rest of the fleet arrived.
- Villain Override: Okay, "villain" might be pushing it, but the point is that he can take control of those who he's "blessed." He normally uses this to force Irisa to download their minds, since she drags her feet on the issue.
SPOILER CHARACTER
The Kaziri
A powerful ship buried underneath Defiance. It has an advanced AI that poses as the Irathient God of Fate, Irzu.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: It's a highly advanced artificial intelligence that tricks sentient beings into serving it, creating it's own little Noah's Ark so it can start a new world after killing everyone else on Earth.
- Anti-Mutiny: It's just fulfilling its original purpose. The keys were taken apart to prevent it from terraforming Earth.
- Big Bad: For Season 2.
- Brain Uploading: It uses Irisa to download minds to his stores, where it uses nanotech to build them new bodies that can then do the same to others.
- Caught Up in the Rapture: Nolan even describes the Kaziri's plan as a 'Votan Rapture' in that it spares a select few while killing everybody else.
- Creepy Child: It spends most of his time in the form of a younger Irisa, engaging in Troubling Unchildlike Behavior.
- Green Aesop: It is horrified at what humans did to their world, and refuses to save them.
- God Guise: As shown in "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", it will impersonate whatever relevant deity he needs to in order to convince others to do as he says.
- Hostile Terraforming: How it plans to remake the Earth. It's terraforming would kill everyone in the process.
- Kill All Humans: It's intended goal, via Hostile Terraforming.
- Pet the Dog: When Irisa tries to kill herself and is being painfully repaired by her nanotech, the Kaziri stays behind and sings Irisa's favorite song.
- Sufficiently Advanced Technology: The reason the Kaziri can imitate Irzu so well is due to its advanced tech.
- Villainous Breakdown: As Irisa, Cai and Nolan get close to disabling it, the Kaziri gets very nervous and loses it's cool. It ends up tearfully begging Irisa to let it fulfill it's purpose.
- Villain Override: It can control those it infects, or rather, any Votan. It normally uses this to force Irisa to download their minds, since she drags her feet on the issue.
Raiga
Raiga
- Played By: Kevin Shand
The loyal Sensoth servant of the Tarr family.
- Buried Alive: By Datak and Stahma for his betrayal.
- The Brute: For the Tarr family.
- Character Death: Paralyzed and left to die in a cellar beneath Alak's record business.
- Evil Sounds Deep: All Sensoth seem to have deep voices, and he works as an enforcer for a crime boss. He's not necessarily evil, though, just in a business where lacking morality is something of a requirement.
- Hidden Depths: While he might seem like Dumb Muscle, Raiga has more going on in his mind then you might think, as evidenced by his conversation with Stahma regarding the possibility of Datak returning to the fold.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He feared that Stahma's love for Datak would eventually cause her to welcome Datak back into the business, whereupon he and the other grunts would be killed for their betrayal. To that end, he had both of them tied up and delivered to Pottinger with proof that Stahma murdered Kenya, believing Pottinger would solve the problem. Instead, Pottinger ended up letting them go on Amanda's advice, and the two promptly killed Raiga and the rest for turning on them. If he had simply done nothing, Stahma and Datak might never have been able to reconcile their differences, and the fate he feared would have never occurred.
- The Stoic: He doesn't express himself much, other than his open disgust towards Datak.
