Sandbox / Magnificent Bastard Animated Films

I pull one tiny thread, and their whole world unravels into chaos. Glorious chaos.

"He was ruthless... he was dangerous... and as the name implies, very macho! He had a reputation for pulling off heists using only his bare hands! Ah, but sadly, like all the greats, El Macho was gone too soon. He died in the most macho way possible: riding a shark with 250 pounds of dynamite strapped to his chest into the mouth of an active volcano! It was glorious."

— Felonious Gru on Eduardo "El Macho" Perez, Despicable Me 2.

Animated Films will often have over-the-top and fun villains to keep audiences entertained. Here some of the most charming, intelligent, and driven of them all.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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The following have their own pages:

Examples

[[.index]]

• Appleseed
• Code Geass
• Cowboy Bebop
• DC Animation
• Digimon
• Discworld
• Disney
• Dragon Ball
• Fullmetal Alchemist
• Ghost in the Shell
• Lupin III
• Marvel Animation
• Miraculous Ladybug
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• One Piece
• Pokémon
• Scooby-Doo
• Sherlock Holmes
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Venture Bros.
• The Witcher

Individual works:

A - K

• The Addams Family (2019) & The Addams Family 2: Wednesday Addams, reimagined here as a Mad Scientist, retains her stoic charm and quick thinking. Repeatedly coming up with creative ways to kill her brother and wanting to make her own way in the world, Wednesday starts public school, where she revives a bunch of dead frogs to cause a school-wide panic and humiliate an Alpha Bitch. Befriending Parker and eventually imprisoned while Margaux tries to kill her family, Wednesday uses Parker's hairpin to escape and rescues her family, while having Parker film Margaux's freak-out and costing Margaux her show. When Gomez forces her to go on a family trip and enter a pageant, Wednesday uses a bunch of red paint to ruin it. She captures Mr. Mustela, who has been following her family, before dropping him to his death. Being led to believe that Cyrus Strange is actually her father, Wednesday uses Lurch's musical talents to convince a group of bikers to take them to Sausalito and later saves her family from Strange, before using her quick thinking to turn the mutated Uncle Fester back to normal.
• All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: Red is a delightfully devilish demon with designs to upheave the current status of the spiritual realm. A clever trickster who fooled Carface into signing over his soul, Red uses him to steal Gabriel's Horn from Heaven, and even when the initial theft is bungled, Red adapts and quickly turns Charlie and Itchy into his pawns with a kind disguise and charming words. After his machinations land Gabriel's Horn in his waiting paws, Red nearly succeeds in his plan to use it in dragging all dogs down from Heaven and straight into Hell, leaving it a "cat's world, now!" Thoroughly showing Carface exactly how a true villain should operate, Red is a truly felonious feline who masterminds the whole film simply because "it feels so good to be bad."
• Agent Ali: The Movie (2019): Niki steals from the government and other criminals to support the livelihood of her fellow Pinggiran living in Cyberaya's outskirts. She ultimately leads the terrorists targeting Cyberaya's mayor as payback for his mistreatment of her people. In the past, she tries to shoot the government buildings with their own missiles, but Aliya's Heroic Sacrifice stops the attack. She convinces Ali to help her steal the Azurium and weapons she needs to storm Cyberaya with the sake of it being for the Pinggiran, like his mother Aliya aided her before. With her reprogrammed IRIS NEO, she controls surrounding tech and other IRIS NEO wearing agents to kill the mayor. It takes disabling her from the inside once she tries to doom her opponents by exploding herself to defeat her, and she then offers herself to be killed, but is spared instead and allowed a second chance.
• Ah! My Goddess: The Movie (2000): Celestine, the Big Bad of the film, is a powerful God and mentor of Belldandy. Becoming dissatisfied with the world as it exists, Celestine tried to rebel against Yggdrasil. After being freed from his imprisonment, Celestine erases Belldandy's memories of Keiichi Morisato with a virus to gain access to Yggdrasil's system, in truth manipulating Belldandy and Keiichi so he may hijack Keiichi's body and destroy the entire system, along with the world so he may force a new one free of suffering to be created.
• An American Tail: Fievel Goes West: Cat R. Waul lures dozens of mice families to Green River on the promises it is a peaceful frontier where cats and mice live in peace. Waul has his cats put on a facade of civility to convince the mice to help them build up Green River for them as a labor force, and then plans to kill them all once the cat saloon is complete. Though Fievel and his friends defeat Waul and send him off on a train, in the animated series Waul returns to Green River, and despite his lack of resources continues scheming to exploit or eat the mice however he can manage, becoming Fievel's Arch-Enemy who almost gets his jaws around him more than once. Although he's a remorseless predator, Cat R. Waul is effortlessly erudite and Affably Evil, even treating Tanya with genuine decency and respect during the first part of the movie.
• The Animatrix:
  • "Program": Kaiser is a human rebel who puts his recruits through grueling simulations to test their mettle. After Cis chooses the red pill, Kaiser has a simulated Love Interest try to sway her into betraying the team, congratulating her on passing when she "kills" the man, even laughing off her punching him in the face in a rage.
  • "A Detective Story": While evading the machines, Trinity scouts for humans with the willpower to learn the truth of the simulation. After one is driven to insanity, Trinity draws in protagonist Ash and debugs him but has to fatally wound him when he's taken by an Agent, complimenting his strength before escaping her pursuers.
• The Bad Guys (2022):
  • Mr. Wolf, leader of the Bad Guys, exploits society's negative reputation of him and his friends to commit heists. A dedicated planner who masterminds the heists, while making sure they're as frantic as possible in order to make them more fun, when the plan to steal the Golden Dolphin lands him and his friends in jail, Wolf makes a deal with Professor Marmalade to become good in order to gain society's trust before resuming his gang's thefts. Growing to enjoy being good despite his friends' wishes, upon being betrayed and framed by Marmalade for stealing a prized meteorite, Wolf writes up notes for Diane Foxington to steal everything in his base save for one push-pop, knowing that it will get the cynical Mr. Snake to turn good and help him defeat Marmalade. Saving his friends from death, while also ensuring Diane's past as the Crimson Paw remains a secret, Wolf turns himself and his friends in afterwards, having successfully reformed as good guys.
  • Mr. Snake, Wolf's best friend and expert safe cracker, is a selfish cynic who eventually shows how cunning he can really be. Pretending to betray his friends and work for Professor Marmalade in his plan to mind control guinea pigs into stealing $1 billion worth of charity money, Snake gets Marmalade to hand him his mind control helmet, using it to quickly control the guinea pigs into swapping the stolen meteorite with Marmalade's lamp replica, later having it explode inside the professor's mansion and getting him convicted of theft.
  • Ms. Tarantula, aka "Webs", is a skilled hacker able to crack into anything. Having been taught through experience and YouTube videos, Tarantula uses her skills to assist Wolf in his heists, from changing traffic lights to red to destroy pursuing police cars, to breaking through a security system designed specifically to block her from hacking it.
  • Diane Foxington, well-respected governor of Los Angeles, is actually the Crimson Paw, a legendary thief who previously stole the Zumpago Diamond twice out of boredom. Turning good as a way to atone for her life of crime, while keeping her past a secret, Diane shows she's still got it when she helps the Bad Guys escape prison by beating up several guards, and even assists them in their plan to stop Professor Marmalade with a variety of gadgets and gizmos. Ultimately helping the Bad Guys reform, Diane joins them in whatever caper they've got next.
• Beowulf (2007): Grendel's mother is an ancient being who bore Grendel to King Hrothgar to tie him to her land forever. Upon her son's death at Beowulf's hands, Grendel's mother seduces Beowulf, inspiring him to tell a false story about killing her to gain kingship while she bears his child; a golden-skinned man who becomes a mighty dragon. Using her son to ravage the kingdom and kill Beowulf, Grendel's mother ends the film about to seduce Beowulf's probable successor Wiglaf and continue the cycle.
• The Book of Life: Land of the Forgotten ruler Xibalba grows bored of his reign and makes a wager for their kingdoms with the Land of the Remembered ruler La Muerte, concerning a Love Triangle between Manolo, Joaquin and Maria, Xibalba betting on Joaquin winning Maria's heart and Le Muerte on Manolo. Disguising himself as a beggar, Xibalba gives Joaquin a medal to make him immortal; later causes Maria to fall into a coma during Manolo's attempt at a heartfelt confession; and leads Manolo to his death. Though outed for his cheating, Xibalba then creates a new bet with Manolo having fight against all the bulls his bull fighting family fought in the past and gracefully accepts his defeat after he does so, honoring his deal and reconciling with La Muerte.
• Bubble: The unnamed leader of the Undertakers/Morticians uses underhanded tactics and superior technology to always win in parkour matches and gain supplies, while streaming their stunts to become popular with the outside world. Taking an interest of acquiring the Blue Blazes’ ship for her crew, the leader orchestrates Makoto’s kidnapping to force the Blue Blazes to bet their ship and compete against them. The leader would have her teammates lure the Blue Blazes to a bubble vortex, getting a massive lead against them and nearly winning the competition. Despite having lost the Blue Blazes, The Leader lends her gear to them so they could reach the giant vortex appearing in Tokyo before it destroys everything.
• Castle in the Sky: Captain Dola is a tough-as-nails, boastful pirate who pillages the skies for wealth and treasures beyond compare with her own family for crew. Having learned of the existence of a necklace capable of leading one to the lost, floating city of Laputa, Dola stages on attack on a military escort blimp, tearing through the defenses and only losing the necklace when the young girl Sheeta slips away with it. Tracking down Sheeta through use of disguises and allying with her friend Pazu to rescue her from Colonel Muska, Dola recruits the children to her crew and uses them as guides to find Laputa for herself. Even when caught by Muska's men, Dola escapes with Pazu's help, imparts a useful weapon to him in return, and goes on to loot Laputa for as many riches as her crew can carry, walking away from the adventure immensely rich and having gained the friendship of Sheeta and Pazu for her gruff, yet lovable, maternal nature.
• City Hunter movies:
  • .357 Magnum: Colonel Johann Friedrich von Helze, "The Red Grim Reaper", is Nina Shutenberg's long-lost father, and a clever, soulful assassin working for the East Galliera Intelligence Agency. Once in love with pianist Sofia Shutenberg, Helze used his relationship to secretly carry out his hits, only to be driven away from his future family by Sofia's father Klaus. Tasked by Ambassador Bondal to acquire documents that could expose his shady plans, Helze kills Mr. Kilhiman to prevent a fake assassination attempt as he easily steals the case containing the documents. Hired to kill Nina to acquire the rest of the evidence, Helze does what he can to prevent those from killing her, even getting Ryo and City Hunter to save her from a kidnapping. Freeing a captured Klaus and Kaori from Bondal's clutches, Helze later makes a deal with Ryo to fake his death during a duel, just so he can remain by Nina’s side and make up for the last twenty years he's been away from her.
  • Goodbye My Sweetheart: "The Professor", Emi's nameless brother, is a terrorist who waged war against the entire world after being left to die in the Gulf War. Killing his commanding officer afterwards, the Professor heads for Shinjuku with intent to hold the entire district hostage for 10 billion yen. Breaking the convicts Satoru and Tatsuoka out and recruiting them by proving his strength, the Professor has them craft bombs to be placed over Shinjuku, making the district’s new train system act as the trigger to activate the explosives. Using the yen as a distraction by calling out its location and having the cops trampled by a mob of civilians, the Professor kills Satoru just as he's about to disarm the train bomb. Shot by Ryo in a duel, the Professor uses his final breath to request Emi to smile, requesting his sister's happiness to be the final thing he sees before he dies.
• Coonskin: Brother Rabbit starts out as a simple rabbit who travels to Harlem with his friends Brother Bear and Preacher Fox. Upon tricking con artist Simple Savior into letting him go and killing him after exposing his revolution as a scam and stealing his money, Rabbit finds that he has the chance to take over all of Harlem's crime rackets. Seeking this position by taking out all potential obstacles, Rabbit starts with the racist, homophobic cop Managan, having him drugged, put in blackface and a dress to break his sanity, and then killed by police during a rampage. With the Godfather and his sons up next, Rabbit works with Fox to trick Bear into becoming the mob's boxer and promises to show up to a match, only to entangle the family in a tar baby trap and blow them all up. Rabbit ends the story the king of Harlem's underworld, proving to be as smart and mean as can be.
• Despicable Me:
  • Dr. Joseph Albert Nefario is the brilliant Mad Scientist who works alongside Felonious Gru in his villainous escapades. Assisting Gru in most of his greatest schemes through use of Nefario's strategic and technically sound mind, Nefario constructs cookie robots, a massive rocket ship out of scrap metal, and other ingenious inventions while steering Gru into staying on the path of evil. Eventually growing to care for Gru's adopted children, Nefario helps Gru save them repeatedly from harm, and even when Nefario betrays Gru and joins with El Macho to help him dominate the planet, Nefario returns to Gru's side when El Macho threatens Gru and the girls, Nefario taking down El Macho personally and reuniting with Gru as allies once more.
  • Despicable Me 2: Eduardo "El Macho" Perez is a legendary supervillain famous for being ruthless, dangerous and, as the name implies, very macho. Faking his death to get to evade his enemies, he returns twenty years laters where he plans to create an army to help him conquer the world: creating his army by stealing a secret laboratory from the Arctic Circle; recruiting Dr. Nefario and having him create the mind-controlling mutagen PX-41; and kidnapping the Minions to experiment on, using the PX-41 to bring them under his control. El Macho also offers the retired super villain Felonious Gru an opportunity to rule by his side, but when Gru refuses to, El Macho kidnaps Gru's Love Interest, Lucy Wilde, and holds her hostage to keep Gru from interfering before drinking the PX-11 to gain monstrous strength in his attempt to kill Gru.
  • Despicable Me 3: Dru Gru is Felonious Gru's eccentric billionaire twin brother with a giddy love for villainy and desire to continue their father's evil legacy. Dru effortlessly charms Gru's entire family to distract them while he manipulates Gru into training him in villainy, and even though their initial heist goes off horribly thanks to Dru's inexperience, Dru comes in clutch to save the day and personally take down Balthazar Bratt's Humongous Mecha when it threatens the world. Though apparently joining Gru afterwards, Dru rallies the Minions under his banner and steals Gru's own technology to become his own villain, going on to face off with Gru for many heists to come.
  • Minions:
    • Herb Overkill is the laidback, swaggering husband of the world's greatest villain Scarlet, and plays a key role in her years of success with his technological genius. Outfitting Scarlet with every sort of weapon and tool she could ever need, Herb's skills are so useful that he even successfully supplies the Minions with such good gadgets that they pull off a heist for the Overkills handily. Designing Scarlet's coronation dress with defensive and offensive capabilities that save her life and make her a massive threat in the climax, Herb maintains a chill, friendly attitude the whole film, never holding any real malice towards anyone he goes up against, simply working with Scarlet because he loves her and enjoys goofing around.
    • Walter and Madge Nelson are a pair of successful supervillains who raise their children to be as skilled and dangerous as them. Walter and Madge make family trips out of bank robberies and high security museum infiltration, doing such a good job in ripping the places off that even their infant son Binky becomes a deadly villain in no time. Genuinely befriending the Minions and offering them advice in villainy, the Nelsons are the only bad guys who refuse to ally with Scarlet Overkill in hunting the Minions, urging their friends to escape.
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru: Wild Knuckles is the elderly founder of the Vicious 6, and shows that despite his age, he's still one of the world's greatest villains. Having lead the 6 to successful crime for decades, Knuckles survives the betrayal by his time and begins scheming to pay them back for their treachery. Knuckles kidnaps Gru in an attempt to claim the Zodiac Stone, and though this fails, Knuckles takes on a mentorship role to Gru and uses him to rip off the Bank of Evil. After seemingly sacrificing himself to help Gru take down the Vicious 6, Knuckles reveals he faked his demise and escapes to continue his flourishing career in evil.
• Epic (2013): Mandrake is the darkly charismatic leader of the Boggans who's striving to have the Rot overrun the forest—ruling it alongside his son Dagda. Orchestrating a mass assault during the Pod's ceremony, Mandrake manages to also murder Queen Tara during the attack. Stealing the Pod from Nim's Tree, Mandrake intends on using it to usher in a new age for him to rule—later interfering with the Pod blooming by having his forces blot out the moon and almost coming within a hair's width of succeeding his goal and having the forest be held within his grip.
• Fist of the North Star 1986 anime film (English dub only): Raoh is the oldest and the strongest of Hokuto Brothers. Declaring himself to be the Fist Of The North Star, after witnessing Kenshiro being easily defeated by Shin, Raoh effortlessly kills his adoptive father Ryuken and begins gathering a massive army to conquer the world ravaged by nuclear war. Calling himself "King Raoh", Raoh quickly and effectively defeated many armies and martial artists, conquering and subjugating most of the world, until Kenshiro is the only one left as who can oppose him. Imprisoning Julia, Kenshiro's bride, to lure Kenshiro out, Raoh immediately realizes that Kenshiro's allies were inside his city when he sees Julia holding a flower in her cell. Forcing Rei to come out, Raoh easily counters his ultimate technique and kills him, then goads Kenshiro into battle and emerges victorious, only stopping himself from killing Kenshiro, out of respect for Lin's bravery, which reminded him of Ryuken's teachings and causes him to leave to visit his old master's grave and pay his respects.
• Flushed Away: Rita Malone is the captain of the Jammy Rodger and Roddy's eventual Love Interest within the movie. Rita has shown herself to have all sorts of tricks up her sleeve, often outsmarting whatever henchmen the Toad sics on her with wit and skill. While she does have a really rocky start with Roddy, having gotten him in trouble with the Toad's henchmen by lying about him being a professional jewel thief and stealing her ruby in order to divert the Toad's henchmen away from her and hide the real ruby, this nearly getting Roddy's head crushed by a nutcracker Spike had which while not something Rita was explicitly aware of is something she knew was happening right in front of her and doing nothing to stop it as it was happening, and also attempting to leave him to the Toad's henchmen as she escapes, she does end up warming up, starting off by accepting an offer he made to get her another ruby in exchange for her getting him home and winds up developing a romantic bond with him in the process while effectively proving to be a heroic character by saving Roddy and her from the Toad's henchmen and assisting Roddy in saving all of Ratropolis from being drowned by a flood that the Toad summoned in.
• Godzilla: The Planet Eater: Metphies is an Exif who serves as the archbishop of their religion. Using his status as a colonel of the United Earth Military to convert numerous people on board the Aratum into his religion, he would mold one of them, hero Haruo Sakaki, into his own personal weapon against Godzilla by exploiting Haruo’s hatred for the beast. Leaking Haruo information about Godzilla, he sent him and a squadron down to Earth to kill the beast, before convincing Haruo to turn against Mulu-elu Galu-gu when the latter’s plans to assimilate the Earth with Mechagodzilla’s nanometal interferes with Metphies' own plans for the planet. After saving Earth from Mulu-elu and Mechagodzilla, Metphies persuades many of the survivors into helping his cause, having them summon Ghidorah — an Eldritch Abomination that destroyed the Exif homeworld — to the planet by telling them it could destroy Godzilla. When Haruo and Miana learn of Metphies' intentions to sacrifice Earth to Ghidorah, Metphies subjects them to mind breaking visions and hallucinations to prevent them from stopping him. Only losing to Mothra’s sudden intervention and Haruo gaining the determination to resist him, Metphies proves that with his intellect and charisma alone he can become a threat on par with the King of Monsters.
• Harlock: Space Pirate: The titular Captain Harlock himself was cursed with immortality as he witnessed the destruction of the planet Earth and in his grief desires to eradicate the universe and allow life to start over. Plotting against the wicked Gaia government, Harlock purloins warheads and deceives all around him to plant the weapons in strategic places, ostensibly allowing him to rewind time and fix the past, swaying hero Yama over with his natural charisma and keeping all in the dark of his true desire to craft a new universe. Only foregoing his plan out of his genuine affection for Yama, Harlock departs after Yama refuses to go through with his destructive plan and allowing the people of Gaia to know the true about their government, also leaving Yama his ship the Arcadia and mantle of "Harlock" as well.
• Hilda and the Mountain King: Trundle the Mountain King is a disgraced ruler of Trolls, hellbend on reuniting with his mother Amma, buried underneath the city of Trolberg. Hundreds of years ago, he was able to unite majority of his kind to attack the city, but was defeated by pacified Trolls and imprisoned. In the present, when now-Troll Hilda accidentally stumbles upon his prison, he manipulates her into freeing him and bringing him his eye back. Once that's done, he wastes no time in reassuming his goal by first destroying belltowers, then having his brother restrained and lastly allowing himself to be killed to finally provoke Amma to rise up. A master of physiological warfare, who only does what he deems necessary for his goal, Trundle was ultimately successful in reuniting Amma with her children, even if not the way he wanted.
• Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers:
  • Dr. Peter Tezla is the scientist who sends drivers into the racing realms to prevents the evil Racing Drones from gaining the means to destroy humanity. Tezla often prioritizes the technology and knowledge that goes to the winners of the races over the safety of his drivers but does truly care for them, suffering a great deal of stress due to fear that he'll fail to stop the Drones. He constantly lies to his drivers about how much danger they face but also performs well at motivating them when they are demoralized. Tezla also excels at deducing others' plans and intentions. Tezla is willing to enter the realms himself to help the drivers in times of need, despite retaining severe physical injuries from his last encounter with the Racing Drones. When his headquarters is attacked by the Racing Drones, Tezla gives Vert the means to escape while not trying to escape with Vert. In the climax, he attempts to destroy himself and the Drones in an explosion while his allies escape and is deeply distraught when his Robot Buddy does so instead.
  • Major Jack Wheeler is the lead driver for the Silencerz, a group of hi-tech government agents who race, fight, and manipulate Tezla's drivers and the evil Racing Drones alike while trying to claim the prizes of the realms. While refusing to be an ally to the heroes, Jack does advise Vert to quit whatever he is currently dangerous if he fears for his safety, commenting how their jobs force them to choose between things "When both of them mean everything to you." As the series progresses, he and his team start saving their human rivals from the Racing Drones attacks on occasion. They are the victors of many racing realms due to their superior technology and strategies, both before and after the other factions even know they exist. Largely due to his efforts, the Silencerz end the series with all of the potent technology in their hands and Vert as their prisoner whom they attempt to recruit into their gang.
  • Gig is Dr. Tezla's robotic assistant and confidant in his campaign to unlock the secrets of the racing realms and keep the Racing Drones from triumphing. Gig is secretly a spy for his original creators, the Silencerz, giving them important information and technology without ever being suspected by anyone at Tezla's headquarters. Even when Lani discovers Gig's allegiance to the Silencerz during a meeting between the robot and Major Wheeler, Gig assures her that she's in no danger of being killed as a witness. After being captured by the Racing Drones, he pretends to be a docile coward before incapacitating a guard to help Tezla and Lani escape. He insists on taking Dr. Tezla's place when the scientist prepares to commit a Heroic Sacrifice, spreads a warning for the humans on both sides to escape the blast radius, and trades some wistful, friendly words with Vert over the radio before carrying out his sacrifice.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas! movies:
  • 1966 special: The Grinch is as mean and scheming as his original counterpart. Tired of all the noise the Whos make on Christmas, The Grinch decides to steal it, disguising himself as Santa Claus and his dog Max as a reindeer to haul the sleigh he will use to arrive at Whoville. There, The Grinch steals all the decorations, presents, and food in all the houses without waking anyone other than the little girl Cindy Lou Who, for whom he crafts a lie to send her back to bed. Once having finished, The Grinch takes the sleigh with everything stolen to the top of Mount Crumpit to throw it into the abyss, until he discovers that the Whos are still able to celebrate Christmas even without all their stuff, understanding that Christmas means more than that. The Grinch realizes the wrongness of his actions and, with Max, saves the sleigh from falling, returning everything back to the Whos to celebrate Christmas with them.
  • 2018 movie: The Grinch once again has his cleverness on full display despite being less malevolent than his other counterparts. Aiming to steal Christmas with style, the Grinch analyzes the houses of the Whoville denizens to factor in the time needed to steal the Christmas decorations in one fell swoop, and after willingly allowing a reindeer to return to its family, solves it by offering his dog Max the role. Realizing the error of his ways, the Grinch returns everything he had stolen to the Whos and earnestly apologizes for his actions before being invited to a Christmas dinner.
• Howl's Moving Castle: Madame Suliman is a court wizard and the eccentric Howl's former mentor. Knowing of Howl's cowardly and self-destructive path, Suliman utilizes a war to ensure he comes to her castle to speak to her, using her magic to turn the evil Witch of the Waste to her true age and immediately ending her threat. Upon meeting Sophie, Suliman effortlessly deduces that she and Howl are in love, before showing that she had already prepared for Howl's arrival and nearly trapping him then and there. When Howl escapes, Suliman launches a pursuit upon him. Even after Sophie and Howl's narrow escape, Suliman continues to put plans into action to catch the two, hoping to turn Howl back to a good path. Coercing Sophie's mother into delivering a Peeping Bug to the house, Suliman sends her minions after the group. When Sophie saves Howl and he changes his ways, Suliman decides to end the war, content that Howl's learned his lesson.
• Ivan Tsarevich And The Grey Wolf 4: Anak-Krakatau is the skilled agent of the Queen Cobra and the true force behind Paolo. Hiding herself away in a box, Anak-Krakatau attempts to assist Paolo into getting into the finale to achieve her plan. Upon Paolo's failure, Anak-Krakatau quickly arranges for the kidnapping of Vasilisa to gain singing prowess from the oriental monarch Ali. Reaching the finale, Anak launches her plan of hypnotizing everyone watching and conquering the world for the snakes, coming within inches of victory.
• Killer Bean Forever:
  • Vagan, codename formerly "Dark Bean", was one of the Shadow Agency's most efficient beans who grew tired of their continued fall into corruption before leaving to work alone. Joining forces with Cappuccino, he manages his weapons department, collecting information from every sale to find out who to target next. After defeating two Shadow Beans who were sent to kill him, Vagan then has Killer Bean sent after him who he is nearly able to ambush and kill in one of Cappuccino's abandoned warehouses. Later Vagan is able to get the best of Killer Bean and knock him unconscious before the latter breaks out and ends up in a standoff with Vagan. After explaining his motives, he catches Killer Bean in a brief moment of falter and though losing the stand off he accepts his fate and gives Killer Bean some haunting last words.
  • Jet Bean is a master of martial arts and one of the top Shadow Beans in the employ of the Shadow Agency. Contacted by the Agency to snuff out Killer Bean in Beantown, Jet Bean heads to his new target, but not before thrashing a restaurant's staff for attacking him in retribution for his immense bill, which Jet Bean nonetheless promises to pay back once he finishes his current task. Jet Bean manipulates two police officers into bringing him right to Killer Bean at a police station, demonstrates his intolerance for racial slurs when he kicks a racist cop across a room for insulting him, and utterly decimates an entire squad of cops in his way. Jet Bean gives Killer Bean the toughest fight of his life, even letting his enemy use guns while Jet Bean remains unarmed, and though he is ultimately killed, Jet Bean remains stoic and uses his last words to promise Killer Bean that there's more suffering to come in his life.
• Klaus (2019): The titular Klaus, originally a jolly toymaker, grew to become a grouch after the death of his wife Lydia. Residing in the far corner of Smeerensburg, after noticing the new postman Jesper Johansson, Klaus forces him to deliver presents to the town's children every night, having him risk his life to bring happiness to the kids, all without being noticed. Knowing that the head Krum and Ellingboe are out to stop him from delivering toys on Christmas, Klaus, with the help of the teacher Alva, builds a second sleigh with false presents without telling Jesper this, having him risk his life to protect the fake presents while getting him to admit his faults. Klaus ends the movie reuniting with Lydia in the afterlife, becoming the magical Santa Claus in the process, while still taking time out of his schedule to visit Jesper every Christmas.
• Kung Fu Panda:
  • Master Oogway is a wise old tortoise who founded the Jade Palace and current Furious Five for the purpose of protecting the Valley of Peace. Having turned from his conquering ways of the past following kindness he was shown, Oogway has trained Shifu and assembled the Furious Five from all corners of China, putting them through rigorous tests of physicality and character both to prove their worth. In the events of the first film, Oogway chooses the seemingly useless, untrainable Po to be the new Dragon Warrior, seeing a spark of potential in the panda that proves correct when Po defeats the powerful Tai Lung and becomes the new protector of the Valley of Peace. Oogway's choosing of Po is shown to be even more brilliant in the third film, in which it is revealed Oogway orchestrated Po reuniting with his supposedly dead panda tribe so he could learn Chi and stop Oogway's old rival Kai when he inevitably returned.
  • Kung Fu Panda 4: Zhen is a wily thief who proves herself to be far more cunning and complex than the majority of Po's allies. Introduced trying to steal Po's staff from the Jade Palace, Zhen quickly twists things in her favor even after she's been arrested by offering Po advice and assistance in tracking down the villainous Chameleon. Though playing as Po's partner through their journey, Zhen reveals it was a ploy to lure him into the Chameleon's clutches and steal his staff, as Zhen is the Chameleon's top student. However, as Zhen comes to terms with her genuine kinship with Po and tires of her abuse at the Chameleon's hands, she betrays her master and amasses an army of fellow thieves to lay siege to the Chameleon's lair, giving Po the ability to escape near-death. Zhen then works with Po to defeat the Chameleon once and for all, and earns herself the title of the new Dragon Warrior.

L - W

• The Legend of Hei: Feng Xi lead a group of Elfins who wanted to live in a world without humans. His previous homes were industrialized, and desiring Godhood to make such a world exist, Feng Xi realizes the power young Luo Xiao Hei has and takes him under his wing, offering him a home with his gang of Elfins. After being forced to leave Hei behind, Hei is adopted by Wuxian, a spirit, forcing Feng Xi to get informants to talk through his sheer charm, then Feng Xi sends his minions after them. During the struggle, Feng Xi decides to kidnap Hei and drains him of his Dimension power, leaving the young cat demon comatose. After a climatic battle with Wuxian in Xiao Hei's Dimension he created, Feng Xi easily defeats Wuxian despite Wuxian being the better fighter. Xiao Hei realizes he was wrong to hate humans and trust Feng Xi, wakes up revealing he has two Dimensional powers. Wuxian and Hei work together to defeat Feng. Offering him a chance to redeem himself by living in a world with humans, Feng Xi instead commits suicide by falling off a tree he created and burying his own body.
• LEGO movies:
  • The LEGO Batman Movie: The Joker is Gotham's greatest villain, opening the movie by uniting every single supervillain in the city under his leadership and executing a plan to blackmail the mayor into accepting his rule. Heartbroken at Batman's refusal to acknowledge him as his Arch-Enemy, Joker surrenders himself and his minions to Barbara Gordon and tricks the paranoid Batman into banishing him to the Phantom Zone. Once there, he convinces the convicts to assist him in his revenge scheme, having Harley steal the Phantom Zone Projector to release them all onto Gotham. Giving Batman one last chance to say "I hate you", Joker sadly acknowledges that he'll never change and decides to move on, banishing him to the Phantom Zone. After Joker successfully sets off a bomb to destroy Gotham, Batman is finally forced to admit to their rivalry, with a grateful Joker helping undo the destruction he caused.
  • The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part: Rex Dangervest is the evil, time-traveling Emmet Brickowski from the future who seeks to break the LEGO world. Desiring revenge upon his former friends for not saving him from under the dryer, Rex constructs a Time Machine spaceship to travel back in time, pick up a crew of raptors, and rescue his past self from the accident that got him stuck there in the first place. Presenting himself as the cool brotherly mentor and exploiting the poor communication on everyone's part, Rex successfully manipulates Emmet to ignore his kind heart and use his anger to break the wedding of Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi and Batman, thus bringing forth Ourmamageddon upon the LEGO world. When Emmet realizes the truth and rejects Rex's teachings, Rex throws him under the dryer and tries to break his child-like spirit to ensure that he'll become just like Rex himself. After being thwarted by Lucy, who saves Emmet and destroys Rex's time machine, Rex calmly admits defeat and wishes Emmet to be a better man than him as he fades from existence.
• The Little Panda Fighter: Polaris is a retired fighter and owner of the Bear Bar Box boxing club. Fed up with business doing poorly due to reigning champ Teddy Thunder always winning, and being unable to fight himself without losing his club, Polaris challenges Teddy while disguised, giving the crowd a good fight and beating him without anyone being the wiser. After he's mistaken for Pancada due to a laundry incident shrinking his black bodysuit, Polaris lets him in on his scheme to fight in secret, content with his employee taking the glory. When a guilty Pancada threatens to expose Polaris if he doesn't let him fight Teddy for real he agrees to train him. After Pancada loses, Polaris reveals that he knew Pancada wouldn't win and bet all of his money on Teddy, knowing that everyone else would bet on Pancada, only training and encouraging him to ensure he wouldn't chicken out. By the time he's found out, Polaris had already skipped town with all of his winnings to retire, giving Pancada the club for him to turn into a dance studio.
• Madagascar:
  • The Penguins—Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private—are a quartet who balance ingenuity with Comedic Sociopathy. During the first film, aiming to return to Antarctica, the Penguins escape their zoo confinement and take over the ship freighter to help them navigate to Antarctica. Disappointed with the outcome, the Penguins head to Madagascar and aid with the saving of Marty from the feral Fossa. After their plane crashes along with the heroes in Africa, the Penguins devise a scheme to build a more adept and reinforced one— robbing several tourist groups of their vehicles through ploys, leaving them stranded. Aiding the heroes with rescuing Alex from the humans, the Penguins then have the new plane ram the dam they had created, stopping the water shortage within the animal's reserve. Heading to Monte Carlo and gathering a huge amount of spoils, The Penguins aid the heroes to escape the villainous Captain DuBois. During the film's climax, the Penguins initiate "Operation Afro Circus" to save the heroes from DuBois, resulting in her and her cronies being defeated and shipped off to Madagascar. After casually infiltrating Fort Knox for Private's birthday, the Penguins end up against a scheme by the mastermind Dave who's out to rid the world of penguins—with them ending triumphant. With an incredible amount of loyalty to each other but a comedically callous regard for everyone else, the Penguins are the ultimate Wild Card of the series.
  • Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: Nana is a seemingly innocuous old lady who loses her unpleasant demeanour from her previous appearances but proves herself to be one of the toughest characters within the series. After the Penguins rob her tourist group's jeep, Nana heads into the woods to avoid being eaten by animals where she meets other stranded groups. Rallying the humans to become survivors, Nana has them be able to create an inhabitable land for them—building a dam to conserve water and having the villagers hunt animals for food. When the humans capture Alex, Nana almost has him cooked to be eaten, commending the other survivors for the capture. After attempting to shoot both Alex and Zuba after their performance—noting it to be beautiful—Nana stares down the plane as it comes to crash into the dam with no fear. Surviving the hit and noticing Makunga holding her handbag, Nana beats the Smug Snake and leaves the film dragging him by the ear.
• Megamind: Metro Man was once the defender of Metro City and Arch-Enemy to Megamind. Having fought against his rival for many years, Metro Man grows tired of the process, wanting to move on with his life. Faking his death via a forged weakness to copper and a skeleton decoy, he goes into hiding, allowing Megamind to achieve victory and dominion over Metro City, freeing him from society's strain and allowing him to persue his passions. At the end of the film, when Megamind managed to defeat Tighten and become Metro City's new hero, Metro Man is seen amongst the crowd of citizens, congratulating his old nemesis, having known that he had it in him to do the right thing.
• New Gods: Nezha Reborn (2021): Ao Guang, Dragon King of the East Sea, leads the De Clan who controls the water supply in Donghai City. 3,000 years ago when the young and violent god Nezha rampaged across China and killed his son, the Dragon Prince Ao Bing, Ao Guang created a truce with the other Dragon Kings to force Nezha to pay for his crimes in death. Realizing his spirit was sent back into the cycle of reincarnation, Ao Guang and his allies would kill every reincarnation of Nezha that appeared, and learns the latest is hero Li Yunxiang. Using Nezha's Sky Ribbon, Ao Guang captures several river dragons and two water monsters to drain all of the water from the city's rivers and lakes to construct the Dragon Pearl, planning to use its power to usurp the Court of Heaven and establish order in a chaos-stricken universe. Mourning his son's latest death and backed into a corner, Ao Guang swallows the incomplete Dragon Pearl to fight Li, unleashing the river dragons who create a tsunami powerful enough to destroy Donghai City, forsaking his chance at godhood to try and eliminate the threat of Nezha once and for all.
• Ninja Scroll: Dakuan is an elderly trickster working for the Tokugawa Shogunate. Dakuan introduces himself to Jubei by helping the ninja overcome an enemy while simultaneously poisoning Jubei, forcing him to help Dakuan in his quest to take down the Eight Devils. Recruiting Kagero as well, Dakuan works with the two to strategize methods on taking down each of the Devils while using their growing affection for each other to further manipulate them to his tune. After using Jubei and Kagero as bait and puppets, resulting in the latter's death, Dakuan succeeds in taking down the Eight Devils and almost pockets a fortune in gold, simply shrugging off Jubei's harsh accusations for his behavior and parting ways with Jubei without hard feelings.
• The Pagemaster: The Pagemaster himself is "the keeper of the books and guardian of the written word," a wily wizard who seeks to teach young Richard Tyler a lesson in creativity. Taking note of Richard's lack of imagination and fearful personality, the Pagemaster drags the boy into the fictional world of books and subjects him to a variety of literature's most dangerous obstacles, subtly pointing Richard in the right directions to survival throughout. Once Richard defeats all the challenges in his way, the Pagemaster reveals he did it all to help Richard discover who he really is and overcome his fear, before sending him on his way back home with a new love for books in the boy's heart.
• The Peanuts Movie: In Snoopy's novel, the Red Baron is the World War I Flying Ace's mysterious and menacing archenemy and an even better pilot than him, constantly getting the better of his opponent through cunning tricks and daredevil stunts. Introduced dogfighting the Ace, the Baron successfully downs his adversary by tricking him into crashing his plane into a river. Not long afterwards, the Baron captures Fifi by knocking her out of her plane and grabbing her as she parachutes to the ground, getting away by flying through a railroad tunnel right before a train enters it. When the Ace later confronts him again, he nearly maneuvers him into crashing his plane on the Eiffel Tower, then later shoots the Ace down when he realizes he followed him back to his base. During the final battle, the Baron more than holds his own, getting three allied aircraft into a position that lets him shoot them all down with one burst of gunfire before confronting the Ace as he attempts to retrieve Fifi from the Zeppelin she's being held aboard. Only losing due to a last-minute plan involving one of the Flying Ace's friends sabotaging his plane mid-flight, the Red Baron still escapes after the Ace is forced to break off his pursuit to save Fifi, making one final appearance during the end credits to playfully buzz the Ace's celebration before giving his Worthy Opponent a genuinely respectful thumbs-up.
• The Prince of Egypt: God, having heard His people's cries for deliverance from their horrid slavery in Egypt, comes to Moses in the form of a burning bush with the man's own voice to turn him into God's emissary to Egypt. Using Moses to plead with Pharaoh Rameses for the freedom of the Hebrews, God responds to Pharaoh's refusal by sending the Plagues upon Egypt, increasing in their severity until God takes the life of every firstborn in the land, punishment for Pharaoh threatening infanticide on the Hebrews. When Pharaoh releases the Hebrews only to go back on his word and try to wipe them out, God parts the Red Sea to give the Hebrews an escape, then lures Pharaoh's armies into the same path to wipe them all out, saving the Hebrews for good and paying Pharaoh back for his genocidal intentions.
• Princess Mononoke: Lady Eboshi, the ruler of Irontown, is a woman with a backbone made of steel. Forging a mining community with nothing but her own will and strength, Eboshi made it a refuge for lepers, outcasts and the downtrodden, even buying the freedom of many women from brothels and giving them a new home, training them to work and fight. Coming into conflict with the gods of the forest and local warlords, Eboshi leads her people to fend them off and fight back, even luring out the Great Forest Spirit to destroy it, in hopes of reducing the forest animals to just normal beasts, claiming her trick to killing a god is to not fear it. Even after losing an arm to the bite of the decapitated wolf goddess Moro, Eboshi merely grins and reminds herself that a wolf's head still has a bite, being one of the most morally complex and strong-willed antagonists in a Hayao Miyazaki film.
• Rango: Rattlesnake Jake, the terrifying mercenary who slithers in the desert outside of Dirt, ends up employed by the corrupt mayor of the town as muscle, proving himself too vicious and threatening for even the mayor to fully rein in. Jake tears Rango down in front of the entire town by exposing his lies and drives him out before terrorizing the remaining townsfolk into obeying the mayor's scheme. Even despite his murderous temperament, Jake demonstrates a surprising amount of perception by seeing through Rango's ruse with a "hawk" comprised of hundreds of bats in a few seconds, and Rango finally proving himself a hero ends with Jake shamelessly acknowledging him as someone worthy of his respect — while personally dragging out the mayor to his doom for daring to double-cross him with one last Ironic Echo: "pretty soon, no one will believe you even existed."
• Ringing Bell: The Wolf King routinely slaughters other animals to preserve the laws of nature. The Wolf attacks a sheep pasture, targeting the lamb Chirin specifically, but only succeeds in killing two sheep including his mother. When a vengeful Chirin repeatedly pesters the Wolf to train him in a wolf's ways, he sends Chirin through grueling training that hardens the lamb until adulthood, growing attached to him all the while. With the Wolf having molded Chirin into a monster of a sheep, he plans an attack on Chirin's old pasture, then fights Chirin to the death when the latter refuses to kill the other sheep. Graceful even after Chirin lands the killing blow, the Wolf expresses his pride in his disciple for finally becoming stronger than him and upholding his philosophies.
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys: The Toy Taker, real name Mr Cuddles, is the mysterious thief responsible for stealing toys around the world by using a magical flute to hypnotize them and lure them away from their owners. Once the beloved teddy bear of a little boy named Stephen, Cuddles was accidentally thrown away and left to rot in a dump after Stephen grew too old to play with him. Becoming the Toy Taker to save other toys from being abandoned like he was, Cuddles breaks into Santa’s warehouse and later fixes the Misfit Toys after leading them away as well, proclaiming that he will build a paradise where all toys would live happily without fear of being forgotten. When Rudolph and his friends try to catch him by infiltrating his blimp, it is revealed that the Toy Taker brainwashed the Misfit Toys to alert him of any intruders. Captured after nearly escaping, Cuddles is given to Stephen’s daughter as a Christmas gift after the heroes take pity on him upon learning of his story, peacefully accepting his new life.
• A Scanner Darkly: Audrey and Mike are two cops who have tried to infiltrate New Path, a rehab company which is secretly flooding the drug Market Substance D. To this end they end up getting Bob Arctor hooked on Substance D by having Audrey pose as Hank, his boss, and Donna as his supplier. With Donna supplying him the drugs and Hank ordering him to spy on himself, they end up driving him further into addiction such that he'll be forced to go to a New Path rehab. While there, Mike, as an orderly, has him transferred to a farm. They later debate the moral and practical aspects of the plan with Mike thinking it'll be worth it for future generations and hoping that Arctor has enough function to take back some evidence of the production. His hope turns out to be well founded; Arctor takes a flower which is one of Substance D ingredients, planning to give it to his friends when he sees them on Thanksgiving.
• Scrooge: A Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the final ghost Scrooge encounters on his road to redemption, as well as the most terrifying. Introduced transforming the friendly Ghost of Christmas Present into himself, the silent Ghost takes Scrooge into the future where countless people are celebrating his death, before taking him to the grave of Tiny Tim. After showing Scrooge his own grave, to make sure Scrooge has really learned his lesson, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come causes a nightmarish sequence where he is forever chained for his sins and falls into a dark abyss.
• The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue: Martin Brisby, eldest son of the Brisby house, was overexposed to the mad science of NIMH that made the rats' super-intelligence possible, turning him into a devious Mad Scientist. Martin effortlessly manipulated his human owner Dr. Valentine until the time came to devolve and replace Dr. Valentine, at which point he begins an ambitious scheme of mass-brainwashing in order to take over the world. Martin lures Timmy into his clutches and endeavors to rule together with him.
• Shrek franchise:
  • Forever After: The Pied Piper is a tall, dark and mysterious Bounty Hunter with an ability to control the form of anything he chooses through use of his flute. His past of overthrowing the Rat King to conquer his kingdom detailed in prequel comics, the Piper is hired in the present by Rumpelstiltskin to hunt down the Ogre rebels, to which the Piper proves himself capable of the job by humiliating Rumpelstiltskin's witch minions. Luring the Ogres into staging an ambush of Rumpelstiltskin's chariot, the Piper disguises himself as Fefe the goose to complete the trap before whipping out his flute and taking control of nearly the entire rebel army, forcing them to "fandango themselves into oblivion" as Rumpelstiltskin's captives.
  • Puss in Boots (2011): Humpty Alexander Dumpty is Puss's oldest friend whose nervous personality hides a devious mastermind. As teenagers, Humpty tricked Puss into helping him commit a bank heist, and when he was left behind to be arrested by police, grew to desire revenge against his "brother". Leading him on a quest to retrieve the magic beans they sought as children, Humpty hires Jack and Jill and Kitty Softpaws, tricking Puss into thinking the couple are adversaries while Kitty's a friend, and successfully steals the Golden Goose with Puss and Kitty. Luring Puss back to San Ricardo to be arrested for his participation in Humpty's heist, Humpty ultimately works together with Puss to get the Goose away from the city and prevent the Great Terror from destroying the town, sacrificing his life in the process and revealing himself to be a golden egg inside.
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish:
    • The Wolf introduces himself as a Bounty Hunter come to claim Puss's life. He ends up inflicting a Curb-Stomp Battle on Puss, before letting Puss flee intending to build terror and humiliation in him. Throughout the rest of the film he appears taunting Puss with his presence and psychologically tormenting him. Finally confronting him again, he reveals himself to be Death, come to punish Puss for his arrogance and cavalierness towards his past eight lives. Puss flees again to wish for nine more lives but the Wolf confronts him. Facing his fears, he battles the Wolf and acknowledges that while he can never truly beat the bounty hunter, he'll never stop fighting for this life. Briefly throwing a tantrum, the Wolf quickly calms down, noting that he came to kill an arrogant legend, but he "doesn't see him anymore." Acknowledging they'll meet again, he walks off into the night, whistling.
    • Goldilocks is the leader of a gang of her and three bears. Hoping to find the Wishing Star, she tracks Puss down so he can help her steal a map to it from Jack Horner, only to find his apparent grave. Deciding to steal the map herself, she ends up there too late as Puss and Kitty have stolen it first. Following them while Jack trails close behind, she ends up in the magical forest where the Wishing Star resides. She proceeds to use her wits and combat skills to keep the bears on track, especially when they get into conflict with Jack or Puss and Kitty, and eventually reveals her wish is to have a real human family. Hurt by this, the bears still decide to help her, and when given the choice between saving the youngest bear or getting her wish, she chooses the bear. She then decides to help defeat Jack Horner, and afterwards leaves with the three bears to take over Jack's pie empire.
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas: Eris, Goddess of Discord, steals the Book of Peace from the kingdom of Syracuse and frames Sinbad for the theft, causing his friend Prince Proteus to take his place on deaths row to allow Sinbad to retrieve the book. Eris sends numerous obstacles Sinbad's way that he and his crew only narrowly survive, before eventually revealing that she had stolen the book as part of a ploy to maneuver Proteus into Sinbad's place at execution, leaving Syracuse without an heir and causing the kingdom to fall to ruin. She tears Sinbad down and breaks him to the point that he truly believes her perception of him as a black-hearted liar is correct, and when Sinbad proves his heroism by going back to Syracuse to take Proteus' place, Eris stays true to her word and returns the book to him.
• Smallfoot: "The Stonekeeper" is the village elder and the Chief of the Himalayan Yetis. After a previous generation of Yetis got ruthlessly attacked by a group of humans, they escaped to the Himalayas mountains as a final resort. Generations would pass and Stonekeeper grew prejudiced against humans for this very reason, getting the Yetis to work on a bunch of seemingly frivolous tasks that would actually generate steam clouds to separate the Yetis and humans, keeping up the ruse for years and banishing any who discovered the truth. When Migo delivers Percy to the land, Stonekeeper breaks Migo with a speech and convinces him to keep the lie alive, while leaving Percy in a box to freeze to death. He starts to regret his actions when he realizes that Meechee ran away with Percy from home and fights back by throwing stones at a helicopter.
• Spies in Disguise: Killian is a cybernetic criminal mastermind who seeks to avenge the deaths of his associates caused by Lance Sterling and the H.T.U.V. Acquiring an attack drone from arms dealer Katsu Kimura, Killian uses a holographic disguise to frame Sterling for the drone's theft, causing the agency to focus their efforts on apprehending him and allowing Killian to take control of their weapons facility and steal their agent database. Capturing Sterling, Killian reveals he has mass produced hundreds of attack drones to take out everyone in the agency at once, his plan nearly felling the H.T.U.V. in one fell swoop and only narrowly foiled by Walter Beckett's intervention.
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: The Colonel of the U.S. Army leads the Calvary into the western frontier with the desire to move it forward in advancement. Capturing and having wild horses trained by the soldiers to be used for battle, the Colonel is enraged by Spirit's unfettered refusal to be broken and takes special interest in getting his men to do so while then attempting and nearly succeeding in doing it himself. The Colonel also leads a charge against the Lakota tribe that Native American Little Creek is part of, having previously detained Little Creek for theft, and nearly kills Little Creek and his horse Rain in the chaos. Pursuing Spirit and Little Creek one final time until they escape across a gap between cliffs while also deducing their location based on the trail, the Colonel ultimately stops his men from shooting Spirit and then concedes defeat while giving Spirit an impressed and honorable nod.
• Steamboy: Edward "Eddie" Steam was injured in a steam accident. Rebuilding himself into a metal Cyborg, Eddie decides to build steampunk weapons of war, with his Magnum Opus being a giant floating castle, which he proceeds to pilot over London. When his son Ray and father Lloyd try to destroy it, Eddie proclaims that it will still inspire people, given that it has been revealed to the world. Later he ends up helping Lloyd and Ray destroy it over the Thames. While Lloyd tries to cut off his escape, Eddie manages to evade him, and it is shown that his prediction was true, given that the world goes through a steampunk revolution.
• Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale: Tetsuhiro Shigemura is the creator of the AR device Augma and its game, Ordinal Scale, distributing it to all the Sword Art Online (SAO) survivors so he can steal their memories from that game in hopes of resurrecting his deceased daughter, Yuna, who died while playing SAO. Forcing the players to fight bosses of SAO, which makes them relieve their experiences in SAO Tetsuhiro then has Eiji Nochizawa attack them to ensure their defeat before Tetsuhiro collects their memories. Already collecting memories from countless gamers, Tetsushiro gathers all the remaining SAO players to a stadium before unleashing numerous SAO bosses onto them, hoping to gather all their memories in one swoop, risking their deaths in the process. With his plan nearly complete, he is only stopped by his revived daughter turning against him and chooses to take his loss with grace, before being recruited into RATH by Seijirō Kikuoka, due to the latter's respect for Tetsuhiro's genius.
• Sword of the Stranger: Luo-Lang is a masterful swordsman who seeks a proper challenge and duel above all else, allying with the Ming group for the opportunity to face opponents of all kinds. Introduced utterly decimating an entire band of raiders with skill and ingenuity, Luo-Lang even disarms himself and defeats their leader with his bare hands to showcase his abilities. Assisting his employer Byakuran in tracking down the young boy Kotaro, Luo-Lang simultaneously deduces supposed allies of Byakuran's are scheming against him, and kidnaps their leader to throw them into disarray. lup-Lang grows impressed with the sights and tales he experiences of the mysterious swordsman "No Name", to such an extent that he betrays and kills Byakuran for dishonorably trying to shoot No Name in the back, before challenging No Name to a final, lethal duel. Though the brilliant fight ends with Luo-Lang mortally wounded, he nonetheless spends his final moments utterly content that he finally found someone worthy to fight against.
• Titan A.E.: Joseph Korso, the suave captain of the Valkyrie, is a drifter who becomes a mentor and a sort of father figure to Cale Tucker. Nimbly avoiding the forces of the Drej at every opportunity, a mid-movie twist reveals Korso is actually The Mole for the Drej—bitter and broken after Earth's destruction, Korso has been manipulating Cale in order to find the location of the Titan A.E. and turn it over to the Drej to save his own skin. Far from a Dirty Coward even after his betrayal, when Korso's even slimier partner Preed tries to betray him in turn, Korso outdoes him and breaks his neck, and is soon after persuaded to see reason by Cale. In the end, Korso sacrifices his life to power up the Titan A.E. and destroy the Drej, and dies a hero responsible for giving humanity a second chance after almost taking it away.
• To Your Last Death (2019): The Gamemaster is an entity out to entertain herself and her associates. Creating games that piggyback off of tragic events already set in motion, the Gamemaster promises Sole Survivors with the chance of changing the events to their benefit, with her associates placing bets on who will come out alive. Posing as Miriam DeKalb's boyfriend Walt in order to get her to accept her estranged father Cyrus's invitation, which results in the death of her siblings, the Gamemaster gets her to accept her offer of restarting the event. Assisting both Miriam and Cyrus in order to make the event interesting, while changing various outcomes that best suit her and her gamblers' interests, the Gamemaster even uses Miriam's acquired knowledge against her by letting Cyrus paint her as the mastermind behind the events and getting her siblings to turn on her. The Gamemaster affably congratulates Miriam on surviving the game, before moving on to the next one.
• Treasure Island (1988): "Long" John Silver, despite his humble appearance, is a menacing and competent manipulator, and Captain Flint's former First Mate. A "nasty pirate who feigns being nice, successfully", Silver recruits the whole crew in the search for Flint's treasure, running the expedition under Captain Smollet's nose. Previously abandoning his crew mate, Ben Gunn, on the island after a failed search, Silver keeps his followers in line through pragmatism and intimidation. When the pirates plan to kill Jim for meddling in their plans, Silver stands up for Jim, casually sharpening his knife on the belt of the lead mutineer, and cutting his moustache off. When the pirates attempt to depose Silver, he quickly spins the situation in his favour, pointing out his crew's failures, while he was given the map. When ultimately foiled, Silver gracefully accepts defeat, reacting with cheeky amusement that Gunn outsmarted him. In the epilogue of the English dub, Silver ultimately escapes after his arrest, taking a cut of the treasure.
• Trigun: Badlands Rumble (2010): Gasback Gallon Getaway is a roguish, boisterous criminal who, despite his brutish appearance, is in truth a calculating thief who views the act of robbery and thievery as "art" forms. After his initial bank heist is foiled by treacherous minions, Gasback spends decades plotting both revenge against the men for "sullying" the art of robbery with their dishonorable betrayal, and the greatest heist he's ever concocted. Laying waste to two of the men's prospering enterprises, Gasback repeats the process on his final betrayer, revealing at the same time that each of his before robberies were all to amass materials needed to steal a Plant, which he pulls off flawlessly before escaping. Giving Vash one of the hardest fought battles of his life through sheer determination to never lose, Gasback gains respect for the hero when beaten, and is revealed to have spent those decades of planning taking care of a woman he loved and even leaving her enough money to sustain her for the rest of her life. Always charming even with his loud personality, Gasback was undoubtedly the most swashbuckling villain Vash ever faced.
• Wendell & Wild: Manberg "the Merciless" is Rust Bank's Catholic school janitor and secretly a demon hunter who in the past captured devils in jars with the forced help of Sister Helley's Hell Maiden abilities. After Kat Elliot steals his demonic teddy bear from Helley, Manberg correctly guesses her to be a Hell Maiden wanting to use it to invoke demons, and when Helley brings her to him for help, Manberg aids in doing a blood bind between them to cut Kat's vow to her demons, give her control over her precognitive powers, and make her face the memories of her parents' deaths. Later giving the father of demons Buffalo Belzer all of his children back, Manberg then helps the heroes in fending off the demolition of the town.
• White Snake (2019): Baoqing (Foxy Boss) is the proprietor of the Precious Jade Workshop which crafts demonic weapons and items made from human life essence. Modifying a special hairpin that can absorb energy for the White Snake Blanca, Baoqing finds amusement in how the hairpin gave Blanca amnesia despite her previous warnings and makes a deal with the snake catcher Xuan to turn him into a demon so he can be with Blanca at the cost of his own life essence and protection as a human. Able to travel between realms at will, Baoqing enters Asuraville to set up the All-Good Market, selling her wares to both sides of the ongoing gang war and allowing inhabitants of the realm to cast aside their obsessions and escape through the Pool of Return at the cost of their memories and body. Growing fond of her former clients, Baoqing agrees to assist Verta and a reincarnated Blanca in leaving Asuraville in exchange for their obsessions to light the forge of her workshop, and even when her market is raided and offered an alliance by Mr. Ox, Baoqing refuses before drowning most of his forces in the Pool of Return and helps Verta and Blanca escape.

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