Subpages cleanup: Complete Monster

In the past, I wanted to use it for video games main page but it already has Hatred antagonist (though, I oppose him being an image there since he was so divisive).

Hell, maybe that's why he should stay, If he had that big of an impact on the thread. Besides, I rather like the image.

So, hat tip to Overlord for the info, but it turns out the 90s Marvel novels had far more intercontinuity than I had realized. Strucker reappeared, so will NOT be effortposted today. I still got Kreeg, and then I'll write Carnage (and Kreeg if he gets voted up) up, then lock the Marvel Lit page soon.

image of Satan for the image links.

edited 23rd Jul '17 3:24:52 AM by ACW

Elizabeth Bartley for a lack of characterisation.

that image of Satan ripping off his son's face.

EDIT: You know, I think I've found a good question for determining if a villain has enough personality and characterisation:

Who are they and what are they like?

If I were to use film!Ronan for an example, I'd say he's a Kree fanatic, driven by his hatred of those that reject or oppose his ideals, hating Thanos for looking down on him while fearing him all the same and is determined to have his vengeance at just about any cost.

For Bartley? Uh... she likes being evil, I guess.

Like, if I can't finish one sentence conclusively about a villain's character, about who they are, then I won't be able to vote them up. And I want at least a little more characterisation than that before I'm comfortable with giving support.

edited 23rd Jul '17 5:43:52 AM by PolarPhantom

Elizabeth Bartley

I'm a dude and my pronouns are he/his/him btw

So I found this on the Kid Icarus Antagonists page.

• Even Evil Has Standards: He claims that the Chaos Kin "is too much of a handful even for him."

Didn't we just dismiss this as Pragmatic Villainy? If so then I'm cutting.

I'd say cut that. Hades doesn't actually display any disgust or anything towards it

By the by, I'm going to be having a proposal today from an old science fiction movie.

edited 23rd Jul '17 6:54:22 AM by Scraggle

• Blue Exorcist:
  • Dr. Michael (Mihaeru) Gedouin, the resident Mad Scientist of the Illuminati, spends the entirety of the Izumo Rescue Arc proving himself to be the most selfish and utterly depraved villain in that story arc. In flashbacks, he and his team abduct Izumo, her sister Tsukumo, and her mother to use as subjects in his research on the elixir of immortality. He subjects their mother to horrific experiments that reduced her to a broken, bloody shell of a person, while threatening to use Tsukumo (who was two years old at the time) next if Izumo did not follow his demands. When the heroes storm his laboratory, they discover that he has been brainwashing people who visit the town near the lab and using them as disposable fodder for his experiments, turning them into shambling, semi-conscious zombies. When called out on his atrocities, he actually employs a Humans Are the Real Monsters argument to defend himself, considering himself to be above the people he uses as guinea pigs. Further, it is repeatedly show that his only motivation for his evil is to earn approval from Lucifer. An immature, self-centered bastard who relishes the suffering of others, Gedouin stands head and shoulders above most previous villains in terms of monstrosity, with his actions even disgusting Lucifer.
  • Ernst Frederik Egin, exclusive to the anime, is a member of the True Cross Order who, despite his claims, is entirely motivated by his racism against demons. Ernst would send men to kill demons and those associated with them, regardless of innocence. When he learns that his daughter Yuri is pregnant with Satan's children, he has her put on the stake to be burned to death, something he had done to many other women before. He even has people watch, but when Satan comes to rescue her, he abandons them all while he escapes. Many years later, Ernst finds one of Yuri's children, Yukio, whom he persuades to his side. He then murders The Order's leadership, becoming its new leader, with his first command issuing all True Cross Academy students weapons forcing them to fight demons, despite many being inexperienced. He also tasks Yukio to bring him his brother Rin saying he will spare Rin, only to admit he lied once Yukio does this. Ernst proceeds to torture Rin, knowing it would open the Gate to Gehanna where he will drop his nuclear bomb, The Messiah, onto the world, destroying it and eradicating every last demon there. When Yukio offers to take Rin's place, Ernst allows it, but tries to kill Rin anyway. When Satan finally appears and foils Ernst's plans by revealing to Yukio what Ernst did to Yuri, he responds that Yuri was not his daughter for loving a demon and her children are just disgraces to him. Sacrificing all those he see, family members included, Ernst proves that humans can become more evil than demons.
• Hohzuki Island: Kuwadate is the teacher on the seemingly Orphanage of Fear on a island in Japan. In the same chapter where he is introduced, he attempts to rape his co-worker Yukino. After she defended herself, Kuwadate accosted one of his preteen students and tried twice unsuccessfully to rape her. Kuwadate is by far the most vicious and dangerous of the teachers. When the same student who he tried to rape fall unconscious, Kuwadate tries to rape her again only to be stopped. When a child lies to protect his teammates, Kuwadate breaks his leg and leaves him alone in the wilderness. After he apparently dies while trying to kill the children, he reappears, trying to kill now both the children and his own coworkers. When The Reveal happens, Kuwadate ends up being the only actually evil teacher, lacking any redeeming qualities, and shows his heinousness by being as bad as the children see him.
• Reyn: Brother M'Thall is a prominent figure of the Venn race who holds a grudge against humanity. After M'Thall and the Venn invade Fate with the intent of stealing from the humans, M'Thall is blindsided by the humans' resistance when they start fighting off the Venn. Desperate, he set off a bomb that triggered the Great Cataclysm and nearly wiped out all of humanity. When M'Thall and the Venn wake up after hibernating for hundreds of years, M'Thall uses his forces to enslave most of the humans or convince them to work alongside him. When Reyn appears and causes trouble for the Venn right when M'Thall is nearly finished building a weapon that will destroy all of Fate for good, he sends his forces after him and Seph, hell-bent on killing both of them and anyone who gets in his way. He later kidnaps Seph and holds her hostage as bait, where he spends his time explaining how he wiped out almost all of humanity and rules over the humans now. Even after Reyn willingly gives M'Thall a component that will help him finish the weapon, M'Thall refuses to give up Seph, and instead tries to kill Reyn.
• From Hell trilogy: Eileen Hoffmister is a Wicked Witch in direct service to the Devil himself. She abducts people—usually children— and offers them to her master to transform into zombie slaves who are damned to Hell upon their final death. In the prequel story, Slave By Sundown, Eileen and her husband, Leo, capture Stella, a young girl who stumbled across their cottage in the woods. They throw her in a basement with their zombie servant, Lester, and attempt to offer her to Lucifer. When he rejects her, Eileen tries to soak her in gasoline and allow Lester to burn her. In From Hell I Write, she and Leo force their adopted son, David, to participate in Satanic rituals involving animal sacrifice, and she beats him when he wets himself in fear. Eileen makes repeated attempts to abduct the young protagonist, Patrick Williams, and stalks him and his family after she suspects him of telling everyone about their rituals. One night, Patrick's brothers, Darren and Bryce, sneak out with some friends to visit the Hoffmisters' home, only to never be heard from again. Patrick finds a videotape of Darren being abused by Eileen before she pulls out a sickle. Later, a voluntarily-possessed Eileen chases Patrick and his 5-year-old sister Nancy and eviscerates their babysitter, Betty, when she tries to protect the children. The two are then brought back to the house, where Leo is killed for trying to rape Nancy despite Eileen telling him to wait. Patrick is forced to see his zombified family, along with David and the missing neighborhood kids, before being turned into a zombie himself and sent to Hell sometime later. Twenty years later, in the sequel, Nancy's Angelface, Nancy finds a still-possessed Eileen in the basement of her boyfriend, Jackson, and is nearly killed by her until Jackson comes home and intervenes.
• Bhaal, a member of the Dead Three along with the below-mentioned Myrkul (as well as Bane), was once a mortal assassin who ascended to godhood as the God of Death. Interpreting "Death" as "Murder", Bhaal's dogma dictated that his followers make it a habit of killing innocent people on a regular basis as sacrifices to Bhaal. Receiving a vision of his own death in the Time of Troubles, Bhaal sired countless mortal children with one specific purpose: serving as his eventual Soul Jar. Despising all of them simply for existing, Bhaal left a curse to condemn them all to pain and suffering while arranging for them all to be murdered in hopes of bringing him back to life and punishing them for their very existence. Responsible for countless deaths and the entire Bhaalspawn crisis, Bhaal remained a figure of terror and hatred to all other Gods, even his ostensible allies.
• Myrkul, Lord of Bones, was the old god of death before Kelemvor. While Kelemvor has a firm set of morals and only tolerates the Wall of the Faithless because it's necessary for the continued existence of the other gods, Myrkul was an utter sadist who, besides creating the Wall, took gleeful joy in witnessing the agony and suffering the Wall caused. He is stated to have ruled his faith with an iron fist, purposefully leading his followers through sheer fear of his retribution, and executing anyone who defied him, be they man, woman or child, in sadistically brutal fashions, such as burning them alive in a giant furnace. His greatest atrocity, however, was what he did to one of his best priests, who had had enough of the injustice of the Wall and attempted to destroy it. Initially, he just left the priest to rot on the Wall, but just before the priest fully merged with the Wall and attained some measure of peace, Myrkul decides that he hasn't suffered enough and transforms the priest into a mindless being of pure, unbridled hunger that feeds on souls, then sets it loose upon the world, knowing full well the chaos it will surely cause.
• Brimstone Angels may deal heavily with the devils and their machinations, but the series's worst antagonist, the Arc Villain of the second and third books, is all too human. Adolican Rhand is a sadistic and ambitious Netherese wizard-lord who takes an interest in Farideh in Lesser Evils, stalking her and eventually drugging her with something that induces a Mind Rape-like effect. It's later revealed that Rhand is a Serial Killer with a fondness for raping and murdering young women who catch his eye—the details are left vague, but were apparently brutal enough to traumatize Dahl when he investigated and ultimately drive him to drink—a fate Farideh barely escapes. He later tracks her party to the lost library of the archmage Tarchamus, hoping to claim a spell the legendary wizard used to wipe out entire cities; Farideh and her companions destroy the library to deny him his prize, leaving him only with scraps. In The Adversary, he aligns himself with the forces of the Nine Hells to harvest the souls of Chosen, splitting their god-granted powers between them, though he ultimately intends to double-cross the devils. As part of this bargain, Farideh is forced to work with him, using her power to see souls to sort out the real Chosen from the fakes; when she refuses to comply, Rhand has dozens of innocent captives—including children—summarily executed until she relents, and he still intends to make Farideh his latest victim once [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness she outlives her usefulness.
• Alien Outlaw: The Big Bad of this Science Fiction film is the unnamed leader—credited as "Leader Alien"—of a trio of aliens who have come to Earth to cause destruction For the Evulz. Killing a couple guys and stealing their guns, Leader Alien goes on a killing spree with his Co-Dragons. He also takes the time to indulge his sexual desires, trying to rape every Earth woman he sees. When Jesse Jamison comes across the aliens, Leader Alien tries to force himself on her as well. He then tries to kill the two men she's staying with and leaves his buddies to die when Jesse comes to call. He holds another man hostage to get to his spaceship, and leaves him to drown while trying to kill Jesse when he's allowed to leave.
• Criminal: Xavier Heimdahl, a Spanish industrialist-turned-anarchist, tortures a CIA agent to death so that he can steal a specific computer worm designed by the man's contact to give him access to the world's nuclear codes. Having multiple people killed in pursuit of the codes, Heimdahl tries to hunt down the man with his victim's memories, even taking his victim's wife and daughter hostage. Upon recovering the codes, Heimdahl attempts to launch a missile at said wife and daughter out of spite before he nukes every population center on the planet.
• Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972): Lady Chun Yi runs the Four Seasons brothel where she regularly has young women abducted and forced into sexual slavery, torturing those who refuse to comply. When the film's heroine Ai Nu resists, Chun attempts to violently break her and has her raped by multiple corrupt officials. Chun also keeps women who catch her eye as sex slaves, and any who attempt to escape are brutally punished. When one housekeeper attempts to save Ai Nu, Chun murders him, later becoming infatuated with Ai Nu herself. In the final battle, when mortally wounded, Chun reveals how truly monstrous is when she uses her last request for a kiss to poison Ai Nu, mocking her for her conscience and morality.
• Mythica series: Szorlok the Necromancer killed many people to find the Darkspore, which grants ultimate power over the death, even sacrificing his loyal acolytes to power it. Defeated, Szorlok went into exile, but later kills many to recover the separated fragments of the Darkspore. Upon taking center stage, Szorlok drains the life of his former friend and mentor Gojun Pye, raising armies of the undead to slaughter all in their path while Szorlok destroys the Gods to take their place, intending to make everyone worship him or die. When the heroine Marek resists him, Szorlok attempts to drain the life of every mortal on the planet to fuel himself, laughing how he will rule over a "world of death".
• The Warrior and the Sorceress: Zeg the Tyrant is one of the film's main villains and the worst in the city. A slaver and murderer, Zeg regularly has people tormented and killed while enslaving others in a brutal trade. For entertainment, Zeg also regularly selects attractive slaves and has them placed in tanks to drown while he watches in amusement. When he finally has enough of his rival Bal Caz, Zeg massacres him and his men before unleashing his own soldiers on the city to massacre everyone until the city submits to the rule of Zeg.
• Return of the Living Dead (John Russo's 1978 novel): Flack, a sadistic psychopath and former convict, uses the Zombie Apocalypse as an excuse to indulge himself. Taking refuge in the Miller house with his partners, Flack rapes the young woman Sue Ellen, and reveals he intends to use the Miller sisters as "zombie bait." Flack and his partner John Carter shoot a police officer, leaving his partner tied up so when Flack's victim reanimates, he'll devour his former friend. Upon fleeing, Flack throws a young man named Billy to the zombies and storms a mansion, killing the guards inside and taking the family hostage. Flack then throws them, mother, father and a ten-year-old to the zombies, gleefully watching as the zombies tear them apart while keeping the Miller sisters to rape at his and Carter's leisure.
• Fargo:
  • Season 1: Lorne Malvo, the mysterious Big Bad of this season, is a hitman who, in his spare time, enjoys toying with hapless human beings and seeing how he can break them or turn them into murderers and monsters like himself for his own amusement. The downtrodden Lester Nygaard is only his latest corrupted victim, among dozens of others, all of whom he keeps recordings of in the moment they became killers, recordings which he regularly listens to when he is bored. Lorne is a sadistic, ruthless and efficient killer who has murdered countless people throughout his career, and racks up a body count that numbers in the dozens, including the slaughter of an entire building of people, to setting his partner up to be disturbingly killed in a faked Suicide by Cop when he outlives his usefulness. In one notable instance of Lorne's unpredictability and wicked nature, he disguises himself as a normal man to get close to an assassination target, and, after becoming engaged to a woman who loves him as part of his cover, Lorne murders his mark, the man's wife, and even his own fiancée with nothing more than wry amusement after Lester recognizes him. Combining utter heartlessness with dry humor and a fascination with the dark side of human nature, it's no surprise Lorne is frequently likened to a hungry predator.
  • Season 3: V.M. Varga, the enigmatic Big Bad of this season, is a supposed middle-manager representing the Narwhal company. In reality, Varga's the head of a criminal enterprise who threatens his way into Emmit Stussy's company. To send a message to his unwilling business partner, Varga murders Emmit's lawyer, Irv, for merely trying to Google Varga. Anti-Semitic to the point of considering Jews "half-animals", Varga takes every opportunity to harass Emmit's Jewish best friend and business partner, Sy, which culminates in poisoning him, causing Sy's subsequent coma and brain damage. Whenever blood needs spilling, Varga unleashes Yuri and Meemo, and is apathetic to the excessive collateral damage they leave in their wake. One instance has an assassination attempt on a single woman leading to them derailing a prison bus and murdering numerous prisoners, police, and innocent bystanders for getting in their way. When Emmit confesses to accidentally killing his brother, Ray before Varga's done using him, Varga orders his men to murder anyone in the area with the last name Stussy in a convoluted plot to make Ray's death look like the work of a serial killer. Varga, a man defined by his insatiable greed, believes that the lives of the wealthy have inherently more value than poor ones, and is compelled to consume everything in his wake regardless of those he kills in the process.
• Hopkins FBI: Bernie Berckson, the head of a evil organization, has discovered a method of coming Back from the Dead. This allowed him to "survive" his own execution and escape from prison after being sentenced to death for nuking California and killing some 50,000 people. When FBI Agent J. Hopkins's girlfriend Samantha gets too close to discovering his hideout, he has her captured and uses her to play a sick game with Hopkins. He has four random women murdered, hides their bodies all over the city and sends Hopkins on a macabre scavenger hunt where he has to perform various tasks to discoverer the corpses, with the promises that the last corpse will reveal Samantha's location. Instead, however, he tricks Hopkins into killing his girlfriend by instructing him to shoot a paper target with the tied-up Samantha behind it. As a final insult Hopkins finds a video on her the corpse in which Bernie gleefully mocks him. Bernie could've killed both Samantha and Hopkins at any point he wanted, but instead decided to murder several innocents just so he could play his little game, proving that he truly is a monster.
• James Noir's Hollywood Crimes: The Big Bad, Matt Booker, was once college roommates with the Player Character before getting arrested for a string of gruesome murders. However, he managed to escape prison, and upon learning of his former roommate becoming a contestant on the popular game show, Puzzle Masters, he targets former champions of said show for his next batch of murders. The first victim was burned alive under a pile of firewood; the second victim was drowned to death in his own pool; and the third victim had his stomach cut open to put a puzzle box inside before finally killed via hanging. He gets the Player Character involved by posing as an FBI Agent then pins his murders onto him/her, condemning the innocent to prison. Six months later, he manipulates the Player Character into escaping prison and right into his clutches where he plays a sadistic iteration of Puzzle Masters. Should he win, he will shock the PlayerCharacter to death while promising his latest victim that he will kill again. Should the Player Character manage to win, he will try killing himself, being content that his former friend will have no choice but to take the fall for his crimes.

edited 24th Jul '17 8:15:51 AM by ACW

Since you linked Baldur's Gate to Bhaal's entry, it might be worth while to link Neverwinter Nights 2 to Myrkul's entry since everything he did to his priest set up the plot of the Mask of the Betrayer expansion pack.

Also, my research on another Warhammer Fantasy candidate is finally finished so I'll be doing that effort post later today. I think it will be an interesting discussion since it challenges the nature of the Freudian Excuse is a much better way that what I discussed with Samara (whom I decided against proposing).

edited 23rd Jul '17 7:32:24 AM by LoreDeluxe

Alright, I did that for Myrkul.

Alright, so... for that proposal I was talking about? I've got a real fun one for you today, folks. My thanks to Lighty for pointing this one out, let's get to the chase.

What's the setting?

A long time ago in a low-budget galaxy far, far away in Italy, Luigi Cozzi directed 1979's Starcrash, an Italian Star Wars rip-off (and Cozzi fervently insists this wasn't a Star Wars rip-off, because clearly the iconic opening shots of a flying spaceship and the presence of energy blades — both shamelessly present in this film — were Cozzi's idea). Following the adventures of saucy smuggler Stella Star and her companion Akton (the lovechild of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Han Solo with a terrifying 70s haircut), after the duo manage to come across a lone wreckage in space with only one, dazed survivor aboard, the two are arrested for their smuggling and sentenced to hard labor in twin prison planets.

Stella manages to fight tooth-and-nail out of the prison... only to find out her sentence has been revoked anyways by none other than the Emperor of the Galaxy (who's actually a good guy here, played by Christopher "I'm only doing this for a vacation to Rome" Plummer). See, in an effort to find a mysterious doomsday weapon threatening the universe, the Emperor sent a fleet to track down and destroy this weapon (led by his son, Simon... why the heir to the throne of the entire universe is heading a life-or-death mission that ends up with almost everyone else dead is a mystery but that's really the least of the questions this film raises). The fleet was destroyed and Simon was lost. The Emperor recruits the smugglers to find Simon, find the weapon, and destroy it.

What follows defies explanation. We get David Hasselhoff shooting lasers out of his eyes, a neurotic Texan robot, giant boob robots, and a spaceship that literally stops time. This is essentially The Room of sci-fi films... one of the singular most gloriously So Bad, It's Good films I've ever had the pleasure of watching.

But, enough prattling on about that. Enter our candidate today: Count Zarth Arn.

Who is Zarth? What has he done?

Count Zarth Arn of the Dark Worlds, played by the tragically late Joe Spinell, is this film's analogue to Darth Vader, a galactic warlord complete with an evil black beard, a swishing, red-and-black opera cape, and a spaceship literally shaped like a giant black hand. Darth Ham, as I like to call him, has simple aspirations — "by sunset, I will be Emperor of the whole universe!" — as he delicately puts it, and to this end builds a nifty death weapon he stashes away in a planet hidden deep within the fields of the Haunted Stars. Zarth gets an opportunity to demonstrate what this weapon does... when the aforementioned ship sent to destroy that weapon gets within reach? Zarth uses it to shroud the ship in an ominous red field, horribly Mind Raping the entire crew of the ship. While some, including Simon, manage to escape, everyone else perishes as the ship crashes and burns. With the smugglers set to locate the few survivors of the tragedy and find and destroy Zarth's evil weapon, Zarth deploys his secret, traitorous agent Thor to kill them before they get too far.

Of course, when the smugglers — now aided by Thor and the inexplicably Texan robot, Elle — manage to escape the Amazon agents of Zarth and come to a frigid tundra planet where one of the pods crashed — leaving no survivors — Thor clubs Akton from behind, seemingly killing him, and then directly reports to Zarth, informing him Akton is dead and he's sealing the ship to let Elle and Stella slowly freeze to death outside, to Zarth's satisfaction. What Zarth isn't pleased with is the fact Thor's reached a malfunction with the ship that's preventing him from taking off, although Thor reassures he's working to fix the problem. Oh, but no worries. Akton is alive! And he can suddenly deflect lasers now! Oh, and the reason the ship wouldn't take off? Akton sabotaged it beforehand! Because he can also look into the future now! ("Gosh, Akton, you really are something else!" Elle says, his voice full of perverted robot love).

Deus ex Machina? What? Luigi Cozzi doesn't know the meaning of such words.

So... after Akton's spontaneous transformation into Space Jesus, Akton, Stella, and Elle manage to pilot their ship into the Haunted Stars, where Zarth furiously tries to use his weapon to mentally torture them all into submission. Akton manages to fly them out of harm's way and lands on another planet. Simon, the sole survivor of his own crash, manages to get to Stella as she roams the planet and informs him he is, in fact, the son of the Emperor (as well as David Hasselhoff). Once Akton manages to save the two from evil club-wielding caveman who beat Elle into scrap metal (using his handy-dandy-totally-not-a-lightsaber plasma sword — that he, again, gets right the hell out of nowhere) Akton deduces the planet their own is, in fact, the one Zarth is using to hide his weapon. Surprise surprise, he's right... and the moment they reach the center of the planet in the heart of the weapon itself, Zarth himself corners them with two metal golems and a trove of dark soldiers. With the heroes at his mercy, Zarth reveals his nefarious plans to dispose of them.

...blow up the weapon. I shit you not. This cool-ass, planet-sized weapon he can use to mentally torture anyone at the click of a button? He's just going to blow it up with the entire planet to kill the heroes (and the Emperor too, whom Zarth calls and lets him know of the heroes' location so he can wipe him out with them... and the Emperor blindly heeds the word of the deadliest, most feared warlord in the universe because?...) because clearly shooting them isn't anywhere near theatrical enough for him. Ordering his two golems to stay and guard the heroes if they try to escape, Zarth and his men retreat. Thankfully, Akton manages to fight off the robots, defeating one of the supposedly-invincible golems by tackling it to the floor, before dying because "I must obey destiny." With the Emperor's timely arrival, Stella and Simon get out of the planet before it blows and head after Zarth.

Aboard his evil hand spaceship and believing the Emperor dead, Zarth monologues to himself and reveals his intention to blow up the Emperor's home planet and kill billions of innocent people to seal his tyrannical rule on the universe. The Emperor, however, manages to send his fleets to fight Zarth as he sails towards the Imperial homeworld, resulting in a big space battle between the Emperor's fleets and Zarth's. Once the Emperor's men board the space hand, Zarth's ingenious strategy to destroy them is to stay in the background and flap his arms around like an epileptic duck, screaming "KILL, KILL, KILL" while his men fire. Fortunately for Zarth... this actually works, and his men eventually slaughter all of the opposing men on the ship. Zarth coldly shoots one of the struggling, wounded men dead himself and strides forth to the Emperor's home planet, believing himself invincible, and orders the Emperor's space station and everyone aboard it destroyed. The Emperor, despondent, decides to cross the Godzilla Threshold and orders the only thing left to do now.

"Ram the Blade ship."

Oh, wait, wrong series. The Emperor suggests evacuating the populace of his floating city and then ram the city into Zarth's ship, destroying them both for the sake of the universe. This goes exactly according to plan, and as Zarth is informed the city can't be destroyed as it's far too close to his own ship, Zarth refuses to abandon the ship even as the rest of his men flee, being obliterated with his ship as the city crashes into it.

Any mitigating factors?

I mean... I'm not exactly expecting any redeeming qualities in a guy who rides around space in a giant evil floating hand. But, for the curious, none. No redeeming qualities or mitigating moments and, given that he wants to blow up a planet explicitly populated by billions and his master plan essentially entails using weaponized Mind Rape against the entire universe (I mean, before he blows the weapon up), I think he pretty comfortably soars over the baseline.

Conclusion?

One of the stupidest films I've seen in years and one of the hammiest villains I've ever seen, but yes, I think Zarth counts for the trope. Do yourselves a favor and see the movie, guys... this is fun.

Thoughts?

edited 23rd Jul '17 10:19:00 AM by Scraggle

Oh yes to the Count

to Count Darth... err I mean Zarth Arn of the Dark Worlds. Sounds like a movie I should watch.

edited 23rd Jul '17 10:10:42 AM by NTG

Zarth Vader.

Darth Ham. Now I know where The Force Awakens got its ideas from.

...

That was a joke.

Anyway, real talk: why'd he stay on his evil Space Hand instead of evacuating? Was he just being stubborn? Is it even worth questioning and answering the logic of this film?

Oh, just stubbornness. I think. That's the only remotely logical answer I can come up with.

edited 23rd Jul '17 10:21:52 AM by Scraggle

Zarth

Speaking of terrible movies, the other day I was wondering if the witch from Troll 2 could be an example but it's been a while since I watched it and I don't want to lose credibility on this thread.

Saw that movie on the new season of MST 3 K, it's definitely an entertaining B-movie. to Zarth.

If I remember correctly he was having a bit of a Villainous Breakdown because his plans were foiled so he probably wasn't thinking coherently.

Zarth Vader

Alright, my last Marvel novel effortpost (for now). This is Kreeg, from the Fantastic Four novel To Free Atlantis, by Nancy A. Collins. The plot concerns an attempted coup on Namor by his cousin, Byrrah. Kreeg, an Atlantean warlord, is one of the co-conspirators, and is far more vicious than Byrrah, or even Dr. Doom himself.

What does he do?

He is introduced having captured a "spy" (actually an environmentalist) and would have "gutted him on the spot" if not for Seth, general of the Royal Army, who insisted he be sent to Namor. Namor lets the man go; Kreeg (who, we are told, had a penchant for seizing fishermen from their boats into the water) is not happy about this. As Namor says: "If I allowed Kreeg to slay every human he laid his hands on, we’d soon find ourselves bombarded by explosive depth charges!"

After Namor is poisoned (and rescued by the 4) by Doom's specialized poison, Kreeg becomes Master-of-Arms, and creates a conspiracy to frame some parties and pave Byrrah's path to ruler (the Senate has to agree; Byrrah doesn't automatically become ruler). Vashti manipulates Byrrah into signing the death warrants for some, including co-conspirator Tydeus, who had revealed their plans to his betrothed; Kreeg wants to shut him up. Kreeg attends the execution (done by a method called baiting, where the victim is eaten alive by sharks), as "Kreeg was hardly one to pass up a chance to watch another’s suffering."

Namor and the 4 (well, except Johnny) go underwater and prevent Kreeg's forces from blowing up a ship (or "ocean-raper").

Let me just quote the next bit directly:

Kreeg cuts the head off the lieutenant who failed to blow up that ship.

The 4 (and forces loyal to Namor) have to stop Kreeg's forces from blowing up ships and destroying fuel dumps in NYC, and also apparently in London, Sydney, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. All the attempts are stopped.

Doom himself later confronts Byrrah and Kreeg. Let me just quote the next scene.

And thus ends Kreeg (though not the novel).

Heinous Standard?

The other consiprators are Tydeus, who isn't near as bad; Byrrah, who while he (seemingly reluctantly) signs the death warrants, is nowhere near as bad as Kreeg, and only reluctantly gives the treasures' location; and Doom himself. Doom MAY count, as he threatened to kill 90% of all Athenians unless Byrrah told him the treasures' locations, but once Byrrah complied, Doom seemed to live up to his end of the bargain, So, yeah, Kreeg is pretty much the worst.

Disqualifiers?

Well, he didn't attack Doom due to his standards, but only because Doom insulted him.

Now, a case COULD be made that he's a WIE who only helps the conspiracy because he thinks Namor's too weak, but I don't know. The fact that he's willing to work with Doom (apparently HE was the one who initiated contact) leads me to believe he's more interested in power and is less a WIE than a Fantastic Racist. A quote:

Conclusion?

Does participating in a coup, killing multiple politicial opponents, and attempting to destroy all the ships on 5 major harbors (and wanting to go to war with the surface world) count as bad enough for this trope? I say yes.

edited 23rd Jul '17 2:51:28 PM by ACW

And as long as Zarth himself is played seriously, yes to him (I...think?).

Count Zarth Arn (that sounds amazing; I gotta watch it!) and Kreeg.

ACW, enough with the "I think." Raise a legit objection or just give a vote. And I think you can be assured Scraggle's stuff is seriously played.

That was a vote; that movie just seems so hilariously bad.

to Zarth and Kreeg... the former sounds incredible. There have been some strange candidates recently; a cereal mascot and a Darth Vader bootleg. Whatever next?