Harrison Love: Then we destroy the evidence. Set explosives, bury the mine.
Rafael Montero: And the workers?
Harrison Love: We destroy all the evidence Don Rafael. No witnesses.
Rafael Montero: And the workers?
Harrison Love: We destroy all the evidence Don Rafael. No witnesses.
Since 1919, The Fox has constantly battled against the corrupt and evil to save the common people. Naturally, that quest for justice produces some truly vile villains.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Films
- Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939): Pablo is a member of the San Mendolita council who masquerades as Don del Oro and pretends to be a god to the local Yaqui people. Introduced having a man hurled into a pit of fire, Pablo attempts to blow up Zorro's legion together before smuggling weapons to arm the Yaquis and start a war between them and the locals to rise to claim rulership of Mexico. Having multiple people murdered, Pablo even kills his fellow corrupt councilors to mask his identity while plotting to have the Yaqui prince Kala killed to provoke a bloody attack on San Mendolita itself.
- 1975 film: Colonel Huerta is the tyrannical dictator of Nueva Aragón who enforced a militaristic rule on the town, oppressing the local citizens with tyranny and hiding the reality of his reign as governor by having innocents punished by public flogging for trying to speak of their rights. When protagonist Diego tries to expose Huerta while disguised as the folk hero known as Zorro, Huerta responds by having innocent citizens suspected to be Zorro—or otherwise affiliated with Zorro—imprisoned and taken to his mines, and personally guns down a civilian who tries to fight back, right in front of the civilian's family, as a warning. Lusting after Maria, the wife of a recently deceased governor, Huerta tries forcing himself upon her, and then has her imprisoned when she rejects him and paraded in a cage to force Zorro out of hiding. When the local priest Brother Francisco tries to take a stand, Huerta declares himself as "a new god" and shoots Brother Francisco in front of a church full of protestors, an act even his own soldiers and guards are visibly shocked at.
- The Mask of Zorro: Captain Harrison Love works for Don Rafael Montero, but manages to be far worse. Hired by Rafael to kidnap and enslave local people for a gold mining operation, Love indulges his own perverse hobby on the side, collecting the body parts of the men he has killed and pickling them in his wine jars. Having gunned down Alejandro Marieta's brother Joaquin and partner, Three-Finger Jack, Love tries to force Alejandro to drink from the jars containing Joaquin's head and Jack's trademark hand as a form of psychological torture; he also tries to shoot through Don Rafael's daughter, Elena, when Zorro uses her as a shield. When Zorro exposes the existence of Don Rafael's gold mine to President Santa Anna, Love comes up with the idea of burying both mine and workers with explosives, an act that will kill thousands. When Zorro interrupts this attempted mass murder, Love taunts Zorro as they duel, telling him that "your brother would have shot himself by now." Described by Zorro as a "a very sick person", Captain Love was loyal only to his vices, and motivated only by the enactment of physical and psychological violence.
Comic Books
- Django/Zorro, by Quentin Tarantino, Matt Wagner, & Esteve Polls:
- Gùrko Zagreda Langdon is the Archduke of Arizona and a despicable slaver who sees himself as above all "commoners" by the decree of Manifest Destiny. Langdon feigns his way into becoming the Archduke by forging legal documents while killing anyone in his way, and passes off a native woman named Conchita he raises as Spanish royalty, marrying his way into power before raping and abusing Conchita all throughout the marriage. Langdon employs brutal slave labor of the native Indian tribes to build a colossal railroad through Arizona, killing many of them through the precarious missions to destroy the mesas blocking their path and having any others who complained tortured or murdered into silence. When opposed by Django and Zorro, Langdon heartlessly murders Zorro's steadfast servant Bernardo before deserting when the slaves revolt, killing his own son while decreeing him and his late wife a failure to his legacy.
- "Anvil Charlie", real name Chareg, is a native who sells out his own people to slavery for the chance of immunity. Named so for his proficiency with an anvil hammer, Charlie takes delight in torturing any slave who complains by breaking their bones with his hammer with many tortured and killed by him, dismissing their pleas that his victims used to be his friends. When Django himself is brought to him, Charlie revels in the chance to torture him and intends to go for Django's "soft oysters" as well.
- Lady Rawhide/Lady Zorro: Outlaw Blood, written by Shannon Eric Denton: The head slaver is a repugnant piece of work who goes from town to town capturing droves of women to sell as enslaved prostitutes in brothels, letting his men have a go at them to "keep warm" in the winter conditions, not even sparing children from the business. Cages full of women are seen ready for transport when Lady Rawhide and Lady Zorro come to bust his operation, and upon capturing the two of them, the head slaver threatens to have Lady Zorro "broken in" by him and his men.
Other Media, by release date
- 1990s series' "Siege": Pablo Zaragosa is a roving bandit who attempts to extort all the money out of the pueblo of Los Angeles under the threat of letting the townspeople die of thirst. Zaragosa cuts off their water supply, slaughters Los Angeles's guards with clear sadistic aplomb, and opts to massacre every single person in the pueblo when they continue to give him grief, even feigning surrender to shoot a man dead for giggles.
- The Shadow of Zorro (2001 game
): ''Capitan'' Fuertes sided with Napoléon Bonaparte to mass-execute his own people for rebellion against Bonaparte's cruel regime, with such proficiency he was named the Butcher of Zaragosa. Fuertes returns to a Spanish town much later to become its police chief, almost executing an innocent man as soon as he does so, intending to use his position to find and take the power of a terrifying Aztec god for himself. Fuertes even coldly guts Zorro's father Alejandro to use his blood as a sacrifice to pass through an Aztec temple. - Zorro: Generation Z's "The Rival": Admiral Rodriguez is a corrupt Navy officer who was forced into early retirement by automation-induced downsizing. Becoming obsessed with proving that he was still a force to be reckoned with, Rodriguez sets out to get revenge for his dismissal by orchestrating a series of deadly attacks against Pablo Grande. After his men steal tons of munitions, Rodriguez has the ammo loaded onto a galleon, which will be rammed into the city's naval base. Once the base is blown up and hundreds are dead, Rodriguez will deliver his coup de grâce using hijacked satellite missiles that will annihilate all of Pablo Grande, killing thousands more. When a subordinate suggests that they evacuate the rigged galleon early due to the presence of Zorro and the Scarlet Whip, Rodriguez reveals that the escape submarine only holds one, and that it had been his plan all along to abandon his crew—which included his own nephew—to die in the terrorist attacks.
- 2008 musical: Ramon, Diego's once-beloved best friend, grows to become a cruel tyrant who starves and oppresses the people. Keeping Diego's father Don Alejandro locked away, Ramon shows himself willing to have innocent civilians executed while trying to rape the object of his obsession, Luisa. Later fine with abandoning Alejandro to starve to death, Ramon orders a crowd of protesters gunned down, murdering Diego's beloved friend Inez and even rejects Diego's mercy to attempt to stab him after their final duel.
