Old Complete Monster cleanup thread
Welcome to the Complete Monster proposal thread! This is the thread where new Complete Monster examples are vetted, approved, and written up. If you're looking for the general cleanup thread (for cuts, rewrites, expansions, and the like), please go here
Important: Before suggesting any new examples, please read the Frequently Asked Questions and Common Requests List; if you have any questions, the odds are high they are answered there. Additionally, please check here for the earliest date a work can be discussed (usually two weeks from the U.S. release date) and whether the work has already been reserved by another user.
Here is how the process works:
- If you have a candidate to propose, you can simply come right in and propose them! If the character's run is brief, such as a single issue of a comic book, then a simple summary of their actions and any potential redeeming qualities will be enough; for longer-running candidates, an effortpost (EP) might be helpful for organizing the proposal. An EP is not outright required, but please be mindful that if a post becomes too clunky and unorganized, it can be very hard for other people to follow.
- After the proposal, there will be a 72-hour discussion and voting period, where people may ask questions and vote on the candidate. The number of upvotes must outnumber the downvotes by at least five for the character to be considered "approved".
- Three days after the proposal has been made, if the character has been approved, you may post the writeup (the text to be posted on the trope page itself) on the thread and send it to the drafts page. Your candidate will soon be added to the CM subpage. If the work has a page, you should add your candidate to the relevant YMMV page. Voila! It's that simple!
Outside of this process, we do have a few ground rules:
- To keep the thread moving at a reasonable pace, there are some restrictions on when a proposal can be made. There should only be a maximum of four EPs posted both per page and per hour to ensure that nothing gets lost in the shuffle; additionally, each individual troper should only be proposing or writing up characters from a maximum of three works at a time (from initial proposals to end of their voting period). If your proposal would fall outside of either of these guidelines, we'd like to ask you to please wait until they would fit within; feel free to type them up on an outside document, and then when the time comes, you can just copy, paste, and post!
- No plagiarism of any kind. This is a very serious matter site-wide, as the website could get in actual legal trouble over this; as a result, this can very quickly lead to mod intervention. This can take many different forms:
- Direct plagiarism, i.e. wholesale copying. This is not only the easiest to find, but is also the most likely to warrant quick moderator intervention. To be clear, quoting in some places is perfectly acceptable, but it has to be very clear you're quoting from something else and it cannot be anything longer than a sentence or two - if you're quoting an entire work summary from Wikipedia, no one is going to believe you've actually consumed the work, so even if you cite your source, your candidate will be downvoted anyway.
- Self-plagiarism. Even if you can prove that you wrote the same text in both places, the site itself can't contain any of the duplicated text. If you already wrote something once before, it's not too hard to write it a second time.
- Using another site's work as a template for a proposal. Just because you don't copy and paste something directly doesn't mean it's any harder to detect if you're basing parts or all of your proposal on text someone else wrote. To be clear, this doesn't violate site rules and won't lead to mod intervention, but just like if you directly plagiarize, no one will believe you've consumed the work if you're clearly basing your proposal on something else. This thread largely operates on the honor system, and tweaking someone else's work to pass it off as your own is one of the fastest ways to lose trust.
- Votes must be for specific candidates, meaning no blanket voting (i.e. "yes to everyone I missed").
- If you are the first person to downvote a candidate, please provide an explanation of why when you do so. We're here for discussions above all, and a hit-and-run downvote doesn't facilitate anything.
- If a work is already reserved by another user, please don't comment on the work or any potential characters worth discussion before the discussion date. We know how exciting it is when a work has a keeper that you're waiting to talk about, but it's not fair to the person who reserved the work who is just as excited to lead the discussion to see the discussion getting spoiled before they get to do it. On the other hand, if the reservation only has one name attached, shoot them a PM - they may be down for a collaboration, which will get you in on the fun as well!
- Please keep the thread on-topic. While discussing the trope is fun and we encourage people to enjoy it, questions like "who's your favorite CM" are off-topic and can lead to thumps. That's the kind of question to take to people's PMs if they're willing. Similarly, while we encourage friendliness and familiarity with other users, posts should always have some kind of thread-relevant purpose; for instance, if you want to wish someone a happy birthday, feel free to, but if it's the only thing in the post, it's off-topic and needs something else alongside it. Again, though, while we strive for a friendly atmosphere, this is not Facebook; life updates are fun, but unless they have some kind of impact on your thread participation, please do not bring it here - we have Yack Fest for that.
- Please refrain from asking anything along the lines of "How Did We Miss This One?" In almost every case, the answer is simply "No one thought about it before". This Is a Wiki where everyone has different interests, and the fact that people missed a particular candidate, even one that seems like a textbook example of a trope or a character who is particularly iconic in pop culture, means absolutely nothing. The question is disruptive, has a simple and consistent answer, and provides nothing to any discussion.
- If you are suspended from parts of the website, it is still possible to participate!
- For users who are suspended from editing the wiki, you still have full access to this thread. You can propose candidates and write them up with no issues whatsoever; while you will have to ask someone else to post the entry to the relevant pages once it is done, all write-ups are considered thread-approved - as in, done by consensus - and thus doing so does not violate any rules regarding meatpuppeting.
- If you are suspended from the forums, your participation is limited but not impossible. It is still possible for a forum-suspended user to assist in creating the write-up for a character who has already been approved; as previously mentioned, write-ups are inherently considered a consensus-based edit and thus not tied to any one particular user. However, you can not assist in the proposal of a character; as a proposal is based around the forum rather than the wiki, doing so with a forum suspension qualifies as meatpuppeting.
- Please keep all discussions "in-house".
- What other wikis use for CM equivalents is irrelevant here.
- Please be wary of using other wikis, Fandom or otherwise, as sources of information. They are just as fallible as a site like Wikipedia in regards to accuracy because they can be edited by any user, just as this site can.
- Do not attempt to force a communication with an author in an attempt to gather evidence or settle a debate; besides the fact that this is a YMMV trope and thus author intent has variable weight depending on the circumstance, doing so may cross the line into drama exportation, which is prohibited site-wide.
If you would like to use an EP for your candidate, here's the general format. This format does not have to be followed exactly, but these are the main topics that need to be covered:
What is the work?
This is a brief summary of the work you're going to discuss. We don't need a full plot summary here, just however much we need to understand going into the discussion — it can even be as simple as quoting the summary on the work's page.
Who is the candidate and what have they done?
This is essentially the character's biography — who they are, their story, the crimes they commit, and, preferably (though not required), what happens to the candidate at the end. It does not have to include every single thing they ever do — for some villains, we'd be here all day if that was the case — but it should include the highlights of their journey.
Any redeeming qualities? Freudian Excuse?
This is where any potential redeeming characteristics or tragic backstory should be discussed. Do they have a tragic past? Do they show that Even Evil Has Standards or Even Evil Has Loved Ones? Maybe a Pet the Dog moment or two? This is where these should be discussed in full. Not every potential redeeming moment is a clear-cut disqualifier, but we should hear of any potential issues to ensure the character is discussed in full.
Are they bad enough?
A Complete Monster has to be particularly vile by the standard of the work they appear in. Therefore, you should look at what the character does compared to similar characters in the same work. This takes into account things like:
- Their resource level (a human Serial Killer can't stand up to an alien Omnicidal Maniac, but they can be bad by the standard of other human serial killers)
- The amount of time they have to work with (such as a one-shot character versus long-running antagonists)
- The quantity vs. quality of their crimes compared to others (someone with a lower victim count but far more visceral and personal crimes could be considered as equally bad overall as someone with a higher body count but less horror involved)
Essentially, this section is an analysis of the kinds of villainy shown in the work and an explanation of why this particular character's villainy stands out within it.
Final verdict?
This is where you post your final conclusion on the character in question. You can continue elaborating on your reasons or even just say a simple "yes" or "no"; at this point, we've heard everything we need to hear.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This thread tackles very serious and dark matters on a daily basis. We will be discussing things like murder, rape, torture, human trafficking, crimes against children, and in particularly dark cases, several of these issues at the same time. We keep a lighthearted air, but all candidates carry the general assumption that these are awful individuals committing disgusting crimes. We ask that if you participate, you do so with the requisite seriousness such dark topics require; exclamations of how gross something is, whether serious or sarcastic, are disrespectful to the topics at hand, and if you cannot handle such topics, please do not participate.
And that's everything you need to know. Welcome to the thread!
Edited by Twiddler on Jan 17th 2024 at 5:42:49 AM
Switching no to Kanjar Ro
REALITY IS AN ILLUSION, THE UNIVERSE IS A HOLOGRAM, BUY GOLD BYEEEE! | She/Her
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
looks good for the box right now.
Showtime!
Lies and Violence!
Yes to Belia, Abyzou, and other Brainiac.
Chained echoes write ups
Also pretty much everything about the Vaen is a spoiler, they're not even revealed to exist till around halfway through the game and the revelation that they're actually evil doesn't happen till later
- Chained Echoes:
- The three Vaen are an ancient and powerful race that once helped defeat and seal away the evil Harbinger, before their power went to their heads and began to see themselves as gods over humanity. To strengthen the Harbinger's prison the Vaen would periodically release the destructive Grand Grimoire in the world so that it could cause mass devastation to reset human progress and use their souls to reinforce the prison. When the Grand Grimoire is stolen from them they are only enraged that someone would dare steal from them and send their giant champion to kill the thief and when the Crimson Wings kill it they create a giant fireball to kill everyone in Valandis with as punishment, showing that despite their claims they only truly care about maintaining their own power and superiority over mankind.
- Daimbert was a scientist from Tormund that was interested in transferring souls from one being to another and was exiled over wanting to try human experimentation. Founding the White Rose Inn, Daimbert would pose as a normal innkeeper to abduct passing travelers and experiment on them, such as transferring their souls into another person which would drive them insane before they killed themselves, or trap their souls inside a flower with them still fully conscious and aware. Abducting Lenne when the party is passing through, Daimbert used to try to capture the entire party to experiment on them only to run away when they got free. When confronted by them he has the only survivor of his experiments the little girl Arlette and orders her to kill them, threatening to beat her if she doesn't.
Mr.
Lord Vortech did explicitly tell the Tri to ‘destroy [Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle’s] worlds’ after saying that their dimensions would be ‘the first to suffer,’ meaning that he intended to destroy all universes and use the fragments to build his own. And Batman warns the Ghostbusters that Vortech’s plan for the multiverse is like Judgement Day, only worse. Also, while it’s true that there was some humour involving him pretending to be a cowboy in the Back to the Future level, and messing with Saruman in the beginning, those are about the only moments. Other Complete Monster characters have also had odd funny moments while still qualifying, like Emperor Nefarious dancing when celebrating his supposed victory, or the antics of various versions of the Joker. I just felt the need to put that out there for your consideration.
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Belia, Abyzu and Brainiac
![[tdown]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_down_emoticon_3571.png "[thumb down]"){kind=small}
Kanjar and Vortech
The Ultimate Lifeform
to Vortech. I just don't think he is heinous enough to overcome the challenge of existing in a LEGO universe.
It also feels re:Vortech that the overdose of pop culture references(ie: His plans will be "Judgement Day" but worse—>I will assume this is a Terminator shout out) make me question if even if we take a charitable look of the context that if the work does not take itself seriously enough for a CM and there is too much being played for laughs or not being treated as seriously as it should be.
Edited by xie323 on Feb 20th 2023 at 8:13:05 AM
Not the Eye
No to Vortech
- GARO: Crimson Moon: Rudra “the Catastrophe” is the ancient Horror bent on covering the world in darkness. After Rudra was sealed away by the Abe family, machinations of Douma Hoshi allowed it to possess Abe no Seimei as its vessel. Rudra proceeds to cause death and destruction across the Capital in order to completely break its seal, taking enjoyment in beating Raikou and Kintoki. Merging with Ashiya Douman after being freed at last, Rudra has Horrors scourge the capital, planning to reduce all of humanity to nothing more than food for its kind.
Vortech
Unofficial Wiki Curator for Complete Monster
Does Rudra go at the end of the tree?
CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts
Not the Eye
I lean toward the top, since it is Greater-Scope Villain.
OK... I think I've included everything for Astaroth — New Timeline.
Soul Series — Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.
The Soul series has surprisingly dense and complex lore for a story-light fighting game series and is composed of two continuities set in alternate but intersecting timelines — while being strongly implied to take place in the same fictional universe as the Tekken series (and also being kinda-sorta-maybe-somewhat canon to the Assassin's Creed, Spawn, and Mortal Kombat series via multiversal shenanigans and a glitch in the Animus). Rather than take up fifty-plus paragraphs explaining the minute details, though, I'll post a link to the New Legends of Project Soul artbook's chronology of the original timeline
◊ for anyone who's interested and/or confused to check out, as everything pre-1590 is still canon to the rebooted timeline.
The original timeline consists of Soul Edge/Blade (set in 1583), SoulCalibur (set in 1586), SoulCalibur II (set in 1590), SoulCalibur III (set in 1590), SoulCalibur IV (set in 1590), & Soulcalibur V (set in 1607). As of this writing the rebooted timeline consists solely of Soulcalibur VI, and spans the years 1583 to 1590. Soulcalibur Legends is a spinoff hack-and-slash game set in 1583, but is non-canon... or at least mostly non-canon, as some of its events are referenced in the rebooted timeline.
Soulcalibur VI is a Continuity Reboot that covers more or less the same events and plot points as the canon storyline of the original games from the end of Soul Edge/Blade up to the beginning of SoulCalibur II, fleshing things out and expanding upon many elements — including some details that are supposed to be canon to both timelines but went unrevealed. While some events and characters are exactly the same as they were in the original timeline, other details in the rebooted timeline are altered the point of almost being completely different, and things begin to diverge even more due to Zasalamel and Cassandra Alexandra gaining knowledge of the events of the original timeline.
- "Nightmare caused all this destruction?! How dare he go so far?! How dare he?! There's nothing left for me to kill!"
- 1583 — The dark god Palgaea the Executioner — aka the Greek god of war Ares — tasks Priest of Earth Kunpaetku, High Priest of the cult Fygul Cestemus, with retrieving the cursed sword Soul Edge, bestowing him a divine core imbued with memories of the fighting style of Nathanial "Rock" Adams — an axe-wielding warrior who Palgaea had taken notice of. Kunpaetku uses the divine core to create a golem he names Astaroth, intending to take Soul Edge for himself to usurp Palgaea as the god of destruction. Anticipating Kunpaetku's betrayal, Palgaea sends a dark spirit called Ker, Agent of Death, to guide Astaroth and ensure his loyalty is to Palgaea alone.
When Astaroth awakens, he is unintelligent, full of confusion and anger, and only capable of Hulk Speak. Noting that Astaroth's "crude" mind makes him ill-suited to retrieving Soul Edge, on Ares' request Ker imbues the golem with the memories and martial experience of various fallen warriors in order to bolster his intelligence. Unaware of this, Kunpaetku brings a group of chimeras to test his new creation's combat abilities, and Ker orders Astaroth to prove his worthiness to her and her master. Slaughtering the chimeras, Astaroth develops a taste for bloodshed and — informed by Ker that the war-god Ares is to thank for his newfound "wisdom and skill" — dismisses Kunpaetku as an unworthy master, contemplating killing him on the spot for daring to give him orders. Noting that his goals align with Kunpaetku's for the time being, Astaroth decides to feign loyalty to the High Priest of Fygul Cestemus until he and the cult he leads have outlived their usefulness. - 1584 — Equipped with a cursed greataxe called Kulutues, which further augments his strength and combat skills, Astaroth hones a fighting style centred around brutally crushing and maiming his opponents, and develops an insatiable appetite for bloodshed and destruction — relishing in the dying screams of his victims and in coming up with increasingly cruel ways to kill his enemies.
Dispatched by Kunpaetku alongside Aeon Calcos — a Spartan soldier chosen by the Greek god Hephaestus to destroy Soul Edge, only to be captured and mutated into a reptilian monster by Kunpaetku — and a horde of Lizardmen, Astaroth — in the middle of complaining how bored he is without anyone to fight — is attacked by assassins sent by Priest of Mars Kalnipahlk and Priest of Venus Kalnipohlk, who deem Kunpaetku's bioweapon experiments heretical and seek to usurp control of Fygul Cestemus from him. Slaughtering the would-be assassins, Astaroth laments that "a worm's dying scream can only be heard once". Curious about the "Great Cleansing" that Fygul Cestemus is obsessed with, Astaroth asks Ker if Ares enjoys "cleaning" — Ker saying that and is told that the God of War is renowned for his cleanliness and that Astaroth could stand to learn a lot from their master before admonishing him to focus on his mission — and decides to embrace that as a battle-cry.
Guided by the memories of the slain warriors he was imbued with, Astaroth traces Soul Edge's location to Europe and is awestruck at Nightmare's capacity for bloodshed... while throwing a tantrum at there not being anybody left for him to kill. Attacked by Spartan soldiers, Astaroth is perturbed to discover that Ares is Playing Both Sides before deciding it's none of his concern as long as he gets to run wild. - 1585 — Arriving in Ostrheinsburg Castle, Astaroth encounters Nightmare, kills some of his malfested soldiers, and learns that Soul Edge is in an incomplete state. Impressed by Astaroth's strength and bloodlust, Nightmare offers the golem a place in his army as one of his generals, offering to let him kill as much as he wants in exchange for his aid in restoring Soul Edge. Informed by Ker that Ares would be displeased to receive Soul Edge in its present condition, Astaroth agrees — intending to double-cross Nightmare (preferably by murdering him in his sleep) the moment Soul Edge is completed or his duplicity is discovered — and is granted the title "Sinister Sable".
- 1586 — For the next year, Astaroth rampages across Eurasia searching for Soul Edge's shards and trying to slaughter everyone he comes across; developing a hatred towards Ivy Valentine — another of Nightmare's lieutenants — due to her contempt towards his extreme bloodlust and her meddling in his fun by stopping him from hunting down survivors of his attacks.
Attacking a port city in India, Astaroth slaughters a crew of friendly pirates led by Maxi. Battling Kilik — a Chinese monk infected by Soul Edge's power — Astaroth is confused as to why he resists his malfestation instead of letting the evil consume him and surmises that the divine "mirror" Dvapara-Yuga is keeping Kilik's malfestation at bay. Mocking Kilik over the massacre he'd committed at the Ling-Sheng Su Temple, Astaroth goads him into succumbing to his malfestation, then gloats and withdraws while Kilik attacks Maxi in a berserk state.
Growing impatient, Kunpaetku dispatches agents to determine what's taking Astaroth so long to find Soul Edge. Asserting dominance by killing the leader of the would-be assassins, Astaroth sends them packing with an order to send more troops to prepare for his betrayal of Nightmare. Battling Grøh — an agent of the Aval Organization malfested after an ill-fated encounter with Nightmare, Astaroth boasts that Ares' divine blessing makes him invincible. As the moment of his betrayal draws nigh, however, Astaroth's good mood is spoiled by the epiphany that once he gives Soul Edge to Palgaea he will be bereft of purpose.
Quashing his burgeoning existential crisis, Astaroth confronts Ivy when she defects — unable to stomach his and Nightmare's genocidal bloodlust — and mockingly informs her that the Soul Edge she seeks to destroy has been right in front of her all along. Defeated, Astaroth contemptuously dismisses her as nothing more than a "spare vessel" before storming off to confront Kilik and his allies — Maxi and a young swordswoman named Chai Xianghua — when they attack Ostrheinsburg Castle. Maxi challenges Astaroth to a duel to avenge his crew, and despite Astaroth dealing a seemingly-fatal blow he is killed... for the time being.
The only qualities Astaroth has that could potentially be seen as "redeeming" are his camaraderie with Aeon (who is his subordinate and whose bloodlust and combat abilities he acknowledges as impressive) and Ker (who acts as his handler on behalf of Ares); and his loyalty to Palgaea, who he is initially fascinated by and curious about, but this is chipped away at by the realization that the God of War is Playing Both Sides and completely undermined by the realization that he would be devoid of purpose once he gave Soul Edge to his master, which leaves him shaken and upset to the point that his previously perfect day — in which he planned to finally backstab Nightmare and kill Ivy — is utterly ruined.
Astaroth was created by Kunpaetku to be nothing more than Dumb Muscle, a puppet with no will of its own, but Palgaea's intervention through Ker turned him into a Genius Bruiser with an unpleasant case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. Unlike in the original timeline, where it's implied that the Keres are controlling Astaroth at least indirectly, in the reboot timeline Ker is not controlling him, only giving him advice when asked.
There was a point of contention the last time I made an effortpost for Astaroth, with some people expressing concern that Ker imbuing Astaroth with the memories and combat experience of slain warriors removed his agency. To elaborate, in his story mode, Astaroth is initially a dimwitted brute only capable of Hulk Speak upon awakening, and is confused and angry. After noting his "crude" his mind would let Soul Edge easily dominate him, Ker grants him a divine boon from Ares in the form of the memories of slain warriors. Kunpaetku has him fight a group of Lizardmen to test his combat abilities, after which Astaroth develops his Boisterous Bruiser/Blood Knight personality; and learning that he owes his eloquence to Ares is what causes him to develop a condescending opinion of humans. Nothing I can find in SoulCalibur VI's Soul Chronicles or Astaroth's museum entry provides any information about the slain warriors beyond them having been highly skilled and some of them having been killed by Soul Edge. However, Astaroth's profile in the museum mode makes no mention of these memories particularly influencing his personality, just that the martial experience he inherited from them made him "the perfect warrior to serve the cult".
And unlike Tira, Astaroth is fully aware his actions are considered evil, and not only does he not care he absolutely loves it, mocking Kilik and Grøh for not embracing their malfestation.
To summarize the various other antagonists of the series:
- Soul Edge — Once an ordinary sword corrupted by hatred and bloodshed in an ancient age of constant war, Soul Edge developed a malicious will of its own (Inferno) that is dedicated to the corruption and annihilation of all life. It brainwashes or outright controls its wielders — shapeshifting to suit their fighting style, consumes the souls of its victims, and corrupts those exposed to its power into often-monstrous malfested. Soul Edge is linked to the eldritch dimension of Astral Chaos, which exists outside of space and time, and withdraws into it when badly damaged — scattering its shards in the process. Subjugated by the Hero-King Algol, Soul Edge corrupted his son Arcturus — leading to Algol vengefully creating Soul Calibur to destroy it.
Its next known host was an Egyptian pharaoh who used it to bring about a "terrible catastrophe", a Saxon warlord who fought against King Arthur (who wielded Soul Calibur), and Zasalamel — who unsuccessfully sought to use it to end his curse of immortality. Ending up in the hands of the Dread Pirate Cervantes de Léon, Soul Edge transformed into two swords — one of which was shattered by Sophitia Alexandra's divine sword. Inferno possessed Cervantes' corpse to test Siegfried Schtauffen when he tried to claim the remaining blade, and after being defeated offered to resurrect his father if he helped gather the shards scattered by its other half's destruction. Siegfried agreed and was malfested into Nightmare, Inferno impersonating Siegfried's father to further manipulate him into embracing its corruption. - Cervantes de Léon — A ruthless pirate who terrorized the Atlantic Ocean for 28 years, attacking every ship he came across, before claiming Soul Edge. Malfested and enthralled, Cervantes slaughtered his crew and rampaged for 3 years — raping the daughter of the Black Tail Inn's owner — before disappearing for 25 more years. Slain by Sophitia (a baker turned holy warrior chosen by Hephaestus to destroy Soul Edge) and Taki (a demon-slaying ninja), he was reanimated by Soul Edge. Regaining his memories and sadistic bloodlust after being attacked by a former crew-member, Cervantes began slaughtering everyone he came across in the hopes of becoming strong enough to reclaim the sword without being enthralled again. Hunting down his daughter Ivy, Cervantes defeated her but decided she wasn't worth killing yet, challenging her to come back when her soul was a worthy feast.
- Voldo — A blind and mute assassin employed as the right hand and bodyguard of the Italian weapon-merchant Vercci, a business associate of Cervantes who'd hired him to obtain Soul Edge. Ordered by his dying master to guard the boobytrapped vault containing his fortune, Voldo killed the workers who'd helped build it and anyone who sought it to steal the treasures within. Going insane, Voldo hallucinated hearing his master's voice ordering him to seek out Soul Edge, and left the Money Pit to do just that. Voldo returned to find that in his absence a torrential downpour had flooded the Money Pit — disabling most of its traps — and a group of treasure-hunters led by Ivy Valentine had infiltrated it. Furious, Voldo slaughtered most of the treasure hunters, though Ivy escaped with some of Vercci's notes. Ordered by Vercci's ghost to retrieve the stolen treasure and use Ivy to hunt down Soul Edge, Voldo tracked Ivy's energy signature to Valencia, where he was attacked by the ghosts of those killed by Cervantes, who he remembered Vercci had hired to retrieve Soul Edge decades prior. Following Ivy's energy signature into the Alps, he came into conflict with agents of the Aval Organization that were hunting Ivy as well. Retrieving Vercci's notes, Voldo learned from Ivy that Soul Edge had been destroyed and returned to the Money Pit, where Vercci's ghost praised him for a job well-done.
- Nightmare (Siegfried Schtauffen) — The son of a German knight who became the leader of a group of bandits called Schwarzwind. After accidentally murdering his father Frederick, Siegfried went insane, deluded himself that someone else had done it, and became obsessed with revenge. Hearing rumours of Soul Edge, the ultimate weapon, Siegfried began searching for it, swearing fealty to Sir Stefan of Ostrheinsburg Castle — believing his sword Grimblade/Gram to be Soul Edge — before betraying and murdering him to steal it.
Siegfried finally located Soul Edge in the Spanish city of Valencia, looting it from the corpse of Cervantes de Léon (though not without a fight). Malfested, Siegfried assumed the mantle of Nightmare and spent the next three years slaughtering everyone he came across — Inferno promising to resurrect his father if he restored Soul Edge and impersonating Frederick's ghost to gaslight him. Nightmare claimed Ostrheinsburg as his base of operations, attacked the kingdom of Wolfkrone, malfested Grøh and Johan Dürer when they picked fights with him, and began building an army of malfested (with Astaroth, Aeon Calcos, and Ivy Valentine as his lieutenants). Freed from Soul Edge's control when it was badly damaged by Xianghua — who was wielding Soul Calibur — and the rogue malfested monk Kilik, Siegfried regained his sanity and was horrified by his actions, trying to hide Soul Edge away. Attacked by those seeking revenge for his sins as Nightmare or to claim Soul Edge for themselves, Siegfried was slowly taken over again and — this time directly controlled by Inferno — assembled a new sword-themed cabal of Malfested to spread chaos and recover Soul Edge's shards. - Aeon Calcos — A Spartan soldier chosen by Hephaestus as one of 27 holy warriors to destroy Soul Edge. Malfested by the Evil Seed unleashed by Siegfried claiming Soul Edge, he was captured by Fygul Cestemus and mutated into a reptilian humanoid by Kunpaetku. Joining Nightmare's army alongside Astaroth, Aeon was given the title "Base Vert" and indulged his carnivorous hunger for flesh while helping search for Soul Edge's shards and harvest more souls.
- Palgaea — An ancient god of destruction worshipped by Fygul Cestemus, and known in Greece as the god of war Ares. He sought to claim Soul Edge for himself to obtain absolute power for an unknown purpose, and sent the dark spirit Ker to act as a handler for Astaroth.
- Ivy Valentine — The daughter of Cervantes de Léon, Ivy was adopted by an English aristocrat and alchemist obsessed with Soul Edge — which he believed to be the secret to obtaining immortality. Becoming an alchemist herself, Ivy researched Soul Edge and learned of its true nature, deciding to destroy it. Using her knowledge, Ivy created a whip-sword with a soul of its own that was given life by Nightmare (Siegfried) in exchange for her swearing fealty to him. Not realizing Nightmare wielded Soul Edge, Ivy — empathizing with the brainwashed Siegfried's desire to resurrect his father — became one of his lieutenants until she grew disenchanted by his and Astaroth's bloodlust. When she attempted to leave, Astaroth confronted her and mockingly revealed the truth about Nightmare and her own heritage to her.
- Raphael Sorel — A French noble who was cast out by his own family and became a wanted criminal for killing another noble in self-defence during the Evil Seed. Aided by a young orphan girl named Amy, Raphael adopted her as his daughter and became the heir to Lord Dumas manor. When Lord Dumas tried to pressure him into sending Amy away, Raphael murdered him and forged papers to inherit Dumas' property and title. Coming across Azwel's research notes into Soul Edge, Raphael was manipulated into seeking out the cursed sword by the Evilutionary Biologist.
- Zasalamel — The sole surviving member of the Guardians of the Spirit Sword, the descendants of the sages chosen by Algol to purify and watch over Soul Calibur. Exiled for attempting to claim Soul Calibur for himself, Zasalamel became obsessed with immortality and cursed himself to be reincarnated each time he died. Coming to regret this decision, Zasalamel became obsessed with finding a way to permanently die — even willingly taking up Soul Edge in the hopes that it would destroy his soul. Hoping that Soul Calibur might be able to break his curse, he found his tribe had long-since disappeared — and Soul Calibur with them. Theorizing based on Azwel's research that absorbing the power of both Soul Swords would be enough to break his curse, Zasalamel initially planned to absorb their power to break his curse... but received a vision of the future (the original timeline) and realized that someone or something was causing events to diverge from how they should be proceeding, setting out to find the cause of this divergence.
- Tira — A sadistic assassin raised from birth to love mutilation and murder. When the Evil Seed struck, Tira was separated from the other members of her squad and found herself adopted by a family. Killing them in a fit of rage over a minor slight, Tira developed equally bloodthirsty split personalities and went AWOL to become a serial killer, butchering an unknown number of victims. Learning of Nightmare and believing she'd found a kindred spirit, she began searching for him and eventually made her way to Ostrheinsburg Castle, where Zasalamel informed her that Nightmare was merely a puppet for Soul Edge. Tira eagerly swore fealty to Soul Edge and set out to find it.
- Johan Dürer — A knight of in service to Lord Eckart of Rauchburg sent as an emissary to the kingdom of Wolfkrone, having been a good friend of King George von Krone during his days as a mercenary. Training Princess Hildegarde von Krone in the way of the sword, Johan was devastated when King George was malfested by the Evil Seed. Determined to vanquish the malfested scourge, Johan learned that the ruler of the malfested was a warrior called Nightmare and led Rauchburg's knights to ambush him. Nightmare singlehandedly slaughtered them all — including Johan's beloved sons — except for Johan himself, who was malfested by the energy infesting his wounds and joined Nightmare's army. When Nightmare was defeated by Xianghua and Kilik, Johan assumed command of what was his army, directing them to hunt down the scattered shards of Soul Edge and wreak havoc across Eurasia to prepare for their king's return. When Nightmare returned, Johan was promoted to his cabal of sword-themed malfested as the "Greatblade" and was sent to bring even more chaos to Wolfkrone. Taking a troop of malfested disguised as mercenaries, Johan pretended to still be a friend and ally to lure Hildegard — now regent — into a false sense of security, then secretly abducted King George and baited Hilde into an ambush intending to kill her. Hilde revealed she had suspected Johan was a traitor all along and had her cousin/fiancé Wilhelm spring an ambush of his own, forcing Johan to unleash George as a diversion to escape to Ostrheinsburg Castle.
- Algol — An ancient hero who became a god-emperor after subjugating the nascent Soul Edge and ending an age of war. When his jealous son Arcturus stole Soul Edge and was taken over by it, Algol was forced to kill him in self-defence. Overcome by grief and sorrow, Algol devoted the rest of his life to finding a way to destroy Soul Edge and ultimately sacrificed himself to create Soul Calibur. Algol's soul ended up in Astral Chaos, absorbing its energies to apotheosize into a Humanoid Abomination more-or-less completely devoid of his former humanity. Awakened prematurely by Iska dragging Mitsurugi into Astral Chaos, Algol — strongly implied to retain his memories of the original timeline — plotted to escape Astral Chaos, reclaim Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, duel Mitsurugi, and conquer the World of the Living.
- Azwel — A high-ranking member of the Aval Organization (a group of monster-slayers founded by the Knights of the Round Table) who happens to be a sadistic Mad Scientist. Studying the malfested produced by the Evil Seed and the "holy" energy emitted by a shard of Soul Calibur, Azwel became obsessed with combining their power to forcibly "evolve" humanity. Tricking Grøh into helping him with his "research" by obtaining a shard of Soul Edge, Azwel malfested Grøh's friend Curtis before going AWOL after his ambitions and cruel experiments were exposed. Approaching Raphael Sorel, who had obtained some of his research notes regarding Soul Edge, Azwel manipulated him into seeking out Soul Edge. When Raphael's adopted daughter Amy confronted him, Azwel threatened to experiment on her — revealing he was the one who turned her into Viola in the original timeline — if she meddled in his plans.
- Curtis — A high-ranking member of the Aval Organization, Curtis was good friends with Grøh and helped subdue King George von Krone after he was malfested. When Grøh was defeated and malfested by Nightmare, Curtis began to suspect his friend was unwell despite Grøh's attempts to keep his corruption a secret and under control. Alongside Grøh, Curtis was tricked into helping Azwel with his "research" by obtaining a shard of Soul Edge, discovering Grøh was malfested and attempted to put him out of his misery. When his duplicity was discovered, Azwel infected Curtis with the shard of Soul Edge's energy, forcing Grøh to cut him down. However, Curtis was revived by an offshoot of Inferno called Vier and became a member of Nightmare's sword-themed Malfested as the "Sword of the Inquisitor", guarding Ostrheinsburg Castle from intruders.
- Won Gabok — A power-hungry Taoist monk who became a member of Nightmare's cabal of sword-themed malfested as the "Sword of Cursed Flame". Partnered with Iska, he sought to instigate a civil war in Korea in order to harvest souls for Soul Edge. Gabok sought to kill his sister and destroy the evil-cleansing mirror she protected, but was defeated by Hwang Seong-gyeong and forced to flee back to Ostrheinsburg Castle.
- Iska Acht — Also known as "Iska Farkas" or just "Acht"; an offshoot of Inferno that gaslit Siegfried into embracing Soul Edge's corruption and becoming Nightmare. Physically incarnated alongside seven "siblings" and taking on a female form, Iska was paired with Won Gabok and helped him stir up chaos in Korea by malfesting members of his Society of Salvation cult to kickstart a civil war. However, Iska was disdainful towards Gabok and sought to find a more worthy partner. Desiring to pair with Siegfried again, she approached his soul in Astral Chaos and reminded him of how she once helped him become the champion of the Holy Roman Empire, attempting to persuade him to willingly become Nightmare again so that Soul Edge could unleash its full power. Rejected, Iska next set her sights on Mitsurugi and dragged him into Astral Chaos in an attempt to malfest him, only for their battle to accidentally awaken Algol.
- Cassandra Alexandra — The Cassandra from the original timeline, trapped in Astral Chaos following the events of SoulCalibur IV after coming across Sophitia's corpse. Witnessing the events of SoulCalibur V's Downer Ending — her nephew Patroklos being gaslit by Nightmare (Graf Dumas) and corrupted by Soul Calibur, and her niece Pyrrha living a life of suffering only to be corrupted by Soul Edge and killed by her own brother — Cassadra gave in to despair and was malfested, reduced to an amnesiac monstrous shell of her former self... until she ran into her past self from the rebooted timeline, who had been pulled into Astral Chaos. Restored to her senses by a thorough butt-kicking, Cassandra (Original Timeline) warned her past self of what was to come should nothing be done to change the course of history, leaving Cassandra (Reboot Timeline) determined to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and ensure her family would be safe, happy, and whole.
Astaroth is a sadistic Blood Knight whose character profile emphasizes that he is merciless, loves nothing more than the dying screams of his victims, and enjoys using his giant curse-augmented battle-axe to kill as many people as possible as brutally as possible. The various Soul Chronicles featuring him double down on this, showing Astaroth loudly complaining how bored he is when there's no-one around for him to kill, smugly goading Kilik into giving in to his Superpowered Evil Side while massacring Maxi's crew, gleefully wiping out entire villages, whining when Ivy stops him from hunting down survivors, and plotting to double-cross both Kunpaetku and Nightmare while setting up — or at least making a Call-Forward to — his eventual betrayal of Ares.
Despite being the youngest character on the roster, Astaroth's body count is implied to only be surpassed by Soul Edge itself and its hosts Cervantes de Léon and Nightmare, and unlike them he's not Made of Evil or Brainwashed and Crazy. And unlike Tira, the next runner-up in the "Blood Knight with a body-count" contest, he's 100% unambiguously aware that his actions are evil and couldn't care less.
, but I've included his Soul Chronicle story mode in the Sources folder below for people to check out and decide for themselves.
Edited by Arawn999 on Feb 20th 2023 at 1:15:01 AM
Not the Eye
Yes to Astaroth
WORK
Assassin's Creed Odyssey novel is a novelization of namesake game written by Gordon Doherty.
The Novel follows Kassandra a mercanery of spartan origin who escaped her homeland following her attempt to prevent sacrifice of her younger brother Alexios. She lived on island of Kephalonia until a man named Elpenor hired her to kill a spartan general nicknamed Wolf.
CANDIDATE
Qualification of this candidate may depend on whether the novelization will be subjected to same heinous standard as rest of franchise or different.
Now, Ubisoft said the novel is canon, but some event are depicted differently. For example, one of Cultists Hermippos is killed during ship battle which is impossible in a game. Myrrine kills Lagos and Kassandra still successfully exposes Pausanias even though you need to spare Lagos for that or fight Stentor. Neither of these happened in the novel.
WHO IS THE MONGER?
The Monger is a Korintia crime boss and a member of Cult of Kosmos. A sadistic torturer, the Monger's modus operandi is torturing his victims by melting of their flesh piece by piece with a hot poker before killing them.
The Monger is first introduced during Cult's meeting inside Cave of Gaia where tortures with a poker a man hired by Cult for blundering his task of killing athenian sculptor Phidias before he kills him by sawing off his head.
When Kassandra visits Korinthia during search of her mother, she learns from Anthousa, the leader of heterae of Korinth, the Monger has killed three of her girls while one who managed to escape from him was left with featureless mesh of scars and two empty eye sockets
Inside his den, the Monger keeps a group of prisoners ,including two heterae Roxana and Erinna, whom he tortures one by one in order to find out a location of Anthousa's hideout. When his latest victim refuses to betray Anthousa because it will be blasphemy toward Aphrodite, the Monger throws him alive in molten cauldron.
Meanwhile Kassandra and a spartan general Brasidas are waiting in hiding for a moment to strike. Unfortunately, the Monger already figured out Brasidas is hiding. After capturing them he reveals only reason he didn't capture Brasidas before is because he enjoys giving his victims a little hope before puting them to a terrible end. The Monger plans to rope Brasidas by ankles and dip his head in molten pool, and torture Kassandra until she joins Cult. Tying her to table, the Monger starts torturing her by burning her thigh before Erinna and Roxana arrived to rescue them. In ensuing battle, the Monger is killed by being thrown in molten cauldron.
MITIGATING QUALITIES
Nothing.
HEINOUSNESS.
Now, i will compare him with characters from novel.
Apart from Alexios and Aspasia only nine members of Cult are named in the book.
Diona and Lagos are background characters while Elpenor, Hermippos, and Pausanias don't do much.
Alexios kills Perikles and Brasidas.
Now for remaining three
Chrysis raised Alexios but there is no mention of her torturing him or any other child. Her crimes include sending two other Cultists to eliminate Hippocrates, cutting her son's tongue and burning an altar with a baby on it. There are some implications she may practicises child sacrifice. Her son has written on walls, "No mother let them live", and when he kills her, he mouths to her how young ones can now live.
Silanos has his men kill shipwrecked sailors. He cuts one of them before having him tied to a ship and thrown into sea so sharks attracted by his wounds would eat him alive. When Kassandra and Myrrine attempt to break his blockade, Silanos order his men to capture them alive and any other survivor tie to lead ingots and throw them into sea with ropes long enough they can claw at air with their finger but not reach it with their mouths.
It seems Kleon is at least nominal leader of Cult instead of Aspasia. He has a man named Meliton tortured to death. During his talk with Kassandra he reveals how he used athenian army to punish cities for siding with Sparta or even remaining neutral by routing them utterly. He also plans to win Battle of Amphipolis so he could gain access to Thrakian army with whom Kleon intends to shackle all of Greece.
Cyclops tortures Barnabas and keeps heads of his three victims as trophies.
Verdict
You decide
Unofficial Wiki Curator for Complete Monster
I'm abstaining on Astaroth. I'll leave discussion of Monger to those more familiar with the series.
CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts
to Abyzu and Brainiac. I’m also comfortable giving a to both Astaroth and The Moger
That said I’m switching to a for Kanjar and a for Vortech
The Emperor of Evil!
to Astaroth
Abstain on Mangor (I know the heinous standards is high so I'm unsure on them).
Yes to Astaroth and I'll lean yes to the Monger as, going off the Monster page, seems to be equal to Carniface at the same resource levels.
Think you're tough because you made it through Lord of the Rings? Real men survive The Silmarillion.
Not the Eye
Lean to Monger
(Retracted until I have watched the whole show)
Edited by EmperorGeode on Feb 20th 2023 at 12:48:43 PM
Abstain on Infinata, destroying a galaxy is bad enough but if the narrative handles it extremely casually, it might be one of those "horrible on paper, but wayyy too little narrative weigh" sort of thing
That said, I think Infinata makes a few more appearances from some extremely vague memories of this show so he could still qualify depending on how other episodes handle him.
Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button
Did you at least look up synopses of the other episodes to make sure no one worse shows up? It doesn’t matter how bad a candidate is- there is always the possibility of someone even worse. And the fact that he apparently shows up in other episodes further convinced me that we are being given an incomplete picture here. Abstain.
One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.
The Emperor of Evil!
Agreed, I was gonna do Wisecrack during my rundown of the Genesis universe until I discovered a villain leagues worse than him, best to watch the series in full before doing him. Count me as abstain.
Edited by Powermaster201 on Feb 20th 2023 at 3:35:11 PM
Image Pickin'
& quote discussion
for the Ace Attorney sandbox.
CM Dates; CM Pending; CM Drafts