Subpages cleanup: Complete Monster

Who is Doctor Nye?

A member of a strange, sapient type of monster species, Doctor Nye is a demented war criminal who used to be employed by Mevolent—this world's equivalent to Voldemort, who led a 300-year long genocidal war. When the war ended, Nye managed to escape punishment for the tortuous experiments it committed on pows and continued its research by setting up a laboratory that rendered all humans who entered into a state of undeath—when we first meet it, it has numerous people in various states of dissection on display. Fortunately, because they're dead and all, they can't feel any of the pain, though Nye makes clear its displeasure at this. Still, staying conscious to watch an inhuman creature vivisect you is adequately horrible in its own right.

Series protagonist Valkyrie Cain first goes to it because she needs an important surgery done, but Nye insists on keeping her forever for further experimentation. She manages to break free and, after a scuffle where it tries to throw her heart into a fire, she threatens it into letting her go once the operation is complete.

It later returns as the new head of the Irish Sanctuary (magical government) medical staff, supposedly because it's the best option they have in their current status quo of "some new threat is always trying to kill everything at every waking moment" and they can't be picky. Really, it's because there's a coup being orchestrated, and the masterminds need an amoral piece of shit they can rely on to be an amoral piece of shit. Two noteworthy things happen to it during its employment there:

• The assassins Tanith Low and Billy-Ray Sanguine break in and force it to heal the latter. Nye agrees in exchange for the pair killing someone for it—the leader of another Sanctuary concerned with Irish Sanctuary's ability to handle these constant threats, which sets them down the path of a global war the coup masterminds intend to use to take over.
• Two idiot zombies demand to have their brains transplanted into living bodies, offering the immortal, undead assassin known as the White Cleaver as payment. Nye does so and rebrands its prize as the Black Cleaver, but also takes a bit of petty revenge for the annoyance the pair caused it by transplanting them into the wrong bodies.

The coup is foiled and Nye is imprisoned, but it's broken out of jail by cult leader Eliza Scorn, who, because of reasons, hates the current Grand Mage of the Irish Sanctuary and has Nye send the Black Cleaver after her. In the middle of a fight for the fate of the world. They're not very smart. It pops up every once in a while as Skulduggery and Valkyrie track it down to its new labs to interrogate it for whatever they need help with at the moment, with Nye always either bargaining for its freedom or escaping at the last second.

However, it starts causing problems again when it produces "Splash," a magic-boosting recreational drug that occasionally makes its users lose control or die. Nye uses the data from this "test run" to begin experimenting on ways to give magic to mortal humans, horrifically experimenting on American soldiers in an alliance with the idiotic president Martin Flannery; new villain Crepuscular Vies; and an alternate universe version of itself, Professor Nye. We get a small chapter from the POV of one of these soldiers, who is in constant agony from his organs imploding and only reacts to his violent death via the energy buildup inside of him causing him to explode with relief that it's finally over.

Doctor Nye convinces Flanery to greenlight further tests against Vies' wishes, putting the subjects in even more danger but leaving all of the survivors with magical abilities. Nye proceeds to mass-produce these super-soldiers for Flanery's war against the sorcerers, making basically every cop and soldier in the country into pseudo-sorcerers.

...Unfortunately, there are still a few hiccups. The Splashes are incredibly debilitating on the body and mind, and the soldiers are just as likely to go insane and kill each other as they are their enemies. If they don't explode first. One chapter shows a mere congratulatory slap on the back after a successful mission escalating into the entire group massacring itself. And pretty much every nation in the world that can make Flanery's price are getting mass-shipments of Splash, so... not good.

The Nyes eventually capture Skulduggery and Valkyrie. Skulduggery will be tortured before his soul is pulled out of his body to dissipate into the ether, while Valkyrie will be kept alive forever as part of Doctor Nye's experiments into giving magic to mortals permanently, not just via drugs, to see what effects it will have on them long-term. Going by everything else, it probably wouldn't be good.

Professor Nye suddenly kills the Doctor, eats its brains, and absorbs its knowledge. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Heinousness?

Before this latest book, it probably wouldn't have cut it. We see plenty of horrific displays of its experiments to get an idea of what it did under Mevolent's employ without the weird undeath enchantment thing, but it's still a bit too offscreen/out of focus for my tastes.

And then Flanery declares war, with Nye as his primary backer. Through their alliance, Nye is able to continue its sick experiments with gleeful abandon, manipulating Flanery into abandoning Vies' more cautious approach and giving it the go-ahead for further operations despite the incredible danger posed to its subjects. While they're still kind of shit, the super-soldiers are the main reason why Flanery is so effective in his genocidal war, and the soldiers themselves are at frequent risk of fatal side effects. While it's ambiguous as to whether its alliance with Vies is still intact by the time the war gets off the ground, Nye undoubtedly shares the bulk of the blame for Flanery becoming such a problem.

Any mitigating factors?

The scenes where Skulduggery and Valkyrie hunt it down to interrogate it are usually Played for Laughs, and Nye occasionally gives out advice or warnings without any prompting. That's just because it either wants to satisfy its own scientific curiosity or it knows that if something goes wrong they'll be back to annoy it again. Nye is a sadistic, cowardly madman who would gladly back anyone, even genocidal madmen who want to nuke the world, so long as it can continue its experiments.

to Nye

to Nye

Bill Nye the asshole science guy

Nye.

Sure to Nye.

to Nye

Marie, Martin and Nye. Gillick.

I think I’ll maintain my Gallic. Even if he isn’t the first guy trying to destroy a country for a minor villain with limited screen and fewer resources that’s still very bad even within the Xenoblade universe, especially since we are including the other Xeno works (like gears and saga)

Edited by G-Editor on Jul 16th 2022 at 9:28:10 AM

I'm admitingly not comfortable up voting a guy whose deeds amount to "Mor Ardain's gonna be in big trouble" in the same verse as guys like Zanza and Amalthus who are both played to the full extent.

Yes to Nye.

So in terms of villains who kill exactly zero people but are probably worth posts...that brings me to my very final CGW candidate, also from Project Black Sky. This dude was a recurring foe of X, serving as the Arc Villain twice in the series 24 issue run...

What has Lt. Jeffrey Setter done?

High-ranking officer Lt. Setter turns out to be Arcadia City's finest example of a Dirty Cop. Under the name "El Jefe" Setter has copious amounts of hard, illegal drugs pumped into the streets of Arcadia City so he can profit off human misery, all while using his position in the law to jail anyone who could rat him out, even his own associates.

Setter decides to stoop to outright murder when he sets up four of the only honest cops in the city's police force to die at the hands of X. Unfortunately for him, X sees through his trick and spares the officers. Setter captures three of them and tortures them, trying to kill them all after—he manages to belly-shoot one after getting her to let her guard down (she survives) and threatening to murder X's assistant (again, X outwits the crazy fuck).

Spared by X for now, Setter takes up the mantle "Gundog" and becomes even worse. He starts a nasty drug epidemic through north Arcadia City; the drug in question is "Sangre," a terrifyingly addictive homebrew drug which makes people murderously crazy and, oh yeah, causes them to bleed uncontrollably from the eyes, throwing them into psychotic frenzy. A rash of assaults and home invasions across the city ensue as Setter's druggies run wild. Setter uses hundreds of these addicted innocents as his own personal army, promising a lifetime supply of Sangre to anyone who can bring him X's heart. After this, he finally earns his Karmic Death when a fellow vigilante blows his brains out.

Any mitigating factors?

As aforementioned, though it's certainly not for lack of trying, Setter never actually succeeds in killing anyone by the end of his arc. What clips the Sangre epidemic for me a bit is that it's never actually explicitly shown to be lethal. It's still portrayed as a horrible, mind-ruining thing—hence why I'm still giving him the post, since he spikes hundreds of people with this drug basically as a way of getting X's attention—but still, nobody dead.

Setter's worse than every other villain in X except Heide and the Archon (the latter of whom is an immortal superhuman), plus the fair majority of one-off villains from the expanded universe. Crime lords like Carmine Tango and the guy who turns himself into a pig in the first arc never hurt nearly as many people as Setter. Heide is more the complicating factor—Setter's epidemic affects more people than Heide ever does, but Heide's methods are significantly more visceral and sadistic.

Conclusion?

What do we say? Setter destroys a lot of innocent lives, but he's the only one from Project Black Sky I'm kind of unsure about.

Edited by Scraggle on Jul 16th 2022 at 1:41:07 PM

I'm...not sure. In a vacuum, sure, but in CGW? I duno.

Gonna be reading up on the EP’s later, gonna be at a friends wedding, and I’ve been getting ready all day.

Edited by Beast on Jul 16th 2022 at 12:56:25 PM

Yes to Vecna - this situation with the MF reminds me of Palps and Snoke and how we're still not sure how much agency Snoke had. Unless another novel came out clarifying something.

Yes to Nye and Flannery but am unsure on Setter.

Pending:

• Murder on the Leviathan: Marie Sanfon
• Skulduggery Pleasant (EmeraldEmperor)
• The A-Team (Jackie)
• ...And Justice for All: Judge Henry T. Fleming (Lighty)
• Infinite Apostles and Twelve War Girls: Second Prince Razzel Kenz (Regal-Secure)

If someone wants to Ping Regal...I'm unsure how with the hyphen.

EDIT: BTW, for Tarkin...A Nazi by Any Other Name work for him?

Edited by ACW on Jul 16th 2022 at 4:31:21 AM

I sent a message to Regel.

Yes to Skulduggery duo

Sure to Setter, sounds like he's just bad enough

I’m actually gonna give a slight to Setter. Getting hundreds of people to painfully bleed out of their eyes is quite an evil niche, even if he doesn’t kill anybody himself.

Yes to Setter and fine with the Tarkin change.

One more to go for Skulduggery, as I have finally caught my white whale.

• Doctor Nye is a demented war criminal formerly employed by Mevolent, infamous for the twisted experiments it performed on prisoners. An unrepentant sadist, Nye is hired by the Roarhaven mages to aid in their efforts to take over the world, sending Tanith and Sanguine to assassinate Quintin Strom in order to fray international tensions for the War of the Sanctuaries. In its final and most evil outing, Nye allies with President Flanery in his genocidal war against sorcerers, torturing numerous soldiers to give them temporary access to magic via Nye's "Splash" drug. While the experiments are successful for the survivors, these Splashes nonetheless cause horrific physical and mental damage to their users, making Flanery's Super Soldiers unstable and prone to killing each other rather than their enemies. With these Splashes nonetheless made available to police officers and militaries all over the world, Nye proves itself utterly bereft of morals and willing to side with anyone to further its research.
• Martin Flanery is the idiotic president of the United States, chosen by Abyssinia to be her mortal pawn in creating an Unmasqued World. Flanery gleefully goes along with Abyssinia's vile plans while insisting they were his all along, sacrificing the soldiers stationed at the Whitley Naval Magazine to be slaughtered in an attack that will expose magic to the world. From there he intends to lead the mortals in a war against sorcerers, bombing his own country to destroy the American Sanctuary and setting up a dynasty in the aftermath of the carnage. Although these initial plans are foiled, Flanery takes advantage of the Faceless Ones revealing themselves to the world to continue with his genocidal declaration of war, employing Doctor Nye in turning mortal soldiers into magical Super Soldiers while ignoring the many dangerous side effects, all the while whipping the masses into a hateful frenzy as sorcerers attempting to save them from the Shalgoth are instead executed via firing squads, hangings, and being burned at the stake. A blithering moron who would condemn the entire world to nuclear Armageddon to satisfy his fragile ego, Flanery is the embodiment of the worst humanity has to offer.
• The Skulduggery Pleasant Grimoire: Abrogate Raze, the father of Skulduggery Pleasant himself, wandered the world in search of a part of himself he felt was missing. Eventually marrying Quinlan Forte, Raze murdered her after coming to realize love was not what he was seeking and left a trail of destruction in his wake as he usurped numerous cults in pursuit of his true purpose, allying with Mevolent as a high-ranking researcher in the 300 Year War. Finding his spiritual awakening in Gog Magog—the God of the Apocalypse, who was stripped of his power and banished by the other gods for annihilating countless civilizations—Raze set to spreading the word of the Destroyer, infecting numerous innocents with a Mind Virus that made them obsessed with worshipping Gog Magog and drove them to murderous, nihilistic insanity. Even after his imprisonment, Raze's legacy of death lives on as his acolytes continue to spread the virus, all to power Gog Magog—truthfully an amnesiac Abrogate himself.

to Nye

to Setter, I don;t think he holds up in CGW continuity

So I won't swap the Skulduggery page yet?

EDIT: Also, I'm sure I've asked this, but why doesn't Mevolent count?

Edited by ACW on Jul 16th 2022 at 5:54:36 AM

I'm assuming he's Affably Evil and Even Evil Has Loved Ones reading his Tropes and research.

to Setter

Edited by Powermaster201 on Jul 16th 2022 at 5:58:43 AM

Yeah, Mevolent's surprisingly really cool when we finally meet him his alternate universe counterpart. He's a charismatic Friendly Enemy stuck in a tragic love story, and if it weren't for the fact that he was the High Priest of a religion of genocide he'd fit perfectly for MB. It's really weird, but it somehow works.

Granted, the main redeeming quality the alternate Mevolent has, his love for his wife, may be invalidated in the main universe because that version cheated on her, but the alternate universe counterparts have so far have been pretty spot-on reflections of the main versions that keep their core qualities, so I'd feel uncomfortable using that as evidence.

And yeah, don't swap the page yet. I should hopefully have the last one in soon, but it's a big one.

Edited by EmeraldEmperor on Jul 16th 2022 at 6:04:30 AM

If you're 'sure you've asked it,' you probably don't need to again.

My next:

What's the work?

Chain of Command is a 1994 B-film starring Michael Dudikoff. Dudikoff plays anti-terrorism operative Merrill Ross, who ends up caught in an international conspiracy, featuring this man.

And his hair. Meet Rawlings.

Who is Rawlings?

A swaggering thug with an amazing set of locks, Rawlings is the right hand man of Benjamin Brewster, an oil executive who wants to rig a conflit between the US and the middle eastern nation of "Qumir," so he can get the oil rights. Rawlings is the most active of the group, a former CIA killer who ambushes a military unit and kills several there, before taking into account all present, lines them up and has the place massacred to the last man with only Merrill Ross surviving as a witness. An undercover Mossad agent, Maya Robenowitz, recruits him to tell him what's going on...

And Rawlings attacks him at a hotel, killing people along the way with zero care for collateral as he sprays the place. See, Rawlings intends to kick off the war so they can profit but Rawlings is really in it for the carnage and the kicks, as well as the money.

Rawlings kills several more people and takes Maya as a captive where he gets...disturbing with her. Like using a knife and cigar as he plans to torture her by cutting and burning her most 'sensitive' parts, when Ross shows up and he and Rawlings square off in a brutal fight ending as Rawlings is killed when impaled with a pool cue.

That isn't even broken, Ross just rams it through him.

Mitigating issues?

What do YOU think?

Conclusion?

Absolutely yes.