Subpages cleanup: Complete Monster

OF COURSE! to Bison.

I have an odd example from, of all things, Calvin and Hobbes fanfiction.

Rupert Chill

What Is the Work?

The Calvinverse is a collective of Calvin And Hobbes stories created by garfieldodie and Swing123 that follows the iconic duo on new adventures with their newfound squad of friends, among them fellow tiger Socrates, another imaginative kid named Andy, his super-smart hamster Sherman, and the Robot Buddy MTM. As well as a Rogues Gallery of wacky villains, like the comical Mad Scientist Dr. Brainstorm, the imagination hating Dr. Retro, and the invaders from Zok, led by King Rupert Chill, who just happens to share his name with a human crook also named Rupert Chill.

Beginning in 2004 and 2005, it has since been revamped and rewritten for a more modern, satirical style, and that's the version this entry will cover.

Who Is He?

Rupert Chill is the leader of a mostly bumbling group of aliens from the planet Zok, as well as their supreme ruler. Rupert and his second in command, Earl are competent and ruthless, while their crew are childish goofballs who can't be called evil in any sense. The aliens first appear in Calvin and Hobbes:The Movie, impersonating councillors at Calvin's summer camp, because thanks to Galaxoid and Nebular, they believe him to be the "Supreme Earth Potentate" and want to eliminate him for their invasion. Calvin and Hobbes eventually escape the camp into the wilderness as well as the aliens with help from their friends, and the aliens are forced to use human Rupert Chill as a decoy to keep their covers hidden.

The aliens soon resurface in Calvin And Hobbes:The Series season 5, in which they take advantage of Calvin's disappearance to launch an attack on the white house. Calvin had infiltrated their ranks and eventually tricks Rupert Chill into being stranded on earth in his human disguise, where he's arrested as the human criminal he's impersonating.

All this is standard silly superhero stuff, yeah, but the next appearances of Rupert, Earl, and their idiot crew has Rupert really show what a monster he is. In Lost At Sea Calvin and Hobbes are stranded on an abandoned ship while on vacation, where they slowly start to go insane and succumb to their base instincts. When their friends arrive to save them, along with Dr. Brainstorm, Rupert and Earl show up and smugly reveal they orchestrated the whole thing to drive the two to killing each other as revenge for sending Rupert to prison. It's also shown that Rupert equipped his crew with Shock Collars to cow them into constant obedience, something even Dr. Brainstorm is repulsed by. Eventually, boy and tiger are restored to normal, and the aliens are forced to flee, with the heroes breaking the poor crew's collars.

In Double Trouble Calvin is kidnapped on his birthday by Rupert's crazed human namesake. Meanwhile, Rupert and Earl launch a full-scale invasion of Calvin's neighbourhood, taking the "Supreme Earth Potentate"'s parents hostage and trapping the town in a giant forcefield. He also has Andy, Sherman, MTM, and Socrates shipped back to the planet Zok, where they're forced to fight for their lives against a giant alien monster for Zokian Aristocrats.

[His minions are cheerful and friendly to the humans their invading, but then Rupert himself shows up and orders them to slaughter all the townsfolk to send a message to the rest of Earth should they oppose his conquest. He's stopped by Dr. Brainstorm and his family, who fight to protect the town while Calvin and friends are out of commission.

Eventually,the human Rupert Chill(who is also established as a mentally ill Shell-Shocked Veteran,) is horrified to discover he was brainwashed into kidnapping Calvin by Alien!Chill. Meanwhile, Calvin's friends are rescued by an alien resistance group, who tell them that King Rupert had long ago conquered Zok, once a peaceful planet, as well as hundreds of other worlds through brutal invasions. The tyrant is soon fought off once again by Calvin, as well as human!Chill who wants revenge for being used as a pawn. Chill then tries to have his fleet obliterate earth if he can't take it for his own, but he's thankfully forced to flee by the alien resistance force.

Enraged by these constant humiliations, Chill languishes in his palace on Zok until he finds Dr. Retro, another villain banished to space by Calvin. Relating to the latter's hatred of the boy, the two villains team up to abduct Calvin (hence the story title Retro Chill), and create a clone of him in his stead, albeit one that's pure evil and goes on to unleash a legion of monsters on Calvin's town.

After some banter, Rupert and Retro trap Calvin in a machine designed to mentally torture him to death, with Rupert expressing sheer glee over how he's finally won. Of course, the boy's friends arrive to launch a daring rescue. In the ensuing showdown, Earl and the crew realize just how mad Chill has gone with hatred and refuse to follow him on his vendetta against a seven year old human. Chill responds by assaulting Earl, screaming that he doesn't need them, and then joining Retro for one final attempt to kill Calvin.

In the final showdown, Calvin tricks the villains into fighting one another when he convinces the paranoid Rupert that Retro doesn't think he's real, pauses time with a device called the "Time Pauser" and watches as a mysterious extradimensional entity feeds on the lifespan of the two villains for eternity, ending their threat once and for all.

Redeeming Qualities

Rupert is a generally a cruel Jerkass to everyone, but he does seem to have a legitimate friendship with his second-in-command, Earl, and seems initially hurt when Earl tells him he won't be following him anymore. However, this "friendship" seems more based on Earl's loyalty, as he has no qualms subjecting his less competent crew to horrible abuse, and tries to strangle him in a fit of rage when Earl tells him he's taken his feud too far. Outside of that, he's a cruel, selfish, entitled monster, and even tries to kill Retro out of suspicion that the latter will betray him. His last words before being absorbed by the entity are even him mocking Calvin that he'll become a murderer.

Heinousness

Easily passes. Most of the other villains are standard supervillains(like Retro) or have redeeming qualities(like Brainstorm), but Rupert is a war-mongering tyrant who has conquered multiple worlds, takes sadistic pleasure in destroying his enemies(multiple who are children) and generally sees everyone around him as either minions to be used or enemies to be annihilated.

Verdict

As far as fanfic based on comic strips go, this guy's a surprisingly nasty one.

to M. Bison and Santiago.

Mmm...I'm not seeing much a bodycount there for Rupert, weirdness aside.

Sooo...I've been convinced to EP someone I'm not 100 percent sure keeps, but...let's give it a whirl:

What's the work?

Knightfall is a history channel drama set in the early 1300s, in France during the reign of Philip IV of France...returning to France is Philip's dear friend Landry de Launzon, a master of the Knights Templar order. The Templars are guarding the Holy Grail, and Landry has an unfortunate secret: he's sleeping with Philip's wife, Queen Joan of Navarre. Now...our candidate? Philip the Fair.

Who is Philip?

Born with two brothers, Louis and Charles, Philip was often defended by Louis against Charles. Both died before their father and Philip succeeded him, marrying Queen Joan of Navarre. Philip had multiple children with Joan, including his own son Louis, and their daughter Isabella....when the first season begins, Philip actually seems a decent ruler, having issues with his chancellor William de Nogaret's ruthless scheming. Then the end of the series occurs when Philip is informed by de Nogaret that Landry's been sleeping with Joan and he, not Philip, is the father of Joan's unborn child. To say Philip handles this poorly...is an understate, abducting, beating and torturing Joan's maid in front of the court, to which Joan rebukes him and informs him "it's over," Philip realizing "it has been for a long time, hasn't it?"

So, around the time writers realize they've made Philip the most sympathetic bad guy on the show, course correction is needed...Philip goes after the Templars with the Pope, slaughtering many of them and humiliating Landry in battle. Philip has him whittled down when Joan begs Philip to spare Landry. Philip coldly agrees and impales his pregnant wife, saying the price is her life. Philip tries to massacre the templars anyways, informing Landry tha t"god has forsaken you."

Deciding to destroy the order and abandon anything good about himself, Philip becomes obsessed with Joan's child, who was cut from her body...wanting to annihilate the templars on his grudge, Philip sends men, dressed as Templar Knights, including his son Louis to go full King Herod on any infant of a certain age; kill the parents if they get involved and murder the babies, which Louis himself does in one instant. He then turns his attention to besieging the Templars, while lying to Louis about Landry actually killing Joan to set his son against Landry. The Templars? Philip tortures the hell out of those he captures, declaring he cares less about piety than he does about their gold. Landry is subjected to the same, with Philip using others to claim the Templar Knights are satanic murderers, torturing loads to get false confessions out of it all.

Isabella, Philip's daughter? Has issues with Louis' wife Marguerite and frames her for adultery. You might guess this is Philips, umm...button by now, so he has Marguerite stripped, thrown in a dirty cell, humiliated and mistreated. When Louis returns and objects in horror, Philip abuses him on the spot, snarling Louis is his, everything Louis has is his and he'll shut up and obey or Philip will take it all away...Marguerite later dies from the abuse.

Philip has Grandmaster Jacques de Molay burnt at the stake, killing other Templars this way before preparing to do the same to Landry. When one man who gave a false confession begs the people to listen, Philip turns the crowd against him and nearly has him ripped apart before Master Talus intervenes (played by Mark Hamill as the old badass of the Templars)...Landry and the others are saved, moving to get clear of France...but Landry sneaks and doubles back when all the guards are out, cornering Philip in his throne room...Louis, knowing the truth of Joan and Marguerite's deaths, informs his father "you should have been kinder to the women I love," while de Nogaret who has been on the receiving end of Philip's physical and verbal abuse decides if Philip thinks he's worthless, then..."the king is dead. Long live the king."

Philip and Landry duel and Philip experiences firsthand just how little sparring matches actually accounted for Landry's actual skill. The end result? Philip is cut down by Landry who informs him "god has forsaken you" before driving his sword into Philip's heart.

Heinousness?

Not a problem at all. Philip murders his pregnant wife, has templars tortured, burned and massacred en masse to wipe out the order and oh yeah, orders a widespread massacre of babies. Any questions?

Mitigating Qualities?

Here's Where it gets....tricky. Philip, when introduced, isn't even a villain. He's struggling to be a decent king and wants people to love him. He wants to reconcile with Joan and he shows he's a decent father....then he learns about Landry and Joan and all bets are off. He becomes colder, furious, downright sadistic and by season 1's finale, his love for Landry and Joan are dead and gone. He sadistically murders Joan in front of Landry just to hurt him, and spitefully tries to exterminate the Templar order. He makes a point of saying allhis old love for Landry and Joan is long gone and while he did have a right to be...upset, he goes way, way, WAY too far with it. He mentions his elder brother Louis, who he named his son for, but he uses his feelings as a comparison to Landry, with the man he used to be. (Funnily enough, he even grows an evil beard while de Nogaret goes clean shaven after showing more decent qualities)

His kids...in season 2, Philip only seems to think of them as tools. When Isabella objects to marrying Prince Edward of England, Philip seizes her by the throat, informs her he needs an alliance and she'll shut up and be a good girl. In their final farewell, Philip tells her to rule with a vicious, scheming iron fist and while Isabella clearly loves him...Philip has no real expression when she hugs him, nor when giving the advice. When Louis, named for his supposedly beloved elder brother, objects to Philip torturing his wife Philip threatens him, nearly beats him into submission and gives him a clear "I own you" and says he'll find him a new wife, one more 'suitable.' (Isabella, btw, set this up only because she thought Marguerite was being 'presumptuous' with her. She's not a very nice person)...but yeah...Philip's old good qualities? He might as well be a different person, and even justifiable anger has completely rotted his soul until he's purged all remnants of being a decent person and goes on a massive torture and killing spree. Even his slaughter of the Templars? He just admits he wants the gold, and even has the pope murdered by de Nogaret (being fair, the Pope did kinda deserve it since he burned de Nogaret's parents alive).

Conclusion?

Philip is a hard one. He's easily bad enough and seems to purge every good quality he ever had very willingly to become a baby massacring monster. It's a tough choice, but I lean yea a bit. Will abstain for now

Edited by Lightysnake on May 2nd 2020 at 7:16:44 AM

Leaning towards an abstain for Rupert, yes for Philip.

Edited by SkyCat32 on May 2nd 2020 at 11:08:03 AM

to Philip. Sounds like any mitigating qualities are long gone.

Edited by Kylotrope on May 2nd 2020 at 4:40:05 AM

Phillip. Yeah, not sensing a body count on the Calvinverse one.

Edited by AustinDR on May 2nd 2020 at 7:51:20 AM

No to Rupert, leaning yes for Philip.

Bison (what about the the film version?) Santiago (the wall of text in that post made my eyes bleed, work on it) and Philip.

Chill

Edited by nwotyzal on May 2nd 2020 at 7:57:09 AM

Rupert's questionable to me for a few reasons...TBH, less concerned about the standard if he chucks in an attempted massacre alongside the more generic stuff, and more about the tone of the actual property. As far as I'm aware the Calvinverse stuff goes for (roughly) Original Flavor in tone and the original setting would never, ever be tonally conducive for a CM. The goofiness outlined in the EP mostly cements my opinion on that.

Yes to Phillip, though, and I stand that's actually long overdue for him.

Edited by Scraggle on May 2nd 2020 at 9:06:11 AM

Bison is no keep in the film. He's got a genuine sense of honor and believes he's doing best for the world by conquering it.

I also maintain that's kinda for the best given the bittersweet story behind Raul Julia's amazing performance.

Edited by Lightysnake on May 2nd 2020 at 8:04:58 AM

to Philip To Rubert

Philip. Sounds like anything good has long since past it seems.

How serious is Rupert played ? Since this is calvin and Hobbes

to Phillip

To Rupert

What's the story there, Lighty?

Phillip, Bison, Chill

Rupert (though sheesh, I remember reading some stuff of that as a child)

But a for Phillip

Also the less said about the Legend of Chun Li Bison, the better.

Yet another reason why Raul Julia will forever be one of the greatest.

Edited by therealjackieboy on May 2nd 2020 at 8:23:40 AM

@Libraryseraph: Raul Julia was dying of stomach cancer, and he knew it. He gave his kids a set of scripts and told them to choose his final role for him. They chose Street Fighter and he decided to be the best Bison he possibly could.

Late Seth, as well.

to Philip

Seth, Bison, Santiago and Philip

Rupert

That makes sense, and that was just a question, wasn't going to propose Film!Bison. Additionally, the production of Street Fighter was an absolute mess, but Raul Julia was the only thing holding it together. He also took the role because the money he would receive would make his kids well off in the future (father of the year right there)

BTW, forgot Seth

Edited by nwotyzal on May 2nd 2020 at 10:18:09 AM

Abstain on Rupert, if he did the same things in a more serious work I would upvote but it seems like he's mostly played for laughs

Also I think I'm going to have to Phillip tbh. I see where Lighty's coming from with the argument but if he suddenly goes from being The Good King to a village-razing baby slaughtering psychopath over the span of one episode, I think that's more just being poorly written than the show intending to make the character be 100% unsympathetic and pure evil

Not over a single episode. I should kinda clarify he's a very flawed king for season 1, but trying. It's towards the end of s1 he starts losing it and takes a few episodes to do so, with a shrot timeskip in season 2's beginning

to Bison, Santiago and Phillip. Abstain on Rupert.

So, here we go, my next EP after some time.

What's the work?

The Stranger I Knew is a Cave Story fanfic. Starting off just before the final battle against Big Bad Dr. Fuyuhiko Date, the story veers off in another direction as the Doctor instead decides to possess the robot hero Quote. It's up to Curly Brace to save her friend from the clutches of the would-be king of the earth. The story is substantial, as perspective switches between Quote, Curly, the Doctor, and some minor characters like Kazuma and Itoh.

And our candidate is, of course, the canon CM.

Who is Dr. Fuyuhiko Date? What does he do?

Date is the antagonist of the fic, as in the game. After his body recomposes and he becomes the crystal In then Demon Crown, whereas in canon he possesses the Core and becomes the Undead Core, here he possesses The Hero Quote himself. The process is described as excruciatingly painful Mind Rape (Date even refers to his act as having raped Quote's mind). His first act after gaining control of his new body is to shoot Misery, The Dragon, with the Polar Spur gun, then rip Sue Sakamoto in half. The whole time, Quote is trapped in his own mind and Forced to Watch.

Taking joy in psychologically tormenting Quote and seeking to make him into an obedient slave (he flat-out calls Quote his slave repeatedly), Date sees that Quote is hiding the contents of some personal files from him. To get Quote to talk, Date teleports Santa, a miminga from the Bushlands, and threatens to kill him if Quote does not comply. He does so and then reveals that he kidnapped Curly's adopted miminga children, threatening them next- at this, Quote acquiesces. It is later shown that Date often forced his mimingas to eat each other, and he would force the mimingas to eat the red flowers, which serve as a Psycho Serum, by keeping them in cages and starving them until they ate the flowers out of desperation. Only one of Curly's children, Koron, survived this culling- the rest either gave in or died.

So Curly shows up to save Quote, not knowing that Date has possessed him. Date decides to pretend to be Quote before trying to rape Curly. When she fights back, he beats her so hard that she shuts down, so he strangles her. Luckily, with a bit of help from Quote (who can speak to Curly, as they are both robots), Curly comes back and tricks Date into destroying the Core of the island, then stabs the jewel and kills Date. Unfortunately, this also leaves Quote with not long to live- Date's last words are taunting Curly for 'killing' her loved one. Of course, Curly stays with Quote in the collapsing island and the story ends with them Together in Death.

Heinousness?

Big Bad, sets it. Basically has all his crimes from the original game, plus some more- Demonic Possession and subsequent mental assault/psychological torture of Quote, callous murder of Misery, Sue, and Santa, forcing mimingas to starve and/or eat each other, what he did to Curly's family, explicitly planning his miminga army to eat thousands of human beings, and, oh yeah, he's a rapist here. Well, attempted rapist, but still.

Mitigating Qualities?

Surprisingly, one that was not present in the original game, but it doesn't come close to being a disqualifier. In the game, his motivation for wanting to Take Over the World is never indicated to be anything but wanting power and control. The fic, however, adds an extra motive- according to two lines in the third chapter, Date was a victim of bullying, and is doing all this in part for revenge:

...yeah, needless to say, trying to Take Over the World by unleashing an army of monsters and having them devour thousands of innocent people because you were made fun of in school is beyond Disproportionate Retribution. And these two lines are the only glimpse we get into his backstory, so it clearly is not intended to make him sympathetic, either.

Verdict?

Easy, EASY keeper.

Edited by MasterN on May 3rd 2020 at 12:52:58 PM