30 Days of Scans (Day 30): Favorite Villain

[yaseen101]

Since there were son many villains I liked, I decided to make a separate post on them.



When it comes to villains, I love the Chessmasters, The Magnificent Bastards, and villains who have a Psychotic edge and makes their insanity and psychotiness work for themwork for me unless they are treated as 'people' as well. I also love villains that sympathetic to a degree as long as writers don't forget that their innate goodness or sympathetic-ness does not excuse their villain-ous actions.

I don't really have much to say about my choices so here we go;

COMIC BOOKS

Poison Ivy






Greg Rucka's work with her along with Batman: The Animated Series and The Batman have greatly managed to humanize the character for me.


Catwoman




Penguin



I keed, keed.




Brubaker in his Batman run actually managed to tap into the Chessmaster and Magnificent Bastard potential that Penguin has.

Imagine someone like Greg Wiesman getting a hold of the character and is let loose.



Deadshot






Two Face







Riddler






MANGA


Light Yagami(Deathnote)




Mello (Deathnote)




The Major (Hellsing)





a Gentleman, it has been said, that I like war.


The Captain (Hellsing)



He's a Nazi-Captain/Werewolf, what more do you need?

Over the course of entire Hellsing series,The Captain has always been this mysterious guy who never spoke a word. It was this fact that generated interest in the character but never for once is he boring in the series. He is an example of how you can have an intriguing bad guy, who doesn't speak a word interesting without having to delve into his back story. You see a little of it every now and then but most of the time you are actually in awe of what the Captain can do when he decides it's time to fight.

Comments

[selke]

Well, now I need to go steal the "Hellsing" anime from a friend.

[yaseen101]

Ah, it's posts like these that makes hours of pic hunting and preparing worth it.

[mullon]

Light was terribly fun to follow. So full of himself.

[yaseen101]

IA.

I may have problems with the not-so good messages that Deathnote sends but Light was an intriguing character. It's rare that you enjoy a villain because he's an evil piece of shit and not because he is an Author's Pet or something along those line.

[big_daddy_d]

What I found interesting about Deathnote and the character of Light was that in a way, it made you question right and wrong. He had good intentions, but ultimately he ended up ruling the word in a way and he killed people that got in his way or threatened to expose him. That was when he started crossing the line in my opinion. It was the ultimate message of absolute power corrupts absolutely, yet still oddly enough part of you still rooted for him. Well that's how it was for me. Death Note is the first anime I've seen that wasn't all action or even comedy. It had an engaging story and you couldn't help but love the game of chess the characters played. For every move, a counter until the big climax.

[nezchan]

For me, it was like that for the Light vs. L battle, and the ending was worth waiting for. But the coming of Near and Merro really didn't do anything for me, and from there it seemed to be just trying to regain that Light/L mojo without any really appealing characters. If the series had ended at an earlier point and the "Light takes over" thing was a postscript to that, I could have handled it.

[yaseen101]

I liked Near and Mello. Personally, I always though should have dealt more with the consequences of Light's mass genocide and more character related stuff and shorter Xanatos Gambits and Roulette's.

[big_daddy_d]

I was 50/50 into Near. Mello, I thought was cool and honestly no way would Near have been able to even beat Light without Mello. Now L, he was intriguing. I always liked the weird things he did while talking. Like having multiple cubes of sugar for one. He just did things nonchalantly while talking and he was such an outside the box thinker. He had the appearance of someone who lacked sleep..and most likely did, yet he was a genius.

[nezchan]

Thing is, I really didn't get a lot of personality from Near. He was a cipher to me, and thus I didn't care if he won or not. Yeah, he had the toy quirk, which came off to me as basically a copy of what they'd already done with L. Merro's intensity and willingness to go outside the rules, and in fact morality, to get what he wanted was okay, but that was about all there was to him.

My problem was, by the time L kicked it, there wasn't anyone I cared enough about to see them win. Just Light's dad, and look what happened to him.

[punishermax]

I'm pretty sure like 70% of people who read Death Note have this exact same opinion.

I have never watched DN beyond L's stuff because it always seemed like that was the entire story there. L was really the ultimate foil for it. It's be like if halfway through Silence of the Lambs Lector killed Clarice and they just brought in some random assholes to finish him off.

[nezchan]

True, that's the other side of it. The Light/L stuff was a lovely, self-contained story that could have stood wonderfully on its own with a serious downer ending. Sure, it would have left the shinigami stuff up in the air, but the ending we did get was pretty unsatisfying in that regard too, so no great loss.

The fact that there was essentially zero groundwork laid for the second half made it seem artificial to me, which set me against the whole thing from the start. The need to give Near a collection of quirks and little personality JUST LIKE L didn't help. At least Merro went in a different direction.

[darrylayo]

At least the second half had missiles, right? That's got to count for something. Right?


RIGHT?!

[nezchan]

It's not the missiles that matter. It's the explosions!

[punishermax]

The thing with Light, is I always see people online say "Man Light was totally RIGHT MAN!"

No he fucking wasn't you god damn weirdo. He was, like others here have said, a total asshole. He was a serial killer, I suppose I'm a hypocrite cause I like Dexter and all, but at least Dexter actually knows he has major mental problems. And I suppose on some strange level, the fact that he actually does it makes him more interesting and real to me. He actually looks in the face of the people he's gonna kill, he straight up tells them why he does it. Light's just a total wuss who got a mega powerful artifact and starts killing who he wants.

If you support Light, you got some problems broseph.

[nezchan]

Light is to morality what Glenn Beck is to politics. Sounds okay if you're easily led, have a very simplistic view of the subject or are just plain stupid, but it all falls apart if you look at it in any detail

[punishermax]

It's like okay you're all happy when he kills some murderer or a rapist or a molester okay okay cool cool. But do you honestly believe that some random high school dickhead is gonna be the true arbiter of justice? Are you high? Have you ever seen MTV?

How about when you annoy him in a coffee shop or bump into him and don't say sorry. What's gonna happen when he becomes a complete and absolute nutfucker and just start killing people he doesn't like ?

Also if you support light you support mass murder and , you know that's kinda fucked up.

[big_daddy_d]

How about when you annoy him in a coffee shop or bump into him and don't say sorry. What's gonna happen when he becomes a complete and absolute nutfucker and just start killing people he doesn't like ?</q Honestly, I don't think he was too far from doing that..he killed people who were loyal to him and let's not forget about his old man's death.

[big_daddy_d]

*Honestly, I don't think he was too far from doing that..he killed people who were loyal to him and let's not forget about his old man's death.

There. Don't know how the other post got screwed up.

[yaseen101]

Yeah, I love how it's just a continuing series of chess games that doesn't end until one of them loses, *truly* loses.

I never supported and never really will. I guess my major beef with the series is that ultimately it sends a message that the only way that the world can be a good and peaceful place is when someone commits mass genocide each day. The world is at peace when Light keeps killing people everyday and when he is finally defeated and put down and the honest people take over, the world goes back to being crap again. That's *not* a good a message and I think Ohba gave really much thought to the subject matter she was handling and I don't think she really had the chops to handle that particular subject matter.

That said, I really liked everything else and the characters, Obata's art is just *gorgeous* and unlike I actually loved Mello and Near despite being a fan of L.

[nezchan]

Yeah, if there's one thing I can't fault about the series, it's the art. Obata's a total pro.

[sea_dreamer]

The world is at peace when Light keeps killing people everyday and when he is finally defeated and put down and the honest people take over, the world goes back to being crap again.

I'll admit that it's a totally screwed up message, but don't forget the crime that Light was preventing was merely symptoms of the overall problems in the world. He wasn't really making the world a better place except in a superficial way. It wasn't like he was encouraging more social programs or solving world hunger or dealing with a million other things that would increase the chances of psychos being born or made. It was only inevitable inevitable that these problems would eventually resurface with his death.

But as you said maybe Ohba didn't have the chops to deal with this subject matter. Shame. It would've been interesting.

[yaseen101]

It would have at the *very least* caused a world wide panic and fear. The world wouldn't have returned to it's previous status quo so quickly imo especially with an event like that.

I think Ohba once said that she was more interested in the Xanatos Roullette than the effects of Light's Yagami. Which is kind of stupid in it's own way since it's like reading a super hero fight where there isn't any property damage . She's didn't exactly have the whole thing planned out and was making shit up as she went along half the time.

[darkblade]

I have to disagree. When you are proclaiming your would be God hood in the first episode you do not have good intentions.

[big_daddy_d]

Ok, I said good intentions because at least initially, he was killing murderers, rapists, the true criminals, but it didn't even take long for him to start killing innocent people for the sole reason that they threatened to expose him. As for him proclaiming himself to be a god, that's why I mentioned that the ultimate message was absolute power corrupts absolutely. No man or woman should have the kind of power Light had. As shown in the series, regardless of the reasons why it was used, people developed a god complex, using the notebook's power for personal gain or in some twisted sense of justice as well as ruling the world. We witness a common fault of man within the series and honestly it played out well. Overall, no one should hold that kind of power as even those with the strongest of wills could find themselves intoxicated if not careful.

[darkblade]

May I ask what these "not so good messages" are?

[yaseen101]

The fact that the world became a peaceful place after Light started killing everyone. We weren't shown any negative consequences of his action nor were we given enough reason to justify them continuing to hunt Kira if everything keeps turning out A-ok. And after he is defeated and the good honest people take over, the world is back to being a crap sack again. It sends a message that killing is the only solution to solving all our problems.

[nezchan]

Personally, I have another character who appeals to me in Hellsing.

Can you guess who it is?

[yaseen101]

*takes a deep breath and drops a few octaves*

ALEXANDER ANDERSON!

>phew< that's the only way to say his name.


Truth is, everyone in Hellsing straddles the line between anti-hero, anti-villain and villain. The only reason why the Millenium Organziation /Waffen-SS can be called as villains is simply because of the fact that their actions are worse compared to them. Also, because they are Nazi's.

If Hellsing was originated and released in the West, it would probably garner an apocalyptic level of complaints from religious groups alone. I'm actually surprised that there isn't one.

[nezchan]

Perhaps you should hire BRIAN BLESSED to come say the name for you.

[yaseen101]

NORIO WAKAMOTO works just as well.


*deleted and re-posted for HTML error

[big_daddy_d]

Villains I like:

Greed (Fullmetal Alchemist) - Though later on more anti-hero and ally, he was an entertaining character and donwright badass. Plus as stated in another thread, I like carbon based villains.

Lust - What? She was hot. Lol But seriously, deadly femme fatale who if you overlooked her, chances are, you'll be dead. That and her death just really made Roy Mustang look good and awesome. That scene was just intense.

Scar - I never really saw him as a hero, even later in the series as he never really paid for the things he's done. He tried to redeem himself but still I don't think he did enough to truly do so. Still, he was badass and truly believed in what he did as well as being dowright scary. That final fight with King Bradley was a highlight for me.

King Bradley - Unrepentent and unapologetic. There are some villains in which this works and he is one of that. Even upon death he had no regrets and had a "didn't give a fuck" attitude about it. He had his own philosophies and the things he can do with a sword. Of all the humunculi, he might not have been the most powerful or even the fastest, but he was definitely the deadliest and most skilled. Every battle he's in is a joy and the best being the fight again Ling Yao/Greed and Old Man Fu, and definitely the fight against Scar. For god's sake the guy was armless and grabbed a broken blade with his teeth and stabbed Scar with it. He might've died from his injuries but he won that fight. lol

Grimmjow - Badass and not afraid to fight.

Coyote Starrk - He didn't seem much like a villain, rather someone who was following orders and just lonely. Honestly his death made me sad.

The Freeze Alchemist - Anime exclusive villain, but wish he was in the manga.

I have Marvel and DC villains I like but eh, figured I'd go the manga route for this one.

[punishermax]

Aizen should totally be on your list.

But...maybe he is... maybe we're all under mass hypnosis...OH GOD WHAT IF ALL OF SCANS DAILY IS A MASS SUGGESTIONDULFSUHDFS

[psychopathicus_rex]

The Penguin really is an often underestimated villain. People get so distracted by the umbrella fetish and the 'waugh, waugh' and so forth that they tend to forget that here is a fellow who has remained a credible threat to Batman through all of his various incarnations, despite the fact that he's, well, a short, pudgy little guy with a bunch of trick umbrellas and trained birds. By all rights, judging by that description, Batman ought to have driven the little quacker out of town by now, but he's always managed to stay in the game despite his handicaps, and that means that he's SMART. Smart enough to give Bats a run for his money and turn trick umbrellas and birds into genuinely dangerous weapons - that's pretty damn smart. You should never underestimate someone like that.