M_C’s Top 10 Villain List of 2012

Well, as requested, this is the list of my top 10 favorite villains. I actually had to sit down to compile this list because I’ve never made any ranking for this category before. Heck, I don’t think this idea ever even crossed my mind at all, lol.

When I actually get to sit down and think about it, it was actually fun. However, it wasn’t until rank 5 and above that I actually has other reasons to like a villain aside from them being ‘badass’ or ‘cool’.  XD

Now, enough with the expository banter. Let’s get right into it.

WARNING!!!!

This post will contain spoilers from a number of games / animes where these villains are starred. Please proceed at your own risk.

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Honorable Mention – Judas (Cross Edge)

This guy does not fit in the ‘top 10’ list because I didn’t really ‘like’ him as a villain. But…uh…well…he’s the ‘best final boss in any game ever’ (starts at 3:40), so…yeah…that earns him an honorable mention.

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10 – Omega (Rockman Zero 3)

We start off this list with one of the most awesome final boss with one of the most awesome battle music in any game ever. This battle is where Zero meets an inconvenient truth – He is not exactly the person he believed to be. Omega had Zero’s real body and that explains why he has so many familiar looking attacks from Zero in the X series.

Needless to say, Omega is one of the best final boss I’ve fought (not the hardest though). He is so awesome that he even get to make a cameo appearance as a special secret boss in Rockman ZX, and boy, he is stupidly broken there. He spams his ‘Hell Combo’ like no tomorrow (while in RMZ3, he only uses it if you have high rank), and not to mention he also loves to spam that one attack where he can recover about one freakin’ bar of his HP.

Oh yes, this video is probably one of the best fan-made videos I’ve ever seen. (Epic starts around 1:19)

Enjoy.

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9 – Master Albert (Rockman ZX Advent)

 

Yet another awesome final boss from the Rockman series. Albert is nasty. Fighting him for the first time, it won’t be surprising if you have to get a couple of game over’s. To actually begin ‘hurting’ him, you need to disable his Model W barriers surrounding him by locking on to all of them with Model A’s Homing Shot. Once his barrier is down, you need to shoot him at least once to destroy his armor. After this, he would then truly be vulnerable, but no for too long because he can recover the Model W barriers and you have to do the whole thing again from start. I barely managed to beat him down with 3 Sub-Tanks and 1 ancient E-Tank on my first run of the game. Don’t even get me started on how evil his stage is, and I’m not even talking about the pseudoroid rematches.
That said, this guy is evil. And well, he doesn’t think that he is a god – he claims to be one.

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8 – Gabranth (Final Fantasy XII)

“HATRED is what drives me!!!”

Honestly speaking, I couldn’t finish FFXII at first because I hated the MMO-ish battle system and environment. I left my disc alone for a long time then I played the first Dissidia, after which I thought Gabranth looks pretty cool. So I tried getting back into FFXII, and guess what, I STILL hate the battle system, lol.

I pushed myself forward until the end and finally got this guy’s story unfold. It’s been a while, so I’m not exactly sure if I got this right. Gabranth’s homelands were lost to the Archadian Empire. Basch, his brother, left his brother and mother and fled away. Gabranth hated his brother and joined the very empire that destroyed his homelands, where he quickly rises to the position of the Judge Magister. I vaguely remembered him to actually be a very good guy, but well ‘Redemption = Death’ was at work here so there’s nothing we can do.

Oh yeah, and before I forgot.

“Take your last breath. Surrender now to OBLIVION!!!!!!”

Obligatory picture of the Judge Magisters because they are just that awesome.

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7 – Kuja (Final Fantasy IX)

 

Kuja is the original Angel of Death genome, created before Zidane to bring chaos to Gaia and restore Terra. However, Kuja hates his origins so he hides his kind’s trademark – his tail. He also steals Zidane out of his creator’s care and left him on Gaia before Zidane was fully geared into the next Angel of Death. However, Kuja’s creator knew that Kuja would try to backstab him, so the creator intentionally makes Kuja a defect – he will eventually run out of time and die.

Feeling insecure, Kuja resolves to destroy everything by getting rid of the Crystal which is the source of all life. In the end, Kuja lost to Zidane and finally realized the purpose of life. But well, yet again, ‘Redemption = Death’ was at work, so…not so lucky for him.
Kuja is graceful, literally. There are many people who actually mistook him for being a girl when they first see him in the cutscene at the end of FFIX’s disc 1. That being said, I like his design and his poetic nature a lot.

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6 – Vile (Rockman X series)

Vile is one of those “I did it because I can” kind of villains, and while considered to not exactly be a good kind of villain in terms of writing, I actually like these kind of guys.

Vile hates X. Period. Seriously. He hates X, and that’s pretty much his motive for all the actions he did (this was retconned in Irregular Hunter X, I believe. Originally, he was just loyal to Sigma). Irregular Hunter X portrays the story in such a way that Vile acts the way he does because he was not satisfied to see everyone hyping with X’s potential. Call it ‘jealousy’ if you want. Therefore, he strives to prove that he is much stronger than X (which is actually true story-wise).

Also, Vile has roughly 45 weapons in his arsenal, which makes this scene almost an insult to him. That being said, Vile’s mode’s final battle was one of the most awesome battle I’ve ever fought? Why? Because it’s you against fully armored X and Zero.

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5 – Yagami Light (Death Note)

“I am justice!”

I like Light’s ideal. Death Note: The Movie pushes Light’s motive even further by showing how he discovers that evil criminals were not brought to justice. It only fuels the hate he has for criminals, and when he got his hands on the Death Note, it doesn’t take him too long to shake the hesitation away and become ‘Kira’. He wants a world where everyone lives under the same standard – where criminals were brought to justice for the acts they did. I sort of relate to Light’s ideal in a way because I used to be bullied a lot back when I was young, yet the bullies were never punished for whatever they did to me.

However, what Light did was definitely wrong, no denying that. When you get down to it, he kills people (in an awesome way) so that can never be a good thing. In my opinion, Light’s methodology of ‘cleansing the world’ starts to sway when he was labeled by ‘L’, the famous detective, as something he loathes with all his heart and soul. Instead of only killing the criminals, now he is also killing everyone who tries to get in his way, and well…that’s bad.

Yagami Light is an honorable and arrogant ‘villain’. Note that I said ‘villain’ only because what he did pretty much is an act of a ‘villain’. Swap your views and facts around, and he can become a ‘hero’ for some. In a way, The Dark Knight’s Harvey Dent’s quote: “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself becomes the villain” totally fits here.

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4 – Lumine (Rockman X8)

“The decision to wage war against the old world was made consciously. In other words, we possess the power to go maverick at will!”

Breaking Rockman X series tradition of having the same goddamn final boss every single game is Lumine. Oh, you played the game on the easy mode? Sorry, Lumine fights you only if you play Normal or Hard mode. The game is cut short right after you defeat Sigma.

Anyway, you’ve defeated all the 8 mavericks, ride the orbital elevator up to the moon, and infiltrate Sigma’s palace, which is filled with insane nasty death spikes. You brought the big baldy down to scrap heap but *gasp*, that’s not the end!

Unlike final battles of other games, the battle with Lumine was not a fight to end something. It is a fight that marks the start of a new war – The war where all new generation reploids are pretty much a clone of Sigma. The new gen reploids were given ‘Copy Chips’ that allows them to transform into thousands of old model reploids. Unfortunately, Sigma’s model and his ‘thoughts and ideals’ were also embedded into those chips. The new generation reploids were not influenced by Sigma’s virus – They made the decision to become ‘mavericks’ consciously. Lumine taunts our hero and almost drove X towards despair, until Axl brings him back together.

Lumine might have been defeated, but the game doesn’t exactly agree. In any case, I really wish we get to see how this ‘new battle’ goes some day in the future, if Rockman X9 ever gets created. (Dammit, Crapcom)

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3 – Lezard Valeth (Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria)

Bow to him. Worship him. Honor his name. For he is Lezard Valeth and he is voiced by Liam O’Brien.

Our rejected stalker comes straight up on to the third place of my rank. In Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, he was not the ‘major baddie’ but not exactly a good guy either. He is an alchemist and a necromancer who madly fell in love with Lenneth Valkyrie. He discovered the ‘Philosopher Stone’ which bestowed him the knowledge of the world and gave him incredible powers and access to forbidden magicks like the ‘Sovereign’s Rite’. At the end of VP:L, during Ragnarok, when Loki destroys Yggdrasil with the Dragon Orb, Lezard sacrifices the Philosopher’s Stone to protects himself from the flames. Hence, he was the only remaining human that was not recreated under Lenneth the Creator’s power.

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria is a sequel to Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, settled in the past. After the events of Ragnarok in VP:L, Lezard took the time machine hidden within Dipan’s Castle and traveled back in time. He joins Princess Alicia’s party for about half of the game, only to later reveal his true motive – to steal Odin’s power and forces Lenneth’s soul to become his. Basically, he wants to change the history timeline and creates a paradox where he is the almighty god. Lezard got his hands on the Gungnir and creates his own world, free from the branches of the World Tree Yggdrasil. He becomes so powerful that the only way to bring him down is to merge the soul of the three valkyries into a host, who will become the Ultimate Valkyrie – the only one who stands a chance against Lezard. Princess Alicia volunteers to become the host, even though she knows that her body won’t be able to remain stable after the merge. In any case, Lezard was mad that Alicia ‘stole’ his precious Lenneth and crashed with her for the final battle. Lezard was defeated and lectured by Alicia Valkyrie that a soul is not something one can possess. The rejected stalker reluctantly accepts his defeat and fades away.

I personally prefer his VP2:S incarnation where he is voiced by Liam (his VP:L incarnation sounds a little too nerdy). Lezard is smart, ambitious, and a freakin’ good actor. He was with the party for over half of the game and no one seems to notice anything wrong with him.

Oh yes, have I mention his awesome laughters? Listen to them here and here.

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2 – Fou-Lu (Breath of Fire IV)

The sad part about Fou-Lu is that the story ‘forces’ him to become a villain. Fou-Lu is the Dragon Emperor God summoned by the humans to the world and the first emperor who established the Fou Empire. I forgot why he passed away, but during the events of Breath of Fire IV, Fou-Lu was reborn and rises from his tomb. However, he only has half of his power, for his other half, Ryu (the protagonist) was summoned some where else. The world has changed from how Fou-Lu recognizes it and he found that the humans from the very empire he created want him dead.

In BoFIV, there will occasionally be a time when you are switched over to control Fou-Lu where he gets to explore the world and uncover stuffs about the human. Fou-Lu is level 64 when you get to control him and he kicks major asses. You have to suck big time to get a game over. Playing as Fou-Lu is one of my most favorite moments in the game.

At one point, Fou-Lu was hurt while the empire was hunting him down and he was saved by a human girl. He could have left everything behind and starts a new life away from the empire, but it doesn’t end that way. The villagers were afraid of Fou-Lu when he chased the monster that tried to attack the village away. Out of fear, the villagers report to the empire and they quickly came for him. The girl saved Fou-Lu again by stalling him time while he leaves the village. Because of that, the girl was captured by the empired and Fou-Lu was shot down by the ‘Cannonade’ (that’s the name, I think), a powerful spirit cannon that contaminates its target with ‘hex’. Its ammunition? The soul of a tortured human – the more pain the sacrificed victim experienced, the more powerful the cannon. Fou-Lu was shot down by that cannon with that girl as the fodder, but of course, he’s f****** Fou-Lu the Dragon God Emperor, so he only suffers a ‘scratch’. However, that was when he was driven insane, lost all faith in humanity, and resolved to destroy the humans for their incompetency.
Yeah, with all those serious craps done being done to him, he was pretty much forced to do what he did. His story is sad. I got a friend who refuses to fight Fou-Lu because she pities him (she made her save file at the final save point and stop there). The game only did him just by making him one of the toughest final boss in any game ever. Seriously, unless you grind your ass up to level 40+, nothing in the whole game can be remotely compared to this guy in terms of difficulty. He has two forms, both of which have nasty attacks and can proceed to OHKO you any time he wants. Don’t even get me started on how his second form was pretty much ‘built to destroy Ryu’s dragon forms’. He has an attack called ‘Soul Rend’ which will reduce your party member’s HP down to 1. Well, all you have to do is heal, right? WRONG! Ryu’s dragon CANNOT be healed by spells or normal items. There are only two ways Ryu’s dragon forms can heal, and that is resting in an inn or using an extremely rare item called ‘Ambrosia’. With one of your strongest assets down, good luck relying on everything else to bring the guy down.

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1 – The Joker (The Dark Knight)

And here we go – My most favorite villain of all time, The Joker. And well, this guy is also my father’s favorite villain – so much that I’m named after this guy.

I believe there are many incarnations of The Joker and each of them have different origins. In one version, he was the one who killed Batman’s parents, and in Christopher Nolan’s version, he’s a psychopath ‘who just wants to watch the world burns’. However, no matter which versions, all Jokers have something in common – They are plain evil and smart as heck. Every single time this guy appears, be it in the comics, animations, or movies, Batman always gets a headache.

In The Dark Knight, this guy is no longer another average sucker that trolls Batman – he droves Bat Wayne insane. Batman is a comic superhero so most of the time people view Batman’s movies as just another superhero movie with BAAM and POWS! No. Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ is not like that.

Not. One. Bit.

In ‘The Dark Knight’, the big mafia family in Gotham was driven to the edge of desperation by Batman, so they ‘hired’ The Joker to get rid of the bat. However, that was only a cover. The Joker wants something else. He wants chaos. He wants the city to have ‘a better class of villains’ that don’t just do stuff for money. He wants to ‘watch the world burns’. The biggest climax of the movie was when he conducts a ‘social experiment’ to prove that all humans, by their instinct, are ugly creatures. He plants two time bombs onto two ships – one holding average passengers and the other holding criminals. Both ships have the detonator to the bomb on the other ship. The Joker broadcasts to the passengers that if one of them detonates the bomb, he will let that ship live. But if no one hits the bomb by midnight or someone jumps out of the ship, he will blow up both ships from his own remote.

He’s not just a criminal here. He’s a freakin demon. One with a brain too.

Now, even though Batman manages to stop this mad man’s social experiment, The Joker’s ‘other plan’ was already at work; The corruption of Harvey Dent – Gotham’s White Knight. The Joker drove Harvey down despair and turned him into a villain that we are more familiar with – “Two Face”. To prevent Gotham’s morale from falling apart, the Batman took the blame in killing Harvey and let Gotham hunts down the ‘true hero’ that they deserve.

Even though The Joker’s plan did not fully worked out, there is no denying that it creates a big scar on the Batman, and that’s why this guy is my number one favorite villain.

Oh, and to clear up something that might be on your mind now, my father did not intend me to be ‘evil’ like The Joker. At one point, I was almost ‘Robin’, lol.
He wants me to be a cheerful boy, full of lively laughter, which is why he chose that name, and needless to say, I’m proud of it.

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And well, there you have it people, my top 10 villains list. Wow, I felt as if I had more stuffs to write about than my favorite girls list, LOL. Again, let me know what you think about the list by leaving a comment below!

I hope you guys enjoyed reading all that, and I’ll see you guys again next time. Until then, please take care ^^.