Villians without redemptive qualities...

D

deangelashante

New member
Yes, yes, we all love Drakken and Doofinsmurks (spelled right?)

But what about those characters with few if any good characteristics?

Zhao - Avatar: I would have picked Ozai, except he did show affection for his daughter. Zhao is just a man who is mean. Period. Oh, and Azula is awful if not more but at least she has a real reason to be this emotionally distant.

Zim: I dunno, somehow I just never really saw any 'good' that came from him. I felt sorry for him sometimes, but even when he failed miserably at being evil it was just the fact that he never really became even a competent anti - hero that got me.

The Huntsman American Dragon: He hunted down the protagonist time and time again, threatened to make a pelt out of him, has ruthlessly slain dragons and even threatened the welfare of his most promising operative's parents if she didn't turn on her one true love which led to her ultimate betrayal. Ever watch Homecoming? It's actually kind of dark. :D
 
V. V. Argost from The Secret Saturdays, disappointingly so. I had hoped that Jay Stephens and his colleagues would have given him a few redemptive qualities, but as Jay Stephens proudly proclaimed on this forum: Argost feels remorse for nothing! The episode that aired a few hours ago, while fantastic, only pushed him further down the “I’m evil, deal with it” road. A pity.
 
For now until proven other wise, you never know there might be a twist.

Sosuke Aizen (Bleach) - he is just plain evil. He loves to play with people's mind and treat everyone as toys. What he did to his own Vice Captain who admired and loved him with all her heart was despecable and caused her mental trama. Than he kidnaps a girl and has his henchmen mental torture her, and that is just the half of it. He has killed his loyal Arrancars followers as well, as well as what happened a couple of chapaters ago which I won't mention for spoiler reasons.

Ali-Al Saachez (Mobile Suit Gundam 00) - he is not the main villain or any type of master mind, he is just a hired mercenery, but he is the most despecable person on the show. He is just plain evil, the other antagonists either have their reasons for what they are, or in their twisted think they are the world savior, Al Saachez knows he is evil and loves it.
 
There are lots of villians from Dragonball who are just completely unredeemable and they require no explanation:
Commander Red
Freeza
Cell
Dr. Gero
The Shadow Dragons(Excluding Nova Shenron)

One Piece has a few as well:
Kuro, because he was planning to kill his own men from the start in addition to murdering innocent townspeople.
Don Kreig, it's obvious he had no compassion for his crew, and was a low down crook who used any means neccessary to get what he wanted.
Wapol, he put his country through hell, and even after Luffy beats him he ends up being better off than when he was a king!(he became stinking rich selling toys with his munch munch power)
Spandam, the dumbest, creulest, jerk in One Piece
The Celestial Dragons, I don't need to say how monsterous they are.

When it comes down to it though, most shows usually have a villian that is unredeemable.
 
"Saw-Tooth" Arlong (One Piece): WOW! This guy makes me glad I'm not a Fish-Man. Shooting Bellemere to death, cutting up Genzo and telling a corrupt Marine captain where Nami's money is?

This guy is freaK!

Mandy (Billy and Mandy): She is just one of the many reasons why am I not a fan of the works of Maxwell Atoms. She's a heartless sociopath and a war-mongering brat. Yessh!

Endive (Chowder): Well, here is another female villain/nut-job I regret watching. Has anyone seen this gal? Makes Lady Tremaine look like the Fairy Godmother.
 
True, but it was clearly shown that he cared for his crew. That gives him at least one redeeming quality.

I'd have to add Clay Puppington in Moral Orel. The things he does in season three are downright sickening.

Also, Dark Danny in Danny Phantom seems to do everything he did just because he could.
 
Whether he's merely an evil clown or a psychopath, The Joker knows that his actions are unjust. He might claim that he had a lousy father, but Batman and the audience knows better.

And we wouldn't have it any other way.



Sure he has no remorse, but his behavior is attributed to the fact that he joined with Vlad's Ghost Half.
 
The situation of Dark Danny's "birth" is actually a very ambiguous matter and I feel as awesome as "The Ultimate Enemy" is, it could have benefited from another half-hour to make time to explain why exactly Danny's ghost half did what he did; remember, HE was the one who merged with Vlad's ghost half. Like you, I do believe the reason he was able to create so much destruction and mayhem is due to Vlad's side, but mostly from a physical (as in physical appearance) and intelligence (able to patiently plan and calculate his next move) point of view. All his motivations and even his referring to Danny as his "past" (notice he never calls Vlad his "other half") makes it feel that ultimately, down the line, deep down inside, everything Dark Danny did was driven purely by Danny's ghost half's rage and emotional after his family/friends' death. My personal theory anyways.

Although that sounds like he could be redeemed, I don't personally believe it for a second. Dark Danny is cruel, he's malicious, he's manipulative, and completely beyond redemption. His general goal is to kill/destroy everything in his path and in the actual episode itself; kill his loved ones and start a chain reaction just so he can ensure his future. Yeah, I personally believe he belongs on this list.

Er, don't mind me, Antiyonder. I don't disagree with your comment, I just geekingly emphasized it and...went overboard. :D
 
These choices baffle the heck out of me. How are either of these characters irredeemable villains? They're not always the most likable characters, but they don't really fit into the character type being discussed here.

And if I were to add a villain I'd say Negaduck from Darkwing Duck.
 
Psychopathy is actually a clinically untreatable mental condition, so psychopathic characters like Joker or Freiza are inherently irredeemable.


Kind of makes you wonder about the popular idea that "everyone has the potential to be good".
 
I disagree with this thread title. I'm sorry, but having human qualities is not the same as having redemptive qualities. Not at all the same.

Norman Osborn in "The Spectacular Spider-Man," for example, has some care for his son. While that definitely qualifies as a humanizing quality, it is by no means a redemptive one. Not in the slightest. Hell, he genuinly liked Peter Parker and treated him well, wanting go mentor him. Was that a redemptive quality? Hell no. But it was a humanizing one.

Or, if we're going to go with a real life example, and at the risk of Godwining myself (although, I don't subscribe to Godwin's Law), Adolph Hitler loved Eva Braun and he really loved children. Humanizing qualities? Yes. Redemptive? There was no redemption for that creature.

So, by no means do I believe every villain should be redemptive, but they should all have humanizing qualities.
 
Actually, the ability to empathize with other human beings is most certainly a redemptive quality, because it means you are not a psychopath. Meaning you have the potential to change. It's the difference between, say, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.


The funny thing, though, is that having redemptive qualities makes you all the more culpable for the evil actions you do. You are capable of feeling remorse and of sharing in other people's pain, but you voluntarily disregard those feelings. As opposed to simply not having those feelings at all.
 
She's not so bad as much as she is realistic and cynical to a point. She does care about the welfare of her friends, but she has to keep it low-key. I actually kind of respect her. She has to deal with so much crap but she's one of the most awesome female leads in any show. I mean, all of the insane stuff she just looks in the face and says "you have no power over me". Remember the rhaphsberry duck? Dually quoted as forementioned. :cool:
 
Ring Ring (Pucca): A complete nut job and a spoiled brat who always goes to extreme lengths to make Pucca jealous. She also believes she's the prettiest girl in the world. Aside from one brief moment in the show, I haven't seen anything redeemable about her. Due to her transformation when she gets angry, I actually think she might be a demon.

Frieza (Dragonball Z): I don't need to explain this guy.
 
I'm a but surprised that Johan Liebert from Monster has not been mentioned yet. I can't think of a single redeeming thing about that guy: He held no love for anybody, except maybe his sister (and even than it was an extremly twisted sort of love) and even when he did nice things to people (re-uniting his classmate with his estranged father), he only did it so he could cause them to suffer even more later on.
 
Anubis from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light. This quote from the Abridged Movie says it all:

Anubis: First, I will defeat you in this children's card game. And then I'll destroy the world!
Yami: Why would you want to do that?
Anubis: What do you mean?
Yami: Why do you want to destroy the world? What do you gain from it?
Anubis: Huh?
Yami: Come on! You must have had some reason for wanting to destroy the world, or else this whole movie was pointless bickering!
Anubis: Of course I have a reason!
Yami: What is it?
Anubis: I'm not telling you.
 
Beast Wars Megatron. I mean, in one episode...

he commands his forces to attack the maximal base so that their attempts to revive a fallen teammate would fail. That's pretty low.
 
Envy from Full Metal Alchemist: Vengeful, smug, brat who always seems to run rings around the Elric Bros. and mess with them in some of the worst ways possible without ever getting his comeuppance.

Dewey Novak from Eureka 7: Another smug, self-righteous, badnik who never really gets stopped from what he's doing, actually succeeds while he is still alive, and also brainwashes kids to be as heartless as he is.
 
Back
Top