#one villainous scene

[ultraericthered]

One Villainous Scene: The Way Things Were Before

Passover has begun, so what better scene to bring than this one?

At the point in Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt this scene occurs, Moses has made repeated requests for Pharaoh Ramses, the man he once knew as his brother, to set the enslaved Hebrews free and allow them to leave Egypt. Ramses has stubbornly refused at every turn, even as God has begun delivering plagues upon Egypt and its people as proof that He does exist, He is all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful, and that Ramses should act in accordance with His will and release the chosen people from slavery. As Ramses' pride as the ruler of Egypt and his desire to not be "the weak link that breaks the chain" as his horrible father had drilled into his head was of such importance to the Pharaoh's legacy are too massive and holding too firm, to the point where not even literal acts of God will make him being to entertain the notion of doing anything that would display any semblence of weakness, Moses decides that maybe he shouldn't need to keep relying on God to get this work done for him, and that he needs to speak to Ramses himself, as a human. As a brother.

Ramses, sitting on the arm of a monumental statue of his father, is immediately dismissive of Moses' presence, throwing a goblet at him and snapping at him to leave him. Moses holds his ground and delivers a gentle plea to Ramses for the two of them to make peace with each other, reach an agreement, and bring this feud to an end before any more living beings in Egypt are made to suffer even greater hardships as a result of Ramses' refusal to act, appealing to him as the patient and supportive big brother he remembers. The continued silent treatment from Ramses gives Moses time to take in his surroundings and reminisce about the good ol' days, and all the mischief the brothers used to get into in this city. And this does not seem to invoke in Ramses what Moses would've liked to see, as the Pharaoh is angered at recalling these juvenile antics and the trouble they landed him in with his father, for which he blames Moses. However, he then gives a pause, a wistful look on his face and even a tiny laugh. "But then...you were always there to get me out of trouble again." His face is turned to Moses and suddenly there is no more anger. Only fondness, sorrow, regret and longing. Putting his hand on his brother's shoulders, Ramses solemnly asks "Why can't things be the way they were before?" In this moment, Moses and Ramses are their youthful senses once again, the stakes of what they'd been fighting over vanishing as they look each other in the eye, can fully recall and understand the brotherly love they share with each other, and both wish to stop being mad at each other. They want to hug, make up, and go back to being the family they were.

But when Ramses' young son arrives on the scene, the bubble pops and Ramses is a fully grown adult again, both a Pharaoh and a father, with the heavy responsibilities that both positions entail. "Why is he here? Isn't this the man who did all this?" asks the child. Ramses turns his head and faces the wall, his shoulders heave and sag, and he replies "Yes. But one must wonder...why?" At the question, he turns his gaze to Moses again, giving him an icy look that is in part accusatory and in part gravely serious about wanting to know why Moses would call plagues down upon Egypt and bring devastation to so many lives, to the place he'd once called home and the family that had once been his. Ramses, due to how he'd been brought up and what he was taught to believe, is adamantly refusing to believe that Moses could possibly be motivated to take these drastic, treacherous actions against him, his own foster brother and an actual person, by sincerely caring about the wellfare of some lowly slaves. However, Moses' response comes as "Because no kingdom should be built on the backs of slaves."

What Moses says next hits uncomfortably close to home in light of current events - "Ramses, your stubbornness is bringing this misery upon Egypt. It would cease if only you would let the Hebrews go." Ramses is spiralling to his breaking point now, angrily declaring he will not be threatened, for he is the morning and evening star over Egypt - he is Pharaoh! Moses' voice grows more desparate and concerned as he warns Ramses that a plague from above worse than all that have come before looms ahead, and Ramses can repel it from Egypt by letting go of his pride, his rage, his contempt for life, and freeing all his slaves before everything he holds dear is torn asunder. "Think of your son!", he pleads. And Ramses' response....is to threaten not just Moses, but all of the Hebrews, with genocidal retaliation for the offenses against him he lays at their feet. "My father had the right idea about how to deal with YOUR PEOPLE". This line and the rage on Ramses' face tells us and Moses that he's arrived at the point of barely percieving Moses as a human being equal to himself, let alone a brother. "And I think it's time I finish the job! And there shall be a great cry in all of Egypt, such as there never has been or ever will be again!" To Moses' visible horror, the mad Pharaoh makes this declaration standing right next to a wall painting of his father....the painting depicting him ordering a number of Hebrew infants to be condemned to a watery death in the Nile.

In the one remaining moment where Ramses could have returned to being Moses' brother, he instead fully becomes his father. "Ramses, you bring this upon yourself" Moses sadly laments. And indeed, just as Ramses proclaimed, there ends up being a great cry in all of Egypt, such as there never has been or ever would be again: the choral cry of all Egyptian mothers and fathers upon awakening to find their first born children laying dead. Dead because of a Pharaoh ruled by pride and hatred who would see droves of his own people, his only son included, lose their lives before he'd ever grant the right to a free life to others he believed to be innately lesser people.

[izunias-meme-hole]

One Villainous Scene - Nibelheim Incident 2: Electric Boogaloo

The most iconic moment from the original has been entirely remastered.

Anyone who's played the original Final Fantasy VII knows who Sephiroth is. He’s easily the most iconic Final Fantasy villain and one of the most iconic villains in gaming. Doesn’t matter if you know him as the scary ass dude who stalks a twink, one the most notorious superbosses in Kingdom Hearts, a silver haired anime man, or even the “Alien Mama’s Boy,” we can ALL agree that he’s terrifying, especially in the Original FF7. However we are not focusing on the Original Sephiroth, we are focusing on the Remake Trilogy's Sephiroth.

In the original, we first hear this guys name after he stabs the false main antagonist, President Shinra, with his iconic sword, but we never see him. We are given an idea of what he’s like, but we never see him in the earlier portions of the game. Meanwhile the first installment of the Remake introduces Sephiroth way too early, which both creates a slight bit of intrigue and shoots down the chance for him to be the level of enigmatic that he was in the early game, and sadly reduced some of his menace. However, despite their differences, both incarnations of the character end up going down a similar road, and raise intrigue that gets paid off in the trilogy's second installment, Rebirth.

At the opening of this second part of the trilogy, Cloud looks back at his “memories” of him, and from what we can gather Sephiroth was cold and stoic man with some care for his men and some kind of… hidden sorrow. He’s still currently a mystery, but what we do know is that he is considered a “war hero” to Shinra, he and Cloud are heading to Cloud’s hometown, Nibelheim, and that this flashback is building up to something. Then we are introduced to the possibility of him not being human when both he and Cloud discover a hidden Shinra lab, find monsters, and the name Jenova, coincidentally the name of Sephiroth’s mom. So after having a small mental breakdown at the possibility that he might not be human, Sephiroth goes to the Shinra Manor, and he locks himself in there to find out what he truly was.

Then the madness begun…

When Cloud sees Sephiroth again, he isn’t welcomed with his traditional cold demeanor. Instead he’s welcomed to the sight of him rambling about the Cetra, the possibility of himself and his mother being Cetra, revealing that he was basically Shinra’s lab rat, and making notions that humans were inferior compared to him. He sounds like an insane person at this point, and just when things weren’t tense enough, he just knocks out Cloud, and exits the manor with a mission to see his "mother".

Now here's the biggest alteration to this scene. After waking up and exiting the manor, Cloud is fearing the worst, and his fears soon became reality. Nibelheim was being burnt to the ground, his hometown was being burnt to the ground, complete and utter panic is being spread, and its residents are being slaughtered. Cloud goes into the burning village to go look for his mother, only to witness her be trapped in her own home and burnt to a crisp as he lays on the ground completely helpless. A villager then tries to help Cloud, but is soon skewered by Sephiroth's blade. From there, Cloud begins drawing his way to the ruthless Sephiroth, trying to regain strength as his former idol slaughters anyone in his way. This entire sequence is slow and prodding, but its worth it because after Cloud finally gains the strength to stand on his own two feet and look Sephiroth in the eye, all he ends up seeing is an entirely different man, surrounded by fire. Sephiroth, the Sephiroth, the legend... BROKE DOWN, and Cloud is just realizing that fact by looking at this monster standing in the fire.

I still think that the original version of the Nibelheim Incident was perfect, but the small little changes that were made to how its all set up, somehow delivered the exact same feeling of dread, which is should be an impossibility considering how oversaturated Sephiroth was in the earlier part of the trilogy. Either way, Sephiroth is still A walking, talking, unethical, and tragic science experiment with a god complex, mommy issues, and a very clear terror that is alien compared to every other villain or creature, so far. He may be unable to properly invoke the same terror he could in the OG FFVII, but the Sephiroth we see in this trilogy has just made the promise that it's not going to reduce his monstrous he's going to be, and oh boy does he keep that promise after this scene.

[toasterbounce]

ngl I wanna make a video essay on snows descent into villainy in tbosas I am brainrotting HARD

[digikate813]

May the 4th may be about space wizards to most people, but to some, it's about when one of literature's greatest heroes almost met his end. All because of one of the greatest criminal minds to ever be conceived. 

So I wanted to look back and show how Professor Moriarty built such a legacy, with just One Villainous Scene.

[its-leethee]

A couple weeks ago, I finished up a rewatch of Gargoyles the animated series on Disney plus. I was searching around for analyses/new stories and whoa! A youtuber I admire did an analysis video about one of my favorite scenes from Gargoyles. Of course, it's so good:

Demona is one of my all-time favorite characters. Her anger, prejudice and paranoia are completely understandable; it's how she's endured over a thousand years of pain and loneliness. "The access code is... alone" still moves me to tears.

If we ever get a Gargoyles reboot, I hope the problems with the protagonists' assimilationist ideology are addressed. I hope they'll give Demona the chance to have her anger validated.

Anyways. I wanted to share this incredible truth from the video:

"Being oppressed doesn't teach you how to be a good person; it teaches you how to be an oppressor."

[themattress]

One Villainous Scene - Shattered Mask

So...Ghetsis, leader of Team Plasma and easily the most evil villain in the core Pokemon video game series, has an interesting (and by “interesting” I mean “terrifying”) quirk given to him in Pokemon Adventures. He’s still a heartless, narcissistic megalomaniac....but he’s a very high-functioning one. He is always in control - not just over the events in his master plan, but also over himself: always speaking politely and wearing this benign, kindly look on his face as if the disturbing Pope parallels inherent to his character weren’t obvious enough. 

In the Black 2/White 2 story arc, this face had gone kind of wonky with a lot of tell-tale signs to his true evil nature popping up even as he strains to keep it on, making it come off like a mask that didn’t quite fit anymore. But in the climactic chapter, when he is cornered aboard his airship and has nowhere left to run and all seems lost, it’s back to normal all of a sudden.

So...why is that? Why is he so calm? What is he planning to do? 

Suicide alongside mass murder, that’s what! 

Oh, and you gotta love the inexplicable holy light shining upon him before he detonates the bomb, really leaning in to how he views himself as a saintly martyr; a perfect human being.

And then......this happens:

N is the person Ghetsis has always looked down upon the most. He saw him as just a monstrous freak of nature only fit to be the central pawn in his scheme, and he has fiercely resented him ever since he broke free of being that pawn. And yet...here’s N, attempting to save his life, still calling him his father, telling him that he loves him and is grateful to him despite everything. This is a level of pure, good humanity that is completely beyond Ghetsis’ grasp - and him being faced with it, coming from N specifically, is like a knife stabbed through the heart of his narcissistic self-image. Ghetsis loses control, and now his true face is on display for all to see. How ironic is it that he calls N a “monster”, given the way he looks?

Oh, and N is grateful to him for saving his life? Better rectify that by brutally killing N, then!

Ghetsis’ deranged, triumphant laughter as he falls to his death is cut short when he is saved by Zekrom......who is now squeezing him, digging its claws into him, and glaring at him furiously. Scared beyond all reason, Ghetsis can only scream “LET GO!”, a command Zekrom does not follow. It’s Ghetsis’ greatest fear come true: a total lack of control; being left helpless and powerless. If Ghetsis has no control, then he has nothing at all. No control, no Ghetsis.

Which makes his ultimate fate that much more satisfying:

No control over his situation, as he’s being taken to jail to “live with the shame of a captive”. No control over Pokemon, thousands of whom are glaring at him in the exact same furious, unforgiving way that Zekrom did. And no control over his own mind, as his attempt at reasserting his mask of a composed, saintly gentleman utterly collapses and his former eloquence goes with it as he starts laughing hysterically out of sheer terror and mental anguish before lunging for the safety of the police helicopter. In a way, Ghetsis is now nothing but a shell of his former self. But also in a way, this was always what Ghetsis was at his core and wanted so badly to deny, and now he’s condemned to spend the rest of his life with it.

Truly one of the darkest Pokemon villains ever, a fact cemented by this single chapter.

[vriskan8or]

let her go

[nibbelraz]

Do you think this awoken anything in Mobei-Jun

[glassedplanets]

i am still soooo charmed by that one set of eyecatchers

[monhiio]

whoops gay awakening part xx

[ultraericthered]

One Villainous Scene: A Childhood Wound Repaid

Unlike later Disney/Pixar villains like Lotso and Ernesto de la Cruz, Buddy Pine AKA Syndrome of The Incredibles was promoted as the film's villain from the moment the character was revealed, as you can just tell by looking at him that he's a dastardly supervillain. But they still sort of pulled a trick on us with what they showed us of him versus what they did not show. Voiced by comedic actor Jason Lee, Syndrome was characterized as a geeky superhero fanboy gone bad after having been soured on his hero, Mr. Incredible, and now he's not only an enemy to Incredible and his family, but a threat to the world at large with the super weapons he plans on making and selling. While it figures he'd be credible as that threat, the geeky personality and hammy characteristics of Syndrome painted him as a goofball cartoon baddie, one who'd evoke more humor than hatred.

And then we all actually saw the movie, and got to see exactly what Syndrome did in it and what effects those actions had on others. Syndrome was a viler, crueler, far more personally nasty villain than we'd been led to believe he'd be, and this scene best exemplifies it.

Before this scene, we were told that Syndrome was an arms dealer and that he'd brought about the deaths of other Supers. We saw Gazerbeam's skull and saw heroes classified as "terminated" on a big computer screen. Dark stuff, but Syndrome's comedically douchey manchild character didn't quite match the darkness of his deeds. Syndrome enters this scene just as comically, fanboying over Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) all over again even as he holds him captive, then disparaging him sending out a call for help as "Lame, lame, lame, LAME!" And then not two seconds have passed before Syndrome orders the electro shock torture to be turned on, as Bob is painfully zapped by the volts that suspend him, and he writhes in agony but refuses to give Syndrome the info he's demanding. After Bob sent out his request for help, which included a honing signal that gives his location, a government plane has requested to fly and land on the island Syndrome owns. Syndrome wants to know who's on board, as they'd almost assuredly be allies of Bob's. He even plays the transmission from Helen, Bob's wife, but Bob still denies that it's anyone he knows. So Syndrome says he'll send them a greeting.

Not shown in the video is that the "greeting" in question turns out to be an array of missiles to shoot down the plane. And because he knows Bob is lying about not knowing the pilot and wants to fuck with him, Syndrome keeps the live transmission on as the missiles seek to destroy. At one point Helen confirms that her children, her and Bob's son and daughter, are on board, which gets Bob panicked and pleading with Syndrome to call off the strike. Syndrome's response is a cheerful "Too late!", followed by a snarling, disdainful "15 years too late." Because he remains embittered towards Bob about how he'd spurred his help all those years ago, back when Buddy was a young, overzealous Super fanboy wanting to be his kid sidekick "Incrediboy". Bob doing this, and his cold, insensitive attitude about it, cut Buddy so deeply that it set him on course to becoming the villain he is today, and the grudge he carries over it drives him in his vendetta against Supers, Mr. Incredible himself in particular. Really think about that for a second: Buddy remains so sore about having had his feelings hurt as a child - in part due to Bob trying to stop him from recklessly jeopradizing his own life and the lives of others - that he now as an adult is A-OK with harming and ending the lives of children so long as doing so can hit the idol who'd rejected him where it really hurts.

When the last missile hits the target and it seems that Helen and the kids have perished in the explosion, Bob is mortified. Syndrome takes his speechless anguish as yet another opportunity to rub in some petty payback for the incident 15 years ago, throwing Bob's words to him back at him "You'll get over it. I seem to recall you prefer to work alone?" Cackling maliciously, Syndrome turns to walk away not noticing a now furious Bob about to grab him from behind. His assistant Mirage rushes in the way and Bob grabs her in a chokehold instead. Bob demands he be released or he will crush Mirage to death right there and then. Syndrome displays zero empathy or understanding that Bob is doing this out of the pain of having just lost his beloved wife and offsprings, remarking that killing a hostage would "be a little dark for him" before nonchalantly going "Aaah, go ahead." Bob, even in this emotional state, doesn't actually want to take Mirage's life, so he verbally reinforces how easy it'd be for him to do it. Syndrome just chuckles and calls his bluff again. "Show me!", he says, daring Bob to go through with the murder, a despicably evil smirk on his face as he looks his ex-idol in the eyes.

Bob cannot do it. His human decency is too great. But Syndrome sees it differently. "I knew you couldn't do it." he sneers "Even when you have nothing left to lose! You're weak...and I've outgrown you." Completely cold, dead serious, and detached from any semblence of human feelings, Syndrome doesn't even give Bob a second glance as he walks out of the room, believing his revenge to have at last been fulfilled, as now Bob can only suffer and drown in his despair until the time comes where Syndrome makes him the last Super to perish. But Mirage does give a glance back and a sad look as Bob, the mighty and once revered Mr. Incredibly, has broken down in anguished sobs, believing he's just had everything taken from him.

Beneath the geekiness, blase humor and superficial affability, Buddy Pine is not only absolutely a true menace not to be taken lightly, but a malignant, sociopathic monster who relishes any and all ways he can build himself up at the expense of others who are either enemies for him to topple or collateral damage he gives not one single shit about. And with his own self-elevation to greatness, he feels it fine to bring about both the end of Supers and the downfall of human civilization once all of his weapons would be put up for grabs. Nothing matters to Syndrome except Syndrome, and in such a self-aggrandizing soul there exists endless room for cruelties and exactly none for shame.

[izunias-meme-hole]

One Villainous Scene - The Lord Of Castle Oblivion

Ah, Chain of Memories. In spite of the imperfect card based combat, this game was a nice sequel to the OG Kingdom Hearts, purely because of the story and the official introduction of Organization XIII, or at least 6 of its members. Still out of all six members, I found myself enjoying the Big Bad, the androgynous grim reaper, and Lord of Castle Oblivion himself, Marluxia. Outside of the charming and ruthless Axel, this man was enjoyable to watch.

At the start of the game, he has his hood up and acts like a full on enigma rather than someone actively trying to hurt Sora, but when we see him again his face is shown and he's outright threatening Vexen using his status as Castle Oblivion's lord without raising his voice. From there, we slowly see that this man is not only crueler than he lets on, he gaslit Namine into helping him turn Sora into a weapon via memory erasure, just so he can take over The Organization. All of this done by a tyrant with a graceful and beautiful exterior.

So by the time we reach the finale, everything we've witnessed from Marluxia's character comes through. He starts off with such self-assurance, totally confident he'll achieve his victory that he suggests that Namine should destroy Sora's heart entirely so he can just remake him from the ground up. However he's displeased when Namine refuses to do so, only to be caught off guard by Sora telling her that it would be alright. Marluxia calls Sora a fool before explaining exactly what having his heart destroyed would entail, until he is attacked by the Riku Replica, who has basically figured out that his life is a lie. Yet despite knowing this, Repliku is still willing to protect Namine.

Marluxia, the calm and graceful mastermind behind this entire scheme, gets the closest he could ever be to being truly angry. He sees Sora's desire to still hold onto his bond with Namine to be foolish. He claims that the boy is shackling his heart to a "chain of memories born of lies," and is casting aside his hearts freedom. Then, with such unbridled arrogance he calls Sora's heart weak, and has full confidence that he couldn't be beaten by this weak little fool.

Then we discover that he wasn't truly there, but rather a copy of himself was. However the real Marluxia was listening in, and if Namine wasn't going to destroy Sora's heart, he'd do it himself.

So, Sora goes to confront the lord inside of his quarters, and confronts the truly mixture of elegance and ugliness that is Marluxia. First he faces as a totally different breed of monster from a heartless, and once that form is defeated, Marluxia is back to his normal self, but now both he and Sora are in a vast void, atop a gigantic airship with a near-angelic guardian standing right behind him. He uses everything in his arsenal to try and take down Sora, and in the end... this bastard is still defeated. Then whatever remaining grace he had just fades away as he dies SCREAMING.

At the end of the day, despite all of the flair, all of his mystique from the beginning of the game, and his calm and composed attitude, Marluxia was just a power-hungry monster. Yet despite being a simple villain, motive-wise, he's effective in all the right ways, and that makes himself unforgettable.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Gaslighter? I hardly know her!

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[star-rie]

canon merthur is so special because they’re ACTUALLY the only one who gets to accompany the other meeting each-other’s deadTM parents.

we saw arthur meeting ygraine only through merlin lens (+ the whole sigil thing????) and the only one who get to see merlin and balinor spend time with each-other is arthur

[zoe-oneesama]

Since you’re on that hating Wish train (I’m there with you), I think you might be interested in checking out Jonah Who Two on YouTube bc he’s re-written some of the songs (his “This is the Thanks I Get?!” is really good and way more villainy)

Jokes on you, I ALREADY HAVE!!! >:D