Day 2: Villainous Villains

Greetings! Welcome to the next part of my set, Villainous Villains.



Ganondorf

Evil Scale: 7.0

One of the best known foes among the Nintendo universe, I for one find Ganondorf to be a rather underrated villain. Yes, naturally, in the elden Zelda days, he was a bit of a stereotypical baddie that did a little cackle and tried to rule the world, but look beyond his minutes of corn.

Deep within, he's actually a pretty bad guy.
There's a reason why he is always the final boss, why he is always the hardest to beat.
Many of his visible actions, especially the ones not seen, were dark. He's known as the Demon King and that isn't too far off. He may hide behind a humanoid embodiment, but in almost every Zelda game he's in, he has a much greater, more powerful form that's destructive and near unbeatable.



Some would argue his darkest game would be Twilight Princess and while he may have shown his more demonic side there, I found Ocarina of Time to be the tipping point of his dark villainy.
He was brutal to everyone in that game and the way they portrayed him was rather smart.
He worked his way into power within the kingdom of Hyrule and when his chance came, he took it, and killed everyone who stood in his way, conquering the land and slaughtering the people he found to be of no use. People just don't think of this fact since everything was unseen (due to it being off-screen and Link being asleep for those 7 years of Ganon's reign). He tried to hunt down Princess Zelda and make an example of her, as he did the others. And he put in charge all his dangerous minions to oppress the people and yes, kill them, to keep order in his land. In many ways, this Ganondorf was a tyrant.
He even had his hand in what happened to Link's mother.




Ganondorf is a far greater villain than everyone gives him credit for.
He can be just as dark and menacing as any other.
Watching that one scene of him in Twilight Princess where he murders one of the Sages proves it.
I think as we get further into the Zelda series and get more mature atmospheres as we've been seeing, with much more scarier and creepier villains, we'll probably witness more of the dark side he clearly possesses.
But from what I've seen, Ganondorf certainly can hold a candle to his title, the "Demon King".


Mr. Benedict

Evil Scale: 7.0

Here's another one of those underrated villains that doesn't get nearly enough credit.
Because unfortunately he's in an underrated film.



Benedict was a spectacular character, his introduction brilliantly executed.
You think, at first, he's a regular henchman and he's one of those cool side-bad guys that'll probably overshadow the boring boss with their charm and witty personality...nope.
He pulled a Dimentio.
He secretly lusted for control and to be his own man, and every chance he got, he ridiculed his employer under his breath, showing a strong lack of respect or loyalty when he was supposedly his top henchman.
But he appears stuck. Perhaps written to be a character that hates where he is and wishes more for himself, but is not given the opportunity for an uprising.
Until bam...Danny Madigan shows up, with the ticket in his possession, that serves as a portal from his world to the movie's. After a scuffle with Jack and narrowly escaping, Benedict, looking through Danny's belongings that he stole, accidentally discovers that the seemingly average looking ticket turns out to be so much more. At long last. His opportunity for power has arrived.



Keeping it to himself, he holds on to the ticket and plays along with his boss for awhile longer.
Until their last plan goes awry and he's had enough.
Once back home..he puts his plan into motion.
His former master now dead, him at last his own man, he arrogantly says to the audience, "If God were a villain..he'd be me."
Then unexpectedly, Jack breaks in..and Benedict coolly takes an assault from his new rival, which mistakenly leads to the new main antagonist escaping their world, and into our's.



But here, it is nothing like what he expected.
He quickly notices the crime being worse and the lack of tight law being enforced.
Here is where he realizes, "The bad guys can win."



He's most definitely one of my favorite villains simply because of his gentleman-like mannerisms and sadistic nature that sets him apart into a unique category.

He's far more twisted than he lets on and has a highly intelligent and calculating mind that makes him dangerous. His decision to bring fellow villains outside of their own films is bloody brilliant and realistically, what would really happen. In my opinion, Benedict was fantastic. His arrival into our world, his exploration and the way he took everything in was natural and effortless.
While he may not be a mass murderer in his own right, he is just as evil and capable as the next villain.
As I said. He's unique and a refreshing change of pace.


Lord Shen

Evil Scale: 6.9

Yet another underrated villain.
Lord Shen may be a peacock, but that doesn't stop him from being as dangerous and ruthless as a human.
His background is intriguing...his parents denied him rule after he savagely committed genocide against the pandas-- seemingly involved in the death of Po's mother-- and was thus banished for his actions until his return several years later.

Compared to Tai Lung, Shen is even more evil and sinister. He's not just arrogant, he's cruel, murderous and cold towards others, slaughtering hundreds of a race, murdering one of the Kung Fu masters in cold blood, and then attempting to continue his terror by use of his new weapons.
Trying to end Kung Fu is only a fraction of his goals.




I love his stylish demeanor. Yes, he's evil and arrogant and all that, but there's something about him that just flairs. He's harsh, but he has sarcasm and a bit of humor that comes unexpectedly, but still, surprisingly, fits his character rather well. I was surprised how bad he actually was, especially the moment you actually SEE him murder one of his own men just because he refused to follow an order.
He had a lot of dark moments and his lack of remorse for all that he did, especially to Po, made him even more cold and merciless. For a peacock, that ain't half bad.

Check tomorrow for my next post!

God Bless,