Misunderstood villains in gaming

[Dutch 924]

There's probably been some point in gaming where you thought the bad guys had a good reason to do what they did. Maybe even prefer them as a faction compared to the one you are currently playing as. If this happens it usually means the game designers have either done really well to give the bad guys motive for their actions rather than doing it because they had a bad morning, or it means that the developers did badly, and didn't give you enough of a reason to not like them. Has this ever happened to you?

One villain I can think of is the Helghast. Yeah, they attacked first, but when the ISA retaliated they were still made out as the bad guys. If someone invaded my country as an act of revenge I'd be pretty pissed too; I'd want to defend my home. And you can't say that the ISA didn't overreact. Yes, the invasion of a planet is big, but wiping out their entire race in return is bigger. Simply put, I supported the Helghast more than the ISA.

 

[Don Savik]

The Locust in Gears of Roids. Poor little guys stuck evolving on earth due to random chance, only to have their entire male population chainsawed in half by crazed marines only because they're trying to defend their home and because they look scary. Think of the locust children people. Think of the children.

Also the Sith aren't bad, they just have a different viewpoint on the world. But SWTOR is gonna change that up I hope.

 

[Richardplex]

The Illusive man in Mass Effect for one. But that's because I can almost always agree with the Utilitarian-extremist viewpoint.

 

[ryanthemadman]

definitely the helghast. partially since the ISA just annoyed the fuck out of me >.<
also Loghain in DA:O is an awesome character, also The Cell in crackdown 2 lol

 

[Foxpack1]

Templars in AC1. I hated how they became generic bad guys in the later games.

 

[Vrach]

Also the Sith aren't bad, they just have a different viewpoint on the world. But SWTOR is gonna change that up I hope.

It's not and thank God for that. Sith are evil and I'm glad SWTOR isn't pulling a WoW and pretending otherwise just to equalise factions. There'll be more than your typical Nazi Sith who eats evil pancakes with his evil coffee while reading his evil newspaper, but that doesn't change the overarching fact.

How are Sith not evil from your point of view? Slavery, rule of the strongest heavily based on treachery, murder and birthright, which part of them is not evil?

 

[OldKingClancy]

As I will always say. Dutch Van Der Linde from Red Dead Redemption. He wasn't evil he was just following a different view, he knew the oncoming civilasation would kill him so he chose savagery to survive. His final moments shows he'd rather die than have the civilised world kill his spirit.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

not strictly gaming, but i think Magneto in the X-Men films. he's seen the worst of human prejudice (the Holocaust), and sees it again (mutant registration and discrimination). both times, he's persecuted because something outwith his control (being Jewish and being a mutant).

in games, probably the enemies in Demon's Souls (mostly the first couple of levels). Those guys are soldiers who are protecting their castle from some dick with a sword that's clearly used to overcompensate for something... repeatedly.

 

[taylorton147]

Also the Sith aren't bad, they just have a different viewpoint on the world. But SWTOR is gonna change that up I hope.

It's not and thank God for that. Sith are evil and I'm glad SWTOR isn't pulling a WoW and pretending otherwise just to equalise factions. There'll be more than your typical Nazi Sith who eats evil pancakes with his evil coffee while reading his evil newspaper, but that doesn't change the overarching fact.

How are Sith not evil from your point of view? Slavery, rule of the strongest heavily based on treachery, murder and birthright, which part of them is not evil?

i have to disagree there, in the films, the emperor mentions quite a few times "peace will finally come to the galaxy" and its true if there is no one to oppose them then there is no major fighting, and plus the will have resources to aid worlds aswell, we only ever saw the sith and the empire from the rebels point of view, its the same for the helghast the were forced off their homeworld by the ISA, and now their new homeworld has just been royally fucked over.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Also the Sith aren't bad, they just have a different viewpoint on the world. But SWTOR is gonna change that up I hope.

That viewpoint seems pretty nhialistic(sp?) and tyrannical to me, but ok I'll give you that one.

 

[venatus]

Templars in AC1. I hated how they became generic bad guys in the later games.

so much this. in the first game you could actually pause and consider if your actions were right. however in assassin creed 2 and brotherhood they might as well have had them twirling their mustaches and laughing manically.

 

[Odd Owl]

Revolver Ocelot. And not just because it took them three games to make sense out of the whole arm-possession thing.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Off the top of my head, I can think of...

- The Geth from Mass Effect. ME has a lot of instances of Grey and Grey Morality, but this stands out in my head as the biggest example. Ignoring the second game for a moment, a conversation with Tali reveals the Quarians basically freaked out because a Geth Worker asked a question. The Quarian Response boiled down to Genocide. To say the least this (as well as what we learn in ME2) has made me a lot less sympathetic towards the Quarians.

- The Harkbackhood from the original Perimeter. For those who don't know, the Harkback were a group of Humans who became dissatisfied with the Exodus to reach the end of the Chain of Worlds, and so they killed the Spirits onboard their frames (the only people who can work the Alpha and Omega Portals allowing themselves to travel between worlds) and tried navigating back down to Earth, beliving themselves to have been mislead. This is something they confirm in Perimeter 2...the less said the better on that though.

- Encablossa from the Kingdom Under Fire series. He wants to destroy the world and kill everything on it. Okay. THEN in Circle of Doom we get his reason for doing so (though the same reason is also in The Crusades if one reads the manual) - the current "Age of Light" has reached it's end, and by living the peoples and creatures on the world are basically hurtling the world towards Oblivion.

 

[LostCrusader]

not strictly gaming, but i think Magneto in the X-Men films. he's seen the worst of human prejudice (the Holocaust), and sees it again (mutant registration and discrimination). both times, he's persecuted because something outwith his control (being Jewish and being a mutant).

in games, probably the enemies in Demon's Souls (mostly the first couple of levels). Those guys are soldiers who are protecting their castle from some dick with a sword that's clearly used to overcompensate for something... repeatedly.

Really like the Magneto example, but the Demon Souls soldiers are men who lost their minds/souls to the demons and are now just husks looking for new souls.

 

[Vrach]

Also the Sith aren't bad, they just have a different viewpoint on the world. But SWTOR is gonna change that up I hope.

It's not and thank God for that. Sith are evil and I'm glad SWTOR isn't pulling a WoW and pretending otherwise just to equalise factions. There'll be more than your typical Nazi Sith who eats evil pancakes with his evil coffee while reading his evil newspaper, but that doesn't change the overarching fact.

How are Sith not evil from your point of view? Slavery, rule of the strongest heavily based on treachery, murder and birthright, which part of them is not evil?

i have to disagree there, in the films, the emperor mentions quite a few times "peace will finally come to the galaxy" and its true if there is no one to oppose them then there is no major fighting, and plus the will have resources to aid worlds aswell, we only ever saw the sith and the empire from the rebels point of view, its the same for the helghast the were forced off their homeworld by the ISA, and now their new homeworld has just been royally fucked over.

Do you realise what you just said there? You said that if there's no one to oppose them, there'll be peace. Now, putting aside for a moment the fact that that's utter crap due to the fact Sith are very well known for infighting and that the Emperor's rule is what spawned a Republic resistance, you're saying it's ok to wipe out someone you don't like to bring peace to the galaxy? Peace that was already there before you came along and caused a war?

That's like saying "well, me and my neighbour were yelling at each other the whole day over who gets the cherry tree that's between our yards, so I blew his brains out with my shotgun to make sure we don't get into a fight".

And once again, see their traits. I mean even putting everything else aside (and that's not a small list of evil attributes), they're a society that not only tolerates, but condones and utilizes slavery. How exactly do you work around that?

 

[Terminate421]

The Locust in Gears of Roids. Poor little guys stuck evolving on earth due to random chance, only to have their entire male population chainsawed in half by crazed marines only because they're trying to defend their home and because they look scary. Think of the locust children people. Think of the children.

You realize they rape berserkers just to breed right?

 

[Foxpack1]

Templars in AC1. I hated how they became generic bad guys in the later games.

so much this. in the first game you could actually pause and consider if your actions were right. however in assassin creed 2 and brotherhood they might as well have had them twirling their mustaches and laughing manically.

The death conversations, especially the one with Sibrand is brilliant.

 

[taylorton147]

Also the Sith aren't bad, they just have a different viewpoint on the world. But SWTOR is gonna change that up I hope.

It's not and thank God for that. Sith are evil and I'm glad SWTOR isn't pulling a WoW and pretending otherwise just to equalise factions. There'll be more than your typical Nazi Sith who eats evil pancakes with his evil coffee while reading his evil newspaper, but that doesn't change the overarching fact.

How are Sith not evil from your point of view? Slavery, rule of the strongest heavily based on treachery, murder and birthright, which part of them is not evil?

i have to disagree there, in the films, the emperor mentions quite a few times "peace will finally come to the galaxy" and its true if there is no one to oppose them then there is no major fighting, and plus the will have resources to aid worlds aswell, we only ever saw the sith and the empire from the rebels point of view, its the same for the helghast the were forced off their homeworld by the ISA, and now their new homeworld has just been royally fucked over.

well yes since your neighbor is now dead i think you can have the cherry tree look dude i was just offering an opinion and i still stand by it, its how today major powers try to keep the peace.
Do you realise what you just said there? You said that if there's no one to oppose them, there'll be peace. Now, putting aside for a moment the fact that that's utter crap due to the fact Sith are very well known for infighting and that the Emperor's rule is what spawned a Republic resistance, you're saying it's ok to wipe out someone you don't like to bring peace to the galaxy? Peace that was already there before you came along and caused a war?

That's like saying "well, me and my neighbour were yelling at each other the whole day over who gets the cherry tree that's between our yards, so I blew his brains out with my shotgun to make sure we don't get into a fight".

And once again, see their traits. I mean even putting everything else aside (and that's not a small list of evil attributes), they're a society that not only tolerates, but condones and utilizes slavery. How exactly do you work around that?

yeah dude i think that means you get the cherry tree and thats the end of the discussion look i was only offering an opinion, and it is technically true, even if its wrong we still only seen one side of the story,