The most irredeemably evil bastard in any videogame

[chocolate pickles]

Mahatma Gandhi from Civilisation.

This guy has been riding my ass for five versions of this game and still wont let up.

Never trust Gandhi.

Seconded. An eyebrow was raised when he told me that Rome was becoming too much of a problem and that we needed to declare war on it. I think the guy took a malevolent turn somewhere along the line and history just forgot about it.

 

[lord canti]

Pokey from the mother series, specifically mother 3. Anyone who has played that game know exactly how much of an evil dick bag he was.

 

[DaWaffledude]

The Capsuleers, from EVE Online. Remember that most ships in EVE have a large crew of NPCs, even if you never interact with them. Now think about the stuff that happens in EVE, and more importantly, why.

Jesus Christ, it's like it's a game for them or something.

 

[minkus_draconus]

Well, you are about to see why in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

I think it has to do with the fact that the people he tortures might actually BE bandits. Albeit bandits that might not be attacking him, but where you see a penal colony, he sees exactly what you are shooting through: Camp after camp of murderous psychotic bandits trying to murder you for shits, giggles, and loot. He just can't tell the difference. The daughter thing I believe has something to do with the possibility of Angel being the one to kill her mother, and the device being used to control her powers, while he uses her powers for his own ends. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of him killing children of his employees. Bandit kids, maybe, but kids of Hyperion employees?

OT: My answer to this question is not one based from love or hatred of this character, but of pure fact: M. Bison, specifically because to gain his power, he literally ripped out any good he had in his body and embraced the mad evil left in his soul. He is irredeemable because he literally has no good left in his entire body through his own machinations.

I cant think of a single thing that could possibly make me feel anything for Jack.

He was written as too much of everything I dislike in humanity.

It was impressive how much I wanted to totally find him and end him after discovering the Echocasts where he murdered Helena Pierce. This was amplified when he described how he blinded a man who tried to defend himself from Jack in front of his children. Actually pretty much everything in BL2 involving him makes me see red (figuratively).

Seriously his fictional actions are the only ones any villain (I would put Kefka up next) I can think of has performed that actually make me mad just thinking about.

Really? Those things made you hate him that much? A story he tells you for luls and an Echocast to establish him as a sarcastic murderer? Not the torturing Tiny Tina's family, or the threatening of his employees, or anything like that?

I was picking out things specifically, rather then a litany of his entire existence (no time for wall of text). His character overall and hearing his voice (even in my head while typing this) just brings about rage. So he probably would be a great 4chan toll.
Also the Helena Pierce thing makes him a liar and I really dislike liars.

 

[minkus_draconus]

How about the King of the Cosmos and the Prince?
Especially in Katamari forever. All those innocent animals, people and things turned into stars.

 

[Silverbeard]

Also, I think humanity in the Warhammer 40,000 universe is pretty damn evil. If it weren't for their vicious racism, they could easily unite the galaxy and annihilate the threat of chaos and the Tyranids, Orks and Necrons aside (though the Necrons do actually have enough of an interest in fighting chaos and enough capacity for reason that alliance with the living races wouldn't be out of the question for them, their utter contempt notwithstanding, and a lot of the fluff shows that the Orks aren't entirely unreceptive to bribes by non-greenskins or at least being pointed in the right direction, and their own fluff indicates that they enjoy killing Chaos daemons above all else), but humanity refuses to do this and makes its own situation worse with their sheer determination to continue making enemies. Their evil is from their stupidity and total lack of rationale, which threatens not only them but every living thing in the galaxy.

That's not quite as simple as you are making it sound. Forming a lasting alliance, even if it was only a defensive one or a non-aggression pact, requires a unified effort on the part of at least two governments. A faction-wide alliance between the Imperium and the Necrons requires both governments to agree- and the Necrons don't have a government. The same applies to the orcs. Really, the only factions in the 40k universe with actual interstellar governance aside from the Imperium are the elder, dark elder and the tau. The dark elder are basically agents of chaos so they get automatically excluded and the tau aren't really the alliance type: they aim to form united coalitions rather than defensive or offensive alliances with equals. Any agreement between the tau and the Imperium would require the Imperium to become a part of the Tau Collective, at least in part or preferably in whole. Out of the question.
That just leaves the elder, who to my mind represent the best chance the Imperium has of forming a properly lasting alliance with a major power but the elder prefer to stay out of the way and in the shadows so they'd have to work just as much as the Imperium to establish any alliance.
Final word: The lack of alliances in the 40k universe stems just as much from inability as it does from prejudices and hatreds and that just seems like part of the universal sense of depression that pervades that setting- everyone knows that they're stuck in a deadlock of constant war but there's no way out.
Truly, in the distant future there is only war...

 

[Nixou]

I can't see the Catalyst being evil any more that a gun being evil. Its reasoning is based on the protocols written by the Leviathans. Its not an AI, but a complex VI, like EDI was before Cerberus repurposed her as Normandy's brain.

Actually, I see the Catalyst as being a machine which worked too well: the Leviathan were a parasitic aristocracy who tasked the Catalyst to make the symptoms of their corruption -their vassal races eventually being wiped out by their own creations, depriving the nobility of its "tributes"- disappear. The catalyst's rational conclusion was to conclude that its creators depravity was one of the main cause of the symptoms and that rectifying these demanded that the Leviathans be overthrown and integrated as the first cog in the Reaper megastructure.

 

[Thyunda]

The dark elder are basically agents of chaos

You watch your goddamn mouth. The Dark Eldar have a hole in their soul they need to fill and they're not actually all that picky about what they fill it with. They'd get the same glee torturing a daemon as they would a child.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Yea, I was going to go with Kefka also. Lots of villains have reasons for their evildoing, like money, power, or ideology. Those people aren't necessarily evil because they think they're doing good, or at the least they're just single-minded in pursuit of some goal. Kefka was just doing it for shits and giggles.

Sometimes with villains, actually a lot of the time if things have been done correctly, there is a bit of empathy and a kernel of humanity that you can relate to. A great villain shows the worst of something that exists in all of us, and appeals to our sense of control over the universe: as long as we're good, we'll never be threatened by evil people. That, or the villain's story makes you think about whether or not they're truly that awful and makes you contemplate the merits of evil yourself (Dhaos, for anyone who played Tales of Phantasia, is the picture of this in my opinion).

But Kefka, your only thought is "Holy shit this guy needs to be put down".

Exactly. This is the reason why people trying to equate Kefka with The Joker causes me to almost on reflex shake my head no. Kefka makes The Joker look like a perfectly sane individual in comparison. In every depiction of him I've ever seen The Joker always has some sort of motivation for what he is doing that can make some sort of sense, even only in a very twisted way, including the "just wants to see the world burn" Joker. Money, power, screwing with Batman, etc. regardless he always has a reason. Kefka however has no reason for the evil actions he takes besides "I enjoy it", he just does what he does for the sheer hell of it.

OT: For someone that hasn't been mentioned yet, Xehanort. In all of his incarnations throughout the Kingdom Hearts series he destroys countless worlds, manipulates people for his own benefit and into being consumed by the darkness, corrupting others into being no less evil than he is, and otherwise causes chaos for reasons that amount to "for knowledge", all the while with a sadistic glee. He isn't a "I did what I had to do" villain, a Knight Templar villain, greed villain or even a "boundless hunger for power" villain. No, he does it because his goal is to obtain the X-blade, and through that Kingdom Hearts, and use it to destroy the Kingdom Hearts universe he can see what happens next, that's. it. He doesn't even want the X-blade Kingdom Hearts for power, just because he's curious. There isn't even anything in his past which might have drove him to this or anything, unless you count Xehanort using time travel to corrupt his past self, thus leading to him becoming what he is, which I don't.

However, based on how unnecessarily cruel and evil he is about everything he does even when it's completely unnecessary or even counterproductive to his goal I have no doubt that even without the X-blade or Kingdom Hearts around he would still do what he's done just for the fun of it.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

I've been on a Dragon Age: Origins kick recently, so I have got 2 examples of completely irredeemable bastards:



-Paragon Branka: This one I find more interesting. She is just so obsessed over her goals, she sees everything and everyone as tool to be used. She allows truly horrendous acts to occur in order to get to the Anvil of the Void, that there could never be proper justification for her actions. The only time I have ever stood against Caradin, I made sure that she killed herself, just so at least she could see how horrible she had become.

I agree upon Arl Howe. I don't think Lohgain even liked to deal with him, only to justify his existence for political strategy only rather than an agreement as to his means. At least with Lohgain, you could say he did it out of nationalism and deep consideration of Ferelda. Arl was just a vicious bastard through and through --- and may I add -- a very weak one once you confront him.

Now as for Branka. I don't know. You could claim that at the point when she began to sacrifice fellow dwarfs in her pursuit of the Anvil, the taint was already messing with her head even though she was extremely strong willed to fight off its full effects. When the group finally reaches her, well... the sins have already been made and what was done was done. She also did it out of the pursuit of nationalism and survival of her people. So she went out with the best intentions but the pressures of the taint and her willingness to sacrifice herself is what I saw instead of pure evil.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Lets see my pick goes to...

Chairman Stahl from Kill Zone 3 - Not only did he become a power hungry psychopath but he then dealt with a severely devastating element that not only endangered his own military apparatus but also the entire Helgahn civilization.

VLADIMIR MAKAROV - Modern Warfare 3 - He used a nuke for a warning , shot up an entire airport full of unarmed civilians, provoked a war with the US and USSR, then went on to use poison gas in all of Europe.

General Shepard - Modern Warfare 2 - Many reasons.... but more important he took out --------------. Honestly it would have been a spoiler but is there anyone that hasn't played this game or at least have been spoiled already? Oh well. But you know what he did.


Last but not least

Arcturus Mengsk --- Star Craft - Star Craft II. --- For playing with the Zerg and leaving the people of ___________ to ____________. Cruel ass man... which made SCII all the more sweeter.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Actually I've talked about this a few times, but Handsome Jack is a representation of the average player character from most RPGs, as seen from the perspective of the average bandit.

You see in Borderlands, you, the player character, are a bandit. Sure, you're a vault hunter, but you're also a bandit just like the rest of the denizens of Pandora. Hell, you can play as a Psycho in the game. The entire game is spent with you looting and killing, and fighting little land wars against various other bandit clans, and that's all you do when you're not fighting Handsome Jack. You're one of the reasons that Pandora is so dangerous. Why are you on Pandora? Because you're a vault hunter and you're all about getting more money and bigger guns. You're not a hero you're there for your own self interest.

The reason Handsome Jack thinks that he's the hero is because he is. He's bringing peace and order to Pandora. He's capturing, studying, and eradicating dangerous wildlife and exterminating the bandit populations that make Pandora dangerous for normal people. He created the city of Opportunity, which allows people a safe haven to live in for free.

I mean, what are the evil things that Handsome Jack has done?

Destroy the environment? Pandora was already kind of a shit-hole, and while he did pollute a few areas he did so in the name of progress. He created real cities on Pandora, rather than just the shanty towns that were there before.

Murder people? Pretty much everyone he "murdered" were murderous psychotic bandits who attack everyone the moment they see them. He killed the same kind of people that you spend the entire game killing. Did he kill them brutally? Sure, but the average player rather enjoys finding gruesome ways to kill their enemies. I bet you enjoyed shooting people in the face and watching their heads fly off. Of course you did you sick bastard, we all did.

Imprisoned his daughter? You could see it that way, but you can also see it as protecting everyone from a person who has incredible powers that she can't control.

Handsome Jack lives by the idea that the ends justify the means. The reason you see him as evil though is because everything he does is counter to what your player characters are trying to achieve, and because the other characters in the game, who are bandits, tell you that he's evil. The game is about bandits and anarchists fighting against a government which seeks to eradicate them in the name of peace and safety and your character is put on the wrong side.

That's what makes the game so interesting and well written to me. Handsome Jack is written as an evil bastard but at the same time I see everything he does as the actions that an immature player would take when playing an open world RPG while role-playing the hero. It's kind of brilliant.

Sorry but the people from New Haven were not as far as I can tell murdering psychopaths. Nor are the people in Sanctuary (listen to them). Helena Pierce was not; nor the guy he blinded who was protecting his family.
It's a cute theory but IMO falls apart.

EDIT: To fix quote attribution.

Really, the people in Sanctuary aren't bandits and psychopaths?

Marcus is an arms dealer to all the bandits on Pandora. He shoots a man for asking for a refund. He has a murder/torture dungeon in his store on Sanctuary where you get to test your guns out by shooting unarmed Bandits who are chained up. He sells guns to ALL OF YOUR ENEMIES and sees nothing wrong with this so long as he gets his profit.

Brick is literally the leader of a bandit group called The Slabs. At one point he got kicked out of Sanctuary for being too hardcore and torturing too many people.

Dr. Zed experiments on animals and people, and creates horrible murderous mutants.

No no, these are wonderful, charming people. Maybe you're the one who needs to listen more closely.

 

[Ryallen]

Well, you are about to see why in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

I think it has to do with the fact that the people he tortures might actually BE bandits. Albeit bandits that might not be attacking him, but where you see a penal colony, he sees exactly what you are shooting through: Camp after camp of murderous psychotic bandits trying to murder you for shits, giggles, and loot. He just can't tell the difference. The daughter thing I believe has something to do with the possibility of Angel being the one to kill her mother, and the device being used to control her powers, while he uses her powers for his own ends. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of him killing children of his employees. Bandit kids, maybe, but kids of Hyperion employees?

OT: My answer to this question is not one based from love or hatred of this character, but of pure fact: M. Bison, specifically because to gain his power, he literally ripped out any good he had in his body and embraced the mad evil left in his soul. He is irredeemable because he literally has no good left in his entire body through his own machinations.

I cant think of a single thing that could possibly make me feel anything for Jack.

He was written as too much of everything I dislike in humanity.

It was impressive how much I wanted to totally find him and end him after discovering the Echocasts where he murdered Helena Pierce. This was amplified when he described how he blinded a man who tried to defend himself from Jack in front of his children. Actually pretty much everything in BL2 involving him makes me see red (figuratively).

Seriously his fictional actions are the only ones any villain (I would put Kefka up next) I can think of has performed that actually make me mad just thinking about.

Really? Those things made you hate him that much? A story he tells you for luls and an Echocast to establish him as a sarcastic murderer? Not the torturing Tiny Tina's family, or the threatening of his employees, or anything like that?

I was picking out things specifically, rather then a litany of his entire existence (no time for wall of text). His character overall and hearing his voice (even in my head while typing this) just brings about rage. So he probably would be a great 4chan toll.
Also the Helena Pierce thing makes him a liar and I really dislike liars.

Would you trust a bunch of terrorists to not try to blow up your stuff? Because, basically, to Jack, the Crimson Raiders are terrorists upsetting the peace and order that he is trying so desperately to maintain. He lied because he is stronger than them, and they are, to put it bluntly, stealing his shit. And no, the train wasn't legally commandeered. They straight up stole that train. And he took it back with Wilhelm. Simple as that.

 

[Mr C]

Probably Kefka. There's not even a real reason for his to do what he does beyond it just being fun. There really isn't even any easily pushed aside personal desire or belief.

He was the first who sprang to mind for me. I always think for someone to be really evil they have to genuinely enjoy the horrible things they do and Kefka definitely fits the bill. Not saying that people who do bad things for personal gain aren't evil, but it's not quite the same as enjoying inflicting pain on others.

There are probably people worse than Kefka but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Yep, I'm on the bandwagon. Such a good villain.

 

[sageoftruth]

Since Kefka has already been taken I am going to cheat a little and take a character who has appeared in video games but originates from manga / anime : Dio Brando

Besides acting like the embodiment of Satan's dick since he was in his teens like a lot of characters that have been already mentioned (not really putting any emphasize on the teen part but rather the Satan's dick thing) he also has a lot of charisma meaning that he can easily persuade people to join his cause and in general to influence people , which actually inspires the antagonist of a later part of JJBA to act out his plan.

To give you a quick overview of Dio's character and his actions:

Killed his father
Attempts to ruin the lives of his foster father and his son Jonathan so that he can become rich/powerful
Drives away everyone close to Jonathan
Burns Jonathan's dog while he (the dog) is still alive
Kills people on multiple occasions for the joy of it (respects the wish of somebody he is about to kill by not killing her child just so she can kill it after he turns her into a brainless vampire)
Poisons his foster father
Forces somebody to drive on the pavement killing dozen of people in the process, because he was stuck in traffic
Sadisticly toys with most of his enemies
Literally steals the body of Jonathan from the neck down

Yep. Dio's definitely up there with Kefka. It's hard to tell who is worse. Dio tends to get personally involved more when it comes to doing evil stuff which helps to show his love for cruelty, while Kefka ups his irredeemability by being such a dirty coward, sending others to do his dirty work, retreating whenever he is attacked (until the final battle) and never caring who dies, friend or foe, when his dirty deeds are being carried out, as long as people are dying. "Diediedie!"

 

[rgrekejin]

Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth. At the end of Bioshock Infinite, they declare themselves judge, jury and executioner of countless entire *timelines* of people for mostly selfish reasons. I mean, sure, by taking out Booker before his baptism, they prevent any future Columbias from developing, but what about all the people who lived in those Columbias? Whose parents only met because of those Columbias? They relegated a countless host of innocent people not to death, but to complete and utter nonexistence. That's way, way worse than anything Comstock ever did.

 

[Pikey Mikey]

A lot of people have said Kefka, so I guess I'll go with...
I don't really know. I wanna say Sarevok from Baldur's Gate. But he's not evil for the sake of evil =/

Spoiler

He wants to start a massive war between two nations to spill huge amounts of blood, because he believes that it would allow him to ascend to godhood and become the new Lord of Murder. As you learn (and you clicked the spoiler tag, so you have been warned) he is a Bhaalspawn, a demi-god who is a child of the Lord of Murder, Bhaal (The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his death he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown with their passing) so he reasons that it's his birthright and that causing vast amounts of murder is the best way to achieve his goal. (he also studied the prophecies a lot so he's not just winging it)
So that's one point, another is that, not only does he help you in the expansion (you never don't take him, because he is AMAZING (and Kevin Michael Richardson/his voice actor is fantastic :3), you can actually get him to change his alignment from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Good (Good but adhering to his own code). Because after you kill him and revive him (story stuff) his loses his Bhaalspawn essence and without it he can't become a god, so he basically drops it, in order to help you, his brother/sister (you're also a Bhaalspawn).
So I can't really name him for this thread, I think.

But I reaaally love him :3 so he gets an honorable mention (I will end this by saying I think Baldur's Gate is a fantastic series (two games) before I ramble on any more (Irenicus has a tragic backstory, I actually felt sorry for him...Still killed him though (No one hurts Viconia! (Bodhi's with him, so it counts)))

 

[Asclepion]

I can't see the Catalyst being evil any more that a gun being evil. Its reasoning is based on the protocols written by the Leviathans. Its not an AI, but a complex VI, like EDI was before Cerberus repurposed her as Normandy's brain.

Actually, I see the Catalyst as being a machine which worked too well: the Leviathan were a parasitic aristocracy who tasked the Catalyst to make the symptoms of their corruption -their vassal races eventually being wiped out by their own creations, depriving the nobility of its "tributes"- disappear. The catalyst's rational conclusion was to conclude that its creators depravity was one of the main cause of the symptoms and that rectifying these demanded that the Leviathans be overthrown and integrated as the first cog in the Reaper megastructure.

So, seeing how vassal races build AIs that turn against their masters, the Leviathans solve this by building an AI, that then turns against them.

One questions how a species so unbelievably idiotic conquered the galaxy.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth. At the end of Bioshock Infinite, they declare themselves judge, jury and executioner of countless entire *timelines* of people for mostly selfish reasons. I mean, sure, by taking out Booker before his baptism, they prevent any future Columbias from developing, but what about all the people who lived in those Columbias? Whose parents only met because of those Columbias? They relegated a countless host of innocent people not to death, but to complete and utter nonexistence. That's way, way worse than anything Comstock ever did.

I see that more as two people stuck choosing the lesser of two evils. It's shown (not that it makes sense mind you, but that's another matter) that any timeline where Columbia exists there's going to be racial oppression and exploitation across the city, unnecessarily bloody revolution at some point, and eventually Columbia attacks New York City if not the entirety of the U.S. killing millions. Stopping Comstock and thus Columbia from existing is just the least harmful choice, there is no "good" choice involved for Booker or Elizabeth.

 

[Aulleas123]

A lot of people have said Kefka, so I guess I'll go with...
I don't really know. I wanna say Sarevok from Baldur's Gate. But he's not evil for the sake of evil =/

Spoiler

He wants to start a massive war between two nations to spill huge amounts of blood, because he believes that it would allow him to ascend to godhood and become the new Lord of Murder. As you learn (and you clicked the spoiler tag, so you have been warned) he is a Bhaalspawn, a demi-god who is a child of the Lord of Murder, Bhaal (The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his death he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown with their passing) so he reasons that it's his birthright and that causing vast amounts of murder is the best way to achieve his goal. (he also studied the prophecies a lot so he's not just winging it)
So that's one point, another is that, not only does he help you in the expansion (you never don't take him, because he is AMAZING (and Kevin Michael Richardson/his voice actor is fantastic :3), you can actually get him to change his alignment from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Good (Good but adhering to his own code). Because after you kill him and revive him (story stuff) his loses his Bhaalspawn essence and without it he can't become a god, so he basically drops it, in order to help you, his brother/sister (you're also a Bhaalspawn).
So I can't really name him for this thread, I think.

But I reaaally love him :3 so he gets an honorable mention (I will end this by saying I think Baldur's Gate is a fantastic series (two games) before I ramble on any more (Irenicus has a tragic backstory, I actually felt sorry for him...Still killed him though (No one hurts Viconia! (Bodhi's with him, so it counts)))

I agree with this, Sarevok is a very underrated villain who deserves more attention. I'll even pose the statement that I actually liked his villainy better than Irenicus. Both wanted to become gods, but Irenicus made it about revenge for the consequences for his own stupid choices, Sarevok was clear-headed and goal oriented without any sentiment or emotion. I do wish that he appeared in the game more, but BG-TOB made up for that.

OT: I'll also say Diablo deserves a spot on this list. I mean... he's kinda... the devil...