It’s said that the key to making a good villain is to make someone who believes they’re in the right. No matter how immoral, deplorable, or unforgivable their actions, they have to believe they’re all justified. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be sympathetic. Just that they have some conviction before they’re convicted for their crimes.
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Yet this can also mean people will find some method to their madness. Their goals will either have something agreeable buried under the layers of sin, or their decisions make sense given the circumstances they were stuck in. In fact, thesevideo game villains have a pointwhen it comes to their misdeeds.
7Pagan Min — Far Cry 4
Pagan Min caused controversy from his debut, as people mistook him for a white guy asserting dominance over a POC soldier on the game’s box. But despite his bleach-blonde hair and light skin, he’s an Asian gang lord who seized the Kingdom of Kyrat through a charm offensive that mixed propaganda with brutality. It’s up to the player, as Kyrati-American Ajay Ghale, to survive the civil war between Min’s forces and the Golden Path rebels.
Ghale just has to help the rebels kick Min out to liberate Kyrat, right? Not quite. As brutal as Min’s regime is, it’s perhaps themost liberal option for Kyratoutside Ghale taking the crown for himself. If he kills Min and hands Kyrat to the Golden Path, it’ll either become an authoritarian regime that runs the drug trade, or a patriarchal theocracy that strips women of their political liberties. Maybe Ghale should’ve just waited for Min at the dinner table after all.
6Letho — The Witcher 2
‘The Kingslayer’ used to be on fairly good terms with Geralt of Rivera. As a fellow witcher from theSchool of the Viper, the two worked together to save Yennefer from the Wild Hunt. But then he re-emerged years later in the Northern Kingdoms, slaying King Demavend, killing the royal guards, and betraying allies to save his own skin. Why did he do it? Because Emperor Emhyr var Emreis told him to.
While Letho was imprisoned, the emperor promised to restore the School of the Viper if Letho killed the Northern Kings and blamed it on the Lodge of Sorceresses. The School raised Letho since he was a child, and their ruin at the hands of the Usurper was a blow. Var Emreis slayed the Usurper, so he seemed trustworthy enough. Whether the restoration of the School of the Viper would be worth handing the North to the Nilfgaardian Empire is up to the player.
5The Flame Emperor — Fire Emblem: Three Houses
On the continent of Fódlan, the Kingdom of Faerghus and the Leicester Alliance are under threat of being conquered by the Adrestian Empire. Its ruler, the Flame Emperor, took over the country after organizing a bloody coup. Now they plan on doing the same to the rest of Fódlan, razing its society before rebuilding it from the ground up. How could their terrorism be considered good in any way? Well, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
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Bigotry runs rampant in Fódlan’s society, like Faerghus' pogroms on its Duscar people for alleged crimes. Likewise, the Church of Seiros promoted inequality by praisingthe nobility’s Crest powers. Thinking crests made them high and mighty, the nobility essentially took over the Adrestian Empire and drove it into the ground until the Emperor sorted them out. If anything, the player ends with the same goal of equalizing Fódlan. Just with less severe means.
4Loghain Mac Tír — Dragon Age: Origins
Loghain used to be a hero to his native Ferelden. Alongside Prince Maric Theirin, he freed his country from the Orlesian Empire. Then he became an advisor to Maric’s son Cailan following his father’s disappearance at sea. But at the Battle of Ostagar, he abandoned Cailan, declared himself regent of Ferelden, and blamed Cailan’s death on the Grey Wardens, Ferelden’s former allies. It’s likely to assume he grew power-hungry and wanted to be king himself.
However, Loghain’s downfall was more down to his paranoia than corruption. He always feared the Orlesian Empire would rise again, that the Grey Wardens were working with them, and that both had a hand in Maric’s disappearance. Seeing Cailan be chummy with the Wardens stoked his fears and he acted on them to secure Ferelden. The same desire that made him a hero, freeing and protecting Ferelden, turned him into a traitor that led the land into civil war.
3Big Boss — Metal Gear
Nowadays, it’s easy to forget that Big Boss wasoriginally a villain, given his story’s been fleshed out much further since the MSX days. Like his former superior Major Zero, he wanted to unite the world by making it one. No borders, no boundaries. Only Zero wanted to do it by controlling everything: weapons, information, and society at large. Big Boss wanted people to be free from such control, so they could make their own decisions and fight for their own causes.
Largely because this means there would still be conflict, and soldiers would still have a place in the world. He abandoned The Boss' principles when he realized she’d rather drop her weapons than stay as a “gun”. Then, inMetal Gear 2: Solid Snake, he provided refuge for orphaned children with the intent of raising them as child soldiers. Naomi Hunter and Sniper Wolf may have been slower to praise him if they knew that was his intent for them.
2Revolver Ocelot — Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Speaking ofMetal Gear, Ocelot’s always been a slippery character. He’s usually a villain, yet his allegiances can change at any moment. Even his most straightforward role inMetal Gear Solid 5had a twist in its tail. But none are as twisted or as confusing as his plot as “Liquid Ocelot” inMGS4. Seemingly taken over by Liquid Snake through his arm (seriously), he took control of the world’s biggest private military companies by recreating the Patriots’ GW AI.
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He planned to use it to hack the Patriots’ SOP system, then destroy their master AI JD with a nuke. Except this was all a ruse to get Solid Snake and co to fight against him, then use the FOXALIVE virus to wipe out the Patriots without destroying the world’s infrastructure. He just didn’t want either side catching onto him, and getting that last fight in. Tricks are Ocelot’s MO, but if he just talked things out with Snake, things would’ve been much simpler and safer.
1Daisy Fitzroy — Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinitewas a big deal on its release, yet its reception has cooled off over the past few yearsin comparison to its predecessor. Some players just weren’t too keen on its gameplay changes, or they didn’t find the aerial city of Columbia as interesting as the underwater dystopia of Rapture. For others, it was its story and its villains. Zachary Comstock and his Founders are fair game with their bigoted, theocratic regime.
Yet the game also wants the player to be wary of Daisy Fitzroy’s anti-racist Vox Populi rebels. UnlikeFar Cry 4,Infinite’sattempts to make them an equal threat felt forced. They’d target the Founders' relatives, and an alternate timeline showed Fitzroy running Columbia like a Communist police state. At best, it’s a weak attempt at providing nuanced villains, and at worst it’s saying those who oppose bigotry are as bad as the bigots themselves.
