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[INEVITABLE SPOILERS] Who's your favorite VN antagonist/villain


Clephas

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In a good story, antagonists and villains often define the story as much or more so than a protagonist.  This is because their very shocking nature, their plans, their intentions all provide a counterpoint to the desires of the protagonist's side, thus clearly defining what the story was about (incidentally, the reason I hate 'monsters/aliens eating everyone for no reason' stories is because there is no real antagonist in those stories to hate or love).

So who are your favorite VN antagonists/villains?  Here are my top 10 as a reference.

1- Shannon Wordworth (Evolimit)- Shannon is the kind of man who probably would have been a great king before the industrial age, a man of high intelligence and a proactive and endlessly optimistic (if in a manner that is antithetical to ethical thinking).  At the same time, he is a man who will use anything at hand to fulfill his goals and has endless patience when it comes to reaching for them, as is shown by his participation in a one-way expedition to Mars as the first wave of developers/colonists.   Does he feel guilt?  Yes but it doesn't stop him.  Does he regret the necessity of some the things he does to reach his goals?  Yes, but he doesn't regret actually doing them.  The epitome of 'man who believes in progress at all costs' (though how this manifests I'll leave to your imagination), he is in some ways a representative of how many non-Americans see the US... and even some of us.

2-  Christopher Valzeride (Silverio Vendetta)- Perhaps the ultimate ideal hero for a militaristic nation that has just cast off the chains of oligarchical rule by military nobles, Valzeride is a man of average talent... except when it comes to working toward a goal.  The man has an endless capacity to use himself as a tool, growing his abilities through hard work, repeated horribly dangerous and life-shortening surgeries, and a ruthless belief that he must act for the sake of others.  A man who will  never be broken by an obstacle, who will always do anything to make a better world... including sacrificing the few for the many.  He considers himself to be human garbage, to be an ultimately worthless monster who must continue on his path to give meaning to those he has trampled, whether ally or enemy.   His charisma is blinding, his glory burns the eyes of those who follow him, and he dares all those around him to follow in his foosteps, even as he strides the line between victory and disaster.
3-  Reinhardt Heydrich (Dies Irae)- Reinhardt Heydrich needs no introduction to anyone who played Dies Irae.  However, for the sake of any who haven't, I'll give him an intro.  Beginning as an immensely talented SS officer, he was plagued by a sense of emptiness until he encountered Karl Kraft, the man who later came to be known as Mercurius.  This encounter transformed him by forcing him to a recognition of his nature, that he loved all things, and that his love was destruction itself.  Despite this description, he is not nihilistic.  He is honorable (in a really twisted way, as is evidenced by his tile of Mephistopheles), he is even fair (within certain circumstances), but in the end, his love is a love that brings destruction. 

Spoiler

 

His goal of victory brings with it immortality... as a part of him. 

 

 

 

4- The Living Gods (the Ikusa Megami series)- I chose this because the Living Gods (Akitsukami) of Dir'Lifyna are the true antagonists of the series, from Celica's perspective.   Acting in what he thought was the best interests of his own god, he was turned into a tool to harm the woman he loved, then when he merged with her flesh, he became an enemy of the very gods he served.  He seeks to do no harm, but the gods and their servants continually plague him, their fear of what he might do often overcoming common sense.  His emotions fray and decay over time, becoming distant remnants of what they were, and even as that occurs, he continues to act as he and his love would have before, the broken remnants of who he was still doing good despite the world defining him as evil. 

5-  Minato Hikaru (Muramasa)- Say what you want about Muramasa but Hikaru makes the ideal antagonist for a story where the protagonist is driven as much by hate for himself as he is for his enemies.  Hikaru is very much a creature of the id, having no real restraints on her actions such as ethics or morality.  Those chains fell aside long ago, and she does not discriminate between good and evil when she kills.  She merely kills.  There is no malice, save for Kageaki.  There is no hate, save for Kageaki.  And in the end, the only thing she really cares about is Kageaki.  A sorrowful figure for those of us who have read the game all the way through, for much of the story she is a pure terror.

6-  Miya (Tiny Dungeon)- Her manner and methods are often roundabout and driven by fear and impatience, though this doesn't show on her face.  However, beneath her often malicious actions toward Hime and his friends is a desperate young woman who wants nothing more than to live... and they just happen to be in her way.

7- Hakushaku/The Count (Vermilion Bind of Blood)- The most powerful vampire in existence, seen as a natural disaster or a being to emulate wherever possible by the vampires, he is a creature of mystery.  He assesses existence entirely by his own personal aesthetic.  He rejects good and evil, seeing them as a petty distraction from what is worthy and beautiful, and he punishes those he sees as ugly without a second thought.  Once he decides to do something, he will work for that purpose for however long it takes, never once having a second thought about the costs in time, effort, and lives.  He truly is the very image of the inhuman nosferatu of legend.

8-  Mikado Kurofune (Hello, Lady)-  A visionary with high ideals who doesn't hesitate to dirty his hands for the purpose of taking steps to fulfill them.  A man who can see what the world, what human society is destined to become and attempts to shape it as he can for his own ideals.   A man who will not hesitate when necessity calls and who has the courage to face the consequences of his actions, even as he attempts to continue on.

9-  Alexandre Raskolnikov (Zero Infinity)- Seemingly the soulless embodiment of the ultimate weapon of the forces of progress, Alexandre is immediately striking in his mechanical lack of emotion toward the enemies of his cause.  He merely follows orders and logically chooses the best option to complete them.  However, in the depths of his soul beats the heart of a hero who wanted nothing more than to protect the weak and who chose to become a force for progress, believing that in doing so he could atone for all those he believed he had not saved.  He never sees those he did save, only those he failed to, and this drives him on in an endless, cold, lonely road to his own destruction, ground to dust by the gears of progress.

10-  Angiel Rag Rene and Pue Rag Ren (Yurikago yori Tenshi Made)- The ultimate antagonists of Yurikago yori Tenshi Made are just scary.  Controllers and creators of plagues, they can infect entire populations with tailor-made viruses generated by Ren's power.  Moreover, after centuries of life, driven by a mad desire for revenge on the God they once worshiped, their madness is so much a part of them that they almost seem sane.  Indeed, it is possible to converse with them normally and even congenially... unfortunately, that conversation is usually little more than an exercise in killing time or to fulfill curiosity as they bring about the horrible doom by disease of those around them. 

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I just realized that the only VNs with some kind of antagonist that I've read were Majikoi series, San Shimai and YU-NO. SOL romances/moege usually don't have them ;) Except for Princess Evangile maybe but while Misako technically counts as "antagonist" in a sense that she opposes the protagonist, she's nowhere close to those "true" villains described above in @Clephas's post.

 

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Houzuki Masaomi from Sharin no Kuni. He just did an amazing job of being a obstacle for the main characters and making them far more interesting as a result.

Honorable mention to the three villains from G-Senjou no Maou: Gonzou, Maou and [secret]. People brag about Maou, but i thought all three of them were amazing, with [secret] being my personal favorite.

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On 29/08/2019 at 1:44 PM, onorub said:

Houzuki Masaomi from Sharin no Kuni. He just did an amazing job of being a obstacle for the main characters and making them far more interesting as a result.

Honorable mention to the three villains from G-Senjou no Maou: Gonzou, Maou and [secret]. People brag about Maou, but i thought all three of them were amazing, with [secret] being my personal favorite.

+1

 

I'll add Matou Shinji (Fate Stay Night), Ruu (Sorcery Jokers), Monokuma (Danganronpa)...

Chaos;Child (Huge Spoiler)

Spoiler

Serika

Kikokugai (Huge Spoiler)

Spoiler

Kong Ruili

 

Edited by Canicheslayer
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Houzuki Masaomi: from Sharin No Kuni

He had such a fearsome and threatening presence like all good villains had and he was real enigmatic at the same time and it was hard to pin down his motives. There was a lot of mystery behind him

Till they fucked up his character by completely explaining his entire backstory which robbed him of so much mystique. Fuck you fan disc!

Kotomine Kirei: Again like Houzuki he was a villain that you couldn't help but like and still want to triumph over.

Spoiler

His brief team up in Heavens Feel was the best part of the route and that grudge match at the end was the stuff of legends

Maou from G Senj: He played the antagonist role so well and was a prefect foil for Haru. His master scheme in the last part of the vn really blew me away.

Kelkan from Sekien no Inganock: He really reminded me of one of the villains from a spaghetti western. He was just incredibly cold and intimidating plus I liked the weird relationship he had with

Spoiler
Spoiler

Saitou Tamaki

From Kara No Shoujo:

Spoiler

His reveal came seemed to come out of nowhere and really floored me I had absolutely no idea that he could have been the mastermind. Also I just assumed those serial murders wouldn't have much baring on the killings that happened in Kara.

Chaos from Tsukihime: I really just loved the way he looked and acted. Super intimidating

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