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Candidates for the Villains HALL of LAME!
In various discussions of anime, Kathy and I have come to the conclusion that there are certain villains who are, not to put too fine a point on it, just plain LAME.
We're not talking about the villain who Monologues Too Much, or is Overdramatic, or who may have failed to read any of the Evil Overlord list, we're talking about villains who simply fail at being interesting AS VILLAINS, and yet are held up either by a contingent of fans, or by the creators of the series, as someone that we somehow SHOULD be interested in seeing. The creators of course demonstrate this belief by shoving the villain in our faces FAR too often.
Currently we have three top contenders for this type of villain and are (mildly) interested in hearing about others.
#1) Sasuke, from Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. Here's a guy who Could Have Had It all. Despite being a total angsty dickwad because of his Shameful Past, he happens to get teamed with a girl who goes gaga over him and a guy who's got an even WORSE secret -- and who somehow manages to not only see the sunny side, but ends up being friends with him, angstness and all. So instead of turning to his friends or anything else, he sells his soul to the next closest thing to Satan, maintains his "I'm such an angsty dark antihero" attitude, and doesn't develop much more in the way of a personality for the next umpty-ump volumes of the manga. When it turns out that what he THOUGHT was true about his family... wasn't, instead of saying "Ooops, maybe I need to rethink things", he decides to continue along and do what Mr. Evil wanted anyway. Still without developing any personality other than "Dark haired, brooding, angsty". God we're getting tired of seeing Sas-sucky. All he needs to do is get hit with a cluebat, but no one seems willing to give him one. He even has the example of Sociopath Gone Responsible Gaara to show him where he's going wrong, but refuses to see.
#2) Anakin Skywalker, AKA Darth Lamer. It's amazing how much he has in common with Sasuke. Both of them end up serving the Big Really Smart and Really Cool Evil Guy, both of them spend most of their time looking angsty (and get darker makeup when they Join Evil's Clubhouse), both of them have almost no justification for their actual Turning Dark, and both of them are lame, lame, LAME. Syndrome would mock them both, and Mr. Incredible would be right there with him.
#3) Envy, Fullmetal Alchemist. No matter how you slice him, he comes up lame. Superpowers, nasty, but a sort of sniggery little schoolboy nasty. He's got no majesty, he's got no style, he's got nothing except nastiness. He whines like a schoolgirl when things don't go his way, he's a coward, and he can't even manage a little COOL.
Any other candidates for the Hall of LAME?
We're not talking about the villain who Monologues Too Much, or is Overdramatic, or who may have failed to read any of the Evil Overlord list, we're talking about villains who simply fail at being interesting AS VILLAINS, and yet are held up either by a contingent of fans, or by the creators of the series, as someone that we somehow SHOULD be interested in seeing. The creators of course demonstrate this belief by shoving the villain in our faces FAR too often.
Currently we have three top contenders for this type of villain and are (mildly) interested in hearing about others.
#1) Sasuke, from Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. Here's a guy who Could Have Had It all. Despite being a total angsty dickwad because of his Shameful Past, he happens to get teamed with a girl who goes gaga over him and a guy who's got an even WORSE secret -- and who somehow manages to not only see the sunny side, but ends up being friends with him, angstness and all. So instead of turning to his friends or anything else, he sells his soul to the next closest thing to Satan, maintains his "I'm such an angsty dark antihero" attitude, and doesn't develop much more in the way of a personality for the next umpty-ump volumes of the manga. When it turns out that what he THOUGHT was true about his family... wasn't, instead of saying "Ooops, maybe I need to rethink things", he decides to continue along and do what Mr. Evil wanted anyway. Still without developing any personality other than "Dark haired, brooding, angsty". God we're getting tired of seeing Sas-sucky. All he needs to do is get hit with a cluebat, but no one seems willing to give him one. He even has the example of Sociopath Gone Responsible Gaara to show him where he's going wrong, but refuses to see.
#2) Anakin Skywalker, AKA Darth Lamer. It's amazing how much he has in common with Sasuke. Both of them end up serving the Big Really Smart and Really Cool Evil Guy, both of them spend most of their time looking angsty (and get darker makeup when they Join Evil's Clubhouse), both of them have almost no justification for their actual Turning Dark, and both of them are lame, lame, LAME. Syndrome would mock them both, and Mr. Incredible would be right there with him.
#3) Envy, Fullmetal Alchemist. No matter how you slice him, he comes up lame. Superpowers, nasty, but a sort of sniggery little schoolboy nasty. He's got no majesty, he's got no style, he's got nothing except nastiness. He whines like a schoolgirl when things don't go his way, he's a coward, and he can't even manage a little COOL.
Any other candidates for the Hall of LAME?
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The latter is because Batman doesn't normally become that involved in his schemes, but Bruce Wayne has, several times, stopped some of Luthor's schemes by using the Wayne fortune and business interests.