Electric Challenge: Stage 5
Feb. 11th, 2020 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
armanya
Stage 5: They're Blocking the Path!
Today, in your own space, talk about your favorite antagonist in gaming. What game are they from? Are they a recurring antagonist or a once-off roadblock? Do they have a cool theme song? And so on.
(Spoilers: This contains minor spoilers for Mass Effect 1/2/3 and bigger spoilers for Dragon Age 2.)
(Spoilers: This contains minor spoilers for Mass Effect 1/2/3 and bigger spoilers for Dragon Age 2.)
The first one that comes to mind is Illidan Stormrage (from Warcraft). I'm not really sure why, because there are a lot of awesome video game villains. I think it might largely be that I played a lot of Burning Crusade era WoW, so he is the antagonist who is most fiercely imprinted in my brain though. But he does also have several traits I appreciate in a video game antagonist. I really like "accidental"/reluctant villains - the ones that are trying to do good, save their people etc. but go about it the wrong way. And Illidan definitely hits that. I also like antagonists that either get some sort of redemption arc, or end up working with the hero, and we got some of that further into the story. And that feeling of "can I really trust them?", where you fully suspect they will end up turning against the hero all of a sudden? I felt that through so much of Legion... Also, I really just love antagonists/bosses with memorable/creepy speeches, and that "you are not prepared" sent chills down my spine every damn time.
Another one I really love is Anders from Dragon Age - and I love him for the fact that he very much is an antagonist despite being your ally, your friend. He is not evil, you see so many examples of him being good (his end goals are, essentially, good). You cannot help but sympathize with him, despite the fact that he does bad things. You want so, so badly to stop him from tumbling down that road to vengeance - well, I do at least. (That conversation between the Inquisitor and Hawke in Inquisition says it well: "Tell me about Anders. What's he like?" "Complicated. He's not like the minstrels make him out to be. He's not a monster, nor a hero. Maybe he's both. He was trying to change the world, and knew it couldn't happen peacefully.")
Another one I really love is Anders from Dragon Age - and I love him for the fact that he very much is an antagonist despite being your ally, your friend. He is not evil, you see so many examples of him being good (his end goals are, essentially, good). You cannot help but sympathize with him, despite the fact that he does bad things. You want so, so badly to stop him from tumbling down that road to vengeance - well, I do at least. (That conversation between the Inquisitor and Hawke in Inquisition says it well: "Tell me about Anders. What's he like?" "Complicated. He's not like the minstrels make him out to be. He's not a monster, nor a hero. Maybe he's both. He was trying to change the world, and knew it couldn't happen peacefully.")
Some other favourites of mine:
Sephiroth (Final Fantasy)
The Illusive Man (Mass Effect)
Seymor (Final Fantasy)
Saren Arterius (Mass Effect)
C'Thun (Warcraft)
Diablo (Diablo)
Yogg'Saron (Warcraft)
The Arishok (Dragon Age)
There are... probably a bunch of others I'm forgetting. But I think this post is illustrative enough of the sort of antagonists/villains I enjoy anyway.
