Your favorite villain pre-Shadowbringers?

I'm sure new villain/s will be introduced in Shadowbringers. But before that, who is your favorite villain and WHY?

Viceroy Yotsuyu, Baroness Melisie, and Lakshmi.

What I appreciate about Yostuyu and Melisie is that they both revel in their villainy. They are unapologetic about their evil actions, and they are willing to cut down any who stand in the way of their goals, all while maintaining an air of elegance and sophistication. And to watch that veneer of calmness dissipate never ceases to be fascinating.

One of the most impressive moments for me was when Yotsuyu was willing to bring down the Doman Palace on everyone's head, including her own, to ensure that the rebels would fail. "No one leaves! Not you, or anyone else." Watching her spiral into that deep level of self-destructive insanity, motivated by this all-consuming hatred, was exciting.

Baroness Melisie is calculating and executes her plans with precision. We witness Melisie use her position in society to manipulate and further her own agenda without any remorse. She is relentless, and will stop at nothing to maintain what she believes should be the status quo, no matter how depraved or heretical.

Lakshmi is also amazing. Whereas most primals threaten to destroy you for noncompliance, Lakshmi entices victims with promises of happiness and peace. She is an anti-villain, a deceptively malevolent goddess. Whereas other primals are terrifying in appearance, her regal and serene appearance would suggest that she is a nurturing and benevolent deity, but that is far from the truth.

Rowena.


Seriously, how badly in-debt is Gerolt that we had to go to Eureka to help him pay it off?

Karasu from the ninja storyline

Gaius, I suppose. I was disappointed we didn't get to talk with him more in 2.0.

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Originally Posted by Pheryx

Karasu from the ninja storyline

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Does he really count as a villain?

I like Regula van Hydrus a lot. Sure, he didn't work for our team, but he knew where his priorities were and wasn't afraid to put his grievances aside for the greater good.

I also like Gaius a lot for similar reasons. Gaius may be a pragmatist who values strength to lead above all else, but I think that's what made him interesting. By subjugating Eorzea, he really thought that was the most effective way to end the "primal menace." If anything, his invasion of Eorzea just spurred the beast tribe to summon even more out of fear. If he succeeded, he very well may have prevented more Primals from being summoned, but at the cost of individual freedoms. Given how Ala Mhigo turned out, I'd say we made the right choice to stand against him.

Lady Iceheart. Getting me to feel so many strong emotions from a scene with no words was an incredible accomplishment for an MMORPG. The writing was very strong with Ysayle.

https://i.imgur.com/TjQ3d2M.png

Oh, this one's easy. Grynewaht.

As a villain, he's a simple guy. He doesn't have some complex plan to take over or destroy the world, he's not looking to get super rich from conquest, nothing. His goal and motivation is really easy to understand. Grynewaht JUST wants to kill the WoL, and his only reason for this is because he just really, REALLY hates the WoL. That's like, old school villain. Hero vs Villain with very little rhyme or reason, just because that's the way it's always been.

I don't for my opinion. I think every villain from the game just have reasons to do what they do.

I forgot about Gaius I'm sorry
Nidhogg wish to get revenge over humanity
Yotsuyu hate her people and wish to dominate them because of her sad past
Zenos wish to face a worthy opponent (remind me a little of Lu Bu in dynasty warriors by moment)

As for the ascient... They are just like "hey people! We're going to make shit so you can shit on us be cause we are shitty guys!"

I loved Yotsuyu and Fordola in Stormblood. They had a lot of character development and interesting personalities (more than Lyse actually, which is a bit sad), even if JRPG tends to be always same-y in regards of character types.
Although Fordola could have got more focus after 4.1, but I'm still hoping for her to come back in 4.5 :)

Can't say the previous villains have been that remarkable before Stormblood for me.

I think Gaius is the best. Hands down. Not because of what he stood for or what he did, but WHY. He did it because he believes that man should carve his own path.

Why is that so compelling? Well, it means he doesn’t care how his actions are seen, as long as the end results in what he believes is right. Something we can all relate to. It paints him as more of a grey than a black or a white. We haven’t gotten any major villains since that are anything like that. A person who, if he wasn’t so stubborn in his plan because of loyalty to his country, because of his core concept and belief he has would totally sit down in the local pub and have a beer with you since both of you care your own paths. Something he respects and even pretty much says in the Praetorium CS.

That being said, in terms of minor villains, Ysayle (before HW) strikes a chord similar. She wants to uncover the corruption of Ishguard. At the time you see her as evil since you don’t know of the corruption and lies. And in retrospect, had you known you would never have fought Shiva.

Now, in terms of minor villains for camp and cheese? Grynewat. ITS LIKE ALL MY NAMEDAYS HAVE COME AT ONCE!!!

I do like Thordan.

He might be a bit cliche with the evil pope trope but I could also understand why he was doing what he was doing. He, like a lot of people in Ishgard, had to pay for the sins of his anchestors and he knew that he needed to keep the past a secret and to lie about this. Its not right but at the same time understandable since the enemy is not some mortal person that might die or can be defeated but a elder dragon that is filled with unending rage and thus cant be reasoned with. Had he told the people the truth without us there they might have lost all hope and will to fight thus would have been razed to the ground. Of course he needed to be stopped after not only trying to silence people but also after turning himself into a primal that wanted to temper everyone.

I truly loved how he outplayed the Ascians and killed Lahabrea and I do like his fight and music. And the ending when he so shocked about us surviving his ultimate attack and swinging his sword around was perfect.

I loved Teledji Adeledji most. That lala really knew how to push my buttons.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/d43185ed...4jrqo1_400.gif

I also liked Zenos through SB and Asahi as well. I enjoy villains who provoke me. :D

Krile and Rowena. Trying to make me do Eureka. Ahh!! Pure evil right there...

i actually liked Lahabrea, i kinda thought lahabrea and elidibus had a good two sides of the same coin motif to them at first, plus i love hammy villains

Solus, Karasu, Thordan, Diabolos

Teledji Adeledji. Spoiler tags for those who may not be past this point.

This is what talking out yer arse gets you... His demise was epic and finally an alliance leader DID SOMETHING. I want to see the other leaders do something just as epic (just maybe with less loss of limb...)!
Could you imagine what Kan-E-Senna's wrath would look like? Its always the quiet ones I tell you >_>

Yotsuyu. I think villains born of tragedy are the most interesting, developed characters.

There's a lot of villains that are very good, but I don't like for whatever reason. Those I did like include Yotsuyu for reasons already brought before in this thread. I'll also note most of the Knights of the Round, they weren't too high in importance but they got us where it hurts most, because we got to see them so much, we got to see them abuse the people of the Brume, and they were the ones who took Haurchefant from us.

I'd also like to throw an honorary mention to Hraesvelger. I do consider him a villain if only due to what his few actions and more importantly his lack of actions brought forth. Without him, there would not have been a Dragonsong War. Nidhogg would've died when they took away both his eyes and the world could've gone down a different direction. But he knew full well what Nidhogg was going to do, Nidhogg never tried to hide it, yet still Hraes gave him his eye, allowing him to live on to enact his revenge - their revenge. And all the while Hraes hid behind his excuse of his promise to Shiva, that he would not be the one to wage war, acting like this technicality really absolved him of responsibility.
I get his grief after Ratatoskr. I do. And lord knows what the humans, high on their triumph, would've done if the dragons hadn't struck back. But we saw where that story went, and Hraes is just as guilty for any of it as Nidhogg. Thankfully us showing up managed to smack some sense into him.

I liked Yotsuyu as a villain because she did her job as far as getting you to hate her very well. But as a character, I just didn't connect with her. The whole scorned woman driven insane who is later put into a position of power just wasn't believeable to me. Like...really? Someone as unstable as this woman is a viceroy for the Garleans? The Garleans are portrayed as the bad guys but don't necessarily seem evil. I don't know, it was just odd for me.

If anything, I really enjoyed Thordan and his Knights. I'm a sucker for the "behind the scenes" kind of villain that comes to light at some point after their plans fall into place.

Frodola is growing on me as well especially after seeing more of her backstory shown through the cutscenes. It really sucks that she also has to suffer from seeing all the pain she has caused because of her new found powers as well.

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Originally Posted by Marxam

Rowena.


Seriously, how badly in-debt is Gerolt that we had to go to Eureka to help him pay it off?

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More like the love story of the ages. Hes in that debt for her

Lakshmi, specially the first time she appears, like "you asked me to give your daughter back, there she is". Her non empathy with her worshipers, her resting b*tch face, the music and the aesthetics makes her my favorite villain. She's the image of beauty the Ananta wanted to see, but, as it happens in a 99% of cases, beauty hides how empty can someone be.

Also Y'shtola, not wanting to be Magnai's Nhaama. How dare she.

Regula Van Hydrus (sorta counts but he died a hero) and Gaius Van Baelsar.

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Originally Posted by TabrisOmbrelame

I don't for my opinion. I think every villain from the game just have reasons to do what they do.

I forgot about Gaius I'm sorry
Nidhogg wish to get revenge over humanity
Yotsuyu hate her people and wish to dominate them because of her sad past
Zenos wish to face a worthy opponent (remind me a little of Lu Bu in dynasty warriors by moment)

As for the ascient... They are just like "hey people! We're going to make shit so you can shit on us be cause we are shitty guys!"

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Gaius wants to unite the world under the Empire, but doesn't want to go about unnecessary murder for that goal because he sees everyone as a potential citizen. The Ultima Weapon was a weapon for intimidation, but it was also meant as a solution to Eorzea's Primal problem.

He also is against Nael dropping Meteor on Eorzea and the attempt at using chemical warfare (Black Rose) on Ala Mhigans.

I still like myself despite what we did to Gaius.

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Originally Posted by ShinShimon

I still like myself despite what we did to Gaius.

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WoL gets my vote for best villain.

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Originally Posted by Berteaux_Braumegain

Gaius wants to unite the world under the Empire, but doesn't want to go about unnecessary murder for that goal because he sees everyone as a potential citizen. The Ultima Weapon was a weapon for intimidation, but it was also meant as a solution to Eorzea's Primal problem.

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Given what we saw of Ala Mhigo and Doma, Gaius was sure as heck not doing anyone any favors.

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Originally Posted by Marxam

Rowena.


Seriously, how badly in-debt is Gerolt that we had to go to Eureka to help him pay it off?

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I was just about to mention Gilgamesh from the Hildebrand storylines.... then I remembered that Rowena is definitely the ultimate villain of this game. I'm pretty sure that somehow every player in the game is ears deep in debt to her as well. Not to mention that there's the lore tidbit that all those ladies working in Revenant's Toll, Idyllshire, and Rhalgar's Reach are literally her property, like she owns those people, and then forcibly changes their names to reflect that she owns them.

Gaius and Elidibus.

Probably Thordan and the Knights Twelve.

Pretty much all villains from Stormblood...but Yotsuyu takes first place out of them because of her growth...and because of

the music during her trial...so much emotion just in the music

Gaius van Baelsar, Legatus of the Empire of Garlemald. Commander of the XIVth Legion; loyal servant to the true Emperor, Solus zos Galvus. Mentor to Cid nan Garlond; lover to a murdered Tribunus; and he will have his will done, in this life or the next!

Nael Van/Deus Darnus

Gaius.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7300/...bdf4a812_c.jpg

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Originally Posted by Edax

Given what we saw of Ala Mhigo and Doma, Gaius was sure as heck not doing anyone any favors.

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On the contrary, Ala Mhigo and Doma were only f*ed so hard because we killed Gaius. Zenos wouldn't have taken over if we hadn't killed the true Legatus.

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Originally Posted by ShinShimon

On the contrary, Ala Mhigo and Doma were only f*ed so hard because we killed Gaius. Zenos wouldn't have taken over if we hadn't killed the true Legatus.

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You don't know that. Zenos could have taken over regardless or had Gaius assassinated. Gaius was in no position to guarantee anything. Gaius could have won the war and died of a heart attack the next year and everyone would have been brutally repressed then, thus defeating everything Gaius was working for. Gaius' dream was nothing more than a house of cards waiting to collapse.

all of them?

I'm going to say, Solus is quickly becoming my favorite. He's a lot like Ardyn in his antics and there's so much mystery surrounding him as being one of the first Ascians to possess a body.

Zenos. Always a fan of his type; makes you realize there's always someone better than you somewhere.

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Originally Posted by AdamuKun322

I'm going to say, Solus is quickly becoming my favorite. He's a lot like Ardyn in his antics and there's so much mystery surrounding him as being one of the first Ascians to possess a body.

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I remember seeing a post somewhere that was essentially something to the effect of "Imagine being Varis and becoming the Emperor. And then, when you go to the throne room,

Solus comes out and is like 'Hey, buddy. I'm actually not dead and Ascians rule your country. Also, I'm going to remind you about this daily as well as the fact that it displeases you.'"

Made me feel bad for Varis, but the idea of Solus being a big troll sounds fun.