I'd like to take this opportunity to wish any of my readers out there a Happy New Year. I hope you enjoyed visiting my blog and that you'll stop by in the future.
Next year, I shall strive to do my best to keep this place updated a bit more frequently.
See you in 2016, everybody.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
My Villains of the Year
Warning: This post will contain some spoilers. You've been warned.
Fictional villainy of any kind is a recurring theme on this blog and with 2015 drawing to a close, I thought It'd be fitting to write about whom I consider to be my favorite evil-doers to appear in media this year. Before we begin, I'll point out that this is strictly my opinion and if there's a villain from this year that doesn't appear here, its most likely because I'm not familiar with them. And so, without further ado, I give you (in no particular order) my favorite villains of 2015:
Toffee (Star vs. The Forces of Evil)
Its my personal opinion that Toffee's appearance caused Star vs. The Forces of Evil to go from being a good show, to a great show. You see, for most of its first season, the main antagonist of Star vs. was a fellow named Ludo and while Ludo was an entertaining enough character, he wasn't very good as a villain. Basically, he was your typical bumbling, comedic bad guy and his strategy (I'm using the term loosely) consisted of having his minions attack Star heads on, with predictable results. Needless to say, it got old pretty fast.
Than, in the second half of the season. Toffee made his entrance and it was clear from the moment he first appeared that this guy was on a completely different level from the enemies Star and Marco had tangled with in the past. Voiced by Michael C. Hall, Toffee was originally hired by Ludo as an evil efficiency-expert, impressing the wanna-be conqueror by coming up with a genuinely clever plan, which resulted in Ludo almost getting his hands on the wand. From there on out, Toffee proceeded to work in the shadows, subtly undermining Ludo's authority until his henchmen turned on the little guy and kicked him out of his own castle.
In the season finale, Toffee revealed himself to Star, forcing her to destroy her wand in order to save Marco's life, which had been his goal all along.
Manipulative, mysterious and ruthless, Toffee is a villain that that I really want to see more of. Especially since there are still so many things about him that we don't know: How did he know about the whispering-spell? What's his connection to Star's family? How did he loose his finger? Hopefully, we'll get an answer to some of these questions in the next season. Yes, I'm aware that Toffee seemingly perished in the explosion that destroyed Ludo's castle, but considering how he had already demonstrated the ability to regenerate lost limbs, I doubt that we've seen the last of this evil lizard-man. After all, the Toffees of the world always survive.
Who would have thought that a talking flower would make for such a diabolical and freaky video-game villain? Flowey is the first character you encounter in Undertale and while at first he seems friendly and helpful, it doesn't take long for him to drop the act and reveal his true nature as a murderous sadist. If I had to pick one thing that makes Flowey stand out as a villain, it would be how personal he is. Sure, other villains in games have taunted the player (or the player's character), but I can't recall any who has done it on the same level as this guy: You accidentally killed Toriel on your first play-through? No problem, just re-load the game and it will be as if the whole thing never happened, right? Wrong! Flowey knows exactly what you did and will rub your face in it. As icing on the cake, Flowey's backstory, once its revealed, is genuinely tragic, without undermining his villainy in the slightest. This chlorophyll-filled bastard definitely belongs on any short list of gaming's greatest villains.
I've mostly enjoyed the previous main villains of Friendship Is Magic. but there's no denial that they were all cut from the same cloth: Ancient evil beings, who make no secret about their desires to corrupt, dominate and destroy anyone foolish enough to stand in their way. As such, it was quite refreshing when the show's writers decided to go down a different route with the villain of its fifth season. Enter Starlight Glimmer; she's no chaotic spirit or parasitic shape-shifter. No, she's a seemingly regular unicorn, looking no different from any other member of her kind. Oh, and she also happens to be a cult-leader, who plans to use her ability to remove a pony's cutie-mark and with it their special talent, to spread her twisted version of equality across Equestria.
In her first appearance, Starlight was, in terms of raw power, the least powerful major villain, the mane six had ever faced, relying mostly on propaganda and brainwashing to achieve her goals. After her plans were thwarted, Starlight ran off, but returned in the season finale (making her the first villain to serve as the antagonist in both the season opener and finale), armed with a set of new magic abilities and with a plan for vengeance. Said plan involved going back in time to prevent the Mane Six from ever getting their cutie-marks in the first place, something which would have dire consequences not just for them, but the entire World.
Although I felt that her back-story could have been expanded on, the sheer scope of Starlight's plan coupled with her vindictive, obsessed and hypocritical personality made her a truly memorable villain, one of the most interesting this show's ever had.
The first season of Fargo gave us one of the greatest villains I've seen in a live-action TV-show: Lorne Malvo, played by Billy Bob Thorton. It shouldn't come as a surprise than, that I was interested in seeing whether or not season 2 would give us a villain of the same stature. Enter Mike Milligan, played by Bokeem Woodbine. Milligan is an enforcer for the Kansas City Mob, sent to Fargo to help facilitate the syndicate's take-over of the local underworld, which at the beginning of the season has been in the control of the Gerhardt family for generations.
Personality-wise, Mike Milligan is one of those villains who manages to be both funny and genuinely menacing at the same time, something I always appreciate. There's just something about a villain who manages to be disarmingly likable even as he does awful things, like say, torturing a guy with a type-writer.
Its interesting to compare Milligan to his predecessor in the show, the aforementioned Lorne Malvo, both of them being highly competent and effective killers. However, that's where the similarities end: Malvo was basically an avatar of chaos (or maybe even the Devil himself, if some of his lines were any indication), taking enjoyment out of spreading discord and corrupting people, seemingly for the sheer hell of it. Milligan on the other hand, is motivated primarily by greed and a desire to move up in his chosen field. I think a meeting between these two characters would be interesting to see: Would they figure that the other one was to dangerous to leave alive and tried to kill each other? Or would they develop a mutual form of respect? (come to think of it, a mix between the two seem likely). Oh, well, that's what fanfiction is for.
At first, I wasn't sure whether or not to include this guy. After all, unlike all the other evil-doers seen here, Pablo Escobar was a real person, whose crimes affected real people. However, in the end, I still decided to give him a spot on the list, on the basis that the Escobar in the show is not the actual guy, but a fictionalized representation of him. Exactly how accurate the show's version of Escobar is in terms of personality, I can't say, but in the end, does it really matter? The portrait Narcos paints of the notorious drug-czar, brought to life by actor Wagner de Moura, is a fascinating one; depicting a man who came from nothing and sees himself as a man of the poor and champion of the downtrodden, all while living in luxury and committing mass-murder without batting an eye. I really enjoyed Narcos as a series and it was never better than when the camera was focused on this guy.
Fictional villainy of any kind is a recurring theme on this blog and with 2015 drawing to a close, I thought It'd be fitting to write about whom I consider to be my favorite evil-doers to appear in media this year. Before we begin, I'll point out that this is strictly my opinion and if there's a villain from this year that doesn't appear here, its most likely because I'm not familiar with them. And so, without further ado, I give you (in no particular order) my favorite villains of 2015:
Toffee (Star vs. The Forces of Evil)
Its my personal opinion that Toffee's appearance caused Star vs. The Forces of Evil to go from being a good show, to a great show. You see, for most of its first season, the main antagonist of Star vs. was a fellow named Ludo and while Ludo was an entertaining enough character, he wasn't very good as a villain. Basically, he was your typical bumbling, comedic bad guy and his strategy (I'm using the term loosely) consisted of having his minions attack Star heads on, with predictable results. Needless to say, it got old pretty fast.
Than, in the second half of the season. Toffee made his entrance and it was clear from the moment he first appeared that this guy was on a completely different level from the enemies Star and Marco had tangled with in the past. Voiced by Michael C. Hall, Toffee was originally hired by Ludo as an evil efficiency-expert, impressing the wanna-be conqueror by coming up with a genuinely clever plan, which resulted in Ludo almost getting his hands on the wand. From there on out, Toffee proceeded to work in the shadows, subtly undermining Ludo's authority until his henchmen turned on the little guy and kicked him out of his own castle.
In the season finale, Toffee revealed himself to Star, forcing her to destroy her wand in order to save Marco's life, which had been his goal all along.
Manipulative, mysterious and ruthless, Toffee is a villain that that I really want to see more of. Especially since there are still so many things about him that we don't know: How did he know about the whispering-spell? What's his connection to Star's family? How did he loose his finger? Hopefully, we'll get an answer to some of these questions in the next season. Yes, I'm aware that Toffee seemingly perished in the explosion that destroyed Ludo's castle, but considering how he had already demonstrated the ability to regenerate lost limbs, I doubt that we've seen the last of this evil lizard-man. After all, the Toffees of the world always survive.
Flowey (Undertale)
Who would have thought that a talking flower would make for such a diabolical and freaky video-game villain? Flowey is the first character you encounter in Undertale and while at first he seems friendly and helpful, it doesn't take long for him to drop the act and reveal his true nature as a murderous sadist. If I had to pick one thing that makes Flowey stand out as a villain, it would be how personal he is. Sure, other villains in games have taunted the player (or the player's character), but I can't recall any who has done it on the same level as this guy: You accidentally killed Toriel on your first play-through? No problem, just re-load the game and it will be as if the whole thing never happened, right? Wrong! Flowey knows exactly what you did and will rub your face in it. As icing on the cake, Flowey's backstory, once its revealed, is genuinely tragic, without undermining his villainy in the slightest. This chlorophyll-filled bastard definitely belongs on any short list of gaming's greatest villains.
Starlight Glimmer (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)
I've mostly enjoyed the previous main villains of Friendship Is Magic. but there's no denial that they were all cut from the same cloth: Ancient evil beings, who make no secret about their desires to corrupt, dominate and destroy anyone foolish enough to stand in their way. As such, it was quite refreshing when the show's writers decided to go down a different route with the villain of its fifth season. Enter Starlight Glimmer; she's no chaotic spirit or parasitic shape-shifter. No, she's a seemingly regular unicorn, looking no different from any other member of her kind. Oh, and she also happens to be a cult-leader, who plans to use her ability to remove a pony's cutie-mark and with it their special talent, to spread her twisted version of equality across Equestria.
In her first appearance, Starlight was, in terms of raw power, the least powerful major villain, the mane six had ever faced, relying mostly on propaganda and brainwashing to achieve her goals. After her plans were thwarted, Starlight ran off, but returned in the season finale (making her the first villain to serve as the antagonist in both the season opener and finale), armed with a set of new magic abilities and with a plan for vengeance. Said plan involved going back in time to prevent the Mane Six from ever getting their cutie-marks in the first place, something which would have dire consequences not just for them, but the entire World.
Although I felt that her back-story could have been expanded on, the sheer scope of Starlight's plan coupled with her vindictive, obsessed and hypocritical personality made her a truly memorable villain, one of the most interesting this show's ever had.
Mike Milligan (Fargo)
The first season of Fargo gave us one of the greatest villains I've seen in a live-action TV-show: Lorne Malvo, played by Billy Bob Thorton. It shouldn't come as a surprise than, that I was interested in seeing whether or not season 2 would give us a villain of the same stature. Enter Mike Milligan, played by Bokeem Woodbine. Milligan is an enforcer for the Kansas City Mob, sent to Fargo to help facilitate the syndicate's take-over of the local underworld, which at the beginning of the season has been in the control of the Gerhardt family for generations.
Personality-wise, Mike Milligan is one of those villains who manages to be both funny and genuinely menacing at the same time, something I always appreciate. There's just something about a villain who manages to be disarmingly likable even as he does awful things, like say, torturing a guy with a type-writer.
Its interesting to compare Milligan to his predecessor in the show, the aforementioned Lorne Malvo, both of them being highly competent and effective killers. However, that's where the similarities end: Malvo was basically an avatar of chaos (or maybe even the Devil himself, if some of his lines were any indication), taking enjoyment out of spreading discord and corrupting people, seemingly for the sheer hell of it. Milligan on the other hand, is motivated primarily by greed and a desire to move up in his chosen field. I think a meeting between these two characters would be interesting to see: Would they figure that the other one was to dangerous to leave alive and tried to kill each other? Or would they develop a mutual form of respect? (come to think of it, a mix between the two seem likely). Oh, well, that's what fanfiction is for.
Pablo Escobar (Narcos)
At first, I wasn't sure whether or not to include this guy. After all, unlike all the other evil-doers seen here, Pablo Escobar was a real person, whose crimes affected real people. However, in the end, I still decided to give him a spot on the list, on the basis that the Escobar in the show is not the actual guy, but a fictionalized representation of him. Exactly how accurate the show's version of Escobar is in terms of personality, I can't say, but in the end, does it really matter? The portrait Narcos paints of the notorious drug-czar, brought to life by actor Wagner de Moura, is a fascinating one; depicting a man who came from nothing and sees himself as a man of the poor and champion of the downtrodden, all while living in luxury and committing mass-murder without batting an eye. I really enjoyed Narcos as a series and it was never better than when the camera was focused on this guy.
Wilson Fisk (Daredevil)
Yes, I'm aware that the Kingpin has been around for decades, having made appearances in comics, shows and movies over the years. However, I'm specifically talking about the version of the character seen in the Daredevil live-action show on Netflix. Played by Vincent D'Onofrio, Fisk is introduced as a shadowy crime-boss, pulling the puppeteer-strings. However, as Daredevil goes on, we get to see more an more glimpses of Fisk's more human and vulnerable side, fleshing out the man to the point that he is just as much of a protagonist as his nemesis, Matt Murdock. I also found it interesting that this version of the character views himself as a social reformer of sorts; seeing the crimes he commits as a necessary evil to improve things in Hell's Kitchen. All in all, an excellent portrayal of this classic Marvel-villain.
Last but not least we have Danny Rayburn, the ostracized oldest son of the Rayburn family, as played by Ben Mendehlson. Honestly, I can't think of much to say about this guy that I didn't already say in my post on Bloodline awhile ago, so if you're curious, I recommend that you check it out.
Well, there you have it, folks: These were my favorite villains to come out of media this year. I only included new villains (making an exception for Kingpin, since its a specific version of the character). If I had decided to include characters from older works that I consumed for the first time this year, than Pompeii from Duncan the Wonder-Dog and the Eraser from Mind MGMT (the fifth volume of that comic actually came out this year, but she had been around before that) would have been shoe-ins for this list.
Can't think of anything more to write, so I'll just sign off here. Be seeing you.
Danny Rayburn (Bloodline)
Last but not least we have Danny Rayburn, the ostracized oldest son of the Rayburn family, as played by Ben Mendehlson. Honestly, I can't think of much to say about this guy that I didn't already say in my post on Bloodline awhile ago, so if you're curious, I recommend that you check it out.
Well, there you have it, folks: These were my favorite villains to come out of media this year. I only included new villains (making an exception for Kingpin, since its a specific version of the character). If I had decided to include characters from older works that I consumed for the first time this year, than Pompeii from Duncan the Wonder-Dog and the Eraser from Mind MGMT (the fifth volume of that comic actually came out this year, but she had been around before that) would have been shoe-ins for this list.
Can't think of anything more to write, so I'll just sign off here. Be seeing you.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
If there's one type of story I've always had a great deal of affection for, its the historical adventure-story. Many of the authors who have had an influence on me over the years, such as Alexandre Dumas or George MacDonald Fraser, wrote in this genre. Small wonder than, that Tony Cliff's comic, Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, would catch my interest, the moment I first heard of it.
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant (and from hear on out, I'm just going to call it Delilah Dirk, for the sake of brevity), begins in Constantinople in the year 1807. Here we meet Erdemoglu Selim, a young lieutenant in the Sultan's Janissary Corps, a man whose sole desire is to live a peaceful life with plenty of opportunity to cultivate his chief-talent; making delicious tea. However, all that is about to change.Near the beginning of the story, Selim is tasked with interrogating a prisoner, who was caught trying to break into the palace to steal a collection of priceless scrolls. Said prisoner being none other than the international adventuress and globe-trotting troublemaker, Delilah Dirk. Through circumstances, Selim finds himself implicated in Delilah's escape and so, have no choice but to join her as her travelling companion, assisting her in her plans to steal a treasure right from under the nose of the feared pirate-captain, Zakul.
Delilah Dirk's greatest asset is, without a doubt, its two protagonists; both of whom are very engaging and likable characters. Delilah in particular is a splendid creation; a larger-than-life heroine, always ready to jump into the fray with a smile on her lips, armed with her quick wits and impressive martial-arts and sword-fighting skills. Selim, meanwhile, is the more down-to-earth character. The regular-guy, who discovers within himself greater courage and resourcefulness than he thought he possessed. During the course of the comic, Selim find himself increasingly more drawn to the new and dangerous, but exciting, life, he's been dragged into. The two of them have great chemistry and I really enjoyed seeing them brave various dangers together.
With Delilah Dirk. Tony Cliff has created a splendid adventure-comic, one that I'd recommend to any fan of the genre. A sequel titled Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling is slated for release in 2016 and I for one forward to new adventures in the company of Miss Dirk and her Turkish lieutenant, once more.
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant (and from hear on out, I'm just going to call it Delilah Dirk, for the sake of brevity), begins in Constantinople in the year 1807. Here we meet Erdemoglu Selim, a young lieutenant in the Sultan's Janissary Corps, a man whose sole desire is to live a peaceful life with plenty of opportunity to cultivate his chief-talent; making delicious tea. However, all that is about to change.Near the beginning of the story, Selim is tasked with interrogating a prisoner, who was caught trying to break into the palace to steal a collection of priceless scrolls. Said prisoner being none other than the international adventuress and globe-trotting troublemaker, Delilah Dirk. Through circumstances, Selim finds himself implicated in Delilah's escape and so, have no choice but to join her as her travelling companion, assisting her in her plans to steal a treasure right from under the nose of the feared pirate-captain, Zakul.
Delilah Dirk's greatest asset is, without a doubt, its two protagonists; both of whom are very engaging and likable characters. Delilah in particular is a splendid creation; a larger-than-life heroine, always ready to jump into the fray with a smile on her lips, armed with her quick wits and impressive martial-arts and sword-fighting skills. Selim, meanwhile, is the more down-to-earth character. The regular-guy, who discovers within himself greater courage and resourcefulness than he thought he possessed. During the course of the comic, Selim find himself increasingly more drawn to the new and dangerous, but exciting, life, he's been dragged into. The two of them have great chemistry and I really enjoyed seeing them brave various dangers together.
With Delilah Dirk. Tony Cliff has created a splendid adventure-comic, one that I'd recommend to any fan of the genre. A sequel titled Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling is slated for release in 2016 and I for one forward to new adventures in the company of Miss Dirk and her Turkish lieutenant, once more.
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