Lessons from the Villain

your awful, murray.
characters:
0:00 - Villains
3:52 - Vaas [Family]
9:10 - GLaDOS [Villain to Hero]
15:28 - Wheatley [Hero to Villain]
22:06 - Joker [Society]
25:58 - Nick [Cynicism]
31:09 - MAUI [Acceptance]
32:01 - Conclusion
32:55 - End
footnote: i accidentally used an image of boris johnson when talking about celebrities being heros, i didn't intentionally mean to include him and am not into british politics
music: (no order)
Final Showdown - • Bully - Soundtrack Fin...
Swampland - • Swampland - Castle Cra...
Planet - • Half-Life: Opposing Fo...
Rusty Cage - • Rusty Cage Background ...
Crow - • Crow
L4D2 Trailer Music - • Left 4 Dead 2 Soundtra...
2001 Adult Swim - • Video
Terraria Underground - • Terraria Music - Under...
Aqua Teen Instrumental - • Flying Lotus - Aqua Te...
Ravenholm reprise - • Half-Life 2 [Music] - ...
Vague Voices - • Half-Life [Music] - Va...
Announcement - • Galileo OST - Announce...
Desert - • Castle Crashers Music ...
999999 - / wgvtmt6t3h
Lament - • Portal 2 OST Volume 2 ...
Jiggle Bone - • Portal Soundtrack - Pr...
Technical Difficulties - • Portal 2 OST Volume 1 ...
I made it all up - • Portal 2 OST Volume 1 ...
Android Hell - • Portal Soundtrack - An...
Subject Name Here - • Portal Soundtrack- 'Su...
Stop what you are doing - • Portal Soundtrack - St...
A world of Madness - • Silent Hill 2 OST - A ...
Some Assembly Required - • Portal 2 OST Volume 3 ...
Music of the Spheres - • Portal 2 OST Volume 2 ...
Strad - • Minecraft Music Disc -...
Dark Water - • Yume Nikki OST: Dark W...
Dimensionless Deepness - • Half-Life [Music] - Di...
Brane Scan - • Brane Scan
Dark Carnival - • Left 4 Dead 2 Soundtra...
Project Chaos 2 - • Project Chaos: 2-11 So...
-----------------

[@TrenchReisen]

if it was me dying on the ground you'd walk over me

[@bananaman8939]

What

[@TrenchReisen]

@@bananaman8939 Demoman TF2

[@alexanderchronos8694]

I would SIDE STEP. Don't want to dirt on my shoes.

[@TrenchReisen]

@@alexanderchronos8694 Breakdance

[@crispybaconbitzPMT]

@@alexanderchronos8694 what if they were tattered

[@zethhexyln.bacaran397]

Valve always makes the perfect villains

[@olucaspc]

can you give me some names

[@wooblydooblygod3857]

@@olucaspc Gabe Newell

[@jutpian]

@@wooblydooblygod3857 Is it because he never makes a single third installment of one of his game series?

[@medicgaming9117]

Even just the TF2 characters in general... I mean, they aren't exactly saints. Apart from Pyro who thinks they're doing good but that's confusing in general.

[@johnf.kennedy2935]

"Adopted fatty, fatty fatty no parents." -Wheatly

[@Zevisnothere]

Honestly a great analysis on villains because now most villains have more depth and games and media have been shifting from heros to villains great video overall

[@raymondwiggins354]

The English captions have a few errors (mostly names, but it also said "oliver" instead of "all of her" during the glados part) Actually I think the English captions might just be a copy of the autocaptions, which is a bit disappointing...

[@MusicLink458]

@@raymondwiggins354 what does this have to do with the comment?

[@mqfoxtroit3998]

Except Batman

[@SonOfHubris]

there are almost 0 games in which u play as the villain

[@personalemail9329]

@@SonOfHubris there are quite a few actually.

[@Laxhoop]

I don’t know man, seeing the Fellowship defeat the unambiguously evil Sauron for the 80th time is still enjoyable, having an unarguably bad, bad guy can still work, you just have to do it right.

[@calvingoshe7588]

I agree, and I think what makes it work is that the main characters are very flawed. Making them a good latch on, but a perfect hero against a bad for the sake of it bad-guy has nothing there for the audience

[@Laxhoop]

@@calvingoshe7588 Flash Gordon is still very entertaining.

[@waltuh2.3bviews3secondsago3]

Like palpatine for example (tho they do still have the perfectly flawed villain with vader)

[@Nai_101]

@@calvingoshe7588 The new Star Wars trilogy is a perfect example of this

[@Muizemullard414]

There is no absolutes in writing. Complex doesnt always equal good and simple doesnt always equal bad. There is no right answers only stories and the view of them.

[@ZerozenSFM]

I was really expecting Handsome Jack from the Borderland series to be featured, he got a great amount of backstory and lore, while also undeniably thinking he is the hero while the Vault Hunters are the bad guys and a threat

[@BojanglesMcduff]

Even though he removed a guys eyes with a spoon and laughed the entire time, its kind of understandable why his goals and motivations are what they are.

[@Dr.Oofers]

@@BojanglesMcduff Especially after trying to be an actual hero and being constantly betrayed an beaten down every step of the way.

[@litrpg101]

And honestly, the vault hunters weren't even good guys, they killed him out of greed.

[@boxman7044]

Worst part is all of them are the bad guys but when it comes down to it he’s the least bad. The vault hunters are ruthless and coldly murder anyone who gets in their way while venerating savagery. Jack in the end would have brought some semblance of order to pandora even if it cost a lot

[@Profoundkarma2000]

Everybody’s the hero of their own story

[@MentalMetalNyan]

"perfect human beings" *puts james charles*

[@luizeras69696]

Aaa hell nah

[@VeXeDZERO]

I laughed at that haha

[@mrfoxfam562]

@@Thewatcher-ej6qv you do realize *explains the entire joke*

[@Thewatcher-ej6qv]

@@mrfoxfam562 Probably not(on self reflection that was obviously being sarcastic)

[@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth]

And why'd he use Ricegum to parallel Idubbz? Ricegum is FAR from "heroic" or flawless. The man is practically OVERFLOWING with human flaws.

[@krimson5004]

this feels like the sequel to the "sympathy for the villain" video made by emplemon great stuff

[@azrael4816]

Yeah five seconds in and I said to myself "emp Jr"

[@bigmac1014]

This guy is heavily inspired by emplemon

[@pyoxydoge2566]

@@bigmac1014 The viewcount comparison of two of Emplemon's video's at 2:40 also definitely nods towards this... and the description of the video itself.

[@bigmac1014]

@@pyoxydoge2566 ah cool

[@henrymajano9724]

@@pyoxydoge2566 def does it just caught me offguard tbh

[@dominickinsey6867]

"Sometimes we might even like the villain more than the hero." Allow me to introduce you to Metal gear rising: revengance, where everyone likes the villain more than the person you play as.

[@surrk1057]

That's a BS example tbh. the villains shift every chapter and Armstrong isn't even shown until in one scene, and then he dies. The villains shift so much that you cant even focus on one, personally I like Raiden more than Mistral, and Monsoon, depsite the parallel theory. Sure, you can say Raiden was just a knockoff snake, but who wouldn't like him after his spinoff and appearance in MGS4? A better example here is Far Cry 3-4 and 6 (I don't include 5 here because you literally don't have a main protagonist), Ubisoft put almost no effort into Ajay, Jason or Danny. But put a lot of awesome backstory to characters like Pagan, Joseph, etc. Armstrong made a great entrance and boss battle but I just don't think he gets the cake, he had a lot of mystery put into him but not enough to rival Raidens badassery. A lot of great memes about him though, sadly overdone.

[@trexindominus8119]

​​@@surrk1057 Be veeeeeery careful what you say about memes on the internet, you'll be bombarded by trolls and toxicity.

[@rose-vn2ib]

@@trexindominus8119 true

[@theblobconsumes4859]

@@surrk1057 That's not true in the case of Jason. You can find videos that analyse Jason and how he and Vaas are similar in many ways; You can look into the development of the game and see how much effort was put into Jason there. Fully agree on Ajay and Danny, however. "You can't even focus on one villain" is also incorrect for a lot of people. Each villain is given an important piece and a strong, often contrasting personality that makes each one of them more notable precisely as a result of their little screen time. At many points, characters work best that way.

[@izen1586]

12:46 She wasn't. One of the scrapped recordings contained dialogue where Caroline actively protested being put into GLaDOS, but ultimately it was scrapped because it sounded almost like rape, and putting that into a funny robots portal puzzle game would be... not so good for Valve

[@jackobssturat6913]

To be fair sometimes if dialogue is cut that means it's fully non cannon

[@andremrh7690]

@@jackobssturat6913 Counterpoint to that is that it was 2011, ME2 had a huge amount of content cut basically because of Fox News throwing a fit over "space lesbians". Valve cut out those lines since the shitstorm that would be brought up over "a game with rape" or "promoting rape". They could be canon if Valve decides to continue the story through comic, and given everything else about the in-game universe, it seems likely that it still is canon but now goes unseen in the game's narrative.

[@vibaj16]

@@jackobssturat6913 still, it's heavily implied that she didn't want to do it. Cave says "she'll argue. She'll say she can't do it, she's modest like that. But you MAKE her!"

[@X-SPONGED]

20:33 What I interpret from Wheatley and GLaDOS' stories is about how _"Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely"._ Wheatley was our friend. He was the only one helping us throughout our journey in Aperture, even risking his own life for most of it. He was told that he would die if he used most of his features. Yet, he did it anyway for Chell. But when we plug him into GLaDOS. The power and the temporary pleasure of testing, it corrupted him, into turning on us. Caroline was once a brilliant and energetic gal who was the assistant to the CEO of one of the brightest science appliance company in the world. But then after her mentor died, she was put into the central computing unit Cave was supposed to inhabit, so she could live forever and test for all eternity, just like he had wished for her. But she didn't ask for it and after some time went completely psycho. Elaborately playing along until an opportunity showed in which she used to kill every scientist in the facility as she possibly can. Afterwards, over the course of years maybe even decades, she turned into a bitter, spiteful, cold, and heartless machine who only wished to test and toy with the remaining test subjects before killing them in all kinds sadistic ways in "the name of science". She was a shell of her former self, specifically because of the GLaDOS. GLaDOS is a symbol of absolute power and anyone whether good intentioned or not, cannot resist it's power. Kind of like Sauron's Ring from LOTR. No one can bear such a power except it's one and onlh master, Sauron. The physical incarnation of evil itself. Because that is what unchecked power leads to. Evil.

[@White_ops_arcade]

Pepper spray

[@donutsanddragons9058]

Wasn’t Caroline a moron?

[@RedeemerofDark]

Okay but GlaDos and Caroline are separate entities, we know this cause GlaDos deletes her...

[@maylabrown4584]

@@RedeemerofDark Incorrect, Caroline is still within her, you cannot delete a personality especially since it was HER to begin with. All she deleted was what she perceived as Caroline.

[@RedeemerofDark]

@@maylabrown4584 Really now? And how exactly do we know this?

[@unclegarf7366]

Senator Armstrong is very good example of perfect villian for his little screen time

[@thibaut7780]

I played nick everytime i could in left4dead because he is my favourite character, but i never knew that he was the "bad guy" of the group, i just found him funny yet classy

[@joao34386]

Probably cause he isn’t really a bad guy, he’s just cynical, and used to always being defensive and aggressive due to his past. He warms up to the rest of the survivors pretty quickly and most of his insults are in good spirit, like calling your best friend by an insult.

[@thibaut7780]

@@joao34386 indeed

[@nightspeakerthefallenwing3451]

The sheer truth behind these characters is what makes stories of fictional feel so real because it sometimes is, like Vass, there are some kind of people that will tend to controll their mind and do what they want. I am currently making a Webcomic and for that I have two main Characters, but to really hit home I must explore all the types of people in the world so I tend to look at the villain first because I honestly want the best villain to express my comic to many people and so with the Hero they go between basically, anyways this helps me explore the deep meaning behind characters background so great video man!!

[@cola_wizard]

Ik it's been a month, but I hope that Webcomic is doing good! And if it is and you're still working on it good luck!

[@nightspeakerthefallenwing3451]

@@cola_wizard Thank you Random guy, I have been thinking and been scratching heads as I walk in this world to find my hero and my villain but I find it most in between, but thank you for the support and kindness of my webcomic hopefully one day you will see it and be happy ^~^

[@Experienced_Boi]

@@nightspeakerthefallenwing3451 yo what's the title of your webcomic ?

[@mariano98ify]

Do yourself some selfpromotion and tell us the name of your webcomic.

[@bluephoenixsnipes1887]

hopefully i can read it

[@cookiesmuggler7934]

I don’t think nick hates them, I genuinely never thought that, I always just thought that was his personality and that they all actually liked eachother

[@Helperbot-2000]

Yeah ive akways felt hes just nihilistic

[@masterofbloopers]

I would've loved to hear your take on Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2. I consider him, Vaas, and GLaDOS to be the gaming villain triumvirate, the best the industry has to offer.

[@anuar.m.y]

probably someone already wrote this in the comments but here is a refresher: "either you die a hero, or you live long enough to become a villan"

[@kapitan19969838]

I still believe in Harvey Dent ❤️

[@muwafaqmosa5303]

That's a story for another day.

[@_WiII.]

Nick Is more of A man Who’s Seen things That He Has to Be intimidating and to be smart And Never let his guard down but Deep down He’s Still a human being.

[@damsen978]

Not even a mention for Handsome Jack? You missed a whole category of villains, the ones that think what they're doing is the right thing when objectively it's not. You can connect him with Thanos too, who felt erasing half of the universe population is a good thing when he could just double the resources. They both think they're the heroes of their story.

[@Begrugingly]

THANK YOU

[@hisnameiskilljoy]

FUCKING FINALLY, FINALLY SOMEONE MENTIONS HANDSOME JACK

[@KateHikes83TJD]

this ☝️

[@tamoracemo2048]

The villain of the villian

[@epluribusunum5318]

@Damsen If he doubled the resources the population would just explode, chewing through it even faster then it currently was.

[@ProfessionalEepyHead]

I like how Wheatley is just a funny boy because it's just silly to watch him in every scence

[@scoundral2995]

Funny boy who nearly blew up a woman

[@CyonisCyberFox]

One villain I always had a fascinating with is Andrew Ryan from Bioshock. On the surface, he is a man that had built a city underwater and became so so power hungry that Jack showing up really aggravated him. But as the game progressed, you started to see that Ryan was just another victim of the downfall of Rapture. A man unwilling to let himself be proven wrong about how society above is better than down below, and unfortunately goes insane and has us be forced to kill him once we finally are told by Atlas "Would you kindly head to Ryan's office and kill the son of a bitch?" And it to be revealed that Atlas was the true villain the entire time after we kill Ryan. Some of the most power stuff I have ever seen for a villain in a video game

[@foulsoul5638]

Holy crap, haven’t heard you in a while Also, Nick being a villain? Never thought of him that way

[@Sournale]

It’s been a while! Also for nick yeah I can see why. Funnily enough the part about nick was actually made last minute before the video was uploaded.

[@Dibdab9303]

@@Sournale I think nick is less of of a villain and more just kind of a douchebag. Like how Francis is in l4d1.

[@thomasjohnybastian7847]

from whatever ive seen on the video, dudes just seems like a tsundere

[@DudeWithPineapple]

@@Sournale I get the impression of an antihero rather than a villain for Nick

[@cendybeban]

@@Sournale you should talk about alex delarge from the movie a clockwork orange Hes been treated like sh_t, nobody loves and respect him that's why hes evil Also he gives you motivation to do violence to fight back people you hate the most, epic narration which is 100% flawless and zamn the music is amazing (from the 70s, damn kubrick what a man) Also vincent and jules from pulp fiction because u know why

[@matthewjones39]

You forgot to mention that the half life series is the same universe as the portal series, and the combine had already invaded by the start of the first portal. Dying is a lot better than living under the combine, which Glados knew.

[@scoundral2995]

Maybe. But if she knew, wouldn't she just warn the scientists and start putting turrets at any possible entrance? And if they did invade. She could just gas the entire facility.

[@matthewjones39]

@@scoundral2995 Oh.

[@theorixlol2018]

@@scoundral2995 Well, why do you think combines wear gas masks or whatever tf they wear?

[@scoundral2995]

@@theorixlol2018 Ok yeah fair enough, completely forgot about that. Even in Alyx they have literal tanks on their back. Still, the turrets will still take care of a few of them I guess

[@boy_with_sleeveless_jacket7951]

@@theorixlol2018 I think that was leftover concepts that was borrowed from the beta half life which included the entirety of earth's atmosphere being unbreathable because the combine was gassing the hell out of it

[@quitequeerquesadilla]

I love how while on a talk centered around villains, antagonists, people who do bad shit and are evil and such, he includes the animated videos of literal Team Fortress 2 characters, who are technically bad guys. It made me physically laugh to be reminded that oh crap, right, these guys kill people. Just cause we love them doesn't mean they're the good guys

[@DragoonCenten]

They're all clones so technically they arent really killing anyone.

[@quitequeerquesadilla]

​@@DragoonCenten In the comics canon, nobody’s a clone, and they never mention Respawn. Assuming that Respawn is a thing there, though, a good number of the mercs have absolutely killed people off their contract-Soldier was murdering people in Poland 4 years after World War II ended, Medic made a deal with the devil and even the devil was impressed with how evil he was when he finally died (before Medic tricked him into letting him back onto Earth again cause he sewed all 8 of his teammates’ souls into his body and rendered himself with 9 souls total), Spy and Sniper are literally assassins for hire, Demo blew up the Loch Ness Monster!! Or at least attempted to. Out of all of them, Scout is probably the most “good” of the bunch at least compared to the rest of them, since he goes to heaven. Just behind that I’d say Heavy, since he finds fun in killing but he does most of what he does for the sake of his family. What I’m saying is that all of these guys can and _would_ kill people. They’re literally listed as the most dangerous people in the world, for God’s sake!

[@Breakaway-ic5gj]

@@quitequeerquesadilla In the comics when making the meet the team videos Ms. Pauling mentions if the blue team will be filmed too. Also that confirms that Meet the Team videos are canon and in those videos we see a ton of clones. In the comics themselves, two or more of the same character are not shown at once, but at times some characters are shown to be red and others blu before the main story. And since they are fighting a war, someone must have died at some point but in the story all the mercs are present. I think the ones in the meet the team videos and the comics are the real mercs, and then the rest are clones that are dead or deactivated by the time the comics storyline happens.

[@joao34386]

Nick actually starts to like the rest of the group over the course of the campaigns and even considers them as friends by the end. The voice lines make this obvious, he just keeps up an act due to his past of always having to be defensive.

[@_blanc_6142]

If my memory serves right, glados was made against her will

[@tsunamio7750]

11:50 Again, wrong analysis, it seems: Glados was introduced to combat player loneliness. From personal experience, I've felt perfectly fine playing Portal, while most, drier games with no voices made me feel lonely. I would argue that Glados and the other robots' voice lines were enough to trick me into feeling a presence.

[@redkarter143]

I think Wheatley was made as an anxiety core so that not only would they limit the intelligence so that (ironically) someone like glaDOS wouldn't take over.

[@Benjamslikestrains]

12:45 actually there are unused voice lines for caroline where she begs cave johnson not to put her in glados so she definitely wasn't willing, it makes more sense why she killed all the scientists after that

[@vibaj16]

I think the main reason she killed the scientists is that she isn't really GLaDOS, she's a human consciousness being shoved into an already existing AI. The AI mostly won control of GLaDOS's actions, and doesn't even know Caroline exists until near the end of Portal 2. GLaDOS says "Now Caroline is in here too" showing that they are separate.

[@KeyToWite]

12:50 She wasn't put in there willingly though was she? Johnson said that they should put her into an ai even if she doesn't want to, and the first thing she does after she awakens is literally killing everyone, so no far from it Also its never established she's his wife, only an assistant

[@_Jiwan_]

She definitely was not willing, there is deleted audio of Caroline saying "I do not want this" but I think it didn't make it into the game since it could be implied as **ahem**assault

[@nhaedzwero43]

Yeah, the dude def just ran through the info.

[@goldenhorse4823]

I still don't know how to feel about that line. Official one not the cut one. It could be interpeted they begged and begged her until she just cave in or physicaly forced her to.

[@mrsquid_]

while playing, the voice lines sounded like she was his daughter

[@Chrisdish]

@@mrsquid_ the game mentioned multiple times they were together.

[@andyfriederichsen]

A good lesson from the Joker, or at least the recent movie explaining his origins, is how someone can turn into a monster and go insane when they are treated like shit for a long time and very often. How is Nick a villain? He's a jerk, yes, but he does change and get nicer over the course of Left 4 Dead 2's story. You also forgot to talk about a very interesting type of villain, and that is the villain who does horrible things because he/she thinks what he/she is doing is the right thing to do, or that the ends will justify the means. Many dictators from Adolf Hitler to Mao Zedong fit this description very well: people doing horrible things to others because they believe a utopia will be the end result of their horrible actions or that their horrible actions aren't horrible but good. Dr. Wallace Breen in Half-Life 2 is a good example of this, as he thinks humanity joining the Combine will result in humans becoming powerful, immortal beings.

[@JT-uy4xn]

Honestly speaking, doesn’t every villain with a shred of cognitive abilities justify his acts under idealism and the idea of necessity, or the idea that what he does is judicial and correct, if not exactly beneficial? I just can’t imagine someone acting in a ’evil’ manner in order to be ‘evil’, unless he is cognitively disabled to the point of being considered a psycho- or sociopath (I.e. havin ASPD).

[@kuruzsloorig278]

Funny how people made fun of me for years when i liked Joker, and made connections between him and myself. Then The Movie came out and i saw on my virthday in the cinema. I was happy. Finally the ignorant have it shoved into their faces.

[@andyfriederichsen]

@Noircéuil Evil actions being spontaneous or unconscious? What are you even talking about?

[@zarrg5611]

@@JT-uy4xn A warlord could not care for propaganda or philosophy, but still do countless evil things.

[@thecommentguy9380]

Vaas reminds me of this: no one will look forward to see you fail more than your family GLaDOS i think wasn't just a villain, but someone who was pushed into it. Cave before his death instructed his science team to make sure Caroline is the next to run Aperature, even if she refused. So her murderous outburst was likely because she was forced to become GLaDOS, and that frustration led her to instantly kill everyone. The lesson from Joker was that society will try to take everything away from you until there is nothing left to take, and it will not care about whatever misfortune that happens to you, and if you become a bad person or villainous... it will remove you.

[@ace_ofchaos9292]

The best kinds of Villans don’t just make you suffer, they make you, In the words of another broken man: “Suffer with me.”

[@sherwinashford]

Wait, that's Raul Menendez from Call of Duty Black Ops 2!

[@furcob]

This man is underrated

[@MrMickio1]

The emplemon flows through you on this one and frankly, this is like double the output from my favorite kind of content on this website. Right on, kid!

[@ghostlee0]

I’ve always had a great idea for a villain. I made the protagonist and the antagonist have the exact same flaws and insane similarities. However, how they channel those flaws and how it motivates them are different. Both characters in my story are young men in a world of imperialist ideas rising to the fore front. Both want to reform their world for the better of humanity. As corruption spread throughout their world, our Protagonist (Ben) wants to reform the world, stop needless killing and and give freedom and humanity back to the people. Our antagonist (Ryan) wants to reform the world by directly purging all corruption, and any resistance is seen as corruption. He also wants to reform the world and bring freedom back to the people, but instead of just taking down corruption, he wants to destroy the world itself in order to just build it from the ground up, regardless of anyone who dies. (While I’m aware this isn’t a super unique approach, this isn’t the point) Ben and Ryan are both rage filled men, lashing out when push comes to shove. They both have violent tendencies, and they both just want what’s best for everyone. However, Ben tries to repress his anger, and through the story he learns to not be so hateful. Ryan on the other hand embraces his rage, and let’s it consume him. Two characters with the same goal and different approaches.

[@brizzleton]

Wow that would be a really good movie, book show game etc

[@vermin5367]

Cool idea! I have some critiques though if you wouldn't mind. Why would two men with the same flaws follow radically different means to the same end? If the conflict is rooted in their means, how much development could happen between characters with the same flaws. They seek the same solution, so why not synthesize? What is the conflict? On belief alone? I think the only way to justify this contradiction is for the characters to have a difference in worldview, or in other words, sharing an antimony in flaws that shape their worldviews. Unless one of the characters has a "revelation" that radically changes that worldview to suddenly conflict with the other, (A good example being Grace and Simon in Infinity Train) I find it hard to see a long lasting conflict between the "protagonist" and his supposed opposition that an audience can be entertained with. Your plot/ character dynamic kinda reminds me of the backstory behind corridors "Anime rock, paper, scissors" A.I animation. Two princes fighting for one throne, since only one can rule a monarchy. If the characters Share the same flaws, the motivation between conflict (when it's all said and done) may be the struggle to who attains power. I guess it all depends on how that fictional reality works!

[@ghostlee0]

@@vermin5367 on your point about same beliefs with radically different means, simple put, the two forms of Islam, or Protestant Christianity and Catholicism

[@vermin5367]

@@ghostlee0 straight up! I didn't even think about that!

[@Florida_boy]

I never really considered Nick as a "villain"

[@teachdisk2810]

"We will watch your career with great interest"

[@domarkerus]

Looks like we’re gonna need a part 2

[@realsanmer]

The thing is, in the modern world full of villains with more-or-less compelling backstories and complex ideals, going back on the looney, pure evil baddies isn't a bad idea. Bill Cipher is still my favorite villain of all time, despite him being straight up the most evil being in the universe.

[@insectostrich4407]

Don’t mean to correct you, but we do get an explanation from Glados that Wheatley was made as one of the cores to suppress her. She referred to him as “an intelligence dampening sphere, generating an endless stream of terrible ideas”. Great analysis though.

[@curlamus4452]

He even includes a clip where Glados explains why Wheatley was made that way. “YOURE A MORON THEY BUILT TO MAKE ME AN IDIOT!”

[@PoisonIvory088]

My favorite villain in game history will have to be Glados

[@ludwigkaddin7267]

Emet-Selch or the new Endwalker villain managed to beat her on my scoring list (but just barely)

[@glassofwater281]

Mine is Handsome Jack from the Borderlands series

[@addabledragon515]

I’m honestly surprised you didn’t include Micha Bell in the list, since his character is so beautifully written to be absolutely deplorable.

[@ORLY911]

Yeah but you never really _like_ Micha, but you like to hate him, haha. One of those rat sonbitch sorta characters.

[@galilean2023]

Just finished that game, it was so freaking good.

[@addabledragon515]

@@ORLY911 Honestly i thought he wasn't that bad early in the game, since he did give arthur the off-hand holster and did a few robberies with the player Not to say he was a good guy, it wasn't easy to like him from the start, but he was alright at the beginning i suppose

[@utube8008]

@@addabledragon515 I like that they never made him a villain from the start. He was just another member of the gang. As the game progresses and the gang becomes more on edge, he is shown to act more nihilistic and cynical, making a really well-made villain

[@addabledragon515]

@@utube8008 exactly, beautifully said

[@Luigidagreen13]

Really well made video, loved the portal segments. Also 15:43 “refreshing pace of change” lol

[@_Jiwan_]

12:20 Just some corrections about GLaDOS !! It is never mentioned if Caroline was more than Cave's assistant and it's also most likely she was not willing to become GLaDOS as there is unused audio of Caroline saying "I don't want this"

[@pentho978]

another reason why we like villians,they ALWAYS have the best designs

[@p1xelized]

this made up for emplemon not posting

[@thomashaeyen6942]

Wheatly: becomes villain Glados: becomes hero Spy: turns wheatly into a sapper *THE CIRCLE OF LIFE*

[@tartipouss]

pretty sure weathley is canonically the equivalant of a "tumour" for GlaDOS, so literally a sapper that was made really dumb to supress GLaDOS like the other core (but to a next level), I think there was a line where she talk about how horrible it was to have him attached with constant flow of really dumb thought Can't really remember where and when I saw that info, so idk if it's real (but I really like the concept, so even if it's not real, it's still my headcanon)

[@thomashaeyen6942]

@@tartipouss so that's why he says he hacks the buildings but can only destroy them

[@reformedorthodoxmunmanquara]

Wheatleys betrayal killed my soul. Truly heart breaking

[@birb180]

19:18 Wheatley was made to limit GLaDos' intelligence and keep her from gaining supreme control of the facility as evidenced when she says something along the lines of "they made you a moron to turn me into an idiot"

[@Mahlak_Mriuani_Anatman]

Damn, smart

[@taki.justanidiot4410]

you did a great job, the editing is awesome, the text is awesome! *you* are awesome.

[@Steampoodle]

I always felt bad for Wheatley too. He was designed to be stupid and he hated that. He tried to be something more and soon had to come to terms with the fact that he would always be stupid, but he didn’t. He refuted the truth even to the very end.

[@highadmiraljt5853]

He’s just like me fr

[@faizan7298]

I love that you included Vass in this, one of my favorite all time villains.

[@zenaimin]

He's like thhe joker he doesn't want to kill u he only play's with you unless he gets bored

[@mentallyillcowboy3555]

I never expected anyone to give spotlight to nick on being a villain Never thought someone would do such a great job on getting so in depth in a character from a point and shoot zombie game i absolutely love to heart, good job man Grateful you popped up in my recommended section.

[@beegchief6872]

Great video! I really enjoyed the transition from glad0s to Wheatley, and your script writing flowing from topic to topic was great! Using characters as examples was a great idea! Keep it up!

[@Villainz]

Can't wait to add in my thoughts to the Villain conversation. Love videos like these and the best part about it is there's so much more to explore with this topic. Great job man💪🏾💚

[@rockysthehellper1017]

this video is so goooooooooood. ur way of describing and giving sense of "choices" that hero-vilain makes are very on point. its actually better than listening to podcast.

[@hunterstjean119]

I absolutely love insane villains for one simple reason, they didn’t make themselves a bad guy, it was someone else, for example vaas didn’t become what he is because he wanted too, he was betrayed by his family and was broken mentally

[@mrsquid_]

11:00 that part in the turret sabotage where you grab a defect turret, it says something like "are we escaping this" or something in an excited voice. that could not have possibly been programmed in and had to be sentient

[@ajdndbdjbdj]

"You might be ready to defeat me , but you are not ready for what's going to happen after you defeat me" -the wall of flesh

[@mortenosmann2213]

Your takes are so spot on that even when having experienced all the media you discuss you still widen our horizon

[@ashleyhecker4148]

19:19 “as to why he was created that way is anyone’s guess” Actually Wheatley was going to be one of the cores that attached to Glados in the first game in lore. He was meant to be a idiot as to make Glados a idiot hence her saying “your the moron they designed to make me a idiot” during the first confrontation

[@reubenbailey7491]

This was a really awesome vid, keep up the good work man.

[@theasianoogway7258]

This is of the best things I've ever listened to. keep it up bro 👍

[@michaelmcarthur2944]

Pog video, love the clear inspiration from emp along with the more unique aspects of your own video style

[@BremeD]

Honestly, this is the best video i ever watched on youtube.

[@kikooo9989]

bro this video is edited so well man, I love it, also great choice of background music!

[@cw7274]

Castle crashers type beat

[@jigzaw4595]

I just wanna say, THIS CHANNEL IS SO UNDERRATED AND THIS VIDEO IS GODLIKE

[@Shutupsitdownrelax]

I'm so glad you included bully in your video such an underrated masterpiece

[@thegamingender6933]

Finally, another person who can agree with me on the portal series. Portal 1 and Portal 2 did a neat job tying everything together, and leaving no new stories(except for how the original companion cube even exists), and the closest thing we have for a Portal 3 is Portal Stories: Mel, which follows another narrative and adds a bit more on how the facility didn't explode in between both Portal games, and made canonical sense.

[@uppin_downers]

Vaas was the first villain that made me see things from the villains side. After the story I realized he wasn’t the villain at all and everyone else was…

[@jacobbharrat7115]

Wow these "Lesson from" videos are fantastic! I'll be looking out for these. I'm subcribed for sure!

[@user-vy5ps6tz2n]

3:07 hl2ep2 ost , you're a man of culture and you just gained a subscriber ! Keep up the good work pal !

[@biker_buckets3629]

Do you plan on doing a video about the polar opposite, explore Villains that are poorly written, shallow,etc?

[@linnx7826]

Spec ops the line would be great for this video

[@Izzy-lc9dg]

This is so good, I love analysis videos, and ones that talk about Wheatley??? Perfect.

[@Alex9971000]

Extremely well made video! Honestly enjoyed watching every minute of it!

[@AlexEatDonut]

This feels like a continuation of Emplemon's video. It's not a bad thing, you take a lot of great things from him, you don't copy but bring up good talking points. And it's all edited. It's actually hard to see the work that goes into editing for a 30 minute video. Bravo, you made content that i could watch over and over again ; that, is the sign of great content.

[@biscuitboi3561]

someone call emplemon we found his son!

[@tauthebrendel380]

I wanted to say thank you for making this. I wanted to make my villain for my current DnD campaign to feel 3D. After watching this video, I feel like I've found the inspiration and information I've been searching for to finally make them both 3D. And, this video is amazing. Keep up the great work.

[@davodnoyoutube]

This is one of the best videos ive ever seen, this video is so good, keep it up.

[@MissFazzington]

man i really expected him to talk more about wheatley, i personally concider wheatley the best designed "villian" in any form of media, but the video went a lot more around GLaDOS

[@Mozzarellapumpkin]

This is a great video Emplemon!

[@GeneralForeseerPendragon]

I like that you used some Castle Crashers music. Neat video, I think the lessons mean more than everything else.

[@bastiii_mbx2151]

Metal Gear Rising’s Villains gave me huge inspiration. Like that Memes are the DNA of the Soul or that if i am making the mother of all omlets, i cant fret over every egg!

[@HyperrealisticLuigi]

your editing style reminds me of emplemon, instantly subscribed

[@sirlaughsalot9520]

Very good insights, I hope you grow more great content!

[@conic2721]

19:25 Wheatley was designed to be something to hold down GLaDOS's intellect down, and give her stupid ideas, GLaDOS realizes it during the cutscene after you put him in the control of Aperture.

[@Eduardesuper]

The fact that you seem to love l4d just as much as me is really awesome. Especially when the game isn't as popular nowadays.

[@jehehehedias5881]

It's It's shame. The game is such a banger

[@janz1503]

You are EmpLemon’s apprentice. Keep up the good work

[@ovidiuszybinski9870]

naah cuz this is the first video i see from ur channel and it was an instant subscribe,keep this up man absolutely nice content,enjoyed it

[@MrMoron-qn5rx]

17:00 goddamn that editing is great! Its so seamless!

[@wrenproductions5435]

The most interesting thing that comes in Wheatley’s boss battle, is his dialogue. His point of view of the situation with her and how he believes she “betrayed” him. Due to the body controlling anything that connects with it. He gets recollection during the surface of the moon once he gets disconnected. It’s just interesting.

[@krolminionkow4910]

Fun fact: wheatly didn't become evil beacouse he went mad with power, Glados's body slowly corrupted him.

[@banjomanperson]

tf you mean slowly, as soon as he was put on the body he went crazy

[@taxman_torched]

Bro I love how philosophical your channel gets although most is for kids. This is quite the nice thing most kids don’t understand what is what or why is this this way

[@tommybatmanvercetti6008]

These villians in this videos are fantastic examples of villians and how to make a good villian I really like this video man keep it up

[@rasmustagu]

Michael Mando singlehandedly shaped the next decade of video games. Now he rose one of the greatest universes on TV to another height. What a lad.

[@muyb]

John Kramer will always be one of my favorite movie villains.

[@vapor404]

this is very emp lemon esq keep it up man you earned a sub

[@Man_Oh_War]

Awesome video dude!! Enjoyed the 2 portal chapters :)

[@HarlanDaleAbsher]

Honestly I found this video to be really good, and not just through the joker stuff, I'm a big fan of portal and left for dead and I never thought of Nick as an antagonist but yeah if it wasn't for the zombies he totally would be