Villains

I find Villains fascinating, and they are one of my favorite things to dissect when interpreting media. It's much more interesting to examine what makes a genuinely flawed character tick, how they justify what others call atrocities, how they came to be this way, and if they are remorseful. So, going forward, I like to use Fire Emblem and two of its villains as references for analysis. So let's begin and travel down the dark roads that are the Mad King Gangrel and the Prideful Prince Berkut.

Let us begin with the Mad King Gangrel, the insane ruler of Plegia, the sworn enemy of House Ylisse, and the Exult line. Now some of you may be wondering why I picked Gangrel; no doubt most people would look at Gangrel and see him as a one-dimensional sociopath. However, the game's writers know this and use it to make something engaging and thought-provoking. Gangrel is a prime example of a Force of Nature Villain or a Villain who is less a character with realistic goals and drivers but a representation of something primal. Be that rage, anger, sadness, chaos, fascism; the list continues. Think of Villains like the Joker or the 2014 rendition of Shredder; both of these men are avatars of a particular negative aspect of the human condition. The Joker is chaos personified, a cackling anarchist who exists to put Batman's logical deduction skills to the test in an illogical and hectic world. While the Shredder embodies anger, constantly trying to provoke Splinter and the Turtles to abandon their ideals of mercy and tranquility and instead behave as he does, wild and hateful.

Gangrel also falls into this classification, alongside Shredder as a man consumed by vengeance. Plegia and Ylisse have been sworn enemies for generations due to the Plegians' continued worship of the Fell Dragon Grima, essentially this world's version of Satin. This relationship worsened as Ylisse invaded Plegia and began a bloody Crusade to wipe out all signs of the Fell Dragon. Towns were set afire, innocents were slaughtered, and temples were set to ruin. However, with the death of the Exult, King of Ylisse, the crown passed to his daughter, who despised the war her father started and began to broker an unsteady peace with Plegia. Yet even though the fires of war had subsided, an inferno of hatred blazed inside Gangrel that soon turned to one solitary goal, vengeance, and it is this vengeance that will give him reason and be the cause of his undoing.

Gangrel serves the narrative to show the player and the protagonist Chrom how vengeance twists us. Gangrel cares and is motivated solely by the dream of watching Ylisse burn and mounting the heads of the Exult line above his throne. This passion for justice wins him the support of his people, depicting himself as a righteous savor who will make Ylisse atone for their sins. However, as I said before, vengeance is the only thing Gangrel cares about, and anyone who stands in his way, even his people, will pay for their mistakes. Soon he is gripped by his thirst for blood and can no longer see the long-term effects of his actions, nor does he care about the pains he is inflicting on his people; all he cares about is vengeance. Soon Gangrel becomes a greater threat to the people of Plegia than the armies of Ylisse, as seen in chapter 10. There Plegia Captain Mustafa tries to rally his men to fight the Ylissens, who are more scared of the consequences of disobeying his King than the men and women he is about to fight. Gangrel is no longer the savor his people need but a raging whirlwind ripping through anything that dares gets in his path. He perfectly contrasts the new Exult Emmeryn, who wants nothing but to end the bloodshed between their kingdoms. A woman who has devoted her entire person to peace, willing to sacrifice herself if it is in the name of it. He also serves as a dark reflection of Chrom, showing what the young prince of Ylisse can become if he allows anger, vengeance, and hatred to close his heart to peace. When that happens, a king dies, and a tyrant is born.

And befitting a tyrant, Gangrel is not solely undone by his enemies alone; no, what allowed Chrom and the Ylissen military to overthrow Gangrel was that his people lost faith in him. By the end of Gangrel's reign of terror, the people of Plegia had seen through the facade Gangrel made for himself. They realized that the path their King was leading them down was one of destruction, leaving Gangrel without an empire to face his final days as King, finally paying for his thirst for vengeance as it entirely consumes him, leaving him with nothing but blood-stained sand. As I said, Gangrel is a Force of Nature, not a character with reasonable goals or a relatable outlook, but a warning dressed in man's clothes. He serves to show what single-minded revenge does to a person and the monsters it makes of us. He is there to provide the polar opposite to our heroes, reminding them of the challenge they face; this is what gives him meaning. In a game about the horrors of war and the struggles faced for peace, a man like Gangrel becomes the perfect antagonist. Challenging that notion by proclaiming to all, "Can peace conquer absolute hate?" And while the game provides one answer, the question itself is one to ponder. How can you co-exist with a nation or person whose sole purpose is to watch you suffer? Is it even possible? Is vanquishing them the only option, and if so, are we any better?

Sorry if that got a little heavy there, and if you're feeling a little down, you may want to take a break from this before reading on; it's not going to get any cheerier from this point on.

Are you good? Ok, then, let's continue, shall we?

Next is Berkut, the Prideful Prince of Regel, who fits the more classical definition of a Narrative Villain, being an antagonist with relatable goals, ambitions, and personality but with enough flaws that you can deduce why they're the bad guy. For Berkut, it's his drive to prove to his Uncle High King Rudolf that he is worthy of succeeding him. In Regel, strength is everything, anyone who can't pull their weight or swing a sword properly is considered useless, and everyone starts useless, even Berkut. Despite his noble blood, nothing in Berkut's life was given to him; he had to earn his place beside his Uncle through hard work, determination, and domination. Berkut took to this lifestyle well and soon became a model Regelian citizen, powerful, intelligent, respected, skilled, and beloved. However, this made Berkut arrogant and prideful, looking down on those he judged weak, thinking they could not even scratch him until he was defeated by a farm boy and his ragtag resistance group of lower-level nobles. This loss becomes the first of many defeats Berkut endures, each one stripping away the progress he has made to secure the throne and his sanity. By the end, Berkut goes from the undefeated pride of Regel to the thrice-defeated laughing stock of Regel.

Berkut's story is a tragedy about loss and the struggle to maintain composure and integrity as your life's work slips through your fingers no matter how hard you try to stop it. A tale of desperation as Berkut tries in vain to regain his Uncle's approval, only for his desperation to yield only more losses. A story we can all relate to, for we have all felt the pressure of life or society bear down on us, and we can all sympathize with someone who lost everything they worked so hard for in what seems to be seconds.

And while you may think such an end is befitting a man constructed of pride and arrogance, remember that pride and arrogance are well earned. Berkut follows the teachings of Duma, the patron God of Regel, to the letter. Primary, the only true strength is the one found within yourself. As previously stated, nothing was given to Berkut; he is a self-made man with integrity and honor. Features that are later put to the test, like when the Witch Nuebaba offers the prince her magic to aid in his next battle. A request that Berkut initially denies, but after she reminds him the King rarely gives third chances, he takes it reluctantly. Even then, he only uses it when he is moments from death, unleashing an army of the undead, mortifying the young prince. There is a spark of compassion in the prince, muffled under the years of hardship Burkut endured to get to where he was. In another game with a few tweaks, he could be the hero, a self-made man bravely defending his homeland and learning to admire and respect those lower on the social ladder. This quality is the mark of a good Narrative villain, a trace of what they could have been like if certain things did or did not happen.

Unfortunately, on the path he has chosen, there is no saving the proud prince, for as the losses pile up, so does the mental weight on Berkut. He becomes more aggressive, secludes himself from others, and sacrifices his integrity and the love of his life to crush Alm and regain his lost pride. So it is with this that Berkut dies and a hollow husk of the man lingers on. However, even with all he's sacrificed, all the underhanded tricks, and deals with higher powers, he is still no match for the farm boy and falls before him. There, drained of life, his mistakes come crashing down on him, the friends he's murdered, the respect he threw away, the woman who loved him no matter what, dead by his own doing. There bleeding out in Alm's arms, he succumbs to regret and curses his name for being such a weak-minded fool. However, Berkut's story doesn't end with sorrow; as he drifts off to the next word, he is met by his fiancé Rinea, who, despite everything, forgives the prince and asks if he would join her in the afterlife. For it was never the crown or throne she loved, but the hardworking, honest man Berkut was at his core, the man who died the second he sought strength in powers beyond his control.

Everything I have shown today is why I love villains and why we need better villains moving forward, for a good antagonist gives the themes of the story told so much more weight than if they were absent. And they come in all shapes and sizes, be they actual humans, with hopes, goals, and ambitions but with mortal and fatal flaws. Or a ravenous force of nature pushes us to ponder the less desirable aspects of the human condition. Or a troubled soul who believes with all their heart that they are doing is right, despite the atrocities laid before them.

So go out there and make some monsters.

Hope you found something useful

Peace.