Something about the villian

[alanschu]

I suppose this goes without saying, but have a villian with a bit more depth

 

Malak was alright, but my roommate pointed something out to me as he was watching me play, and it turned out to be kind of annoying.....Malak had an evil laugh. No evil laughs! <_<

[Raven]

aw man, every bad guy needs an evil laugh, but his evil laugh was horrible.....

 

it sounded sort of high pitched cause of that thing that replaced his jaw.

[Quasar]

Vader is the ultimate Sith. Nobody will best him...

 

That said, Malak did a decent job.

[will_990]

Vader was no ultimate Sith since he turned back to LS, but you

[Weiser_Cain]

I think you would have been more disapointed if he sported a girly chuckle...

[EnderAndrew]

I think all villians need to point their pinky at the corner of their mouth.

[alanschu]

Vader was the best.....and he is missing the cliche evil laugh

[NInjaPirate]

and he is missing the cliche evil laugh

That is why.

[Topaz Quasar]

Maul & Tyranus didn't have a sinister laugh either.

 

The Emperor was the only one in the movies who had one.........

[alanschu]

The thing is though, most evil people seem to have evil laughs just for the sake of it.

 

I feel that when the Emperor laughed...he actually found the situation amusing.

[Rensei]

A good villian is one you can either relate to or one you can utterly hate. That being said, it was easy for me to be the stoic LS Jedi when stomping Malak. Sure, he bombed worlds, corrupted a snot-nosed brat, and stabbed you in the back... but I get more powerful emotions while kicking a pebble down the road. The main villian needs to genuinely piss you off.

 

Also, the final battle with said villian must have music that makes you *feel* what your character is feeling. The final duel music for Luke and Vader had sorrow, hope, and pain. Luke had very personal reasons for fighting and it was reflected by the music. The theme of the final showdown shouldnt be upstaged by drunken bith in the nearest cantina.

[EnderAndrew]

I'd love to see a villian like Thrawn but I doubt it will happen.

[Rensei]

Thrawn?

[EnderAndrew]

Grand Admiral Thrawn was the villian in Timothy Zahn's Star Wars novels.

 

If you only read one trilogy of Star Wars novels ever, Zahn's are the books to read. They are widely regarded as the best.

[Rensei]

Im a bit of a late fan of Star Wars. As a kid, I loved the trilogy (I only recently noticed they said Episode IV-VI). After that, it got pushed to the back of my mind until Episode I came out. Needless to say, my interest was not revived. The trilogy made no attempts to justify anything, it simply was. There wasnt any room for doubt that something wasnt completely logical. Episode I... tried to justify everything and ended up losing the magic.

 

KotoR revived my interest simply because the magic was there. It didnt mention mitoclorians or hard scientific facts. Mystery is needed. Just to get back on topic, the villian needs mystery. Malak wasnt effective because you knew he was just a lackey from the time the golden intro scrolled. The Emperor and Vader were awesome because they had mystery.

[EnderAndrew]

Thrawn's trilogy of books reminds me very much of the original trilogy. They really do recapture the magic. And if you haven't seen Episode 2, I recommend it. It's far better than Episode 1.

[Fardragon]

I agree, Thrawn is a very rare thing: a highly intellegent, completly sane charismatic antagonist.

[Quasar]

I never hated Malak. I just saw him as an obstacle to be taken down.

 

Take Irenecus... There's someone you can hate! He captures you, does wierd experiments on you, kidnaps your friend... he even

 

 

*spoiler for those who haven't finished BG2*

 

 

steals your soul to feed himself! I just couldn't hate Malak... Irenecus was a bastard.

[Fardragon]

Well, a villain doesn't have to be hateful. Take the case of Thrawn; he inspired respect and fear but not hatred. He wasn't a monster, he was just very good at his job.

[anari_quun]

It was easier for me to hate the sandpeople for being so damned touchy than Malak.

[Adria Teksuni]

I hated Malak for being such a poor Sith. He needed to die to set an example for the rest.

 

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

Every villain is the hero of his own story. Making villains who aren't bad just to be bad is a growing concept in gaming (as in, more prevalent in the last ten years or so), and one that I heartily approve of. Even the worst monsters in history generally had what they thought of as noble reasons for their actions. The days of evil laughter and capturing the virgin princess just to slaughter her to take over the world are gone by, people want more sophisticated villains and the reasons why they do what they do.

 

Magneto of the Marvel comics is a decent example of this. He does horrendous things, but he does it for what he believes is the right reasons, peaceful existence for the Mutants.

 

The lines of right and wrong are blurring more and more, and the idea of "the ends justify the means" is becoming the sticking point for a lot of villains. At what point does someone cross the line from hero to villain?

 

For those who adore character development, the addition of this take on the bad guys is a little piece of heaven. It makes them three dimensional and identifiable, rather than a bunch of pixelated images with a relatively cool costume and booming voice.

 

They did a good job of it in KoTOR with Yuthura Ban, who became a Sith to rid her world of slavery, but got lost in the power she gained along the way, although I do think they waffled a bit with her. I would have loved for her to have something like "I understand where you're coming from, friend, but I believe I can accomplish more towards my goals by remaining a Sith and consolidating my power. If you still decide to stand in my way, then you must die." Instead we get the whole she feels really bad about having to kill you kind of thing.

 

Of course, sociopaths are always good in writing as well. They know what's right and wrong, they just don't care. Those kinds of villains are always particularly fun to hate.

 

Anyway, considering the past games of the former Black Isle, I'm looking forward to see what they do in K2.

[GhostofAnakin]

I think the thing to remember with Malak is he was a "Vader-like" character, thus he wasn't so much a evil mastermind like a Palpatine would be. He was brute force, such as Vader was. Vader wasn't a tactical genius. In fact, a few of his tactical decisions backfired. Much is the same with Malak. He's not a strategic genius, nor is there any indication he's overly intelligent (hence why Revan was his master due to Revan's brilliance in combat strategy). His role was to be the big, bad, tough guy you had to defeat with might, not with intelligence or cunning.

 

I think people are underating Malak as a villain purely because they try to compare him to guys like Palpatine or Thrawn, when in fact Malak was more like a Darth Maul or Darth Vader type villain. And in that respect, I thought he was a decent villain.

 

note: I STILL think Darth Vader is the ultimate "tough guy" villain, and no one, not Malak or Maul, comes close to him in that regard

[will_990]

I'd love to see a villian like Thrawn but I doubt it will happen.

You`re right. Grand Admiral Thrawn would be a worthy adversary for the next movie trilogy...always thought of him as the true foe even when flying for the Empire...sigh, good old flying times.

[BuckeyeRowe]

You can see Thrawn in action in the old TIE Fighter Game. There are several cutscenes in the game which Thrawn is shown. He would be a good villian, but I never remember him being a Sith or having force powers.

[Rensei]

Vader was awesome because you *knew* he could kick the snot out of Luke. Right from the beginning, we see him take down a Jedi Master with little effort. We then see him toy with Luke and eventually remove his hand, all the while asking him to come to the dark side. Malak was much different. You knew he could fire on his master's ship. You knew he was just an apprentice. You knew he had a massive inferiority complex. Throw in the corruption of a weak willed wench and what have ya got? A sniveling sith.