Villains worth Stealing!

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Anders

Javert. He is "a compound" of "respect for authority and hatred of rebellion," Hugo writes, "but he made them almost evil by his exaggeration of them". A supremely tragic figure, he finally cannot reconcile the existence of a good man who is outside the law, and commits suicide.

Yes, spoilers for a 160-year old book.

Javert is a classic exemplar of a virtue becoming a vice when outside its proper place and degree (both are critical).

JRRT tells us that Sauron himself was ensnared, in part, because of virtue out of place and degree. Sauron hated inefficiency, sloth, waste, he liked order and efficiency. He was impatient, though, and lacked humility to temper his real gifts. Even as late as the forging of the Rings, JRRT said at one point, Sauron's intentions were not 'wholly evil', but his unwillingness to accept the limits on his own role and judgement led him back into the habits Melkor had taught him.

JRRT also said that, had Gandalf claimed the One Ring for himself and successfully wrenched control of it entirely away from Sauron, Sauron would have been laid low just as he was when the Ring was destroyed...and Gandalf would then proceed to make himself a far more onerous dictator than Sauron, because his righteousness would have become self-righteousness, he would have tried to compel righteousness beyond any proper role of a state. JRRT says Ring-Gandalf would have made goodness itself seem hateful.

A bit like Javert, actually.

Another Javert-like villain potentially useful for gaming inspiration: Colonel Jessup from A Few Good Men. Another case of virtues twisted into vices.

On a less philosophical note...anybody remember the old Knight Rider TV show from the 80s? Well, David Hasselhoff sometimes played a dual role, as virtuous Michael Knight, and his 'evil twin' Garth Knight. Yeah, the hackneyed evil twin bit...except that it's a little more complicated.

Garth Knight was the actual biological son of Wilton Knight, the genius who created Michael's indestructible sapient car. Michael 'Knight' was actually a man named Michael Long, who had been shot, left for dead by another bunch of villains, and rescued by Garth's father. Wilton gave Michael plastic surgery to repair his ruined face that left him a physical double of Garth, and gave Michael 'Knight' control of the supercar and leadership, more or less, of his father's legacy (along with his father's lawyer).

So from Garth's POV, his father rejected him, to the point of leaving him to rot in an African jail while he gave a stranger his estate, his status, even his face. In effect, from Garth's POV, his father took his identity and gave it to Michael Long.

Little wonder Garth hated Michael with an almost insane intensity.

Now in Garth's father's defense, it should be noted that Garth was rotting in an African jail for good reason, he was guilty of a whole mess of offenses, including it's fairly strongly implied rape and murder. In fact, Wilton seems to have bad luck with family in general, after his death his widow becomes a menace to the good guys too. It kind of looks like Wilton was so betrayed by his family that he more or less went out and 'adopted' a replacement son in the form of Michael.

Hasselhoff gets ragged for his acting talents sometimes, but when he played Garth he did manage to give an impression of cool calm...with rage and physical violence boiling away ready to come out at the slightest provocation.

It was an interesting spin on the evil twin trope, and I think Garth could be the seed for a very interesting NPC opponent.