Villains are a diverse bunch, right? Some just want to watch the world burn. Others are misled by the more wicked whims of their superiors. And then there are those who, despite the pain they've inflicted upon those around them, ultimately realize their mistakes, strive to do better, and ideally earn some measure of forgiveness from not just the rest of their games' fictional casts, but the folks playing those games out here in the real world as well.

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The following men and women miss that mark. The weight of their ambitions brings too much suffering. Sure, sympathy, or at least understanding, is provided by their games' protagonists. But I don't buy it. Those heroes are being too weak, or fandom reception is too forgiving.

These people suck. And it's time to publicly shame them. Major spoilers inbound.

No, but seriously, this list is one big spoiler parade. Don't march to its drumbeat if you want to avoid knowing too much about these RPGs ahead of time.

6 Seifer Almasy (Final Fantasy 8)

Squall Leonhart does not like Se𒁏ifer Almasy. Crucially, Seifer Almasy does not like Squall Leonhart, either. Thus, as sc𓆉hoolboys are wont to do, the two of them repeatedly duel each other with swords that are made ever deadlier with gun-like modifications, which is literally completely fine at their academy, because Final Fantasy.

Seifer's ex is Rinoa, and Rinoa has a keen interest in Squall. This is salt on the wound, but the wound is already festering, because Squall earns his stripes as a 17-year-old mercenary who can now be sent off to die in some far-off mission, whereas Seifer must accept the idea of not being conscripted into a potentially fatal enterprise.

Thus, Seifer does what any CW Arrowverse antagonist would do, aligning himself with an evil sorceress (who, in turn, is possessed by a more evil sorceress) and eventually inheriting an entire empire. In his service to Sorceress Edea, Seifer commits war crimes, plain and simple. He's increasingly delusional as Squall kicks him to the curb not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times.

In the ending cutscenes of the award-winning video game Final Fantasy 8, Seifer is seen fishing at Balamb's pier with the friends he treated like total crap throughout the game, Fujin and Raijin, who eagerly forgive him for gaslighting them every other sentence. No prison sentence is served. No community service that we can see, unless catching fish for the town passes for such. Just laughs and smiles, and I'm supposed to feel stirred because war criminal Seifer Almasy has found happiness in life.

Oh, I'm stirred.

5 ♋ Rose (Pokemon Sword & Shield)

In another universe, Chairman Rose could have been pretty cool. He's the rare example of a rich capitalist who seems to care about the world around him. That alone separates the wheat from the chaff.

Rose recognizes that, in a thousand years, Galar's seemingly limitless supply of energy will be exhausted. So, being the dashing entrepreneur that he is, Rose decides to awaken an incredibly dangerous Pokemon to harness its energy and resolve things well ahead of schedule.

I can't emphasize this enough — Galar had a thousand years to get this figured out. We can roundly criticize people in positions of power IRL for refusing to act fast enough. But there's such a thing as too much gumption.

This man genuinely thinks resurrecting a monster that allegedly caused an event called the Darkest Day (!) is the best course of action. Once he sees the error of his ways, he willingly turns himself in, though in the Crown Tundra DLC you can bump into his thirsty ex-assistant, Oleana, who says she's "looking for him." He doesn't even stay in prison, I guess?

Rose is the sort of guy we're expected to commend as this tragic figure. Instead, he defies all logic by inexplicably rushing things to an inevitably poor end. The concept of his quest is a noble one, but I don't buy for a second how the game tries to sell this. He's not tragic. He's stupid.

4 ꦍ Dago🌼th Ur (The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind)

Okay, so this one is less about the character's portrayal within their own game and more about how they've been perceived by the greater fandom. Dagoth Ur is the main villain in the third Elder Scrolls game (and the first to really put the series on the map in a big way), Morrowind.

Dagoth Ur is a bad dude who does bad things. Sure, he's enemies with the Tribunal, and they're also bad. And Dagoth Ur has a muscular physique and sort of a strangely sexy voice, and he's clearly in love with the Nerevarine. For the record, that's you.

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But he needs to be put six feet under, or more accurately, since you fight him in an underground cave, like sixty feet under instead. He wants bad things. Just because the Tribunal's iron grip on orderly power is vile, that doesn't make the Joker over here any less so.

Unfortunately for me, so my case iꦛs now hopeless.

3 💫 Anders (Dragon Age 2)

Anders' Wikipedia page is longer than some celebrities. I'm not kidding. You can go see for yourself. Not his Dragon Age Wiki page, mind you. His ordinary, run-of-the-mill, Wikipedia-dot-org sheet.

How did this happen? Well, for one, BioWare fandom is intense. I should know. I'm part of it. But also, Anders himself is intense. He's been one of gaming's most divisive figures since his introduction. I don't see that ever changing. He starts off as a wisecracking fellow with a chip on his shoulders, but between his experiences in the city of Kirkwall and allowing himself to be possessed by a spirit called Justice that believes so strongly in its role that it eventually renames itself Vengeance... well, it's a lot.

And I can appreciate that it's a lot. Anders' hatred for the Templars, an order dedicated to controlling every mage who occupies their world, is rooted in sympathetic notions. It's just that there's a difference between battling corrupt individuals and crafting and detonating a bomb that blows up an entire Chantry, killing not only a religious leader but a bunch of innocents as well.

It's here, in the final playable moments of Dragon Age 2, that the problem arises. Hawke is put in the uncomfortable position of needing to either behead the terrorist Anders has become, exile him from Kirkwall, or essentially forgive him. Somehow, this is treated as a terribly challenging choice. Seconds ago, he committed genocide. Now, the very thought of getting rid of the guy is worth piano notes.

2 ♒ The Illusive Man 💙

In Mass Effect, Cerberus is a nefarious organization hellbent on creating human supersoldiers to eliminate all alien threats and secure Earth's eventual dominance. In the sequel, aptly titled Mass Effect 2, Cerberus is led in secret by Martin Sheen, also known as the Illusive Man, and it's totally a misunderstood organization, you just wait and see.

In the sequel, aptly titled Mass Effect 3, Cerberus, led by Martin Sheen, also known as the Illusive Man, is a nefarious organization hellbent on fusing with the genocidal Reapers to eliminate all alien threats and secure Earth's now-guaranteed dominance.

So uh, that happened. Cerberus' shifty agenda is one of the Mass Effect trilogy's most morally ambiguous themes. Until it isn't. There is nothing more blatant about the series' altered narrative course than the way the character of the Illusive Man is presented. The second game turns things on their head, mostly successfully, by blaming the diabolical Cerberus agents Shepard and their crew previoꦺusly encountered as a rogue extremist sect.

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But the third game retroactively acts as though those initial impressions were right all along and Shepard should feel bad about serving the Illusive Man's purposes for a full third of the saga. Now, Mr. Illusive has a one-dimensional ninja assassin, and he wants to use a war that is likely to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy to push humankind ahead in the arms race.

In his last scene, before inevitably dying one way or the other, the Illusive Man apologizes, reiterating that he only wanted what was best for us. But he went too far for it to really resonate, and more critically, the flip-flop writing makes my head spin. I'm sorry, too, Martin. But I just can't bring myself to care.

1 B🧜rahne Raza Alexandros XꦕVI (Final Fantasy 9)

Queen Brahne is a monster. No, I'm not talking about her looks. We're above that, right? I'm talking about her personality. Final Fantasy 9 presents Brahne as an irredeemable trash-tier human (?) for over half the game before beaching her on a distant shore as the life slips from her eyes, causing her adoptive daughter Garnet untold grief.

Rewind. Why is this sad music playing? Why is the script attempting to stir any emotion in me other than relief? Let's go over Brahne's actions, here. Many years before FF9 begins, she loses her husband. It causes her to mentally deteriorate. I'm not going to touch the implication that a woman without a man is destined for this malarkey — I guess maybe she really did love him that much? — but from that moment forwa☂rd, s𒀰he is a menace.

Brahne steals a small girl and pretends she's her mother. Sure, she recently lost her own daughter, but consider that she uses Garnet for her ability to summon Eidolons. There's no motherhood here. Thereafter, this woman starts a war, slaughtering entire peoples in the process, with a goal of nothing less than complete global domination.

So much evil, and then in those last moments, Brahne is framed like a cautionary tale of what happens when a good person loses their way. Maybe if I'd seen this good person for even ten seconds I might feel differently, but goodness gracious, there is nothing here but malice. Garnet, I get it, you're confused, but get up, walk away, this ain't worth your time.

Epilogue (Goro Akechi)

If by any chance, you've nodded along with every last one of my picks, there is a reasonably high chance you never forgave Persona 5's Goro Akechi for being a complete jerk who uses the masses for his own selfish ends, hates what the heroic Phantom Thieves stand for, but gets what is commonly considered a shoehorned selfless last action. While most of the game's cast laments his loss, plenty of players decidedly do not.

Well, this is where we part ways, because I totally forgive him. Goro is so smart! And friendly! And it's a facade, but he's so good at it, and he plays billiards with Joker, and it's cute, and did I mention he's smart? And his fashion sense is on point, and I'm super saddened by his alleged fate, and I may or may not have drawn fan art at some point.

So yeah, I'm the problem.

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