Some video game characters are designed to be fundamentally despicable in every way, but once in a while, a character comes along who reinvents the definition ‘evil’ by performing some of the most unspeakable acts of violence, betrayal, or megalomania imaginable. It isn’t always necessarily villains, either, as any character driven by a deep-seated longing for death, destruction, and dominance usually finds themselves straying from their moral compass. While some characters make poor decisions out of desperation or necessity and could be interpreted as misunderstood, others have no excuse for the diabolical things they do (looking at you, Shepherd).
It doesn’t matter all that much what their motivations are, these wrongdoers are bad to the bone and unapologetically so. Their actions are entirely unjustifiable and there’s no tragic backstory to excuse their behavior, which is why they can be consideredthe most irredeemable video game characters of all time.
Seduction can be an extremely powerful tool in the wrong hands, as Vendrick discovered when he fell prey to the manipulation of Nashandra, one of the Children of the Dark and a direct descendant of Manus, Father of the Abyss, from whose soul she was conceived. Each of Manus' daughters represents particular traits of his, so due to her pursuit of the Throne of Want, Nashandra represented greed and desire. In order to gain access to the Throne of Want, Nashandra seduces Vendrick and convinces him to attack the land of the Giants and steal an ancient artifact from them. Nashandra singlehandedly instigated a war that would pass down through generations and, during the events ofDark Souls 2, she also coerces the protagonist into completing a series of tasks to open the way to the Throne of Want. Then, Nashandra double-crosses them by revealing her true intentions and tries to usurp the throne byengaging the player in a battle to the death.
It was always in Nashandra’s nature to covet, and she was born with an insatiable hunger for power, but she wouldn’t hesitate to trample over anyone to get what she believed herself destined for. For Nashandra, there’s no sympathetic upbringing or real motivation behind her actions besides a genetic greed inherited from Manus. She doesn’t truly care for Vendrick in the traditional sense, she only sees him as a way in to acquire the true throne of Drangleic and become its sole, undisputed ruler.
Generally speaking, if one belongs to — and dictates — a mass-murdering blood cult, that’s a sure sign of someone who isn’t redeemable by conventional moral standards. It could be argued that Mohg had a tragic past as he and his twin brother Morgott were born as Omen and banished to the sewers of Leyndell,but that doesn’t mean forming a blood cult is suddenly acceptable. Mohg insists that anyone who wishes to join his dynasty will slay their maiden — or any maiden will do — and present him with a cloth stained with her blood. In light of this, Mohg has both directly and indirectly killed an indeterminable number of people and collected enough blood to form rivers inside the Mohgwyn Palace.
Although he was charmed by Miquella to make the journey to the Lands of Shadow, it doesn’t disqualify him from being irredeemable, as all the bloodshed that occurred due to the cult’s operations happened entirely on his own accord. He also experimented on Albinaurics to turn them into slaves and doesn’t hold any of his family members in high regard, which suggests that all of them are merely a means to an end to further his own selfish schemes.
Albert Wesker was once Captain Wesker of the S.T.A.R.S. division alongside Jill Valentine, but once he came into contact with the British aristocrat Dr. Oswell Spencer, Wesker realized that he could achieve immortality. Lord Spencer had a vision to reshape the world in his image by harnessing the T-Virus, but Wesker aspired to take charge of Spencer’s plan and turn himself into a superhuman. After assuming Oswell’s mantle, Wesker founded the Uroboros virus and gained enhanced speed, durability, and regenerative capabilities. Wesker is a natural-born sociopath and megalomaniacwho believes himself to be a god among menand harbors a deep hatred for humanity, believing humans to be the source of their own self-destruction and therefore in need of a tyrannical dictator to rule them.
There’s no explanation as to why Wesker suddenly defects to becoming a power-hungry autocrat besides the fact that he became obsessed with ultimate power in its rawest form. He also brainwashes Jill, experiments on Lisa Trevor, betrays all of his S.T.A.R.S. colleagues, and plans to infect the entire world with Uroboros to weed out the worthy from the weak. So, yes, he’s definitely a bad guy.
Also known as the “Rat” by Arthur Morgan and just about everyRed Dead Redemption 2player, Micah Bell joined the Dutch van der Linde gang after intercepting a deal gone awry and saving Dutch’s life. If Micah does have any redeeming qualities, they aren’t immediately obvious. He’s conniving, cruel, manipulative, and only ever concerned with howhecan benefit from a situation, not how it affects others. ThroughoutRed Dead Redemption 2, it becomes clearer that Micah is taking advantage of Dutch’s desperation and greed and molding it to fit his own narrative. Micah began convincing Dutch — who had already begun to lose his so-called “family” left and right — thatthey could secure the biggest payday imagined and fly under the radar, waiting out the eventual death of the American Frontier while staying true to their nature.
Micah used Dutch’s desperation for complete obedience and blind loyalty to his advantage. Micah was always skilled at manipulating Dutch’s emotions and exploiting his vulnerabilities, while Arthur was presented as a threat to Dutch’s authority. Not to mention, Micah kills Arthur without a second thought inRed Dead Redemption 2’s Bad Ending, which is just about the most unforgivable thing he could ever do.
AlthoughDaniel from Amnesia: The Dark Descentisn’t technically an antagonist, that doesn’t make him any less of an evil-doer. Daniel always valued his own life above others, leading him to commit reprehensible acts, such as kidnapping and torturing others to harvest vitae and protect himself from the Shadow. Although it was Alexander’s influence that prompted Daniel to carry out the unspeakable bloodshed, he wasn’t ever forced. In fact, he acted out of a selfish need to self-preserve and keep the Shadow satiated. Daniel justified these acts by claiming that he was purging the world of “criminals,” but it was later revealed that most — if not all — of the individuals Daniel sacrificed were innocent. When Daniel and Alexander kidnapped the Zimmermann family, their daughter Elise managed to escape and Daniel tracked her down.
He ended up hunting her down and stabbing her to death, but although he was filled with disgust at his own self-serving deeds,Daniel induced self-inflicted amnesia to forget ever killing Elise, then swore revenge on Alexander. Basically, Daniel couldn’t face the music, so he chose to forget it altogether. If that isn’t the mark of a low-life, nothing is.
Right away, any “close friend” of Albert Wesker is guaranteed to be someone with corrupt morals and a god complex. As it turns out, William Birkin, the main antagonist ofResident Evil 2, shares both of those qualities withResident Evil’s Big Bad. With the help of his wife, Annette Birkin, William was able to create the G-Virus, which he first extracted from Lisa Trevor’s body. Birkin is the one responsible for giving Wesker his superhuman abilities after merging him with Uroboros. During the Raccoon City Incident, Birkin’s research gets stolen by Umbrella’s Alpha Team, he’s shot by an overzealous solider, and subsequently left to die. Before that happens, however, William Birkin decides to inject himself with the G-Virus in order to save his own life. Since Birkin’s quest for revenge on Alpha Team led to infected packs of rats swarming Raccoon City, William became the sole cause of the T-Virus outbreak.
InResident Evil 2original, William Birkin fatally claws his wife, Annette Birkin, and kills her outright. He also tracks down Sherry and infects her with the G-Virus too, so there’s a whole domino effect of problems stemming from William Birkin. He does save Claire and Sherry from Mr. X at one point, but there’s no telling what his motivations were. In hindsight, the G-Virus needs almost identical DNa to reproduce, so as G took over Birkin’s mind, it probably saw Sherry as a means of reproducing and chose to save her out of necessity.
There are no “good guys” inBorederlands, but Handsome Jack is infinitely worse than most. Sir Alistair Hammerlock summarizes Handsome Jack’s philosophy perfectly: “Spouts drivel about bringing “peace” to the frontier, then shoots unarmed men, women and children like it was going out of style.“The self-proclaimed “hero” of Pandora is in fact an oppressive dictator who abuses and kills others — even his own employees — for his own amusement. Jack suffered from physical abuse as a child after the death of his father, but after his daughter Angel’s mother is accidentally killed, Jack doesn’t lock Angel away for her own safety, but instead tries to figure out a way to harness her power as a Siren. In the originalBorderlands,Handsome Jack uses Angel as a means of communicating with the vault hunters, allowing him to manipulate Angel and his subordinates to climb the ranks of the Hyperion corporation before eventually being named CEO.
InBorderlands 2, Handsome Jack murders Bloodwing in cold blood and uses Angel as a tool to charge the vault key. When Angel dies from exposure after being disconnected from the Eridium, Handsome Jack kidnaps Lilith, another Siren, and replaces his daughter with her in an attempt to reconnect the channel between him and the vault hunters. If Handsome Jack doesn’t care about his own daughter’s fate, then he can’t have too many redeeming qualities.
He may not have a lot of screen time, but that doesn’t mean David doesn’t leave a lasting impact inThe Last of Us. Ellie meets David during the winter chapter, after she hunts and kills a deer. David and his associate James offer to trade Ellie some antibiotics for a share of the deer meat, but Ellie is understandably skeptical of this seemingly mild-mannered stranger.When David becomes the new leader of a starving community, he promises to solve their hunger problem by turning them all into cannibals. His people attack strangers, kill them, and then bring their bodies back to camp in order for their meat to be distributed accordingly. Truly horrifying stuff. When David kidnaps Ellie, players are led to believe that he desires her for the same fate, but when Ellie is locked in a cell, David starts to make intimate advances.
It is heavily implied that David is interested in Ellie for sexual purposes, not purely to chop her up and feed her to his subordinates. It’s a really uncomfortable scene, one that encapsulates David’s sadism in a new, unnerving light. There’s no much history as to why David is the way he is. Players are just led to assume that he’s a cannibal by choice as a means of survival, but that doesn’t make it any less wrong.
