Being immersive and interactive experiences, video games offer players a wide variety of stories and perspectives - from saving worlds to extremely casual encounters. And in stories where players need to fight villains who try to fulfill nefarious missions, it’s easy to point at an enemy and fight them because the game says so. As such, it can be quite a hard pill to swallow when a bad guy turns out to have more noble intentions than what players realize.
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While some villains eventually show heroes how they realized the error in their ways throughout the story, some bad guys eventually die or get defeated believing in their ideals. And sometimes, it can take a bit of time for players to realize these enemies had a point all along. Aside from stereotypical villains who have surprisingly interesting agendas, some enemies that players encounter may turn right all along.
10Pagan Min Was A Tyrant Who Maintained Order (Far Cry 4)
While theFar Cryseries has had its fair share of complex plots across its many games,Far Cry 4sent players on a more directed crash course to choosing the lesser of three (3) evils. Players of theFar Cry 4storytake control of Ajay Ghale, a Kyrati-American who goes back to his fictional home country of Kyrat - only to be involved in a civil war between the tyrannical kingPagan Minand rebels of the Golden Path. While players spend most of the time influencing the Golden Path’s moves, Ajay would eventually decide the fate of the country itself in the final confrontation.
Although Ajay could simply kill Pagan Min and position one of the two (2) Golden Path leaders as the new ruler of Kyrat, the game shows a future of either an authoritarian drug state or a patriarchal fundamentalist theocracy. And when players do choose to listen to Pagan Min’s story, Ajay is eventually left to rule the land. At the end of the day, the overtly-powerful Royal Army may have been the best choice on the get-go, as its tyrannical rule was a more orderly option versus the horrible futures the Golden Path, ironically enough, would bring.
9King Dedede Sealed Kept Nightmare Sealed (Kirby’s Adventure)
After Kirby awakens from a horrible dream where a being called Nightmare has spread evil in Dream Land, Kirby goes to the Fountain of Dreams - which allows everyone in the realm to sleep soundly - to check on its status. There, he realizes thatKing Dededeis not only leisurely swimming in its waters, he’s actually taken the Star Rod and split it in seven (7) parts. Thinking that King Dedede used this for evil,Kirby’s Adventurehas Kirby set on a quest to reform the Star Rod and stop the threat of Nightmare once and for all. Unbeknownst to Kirby, Nightmare precisely wanted the Star Rod to be reformed in order for him to wreak havoc across the universe.
It’s only whenKirby takes to the stars and faces Nightmarein outer space that the protagonist eventually defeats him. While Kirby himself eventually saw for himself that King Dedede broke the Star Rod to avoid Nightmare’s reemergence, his quick judgment may have been a fatal decision for the universe had he not been able to stop the entity. Interestingly enough, King Dedede’s innocence has already been hinted at throughout the game, with bosses including creatures who were designed to look nothing like evil beings, up to a point that an actual boss’s mechanic had him constantly run away from Kirby.
8Letho Just Wanted To Revive His Witcher School (The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings)
While much is not known about the origins ofLethoofThe Witcherfranchise,The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kingsimmediately positions this Witcher as Geralt’s main foe as the latter took the blame for the death of King Foltest, who Letho originally assassinated. It’s eventually revealed that Letho was simply working under orders of Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, who promised to restore Letho’s dying School of the Viper only after the Witcher kills some of the North’s rulers.
As with othercharacters ofThe Witcher, Letho proves to be a much more complex person than players realize. Aside from owing Geralt for saving his life, Letho also took care of Yennefer and saved Triss in Geralt’s absence. Moreover, asThe Witcher 3: The Wild Huntshowed, the growing threat of the Wild Hunt became all the more difficult for Geralt to deal with as there’s not a lot of members of the School of Viper, the Witcher School specializing in the Wild Hunt, to assist them. SinceThe Witcher 2canonically has Geralt spare Letho, the Viper Witcher at least has a shot of propagating their ranks once more. However, had Geralt not intervened in the first place, Letho would’ve been able to train more Witchers prior to the Wild Hunt’s pursuit of Ciri, possibly helping Geralt and his team deal with the threat with more ease .
7Revolver Ocelot Wanted Humanity To Take Control Again (Metal Gear Solid)
With Hideo Kojima’sMetal Gear Solidfranchise blending the lines between tactical espionage and intense political drama, fans would be the first to know that not all their characters are black and white. Such was the case ofRevolver Ocelot, a comrade and rival to Big Boss and villain to Solid Snake whose actions are a result of his nature as a triple agent - who ironically served no one but himself.
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Key to his mission are his infiltration of the Patriots, a secret organization behind much of the actions of the United States of America and possession in the global slush fund that is the Philosopher’s Legacy. While his commitment to his mission eventually led to the loss of his arm andsubsequent implantation of Liquid Snake’s deceased arm(and eventual weirdness that was the “overtaking” of personalities), his true intentions were revealed in some of his final moments. It’s revealed that Revolver Ocelot wants to acquire the Patriots’ AI not to control the global war economy, but rather to dismantle it and plunge the world into “anarchy” - which in his mind simply meant a world finally at the hands of humans, and not machines.
6Zoltun Kulle Wanted Humans To Be On Par With Angels, Demons (Diablo)
Fans of theDiablofranchise know that the magicians of the Horadrim are the last mystic line of defense humanity and Sanctuary has against the ongoing war between the High Heavens and the Seven Hells. As such, when Deckard Cain died as the last Horadrim, players only haveZoltun Kulleand his library of lost works as the best knowledge of magic available in the world. Considered the most powerful among the Horadrim,Zoltun Kulle was a spellcaster driven mad and self-consumed908 through his exposure to the Soulstones that would eventually be used to contain the Prime Evils and stop them from ruining the world.
While players regularly fight Zoltun Kulle across the games, he’s also responsible for some of the game’s most innovative mechanics - such as the Kanai Cube and the Horadric Cube. However, while Zoltun Kulle has become an emptier and more egotistical version of his original self, he was a humanist through and through. His distrust in the Angiris Council (and the fact that it was only by one vote that humanity was spared in the Sin Wars) had Zoltun Kulle sought means of helping mankind tap into their Nephalem heritage. This is what led to his creation of the Black Soulstone that would supposedly be powerful enough to seal both demon and angel alike. Now that Lilith is poised to make a return inDiablo 4with humans once again being ill-prepared to deal with her arrival that Zoltun Kulle is proven right, in that humanity can’t remain powerless in the ongoing conflict between good and evil.
5Superman Decided Enough Was Enough For Villains (Injustice: Gods Among Us)
The whole premise ofInjustice: Gods Among Uswas a twist onBatman: The Dark Knight’s Joker origin, where “one bad day” was enough to reduce the sanest man to lunacy. In the NetherRealm title, the Joker trickedSupermaninto accidentally killing Lois, with Superman killing him in retaliation. It’s at this moment, with Wonder Woman unfortunately goading the Man of Steel, that Superman decided enough was enough and imposed his version of a New World Order to mankind. His rule was simple: follow him or suffer the consequences.
Superman’s One Earth Regime and merciless killing of supervillains was never something to conform with in the eyes of Batman, who forms the Insurgency to stop his former fellow Leaguer. This formed the perfect premise forInjustice’s no-holds-barred matchesto the death, but one might wonder if Superman actually had a point. While Superman in DC Comics choosing the path of good was convenient for a prolonged timeline of the comics in the real world, other stories do tackle how “peaceful” a world without villains could get, especially when superheroes don’t tolerate mass murders with a mere slap of the wrist and entry into a rather subpar asylum.
4Abaddon Wanted To Start Armageddon Without Provoking War (Darksiders)
The firstDarksidersofficially begins when War of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is called to Earthat the beginning of the Endwar or Armageddon, where Mankind is finally developed enough to join the battle between Heaven and Hell. However, War is surprised to discover that not only had the other Horsemen been absent, the Seventh Seal to actually start the war had not been broken yet. Instead, the angelAbaddonhad preemptively broken six (6) of the seven seals to call forth Hell’s ruler on Earth to kill them and end the war immediately - a plan that backfires and puts the angels on the losing side.
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While War eventually faces a now-corrupted Abaddon at the end of the story, fans may realize that Abaddon’s plans may actually make sense. Sans his absolute hatred for demonkind being his primary motivation for a preemptive strike (that the angels didn’t agree to), Abaddon didn’t want to put humanity in the middle of a war originally fought between Heaven and Hell. Abaddon understood how catastrophic the consequences of the Endwar could get for mankind - something that players currently see as they travel post-apocalyptic Earth throughout the game franchise.
As theFablefranchise took the “hero’s journey” archetype up for a spin, it’s quite surprising thatFable 3included a nation management mini-game in its mechanics. The story ofFable 3begins right afterFable 2left off, where the former Ruler of Albion, who turned out to be the Hero of Bower Lake (the protagonist of the previous game), had just died and was succeeded by their eldest sonLogan. Unfortunately, while Logan had furthered the nation’s industrial revolution, he eventually abolished the education system in lieu of harsher working hours.
The game’s protagonist, the younger brother of Logan, would eventually spearhead a revolution that would eventually overthrow his elder sibling. While players have a choice of either executing Logan or exiling him to an unknown location, the outcome remains the same: players have to manage the kingdom and protect it from the armies of the entity known as the Darkness. As it turns out, a seer had already prophesied the arrival of the Darkness toKing Logan, and his response was to halt the progress of the kingdom in lieu of preparing its citizens in the upcoming battle. This was evident in the player’s management, as focusing on the arts and culture would mean allotting less time for defenses.
2Doctor Wily Helped Robots Go Past Their Expiration Date (Mega Man)
Anyone in lovewith theMega Manfranchiseknows thatDoctor Wilybecame the stereotypical “evil doctor” counterpart to good-natured Doctor Light, and his evil Robot Masters often became instruments of his various nefarious goals. However, things are a bit different inMega Man 9, where a supposed “reformed” Doctor Wily had proven that Doctor Light’s own robots have begun causing havoc, convincing the police to imprison Doctor Light.
When Mega Man eventually defeats the Robot Masters, he discovers that Doctor Wily had framed Doctor Light. And while this eventually results in Doctor Wily’s defeat, the more surprising reveal is the “evil” Doctor’s justification of his actions. It turns out that Doctor Wily convinced the Robot Masters to let him reprogram them so they can become more useful past their expiration date, which the Doctor unfortunately took advantage of to transform them into more violent versions of themselves. While Doctor Wily’s outcome was stereotypically “evil,” his intent was more sympathetic - should robots develop sentience, surely they wouldn’t want to be turned into scrap heap simply because of an expiration date.
1The Fireflies Wanted A Cure (The Last Of Us)
When the Cordyceps brain infection ravaged the world and repopulated it with fungi-empowered monsters, what’s left of humanity were locked in military camps so strict that a splinter group of “rebels” called theFirefliesroutinely wrestle control from them. It’s within the ranks of these Fireflies that what’s left of humanity’s greatest minds are desperately trying to find a cure. ThroughoutThe Last Of Us, smuggler Joel is tasked to bring Ellie to the Fireflies’ compound as she’s the only person they found who demonstrated immunity to the infection. Players control both of these characters as they help each other outlast not just monsters but fellow rebels, with Joel and Ellie forming an inseparable bond.
In the last sequence of the game, the Fireflies tell Joel that they have to dissect Ellie’s brain to see what’s in her body that makes her immune and synthesize a vaccine. Sadly, this meant having to kill Ellie. While players have the option to follow through and save humanity, the canonical ending has Joel kill the Fireflies in a bid to save Ellie’s life. While Joel and Ellie survive until the next game, this also meant potentially dooming the rest of humanity. And while theFireflies were labeled as villain characters in the series, they want nothing but to find a cure for the virus - and Ellie’s life is minuscule compared to countless others they may have saved had they been able to find a way to create a vaccine.
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