Who's your favourite main antagonist? (SPOILER ALERT)

TethorilofLathander

Frond

Irenicus because.. I mean come on. He is awesome.

Fablewynd

Irenicus because... David Warner.

Kamigoroshi

Heurodis, 'cause she's one smexy cutey! （￣ー￣）

[Deleted User]

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TwoWayFinesse

Jon Irenicus, he just gets all the best lines, and David Warner gets to speak them.

Heindrich

He is by far the most hated villain I have come across in gaming. But hate in a good way.

iAmGoatBoy

Went with the majority in voting Irenicus, but on a Baldur's Gate board, the winner is always likely to be a Baldur's Gate villain. I for one haven't played any of the listed games other than the BG series, I know plenty will have done but really, the poll will always be skewed towards BG.

ChildofBhaal599

i mean come on. this is by far the best voice acting of it's time. honestly a lot of the voice actor in BG took their job very seriously and did great work. Not only that but his lines and character are well loved they were written so well (well for an antagonist love is hate ) i mean, who doesn't love "To end..... like this!?"

the_spyder

Shandyr said:

I vote Sarevok because I like his schemes most in BG(:EE) 1.

Isair and Madea had the chance to kill the protagonists at that village - but they didn't.
Irenicus had the chance to kill the protagonist at Spellhold but he didn't.

There was already a discussion about the latter subject in another thread and I'm aware that you can come up with tons of reasons why he didn't finish off the main char after stealing their soul, but I usually very much dislike it, when a villain is portrayed to be overly powerful only to be defeated in the very end because he neglected to kill off the hero when he had the chance to do so earlier on.

Technically Saravok had a chance to kill Charname at the beginning of BG1 and didn't, so....

Awong124

I don't know why, but I always think Mephistopheles is the name of a cat.

Tresset

Tough call. I think Irenicus's character was done really well, but you don't often see NWN options on here. Hmm....

TwoWayFinesse

if I was voting NWN1 I would go Mephistopheles, except I played it on such a crap computer it couldn't seem to handle what was going on at the end (or the big battle in the underdark)

Anduin

He has the cool sprite that goes "come here" and his hand beckons you to come in reach of his sword.

Sometimes Irenicus looks like he is imagining that he is about to catch that awesome wave.

...

Something to think about.

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Shin

Shandyr said:

Sarevok really did not want to risk letting the hero alive, hence he set up the ambush in the first place.
After he failed he set a bounty on the PC's head. And then all the bounty hunters try to kill him/her.

Irenicus and Isair and Madea didn't bother with killing mainchar. Didn't even TRY.
Which is their ultimate downfall. Sarevok tried at least.

You might as well say Sarevok should have seen to it himself rather than sending minions who couldn't get the job done. Sarevok figured his hirelings would kill charname; Irenicus figured Bodhi or the lack of a soul would kill charname. Same kind of mistake really.

Not to mention that Irenicus's plan actually worked (up until the point when charname interrupted him) whereas Sarevok by all accounts had gotten it all wrong to begin with.

Archaos

Sarevok. The others are nice but it can't get more personal than him.

He killed your step-father, he tried to kill you personally from the very beginning, he's your brother and you can get him in ToB.

Irenicus comes second but I didn't have the same connection I had with Sarevok. CHARNAME was an afterthought for him.

Belhifet comes third. Not only was he the narrator from the very beginning, his children come after the party in Icewind Dale 2. And you never really destroy him. You only banish him.

element

I like Mephistopheles just because of the cool ways its possible to deal with him the fact you had a last boss u didn't even need to fight was pretty awesome imo

irenicus is cool but he basically just keeps avoiding you all game which gets annoying it feels like a bit of a run around at times. Not to mention the fact that you beat him a bunch of times which kind of takes the sting out of his tail a little for me

truth be told I don't even remember much of the others so I guess they didn't leave a lasting impression on me I remember Morag being completely lame though. The twins are cool in a way but if I remember well aren't they basicly just victims? in a lot of ways it didn't really feel all that satisfying to fight them

atcDave

Wow, I really thought it would be closer between Sarevok and Irenicus. To me its pretty closs, both are awesome, but I give the nod to Irenicus, he's just so vile. And David Warner is the best possible actor for the part. I think his end is completely fitting too!

the_spyder

Shandyr said:

the_spyder said:

Shandyr said:

I vote Sarevok because I like his schemes most in BG(:EE) 1.

Isair and Madea had the chance to kill the protagonists at that village - but they didn't.
Irenicus had the chance to kill the protagonist at Spellhold but he didn't.

There was already a discussion about the latter subject in another thread and I'm aware that you can come up with tons of reasons why he didn't finish off the main char after stealing their soul, but I usually very much dislike it, when a villain is portrayed to be overly powerful only to be defeated in the very end because he neglected to kill off the hero when he had the chance to do so earlier on.

Technically Saravok had a chance to kill Charname at the beginning of BG1 and didn't, so....

He tried to and failed. Irenicus didn't try. Neither did Isair and Madae.

I do see a difference between Sarevok's ambush and the situation with Irenicus at Spellhold and Isair/Madae's visit at the village. But as always that's a matter of perception/interpretation.

Sarevok really did not want to risk letting the hero alive, hence he set up the ambush in the first place.
After he failed he set a bounty on the PC's head. And then all the bounty hunters try to kill him/her.

Irenicus and Isair and Madea didn't bother with killing mainchar. Didn't even TRY.
Which is their ultimate downfall. Sarevok tried at least.

I'd be curious how he failed. Gorion died and Saravok was still alive. All we know is that "The next morning you wake up...." Sure, you ran from the fight, but you don't go far. And Saravok wasn't so beaten up that he couldn't have tracked down finished off some level 1 nobody. I always took it that he let Charname go. "That's the only reason for the ease of his escape."

Also, Irenicus didn't leave Charname to live in Spellhold, he set Bodhi on Charname and party. And I remember getting out of spellhold being a battle, and not an easy one.

Just saying that I think other than writers attempting to be Dramatic, the scenarios are too similar to really claim one is better than the other "On that ground".

I personally Like Saravok. I like Irenicus better, but primarily because of the wonderful voice acting that Mr Warner added to the character.

KidCarnival

Voting for Mephistoteles because it will always remain my fondest WTF memory. My first playthrough of Hordes of the Underdark ended with me obtaining his true name and ending him without a fight. It was the most anti-climatic ending of a game ever. I thought there would be a twist, he'd go "haha, that's not my true name, SURPRISE, it's Rumpelstiltskin!" or something, but nada. "I command you to die!" - "Ok.*drops dead*"

CrevsDaak

Irenicus is the real baddie.
He does not use the spells from the cutscenes only because he will be just too powerful.

jackjack

He had me at "experiments".
Sarevok is a very close 2nd for me, however.

Fablewynd

I like Sarevok, and he's a decent first villain for the series; he's got a good motive, aethetic and voice actor, but for me he's just a bit 'generic bruiser villain number 1'. Deep voice, heavy armour and obvious motive. It works for him, but he's a bit plain. It's fairly obvious straight away why he wants to kill you.

With Irenicus he too suffers from some generic villain syndromes, but all in all I feel he is much more interesting and well-rounded. His motives are much more mysterious in the beginning of the game; you don't get much of an idea of why he has you when he's got you in his dungeon, and it's clear that he doesn't just want to kill you. Then he lures you to Spellhold, which he has completely taken over, further emphasising his power. As someone pointed out he further up, he actually succeeds in his plan and you only thwart him at the end of the game. He's constantly interacting with you through the dream sequences, and acts almost like a mentor, a dark Gorian if you will, trying to get you to embrace your powers and teach you your own strengths (even if it was only so he could steal them.) And then he's got a tragically woven history that adds more layers than just 'bad guy wants to kill you because he's just a bad guy and wants power'. Sarevok's got a rather sad history as well, but it's not as apparent in the game; the average playthrough won't highlight that as much - he just seems more one dimensional.

Of course, Throne of Bhaal expands on Sarevok a lot more, but by this time he's not a main antagonist, so I personally don't add that towards his antagonist role.

Tresset

KidCarnival said:

Voting for Mephistoteles because it will always remain my fondest WTF memory. My first playthrough of Hordes of the Underdark ended with me obtaining his true name and ending him without a fight. It was the most anti-climatic ending of a game ever. I thought there would be a twist, he'd go "haha, that's not my true name, SURPRISE, it's Rumpelstiltskin!" or something, but nada. "I command you to die!" - "Ok.*drops dead*"

@KidCarnival I kinda thought if you commanded him to die he would say something like: "Did you learn nothing from the Valsharess? It is beyond your power to command me to slay myself or an extension of myself! So instead of doing that I will destroy you foolish mortal!" I think that would have been a better result.

KidCarnival

@Tresset - Yes, it was absolutely underwhelming to prepare for the big finale, and then have it end without a fight or any twist. I had a save before I asked for the one name, so I could at least reload there and get a different ending - which I did, convinced it was a bug that no fight triggered.

Flashburn

Fun facts:
@KidCarnival
There was a dummied-out option to make Big M a barmaid of the Yawning Portal Inn. I believe the audio for it is still in the NWN toolset, unused.

Mephistophiles and Dorn are both voiced by Gord Mariott. So whenever I hear Dorn speak, I always get that twinge of familiarity. And personally, I think he did a better job as Mephy.

Sylph

As much as I like Sarevok, ya spend most of the game not even knowing who he is at first. Irenicus was a pretty terrifying presence the first time through, especially since you know you're chasing him.

TethorilofLathander

Just to say about the antagonists not succeeding in killing the protagonist when they had the chance...I think Sarevok went to look after Tamoko after Gorion incapacitated her, instead of going after the ward and leaving her in the woods.

If that's true, it adds a much greater side to Sarevok.

TethorilofLathander

And yes, I voted Mephistopheles, just for those moments when you peer into the crystal and he's pillaging like a demonic viking

BlueSorceress

I had to pick Irenicus because he was the first and only computer game villain that I ever really felt passionately about wanting to kill. After being sucker punched at every turn by the things he did to Charname and his/her companions, it was so incredible satisfying to defeat him once and for all in Hell.

Isair and Madae are a close second. Maybe it's just because I played so much BG before the Icewind Dale games, but something about their story really appeals to me - raised by a reclusive priestess to defy their abyssal heritage, they turn against everything they were taught to believe when they realize that no matter how good they are their blood will always mark them as evil in the eyes of the world. They had the potential to do great good, but in the end they choose to embrace their evil in order to punish the world for hating them for their heritage and the circumstance of their birth.

-Blue