5 Video Game Antagonists Who Aren't Really Evil

Key takeaways

• Antagonists in video games can have more complex motivations than simply being evil.
• Some villains, such as Blue and Clavier Gavin, are more subtle and not really evil characters.
• Characters like Hades and Xavier show how antagonists can have motives beyond being villainous.

Video game bad guys are often, well, perceived as bad guys. Yet this is sometimes an oversimplification. Some adversaries have little investment in or alignment with evil, instead coming against the protagonist for reasons related to their alignment.

Sometimes this is determined by the genre of the game, but other times these characters are simply linked to situations, the player standing in the way of their goals, whatever they may be. There are some antagonists here, who are not truly evil characters in any sense of the word.

5 the blue

Pokemon Red and Blue

Professor Oak's grandson, Blue, is a childhood friend and rival of Red, and later possibly Leaf in the remake. He has a remarkably cocky attitude, and always chooses Pokémon that will have some sort of advantage against the player's chosen starter Pokémon. The professor doesn't specifically remember his grandson's name, Red is able to tell him (which only serves as a mechanic for the player to name the opponent, with some often using offensive phrases at the end.).

For all of Blue's bluster, he's not actually aligned with Team Rocket, the game's villain team, which steals Pokemon. Despite this, Blue Tech is the final opponent, acting as champion, which he accomplished by defeating Lance of the Elite Four. Defeated by Red shortly after, Blue instead became the Viridian City Gym Leader, a position vacated by Giovanni after disbanding Team Rocket. He is a particularly rare gym leader, using all types of Pokémon to battle the player without any type of specialty.

He frequently appears alongside Red in segments of new games that focus on the larger series, serving as established trainers that the player can fight alongside, or in rare cases, alongside. While the new rivals are very similar, with many having a very friendly friendship, Blue is distinguished as an unpleasant, but evil character.

4 Klavier Gavin

Apollo Justice: Ace Lawyer

Ace Advocate is a series that often seems set in its ways. With the original trilogy intended to be the entirety of the series, popular demand led to a new installment that actively attempted to subvert it. Most prosecutors are at least somewhat poorly presented. Wanting defendants to be found guilty, regardless of their actual criminality, they often make an active effort to assist the actual perpetrator as an extension of this effort, confessing only after their guilt is confirmed. They are also usually presented as unpleasant personalities, insulting and in some cases even attacking Raksha.

Sometimes, these prosecutors themselves become less evil as the story progresses, rethinking their methods, and in most cases being replaced by another prosecutor for at least part of the final trial. In all these ways and more, Klavier Gavin exists as a subversive of these tropes. Although he is somewhat rude to Apollo, he genuinely likes and respects him, and shows a greater willingness to be open with the defense during the investigation, compared to the other prosecutors, who interrupt them at every turn.

However, Clavier is still a prosecutor and is responsible for arguing the defendant's guilt, poking holes in Apollo's observations where they might arise. However, he is very hands-on and often willing to help Apollo when he is aware of the true culprit. He is also a successful rock musician, leading a band known as the Gaviners. He often performs air guitar in court to accompany his announcements.

In a similar rebellion, the real villain Apollo Justice Clavier's older brother Christophe Gavin is a defense lawyer himself. Christophe was also Apollo's guardian, before the young lawyer discovered that he was responsible for the murder. Evidence later points to him being guilty of the second murder and responsible for the dismemberment of Phoenix Wright. Although Clavier is somewhat reluctant to accept his brother as a criminal, once his documented crimes come to light, Clavier does not mind his punishment.

3 Hades

Hades

In many works adapting Greek mythology, the god of death is an obvious candidate for an antagonist. To some extent, this is true Hadeswhich presents him as a cruel, distant figure to his son, Zagreus. Hades is the designated antagonist, with his son's constant attempts to escape the underworld. However, how evil Hades is in this version is relatively toned down. He is instead portrayed as an overworked god, who cares for his son, but finds it difficult to find time for his family amid the burden of his duties.

Although Zagreus is unable to escape the Underworld for long, he later uses his escape attempts as a way to test his defenses. To this end, Hades himself repeatedly tests his son, after their reconciliation. Zagreus is supported by his kinsmen, the gods of Olympus, whom he later leads to reconcile with Hades after reuniting with his mother Persephone. Ultimately, while retaining the moody nature we've come to expect from most iterations of him in pop culture, this version of Hades isn't really a villain.

2 Xavier

Fire Symbol: Thracia 776

The symbol of fire The series has many characters that qualify for this list; Characters who aren't really evil, but find themselves fighting heroes, at least for a time. Often, these characters are either allies you recruit or enemies you mourn. Xavier is meant to be the former, but the painstaking lengths required to recruit him can often make him the latter.

Xavier was once the general of Leonster, of which Leif was prince before being expelled from the kingdom. After its destruction, he was forced to choose between his subordinates and his country, choosing the former. Upon Leif's return to Leonster, Xavier proves to be an obstacle. In order to move him, Leaf's strategist, August, organizes the families of all of Xavier's lieutenants, to convince them to plead guilty. If the player completes this, Leif is able to recruit Xavier.

The devil is in the details, as it requires the player to dedicate enough units to protect helpless allies who are able to be killed by enemy units at any time. Specifically, there are eight of them, all of whom need to talk to an enemy unit to secure their side change. The extent to which a player has to be dedicated to this operation can be frustrating for someone trying to recruit Xavier. Fortunately, for all the difficulties involved in recruiting him, Xavier is a solid unit for the final stretch of the game.

1 Augustus Aquato

psychologists

Augustus is a fascinating example of this type of character, as he is both a villain and not, from a certain point of view. Augustus is a circus acrobat and psychic whose history makes him wary of engaging with other psychics. After discovering his son, Razputin “Raz”, has psychic abilities, he is deeply concerned. To this end, he forces his son to practice acrobatics daily in an attempt to escape from what he perceives as a painful world.

However, this had an unintended side effect that caused Raj to view his father negatively. This escalates when Augustus refuses to let Raj attend the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, which backfires when Raj chooses to do so anyway. Eventually, a worried Augustus discovers that Raj perceives him as a monster who hates both psychology and his son's happiness. He is deeply horrified at the revelation and chooses to help his son against this distorted version of him. Unfortunately, the underlying mentality of Raj and his coach, Oleander, causes the evil Augustus to align with his coach's own toxic father figure, The Butcher.

Augustus once again helps his son, allowing them to reconcile, the beginning of him learning to embrace his abilities. psychologists is a series that focuses on perception. Although Augustus wanted nothing but the best for his son, Raj's own perceptions led to a rocky relationship.