#beyond being tasteless it's just downright cruel

[yappacadaver]

people dissing emmrich's red leather fascination like... just say you hate fun

[airlock]

airlock grades the Michalis archetype

next in this series, we line up the characters who are spitting on our faces and calling us bitches now, but were petting cute dogs just a moment prior. that’s right, it’s the Camus archetype’s archrival: the Michalis!

(do note: under cut are spoilers for… everything, and also a significant amount of me criticizing or blamming characters that you might like. you’ve been warned! but if you’d still proceed, then I shall brush you aside like the pebble you are in the grand scheme of my plans-)

a foreword

I’m going to need a working definition for this one as well, so here goes: by the reckoning of this listing, a Michalis is a secondary character who is characterized as virtuous, well-liked, or otherwise distasteful to fight against, but who still must be fought against, not due to the tragics that compel a Camus, but because the Michalis bears a severe flaw that overpowers the good qualities and will ultimately choose evil because of it.

here it goes!

you will adress him as king michalis of macedon

(7/10)

the original article delivers pretty well! often better intentioned than he might seem, he’s proud and reckless, and it constantly lands him in lousy situations -- whether he’s fighting his own family or getting straight-up killed because he deadass thought he had a chance against Gharnef. sure, jan.

he’s not the most compelling one in this list, but as that rare character who feels thorougly driven by his own personality and not the demands of the plot on a given day, he’s definitely on the better end of the archetype.

classist michalis

(2/10)

yeah...... this one’s another shot off the hoop for Valentia’s newer villains. when he’s not around, every character around will drop to their knees and beg you to go easy on the poor guy; when he’s around, he’s virulent far beyond what his sob backstory could possibly excuse. he thorougly fails to garner the sympathy the game is convinced you should have for him, and while some of his earlier scenes land with spectacle, he rapidly shrinks into an irrelevant appendage of Berkut’s and meets his end in a pointless, weak death scene.

the DLC maps do a heroic job of making him sound like something other than an annoying tool for once, but you know shit’s not going well if you need DLC just to make your character even a little bit less tasteless.

hungry michalis

(10/10)

sure, he’s hardened, vile, and deserves scarce sympathy for some of the deeds under his belt. but damned if he isn’t the most genuine villain in this list. born to a world that relentlessly spits on him and his, he spits back with all of his power, that the saliva of the world might run out and leave something better for the next ones up.

there’s something unique and incredible about his arc: for all the unforgivable atrocities he commits, he may genuinely have left the world a better place than he’d entered, but still, his end is not a tragedy; rather, his end is the final step needed in order to make things right for good and all. there’s no one else in the franchise who functions so effectively as a self-made villain.

and fuck Veld for encroaching on that perfection-

... I said he was a camus-michalis hybrid, right

(5/10)

but I’m not writing the entire analysis again, just read the Camus post

marqualis

(5.5/10)

this is maybe a little bit of a stretch; Darin is definitely not written as a virtuous or even halfway sympathetic character -- but he’s still given an undeniably human core that’s meant to set him apart from the literally inhuman secondary villains he rubs shoulders with, such as in all of the times he grows hesitant in the face of Nergal’s plans before Ephidel butters him back into compliance. plus, there’s a subtle sympathy to be had in seeing his family tearing itself apart because of manipulative villains, even if the entire family is dicks.

like the original one, he’s not an incrediblly compelling character, but his personality definitely sells his arc of the plot, and it’s hard to deny that taking him down for good and all at the Dragon’s Gate gets to be a moment of some power -- one that feels tragic, but right.

merchalis

(7/10)

hard sell again, but, as amoral and cruel as this fellow is, there’s an underscore of neutrality to him that makes him much more of a balanced character than the usual power-hungry villain; sure, he’ll do anything for the sake of his ambitions -- but that includes ignoring Lyon and potentially screwing him over! he bears with him that refreshing strength of being an antagonist who drives things his way and not just the plot-convenient one, similar to others on the list here. and albeit vague, his alluded-to past is somewhat intriguing, to boot!

darling michalis

(10/10)

undoubtedly up there in the pantheon of Magvel’s most incredible writing moments is the arc of this sick motherfucker. he perfectly disarms you for a few moments before the shoe drops and then it never stops dropping.

there’s any number of villains who are just repugnant, but this guy takes the whole thing to a new level: with the facade he starts off with, and with the positive but incredibly twisted motivations that drive him, he is quite possibly the most terrifying thing in this whole franchise -- above all of the undead monsters.

shiny-pecker michalis

(9/10)

a performer of nefarious, ostensibly shameless deeds, and at the same time, a character who is trusted and loved by many whom he wrongs again and again -- Naesala glides smoothly in the territory where the likes of Fernand have tripped.

the reveal that his overarching motivation stems from a cheap plot device is weakening, but still hardly impacts his stellar characterization; he makes his weight felt on every cutscene where he’s so much as mentioned, and besides, comparably to Travant above, he’s willing to own for himself the villainy that the world thrust upon him, which makes him an incredibly compelling character and powerfully adds to the tragedy of those characters who eagerly await for him to let his better nature shine through while he goes and betrays them once more.

boot camp michalis

(7.5/10)

as downright nasty as he is, Jarod’s sporting, capable villainy is arguably one of the prime strengths of Radiant Dawn’s Part 1. facing off against him feels like one grand competition, which gets to be unique where Tellius’s villains tend to fight from the shadows instead.

his drive for efficiency as a soldier, constantly slammed against his subordinates’ lesser preparation, makes for a consistent, active motivation, even as it frequently drives him into the path of cruelty -- although there’s a criticism to be had in that he sometimes takes the cruelty up to eleven in situation where it makes no sense to (like, say, frequently lancing his subordinates for incompetence; sure, he hatehatehates that and it’s not out of character for him to be violent about it, but murdering one’s own ranks in occupied territory is uncharacteristically stupid for him).

his final stand is a particularly standout moment; where the plot could’ve simply moved on by the time of Sanaki’s intervention, the last hurrah comes about anyway because he personally decided to make it happen -- and for compelling, intriguing reasons, at that!

king michalis... of plegia

(6/10)

the antagonist driving the least weak arc of Awakening is surely one of its better ones, yes? well, kind of -- he’s more than a little pastiche and not enough consistency, but at least, when he’s on the scene, he chews the scenery so hard it bursts into color.

well, then! this time, I don’t even know if I’m directly missing a sample from fates, so that’s a wrap. what do you all think? are you charmed enough to ignore all of the innocents I just slaughtered, or are you having none of it and will put an end to my evil deeds? if the upcoming Three Houses is to have a Michalis, how despicably lovable should they be? well, think what you will -- the truth is, I’ve been onto you this entire time! of course you’ll share your thoughts in a reply or a reblog... right?