#granted qilby is still a lot more evil than the curious cat

[zerm2v0hg]

If I had a nickel for every time I've seen a western-made animesque cartoon series feature an arc villain who is:

(a) A cackling maniac, who: (b) spends most of the season wearing a Mask of Sanity and helping the heroes, then reveals theirself near the end to be Evil All Along and manipulating the heroes; (c) Is a jaded egoist (no ‘T’ in the middle of that word), who is: (d) motivated by insatiable hunger for new knowledge due to: (e) Being created different from the rest of their brethren, in that while the rest of their people naturally reincarnate without their memories, this character was made by the setting gods without that ability, which was intended by the gods to be a boon for the character's brethren but has instead driven the character into insanity with a layer of desperation over thousands of years after the gods vanished; (f) is angry and bitter from suffering a personal betrayal in their nearer past, which one of the main cast is directly tied to, and which implicitly made the villain's eroding morality and sanity even worse than it already was; (g) Has a cyan light motif and powers, (h) Originally comes from another world besides the main planet of the series, (i) Has spent thousands of years up to the present trapped in another dimension; (j) Is spitefully condemned by the show’s protagonists in a way that shows the writers expected us to agree with their assessment that this villain is a tragic but unforgivable monster who deserves to suffer, but instead the character comes across as a lot more sympathetic, complex and pitiable than the writers gave them credit for, whereas the so-called heroes unintentionally come across as assholes or even complete hypocrites, especially since: (k) the heroes who condemn and don't try to feel sorry for this villain let another villain, one who comes across as FAR more petty and unforgivable without the first villain's excuses of mental ailment and immortality and questionable moral agency, off the hook with nought but a slap on the wrist. *cough* Adamai *cough* Neopolitan To say nothing of how those protagonists themselves are responsible for far more of everything that's gone wrong in the world over the series than they've fixed...

If I had a nickel for every time such a series featured an arc villain who has ALL of those specific traits attached to them...

Then I would have two nickels.

Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.