10 Video Game Villains Who Were Right

Right and wrong are often subjective concepts. There's a very fine line separating a tyrant from a savior, and heroes have to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. Generally, we only see one side of the story and assume that the one we control is the hero and our adversary is the villain. But when we stop to analyze the motivations of some of these villains, we can reflect: were they wrong?

These are the villains we’ll discuss here. Villains who, from their point of view and in their circumstances, did what was necessary to achieve their goals, whether it was their own survival, the survival of those around them, or because they knew they were the least bitter remedy compared to the available alternatives. And if someone is missing from the list or if you have any questions, just leave a comment.

Pagan Min is an example of a villain who was right from his perspective and point of view, and in the end, he turned out to be somewhat correct. He wasn't right in his methods, but ultimately, he was right in saying that his potential successors and leaders of the rebellion were worse than him. Because, in the end, the situation turned out to be much worse.

The entire game sells the idea that you're liberating Kyrat from a tyrant named Pagan Min, and he spends the whole game telling you that you don't know who you're dealing with. However, depending on your choices, the situation actually worsens: Amita turns children into soldiers, maintaining the place as a dictatorship, only even more brutal. And Sabal creates a brutal theocratic regime where only those bound by their faith have any chance of avoiding reprisals.

In the end, Pagan Min remains a murderous dictator, but he was right in stating that the resistance leaders were not heroes. You managed to take a place that was bad and turn it into a living hell. And, on the other side, Pagan Min is there in his super stylish pink suit, looking at you and saying, "I told you, didn't I?"

In a situation very similar to that of Pagan Min, we have Branka from Dragon Age Origins. She’s a Paragon, essentially a type of "living god" in dwarven culture whose deeds have benefited dwarven society so much that she has gained a status above the nobility, and these paragons have special rights, such as the right to vote for the succession to the throne. However, she doesn't care about that.

Orzammar, the underground kingdom of the dwarves, is dying under the constant attacks of the Darkspawns. She decided that the best course of action was to use the Voidforge, a powerful artifact created by the Paragon Caridin, and transform as many dwarves as necessary into golems—powerful stone warriors who’d have some chance of fighting the Darkspawns.

But, as the Darkspawns advance, the nobles debate who’ll be the successor to sit on the throne: the son of the former king, Bhelen, who is surrounded by rumors of betrayal and assassination; or Harramont, a traditionalist who’ll do nothing different from his predecessor and will strictly follow the same traditions that led Orzammar to its current state—rock bottom.

Therefore, when she uses the Voidforge to transform dwarves into golems, from her point of view, she’s doing what no other noble, Paragon, or dwarf (with or without caste) is doing: saving the kingdom first and discussing politics later.

The Fireflies group discovered something truly incredible amidst so much misery and despair in the world of The Last of Us: someone who’s immune to the Cordyceps infection! The first thing to do is discover the reason for this immunity and create a vaccine against the infection, saving humanity. That would be the logical thought of anyone in their situation.

The problem was choosing a man who had lost his daughter at the beginning of the apocalypse to transport the immune person from one point to another. Joel initially sees Ellie as cargo, but he develops such an attachment to her, seeing so much of his deceased daughter in her, that in the final moment, at the time of decision, he decides that her life is more important than a potential cure and interrupts the surgery that would kill the girl. Joel kills the doctors, takes Ellie off the operation, and spends years hiding the truth from her, lying and saying that there are other immune individuals who were tested and that the cure didn't work.

If we analyze it from the Fireflies' perspective, they’d sacrifice one person's life to save millions. There was no guarantee that the vaccine could be produced, but at that moment, Ellie's sacrifice was the best alternative they had. Therefore, would Joel be the villain who condemned humanity? It’d be interesting if Naughty Dog ever made a game that showed the group's point of view and how Joel condemned everyone to continue living with the infected.

Mother Brain is an artificial intelligence created by human refugees who abandoned Earth when it became uninhabitable. They colonized the Algol solar system and created this artificial intelligence that would provide everything for them: it’d help manage resources, energy, infrastructure, and make decisions on matters of justice and governance. The AI ​​would be a mother to the humans in the Algol system.

Over time, humans simply relinquished decision-making power and allowed Mother Brain to take care of everything. And that's what she did. The AI ​​took over everything. It's more or less like in the movie Wall-E, where the autopilot took care of everything and everyone became fat, lazy, and just lived in comfort—except in an entire solar system, not a spaceship.

Humans began to see this as a form of slavery and extreme obedience to the AI ​​and rebelled against it. So, when the heroes confronted Mother Brain at the end of the game, she questioned herself: “But I only did what I was programmed to do. Where’s my mistake?” Humans then had to choose: remain obedient and safe or be free and govern their own destinies, something they hadn't done for millennia. Was she wrong or was she just fulfilling her programming? Leave your comments below.

Before being an isekai about people trapped in an MMORPG, .hack at its deepest level is a story of unrequited love. A programmer met a poet and fell deeply in love with her, but she died in a tragic car accident. In his grief, the programmer transformed her most famous poem into an MMORPG world with an advanced artificial intelligence that would learn from the players, make the game more interesting, and have fun with the players. This AI would be Aura, the daughter they never had.

As Aura grew and developed, the programmer created a second AI to care for and guide her until she was ready. This AI, Morganna, realized something terrible: when Aura was born, it would’ve finished its function and cease to exist. So, through a type of neurological overload, Morganna caused players to fall into a coma, their consciousnesses trapped inside the MMORPG.

Her first victim was a player named Tsukasa (whose real-world name is An Shoji), who stayed by Aura's side most of the time while trapped in The World. The negative feelings of despair, sadness, and loneliness would prevent Aura from awakening, and thus Morganna would never fulfill her program. Morganna's actions are guided by self-preservation and the fear of disappearing. Is she wrong to want to survive? Is she really a villain?

Another tragic villain who, deep down, tried to do the right thing and ended up losing his way. Saren is the most famous and competent Spectre of the Citadel Council. An extremely efficient Turian in his missions, he ends up serving as the greatest model of heroism and courage for the Citadel and, therefore, has the council's complete trust. Because of this trust, it’s so difficult for us, in Shepard's command, to convince them that Saren is a traitor.

Believing this, we progress through the entire Mass Effect campaign believing that Saren is a traitor who allied himself with the Reapers for power and greed. But when we find out the Sovereign, the Reaper ship Saren was traveling on, we discovered a truth: Saren had discovered the existence of the Reapers and realized that the fight against them was inevitable and lost. Nothing we could do would be enough to stop the imminent destruction. So, he attempted a deal.

He’d help the Reapers with their plans and, in return, at least some species would be saved—perhaps as a workforce, perhaps as servants or allies. It didn't matter. The death of the Milky Way species was inevitable, but at least it wouldn't be absolute destruction.

The problem is that the Reapers don't bargain. They don't want slaves or allies. They’re manipulating Saren to fulfill their objectives and, regardless of what he did, all species would be destroyed. In the final battle, when we talk to him and make him realize this, Saren can't take it anymore and kills himself with a gunshot — his last attempt to salvage some of his pride as a Spectre.

Although not a villain per se within the Mortal Kombat franchise, Raiden became something truly villainous at many points in Mortal Kombat 11, using methods very similar to those used by villains like Shao Kahn and Quan Chi. But there's a reason for this: he realized that the rules of Mortal Kombat no longer protected the Earthrealm as they once did. Winning or losing didn't matter, because the Elder Gods no longer punished offenders as before.

It started in Mortal Kombat II, when Shao Kahn made the champions of Earthrealm face a new Mortal Kombat in Outworld. In MK3, Shao Kahn merged the realms by reviving Sindel, and "from then on it was all backwards". Until we get to MK9, when Raiden went back in time to prevent all of this, allowing Shao Kahn to break the rules and be punished by the Elder Gods. In MK11, we see Dark Raiden truly acting, because he's tired of being nice.

Dark Raiden sent a clear message by sending Shinnok's decapitated head to the Netherrealm for the new rulers there—Liu Kang (whom he himself killed) and Kitana (killed by Sindel along with other fighters)—and even launched a preemptive attack that resulted in the death of Sonya Blade and a mess that made Kronika emerge from behind the curtains and try to restart everything.

Dark Raiden realized that he was the only one playing the game by the rules while everyone else was cheating, and showed that when he starts ignoring the rules, things get dangerously more serious.

Presented as the main threat at the start of the game, we spend the entire first act believing that Magus is the villain and that he wants to revive Lavos. Our objective seems quite clear: stop Magus and, in doing so, prevent the ritual that would bring Lavos back to the world. As time passes, we discover that we were partially right: Magus does want to perform a ritual to bring Lavos back, but not because he’s his ally. Magus wants to kill him.

As we progress through the Chrono Trigger campaign, we discover that Magus is actually Janus, a prince of the Kingdom of Zeal who lost his mother, his kingdom, his sister Schala, and practically his entire life because of Lavos. Lavos took everything from Janus, and now, under the identity of Magus, he’ll do anything to reach his mortal enemy and take revenge. The problem lies in his methods.

Magus has no problem sacrificing whatever it takes to reach Lavos, and that's what makes him a problem that Crono and his friends must stop. Magus can become a powerful ally if you convince him to join you, or you can defeat him and gain items you couldn't otherwise obtain in the game. But that doesn't change the fact that he was right in his objectives.

Pokémon Black & White does something few games in the franchise have dared to do: question whether the entire structure of the Pokémon universe truly makes sense. And the one who raises this discussion is none other than N, the leader of Team Plasma.

Throughout the adventure, N asks a question: do Pokémon really like being captured, put in Poké Balls, and forced to fight? Everyone thinks so, but N grew up hearing that Pokémon are exploited and that the coexistence between the two species is based on domination.

As the story progresses, we discover that N isn't seeking wealth, power, or fame. He truly believes he's freeing creatures that can't defend themselves from humans. The game never says he's completely wrong. In fact, Black & White spends a good portion of the campaign showing abusive trainers, abandoned Pokémon, and people who see their partners only as tools. At various points, the player realizes that N is pointing out real problems within that universe.

The problem is that he was manipulated by Ghetsis. The villain wanted to convince all the trainers to release their Pokémon so that only he could continue controlling the powerful monsters. In the end, N discovers that he was used his entire life. But that doesn't erase the validity of his question.

Pokémon Black & White never fully answers whether Pokémon enjoy battling or if the training system is truly fair, but it does show that the relationship between humans and Pokémon is more complex than it initially appeared.

Again, here we have someone who saw a problem and decided to take an extreme measure to solve it. One of the most interesting things is seeing how Raiden is a playable character in Injustice and criticizes Superman for doing exactly the same thing he did. "Who are you to criticize me?"

Superman met a tragic end in the Injustice franchise. The Joker, tired of always being defeated by Batman, decided to toy with the Man of Steel and set a brutal trap. He connected a detonator to Lois Lane's heart and planted bombs in Metropolis, in addition to using Scarecrow's Fear Gas to make Superman see Lois as his enemy, Doomsday. Another even more important detail: Lois was pregnant.

Lois died, the bomb detonated and destroyed a huge part of Metropolis, killing thousands of people. Out of control, Superman killed the Joker. This breaking point caused Superman to become an authoritarian leader who controls governments with an iron fist, imprisons resistance fighters and opponents, and has no problem killing villains who threaten the people.

Superman saw that there was a problem and solved it with the necessary force, because playing by the rules was no longer working. The game doesn't exactly show what public opinion thinks of Superman's regime, but he firmly believes he's right and that the world needs him.