When someone talks about a villain, more often than not the first thought is imposing. An antagonist should scare the player. Villains are tricky though. Some will take to hiding their evil behind a cute exterior. Here are a few examples of antagonists who, at least on the surface, look adorable.
King Dedede
Let’s start with the obvious, King Dedede. He’s a penguin, so by default that makes him adorable. And he’s been around since the beginning of Kirby’s adventures throughout Dreamland. While in most games he does play an antagonistic role, he can be seen helping the sentient blob from time to time.
In recent years, the character has become almost as iconic as Kirby himself. Even going so far as to earn himself a place in Smash Bro’s from Brawl onwards. He’s a classic Nintendo antagonist. Bad when it suits him, helpful when he wants to be but always memorable.
Dog from Silent Hill
In terms of antagonists, this one was a little on the unexpected side. As most of the internet probably knows by now, in Silent Hill 2 one of the endings reveals that a Shiba Inu is responsible for the entirety of the games events. Most people wouldn’t expect a dog to be behind the kinds of atrocities that take place. Yet here we are, having bested a Shiba Inu in an elaborate death trap.
What’s potentially scary about this ending is that the dog actually came up with the idea of Pyramid head and was controlling him from behind the scenes. Clearly you don’t want to be on the bad side of this pup.
Flowey
Undertale has a whole host of memorable characters. From the pun loving skeleton Sans to the literal mother figure Toriel, many of the characters are well thought out and incredibly designed. As such, it comes as no surprise to anyone that Flowey the murder plant would get a spot on this list. Donning the guise of a flower, Flowey looks relatively innocent. Even going so far as to teach the player the game in order to maintain the deception.
However, he quickly reveals his true colours as a spiteful creature out to kill you. By the end of the pacifist route, he turns into the god of hyperdeath. Which is just about as bad as it sounds since Flowey is now comprised of what looks like televisions, vines and dehydrated goats head. At the very least his last visage is certainly memorable, even if he losses that cute exterior.
Wheatley
Often, it’s what is on the inside that counts. And no one has more spirit than Wheatley, the surprise antagonist of Portal 2. He’s not particularly bright and that’s fine. When he tries to kill you after stealing control of Aperture, he puts in a lot of effort. After all, he made turret cubes and created special tests just for you. He’s willing to go the extra mile and fling playground level insults at you just like GLaDOS would have done. He even manages to make a nearly inescapable death trap. GLaDOS couldn’t do that, despite all her mutterings about turning you into cake. So, it makes it all the more impressive that Wheatley, a core designed to be an idiot, almost succeeds where GLaDOS didn’t. That’s an amount of spirit that is admirable, even in a bumbling antagonist.
Souflee
Ok so I’m stretching a little here, but if you had to fight these you’d call them antagonists as well. For those out of the loop, the Souflee is an enemy in Kid Icarus: Uprising. Whenever the player approached the enemy it would run terrified in the opposing direction. Like most enemies that run away, killing this happy cake blob would grant the player bonus points, or at least in the case of Kid Icarus, bonus Hearts. Despite their lack of legs, these guys where fast. A bit too fast. Upon seeing on you were forced to react quickly and it often would lead to failure and frustration as they ran away. Many levels were replayed to kill Souflees for money, often ending up as nothing more than a fruitless endeavour.
Miss any antagonists you find adorable? Or know anything about the ones we’ve listed? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.
