Have you noticed?

[Teal]

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead.

Back in 2008, Christopher Nolan release The Dark Knight, a big-budget sequel to the Batman Begins movie. In this movie, Batman had to face his archnemesis, The Joker. A charismatic and insane criminal, The Joker not only caused destruction and seemed to be always ahead of Batman and the rest of Gotham, but also managed to corrupt one of the most incorruptible characters in the movie. Hell, he even made Batman go into a dilemma. He seemed to be virtually unbeatable.

Three years later, Nolan came up with the concluding installment on the Dark Knight franchise which featured Bane. Just like The Joker, Bane also caused a lot of trouble, invading Gotham, putting Bruce Wayne in a prison in a land far away and making him watch as his town gets torn. He too seemed to always be one step ahead and also developed a relationship with Batman. A militarized version of The Joker, you can say.

But the 'charismatic and virtually unbeatable villain' trope stretched it's tentacles beyond the Batman franchise. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows featured Moriarty, a cunning villain responsible for the death of a beloved character and for actually making Sherlock fail. That's a big deal, you know, since Sherlock never fails. Then, came Raoul Silva, the big bad Bond villain in his last installment Skyfall who had planned a very complicated scheme and was responsible for the death of an important Bond character. Later on came Star Trek: Into Darkness, which featured Khan, who was also responsible for the death of a beloved character and appeared to be a cunning super-soldier, able to give a lot of people headaches.

Oh, but that's not just enough. Videogames started using this trope too. It all started with Black Ops 2 which featured Menendez, also a charismatic leader with a complicated scheme responsible for the death of several character. Another Call of Duty game also used this, namely, Call of Duty: Ghosts. It had Rorke, who was basically a Bane parody.

The following video contains spoilers about The Dark Knight Rises and Call of Duty Ghosts.

Another recent game had us deal with Majid Sadiq, a charismatic former-MI6 who was the first villain to ever DIRECTLY attack the protagonist and his crew. I am talking about Splinter Cell: Blacklist. This is kinda unusual since most Splinter Cell games never go for the over-the-top villains.

So much for originality, folks.

 

[Meg]

You make it sound like near-unbeatable villains haven't always been a thing. They have. That's what makes finally beating them all the more fulfilling.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

I'm in agreement with Meg; it's not really anything new. In fact, if there was ever a period in time it wasn't being used, I honestly can't think of when.

That isn't to say every movie and game has used it; obviously they haven't. But, I think there's always been at least a handful of blockbusters running with that trope. Fortunately, some of it is rather subtle, so it doesn't grow tiresome (or at least, I haven't tired of it, lol. I can't speak for others).

 

[Teal]

Yes, but they have never been so up close and personal. Plus, come on folks, don't tell me you don't see a similarity there.

Bane's scheme was to stir a minor sh-tstorm in Gotham, have the cops investigate it and then trap them underground so that he can prepare for the bigger sh-tstorm - Khan's plan was to stir a minor sh-tstorm, have the council group in one place and then slay them all.

The Joker got imprisoned, but easily got out of the prison again as a part of his master scheme - Raoul Silva was imprisoned, and also got out of prison after implanting a computer virus.

Also, both were disguised as cops at one point in an attempt to assassinate a high-ranking government figure and both were insane.

Virtually unbeatable villains did exist before, yes, but there's this...this vibe that the villains I've mentioned leave behind. A very familiar vibe, at least to me. They all seem to have this charismatic and mocking tone.

 

[V]

'Super heroes' (or heroes with extraordinary abilities) don't waste time with ordinary villains in stories. If they're super, the villains gotta be super too and always one step ahead of the hero until the end (for the purposes of suspense). So... it's just logical in that scenario that they always are? Or the hero would trash them right away and the film/book/comic would suck.

I mean it's not new at all. Just thinking about movies I watched recently - The Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter is locked in a cage under max security, has a dramatic escape, gets away and shows up next in a foreign country. The practicalities of getting away with that if you were him and not getting caught right away when you're a famous cannibal murderer who would be all over the TV are nuts. But he does because he's awesome.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

You do have a fair point, Teal; I guess I just never gave it too much thought. I think I did notice the theme being re-used within the Dark Knight Trilogy, Batman Begins and the Dark Knight Rises in particular, but I figured that was due to the series coming full circle.

However, I can't help but agree with Ieyasu as well; sure, there have been plenty of times I've been like, "why doesn't so-and-so just do this, and then the villain would be put down, for good?" But, I came to the same conclusion-if the villains are put down easily, there goes the entire plot for the game or movie.

I do see the point you're making, though; it's fair to say that Hollywood and game companies are running low on ideas, in this regard. At the very least, it wouldn't hurt for them to put a fresh twist on this particular trope-but I can't criticize them either; it can be rather difficult to come up with original ideas. All too often, we learn that the ideas we think up, that we thought were original, have already been done before.

 

[Teal]

Running low on ideas is one thing. Completely copying a scene from a movie is another. I mean, I'd understand if Infinity Ward was trying to pay homage to The Dark Knight Rises, or heck, even make fun of it, but despite all of the shortcomings and all of the Michael Bay-esque realism, Call of Duty is still a relatively serious videogame and has treated a lot of touchy themes before going full retard.

Also, I am not saying that this trope hasn't been used before. What I am trying to say is that it's never been used so frequently before.

 

[Enigma]

Like Ieyasu and the others said, this is not new. And it's not so much the 'unbeatable villain' thing, it's that they're the antitheses of the protagonists. But usually they do share some feature with the protagonist, to make the audience think about what could've been. Could he have been a good guy much like Batman, OR, could Batman have become like him... that sort of thing. Of course, they need to be as charismatic as the protagonist himself, otherwise you'd end up with boring dialog.

It could be that it's used more frequently nowadays, but I don't think so. Khan was not introduced in Star Trek: Into Derpness. See the 1982 Star Trek TOS movie Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Likewise, Moriarty did not just start existing in the movie you recently saw - he existed long before that. The Skyfall movie may have featured the antithesis antagonist, but so did an older James Bond movie. I remember it having Sean Bean as the main antagonist. So... no, I don't think it's being used more frequently per se - there are just some movies that like to 'remake' things. Those movies usually come in batches, die off again in a few years, and then they come back again. It's a fad that's always existed.

 

[V]

Running low on ideas is one thing. Completely copying a scene from a movie is another. I mean, I'd understand if Infinity Ward was trying to pay homage to The Dark Knight Rises, or heck, even make fun of it, but despite all of the shortcomings and all of the Michael Bay-esque realism, Call of Duty is still a relatively serious videogame and has treated a lot of touchy themes before going full retard.

Also, I am not saying that this trope hasn't been used before. What I am trying to say is that it's never been used so frequently before.

It's not surprising, game devs and Hollywood are churning these things out now faster than they ever have, so yeah... probably

 

[Teal]

Oh, but most of these villains have been introduced before. Bane has existed long before, albeit he wasn't as menacing as he was shown to be in TDKR. The Joker, the one who started all this - he existed before too, but we're really not going to take Jack Nicholson's cartoony performance into account.

But hey, it appears I am not the only one who noticed it. A few guys also noticed it. They even gave it a name - The Joker Effect.

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2013/03/the-joker-effect-why-movie-villains-are.html