"If I succeed, I did nothing wrong. And if I fail, I don't want to live anyway"

"Evil and good are rather... limber concepts." - Eli, as the police are looking through his hard drives

Plague monologuing to the captured police in his "shed"

"The risk I took was calculated, but man, I am bad at math." -Nox

I like that the intro to the video almost works as Eli's own villain monologue.

But Plague, "Themes are for 8th grade book reports." The writers for the Game of Thrones TV show told me so.

Eli: "And he DOES reverse time... by 20 minutes." Me: "HA!"

I'll admit it. You have made more sense to me in thirty minutes than four years of College English classes ever did. Thanks man.

Eli: Eli go something something. Pat: Go crazy? Eli: Don't mind if I do!

*This made me realize* Most Ghibli Films have conflicts but doesn't really have a Villain

The title says "Let's gripe about villains" The video is "Let's have a short lived existential crisis" Jokes aside, great piece. Got my grey matter working and it will surely get me to do some rewriting.

Honestly Nox's greatest crime was ignoring his wife. She was... wowsers.

Ill reiterate here, if this new format of production suits, I highly encourage pursuing it more of it consistently. Great vid.

My name is Yoshikage Kira I am 33 years old...

Why does this give me a weird feeling of listening to the HP lovecraft audiobooks again, now I want plague to read me the shadow over innsmouth while he draws me weirdly sexy cthulu.

All that work, all that effort. Proving a literal god wrong, only to *still* fail completely. Now that's amazing.

Damn, Nox T-posing all over that anime fight.

FINALLY someone is talking about the glory and greatness that is Nox's character in Wakfu :) I'm so glad that the character that mostly inspired me to write compelling stories in the future is being discussed and i'm glad it's on this channel Here's a like from France

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life... He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. He became so powerful... the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Ironic, he could save others from death, but not himself.

Damn, I never knew Zone-tan was that good a writer. I guess I should really check out this Wak-fu thing of theirs.

Damn, Nox from Wakfu is my favorite villain. The dude that just tried to fix everything, but overestimated his capabilities.

Just wanted to say: Really good use of music here in this vid

I wish I could give this video more than one like. I never would’ve given Wakfu a second look, let alone realize how great of a villain it apparently had. Plague saying the line “Nox wins” literally gave me goosebumps I run D&D games for my group of friends and lemme tell you, I am inspired and am definitely taking notes

Me: **See Plague video** . Must be funny satirical video **Is actually an incredibly in-depth analysis into fictional villains** They had us in the first half, not gonna lie.

Immortalise yourself in a popular KZfaq video preferably a song or meme then watch as people comment what year they are watching it in for eons to come.

Cool video plague. That Nox character is probably the most interesting villain backstory i've come across. Crazy how cool characters and concepts like that might go entirely unnoticed because they appear in an obscure french cartoon.

I like the phrase "good and evil are limber concepts". It's a clever way of avoiding saying "relative" which may imply that they don't matter and/or there is no such thing as good and evil. Good and evil still exist and aren't simply "relative" to whatever context is present at the moment, but saying they are "limber" asserts that they're flexible enough to be applied to whatever you need them to, but leaves open the possibility that your application of those ideas maybe incorrect depending on how far you've exploited their flexibility.

My God, Nox is the most tragic character I've ever seen in modern media. Good God, imagine the sheer guilt he felt afterwards.

I love this. Please, this is amazing. Keep up the good work.

I’d love to see a part 2 where he dives into more villains I quite enjoyed this vid

You drawn furry porn and also monologues about existential problems How can a man be so enlightened to the true workings of our own decadence?

This essay should go down as one of the greats on KZfaq. Fullstop

The tale of Nox is actually way worst than that but in order to explain I need to give some backstory. Wakfu, the anime, was based on an MMORPG of the same name, previous to Wakfu, Ankama (the developers of the game and the creators of the series) created a similar MMORPG named Dofus, the difference between the two is the timelines, Wakfu happens after an event know as the Ogrest's Chaos, in which Ogrest, feeling an enormous pain, sadness and anger, shred so many tear he flooded the world, killing countless people in the process, the event in which Nox lost his family was this one, the emphasis of how dangerous Ogrest is everywhere in the game, from the moment you create your first character the very first quest you get is one that lead you to climb Mount Zinit, Ogrest's lair, and slay Ogrest, this quest is one that starts since Lv1 and can be only completed once the player reaches Lv200, the maximum level, so Nox wanted to use the cube to go back in time and kill Ogrest in which, if he was successful, would make him the legendary hero that defeated Ogrest and prevented the death of countless people, so not only would all the murders he commit be forgiven, he would also save the world. What also makes this even sad is that, during the fight with Yugo, they actually managed to go back in time, in the background, the giant figure is Ogrest himself before the event, Yugo event noticed him before Nox killed him, but Nox was so short-sighted in completing his mission that he just didn't noticed, in the end, his commitment to his goal is what made him lose his opportunity to save his family, the same way that his commitment to understanding the cube was what made him lose them in the first place, it's poetic in a way and once you understand all this it's clear why Nox was, for me at least, the star of the show. As a Xelor main in the game, it's debatable that Nox is the strongest Xelor in the world, followed by Count Harebourg, just by the fact that he managed to do what the god of time and space himself couldn't, even if it was just for 20 minutes.

No furries in the thumbnail? Plague I'm worried about you. Edit: Wow that was a really inspiring video, I love this sort of topic! I'm a sucker for a tragic villain

The Nox (sp?) character analysis was great. I never would have even known about this character, because I'd likely never watch the series. I'm always trying to improve my writing, and your Let's Gripe videos always offer something to consider and build on.

The stuff about Nox's character traits being amplified to the point of villainy reminds me a lot of how LISA the Painful and LISA the Joyful treat its protagonists, who are also pretty much villains in their own right.

Okay, so I just gotta say a few things right off the bat: Firstly, the moment you started introducing fundamental concepts of altruism, egoism, and ethical philosophy in general, I was grinning cheek-to-cheek. The finest armchair philosophy that I've heard in quite some time!! If we were ever friends in some separate, distant timeline, I would be honored to enjoy a fine glass and pipe with you while exchanging the different ideas of how morals have been constructed from a naturalist's and evolutionary standpoint. Second, your analysis of The Shining and how people project their insecurities onto others aka "villains" makes me want to rewatch this movie while thinking in this new mindset. It's a breath of fresh air hearing a new perspective on one of my favorite Kubrick movies (my most favorite being 2001), and of course Scatman Crothers is an absolute g. Third, I'll forever refer to french anime-style cartoons as oui-a-boo animation. Fourth, Nox's motivation to take back all the evil he has ever inflicted by "becoming evil" is a BEAUTIFUL moral dilemma I have never thought of. A utilitarian would agree with this sentiment, because the end is justified by creating a world of peace and harmony. However, a deontologist would objectify and claim any "evil", especially the destruction of life, regardless of the good consequences, is unjustified and thus undesirable. This right here is the BASIS of a great moral debate. So spicy~ This is a fucking fantastic analysis, so PLEASE keep this up!! I'm very much looking forward to your next work.

One of my favorite self made villans is a character from breath of fire 4. Fou-lou is an immortal dragon emperor that in his time period was worshiped all around the world and unlike most rulers wasn't horrible about it, he was very indifferent to his subjects and not in a vindictive way but in a way where you can see a tree or wildlife out in a forest. Yest it's beutiful sometimes endearing but ultimately it's just apart of life. Fou-lu wakes up a thousand years later to a made up prophecy about fou going to be the end of the world, while he almost had the power to do so, he didn't have the interest and would try to avoid attacking people as often as he could. His subjects would set whole forest on fire, summon beast to fight him and so on yet he stayed his hand. During one bout he got injured by a fire spell (he's an ice dragon so fire being nearby is like kyptonite for him for some reason) and ends up floating downstream and is found by a hick villager with a bell in her hair named mami. Despite the name she's kinda hot, and a budding romance between them starts, to the point fou is having second thoughts of leaving. Well we can't have nice things now can we? the generic ugly jealous landlord calls the capital army, people looking for fou and mami scarifices herself to stall them, hell the whole village does. Now would be a good time to bring up the [hex machine] so the hex machine is basically a magic nuke but it comes with a shitty side effect of not only killing almost everything nearby but the animals just outside the blast radius and the shockwave blast get to be turned into horrible monsters and some humans will also mutant into horrible abominations and even spirits and other demon like things will spring up from this. And the tyrant capital has this in their hands, but the really fucked up thing is: It requires a human soul to shoot. the resulting human becomes the hex (Imagine being atomized I bet it's painful). So back to fou-lu he's being beckoned by the villagers to go while they distract the guards, and fou questions why they would defend him when their lives are in danger, see he's been constantly hunted from the start so his trust was wavering and now he's got a whole village looking out for him. So he flees, trying to get to the capital first through secrent catacombs so he could take over again and stop this madness, not knowing they took mami...Or that they have a summon creature only one but the monster can teleport them. So fou is in the forest and he runs into an animal which was a prior boss battle/ (I kinda glossed over that) see fou fought this creature cause it was attacking the village and affected by the hex as well and wandered on over. Fou somehow beat the evil out of it and made it better. (fuck if I know) So he finds the enterence to the catacombs but it's been taken over by deamons in the past millenia and they don't want to open up without scarifice, fou refuses to kill anyone but the animal monster thing does a strange thing. It rams into the alter repeatedly much to fou's surprise and he even tries to stop it before it crumbs and the pathway opens, he questions why do all these creatures and people have so much faith in him that they'll give up their own lives for him. He's had enough and trenges on through to slay the demon and get across the tunnels to the capital, and as soon as he's out we find out what happened to mami. She's tried up and in the hex machine and she's going to be used, fou IS on the other side but the blast will still wipe her small village off the map, and she knows this, the screen goes black and you hear her bell jingle. Fou comes out on the other side and notices a bit too late that a hex is coming, ad it hits him square on, unfortunate for the capital it doesn't kill this god dragon, and we see the center of the hex, trees are destoyed, lakes dried and fish rendered to skeletons, birds either fall down dead or cough up bile and trasnform, ghost flies by and blue fire is everywhere. Fou is disguested by the hex and wonders why all this effort to destroy him, are humans THIS horrid? Then something lands infront of him with a jingle, it's mami's bell and through passing fou knows what this means and starts laughing like a mad man, he's finally broken and thus becomes the villan that the capital made him out to be.

eli is the biggest villain because he still wont give up his drawings porn stash.

He didn't pay his bills, become villian.

I really appreciate you talking about Nox's story. It really is one of my favorites of all time. You did a fantastic job with this vid, the format is also really great. I encourage you to keep at it.

I love it when people talk about villains because they usually end up being my favourite parts of a story.

Plague, Eli. My dude. These are the kinda videos that you were made to do. You channel all of the thoughtfulness you muster for your Let's Plagues and both intensify your focus and narrow your scope. This was an immensely enjoyable watch. I know your true love will always be borderline furry porn, but please consider making more of these dude.

*gripes watches Wakfu hentai* "... I am going to make a video about villains so I can talk about this series"

Great Essay. The failure Nox found in triumph is also what drew me to the character in the end. Well that and time magic. Time magic is cool.

Is this a villains channel?

Sippin' on that existential juice in that first five minutes I see. For real though, great video, Plague. Nox is a fantastic villain, because you know a villain leaves an impact when by the end of the series, you almost feel crushed for them, their failure, and their demise. Meruem from Hunter x Hunter is a really good example of that too.

This video is sooooo underrated. There was so MUCH put into it, I'm sorry it didn't got nearly the same views as other similar "let's talk about X" videos. Fuck, I hadn't ever given a crap about Wakfu and you managed in 5 minutes to make Nox my favorite villain ever, I absolutely adore that character story.

I see someone has been talking to Pat about those "If you just let me win, everything bad I did will be fixed" villains.

The section on Nox nearly made me cry. And I've never watched that series. Never even heard of it until you talked about it here. Damn.

"...by 20 minutes." ...oh my God...

"We can AXE the idea he is the best character." REALLY ELI!

That was so good Eli. I love listening to you talk about "things" especially concepts surrounding the human condition. Cheers man

So before Plague even started talking about wakfu a show i know nothing about i saw that villain and thought "I bet that robot dood was the one Woolie mentioned that Plague told him when talking about a villain who needs to complete their goal in order to fix everything and pleads to the hero to just let me win tho i can fix everything if i win"

"It's an easy thing to judge yesterday for not being tomorrow." This is a ridiculously good quote. Did you come up with this? I feel like this needs to be told to basically everyone still harping on the atrocities of American history as if modern culture isn't KILLING itself in a vein attempt to be virtuous.

The landlord reminds me of something, can't put my nose on it.

Wait a second this isn't a dragon ball video wtf dude.

dude your anime\ writing critiques are so good keep them up really love them

Feels like you're really in your element here, Plague. This was a treat.

This has to be my favourite video essay of yours. It's just that good. This kind of commentary from you is what I look forward to most.

Thank you, sincerely, I appreciated the insight and meaning this gave me. This feels like a much more practical approach to deconstruction of characters that will assist me in the future, as well as given me another great lens to view myself and others through. In the future, if you're thinking of it, I wonder if using this lens of viewing villains as more complex people could be applied to 'heroes" as it were, or better extrapolated to people as a whole. Also astounding work on the prelude, nice work.

This is one of my go to listens. Have the audio saved to my phone and when I'm at a lost what I want to hear while walking or working, I'll play it again. Great piece of work.

This is pretty damn great. As someone who likes to think about characters and motivation for game projects, this got the creative juices flowing, as well as making me reflect on previous "big bad" villains both I or the team thought up. I'll be recommending this to devs I know if/when they're looking at creating characters. Also the "Let's Gripe" videos are some of my all-time favourite vids on KZfaq to watch.

This is great content. I hope some day you will make more of this.

I thoroughly enjoyed this essay. It was less of a gripe about villains and more of an insight into a particular writer's understanding of the purpose of villains, heroes, or just the characters we choose to become in life.

So happy to see Wakfu getting some recognition Nox is up there as one of my favorite villains.

Since I’m sick and bedridden today, I did listen to the whole thing. Very good narrative, Eli. I hope that Joker origin film brings us a great character piece to explore the hidden Joker that quietly chuckles within us all.

The reason I feel like Nox works in a way that Thanos doesn't, is because Nox is exactly a tragic hero in the classical sense-- a relatable person whose small flaws lead them further and further down a road until they fall. None of the Avengers movies ever really showed that Thanos was truly "wrong," just that the heroes didn't like he that he won. The camera depicts him as a hero right up until the end, whereas Nox's monologues about how it'll all be all right, how he's totally justified are clearly undercut by the way he's being portrayed to the audience.

"The kind of evil that doesn't realize that it's evil, is the worst kind of evil there is."

Five minutes into the commentary and I’m blown away by how great it is so far. You teach us such great modern lessons on life and art that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

I love your gripe videos, whatever they focus on. It's so fun to hear your insight on certain topics and your apathetic sense of humor, it's strangely comforting to listen to.

i really enjoy these essays and ponderings, i love learning how these concepts work together or learn how well they can be presented at unexpected places

one of the best videos on youtube showing the complex human psyche from how the how peoples motivation usually comes from insecurities and complexes to how we create a vessal to blame for the things we dont like and to have obstacle to overcome or villain to beat to justify own nature and primal impulses like feeding and protecting our ego for example in the mobby dik story .. or justify our shortcomings and protect our view of the world and our flawed moral ideals like in the knox story or gon from hxh .. and how in the end you mention how people dont change that much but adjust their perspective to fit the narrative they want... perfectly made analysis

Eli: As far back as I can remember I had always wanted to be a gangster.

This was an amazing vid. I always like your "Gripe" series and look forward to your in depth discourses. Well done sir!

This is the content I've been waiting for, you got a real talent for prose and dissecting concepts. Keep it up Plague

"And, there is one blazzing moment in which you finally understand... that there was no Dragon. There was no Vader. There was only you. Only Anakin Skywalker. That... it was all you. IS you. ONLY you. You killed her. You killed her because... when you could have saved her, when you could have run away with her... when you SHOULD have been thinking about her... you were thinking about YOURSELF." Star Wars. Revenge of the Sith novelization. A good tragic villain is, in my opinion, not the one who can blame his or her tragedy entirely in external sources (like The Cube, or the Dark Side of the Force), but that is, ultimately, responsible for the tragedy that turned them into monsters.

You just wanted to talk Nox, didn't you? I don't blame you, it was wonderful.

As always I appreciate your constructed, critical thought and entertaining presentation :) I feel inspired to bring more depth to my various characters, and have been writing for like an hour after watching this.

Amazing video. Really gave me a better understanding of the subjects you approach. Keep up the great work, looking foward to more

Stellar work, Gripes. That intro made me have a mini-existential crisis, though. Thanks for that.

We all know that the PlagueOfGripes is *the* ultimate Anti-Hero :^)

Really good and insightful video as always Eli, you and Grey did a great job! I'm glad you chose Nox to illustrate your points, because I really think he best exemplifies how insecurities and trying to overcome your own status as a human can drive you to complete denial of your own limitations and morals. I really hope to see more of these in the future, your voice is nice to listen to, and they're a really good source of inspiration

Bravo. This was such a refreshing and enlightening experience. I routinely watch your gripes on writing and horror, so this is a welcome addition!

Nox is and will always be one of my favourite characters. I can only aspire to create a character that deep

"We all need someone to embody change. An antagonist." Yes isn't it great to be in a position where the agents of change are the antagonists, rather than the agents of the status quo [stares at camera]

Honestly, this was more engaging than any lecture or lesson I've ever participated in. The entire video was genuinely thought-provoking. Thank you for the great content :)

I absolutely love these type of videos, Please make more, it was such a great listen while I'm fixing my cupboard.

Still one of my favorite videos to come back to every while.

As a fledgeling writer this was incredibly interesting, thank you Plague.

honestly plague you are a really good critic, and your video essays have taught me a lot about writing and narrative construction. I've watched the naruto one like a dozen times.

Whilst this is something I've long understood about story telling, it's always refreshing to hear the concept put into words rather than it just being in my head. Very well done Gripes, very well done.

This may as well be one of Plague's greatest works yet. I'm ready for more

This was a terrific video, Eli. In my opinion, it's one of your best. If I can ask a few questions, both for Eli and everyone else: 1) Why don't you write, Eli? 2) As someone who recently watched Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable, why is Kira considered a top-tier villain? It's interesting that he just wants a quiet life, one that involves him being free from societal morals because he enjoys taking girls' hands on dinner dates. But what I find dull is that he "just is." That's what I find lacks in Araki's characters in Part 3 and 4. There's no reasoning behind why they're the way they are; they just are. Dio at least has that development in Part 1 where he's made up his mind that he will destroy anyone he has to to become powerful, stemming from either his terrible upbringing or perhaps being born evil. It's left up to the reader/ viewer. Kira is simply "I want to live life my way. I hate defending my actions, but I will if it comes to it," which is fine, but there's no nuance or development there.

Your narration and writing on character is up there with the greats, Eli. I’d love to see more of this!

great video buddy. very insightful and well thought out ideas/concepts

I watched this video in highschool and it stuck with me ever since. Something an out it just says a lot I guess

This is honestly my favorite video of yours. I feel inspired to write better motivations for my villains. I wonder if it's possible for you to write a video essay on heroes that carries the same insight.

This is too good. I loved every moment. Very well written and put together. Damn.

I keep coming back to this video. I think I watched it like 4-5 times last 2 weeks :) Brilliant!