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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Jun 13, 2008 21:29:35 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 18-15. Here are the hints: Resistance is futile, a wicked witch who can turn into a dragon, an evil clown, and he's got a magnetic personality. One of them is maleficient and another is pennywise. The fourth one is Magneto.
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Post by Allison Reynolds on Jun 13, 2008 21:47:04 GMT -5
^^ all three of those along with Borg.
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jobber2thestars
Hank Scorpio
Buy the Simon System. You'll thank yourself.
Posts: 7,097
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Post by jobber2thestars on Jun 13, 2008 23:30:26 GMT -5
The Joker needs to be number one. This may be a longshot, but Vern Schillinger and a few other characters from Oz need to be on this list. Schillinger is a racist, rapist and murderer; Ryan O'Reilly is a murderer and one of the most manipulative people in the world; Adebesi, enough said; Chris Maloney's character, as he was just an evil character with no feelings.
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Post by Xbox Live's Original Heel! on Jun 14, 2008 0:19:25 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 18-15. Here are the hints: Resistance is futile, a wicked witch who can turn into a dragon, an evil clown, and he's got a magnetic personality. The Borg, Maleficent, Pennywise, and... Magneto?
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 14, 2008 12:06:09 GMT -5
Countdown time, people. Here's number 18: 18. Maleficent Who is she: A dark fairy and self-proclaimed “Mistress Of All Evil.” What is she from: “Sleeping Beauty” and various other Disney works. What has she done: Cursed the infant Aurora to "prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die" before the sun set on her sixteenth birthday after not being invited to the baby's christening; tried to kill Prince Philip. Intelligence: Very intelligent in magic. Power: Has her own goons and a castle, which implies some power. Vileness: Wants to hurt Aurora because her father wouldn’t let the witch see Aurora’s christening; that’s pretty mean. Sway: Likes to use fear and intimidation and gloats a bit. Purity: Is obsessed with making sure Aurora sleeps forever. Physical Prowess: A tall, pale-skinned woman with yellow eyes who can transform into a dragon. Name Coolness: “Maleficent” is pretty cool. Created by: Walt Disney Pictures. Portrayed by: Eleanor Audley voiced her in “Sleeping Beauty.” Lois Nettleton voiced her in the animated series House Of Mouse. In the Kingdom Hearts video games, she was voiced by Susan Blakeslee in the English version and by Toshiko Sawada in the Japanese version. “Sleeping Beauty”: Maleficent first appears in the film Sleeping Beauty in King Stefan's castle during the christening of Stefan's daughter, Aurora, upset and enraged that she didn't receive an invitation to the ceremony like Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. In retaliation, Maleficent places a curse on Aurora for her to prick her finger on the spindle of an enchanted spinning wheel and die on her sixteenth birthday, although Merryweather is able to weaken the curse into a deep sleep rather than death. But Maleficent's anger is further aroused when she hears that Aurora has been taken into hiding by the three fairies, so she starts a manhunt for her, although her incompetent pig and goblin-like goons spend the next sixteen years searching for a baby. Infuriated, Maleficent smites them with lightning from her staff and tells her pet raven, Diablo, to "Circle far and wide. Search for a maid of sixteen, with hair of sunshine gold, and lips red as the rose." Maleficent's plan is successful, as, on the night of Aurora's return to Stefan's castle (her sixteenth birthday), Maleficent takes the form of an energy-orb and lures Aurora through a secret passageway into the tower of the castle, where she transforms into the spinning wheel and goads Aurora into touching the spindle. Aurora does so, and Maleficent reveals her motionless body to the three fairies, laughing in triumph. To keep Aurora from awakening ever again, Maleficent and her goons sneak into Aurora's old forest cottage (where she was to meet her lover, in reality Prince Philip, her future husband) to trap Prince Philip and stop him delivering Love's First Kiss to Aurora (the only cure for her slumber). They succeed, and take him to Maleficent's castle, situated in the dreaded Forbidden Mountains. Maleficent spends the next few hours in her castle, enjoying the victory festivities with her goons. Finally bored with the same celebration, she decides to pay Philip a visit and taunt him about how he failed to marry Aurora and that he will most probably be an old man by the time he escapes from the dungeon he is in. Laughing maniacally at Philip's anger, Maleficent retreats into her own tower "for the first time in sixteen years, I shall sleep well." But she is disturbed before long by her goons making noise. She orders silence, only to see that Diablo has been turned to stone and that Flora, Merryweather, and Fauna have broken Philip out of prison and are escorting him back to Stefan's castle. Enraged once again, Maleficent throws all sorts of spells at Philip (lightning bolts and a forest of thorns), but his mystic weapons given to him by the fairies (the Shield of Virtue and the Sword of Truth) break the curses, forcing Maleficent to face Philip herself and wields "all the powers of Hell" to reach her final form: a dragon. Maleficent and Philip start their battle, with Maleficent gaining the upper hand with her fire breath and forcing Philip to a nearby cliff. She manages to blast the shield out of his hands, but the three fairies transfer some of their power into the sword, making it powerful enough for Philip to throw it directly into Maleficent's heart before she can attack again. Slowly dying, Maleficent falls forward and tries to devour Philip, but she misses, and her weight causes the cliff to collapse, taking her with it and crushing her to death, leaving behind only her robe with the sword still in it. House Of Mouse and other Disney works: Maleficent is a recurring character on the TV series House of Mouse. She also appeared in the spin-off movie, Mickey's House of Villains where she was constantly shown, but delivered only a single song lyric, "Every evil queen gets due respect." In one scene from another episode, Maleficent sits across from Jafar in human form, and it was stated by Mickey that the two villains were on a date, after which Maleficent zapped Jafar. In another episode, Mickey had to help Hades win Maleficent's heart. Maleficent is also mentioned in the Nightwish song "FantasMic" from their 2000 album Wishmaster, in the lyrics Maleficent's fury / The spindle so luring. Maleficent is also the main villain in the novel, The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson. In the novel, primarily based in Magic Kingdom, she is able to leave the confines of the Disney Resort, enslave humans and try to take over the real world. Maleficent was also the final boss on the North American version of the video game Mickey Mousecapade created in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Maleficent's theme is heard during the intro of World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, since at the end of the intro, the main villain is shown. Kingdom Hearts: In Kingdom Hearts, Maleficent led a group of Disney villains who sought ultimate power by controlling the Heartless and unlocking Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds. The villains Maleficent recruited were Hades, Captain Hook, Oogie Boogie, Ursula, and Jafar. She directs their affairs from the Radiant Garden, the former home of Ansem the Wise. Following the goal of ultimate power, Maleficent uses Ansem Reports to help her control the Heartless and darkness, and recruits Riku to help her gather the "Princesses of Heart". The seven Princesses of Heart are explained by Maleficent as necessary to complete the Final Keyhole portal that led to Kingdom Hearts; the Keyhole itself is located at Hollow Bastion. She distanced herself from the arguments among her group, appearing to them only when it was of importance. Over time, Maleficent focused more of her attention on Riku while her group slowly dissolved due to each being defeated by Sora, most being defeated in ways very similar to how they were defeated in their respective films. Inside Riku's heart, she sees both a powerful darkness and the ability to use the Keyblade, offering to help him revive his friend, Kairi, in return for his services. Riku agrees and Maleficent grants him the apparent gift to control the Heartless. Upon near-completion of the Hollow Bastion keyhole and the imminent arrival of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the Beast, she battles them. Despite using her phenomenal powers of darkness, which included summoning meteors, casting lightning, and calling Defender and Darkball Heartless to attack the heroes, she is defeated, and has to hastily retreat. As the heroes catch up with her, Riku, who sarcastically asks about her well-being, appears. Unknown to her, however, Riku is now being possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, who went by the name of "Ansem" for the entire game. Failing to realize this, she is struck in the chest by the Keyblade Xehanort's Heartless created from the hearts of the six princesses she captured. The Keyblade, unlike the one Sora wields, is one that opens hearts; with her heart opened, Maleficent was vulnerable to the immense darkness that is attracted to her. The darkness overcomes her and transforms her into a dragon. In this form, she battles the heroes and dies, leaving only her robe. Upon her death, Xehanort's Heartless remarks that she was a puppet of the darkness all along, and that while she warned others about not underestimating the darkness, she ironically failed to see the darkness eating away at her own heart. He then steps on Maleficent's robe, which fades into thin air. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories: Maleficent appears in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as an aspect from the memories of Sora and Riku. In Sora's memory world, Maleficent seeks to steal both Beast's and Belle's (from Beauty and the Beast) hearts for use in her dark magic, resulting in Sora's involvement and her later "death". In Riku's perspective, Maleficent is aware of her status as a figment of memory and is the only figment besides Aerith in Sora's story to understand this. She mocks Riku for his dabbling in the darkness, and reminds him of how he once clung to her and her darkness. Unfettered by her comments, Riku finally stood up to his former mentor and "killed" her. Kingdom Hearts II: In Kingdom Hearts II Maleficent is resurrected when Diablo, her faithful raven, brings her robe into the Tower, the home of Yen Sid, and the power of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather's memories revives her. After her revival, Maleficent appears before Pete who just returned to Hollow Bastion after hearing of her "demise" while he was off gathering allies for their cause. After being updated on the events that had occurred after her death, Maleficent's goal of dominion over the worlds was placed on halt for both the finding of a new base of operations and getting revenge on Sora. She eventually made herself known to Sora and company when she attempted to take over Disney Castle by having Pete go back in time to get the Cornerstone of Light, the mystical object that protected the castle from forces of darkness, from Timeless River, which is Disney Castle in the past. She had Pete continue gathering Heartless while working with several Disney villains, including Hades, Captain Barbossa, Jafar and Scar. To further her goals, she hired the three little fairies, Yuna, Rikku and Paine, to spy on Leon and the Hollow Bastion Reconstruction Committee as well as resurrecting Oogie Boogie. Both alliances were short-lived; Maleficent abandons the fairies when the Heartless invade Hollow Bastion while Oogie drives her away with disrespect due to amnesia. Despite being Sora's enemy, Maleficent decided to use Sora to destroy Organization XIII for her when it became apparent they were a far greater threat than Sora to her mission to control Kingdom Hearts. At the Radiant Garden, she kept some Nobodies at bay and ordered Sora to deal with the Organization in hopes of both enemies destroying each other. She was seemingly overwhelmed by the sheer weight of enemy numbers. Despite this seeming act of goodwill, Maleficent assured Sora that it changed nothing between them. By the time she and Pete arrived in the World That Never Was, Maleficent's power over the Heartless was fading, as the world itself was too close to the darkness on which the Heartless thrive. She later assisted Sora, giving him safe passage to Xemnas while she and Pete held off the vast army of Heartless created by the ravaging of Kingdom Hearts by DiZ on the condition that she would take Xemnas's castle as her own. What happens to the two is unknown. Fantasmic!: In the night time show Fantasmic!, performed at the Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios theme parks, Maleficent is one of the Disney villains portrayed in the shows. In the shows, the Evil Queen decides it is time to finish off Mickey Mouse once and for all, and invokes Disney villains to help her. They strike Mickey through his dreams and imagination, and Maleficent is the final villain to attack Mickey - the battle between Maleficent's European dragon incarnation and Mickey serves as the climax to the show. It is to be noted that Maleficent cries out before becoming the dragon: "Now you will deal with me and all the powers of my imagination!", whereas, in the original film, she proclaimed "Now shall you deal with me, O Prince, and all the powers of Hell!" Because of the weight of the costume, she is usually played by a man. Dream Along With Mickey: In the Dream Along With Mickey stage show at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Maleficent is one of the villains who appear onstage to threaten Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. Maleficent states that since people no longer believe in dreams, it's the perfect time for her to return to power and make the Magic Kingdom "the Place Where Nightmares Come True" - a play on the Disney parks' slogan of "the Place Where Dreams Come True." But Mickey leads the crowd in a chant of "Dreams Come True!" and scares away Maleficent's minions, Captain Hook and Smee, as well as defeating Maleficent herself. Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party: Maleficent also makes appearances during Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. She makes an appearance through her voice in HalloWishes, a Halloween-themed fireworks show along with Ursula The Sea Witch, Jafar, and Oogie Boogie. Susan Blakeslee provides Maleifcent's voice in those cases. During the Disney Villains Mix and Mingle Halloween Dance Party at that same event, Maleficent, along with Captain Hook, hosts the party and summons up all the villains that attend, including her co-host Hook and other villains, such as Cruella De Vil, Judge Claude Frollo, The Queen of Hearts, Jafar, and The Evil Queen. I’m gonna be honest with you people: most of the Disney villains don’t really appeal to me. I mean, sure there have been some good ones. But, most of them had this childish goofiness to them that sort of soured me on them all. However, I knew I had to put at least one Disney villain on the list because there have been some good ones; and that villains was clearly Maleficent. Of all the Disney, she’s the one I find, as well as most people, to be so cruel and devilish. She is viewed as one of the most powerful and sinister of the Disney villains, as she lacks any of the "goofiness" generally present in the later ones, while still exhibiting something of a dark sense of humor. And, she is quite the bitch. I mean, she threaten vengeance on Aurora simply because her father wouldn’t let Maleficent see her christening. That’s pretty mean and a little crazy. Plus, she had a great villainous look. Maleficent appears in the form of a tall, pale skinned woman with yellow eyes and massive black horns, symbolic of her evilness. She is clad in a black and purple robe with bat wing-like edges, and wears a gold ring with a large circular black stone in it. She also has a pet raven called Diablo, and a legion of goblins and troll-like entities at her command. In addition to this she carries a staff with a glowing green orb at the tip, through which she casts her spells, which include to ability to teleport herself from place to place or send bolts of lightning at enemies. She is also capable of shape shifting at will into numerous forms, including a will-o-the-wisp and a massive black and purple dragon. Hell, her dragon is one of the scariest things about her; and it created one of the most thrilling scenes in Disney when she is fighting Prince Philip in her dragon form. In fact, she was so scary that, during Sleeping Beauty's initial release, it was reported that many small children in the theaters were actually terrified of Maleficent's appearance both as a woman and dragon, and that some parents therefore had to leave the film early. And, she has been used as a villain in other Disney works, most notably the Kingdom Hearts video games. However, the amazing thing about Maleficent that she was such a good villain in “Sleeping Beauty” back in 1959 that she is still recognized as a great villain. And, that is another mark of a great villain: longevity.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 14, 2008 13:10:13 GMT -5
17. The Borg What are they: A race of cyborgs. What are they from: The Star Trek universe, most notably Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. What have they done: Forcefully assimilated people, hoping to assimilate all biological life into the Borg collective. Intelligence: They all share a collective mind, which makes them all very smart. Power: Can wipe out entire civilizations. Vileness: Will assimilate anyone and everyone and destroy anyone who is resist them, but only attack those they perceive as threats. Sway: They can get Romulans and Klingons to work together to stop them. Purity: Will stop at nothing to assimilate all biological life into the collective in the pursuit of perfection. Physical Prowess: Each drone varies, but they are all cybernetically enhanced. Name Coolness: “Borg” is pretty cool, even though it sounds like a bad disease. Created by: Maurice Hurley. Portrayed by: Well, various actors/extras were used to play the Borg drones that appeared on the show. The two most famous Borg, the Borg Queen and Seven Of Nine, were played by Alice Krige and Jeri Ryan respectively. Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Borg first appear in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Q Who?", when the omnipotent lifeform Q transports the Enterprise-D across the galaxy to challenge Jean-Luc Picard's assertion that his crew is ready to face the unexplored galaxy's unknown dangers and mysteries. The Enterprise crew is quickly overwhelmed by the relentless Borg, and Picard eventually asks for and receives Q's help in returning the ship back to its previous coordinates in the Alpha Quadrant. At the episode's conclusion, Picard suggests to Guinan that Q did "the right thing for the wrong reason" (a T. S. Eliot quotation) by showing the dangers they will eventually face. The episode suggests that the Borg may have been responsible for the destruction of Federation and Romulan colonies in the first-season finale, "The Neutral Zone". The Borg next appear in The Next Generation's third-season finale and fourth-season premiere, "The Best of Both Worlds". In the third-season cliffhanger, Picard is abducted and subsequently assimilated by the Borg and transformed into Locutus, the latin term for "speaker". Locutus is the Borg method of describing the former Picard as the representative of the Borg in all future contacts related to humanity. Picard's knowledge of Starfleet is gained by the collective, and the single cube easily wipes out all resistance in its path, notably the entire Starfleet armada at Wolf 359, which consisted of 39 starships, some of which were sent from the Klingon Empire. The Enterprise crew manages to capture Locutus and gain information through him which allows them to destroy the cube. Picard is later "deassimilated". In the fifth-season episode "I, Borg", the Enterprise crew rescues a solitary Borg who is given the name "Hugh" by Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge. The crew faces the moral decision of whether or not to use Hugh (who begins to develop a sense of independence as a result of a severed link to the collective consciousness of the Borg) as an apocalyptic means of delivering a devastating computer virus that would theoretically destroy the Borg, or to humanely allow him to return to the Borg with his individuality intact. They decide to return him without the virus and his individuality left intact. This is followed up in the sixth-season cliffhanger "Descent", which depicts a group of rogue Borg who had "assimilated" individuality through Hugh. These rogue Borg fell under the control of the psychopathic android Lore, the "older" brother of Data. In cult leader-like fashion, Lore had manipulated them into following him by appealing to their restored emotions and exploiting their new found senses of individuality and fear, hoping to turn them on the Federation. Lore also corrupts Data through the use of the emotion chip he had stolen from Noonien Soong (Data and Lore's creator). In the end Data's ethical subroutines are restored (having been suppressed by Lore through use of the emotion chip) and he manages to deactivate Lore after a battle in which a renegade Borg faction led by Hugh attacks the main complex. Data reclaims the emotion chip, Lore is mentioned as needing to be dismantled (for safety) and the surviving Borg fall under the leadership of Hugh. The fate of these deassimilated Borg is not revealed. “Star Trek: First Contact”: The story begins in the year 2373, with an attack on the United Federation of Planets by cybernetic villains called the Borg. Starfleet, the Federation's defense force, prepares to defend Earth from a Borg Cube spaceship. However, the Federation starship USS Enterprise-E is kept out of the battle because of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's past traumatic experience with the Borg. As the tide of battle turns against the Federation forces, Picard returns to Earth to take command of the remaining ships and rescue survivors, including his former officer Worf. The Federation fleet destroys the Cube, but a smaller Sphere spaceship escapes into a time vortex. Suddenly, the appearance of the Earth dramatically changes and the Enterprise crew discover that the Borg have conquered the Earth in the past, changing the course of history and preventing the Federation from ever existing. The Enterprise follows the Sphere through the time vortex and arrives in the year 2063 just as the Borg ship attacks a run-down human settlement. The Enterprise destroys the Sphere, but a number of Borg drones and the Borg Queen transport undetected to the Enterprise. Picard realizes that the Borg were attempting to destroy the Phoenix - Earth's first spaceship with warp drive propulsion and leads a team to the planet below. Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge and an engineering team begin repairs on the damaged Phoenix while Commanders William Riker and Deanna Troi attempt to convince the designer and pilot Dr. Zefram Cochrane to proceed with the test flight of his spaceship. They explain that testing the warp drive will lead to first contact with the advanced Vulcan species, an event which will bring prosperity to an Earth devastated by a Third World War. Cochrane is overwhelmed by his role in "history-to-come" and reluctant to fulfill it. Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher return to the Enterprise with Cochrane's assistant Lily Sloane, who is suffering radiation poisoning from the attack. Meanwhile, the Borg begin to assimilate the equipment and crew members on the Enterprise, taking over the engineering section and moving upward through the ship. Picard leads an assault against the Borg, but the offensive falters and the android Lt. Commander Data is captured. Retreating, Picard meets a bewildered Lily and explains the situation. They then lure a group of drones into the holodeck (a holographic simulation room) where Picard starts a simulation of a speakeasy. He turns off the usual safety measures so that he can use a holographic Tommy gun to kill the pursuing Borg. A computer chip taken from within a drone reveals details of the Borg plan. The crew discovers that the Borg are building a communications antenna, on the Enterprise's navigational deflector, to call for assistance from the Borg of 2063. Picard, Worf, and Lt. Sean Hawk inspect the hull of the ship wearing space suits and magnetic boots. They attempt to detach the antenna from the ship but the Borg attack and assimilate Hawk, forcing Worf to kill him. Picard succeeds in releasing the antenna and Worf destroys it with a phaser rifle as it floats away from the spaceship. Picard refuses to sacrifice the Enterprise, but Lily convinces him that hate for the Borg is clouding his judgment. He agrees to destroy the ship, and the crew evacuate in escape pods. Picard stays behind to rescue Data, held by the Borg Queen, in an attempt to corrupt him, the Borg Queen replaces pieces of Data's artificial skin with human skin, offering to fulfill his dream of becoming human. Picard, recalling he once served the Borg as Locutus, offers to remain willingly in exchange for Data's release. The Borg Queen tells Picard that she no longer needs him; Data is a more appropriate counterpart. Back on Earth, a now-convinced Cochrane launches the repaired Phoenix, accompanied by Riker and La Forge. To stop the warp drive test, the Borg Queen orders Data to fire the Enterprise weapons at the Phoenix. However, Data deliberately misses and with Picard's help, kills the Borg Queen, causing the remaining Borg onboard the ship to deactivate. Having detected the Phoenix, a Vulcan survey ship arrives to establish first contact with humanity. The Enterprise crew travel back to their own time, the correct version of history restored. Star Trek: Voyager: The Borg make frequent appearances in Star Trek: Voyager, which takes place in the Delta Quadrant, where the Borg make their home. The Borg are first discovered by Voyager in episode "Blood Fever". Later Chakotay discovers a population of ex-Borg of various species in "Unity". In "Scorpion", the Borg are engaged in a futile war against the much more powerful Species 8472. In exchange for safe passage though Borg space, the Voyager crew devises a way to assimilate the otherwise immune Species 8472. Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01, is dispatched to Voyager to facilitate this arrangement. After successfully driving Species 8472 back into their fluidic space, Seven of Nine attempts to assimilate Voyager and is severed from the hive mind, becoming a member of Voyager's crew. Seven of Nine's rediscovery of her humanity becomes a recurring plot point of the series. Flashbacks and allusions in several episodes, such as "The Raven", establish that prior to her assimilation, Seven of Nine was Annika Hansen, the child of scientists who studied the Borg in the Delta Quadrant independent of the Federation. In "Drone", an advanced Borg drone is created when Seven of Nine's nanoprobes are fused with the Doctor's mobile emitter in a transporter accident. The drone, who adopts the moniker "One", involuntarily sends a signal to the collective, bringing a sphere to Voyager. One destroys the Borg ship and lets himself die to protect Voyager from further Borg pursuits. In "Dark Frontier", Captain Kathryn Janeway decides to attack the Borg in the hopes of stealing a transwarp coil to aid in Voyager's journey home. The Borg Queen learns of the plot and offers Seven of Nine a deal to spare Voyager in exchange for her rejoining the collective. Voyager recovers the transwarp coil and uses it, with the Delta Flyer, to save Seven from the Queen. Voyager uses the transwarp coil to travel 20,000 light-years before it burns out. In the Voyager finale, "Endgame", a version of Janeway from a future alternate timeline travels back in time to aid in Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant. This Janeway allows herself to be assimilated, delivering a neurolytic pathogen that disrupts the Borg to the point of killing the Borg Queen and destroying the Borg Unicomplex. Voyager uses a transwarp hub to travel back to the Alpha Quadrant. Star Trek: Enterprise: A group of Borg, although not described as such in dialog, discovered in the Arctic in "Regeneration", send a transmission toward the Delta Quadrant. According to dialogue, their transmission would reach its destination in 200 years, essentially establishing a closed time loop with the events of "Q Who", explaining why the cube in the latter episode was already en route to Earth. These Borg are "survivors" of the Borg sphere shot down in Star Trek: First Contact, but never identify themselves as such throughout this episode. The episode's events prompt characters to allude to Zefram Cochrane's claims that "strange cybernetic creatures from the future" tried to interfere with first contact. Another Enterprise episode, planned for the fifth season of the show (which never materialized), would have featured Alice Krige as a Starfleet medical technician who encounters the Borg and is assimilated, thereby becoming the Borg Queen seen in First Contact. Other media: In the non-canonical Star Trek: The Manga, the crew of the Enterprise under James T. Kirk discovers an alien station operating near a black hole. The commander of the station appears to be abducting races in a desperate attempt to cure a strange plague among his people. Using his own daughter as a guinea pig, he is able to create a cure for the plague, though the end result is always assimilation into his daughter's, the future Borg Queen, consciousness for those cured. In the Star Trek novel Probe, which takes place following the events of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the Borg are mentioned obliquely in communication with the whale-probe as spacefaring "mites" (the whale-probe's term for humanoid races) who traveled in cubical and spherical spacefaring vessels; the Borg apparently attacked the whale-probe and damaged its memory in some fashion prior to the events of the film. The novel Vendetta reveals that the planet killer weapon from the Original Series episode "The Doomsday Machine" is a prototype for a weapon against the Borg. “Resistance is futile.” That is what the Borg say to whoever they choose to assimilate, and it is usually the last thing the assimilated hear before they are turned into drones. Ever since they appeared in that “Q Who?” episode of The Next Generation back in 1989, the Borg have become the biggest threat in the Star Trek universe. I mean, they are such a threat that they can get the Klingons and Romulans to work together. KLINGONS AND ROMULANS WORKING TOGETHER!!!! THAT’S f***ING AMAZING!!!! Anyway, they are usually consider an incredibly powerful threat; the best examples of this were assimilating Captain Picard into the collective and trying to prevent Zefram Cochrane's first contact with the Vulcans and in effect erase the Federation from history. Amazing, the Borg’s status as the primary threat was established despite the fact that they only appeared in about six episodes of The Next Generation. However, this was done because the creators have stated that due to the fact that the Borg were so powerful, it was not easy to come up with solutions for beating them. However, as time passed and future series went into production, the concept of the Borg would evolve to include inherent flaws that could be exploited in many different ways, leading them to be used in nineteen episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. It is this generous use of the Borg as villains on Voyager that caused many fans to complain that they were being used too often. TNG, DS9 and one-time VOY writer Ronald D. Moore once said of their perceived overuse, the Borg had been defeated so many times that they had "lost their teeth." (It should be noted, though, that only a fraction of these nineteen appearances actually had them as the main villains; many episodes had them in supporting or otherwise non-outright antagonistic roles.) Also, even more fans were outraged by their appearance in an episode of Enterprise, which took place long before the events of the original Star Trek series took place. However, though there was criticism for the anachronism, that appearance actually lent itself to established continuity, though the creators dodged a bullet by simply keeping the Borg from identifying themselves. Nevertheless, the Borg have been constant threat in the Star Trek series. They are relentless in their pursuit of assimilating every alien race in the universe into their collective. They will stop at nothing to see all of space as one giant Borg hive. “Resistance is futile” isn’t just a cool catchphrase; it is the Borg’s mantra.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 14, 2008 14:01:33 GMT -5
16. Pennywise What is it: A monster in the guise of a clown. What is it from: It (novel and miniseries) What has it done: Killed a lot of people, mostly children. Intelligence: Pennywise knew how to get into people's heads - especially kids' - and scare the hell out of them. Power: His best powers were mental, using hallucination to distract and confuse people. Vileness: In between nasty pranks and bad jokes, It kidnapped and murdered children. Sway: Mean, nasty, and vicious, It preyed on peoples' worst fears, whether they were young or old. Purity: Claimed to be the worst nightmare for the kids of Derry and couldn't have been too far off. Physical Prowess: Besides his trusty clown getup with the razor-sharp teeth, Pennywise often took the form of friends to mess with the kids' heads; and, It was a giant spider! Name Coolness: “Pennywise” isn’t scary or that cool. Created by: Stephen King. Portrayed by: Tim Curry, in the miniseries based on the novel. On the DVD commentary track, the actors note that Tim Curry's characterization of Pennywise was so creepy and realistic that everyone avoided him during the filming. Novel: For millions of years It, a malevolent, shape-shifting, child-killing monster (referred to simply as "It"), dwelt under Derry, awaiting the arrival of humans, which It somehow knew would occur. Once people settled over Its resting place, It adopted a cycle of hibernating for long periods and waking approximately every twenty-seven years. Its awakening is always marked by a great act of violence, and another great act of violence ends Its spree and sends It back into hibernation: 1715 – 1716: It awoke. 1740 – 1743: It awoke and started a three-year reign of terror that culminated with the disappearance of over 300 settlers from Derry Township, much like the Roanoke Island mystery. 1769 – 1770: It awoke. 1851: It awoke when a man named John Markson poisoned his family, and then committed suicide by eating a white-nightshade mushroom, causing an excruciating death. 1876 – 1879: It awoke, then went back into hibernation after a group of lumberjacks were found murdered near the Kenduskeag. 1904 – 1906: It awoke when a lumberjack named Claude Heroux murdered a number of men in a bar with an axe. Heroux was promptly pursued by a mob of townsfolk and hanged. It returned to hibernation when the Kitchener Ironworks exploded, killing 108 people, 88 of them children engaged in an Easter egg hunt. 1929 – 1930: It awoke when a group of Derry citizens gunned down a group of gangsters known as the Bradley Gang. It returned to hibernation when the Maine Legion of White Decency, a Northern counterpart to the Ku Klux Klan, burned down an African-American army nightclub which was called "The Black Spot". 1957 – 1958: It awoke again. Richie Tozier, Mike Hanlon, Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kaspbrak, Ben Hanscom, and Stan Uris (who call themselves the Losers' Club) each have horrifying encounters with the creature, which takes on the shape of their biggest fears (but Its most prominent form is that of a sadistic, balloon-wielding clown called Pennywise). They are also being terrorized by the neighborhood bully, Henry Bowers, which only strengthens their bond. The Losers decide to hunt down the creature and destroy it. They eventually track It down and in the ensuing enormous battle of wills (known as the Ritual of Chüd), hurt It badly. The Losers promise that if It ever comes back, they'll confront It again. 1984 – 1985: It awoke when three young homophobic bullies beat up a young gay couple, Adrian Mellon and Don Hagarty, throwing Mellon off a bridge (echoing real life events in Maine). The narrative jumps forward to 1985, where murders are once again taking place in Derry. Mike Hanlon, the only one of the Losers who has remained in Derry, is convinced that the creature has returned and calls each of the Losers, reminding them of the promise they made as children. Each of the six other Losers have gone on to success and wealth, but had completely forgotten about their childhood trauma. They all return except for Stan Uris (who kills himself after receiving Mike's phone call) and begin piecing together their hazy memories. They also each have encounters with It. It decides to use Henry Bowers (who had followed the Losers and also encountered It in 1958), who is now committed to the Juniper Hill Asylum, to help kill the Losers. Bowers tracks them down and seriously hurts Mike. The five remaining friends then make their way into the sewers once again to confront and destroy the creature for the last time. Miniseries: “It” aired as a two-part television miniseries on November 18, 1990 on ABC, and loosely follows the plot of the novel. The first half of the film, set in 1960 (in the novel, it was set in 1958), introduces a group of social misfits, the "Losers", as they meet and form a tight-knit group in the face of a cruel and intolerant world. They each individually come into contact with the child-killing monster haunting their hometown of Derry, Maine, which they name "it". It usually appears as Pennywise the Dancing Clown before taking the form of whatever its child victim most greatly fears. Spurred on by Bill Denbrough's desire for revenge on It for killing his younger brother, the Losers resolve to locate It's home in the sewers and destroy the threat to Derry once and for all. Henry Bowers, a disturbed bully, and two of his friends, Belch Huggins (Drum Garret) and Patrick Hocksetter (Gabe Khouth), follow the group into the Barrens and into the sewers, in a bid to ambush and kill them as revenge for a rockfight, in which the Losers easily won, saving Mike Hanlon. Bill leads the others into a vertical pipe, leading to the sewers. Stan Uris is pulled away from the group by Henry and Belch, where Henry pulls a switchblade, used earlier to carve his name on Ben Hanscom's abdomen. Meanwhile, Patrick Hocksetter has been ordered to ambush the group from another side. It, in an unseen form seen only from 1st person camera movement, other than a bright light, referred to as It's Deadlights, makes its way from under a grate and eats him alive (offscreen), the last thing seen is Patrick screaming before the camera goes into his mouth, his gruesome death not captured. As Bill, Beverly, Richie, Eddie, Ben, and Mike come to the middle of the sewers, they discover Stan is missing. In another part of the sewers, Henry prepares to kill Stan with the switchblade as Belch restrains him. As Henry prepares to do so, It, only the Deadlights seen shining, burst a sewage pipe. As Henry and Stan watch in horror, Belch is folded in half through the narrow sewage pipe, and taken away by It. Henry calls his name, but to no avail. It makes its way out of the pipe. Stan flees, and Henry's hair turns white from the site of It's unseen form. Stan meets up with the group, and they avoid looking into It's Deadlights. It vanishes, and smoke fills the chamber. The seven form a circle, although It attempts to break it by appearing as Bill's brother George and Beverly's father, along with attempting to scare Richie in the form of a werewolf. As Stan says his prayers, It (in the form of Pennywise the Clown) pins him against the wall. As Pennywise prepares to devour him with It's fangs, Eddie sprays It in the face with his asthma inhaler, pretending it is battery acid. Half of the clown's face burns away, and Beverly cracks It's head open with a silver slingshot, revealing the bright light underneath. However, before Beverly can finish It off, Pennwise flips through the air, and is sucked through the drain. The group grabs his arms, only for the glove and one of the clown's claws to rip off, revealing a larger claw. The group argues and decide It is dead. After fighting It, and believing to have succeeded in killing It, they come out from the sewers and make a promise to return if It ever comes back. Little did they know that they would keep that promise 30 years later. The second half of the film, set in 1990 (instead of 1985 like the novel), focuses on the now-adult Losers who agree to return home to Derry (except for Stan Uris, who killed himself when he learned It had returned) to destroy It once and for all. Again, the Losers must face not only the terrible creature, but also Henry Bowers, the bully who made their childhoods miserable and is now an incarcerated madman under the influence of It, who is determined to kill them all. It, in the form of Pennwise the Clown, appears to Henry on the moonlight as he watches from the insane asylum bed. The clown tells Henry he must go back to Derry and kill them all. Later, after It puts disgusting creatures in fortune cookies, at a restaurant reunion for the six of them, along with adults discovering Stan's head, used by It in the library refrigerator, It visits Henry in the form of the deceased Belch, who hands Henry his lost switchblade. It allows Henry to escape by appearing to the guard as clown with the head of a Doberman Pinscher, although it is unclear whether It kills the guard or scares him away. In the meantime, as the six of the gang depart in their rooms at a hotel, Mike is attacked from behind by the adult Henry Bowers with a knife. Ben is distracted by It in the form of Beverly, who then scares him by appearing as Pennywise the Clown. Mike is stabbed and injured with the switchblade, but is saved by Ben and Eddie, Henry stabbing himself accidentally, slowly dying. After visiting Mike in the hospital, he gives Bill the two silver pieces they once used against It many years ago. In the meantime, Bill's wife Audra has followed him from England. Audra stops in the middle of the night to ask for directions from a grizzled attendant at a gas-station. As Audra talks to him, the attendant (Boyd Norman)'s voice changes. As Audra prepares to leave, the attendant asks her if she wants a balloon. When Audra turns to face the man, he is now Pennywise the Clown. It repeatedly asks her if she wants a balloon, the Deadlights in his eyes hypnotizing her, before grabbing her (offscreen). The five surviving members of the adults make their way into the barrens and further into the sewers. Bill discovers Audra's purse. The adults are taunted by a phantom of the clown (It), before It vanishes into thin air. After It taunts Bill in the form of Georgie, stating it is "all his fault", until Bill repels It by saying Georgie's death was not his fault. The group find a way through a small door believed to be It's lair, discovering many victims, including Audra, in cocoons, all in a hypnotic state. The five of them are confronted by It, in It's true physical form, an enormous spider. Bill, Richie, and Ben are hypnotized by the Deadlights, located on It's abdomen. Eddie attempts to injure It with his aspirator as he did as a child, but as they are not children and do not believe, it is useless. Eddie is grabbed and mortally wounded by It before Beverly shoots out the Deadlights with one of the silver slingshots. The others mourn Eddie, and chase It, killing It by dismembering the spider, Bill ripping out It's heart. The movie ends with a healthy Mike lamenting their future, and Bill breaking It's hold over Audra on the bike he saved Stan with as a child. The credits roll with Pennywise laughing one last time. Clowns are not cool. In fact, they are so not cool that they have to be evil in order for them to even be considered cool. And, this has led to many evil clowns, which has made the evil clown a cliché. But, there is nothing cliché about Pennywise. It is an evil force that has taken the form of a clown. It lurks under the town of Derry, Maine, and has made the small-town into a haven of fear and evil. Outsiders might notice a pattern, but the residents of Derry have been brainwashed by the evil lurking in the shadows of the town's sewer. During one summer back in the '60s, a group of outcast kids, the Loser’s Club, decides to fight back. One of them, Bill Denbrough, sought to avenge the death of his younger brother, George. Believing in themselves and their power to defeat evil, they succeeded in driving It away but vowed to return in case the evil forces arose again. It is very powerful. It can make people see whatever It wants people to see and threatened the kids with kiddie-like scares by appearing as Bill’s brother George, Beverly’s father, and a werewolf. If that didn't work, It got worse. Though they were able to defeat It, the experience had a profound effect on all of the Losers. Most of them didn’t even remember what had happened until Mike called them to tell them It had returned. So intense and frightening was the experience of driving away the evil the first time that Stan committed suicide shortly after learning the gang was getting back together in order to defeat It. Stan felt it was better to be dead rather than face It again. Pennywise was just as vicious when he returned and had adult-sized scares in store for the group. He wanted them to go away so he could have his fun with the kiddies, but vowing to stay and fight again, the gang believed in themselves and tried to convince themselves that adults could believe in the kind of power to overcome evil that kids did. Pennywise's true terrible form would be revealed and following a fight, one of the gang would fall. In a fight with evil, everything is on the line and it's always between life and death. It represents not just one being, but the essence of fear itself. Tormented with false visions and bad memories, the kids of Derry grew up to be repressed adults, and only by returning home to exorcise the biggest demon of all could they move on with clear minds and weights off their shoulders. The power of Pennywise cannot be overexaggerated as everyone in the entire town fell under his spell at one time or another. Courage is what it took to overcome fear, and that's what it took for the kids of Derry to defeat Pennywise.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 14, 2008 15:04:46 GMT -5
15. Magneto Who is he: Mutant freedom-fighter or terrorist, depending on who you ask. What is he from: Marvel Comics, most notably the X-Men comics. What has he done: Engaged in terrorist acts; destroyed New York, killing a lot of people; has tried repeatedly to enslave humans under mutant control. Intelligence: Extremely clever, cunning, and patient strategist. Power: Leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, ruled Genosha, and is considered one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe. Vileness: There is a certain morality to what drives Magneto, but that doesn't excuse him from playing God or justify the means he uses. Sway: Generally very calm and cool and has a smooth approach to getting his way. Purity: Personal tragedy has compelled him to try and accomplish goals out of reach for the average baddie. Physical Prowess: Looks like an old man but has a nice build, and his control over metals and magnetic forces is a difficult force to counter; plus, he is one of the few people who can pull over mixing red and purple in an outfit. Name Coolness: “Magneto” sounds a little lame. Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Portrayed by: John Stephenson voiced Magneto in an episode of the 1978 Fantastic Four animated series. Michael Rye voiced him in an episode of Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends. Ronald Gans voiced him in the animated X-Men pilot, “Pryde Of The X-Men.” In the 1990 FOX X-Men animated series, David Hemblen did the voice of Magneto. In X-Men: Evolution, Christopher Judge did the voice of the magnetic mutant. Tom Kane will do Magneto’s voice in the upcoming Wolverine And The X-Men animated series. Ian McKellan played Magneto in the X-Men trilogy. Comics: The story of Magneto begins during the 1940s, when his parents and his sister are persecuted for being Jewish. They are shot by the Nazis and buried in a mass grave; Magneto manages to survive, only to be captured and sent to Auschwitz in Poland to work in the Sonderkommando. While in Auschwitz, Magneto falls in love with a gypsy named Magda. Together, they escape the prison camp and marry. Magda soon gives birth to their daughter, Anya, who is later killed in a fire, with a mob of people preventing Magneto from rescuing her. Enraged, Magneto's powers manifest uncontrollably, killing the mob and the surrounding townspeople. Terrified, Magda flees Magneto, discovering months later she is pregnant again. After giving birth to the mutant twins Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in Wundagore, Magda disappears. Shortly after Magda's disappearance, Magneto is hunted for the destruction of the town, while attempting to search for his former wife, thus forcing him to pay a renowned forger, Georg Odekirk, to create the cover identity of "Erik Lehnsherr the Sinte gypsy" for him. Magneto also worked as a hunter of Nazi war criminals for a mysterious agency. At the time using the alias "Magnus," he would meet his future friend and foe, Professor Charles Xavier, while working at a psychiatric hospital near Haifa. There, lengthy debates are held by the two regarding the consequences humanity faces with the rise of mutants, though neither reveals to each other that they both in fact possess mutant powers. However, they are forced to reveal their inherent abilities to one another, while facing Baron Von Strucker and HYDRA. Following the battle, Magneto leaves, realizing that his and Xavier's views are incompatible, with a cache of hidden Nazi gold. The gold, which was also sought by Strucker, provides initial financing for his various enterprises. Magneto's experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp shapes his outlook on the situation that mutants face in the world. Determined to keep such atrocities from ever being committed against mutant-kind, he is willing to use deadly force to protect mutants. He believes that mutants ("Homo superior") will become the dominant life form on the planet. However, he constantly wavers between wanting peaceful existence with Homo sapiens and wanting to enforce his superiority over all humanity. Magneto's first villainous act was attacking a United States military base. He is thwarted by Charles Xavier's mutant students, the X-Men. After forming the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Magneto briefly conquers the fictional South American nation of San Marco in the hopes of establishing a mutant homeland there, but is once again foiled by the X-Men. He later creates Asteroid M, an orbital base of operations in an asteroid he and his followers hollow out, but it is later destroyed in a battle with the X-Men. Magneto next attempted to recruit Namor into the Brotherhood. With the Brotherhood, he next battled Thor. After several unsuccessful attempts at rallying more mutants to his cause, Magneto tries to force the allegiance of the Stranger. A powerful alien being, the Stranger encases Magneto in a special cocoon and spirits him away to another planet, the Stranger's laboratory world. Magneto's Brotherhood splinters, and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch desert him. Magneto escaped to Earth and battled the X-Men, but was then recaptured by the Stranger. Magneto remains on the Stranger's world for a long time. Magneto eventually escapes and makes his way back to Earth where he attempts to reenlist them to his cause, but his plans are foiled by his former minion Toad, who has grown tired of Magneto's cruel treatment. Magneto then battled the Avengers and the X-Men. Magneto then created the Savage Land Mutates. With the Savage Land Mutates, he clashed with the X-Men and Ka-Zar. With Namor, Magneto later attacked New York City. He later fought the Inhumans Royal Family. He later battled the Avengers once more. Magneto later reorganized the Brotherhood, and fought Professor X and the Defenders. Using ancient and advanced alien technology he finds near the core of the earth, Magneto creates an artificial humanoid he names "Alpha the Ultimate Mutant." Alpha rebels against his creator and reduces Magneto to infancy. Magneto is then placed in the care of Xavier's former love interest, Professor Moira MacTaggert at Muir Island. At Muir Island, MacTaggert tinkers with the infant Magneto's genetic code in an attempt to prevent him from becoming "evil" in adulthood. However, her genetic tampering loses its effect when Magneto activates his powers again. Magneto is eventually restored to adulthood when he is found at Muir Island by the alien Shi'ar agent Erik the Red. Magneto later gathered a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and with them battled Captain America. He then opposed Doctor Doom's conquest of Earth. Eventually, it was revealed how Magnus and Xavier first met in Israel. Magneto later discovers that former Brotherhood members the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are actually his children, simultaneously learning about their recent marriages to the Vision and Crystal. He revealed to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch that he is their father. He also discovers his granddaughter, Quicksilver's human child Luna Maximoff. Seeing Luna as a bond to the human race he has rejected, Magneto tries to reach out to his children. Angered by his rejection of them and their mother, they push him away and refuse to forgive him. Magneto finds himself allied with Professor Xavier and the X-Men when a group of heroes and villains are abducted by the Beyonder, a nearly omnipotent yet frustratingly short-sighted being. This entity takes them to an alien world to participate in the 1984 series Secret Wars. The characters are sorted according to their desires, and so Magneto was placed with the heroes as his desires were based on a wish to help mutants rather than the more selfish drives of the others. This surprises many of the other heroes, who still believe he is a villain, although they mostly come to accept him as an ally. Captain America even speaks in his defense on some occasions, and the Wasp develops a certain affection for him, although it is tempered by her knowledge of his past. After the Secret Wars are over, Magneto is transported back to his base, Asteroid M, where the alien Warlock, traveling to Earth, collides into the asteroid, breaking it to pieces. Magneto is sent falling towards Earth and into the Atlantic Ocean, sustaining serious injuries. He is rescued by Lee Forrester, the captain of a fishing trawler. Lee helps him recuperate from his injuries and the two share a small romance. After recuperating from his injuries, Magneto is asked to aid the X-Men in battling the returned Beyonder, and Magneto stays with the X-Men even after the Beyonder is defeated. His association with the team softens his views on humanity and Magneto surrenders himself to the law to stand trial for his crimes. A special tribunal is organized. They choose to strike all charges against Magneto from prior to his "rebirth," deeming that this had constituted a figurative death of the old Magneto. However, the tribunal is interrupted by an attack from Fenris, the twin children of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Fenris is defeated but Professor X is brought to near-death due to the strain of the battle and previously sustained injuries. Xavier asks Magneto to take over his school and the X-Men, and tells him that doing so would make amends enough for his past crimes. Magneto agrees and chooses not to return to the courtroom. Instead he takes over Xavier's school under the assumed identity of Michael Xavier, Charles Xavier's cousin. Seeing him try to reform, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver begin accepting him as their father. Though Magneto makes a substantial effort as the headmaster to the New Mutants and an ally to the X-Men, his tenure is disastrous. The Beyonder plagues him yet again, slaying Xavier’s current students, the New Mutants and bringing them back to life soon later. This deeply traumatizes the entire group. He is manipulated by Emma Frost, headmistress of her own school, the Massachusetts Academy, and White Queen of the Hellfire Club, into battling sanctioned heroes the Avengers and the Supreme Soviets. Magneto submits to a trial once again, but uses mind-control circuitry he salvages from the wreckage of Asteroid M to alter the opinions of the head justice in charge of the trial. As a result, he is finally absolved of his past crimes. Magneto does not make that decision lightly and wrestles with it afterwards. Feeling that desperate measures needed to be taken after the genocidal massacre in the Morlock tunnels, Magneto and Storm join the Hellfire Club jointly as the White King. He is unable to prevent his students Roberto da Costa and the alien Technarch Warlock from running away from the school, or prevent the death of the young mutant student Douglas Ramsey after the students sneak away yet again to save a friend, and witnesses the apparent death of all of the senior X-Men on national television. His relationship with the New Mutants deteriorates even further when they see him and the Club work with the demons of the Inferno incident. Magneto later ousts longtime Hellfire Club co-chair Sebastian Shaw in order to establish himself as the head of the Hellfire Club as the Grey King. During this confrontation he reveals his real purpose of raising an army for the coming war between humans and mutants. The New Mutants do not return to Magneto's tutelage, though he goads them by claiming that they will join him of their own free will anyway. Seeing conditions for mutants grow progressively more perilous, Magneto begins seeking allies to protect mutants from humanity. He participates in the "Acts of Vengeance" alongside such established villains as Doctor Doom, the Wizard, and the Mandarin. He also confronts Red Skull, an unrepentant Nazi war criminal, on whom Magneto takes revenge by entombing him alive. He also attacks (and is defeated by) a cosmically powered Spider-Man. He works alongside Rogue, Ka-zar and the American intelligence agent Nick Fury as well as a number of Russian operatives in order to re-establish peace in the Savage Land. This ultimately led to an altercation with Zaladane, who had appropriated the magnetic powers of his then-unknown daughter, Polaris. The conflict ended with Magneto executing Zaladane himself. With her death, he renounced his previous efforts to act as a mentor to the New Mutants and to follow Xavier's beliefs in peaceful co-existence between mutants and normal humans. Tired of the constant state of strife, Magneto builds a second orbital base where he hopes to live a life of quiet seclusion. He is, by this point, a figurehead for the cause of mutant-hood and is sought out by a group of new mutants calling themselves the Acolytes. After this, Magneto sets his sights significantly lower than world conquest: he seeks only a haven for mutant-kind. When he stood trial, one of the charges was the sinking of a Soviet submarine and the deaths of the crew. Influenced by Fabian Cortez of the Acolytes, he announces that the orbital base known as Asteroid M will now be a haven for mutants, but he then proceeds to bringing the submarine back to the surface, obtains its nuclear missiles and places them around the Asteroid pointed towards Earth. He even sets one off when military jets attack him and Rogue while she is trying to reason with him. Magneto later discovers how Moira had tampered with his mind when he had been de-aged. Enraged by this, he feels that his redemption has been a lie. Though it was later revealed that the genetic tampering had lost its effect when he had first used his powers after being re-aged, and thus his actions had never been influenced by Moira's tampering, the damage was done. In retaliation for the nuclear detonation, the Soviets launch another satellite which blasts Magneto's base, while he and the other Acolytes battle the X-Men. Betrayed and abandoned at the last minute by Cortez, Magneto refuses Xavier's pleas to escape with the X-Men back to Earth and he and his followers "perish" in the subsequent explosion. It would later be revealed that Magneto survived the crash, as the Acolyte Chrome had encased him in a protective shell. However, Chrome and the other Acolytes died. The United Nations Security Council, in response to a resurgent Magneto, votes to activate the "Magneto Protocols," a satellite network, in slightly lower orbit than Avalon, which skews the Earth's magnetic field enough to prevent Magneto from using his powers within, preventing him from returning to the planet's surface. In response, Magneto generates an electromagnetic pulse not only destroying the satellites, but deactivating every electric device on Earth within minutes. The X-Men respond by hacking into Avalon's own computer systems to teleport a small team to the station with the aid of Colossus (who had joined Magneto as one of Magneto's Acolytes). Magneto, during the battle with the X-Men, rips the adamantium from Wolverine's bones, which enrages Xavier to the point that he blanks his former friend's mind, leaving him in a coma; this action later leads to the creation of Onslaught. Magneto remains comatose on Avalon worshipped by his Acolytes, under the leadership of Exodus, until Avalon itself is destroyed. During the destruction, Colossus places Magneto in an escape pod sending him back to Earth. This pod is intercepted by Astra, a former ally who now desires his death. Astra clones Magneto and when the clone is ready, she restores Magneto's mind since she feels there is no point in killing him unless he knows it is her doing. After a pitched battle, Magneto triumphs over the clone sending him crashing into a South American barn. However, too weak to continue the battle, the real Magneto goes into hiding while the now-amnesiac clone becomes known as Joseph (christened as such by the nun who discovered him) and eventually joins the X-Men. Since the world believes Joseph to be the real Magneto, Magneto takes his time to plan. He engages in a pair of brief diversions, first posing as "Erik the Red" and revealing Gambit's past crimes to the X-Men, resulting in Gambit's expulsion from the group. Then he kills Odekirk to prevent his true identity from being discovered by Sabra and Gabrielle Haller. Following this, Magneto constructs a machine to amplify his powers and blackmail the world into creating a mutant nation. The X-Men and Joseph, who has fallen under Astra's control again, oppose him. The X-Men defeat Magneto, leaving his powers severely depleted from over-strain, while Joseph sacrifices his life to restore the Earth to normal. The United Nations, manipulated by its mutant affairs officer Alda Huxley, cedes to Magneto the island nation of Genosha, which has no recognized government. Magneto rules that nation for some time with the aid of many who had previously opposed him, including Quicksilver, Polaris, and the founder of the Acolytes, Fabian Cortez. Despite the UN's hopes that Genosha's civil war between humans and mutants would destroy or at least occupy him, Magneto crushes all opposition to his rule and rebuilds the nation by forming an army of mutants dedicated to his cause, including mutants coming from all over the world seeking sanctuary. Eventually, Magneto is able to use the Genegineer's equipment to fully restore his power. Intending to declare war on humanity, he captures Professor X to use as a symbol with which to rally his troops. In the Eve of Destruction storyline, Jean Grey recruits a new lineup of X-Men to help Cyclops and Wolverine rescue Xavier and defeat Magneto. Taking the opportunity for revenge, Wolverine attacks the defeated Magneto, leaving him with serious injuries and crippling him for a time. Soon after this, Genosha is decimated by Sentinels under the orders of Cassandra Nova Xavier, Charles Xavier's previously unknown dead twin sister, whom Xavier had killed in the womb. Magneto and 16 million mutants who were gathered at Genosha are reported deceased. Months after the event, a team of X-Men searching in the debris apparently finds a recording of Magneto's last words. Mutant-supremacist ideas, attributed to him, become wide-spread in the mutant community with some holding him as a martyr of the mutant cause. Magneto has become a Che Guevara-like revolutionary figure in the mutant community. T-shirts and posters with Magneto's face and the phrase "Magneto Was Right" become popular items, even amongst certain students in the Xavier Institute. Meanwhile, the mutant known as Xorn joins the X-Men after being rescued from captivity in China. Xorn is said to be a Chinese mutant with a "star for a brain" and wears a face-concealing metal helmet with a skull-like motif. He also possesses nebulous healing powers, although the only times he was shown to use this ability are when he deactivates a number of microscopic Sentinels and simultaneously restores Professor Xavier's ability to walk, and "heals" a supposedly dead bird. In the Planet X storyline, he eventually removes the helmet, revealing Magneto's face beneath. It is alleged that Xorn never existed and is simply an identity conceived wholly by Magneto. Having "exposed his deception", he then schemes to destroy the X-Men and reverse the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field, increasing his power with the use of a mutant drug called "Kick". He recruits the Special Class and Esme from the Xavier School to serve as his Brotherhood of Mutants, though most eventually turn against him. Before being decapitated by Wolverine, "Magneto" devastates much of New York City and kills Jean Grey using a lethal electromagnetic pulse, causing her to have a massive stroke. Some time later, the X-Men find another Xorn, who identifies himself as Shen Xorn and claims that the "Magneto" who devastated New York was Kuan-Yin Xorn, his brother. Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada later elaborated on this, stating that "Kuan-Yin Xorn came under the influence of as-yet-to-be-revealed entity that forced him to assume the identity of Magneto." This retcon remains the official explanation of the Xorn character and its relationship to Magneto. With the launch of a new Excalibur series, Xavier meets up with the real Magneto who is still alive. Xavier brings with him the coffin supposedly containing the corpse of Xorn (but which is later shown to be filled with guns), and explains how the impostor has killed over 5,000 people including Jean Grey. Magneto is shocked and angry that people think he is capable of committing such an act. Xavier and Magneto put aside their differences to rebuild the island nation, rekindling their friendship in the process. Magneto's daughter Wanda suffers a mental breakdown over the loss of her children and starts to warp reality in order to recreate them, inadvertently resulting in random attacks on the Avengers, until Doctor Strange puts her into a coma to stop her. In Genosha, Magneto hears Wanda's psychic cry for help and, creating a wormhole, whisks her away before the Avengers can do anything. Back in Genosha, Magneto tends to Wanda, becoming more withdrawn and angry, allowing only Xavier to visit, in the belief that Xavier can help Wanda. Xavier is angry to learn that Magneto revealed he was alive, in rescuing Wanda, but agrees to try and help. Months pass with no avail, and not even Doctor Strange's magic helps. The X-Men and the Avengers meet to decide what should be done, and when some of the members suggest killing Wanda, Quicksilver rushes to Magneto to inform him of this development. Magneto admits that he doesn't know what to do anymore and that the groups may be right, but Quicksilver convinces Wanda that she can undo her wrongs, prompting her to warp reality into the House of M. In the new reality, where the New Avengers, the X-Men and the members of Wanda's family all received their 'heart's desires', Magneto is attacked by Sentinels over Manhattan in 1979, and reveals an alleged international anti-mutant conspiracy involving Richard Nixon. This results in Magneto being granted sovereignty over Genosha as leader of the world's much larger and much faster growing mutant population. A group of heroes are brought together by Wolverine, who alone remembers the way the world is supposed to be because his 'heart's desire' was to regain all the memories stolen from him by the Weapon Plus Program, and have their own memories of the "real world" restored by Layla Miller, and they band together and attack Magneto in Genosha, believing him to be the one responsible. During the battle Layla is able to restore Magneto's memories as well, and he confronts his son, enraged that Quicksilver had done all of this in his name. Quicksilver reveals that Magneto would have let Wanda die, but Magneto replies that Quicksilver was only using Wanda and himself, and he would never have allowed this to happen. Furious, Magneto kills Quicksilver by pummeling him with large pieces of steel and then crushing him with a Sentinel. Sensing her brother's death, Wanda incapacitates Magneto and removes his mouth when he tries to talk to her. She revives Quicksilver, telling Magneto that Quicksilver had only wanted him to be happy, but even when she gave Magneto what he wanted he was still a horrible man, and mutants were freaks. With the phrase "Daddy — No more mutants," Wanda changes the world back to its original form and causes ninety-eight percent of the mutant population to lose their powers. Magneto is one of the many mutants to lose their powers, and is left a broken man; although Wolverine contemplates killing him, he concludes that their old foe deserves every second of his crap 'sapien' life. When Quicksilver comes to Genosha to restore the mutants' powers with the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists, Magneto condemns his actions, pointing out the disastrous effects the Mists have on non-Inhumans. An angry Quicksilver attacks Magneto with his new powers from the Mists, savagely beating him until his own daughter Luna begs him to stop. When the Inhumans come looking for their Mists, Magneto tells them what has happened. The Collective, a being comprised of energy from all the former mutants' powers, merges with an energy absorbing mutant named Michael Pointer. The Collective kills all of the most recent incarnation of Alpha Flight save for Sasquatch, and battles the New Avengers before landing in Genosha. There it re-powers Magneto and reveals itself as Xorn. Xorn explains that he took the image of Magneto because he knew mutants would follow him, and that they needed the real Magneto again. Magneto, not in control of himself, begins attacking the New Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents while he pleads for them to kill him. He is taken down with a direct brain attack from mutant S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson. Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, and the Sentry combine their powers and send the Collective/Xorn into the Sun. Michael is separated from the Collective and an unconscious Magneto is loaded into a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter. The helicopter, however, explodes upon take-off through unknown means; his body was not found among the rubble.[33]. However, as of the end of Civil War, it's been revealed that Pointer, who was shown to retain some powers immediately after the separation, is coerced into joining the newly formed Omega Flight, using a suit designed to harness his powers as the new Guardian. Afterwards, Magneto is being looked for by the U.S. Government, the Morlocks, and the X-Men. Professor Xavier has mentioned that he has been unable to locate Magneto with Cerebra, in spite of the increase in power to his recently restored telepathy, suggesting either that his re-powerment by the Collective was temporary or that he may somehow be masking his presence to avoid detection. At this moment, both Professor Xavier and Nightcrawler are looking for Magneto, as are agents of the O*N*E* organization. Xavier and Nightcrawler have found traces of Magneto paying his respects at a local graveyard, standing in front of a tombstone belonging to one of his very first henchmen. Also, the Morlocks are after Magneto for reasons of their own, and use him to justify their terrorist acts. In Uncanny X-Men #491, Magneto is seen talking to a crippled, depowered Morlock, claiming he has lost what once made him superior, implying that the restoration of his powers by the Collective was indeed temporary. However, at the end of the issue when Skids found him at a local cemetery sometime later, and gave him a mysterious book that Masque had in his possession that claimed to chronicle the future of mutantkind, she stated that the book said Magneto was still a mutant, thereby possibly refuting his previous claim of being depowered again. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen. Magneto appeared at the end of X-Men: Legacy #208, apparently at the behest of Exodus to help restore the broken psyche of Professor Xavier. He claims that he is still powerless while he reminisces about the past between the X-Men and the Brotherhood with Omega Sentinel. Together they manage to revive Xavier before being attacked by Frenzy. Magneto wounds Frenzy by firing a medical laser into one of her eyes, prompting Exodus to ask what punishment he would have instilled on a human who injured a mutant (as the Acolytes consider him a human, Exodus even claims that Magneto is dead and that Lehnsherr is just a shell that was left over). Magneto replies "Death" and Exodus proceeds to choke him with his telekinesis before Xavier challenges Exodus on the astral plane. After Xavier defeats Exodus, he leaves Magneto and Karima to try and rebuild his lost memories. “X-Men”: In a German Concentration camp in occupied Poland during 1944, a young Magneto is separated from his parents as they are herded into the camp. In a moment of panic and horror, the boy reaches out and begins to bend the metal gates of the camp with the power of magnetism before being knocked unconscious. Many years later, in Meridian, Mississippi, a young girl named Marie (Anna Paquin) kisses a boy and sends him into a coma. In Congress, Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davidson) attempts to pass a "Mutant Registration Act", which would force mutants to publicly reveal their identities and abilities. Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) speaks against the act, but is balked by Kelly. Magneto (McKellan) begins his plans to level the playing field between mutants and humans. Marie, now calling herself Rogue, is on the run from her home and heads to a small town in Canada, where she meets a cage fighter calling himself Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). As the two head off down the road, they are attacked by a mutant called Sabertooth (Tyler Mane), an associate of Magneto. Cyclops (James Marsden) and Storm (Halley Berry) arrive and save Wolverine and Rogue. When Wolverine regains consciousness, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) explains that Cyclops and Storm are part of a group of mutants who are trying to seek peace with the human race, educate young mutants in the responsible use of their powers, and stop Magneto from starting a war with humanity. Professor X promises to help Wolverine discover his lost past, as well as determine why Magneto is after him. Rogue, in the meantime, has begun to make friends at school and a boy named Bobby Drake (Shawn Ashmore) shows a romantic interest in her. Meanwhile, Senator Kelly is abducted by Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) and Toad (Ray Park), and brought to Magneto, who tests a machine on Kelly that artificially induces mutation. Kelly, thanks to his new abilities, manages to escape imprisonment, and he eventually washes up on a beach. After an accident causes her to use her powers on Wolverine, Rogue is convinced by Mystique (disguised as Bobby) that Xavier is angry with her and that she should leave the school. Professor Xavier, using his mutant locating device called Cerebro, locates her at a train station and sends Cyclops and Storm after her. Mystique, still disguised as Bobby, infiltrates Cerebro and sabotages the machine. Wolverine arrives at the station ahead of the other two and convinces Rogue to stay with Professor Xavier. While Sabertooth and Toad attack Cyclops and Storm inside the train station, Magneto reveals who he was truly after by kidnapping Rogue. Xavier confronts Magneto during his escape, but allows him to leave after Magneto threatens to kill the police that have surrounded the building with their own guns. Senator Kelly arrives at the school, in a rapidly deteriorating condition; his body is rejecting the forced mutation and now disintegrating at the cellular level. Professor Xavier reads his mind and learns of Magneto's mutation machine, which draws power from Magneto himself, severely weakening him in the process. Xavier realizes that Magneto plans to use Rogue's ability to absorb other mutant's abilities on himself, this way Rogue can power his machine. Kelly's body meanwhile continues to reject the mutation and he soon dies when his mutation becomes completely unstable, causing him to disintegrate into a puddle of water. Knowing he must prevent this from happening to anyone else, Xavier attempts to use Cerebro to locate Rogue. Mystique's sabotage causes Professor X to fall into a coma. Jean fixes Cerebro and then uses it herself. She discovers that the machine is on Liberty Island, leading the X-Men to the conclusion that Magneto intends to mutate the world leaders who are meeting for a summit on nearby Ellis Island. The X-Men arrive to stop Magneto as he sets up his machine atop the torch of the Statue of Liberty. They are immediately confronted by Mystique and Toad. Mystique and Wolverine become separated from the others, as Toad takes on Storm, Cyclops and Jean, with considerable success: kicking Cyclops into a side room, launching Storm into the second floor of the building and nearly killing Jean with his sticky slime, which he spits onto her face as she held him with her telekinesis. In the end, Mystique attempts to ambush Wolverine by disguising herself as Storm, but Wolverine recognizes her scent and stabs her. Storm eventually overcomes Toad and electrocutes him with a bolt of lightning. Just as the group arrives at the top of the statue, Magneto and Sabertooth incapacitate the group and continue with their plans. Magneto transfers his powers to Rogue who is forced to use them to start the machine. Wolverine breaks free and initiates a fight with Sabertooth. Wolverine is thrown over the side of the statue and Sabertooth redirects himself to the group to finish them off. Wolverine returns, and Cyclops, with Jean's help, blasts Sabertooth out of the statue. With Jean stabilizing him, Storm uses her abilities to send Wolverine to the top of Magneto's machine. With time running out, Wolverine attempts to stop the machine and save Rogue, but Magneto, now having regained some of his strength, halts Wolverine's claws. Cyclops manages to find a clean shot, wounding Magneto and allowing Wolverine to destroy the machine. Placing her hand to his face, Wolverine succeeds in transferring his regenerative abilities to a dying Rogue. Professor Xavier recovers from his coma, and the group learns that Mystique is still alive when they see her impersonating Senator Kelly on a news broadcast. Xavier visits Magneto in his plastic prison cell, and the two play chess. Magneto warns his friend that he will continue his fight, to which Xavier promises that he (and the X-Men) will always be there to stop him. Xavier checkmates Magneto and leaves. “X-2: X-Men United”: Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), a teleporting mutant, attempts to assassinate the President in the White House, but he fails and escapes. Wolverine reappears after discovering nothing at Alkali Lake, while Storm and Jean find Nightcrawler with the help of Professor Xavier and Cerebro. Cyclops and Professor X visit Magneto in his plastic prison to see if he had any part in the attack on the President. Reading Magneto's mind, Professor X discovers that a covert government operative, William Stryker, has been extracting information from Magneto. A trap is sprung and Cyclops and Professor X are captured by Stryker (Brian Cox) and his assistant Yuriko Oyama (Kelly Hu). A military invasion of the X-Mansion begins, with the soldiers sedating every student they find, some escape, while Wolverine finds Stryker, but is unable to find anything about his past. Impersonating Senator Robert Kelly and Yuriko, Mystique gains information about Magneto's prison and provides a means for him to escape. Wolverine, along with Rogue, Iceman and Pyro (Aaron Stanford), heads to Iceman's home in Boston. After a 9-1-1 call by Bobby's brother Ronnie, the police arrive just as the group is about to leave, ensuing into a dispute with Pyro. The X-Jet arrives to pick them all up, and the X-Men team with Magneto and Mystique. Magneto has learned Stryker orchestrated the attack on the President and has been experimenting on mutants, using a drug injected directly into the back of the neck to control them. Jean reads Nightcrawler's mind and determines that Stryker's base is located at Alkali Lake, inside the dam. He has also stolen enough equipment from Xavier's own Cerebro unit to build a second Cerebro, with which he plans to kill all the world's mutants. Stryker gains control over Professor Xavier through his son, Jason Stryker (Michael Reid McKay), who is able to project powerful visions in the mind, blinding a person to reality. Professor X is instructed to use Cerebro to find and kill all existing mutants. Mystique infiltrates Stryker's base using a number of disguises. As the X-Men enter Storm and Nightcrawler pair off, searching for kidnapped students. Jean, Magneto, and Mystique are attacked by a brainwashed Cyclops on their way to rescue Professor X, causing damage to the generators that keep the dam from collapsing. The force of Jean's telekinetic blast awakens Cyclops from his brainwashing. Wolverine finds Stryker in an adamantium smelting room along with Lady Deathstrike. Wolverine and Deathstrike begin fighting, but it ends with Wolverine killing her. Wolverine finds Stryker on a landing pad, while Stryker attempts to bargain Wolverine with stories of his past. Wolverine leaves him for dead, stabbing him and chaining him to the helicopter wheel. Mystique, disguised as Stryker, uses Jason to convince Professor X to kill all humans. Magneto and Mystique use Stryker's helicopter to escape Alkali Lake, chaining Stryker to concrete rubble, and are also joined by Pyro. Meanwhile, Nightcrawler teleports Storm inside of Cerebro, where she frees the Professor from his telepathic illusion. A malfunction aboard the X-Jet prevents it from taking off, and the dam finally bursts. The flood gets stronger, drowning Stryker. Jean leaves the jet and creates a telekinetic wall in order to stop the wave, and at the same time raises the jet above the flood waters; all the while surrounded by a corona of fire. Jean activates the X-Jet's primary engines, before releasing the torrent of water down on herself. The X-Men are able to supply the President with files from Stryker's private offices, and Professor X warns him that humans and mutants must work together to build peace, or they will destroy each other through war. The film ends with a voiceover by Jean Grey, on the process of evolution. The camera floats over Alkali Lake, showing a vague shape of a Phoenix in the lake. “X-Men: The Last Stand”: A pharmaceutical company called Worthington Labs announces that it has developed an inoculation to permanently suppress the X-gene that gives mutants their powers, offering the so-called "cure" to any mutant who wants it. While some mutants are interested in the cure, including the X-Men's Rogue, many others are horrified by the announcement. In response to the news, the X-Men's adversary Magneto raises an army, warning his followers that the cure will be forcefully used to exterminate the mutant race. Cyclops, still heartbroken about the loss of Jean Grey, returns to Alkali Lake, where Jean sacrificed herself to save the X-Men. Jean appears to Cyclops, and as the two kiss, Jean changes and appears to kill Cyclops. Sensing trouble, Professor Charles Xavier sends Wolverine and Storm to investigate. When they arrive, the two X-Men encounter telekinetically floating rocks, Cyclops' glasses, and an unconscious Jean. Xavier explains that the majority of Jean's power is seated in her unconscious mind (Sigmund Freud's "Id") and that, as a result, her powers are largely fueled by instinct, and not under her complete control. In fact, when Jean was a little girl she was so powerful that he had to put telepathic blocks on her mind to help keep her powers under control. Her bottled up powers manifested themselves as an id-like alternate personality called the "Phoenix" — a purely instinctual creature, ruled only by its own violent desires. Wolverine is disgusted to learn that Xavier has kept Jean in check telepathically, but when Jean awakens, he realizes she is not the Jean Grey he knew. Wolverine asks about Cyclops, but she cannot remember and fears she killed him. Jean pleads with Wolverine to kill her before she harms anybody else, but when he refuses, the Phoenix surfaces and telekinetically slams Wolverine into a wall. She then flees to her childhood home. Magneto, also aware that Jean's powers are loose, meets Xavier at Jean's house. The two men plead for Jean's loyalty until the Phoenix resurfaces, unleashing her devastating power. Furious at being caged within Jean's subconscious for twenty years, she destroys her family's house and engages in a psychic battle with Xavier. She eventually overpowers Xavier and he uses his powers to slow down time, enabling him the opportunity to transfer his consciousness into another body, but also giving him more time to talk to Jean. She finally disintegrates Xavier, and leaves with Magneto; temporarily weakened. Following the losses of Xavier and Cyclops, Rogue decides to take the mutant cure. The X-Men regroup and confront Magneto's army, which is attacking the pharmaceutical company's laboratory on Alcatraz Island. During the battle, Kitty Pryde leaves to save Leech and at the end of the battle, Beast injects Magneto with the cure, nullifying his mutant powers. After this, Wolverine nearly coaxes Jean back to sanity. However, soldiers arrive and fire upon Jean. The Phoenix quickly emerges and begins to disintegrate everything and everyone around her, vaporizing the soldiers. While the other X-Men flee to safety, Wolverine fights his way to Jean, relying upon his healing abilities to save him from her destructive power. Momentarily gaining control, Jean begs Wolverine to save her. Telling Jean he loves her, Wolverine reluctantly kills her with his claws. Despite the X-Men's losses, life goes on. The school will continue, even without Xavier. Rogue returns and tells Iceman she had to take the "cure." The two reconcile and continue their relationship now able to touch each other. Magneto, now an ordinary man, sits at a chessboard and reaches out toward a metal chess piece that trembles slightly, indicating that the cure might not be as permanent as originally thought. Following the closing credits, Dr. Moira MacTaggert checks on a comatose patient who greets her with Xavier's voice, implying that he has transferred his mind into this new body. Spider-Man (1967 TV series): In the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, Spider-Man battled a scientist named Dr. Matto Magneto wielding a magnetic gun in "The Revenge of Magneto". The character was (very) loosely based on the Magneto character from the comics, and more closely resembled Albert Einstein. His name is mispronounced "Mag-netto" instead of "Mag-neeto." Fantastic Four (1978 TV series): In the 1978 Fantastic Four cartoon, Magneto (voiced by John Stephenson) briefly took control of the team in "The Menace Of Magneto". Here, he isn't depicted as a mutant. Instead he is simply an extremely powerful supervillain with typical aspirations for power. Instead of flying, he moves around in a bizarre, car-like device which he moves using his magnetic powers. Spider-Man (1981 TV series): The solo Spider-Man cartoon from 1981 featured Magneto in the episode "When Magneto Speaks... People Listen". Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends: Magneto returned in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, attempting to free his fellow mutants from prison in "The Prison Plot". He was voiced by Michael Rye. In spite of his Spider-Man television appearances, he has appeared in only two issues of a Spider-Man title. Pryde of the X-Men: Magneto was the main villain in the animated X-Men pilot Pryde of the X-Men - his first actual animated appearance battling the X-Men. Ronald Gans did the voice. X-Men (animated series): .Magneto's voice was provided by David Hemblen in the animated television series X-Men. In the series, he first appears in the third and fourth episodes where he launches a missile but it is stopped by the X-Men. Then he attacks a factory to draw Professor X out, but is stopped by the Professor's telepathy. In the first season finale, he helps the X-Men defeat the Master Mold and the Sentinels. He appears in nearly every episode in the second season, in which he and Professor Xavier are powerless and travel throughout the Savage Land. At the end of that season, all of the X-Men save them from Mr. Sinister, and they regain their powers. In the fourth season, he helps defeat Apocalypse. Later, he lives on Asteroid M until it is destroyed. Disheartened by the destruction of his Asteroid M mutant sanctuary, he does not care about even the impending assimilation of mankind by the Phalanx, until he receives news from the Beast, Forge, Mr. Sinister and Amelia Voght that his son, Quicksilver, has been kidnapped by the Phalanx in the second part of the two-part fifth season premiere. He teams up with them to defeat the Phalanx and save everyone they had captured or assimilated. By the end of the series, he has gathered up an entire army of rebellious mutants, and is poised to conquer the world, but receives news from Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey that Professor Xavier is dying. Relenting, Magneto uses his power in conjunction with Xavier's in order to contact Lilandra Neramani, who takes Xavier to her planet where there is a suggestion that he may be cured. X-Men: Evolution: Magneto's voice was provided by Christopher Judge in the animated television series X-Men: Evolution. During the show's first season he is a shadowy, mysterious manipulator where the X-Men, except for Professor Xavier, do not know of his existence, until the first X-Man, Wolverine, figures it out, although Magneto becomes a more direct threat from the first season finale. In the first season he uses his agent Mystique to assemble a team of mutants (The Brotherhood), and even recruits his own son Quicksilver to spy on them. In the first season finale, he pits the Brotherhood against the X-Men and brings the winners to Asteroid M in an attempt to convince them to join his cause. His decision to leave Mystique behind leads her to betray him (although flashbacks indicate that they have been at odds since Magneto separated Mystique from her newborn son Nightcrawler), and their vendetta lasts throughout the second season. In the second season, Magneto personally recruits a new team, the Acolytes, de-ages himself using the same technology that created Captain America, and finally reveals the existence of mutants to the public after the X-Men and Brotherhood fight off a Sentinel which was meant to destroy every mutant known. In this time his daughter Wanda is introduced, who hates Magneto for abandoning her as a child and leaving her in a mental asylum (when asked about what specific event led to Magneto institutionalizing Wanda, X-Men: Evolution's head writer Greg Johnson stated that "There was no specific event. It was just years of him trying to handle a hostile, out of control child whose powers were promising to be very destructive if he didn't get her put away."). She hunts him down relentlessly until he uses the mutant Mastermind to change her memories, painting him in a new light. In the third and fourth seasons of the show, Magneto dedicates himself to preventing the awakening of the mutant Apocalypse, although all his attempts fail and upon Apocalypse's awakening he is transformed into one of his Four Horsemen after he is thought to have been killed by Apocalypse. He is freed of this enslavement in the finale episode Ascension: Part Two, and is last seen being helped by his two children. In the final moments of the episode, Charles Xavier reveals that he witnessed the future in the mind of Apocalypse, and among the visions he saw was Magneto becoming an ally of the X-Men and training the New Mutants, like he did in the comics. Wolverine and the X-Men: Magneto has been confrimed to appear in Wolverine and the X-Men voiced by Tom Kane. Magneto is shown on a billboard with the word "GENOSHA". In the second trailer, he is shown to rule Genosha and mentioned to have found Professor X unconscious on Genosha after the destruction of the X-Mansion. The best villains all have one thing in common: motivation. Whether it is by the destruction of one person, greed, or world domination, they are all driven by something. However, some have a nobler motivation, and Magneto falls in this category. He was a young prisoner of Nazi concentration camps but survived the Holocaust. However, he survived only to see his fellow mutants be murdered and discriminated in a similar way to the experiences he went through during the Holocaust. Magneto wanted to stop this and formed a partnership with Charles Xavier, who had a similar goal, in order to see his goals come true. However, the two disagreed on how the dream of a human/mutant united world would be achieved: Charles was like Martin Luther King, Jr., hoping to achieve his dream through peace and non-violence (though he does believe in using a team of mutants to protect other mutants from the cruelty of humans); while Magneto was more like Malcolm X, hoping to achieve his dream by any means necessary. Magneto doesn’t want to rule the world or kill the X-Men; he just wants to protect his species from extinction and unite them under his guidance so that no more people will die just because they were born different. But, the lengths that he will go to achieve these goals can’t be justified. He has held the world hostage with nuclear weapons in order to gain control over a sovereign land for mutants. He has attacked the X-Men on numerous occasions when they tried to stop him. He ripped the adamantium from Wolverine’s bones. And, he pretended to be Xorn, infiltrated the X-Men, manipulated the student’s of Xavier’s Academy into believing his philosophy, and attacked New York, killing millions (And, yes, I know these events have been retconned, but it was still done in his name). Also, over the years, his dream of mutant acceptance has been twisted in a dream of mutants ruling over humans, which wasn’t realized until Magneto’s daughter Scarlet Witch warped reality into giving many heroes their heart’s desire. However, these events ended with Magneto and most of the world’s mutants being turned into humans. Then, Magneto was repowered by Xorn and then depowered…or not. It’s hard to explain. Regardless of whether Magneto has his powers or not, he is a survivor. He survived the Holocaust and has died and come back many times. He is driven to see his goal of mutants no longer be persecuted but rather on top of the food chain, and nothing can stop him. You can’t keep Magneto down, and he will achieve his dream by any means necessary.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 14, 2008 15:15:22 GMT -5
Tomorrow, numbers 14-11. Here are the hints:
he made the one ring to rule them all, he will chase his enemy 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before he gives him up, it isn't safe to go in the water when it is around, and he IS!!!!
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 15, 2008 16:07:04 GMT -5
Countdown time, newbies. Here's number 14: 14. Sauron Who is he: The chief lieutenant of Morgoth, the second Dark Lord, and the forger of the One Ring. What is he from: The Lord Of The Rings. What has he done: Tried to become the absolute power in Middle-earth. Intelligence: Military genius. Power: Pretty much rules all that is evil in Middle-earth. Vileness: Wanted to bring about the total destruction of all that is fair and free in Middle-earth. Sway: Just the mention of his name brings about despair. Purity: Will stop at nothing to rule Middle-earth; also cares for that One Ring. Physical Prowess: Huge man with scary-looking armor, but only fights when he absolutely has to; and he had that scary looking Eye made out of fire. Name Coolness: “Sauron” is pretty cool. Created by: J.R.R. Tolkien. Portrayed by: Sala Baker played him in the opening scene of “The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring.” Sauron did appear in the 1978 animated film “The Lord Of The Rings,” but he wasn’t voiced by anyone Before The Creation Of The World: The cosmological myth prefixed to The Silmarillion explains how Eru (God), “the One”, initiated His creation by bringing into being innumerable spirits, “the offspring of his thought”, that were with Him before anything else had been made. The being later known as Sauron thus originated as an “immortal (angelic) spirit.” In his origin, Sauron therefore perceived the Creator directly. As Tolkien noted: “Sauron could not, of course, be a ‘sincere’ atheist. Though one of the minor spirits created before the world, he knew Eru, according to his measure.” In Elvish (Quenya) terminology, these angelic spirits were called Ainur (sg. Ainu). Those who entered the physical world were called Valar (sg. Vala), especially the most powerful, almost godlike ones. The lesser Valar, of whom Sauron was one, were called Maiar (sg. Maia). In Tolkien's letters, the author noted that Sauron “was of course a 'divine' person (in the terms of this mythology; a lesser member of the race of Valar)”. Though less mighty than the chief Valar, he was more powerful than many of his fellow Maiar; Tolkien noted that he was of a "far higher order" than the Maiar who later came to Middle-earth as the Wizards Gandalf and Saruman. As created by Eru, the Ainur were all good and uncorrupt, as Elrond stated in The Lord of the Rings: “Nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so.” Evil originated with the Vala Melkor. According to a story meant as a parable of events beyond human comprehension, Eru let His spirit-children perform a great Music, developing a Theme revealed by Eru Himself (see Ainulindalë). For a while the cosmic choir made wondrous music, but then Melkor tried to increase his own glory by weaving into his song thoughts and ideas that were not in accordance with the original Theme. “Straightway discord arose around him, and many that sang nigh him grew despondent...but some began to attune their music to his rather than to the thought which they had at first.” The Discord of Melkor would have dire consequences, for this singing was the very Song of Creation, a kind of template for the world to be made: “The evils of the world were not at first in the great Theme, but entered with the discords of Melkor.” However, “Sauron was not a beginner of discord; and he probably knew more of the ‘Music’ than did Melkor, whose mind had always been filled with his own plans and devices." Apparently Sauron was not even one of the spirits that immediately began to attune their “music” to that of Melkor, since it is elsewhere noted that his fall occurred later. Soon it was as if the discords of Melkor were at war with the themes of Eru, the cosmic Music now representing a conflict of good and evil. Finally, abruptly, Eru brought the Song of Creation to an end. To show the spirits, faithful or otherwise, what they had done, Eru gave independent being to the now-marred Music. This resulted in the sub-universe of Eä, where the drama of good and evil would play out and be resolved. Eru allowed the spirits who so wished to enter into the new world of Eä and follow its history from inside. Many did so, Sauron among them. By granting free will to enter into Eä, Eru allowed great evil, as well as great good. The First Age: Entering Eä at the beginning of time, the Valar and their Maia servants tried to build and organize the world according to the will of Eru. In their vast demiurgic efforts, Sauron emerged as “a great craftsman of the household of Aulë”. As the Vala of all crafts, Aulë taught his subordinate Maiar much about the structure, laws and substances of the world, and Sauron would always retain this “scientific” knowledge: “In his beginning he was of the Maiar of Aulë, and he remained mighty in the lore of that people.” Within the vast spaces of Eä, the Valar eventually concentrated their efforts on the realm of Arda, the Earth, where Elves and Men were destined to appear as the “Children of God.” But Melkor, who would later be known as Morgoth the Black Enemy, had also arrived in Arda. Fiercely desiring to become its supreme lord, he opposed the other Valar, who remained faithful to Eru and tried to carry out the Creator’s designs. Around this time, Sauron fell victim to Melkor’s corrupting influence: “In the beginning of Arda Melkor seduced him to his allegiance.” As for Sauron's motives, Tolkien noted that "it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall...) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction." Thus "it was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him." For a while, Sauron apparently kept up the pretence that he was a faithful servant of the Valar, all the while feeding Melkor information about their doings. Thus, when the Valar made Almaren as their first physical abode in the world, “Melkor knew of all that was done; for even then he had secret friends and spies among the Maiar whom he had converted to his cause, and of these the chief, as after became known, was Sauron.” Almaren was destroyed by Melkor, and the Valar established a new abode in the Uttermost West: the Blessed Realm of Valinor. They still did not perceive Sauron’s dubious loyalties, for he too became “a being of Valinor”. At some point, Sauron left the Blessed Realm and went to Middle-earth, the central continent of Arda. In one text, Tolkien wrote about Sauron that “in Valinor he had dwelt among the people of the gods, but there Morgoth had drawn him to evil and to his service.” It would seem that Sauron now definitely sided with Melkor. No longer just a spy and secret sympathizer, he deserted his service to the Valar and openly joined their great enemy: “Because of his admiration of Strength he had become a follower of Morgoth and fell with him down into the depths of evil.” After joining his new master in Middle-earth, he proved to be a devoted and capable servant: “While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the beginning he had adored. He thus was often able to achieve things, first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not complete in the furious haste of his malice.” “In all the deeds of Melkor the Morgoth upon Arda, in his vast works and in the deceits of his cunning, Sauron had a part.” In chapter 3 of The Silmarillion, Tolkien writes that by the time the Elves awoke in the world, Sauron had become Melkor’s lieutenant and was given command over the newly-built stronghold of Angband. To protect the Elves, the Valar made war on Melkor and captured him, but Sauron they did not find. Thus, “when Melkor was made captive, Sauron escaped and lay hid in Middle-earth; and it can in this way be understood how the breeding of the Orcs (no doubt already begun) went on with increasing speed.” In the Blessed Realm, Melkor feigned reform, but eventually breached the trust of the Valar and escaped back to Middle-earth. By then, Sauron had “secretly repaired Angband for the help of his Master when he returned; and there the dark places underground were already manned with hosts of the Orcs before Melkor came back at last, as Morgoth the Black Enemy.” Shortly after the return of Melkor-Morgoth, the Noldorin Elves also left the Blessed Realm of Valinor in the Uttermost West against the counsel of the Valar to wage war on Morgoth, who had stolen the Silmarils. In that war, Sauron served as Morgoth's chief lieutenant, surpassing all others in rank, such as Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs. Known as Gorthaur the Cruel, Sauron was at that time a master of illusions and changes of form; werewolves and vampires were his servants, chief among them Draugluin, Father of Werewolves, and his vampire herald Thuringwethil. When Morgoth left Angband to corrupt the newly-created Men, Sauron directed the war against the Elves. He conquered the Elvish island of Tol Sirion, so that it became known as Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves. Ten years later, Finrod Felagund, the king of Nargothrond and former lord of Tol Sirion, came there with Beren. He dueled Sauron and was defeated (in part because of the curse of Fëanor). Later, he died fighting a wolf in Sauron's dungeons to save Beren. Soon afterwards Lúthien and Huan the Wolfhound arrived, hoping to rescue Beren. Aware of a prophecy to the effect that Huan would be killed by the greatest wolf ever, Sauron himself assumed a monstrous wolf-like form and attacked him. But the prophecy actually applied to the still-unborn Carcharoth, and Wolf-Sauron could not prevail against Huan. In a frenzy of shape-shifting, Sauron slipped in and out of various animal-like shapes and finally back into his accustomed (apparently humanoid) form, but Huan had him by the throat. Lúthien gave him two choices: either to surrender to her the magical control he had established over Tol-in-Gaurhoth, or to have his body killed so that his naked ghost would have to endure the scorn of Morgoth. Sauron yielded, and Huan let him go. He fled in the form of a huge vampire bat, and Lúthien rescued Beren from the dungeons. Afterward Sauron spent some time as a vampire in the woods of Taur-nu-Fuin. Following the voyage of Eärendil to the Blessed Realm, the Valar finally moved against Morgoth. In the resulting War of Wrath, the Dark Lord was defeated and cast into the Outer Void beyond the world. But "Sauron fled from the Great Battle and escaped." Shocked by the overthrow of his master, Sauron repented (truly at first, if only out of fear). He assumed his most beautiful form and approached Eönwë, emissary of the Valar, who however could not pardon a Maia like himself. Through Eönwë, Manwë as Lord of the Valar "commanded Sauron to come before him for judgment, but [he] had left room for repentance and ultimate rehabilitation." Thus Sauron now had a genuine chance of rejoining the forces of good, but he would obviously risk being sentenced to long servitude as proof of his good will. Having wielded great power under Morgoth, Sauron was unwilling to face this humiliation, and so hid in Middle-earth. The Second Age: About five hundred years into the Second Age, Sauron reappeared. "Bereft of his lord...[he] fell into the folly of imitating him." "Very slowly, beginning with fair motives: the reorganizing and rehabilitation of Middle-earth, 'neglected by the gods,' he becomes a reincarnation of Evil, and a thing lusting for Complete Power," eventually rising to become "master and god of Men." In his early career as an independent power, he actually brought material wealth to his subjects: "He made himself a great king in the midst of the earth, and was at first well-seeming and just and his rule was of benefit to all men in their needs of the body; for he made them rich, who so would serve him. But those who would not were driven into the waste places... [He desired] to be both a king over all kings and as a god to men. And slowly his power moved north and south, and ever westward." Sauron eventually initiated a scheme that he hoped would enable him to subjugate the Elves as well. After assuming a beautiful appearance and calling himself Annatar, "Lord of Gifts," Sauron befriended the Elven-smiths of Eregion, and counseled them in arts and magic. To the Elves, Sauron hinted that he was an emissary of the Valar, specifically of the Vala Aulë whom the Noldorin Exiles held in high regard. (He called himself as well Aulendil, Friend of Aulë.) There was a grain of truth in this lie, since Sauron had indeed been attached to Aulë in the remote past before he joined Melkor. Some of the Elves distrusted this "Annatar" or "Aulendil", especially the Lady Galadriel in Lórien and Gil-galad, the High King of the Noldor. The Elves in Eregion, however, did not heed their warnings. With Sauron's assistance, the Elven-smiths forged the Rings of Power, which conferred great power to their bearers. The Elves did not seek "political" dominion, but rather magical powers that would let them maintain all things unstained. Sauron, however, saw that the Rings of Power could also be made into instruments of domination. He secretly forged the One Ring in the volcanic Mount Doom in Mordor. This "One Ring to rule them all" had the power to dominate the other Rings and enslave their wearers to Sauron's will. The Rings of Power were extremely potent, however, and to create an instrument that could dominate even them, Sauron was forced to place the greater part of his native power into it. Yet "while he wore it, his power on earth was actually enhanced". Sauron never intended others to use this Master-ring, and at the time he did not consider the fact that anyone of sufficiently strong will who possessed the Ring would have available to him much of Sauron's own power to dominate: “If that happened, the new possessor could (if sufficiently strong and heroic by nature) challenge Sauron, become master of all that he had learned or done since the making of the One Ring, and so overthrow him and usurp his place... There was another weakness: if the One Ring was actually unmade, annihilated, then its power would be dissolved, Sauron's own being would be diminished to vanishing point, and he would be reduced to a shadow, a mere memory of malicious will. But that he never contemplated nor feared. The Ring was unbreakable by any smithcraft less than his own. It was indissoluble in any fire, save the undying subterranean fire where it was made - and that was unapproachable, in Mordor... It was in any case on his finger.” When Sauron put on the One Ring, the Elves became aware of his intent. They recognized who "Annatar" really was, removed their Rings, and did not wear or use them anymore. Enraged, Sauron responded with military force, initiating the War of the Elves and Sauron and conquering much of the land west of Anduin. This began the Dark Years. He overran Eregion, killed Celebrimbor, leader of the Elven-smiths, and seized the Seven and the Nine Rings of Power that had been previously forged with his assistance (though Durin had already been given one of the Seven by Celebrimbor). The Three Rings, however, had been forged by Celebrimbor himself without Sauron's help. These rings were saved and remained in the hands of the Elves. According to The Lord of the Rings, Celebrimbor entrusted the Three to Gil-galad, Galadriel, and Círdan; but according to Unfinished Tales Gil-galad received two Rings, Galadriel one, and Gil-galad entrusted the third to Círdan. Sauron besieged Imladris, battled with Moria and Lórien, and pushed further into Gil-galad's realm. The Elves fought back, however, and with the aid of a powerful army from Númenor, they destroyed Sauron's army and drove the remnant back to Mordor. The Númenóreans held the most powerful kingdom of Men at this time; they were descended from the Three Houses of the Edain who helped the Elves in their war against Morgoth, and they lived on the island of Númenor in the seas between Middle-earth and Valinor. From this time on, Sauron became known as the Dark Lord of Mordor. He erected Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower, and built the Black Gate of Mordor to prevent any possible invasion. He distributed the remaining rings of the Seven and the Nine to lords of Dwarves and Men. Dwarves proved too resilient to bend to his will (instead being afflicted with greed), but the Men were enslaved to Sauron as the Ringwraiths, his most feared servants. Sauron regained control over most of the creatures that had served Morgoth in the First Age (such as Orcs and Trolls) though it is unclear whether the Balrog of Moria was under his command. The Dragons of the North were not, though according to Gandalf, Sauron apparently intended to form an alliance with Smaug. Sauron also gained power over most of the Men in the East and the South, becoming their god-king. The second Dark Lord was now at the height of his power, having become “almost supreme in Middle-earth… He rules a growing empire from the great dark tower of Barad-dûr in Mordor, near to the Mountain of fire, wielding the One Ring.” Towards the end of the Second Age, Sauron assumed the titles of Lord of the Earth and King of Men. In many ways, the new Dark Lord exceeded the first: “Sauron was ‘greater’, effectively, in the Second Age than Morgoth at the end of the First. Why? Because, though he was far smaller by natural [spiritual] stature, he had not yet fallen so low. Eventually he also squandered his power (of being) in the endeavour to gain control over others. But he was not obliged to expend so much of himself… [He] inherited [from Morgoth] the ‘corruption’ of Arda [the world], and only spent his (much more limited) power on the Rings; for it was the creatures of earth, in their minds and wills, that he desired to dominate. In this way Sauron was also wiser than Melkor-Morgoth.” (Morgoth had rather desired to control the very matter of the world.) One of Sauron’s more peculiar achievements in the Second Age was a constructed language: "It is said that the Black Speech was devised by Sauron in the Dark Years, and that he desired to make it the language of all those that served him, but he failed in that purpose.” A few samples of Black Speech are cited in Tolkien’s narratives, and he noted that it "was meant to be self-consistent, very different from Elvish, yet organized and expressive, as would be expected of a device of Sauron before his complete corruption." Sauron must have devised the Black Speech before he made the Ring, since it bore an inscription in that language, and it is interesting that Tolkien indicates that this was "before his complete corruption." Compare the above-cited statement that Sauron "had not yet fallen so low" as Morgoth had. The time would come, however, when Sauron was almost wholly consumed by evil. Tolkien wrote that he did not think there could be such a thing as "Absolute Evil" ("since that is Zero"), but "in my story Sauron represents as near an approach to wholly evil as is possible. He had gone the way of all tyrants, beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of the Earth. But he went further than human tyrants in pride and the lust for domination, being in origin an immortal (angelic) spirit." Toward the end of the Second Age, Ar-Pharazôn, the last and most powerful of the Númenórean kings, came to Middle-earth with massive armies, and Sauron's forces deserted him rather than fight. Realizing he could not defeat the Númenóreans with military strength, Sauron actually surrendered. Clad in a beautiful incarnation, he came to Ar-Pharazôn's camp and swore allegiance to the king. He even allowed himself to be taken as a prisoner to Númenor. This was, however, part of a cunning plan to corrupt Númenorean civilization from inside. "Sauron's personal 'surrender' was voluntary and cunning: he got free transport to Númenor." When Ar-Pharazôn in his arrogance took Sauron as a prisoner-hostage, he failed to realize whom he was dealing with: Sauron "was of course a 'divine' person...and thus far too powerful to be controlled in this way. He steadily got Arpharazôn's mind under his own control, and in the event corrupted many of the Númenóreans," destroying "the conception of Eru, now represented as a mere figment of the Valar or Lords of the West (a fictitious sanction to which they appealed if anyone questioned their rulings)". The Akallabêth, the account of the history of Númenor, does not specifically mention the Ring. In his letters, however, Tolkien noted that Sauron "naturally had the One Ring, and so very soon dominated the minds and wills of most of the Númenóreans. (I do not think Ar-Pharazôn knew anything about the One Ring. The Elves kept the matter of the Rings very secret...)" With the power of the Ring, Sauron quickly grew from captive to adviser of the king. He established himself as High Priest of Melkor, "Lord of the Dark," and a great temple was built where human sacrifice was carried out. Having dismissed Eru as a convenient fantasy of the Valar, Sauron portrayed Melkor as the true Lord of the World. Sauron "finally induces Arpharazôn, frightened by the approach of old age, to make the greatest of all armadas, and go up with war against the Blessed Realm itself, and wrest it and its 'immortality' into his own hands". Actually the land could not confer immortality to Men; moreover, Sauron knew perfectly well that it was utterly impossible for the Númenóreans to conquer the Valar. Sauron was deftly creating a situation where (as he thought) the Valar would wipe out the military force of Númenor and remove this threat to Sauron's own plans for world dominion. But Ar-Pharazôn did believe the lies of Sauron, and after years of massive armament, the greatest armada the world had ever seen landed on the shores of Valinor. However, the Valar did not react quite as Sauron had expected. "The Valar had no real answer to this monstrous rebellion, for the Children of God [Elves and Men] were not under their ultimate jurisdiction: they were not allowed to destroy them, or coerce them with any 'divine' display of the powers they held over the physical world. They appealed to God; and a catastrophic 'change of plan' occurred." This appeal of the Valar to Eru resulted in a massive divine intervention which demonstrated that Eru was not just an invention by the Valar. "At the moment that Arpharazôn set foot on the forbidden shore, a rift appeared: Númenor foundered and was utterly overwhelmed; the armada was swallowed up; and the Blessed Realm removed for ever from the circles of the physical world." This development had not been foreseen by Sauron; he had expected only that the Valar would destroy Ar-Pharazôn and the Númenórean armada. "Sauron was, of course, 'confounded' by the disaster, and diminished (having expended enormous energy in the corruption of Númenor)." In the Downfall of Númenor, Sauron's handsome body was destroyed, and he lost forever the ability to take beautiful and charming forms. Yet his spirit rose out of the abyss, and he was able to carry with him the one thing that mattered most. Wrote Tolkien, "I do not think one need boggle at this spirit carrying off the One Ring, upon which his power of dominating minds now largely depended." In the essay Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, Tolkien wrote that Sauron "took up" the Ring after returning to Middle-earth. This has made some readers conclude that Sauron had somehow hidden it before his cunning surrender to Ar-Pharazôn, only to recover it when he returned to Middle-earth. From the quotes above, it is however clear that Tolkien did imagine that Sauron possessed and used the Ring during his years in Númenor. After returning to Middle-earth, he "took up" the Ring simply in the sense that he started using it once again. In relatively short order Sauron assumed a new physical form and began to rebuild his forces. Now unable to take such fair shapes as he had used to deceive the Elves and seduce the Númenóreans, he assumed the form of a tall warrior with black armour on burning black skin and had terrible raging eyes, and could only rule through terror and force from then on. The few faithful Númenóreans were saved from the Downfall. With Elendil as their leader, they escaped the cataclysm and founded the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor among the Númenórean colonists and the natives of north-western Middle-earth. At first they believed that Sauron had perished in the Downfall, but it soon became evident that the Dark Lord had returned to Mordor. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien wrote that Elendil and his sons forged the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with Gil-galad to fight Sauron. The Alliance won a great victory on the plain of Dagorlad and invaded Mordor, laying siege to Barad-dûr for seven years. During the siege, Elendil's younger son Anárion was killed by a stone cast from the tower. Finally, Sauron was forced to emerge from his tower and fight, himself. In the battle on the slopes of Mount Doom, Sauron slew both Gil-galad and Elendil, though he himself was destroyed in the process. When Elendil fell, his sword, Narsil, broke beneath him. Taking up the hilt-shard of Narsil, Elendil's surviving son, Isildur, cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand. "Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places." Elrond and Círdan, Gil-galad's lieutenants, urged Isildur to destroy the Ring by casting it into Mount Doom, but he refused and kept it for his own: "This I will have as weregild for my father's death, and my brother's. Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?" A few years after the battle, Isildur's army, marching to Rivendell, was ambushed and overwhelmed by a band of Orcs: the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. Isildur put on the Ring and attempted to escape by swimming across Anduin, but the Ring, which had a will of its own and a desire to return to Sauron, slipped from his finger. He was spotted and killed by Orc-archers. The Ring would remain lost beneath the water for thousands of years. The Third Age: The traumatic loss of the Ring greatly weakened Sauron. He did not swiftly rebuild, as he had done following the Downfall of Númenor. Sauron spent the first thousand years of the Third Age as a shapeless, dormant evil. The Elves were now able to use the Rings of Power according to the original intentions of the Elven-smiths, and “for long they were at peace, wielding the Three Rings while Sauron slept and the One Ring was lost”. Galadriel used the power of the Ring Nenya to maintain her realm in Lothlórien, and Elrond using the Ring Vilya did the same in Rivendell. With the healing and maintaining power of the Rings, pockets of the ancient "Elvish world" could be maintained. In Lórien, visitors might feel that they had stepped back in time, as experienced by the Fellowship of the Ring later. The Elves were however aware that this situation might not continue indefinitely. Indeed "many voices were heard among the Elves foreboding that, if Sauron should come again, then either he would find the Ruling Ring that was lost, or at best his enemies would discover it and destroy it; but in either case the powers of the Three [Rings] must then fail and all things maintained by them must fade, and so the Elves should pass into the twilight and the Dominion of Men begin." A full millennium into the new Age, around the year 1050, a shadow of fear fell on the forest later called Mirkwood. As would later become known, this was the first intimation of Sauron manifesting yet again. He established a stronghold called Dol Guldur, “Hill of Sorcery”, in the southern part of the forest. In Mirkwood he was known as the Necromancer (mentioned briefly in The Hobbit), but the Elves did not recognize him at first. As he started to rebuild, Sauron’s ultimate aim was the same as before: world conquest. By now, the shock of the divine intervention at the Downfall of Númenor had worn off, and Sauron "probably deluded himself with the notion that the Valar (including Melkor) having failed, Eru had simply abandoned Eä, or at any rate Arda, and would not concern himself with it any more...he had ceased to fear God's action in Arda". Indeed he had arrived at a self-serving interpretation of the Downfall, assuming that Eru had acted not only against the Númenóreans, but also against the Valar: As the Blessed Realm was removed from the physical world, "Valar (and Elves) were removed from effective control, and Men [were] under God's curse and wrath." To Sauron, it seemed that the world was free for the taking. Actually the Valar were still concerned with the events in Middle-earth, and they were able to send agents back into the physical world. But according to the divine master-plan, Mortal Men were meant to inherit the world from the Elves. Thus "Sauron...was a problem that Men had to deal with finally: the first of many concentrations of Evil into definite power-points that they would have to combat." The Valar would not act to defeat Sauron in a massive intervention comparable to the War of Wrath that overthrew Morgoth; rather they made arrangements so that Sauron's enemies would themselves have a chance of defeating him. They sent a group of five Maiar incarnated in a humble form, as old (if agile) men: "[T]he purpose was precisely to limit and hinder their exhibition of 'power' on the physical plane, and so that they should do what they were primarily sent for: train, advise, instruct, arouse the hearts and minds of those threatened by Sauron to a resistance with their own strengths; and not just do the job for them. They thus appeared as 'old' sage figures." These figures arrived in Middle-earth about a thousand years into the Third Age, just as Sauron began to take shape yet again. For the longest time, they kept a low profile about their origin and purpose. In Middle-earth, they were known as the Wizards, and the most prominent of them came to be called Gandalf and Saruman. Círdan of the Havens, one of the few who knew that they had come from the Blessed Realm, perceived Gandalf as the wisest of the Wizards. He therefore gave to him Narya, the last of the Three Rings of the Elves. Around the year 1100, “the Wise” (the Wizards and the chief Elves) became aware that an evil power had made a stronghold at Dol Guldur. Initially it was assumed that this was one of the Nazgûl rather than Sauron himself. About the year 1300, the Nazgûl did indeed reappear, and their influence would have serious consequences for the nations established by the Númenórean exiles. Over the ensuing centuries, the Witch-king of Angmar (actually the chief Nazgûl acting on Sauron’s behalf) repeatedly attacked the northern realm of Arnor, first in 1409 and finally overrunning the realm in 1974. Six years later, comparatively quickly, the Witch-king was able to enter Mordor and gather the Nazgûl there. In 2000, the Nazgûl issued from the Black Land and took the city of Minas Ithil (later known as Minas Morgul) in one of the mountain-passes. Thereby they also captured an object that would prove most valuable to Sauron: a palantír, one of the seven Seeing Stones that Elendil’s people had brought with them from Númenor at the eve of the Downfall. In 2050 the Witch-king challenged Eärnur, childless king of the southern kingdom of Gondor; the King rode to Minas Ithil, but was never heard of again. From that point on, Gondor was ruled by Stewards. As the power of Dol Guldur kept growing, the Wise came to suspect that the controlling force behind the Witch-king and the other Nazgûl was indeed their original master, Sauron. In 2063, Gandalf the Wizard went to Dol Guldur and made the first attempt to ascertain the truth, but Sauron retreated and hid in the East. It would be almost four centuries before he returned to his stronghold in Mirkwood, and his identity remained undetermined. Sauron finally came back with increased strength in 2460. About the same year there occurred an event that went quite unnoticed at the time, but it would prove very decisive: The long-lost Ruling Ring was finally recovered from the river. It was found by a member of the river folk named Déagol. His relative Sméagol killed him for the Ring, and was eventually corrupted into the creature Gollum. He took the Ring, which he called his "Precious," and hid in the Misty Mountains. In 2850, Gandalf made a second attempt to spy out Dol Guldur. Stealing into the stronghold, he was finally able to confirm the identity of its lord, later reporting to the White Council of Elves and Wizards: “True, alas, is our guess. This is not one of the Úlairi [Nazgûl], as many have long supposed. It is Sauron himself who has taken shape again and now grows apace; and he is gathering again all the Rings to his hand, and he seeks ever for news of the One [Ring], and of the Heirs of Isildur, if they live still on earth.” Eventually the Wizards and chief Elves combined to put forth their might, and Sauron was driven out of Mirkwood in 2941. He had already planned his next move, however, and was willing to abandon Dol Guldur temporarily. Just before Sauron fled Dol Guldur, the peace-loving Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, on an improbable adventure with a party of Dwarves, stumbled across the Ring deep within the Misty Mountains. The Ring had abandoned Gollum, perhaps sensing the increasing power of its Master and wishing to return to him. By now, Gollum himself had become completely addicted to the Ring’s presence; he would spend the rest of his life in a pathetic search for his “Precious.” Bilbo used the power of the Ring to make himself invisible on several subsequent occasions, but was not evil himself and was slow to corrupt; Gandalf later remarked on the "sterner stuff" trait of Hobbits. Just like Gollum, he still developed a sinister attachment to the Ring, but with Gandalf’s help he was barely able to pass it on to his heir Frodo on his 111th birthday. (Any mortal possessing the One Ring stopped aging normally.) Sauron's power had now recovered to the point that he was able to extend his will over Middle-earth. The Eye of Sauron, as his attention and force of will was perceived, became a symbol of oppression and fear. Following his expulsion from Dol Guldur, he returned to Mordor in 2942, publicly declared himself nine years later, and started raising Barad-dûr anew. In preparation for a final war against Men and Elves, he bred immense armies of Orcs, augmenting them with Men from the East and South who (through their leaders) were in his service. The War of the Ring (The events in the Lord of the Rings trilogy): The three volumes of The Lord of the Rings tell the story of Sauron’s last attempt at achieving world dominion, as the Third Age reached its climax in the years 3018 and 3019. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf deduced that the Ring of Power that Bilbo had found in Gollum’s cave was indeed Sauron’s lost Master-ring. He informed Frodo about the true nature of the sinister heirloom Bilbo had left for him, and its terrible potential if Sauron should ever regain it: "The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance, break the last defences, and cover all the lands in a second darkness. He lacks the One Ring... So he is seeking it, seeking it, and all his thought is bent on it." Gandalf went for advice to Saruman the White, leader of the White Council, but discovered that Saruman had been corrupted by his long studies of Sauron. Using the palantír in the tower of Orthanc, Saruman was now in communication with the Dark Lord and acted as his ally, though he also secretly hoped to gain the Ring for himself and use its power to supplant Sauron. In either case, Saruman had totally betrayed the original mission of the Wizards, as defined by the Valar who sent them. Gandalf was held captive atop Orthanc for a time, but soon escaped with the help of one of the giant Eagles of Manwë. Having seized and tortured Gollum, Sauron learned that the Ring had been found by a Hobbit named "Baggins." Sauron sent the Nazgûl to the Shire, Bilbo's home, but Bilbo had left years earlier. The current possessor of the Ring, Frodo, was likewise on his way out of the Shire (on Gandalf's advice). The Nine Nazgûl pursued Frodo and his companions and nearly killed Frodo but were defeated near Rivendell. In Rivendell, Elrond convened a high council of the peoples of Middle-earth to decide how to handle the crisis. The council determined that the Ring must be destroyed where it was forged, since it was utterly impervious to any other flame than the volcanic fires at its place of making. Frodo and his friend Sam (Samwise Gamgee) joined the Fellowship of the Ring, accepting the council's mission to cast it into the volcano. Such a desperate quest would require them to penetrate Mordor itself and make it all the way to the Mountain right under Sauron’s nose, but otherwise the only conceivable way of defeating Sauron would be to actually use the power of the Ring against its maker. Then the one using the Ring would inevitably become infected by its evil and soon emerge as a new Dark Lord, as bad as Sauron or worse. This was a viable option only to a person like Saruman, who had already lost his moral compass. To the extent the Elves went along with the plan, they were deliberately bringing about the end of the Elvish age, which had been artificially prolonged and maintained by the power of the Elven-rings. It was widely expected that these Rings would stop functioning if Sauron's Ring should ever be destroyed, since the Dark Lord had made sure that all the lesser Rings were wholly bound up with the power of his own Master-ring. The dilemma of the Elves can be perceived in Galadriel's words to Frodo when the Fellowship came to her realm in Lothlórien: "Do you not see now wherefore your coming is to us as the footstep of Doom? For if you fail [to destroy the Ring], then we are laid bare to the Enemy [when Sauron recovers it]. Yet if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlórien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away [because the Elven-rings can no longer hold back time]." In The Two Towers, Saruman used his own army on Sauron's behalf and invaded Rohan. Gandalf, Théoden King of Rohan and the Ents, led by Treebeard, finally defeated Saruman's forces. His stronghold at Isengard was overthrown and Saruman left trapped within the Tower of Orthanc. Thus, one of Sauron's most powerful allies was neutralized. During Saruman's confrontation with Gandalf, the palantír of Orthanc fell into the hands of the Fellowship. Gandalf handed it over to Aragorn, a direct descendant of Isildur and Elendil and hence the rightful owner of the Stone. In The Return of the King, Aragorn used it to show himself to Sauron (who still controlled another Seeing Stone, the one captured from Minas Ithil centuries earlier). Aragorn was leading Sauron to think that he, a pretender to the throne of Gondor, now had the Ring and was preparing to turn its power against its maker. The Dark Lord was troubled by this revelation, and therefore attacked sooner than he had planned by sending an army to overthrow Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor. Immediately after the huge army left Mordor through the pass of Cirith Ungol, Frodo and Sam attempted to enter the Black Land the same way. They had been met by Gollum, whom Sauron had earlier released from captivity while letting him think that he escaped by accident (apparently Sauron hoped that Gollum would somehow lead him to the Ring). For a while, Gollum had acted as a guide for Frodo and Sam. However, he finally betrayed them to Shelob, a monstrous spider-like creature that Sauron regarded almost as a pet of sorts, using her to guard the pass. Gollum was in no way trying to help Sauron, but since the gargantuan spider would have no interest in the Ring, Gollum hoped to recover it from Frodo's remains when Shelob had finished her meal. In the end, Sam drove off both Gollum and Shelob, but not before the monster had bit Frodo and he appeared to have died from her venom. The Orcs found Frodo’s body and stripped him of his gear, but Sam (thinking his master dead) had already secured the Ring. Frodo regained consciousness and was freed by Sam, and the two started the gruelling journey across the plains of Mordor towards Mount Doom. At their closest approach to Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower was still about 30 miles away, and yet the horror of Sauron’s presence was almost like a physical sensation – a “threat that beat upon them as they went: the dreadful menace of the Power that waited, brooding in deep thought and sleepless malice behind the dark veil about its Throne”. The Orcs had sent Frodo’s gear to Barad-dûr, and apparently it was brought to Sauron’s own attention: His spokesperson (the Mouth of Sauron) would later taunt the Captains of the West by displaying Frodo’s equipment, letting them think the Hobbit had been captured. However, Sauron apparently dismissed the incident in Cirith Ungol as a foolhardy attempt to spy out the borders of Mordor. It literally never occurred to Sauron that his enemies were attempting to send the Ring into Mordor to unmake it at Mount Doom. Rather he took it completely for granted that they would try to access and use its power. Sauron regarded all his opponents, even up to Manwë Lord of the Valar, simply as rivals for world dominion and just as cynical as himself: “His cynicism, which (sincerely) regarded the motives of Manwë as precisely the same as his own, seemed fully justified in Saruman. Gandalf he did not understand." Exploiting this blindspot in Sauron's psychology had been Gandalf's strategy all along: "Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse [power], that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning." Although the army Sauron sent against Minas Tirith was defeated and the Chief Nazgûl destroyed, the Dark Lord still had sufficient armies in Mordor to recover his strength and, over the long term, win the war. Gandalf urged the captains of the West to march on Mordor to divert Sauron’s attention long enough to allow Frodo to complete his mission. If the Dark Lord saw Aragorn attempting to attack Mordor with an obviously inferior force, he would hopefully conclude that the Ring was giving Aragorn delusions of grandeur: “We must march out to meet him at once. We must make ourselves the bait, though his jaws should close on us. He will take the bait, in hope and in greed, for he will think that in such rashness he sees the pride of the new Ringlord.” Failure on the part of Frodo would return the Ring to Sauron, and with its power he would swiftly achieve dominion over all life on Middle-earth, so a "suicide" mission would be justified if only Frodo succeeded in the end. Aragorn marched on the Black Gate of Mordor with seven thousand men. After a brief encounter with the Mouth of Sauron, the battle was joined and went very poorly for the outnumbered Gondor/Rohan armies. Now convinced that Aragorn had the Ring, Sauron apparently reacted just as Gandalf had thought he would: “I will crush him, and what he has taken in his insolence shall be mine again for ever.” Even as the Captains of the West were about to be utterly defeated by the superior might of Sauron's grand armies, Frodo reached his goal, entering the fiery interior of Mount Doom. However, his will failed at the last moment. Unable to resist the growing power of the Ring, he put it on his finger and claimed it for his own. Sauron was instantly aware of him, and his gaze turned immediately to the Door in the Mountain. The fatal fallacy of Sauron’s entire way of thinking exploded into the Dark Lord’s face: “The magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare. Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him. For he knew his deadly peril and the thread upon which his doom now hung.” Despite his shock, Sauron responded swiftly to the threat he suddenly faced. Instantly recalling his remaining Nazgûl from the ongoing battle, he commanded them to hasten to Mount Doom in a desperate attempt to secure the Ring. Even riding their monstrous winged steeds, they were not to arrive in time: Gollum viciously attacked Frodo and bit the Ring from his finger. Ecstatic to finally recover his long-lost “Precious”, Gollum teetered on the edge of the abyss, then lost his footing and fell with the Ring into the fire. With “a roar and a great confusion of noise”, the One Ring perished along with all the power Sauron had invested in it, Gollum inadvertently achieving the Quest after Frodo’s failure. In the words of critic Paul H. Kocher: “The irony of evil is consummated by its doing the good which good could not do.” At the Ring's destruction, Sauron's power was immediately broken and his form in Middle-earth was destroyed. His departing spirit towered above Mordor like a black cloud, but was blown away by a powerful wind from the West (the direction of the Blessed Realm and the Valar). His vast empires collapsed, his armies lost heart and dispersed, the Dark Tower of Barad-dûr crumbled and the Nazgûl were consumed in a hail of fire from the Mountain. Sauron himself was crippled for all time. Thus, on March 25th, Third Age 3019, the long reign of terror of the second Dark Lord finally came to its ruinous end. Gandalf had predicted what the destruction of the Ring would mean to Sauron: "If it is destroyed, then he will fall, and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed." With the destruction of the Ring, Frodo was restored to sanity, and he and Sam were rescued from Mount Doom. Aragorn was crowned King of Gondor and Arnor. He restored the ancient line of Númenórean kings, to that extent mending Sauron's corruption of the lost island realm of Númenor back in the Second Age. As had been feared, all the lesser Rings of Power no longer worked once the Master-ring was gone. There was nothing more for the Elves in Middle-earth; they could no longer hold back time, and with the coronation of Aragorn the world moved into the Dominion of Men. The end of the Elvish age was the price that had to be paid for the downfall of Sauron. Galadriel, Elrond and many other great Elves took ship from the Grey Havens, sailing beyond the "Circles of the World" and going to the Blessed Realm by the grace of the Valar. Gandalf went on the same ship; after two millennia he had completed his mission as Sauron's adversary and returned home to Valinor. Frodo and Bilbo were also allowed to come. For their efforts and sufferings, the two Hobbits would be allowed to experience the Blessed Realm (unmarred by the evil of Morgoth and Sauron) before they fulfilled their destiny as mortals and moved beyond the world of Eä altogether. As for Sauron's own final state, Tolkien noted that he was said "to have fallen below the point of ever recovering, though he had previously recovered. What is probably meant is that a 'wicked' spirit becomes fixed in a certain desire or ambition, and if it cannot repent then this desire becomes virtually its whole being. But the desire may be wholly beyond the weakness it has fallen to, and it will then be unable to withdraw its attention from the unobtainable desire, even to attend to itself. It will then remain for ever in impotent desire or memory of desire." Thus Sauron was "damned" in the sense that he was "reduced to impotence, infinitely recessive." Defeating Sauron was not the final victory over "evil" as such. Even before Sauron's downfall, Gandalf told the captains of the West: "Other evils there are that may come, for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary." While Sauron in the Third Age surely perceived himself as his own master, he was ultimately serving the principle of evil itself, as introduced by Melkor before the world was even created. Though other "power-points" of evil were bound to arise in a world that was fundamentally marred, Sauron was indeed "the last of those in 'mythological' personalized (but non-human) form.” If any personal demon is ever to seek world dominion once again, it will happen in an eschatological perspective and involve Morgoth himself. It is foreseen that the spirit of Melkor-Morgoth will eventually recover and grow and take shape again. "It would do this (even if Sauron could not) because of its relative greatness." The "Second Prophecy of Mandos" predicts that Morgoth will return "when the world is old". At the Dagor Dagorath or “Battle of Battles”, Morgoth is destined to die at the hands of Túrin Turambar, but of another arising of Sauron, no prophecies foretell. Sometimes, a villain doesn’t actually have to fight in order to prove his villainy. There are a few villains on this list who have other people do their dirty deeds while they sit back and watch the destruction from the comfort of their lair. Sauron is definitely one of those villains. Hell, he doesn’t even really appear in the books that are named after him (he is the Lord of the Rings). And, he doesn’t really need to. I mean, he has enough Orcs to wipe out every good being on Middle-earth. Hell, he probably has the most subordinates of all the villains on this list. And, he sends nearly all of them to destroy the armies of good that oppose him. In a way, Sauron is like the French Taunter from “Monty Python And The Holy Grail”; he doesn’t come down from Mount Doom to fight you, but he is still a huge thorn in the side of his enemies. Also, there is the fear Sauron instills in people. The very mention of his name brings about despair in Middle-earth. And, he created a device to insure that he would succeed in his goal of ruling Middle-earth: the One Ring. This One Ring would be his instrument in controlling the Rings of Power, which Sauron sought to control and use their power to bring about the destruction of all that is good in Middle-earth. Since the other Rings were extremely powerful, Sauron had to place most of his native power, life force and will into it to affect his purpose. Creating the Ring simultaneously strengthened and weakened Sauron's power. On the one hand, as long as Sauron had the Ring, he could control the power of all the other Rings, and thus he was significantly more powerful after its creation than before; and, perhaps even more favorably, putting such a great portion of his own power into the Ring insured Sauron's invulnerability so long as the Ring existed. On the other hand, by bounding his power within the Ring, Sauron became dependent on it; without it he lost much of his power and when cut from his hand he was unable to regain a physical form for 2,500 years. Also, the One Ring he created passed on through the years to different wearers and corrupted some of them. Two notable ones are Isildur, who cut it from Sauron’s hand and chose to keep it rather than destroy, and it ultimately led to his death at the River Anduin; and Sméagol, who was corrupted by the ring into Gollum, killed his friend Déagol to possess the ring, and tried to kill Frodo to stop him from destroying it. In fact, Frodo himself became corrupted by the Ring and didn’t throw it into the lava of Mount Doom; Gollum bit of the finger holding the Ring and fell into the fires of Mount Doom, finally destroying it. Sauron’s evil was so powerful that it was bringing about the downfalls of people who simply held a ring that he made. However, it was this One Ring that ended up leading to Sauron’s downfall. Not only did the forging of the Ring weaken his power but the destruction of the Ring itself would bring about Sauron’s end. You see, the power he put into the ring was the power that was most important to him, the best part of his strength, and with it destroy, he would not be able to rise again. Basically, Sauron was defeated because he put his eggs in one basket. But, he had a good run and went out with a hell of a fight.
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Post by Smokey McTrees on Jun 15, 2008 17:02:38 GMT -5
UH-oh, is Jaws gonna have to choke a bitch?
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 15, 2008 17:14:39 GMT -5
13. Khan Who is he: One of a group of genetically engineered "supermen", a tyrant who was defeated in the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s who was cryonically frozen and discover by the U.S.S. Enterprise. What is he from: The Star Trek universe, most notably the “Space Seed” episode of the original Star Trek series and “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” What has he done: Was a tyrant in his time, tried to destroy the Enterprise, tried to kill Kirk for putting him on Ceti Alpha V. Intelligence: His genetically-superior mind is very knowledgeable about a great many things, but revenge clouds his mind, leading him to make mistakes and take unnecessary risks. Power: Was a tyrannical ruler in western Asia and rules Ceti Alpha V. Vileness: Blowing up harmless science vessels pales in comparison to those awful slug-things he put in people's ears. Sway: This guy was like a religious leader: extremely intimidating, charismatic, and confident. Purity: Had no mercy and was so consumed with revenge on Kirk. Physical Prowess: Possesses super-human strength and is an amazing physical specimen; bonus points for the great pecs and that wild hair. Name Coolness: “Khan Noonien Singh” is pretty cool. Created by: Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber. Portrayed by: Ricardo Montalbán, who played him in the “Space Seed” episode and the “Wrath Of Khan” movie. It was reported that Montalbán took a substantial pay cut to reprise his role of Khan, because he enjoyed playing the character so much. The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh: The two-volume set novels deal the live of Khan. Volume 1 deals mostly with the Chrysalis Project, which was how Khan Noonien Singh and the rest of the supermen were created. The genetically engineered "Children of Chrysalis" were mentally and physically superior to ordinary men and women. They were five times stronger than the average person, their lung efficiency was 50 percent better than normal, their heart valve action had twice the power of an average human, and their intelligence was double that of normal humans. When Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln begin to learn about this project, Roberta goes undercover as a scientist that wants to join the Chrysalis Project. The members of Chrysalis are convinced that she is who she claims to be, and she is allowed to join. Roberta heads out to an underground complex beneath the Thar Desert in India where the project is housed. Once there, Roberta begins to work out a way to stop the project. Roberta and Gary Seven finally decide that they should blow up the nuclear reactor that runs the underground complex. Of course, being humanitarian, they do not wish anyone to be harmed, so they give all of the scientists plenty of time to leave and Roberta uses Gary's matter transporter to get the children (including the then young Khan) to safety. The complex is destroyed, along with the project's head & Khan's birth mother, Sarina Kaur, who refused to leave her life's work. This was not the last time Khan would have to deal with Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln, however. Gary Seven kept tabs on Khan and initially hopes to train Khan as his successor. But, at the end of the book, Khan betrays Gary and Roberta and the hopes that Khan could be Seven's apprentice are completely shattered. In the second volume, Seven tries to prevent World War Three from breaking out. He has to deal with not only Khan though, but many of the other "Children of Chrysalis," most of whom are now major political figures (an African military strongman, a European dictator, an American leader of a separatist movement, and a religious cult leader, among others). The superhuman men and women begin to battle for power and several of them manage to gain influence. None, however, have more power than Khan. At first, Khan seems to be building an empire, but, after several assassination attempts by fellow supermen and riots of his people, he begins to lose everything. After Khan feels that he is doomed to be defeated, he begins to power up his Morning Star Satellite which will destroy the ozone layer and kill all life on earth after he dies. Seven shows up though, and convinces Khan that it would be better to forge a new life elsewhere using the stolen DY-100 sleeper ship that he and Roberta obtained from Area 51, the SS Botany Bay. Khan and a large group of the other superhumans leave on the ship in search of a better life. The novel ends in 1996 as Seven leaves Earth for retirement. “Space Seed”: On stardate 3141.9 (2267), the Federation starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, finds a derelict ship floating in space. The ship is a DY-100 class freighter that was modified as a sleeper ship for cryogenically-frozen passengers. Its hull identifies it as the SS Botany Bay, though there is no historical record of such a ship. It was launched from Earth sometime during the 1990s, in an era known as the Eugenics Wars. Scanning for signs of life, Dr. Leonard McCoy confirms that there is something still alive on board, but is not quite sure if it is human. A landing party consisting of Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, and historian Lt. Marla McGivers, is formed and beamed over to the freighter. Kirk had selected McGivers because she specializes in late 20th Century history and culture. As expected, the landing party finds the cargo of 84 humans, 72 of whom are still alive, remaining in suspended animation. Despite being nearly 300 years old, they have not aged a day. McGivers finds the stasis tube that contains the body of whom she believes may be the group's leader. Suddenly, the machinery of the capsule lights up and the male occupant inside appears to be reviving. McCoy realizes the life support system is failing and the occupant may die. Kirk breaks the glass door and pulls the man out to revive him. The man is taken back to the Enterprise for a medical examination. Kirk has the Botany Bay taken in tow by a tractor beam, and the Enterprise sets course for Starbase 12, in the Gamma 400 star system. Meanwhile in sickbay, Lt. McGivers marvels over the man, who is a living relic from an era she has studied all her life. McCoy believes he will recover shortly, and should be well enough to answer questions. McGivers leaves sickbay, and suddenly McCoy finds a sharp scalpel at his throat, courtesy of the patient. The man is awake, and demands to know where he is. McCoy responds by suggesting that if the man is going to kill him, he should do so by cutting the carotid artery quickly and cleanly. Impressed with McCoy's bravery, the man puts the scalpel down and introduces himself as "Khan." Mr. Spock discovers that the man is Khan Noonien Singh who, along with his people, were products of the Eugenics Wars, where genetic supermen were bred as perfect soldiers. The soldiers instead became warlords and dominated over one-third of the Earth (including seizing power in some forty nations). Toward the end of the Eugenics Wars, between eighty and ninety of them were unaccounted for. Khan is recorded as being the most dangerous of these warriors, who had dominated much of the world in his own right. In the meantime, Khan is given spacious quarters; however, he protests the armed guard and locked door. Lt. McGivers is sent to talk to him and debrief him on current events. It is clear that McGivers is falling in love with the handsome and powerful leader. Khan takes advantage of her overt kindness, and tells her that he plans to rule mankind once again, and needs her help to take over the Enterprise. At first McGivers refuses to help, but soon she falls more deeply for Khan's charms. Reluctantly, she tells Khan she will do whatever he asks. Khan and McGivers secretly beam over to the Botany Bay and revive the remaining survivors among the Eugenic supermen. They return to the Enterprise in force and seize control. Khan cuts off life support to the bridge, and the command crew passes out. Khan later throws Kirk into a decompression tank, and threatens to slowly suffocate him unless Kirk's command crew promises to follow Khan. Feeling guilty for betraying her ship, Lt. McGivers relents, and frees Kirk from the chamber. Kirk then helps Spock escape his captors, and the two vent nerve gas throughout the entire ship to disable Khan and his hijackers. Khan manages to escape the gas and heads down to Engineering, where he attempts to destroy the Enterprise, but Kirk runs in and a brawl ensues. Kirk is overmatched due to Khan's genetically superior physical strength, but he manages to pull a tool from a console, and using it as a weapon, knocks Khan out. When Khan and the hijackers are rounded up, Kirk holds a hearing to decide their fate. Kirk decides that Khan and his followers should be exiled, and picks Ceti Alpha V, a lush but treacherous world that Kirk believes would be perfect place for Khan to start his kingdom over again. Life on Ceti Alpha V will not be easy, but Khan, impressed with the idea, claims he is up to the challenge and accepts Kirk's offer. Instead of a lengthy court martial for Lt. McGivers, Kirk allows her to go into exile with Khan. Spock makes a statement at the end, saying that he'd like to see what Khan makes of Ceti Alpha V in 100 years, wondering at the "seed" his captain had planted, and what fruit it would bear. To Reign In Hell: The Exile Of Khan Noonien Singh: The book begins with Khan, Lt. Marla McGivers, and most of the other supermen and women that had been with him on the SS Botany Bay arriving on the Ceti Alpha V. Khan is given supplies and a phaser and begins to build a colony on the planet. Khan is challenged several times by his fellow supermen, but remains in control for the most part. Some time after arriving, the next planet in the Ceti Alpha system, Ceti Alpha VI, explodes and disrupts the orbit of Ceti Alpha V. This causes major climate changes and loss of plant and animal life. Khan and the supermen take refuge underground and Khan waits for Kirk to arrive and rescue him and his followers from the hell that has become of the planet. However, Kirk never comes. Throughout the novel, Khan blames his hardships on James Kirk for stranding him on the planet and never checking on him again. After more time passes, several supermen do not wish to follow Khan any longer and try to assassinate Khan by placing a Ceti Eel in Marla McGivers' ear. This bizarre creature causes her to do whatever is commanded of her, and the men order her to kill Khan. Marla's love for Khan allows her to resist enough to instead kill herself. The eel emerges from her ear after her death and Khan sees the reason why she died. After the failed assassination, the rebels leave the underground and form a new faction on the planet, taking control of the vital hot springs that provide the only water on the planet. Khan then battles them, losing many men and women, but winning in the end. At the end of the novel a few years later, Khan sees two men in space suits materialize on the planet's surface. “Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan”: The film opens with an unfamiliar female Vulcan in command of the USS Enterprise, but most of the familiar bridge crew (Spock, McCoy, etc.) are present. Attempting a rescue mission in the Klingon Neutral Zone, the Enterprise is attacked by three Klingon battle cruisers, with the apparent loss of all hands. The situation is soon revealed to be, in actuality, the "Kobayashi Maru Test", an intentional no-win situation designed to test the character of officers-in-training. The unfamiliar character is introduced as Captain Spock’s protégée, Lieutenant Saavik. Admiral James T. Kirk oversees the training session externally. At the same time, aboard the USS Reliant, First officer Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell are searching for a lifeless planet to serve as a testing ground for "Project Genesis", a device that reorganizes molecular matter on a sub-atomic level, turning barren environments into life-sustaining ones. They beam to the surface of a likely candidate, Ceti Alpha VI, and quickly become captives of Khan Noonien Singh. Khan and his followers were genetically-enhanced fugitives from the late 20th century who had been in suspended animation in space when they had been found by the Enterprise and the then-Captain Kirk. After Khan tried to kill the Enterprise crew and steal the ship, Kirk had banished them to Ceti Alpha V, which at the time had been a lush planet. Khan explains that Ceti Alpha VI exploded six months after their banishment, shifting the orbit of Ceti Alpha V to mirror that of Ceti Alpha VI (which is why the Reliant misidentified it) and causing an environmental disaster. Most of Khan's followers had died, including his wife, as a result and Khan still blames Kirk for his misfortunes. Khan employs the small offspring of a nasty indigenous animal (known to fans as the "Ceti Eel") to control Chekov and Terrell and forces them to reveal the details of their mission, and the whereabouts of Admiral Kirk. Later, the Enterprise is on a training voyage under the command of Captain Spock with Kirk observing. Kirk suddenly receives a garbled message from Space Station Regula I, a remote science laboratory where Kirk's former lover, Dr. Carol Marcus, and son, Dr. David Marcus, have been laboring to create the "Genesis Device". Informing Starfleet Command of the situation, the Enterprise is ordered to investigate. Although the crew are trainees, since they are now on an active-duty mission, Kirk assumes command. En route, Khan, now in control of the Reliant, attacks the Enterprise, crippling her and wounding or killing many of the trainees. During negotiations over the terms of the Enterprise's surrender, Khan reveals his knowledge of, and desire for, the Genesis Device. Kirk offers to deliver himself and "Project Genesis" information to Khan, in return for the safety of the Enterprise's crew. Unknown to Khan, Federation Starships can issue orders to each other when the recipient ship's 'prefix code' is used. While ostensibly recalling the Genesis information from the Enterprise's databanks, Kirk and Spock command Reliant to lower her shields. Kirk launches a successful counterattack, crippling the weapons and warp drive on the Reliant, ensuring Khan can not escape but forcing him to retreat. The Enterprise makes its way to Regula I, where they find most of the Genesis team dead, though some, including Carol and David, have escaped deep inside the planetoid of Regula itself. Chekov and Terrell are also present, but under hypnotic suggestion as spies, allowing Khan to steal the Genesis Device. Khan then orders Terrell to kill Kirk, but Terrell cannot and kills himself instead, while Chekov overcomes the influence of his own "Ceti eel" and faints. Kirk and Spock arrange a rendezvous in code, which Khan fails to decipher; upon returning with the Regula survivors, Kirk takes the Enterprise into the nearby Mutara Nebula, which will interfere with both ships' defenses and weapons. Despite the advice of his lieutenants, Khan pursues in the Reliant. After a game of cat-and-mouse (both starships are more-or-less blinded by the nebula), the two ships exchange fire. Khan's lieutenant and friend, Joachim, is slain; on the Enterprise, radiation leakage forces the warp engine to fail and go offline. Though intelligent, Khan lacks Kirk's strategic experience, and the Enterprise is able to outmaneuver and then cripple the Reliant, killing all of Khan's remaining followers. Khan, mortally injured, activates the Genesis Device, which will reorganize all matter within the nebula—including the Enterprise. Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of the Genesis Device and begins to lumber away using the impulse engines, without warp drive they will not be able to escape the nebula in time. Spock goes to Engineering and, despite taking a fatal dose of radiation poisoning, restores the warp drive, allowing the Enterprise to escape the Genesis explosion. A burial in space is held, and Spock's coffin is sent into orbit of the new planet that the Genesis explosion created. Admiral Kirk and his son, David, make peace, and the crew leaves Genesis reminiscing about Spock. In the final scene the coffin is seen to have soft-landed on the planet. The final monologue, the familiar (but slightly altered) "Space, the final frontier...", is delivered in Spock's voice. “The Wrath Of Khan” is a very appropriate title for the second Star Trek film. Khan is filled with wrath, a insatiable, bloodthirsty hunger for revenge against Captain James T. Kirk. He wants Kirk dead for putting him and his people on Ceti Alpha V after Khan tried to take over and destroy the Enterprise. It was a nice planet, until Ceti Alpha VI blew up, altered Ceti Alpha V’s orbit, and turned the planet into a hellhole. However, Kirk had no idea that would ever happen. But, that doesn’t matter with Khan. The man is consumed with seeing Kirk dead. Khan hasn’t always been a nice guy. Back in the time of the Eugenics Wars, Khan was a tyrant ruler of western Asia. He ruled with a firm but peaceful hand, but he was considered so dangerous that genetic engineering was banned for centuries out of fear of creating another one of him. And, in the “Space Seed” episode, he tried to destroy the Enterprise. However, Khan is presented as having several good aspects. He is gracious, smiling, nodding, and giving praise when Kirk wins a debating point; fearless; and generous. He is not threatened by the success of others, and encourages their self-esteem. He is also ambitious, desiring a challenge commensurate with his abilities. However, this ambition is not tempered by any consideration of the rights of others. And, ironically, he is a mirror image of Kirk, sharing his aggressiveness, ambition, and even his womanizing tendencies, but possessing them in far greater degree. During the TV episode, several of the characters including Scotty and Kirk express their admiration for the man, whilst ambivalently opposing him at the same time. But, he is still a cruel son of a bitch. For one, he put those ear slugs in Chekov and Terrell’s brain that will wrap around their cerebral cortex, allowing the host to become open to any suggestion until the slug grow and kill the host by expanding until the head explodes. However, it is his quest for revenge that makes him such an evil man. Khan won’t stop until Kirk is dead: “I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up.” And, he has a cruel death in store for Kirk: “Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? [pause] It is very cold in space!” Even to the end, Khan is willing to die before he gives up his quest for vengeance against Kirk, with his dying breath quoting Moby Dick, a novel about another captain obsessed with revenge: “From hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.” And, that is just what happens: Khan dies before he gets his revenge.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 15, 2008 17:46:10 GMT -5
12. The Shark Who is it: A shark. What is it from: The Jaws novel and films. What has it done: Killed a lot of people. Intelligence: It’s an animal, but it appears to be smart than usual. Power: It’s stronger that humans. Vileness: Ate that beautiful blonde girl at the beginning of the film, that BASTARD!!!! Sway: Had the town of Amity Island scared to death. Purity: Only wants to eat. Physical Prowess: Like I said, it’s a shark. Name Coolness: It didn’t really have a name, unless you count “Jaws” (which is pretty cool) or “Bruce,” (which is just an average name) the name of the mechanical sharks that was used in the film. Created by: Peter Benchley. Portrayed by: Bruce the Shark, aka three mechanical sharks built for the film. They called them “Bruce” after Steven Spielberg’s lawyer. “Jaws”: The film begins at a late night beach party on Amity Island. A young woman named Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie) leaves to go skinny dipping. While in the water, she is suddenly jerked around by an unseen force and then pulled under. The next morning, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) is notified that Chrissie is missing. Brody and his deputy, Hendricks, find her mangled remains washed up on the shore. The medical examiner informs Brody that the victim's death was caused by a shark attack, prompting him to close the beaches. Before he can do so, he is intercepted and overruled by town Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton). Vaughn is concerned that reports of a shark attack will ruin the summer tourist season, especially the upcoming Fourth of July celebration, as it is the town's major source of income. Vaughn instead proposes a theory that the victim was hit by a boat propeller. After the town medical examiner backs up the mayor's story, Brody reluctantly goes along with it. A few days later, a young boy named Alex Kintner is attacked and eaten by a shark while swimming off a crowded beach. His mother places a $3,000 bounty on the animal, sparking an amateur shark hunting frenzy and attracting the attention of the professional shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw). Quint interrupts a town meeting to offer his services; his demand for $10,000 is taken "under advisement". Brought in by Brody, marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) conducts an autopsy of the first victim and concludes she was killed by a shark. A large tiger shark is caught by a group of novice fishermen, leading the town to believe the problem is solved, but an unconvinced Hooper asks to examine the contents of the shark's stomach. Vaughn refuses to make a public spectacle of the "operation," so Brody and Hooper return after dark and learn that the captured shark does not have human remains inside. Using Hooper's state-of-the-art boat they come across the half-sunken wreckage of a local fishing vessel. Hooper dons scuba and discovers another victim, the boat's owner Ben Gardener. He also discovers a great white shark tooth in the hull, but drops it after he sees the head of the owner, therefore leaving no proof of the shark. Vaughn still refuses to close the beach and on the Fourth of July the beaches are mobbed. While a prank triggers a false alarm and draws the authorities' attention, the real shark enters an estuary, kills another man and nearly snatches one of Brody's sons. Brody forces the stunned mayor to hire Quint. Brody and Hooper join the hunter on his boat, the Orca, and the trio set out to track down the man-eater. At sea, Brody is given the task of laying a chum line, while Quint uses a large fishing pole to try to snag the shark; the first results are inconclusive. As Brody continues to chum, the enormous shark suddenly looms up behind the boat. After a horrified Brody announces its presence ("You're gonna need a bigger boat!"), Quint and Hooper watch the great white circle the Orca, and estimate the new arrival weighs 3 tons (2.7 metric tonnes) and is 25 feet (8 m) long. Quint harpoons the shark with a line attached to a flotation barrel, designed to weigh the fish down and track it on the surface, but the shark pulls the barrel under and disappears. Night falls without another sighting and the men retire to the boat's cabin, where they compare scars and Quint tells of his experience with sharks as a survivor of the World War II sinking of the USS Indianapolis. The shark reappears, damages the boat's hull, and slips away before the men can harm it. In the morning, while the men make repairs to the engine, the barrel suddenly reappears at the stern. Quint destroys the radio to keep Brody from calling the Coast Guard for help. The shark attacks again, and after a long chase, Quint harpoons it to another barrel. The men tie the barrels to the stern, but the shark drags the ship backwards, forcing water onto the deck and into the engine, flooding it. Quint harpoons it again, attaching three barrels in all to the shark, while the animal continues to tow them. Quint is about to cut the ropes with his machete when the cleats are pulled off the stern. Quint powers his boat towards shore with the shark in pursuit, hoping to beach it. In his obsession with outracing the fish, Quint over-revs his damaged engine, causing it to explode. With the Orca immobilized, the trio try a desperate approach; Hooper dons his scuba gear and enters the ocean inside a shark proof cage: he intends to stab the shark in the mouth with a hypodermic spear filled with strychnine nitrate. The shark instead destroys the cage, causing Hooper to lose the spear and flee to the seabed. As Quint and Brody raise the remnants of the cage, the shark throws itself onto the boat, crushing the transom, causing the boat to begin sinking. Quint slides into the shark's mouth, slashing at it in vain with his machete, before being pulled under and devoured. Brody retreats to the boat's cabin, now partly submerged, and throws a pressurized air tank into the shark's mouth as it rams its way inside. Brody takes Quint's M1 Garand rifle and climbs the mast of the rapidly-listing boat, where he temporarily fends off the attacker with a harpoon. The shark circles around and charges one last time at Brody, who starts firing the rifle at the tank still jammed in the shark's mouth. Snarling "Smile, you son of a...bitch!", he scores a hit, rupturing the tank and turning it into a makeshift torpedo, which blows the shark's head to pieces and sends the rest of its body to the bottom of the ocean in a cloud of blood. Hooper surfaces and reunites with Brody, and the two survivors use the leftover barrels to construct a makeshift raft and paddle back to Amity Island. “Jaws 2”: Two divers discover the wreck of the Orca, Quint's boat. As they are taking photographs, they are attacked and killed by a great white shark. The next day, Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) receives a report that there is an abandoned yacht in the nearby channel. He orders Deputy Hendricks (Jeffrey Kramer) to investigate and recover the underwater camera from the missing divers. Meanwhile, the shark attacks a water skier called Terri and drags her into the water. Terri tries to pull herself up but fails and gets eaten. The driver of the speedboat defends herself by first throwing a gasoline tank at the shark (accidentally spilling some on herself), and then igniting the fuel with a flare gun. The shark begins to burn, as does the inside of the boat and the driver. Then the fire ignites the actual gas tank, and the speedboat explodes. A woman who lives on the beach sees the explosion and reports it to the authorities. The shark manages to escape, but is severely scarred. Brody becomes suspicious after no remains of the water skier or the driver are found in the wreck. Meanwhile, Deputy Hendricks searches for the remains of the victims, accidentally hooking an underwater power line. In addition to these strange disappearances, a killer whale bearing large wounds is beached, which Brody guesses were caused by a shark. A marine biologist, Dr. Elkins (Collin Wilcox) is skeptical, but she confirms to Brody that sharks are attracted to blood, movement, and sound, like sonar or radar. Brody has a meeting with Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) to discuss the possibility that the town is having another shark problem. Vaughn doesn't believe him and warns Brody not to do something hasty. Later, Brody spots a section of the ruined speedboat bobbing in the surf just off the beach, and when he goes to retrieve it, encounters the burnt remains of the boat driver. That night, Brody injects sodium cyanide into a dozen cartridges. Brody tries to contact Matt Hooper but he is out on a expedition at sea. Angered by his older son Mike's (Mark Gruner) reluctance to find a summer job and concerned that he wishes to be out on the ocean sailing, he grounds him, getting him a summer job doing maintenance work at the beach. The next day, from atop an observation tower, Brody believes that he sees the shadow of a large shark approaching the bathers. He orders everyone out of the water, brandishing his gun and creating a panic, and is publicly humiliated when the shadow is revealed to be merely a school of bluefish. However, Brody's suspicions are further fueled when he also acquires prints from the diver's camera showing close-ups of the shark's eye. Brody's suspicions are not shared by the town selectmen and local developer Len Peterson (Joseph Mascolo) at a time when the town is enjoying a revival in its tourist industry. Angry with his performance on the beach, Brody is fired. The next morning, Mike sneaks out of his house to go sailing with his friends, but his younger brother Sean (Marc Gilpin) catches him and insists he be brought along. The teens head out to sea for a sailing regatta. On their way, they pass a team of divers, led by instructor Tom Andrews (Barry Coe). Moments after entering the water, Tom encounters the shark. Panicking, he rushes to the surface, causing an embolism. Meanwhile, two of the teens, Tina (Ann Dusenberry) and Eddie (Gary Dubin), are making out in the middle of the ocean when the shark bumps their boat and Eddie falls into the water. Eddie does not survive the shark attack, which leaves Tina alone in the ocean. Brody drives Ellen (Lorraine Gary) to work, notices an ambulance speeding to the docks and follows it. They find Tom is being put into an ambulance and Brody suspects that something might have scared him below the water. Hendricks inform Brody that their sons are sailing with others, so he insists on taking the police launch to rescue them. Ellen and Hendricks join him. They encounter a floating sailboat with Tina hiding under a blanket inside. She hysterically confirms Brody's suspicions that a shark is responsible. Hendricks and Ellen take Tina into shore while Brody continues to search for the teens in the police launch. All seems well with the teens until the shark appears, bumping one of the sailboats, and causing a panic which leaves everyone ramming each other with their sailboats. Mike is knocked unconscious after banging his head on a metal fitting and is nearly eaten by the shark before two of his friends can pull him out of the water. They save Mike and head back to shore for help. The rest of the teens are floating on the wreckage and tangled boats, drifting away towards the open sea. A Coast Guard marine helicopter spots them, and a line is rigged to tow them into shore. Before the pilot can tow them, the shark attacks one of the pontoons, causing the chopper to tilt and capsize, and drown the pilot. Sean falls into the water and is quickly saved by Marge (Martha Swatek) who heaves him up out of the water onto a floating hull, but she cannot pull herself up when the shark devours her. Brody meets Mike and he informs his father that Sean is still drifting towards Cable Junction with the others. Brody quickly finds them, but the shark appears and Brody runs the police launch aground on the rocks of Cable Junction. Brody tries to tie a rope line, but snatches an underwater power line instead. The teenagers swim to Cable Junction, and the shark manages to scrape one of the teens. Using an inflatable raft, Brody taunts the shark by pounding the power line with an oar, and entices the beast to bite on the power cable and get electrocuted. Brody paddles the raft over to the sailboat wreckage and helps Jackie, one of the teens, and Sean get into the raft. He then paddles them back towards the other teens at Cable Junction. “Jaws 3-D”: The oldest son from the first two Jaws films, Michael Brody (played by Dennis Quaid) now works for SeaWorld in Florida, which is preparing for the launch of its new "Undersea Kingdom," a set of tunnels where people can "view the wonders of the deep without ever getting wet." The film opens with a great white following a team of waterskiers, among them Kelly (Lea Thompson). Their boat stalls, but then its driver gets it going again before anyone is attacked. Michael Brody is the chief engineer and lives with his girlfriend, Katherine Morgan (Bess Armstrong), who is senior biologist at the park. Katherine and her assistants, Dan and Liz, wonder why the dolphins are acting so afraid of leaving their pen. As Sean (John Putch), Michael's brother, arrives to visit, he reveals a deep fear about the water caused by the events depicted in Jaws 2. Kelly, after meeting Michael, Sean, and Katherine in a bar, tries to dispel the phobia by playing in the water naked at nighttime. Meanwhile, Shelby Overman (Harry Grant), one of the mechanics, dives into the water at dusk to repair the gates. He is attacked by a shark and killed, only leaving a severed arm. They are informed of his disappearance by Charlene, a woman with whom Overman is living. She is quite irate at his failing to return, and fears the worst. The next day, Michael and Katherine go down in a submarine to check the tunnels and find Overman. They decide to go into a piece of scenery, the Spanish galleon, although encouraged by Katherine's two dolphins to stay away. They continue the search, leaving the submarine, only to be assaulted by a great white. The dolphins, having sensed trouble from the start and visibly beseeching Kay to stay in the sub, respond to Kay's waving hands. They heroically rescue Mike and Kay by allow them to ride them back to the safety of their dolphin pen. This information is at first disbelieved by park owner Calvin Bouchard (Louis Gossett, Jr.), but is quite exciting to his friend, the hunter Phillip FitzRoyce (Simon MacCorkindale). Kay protests FitzRoyce's intent to kill the creature, so capturing it is the decided course. The baby great white is captured and nursed to partial health by Katherine and Liz. Calvin orders it exhibited as being the first Great White in captivity, but it dies within minutes. Meanwhile, Kelly forces Sean to join her on the bumper boats, not granting any credence to his fear of the sea. But, at the underwater tunnel, a girl is terrified when she sees a hideous corpse, later revealed to be Overman, bob up to a window. Katherine reveals that the bites came from a shark with a mouth a yard across, which is initially ridiculed by FitzRoyce, saying "That would indicate a shark of some 35 ft. in length", which is too big for a normal Great white. That means that the shark's mother has also breached the gates of the park, but she can't convince Calvin of this fact until the shark herself shows up at the window of their underwater cafe. The shark exacts her revenge, first by causing a leak that nearly drowns everyone in the underwater tunnel. She then turns her attention to everyone on the beach. She fails to capture the waterskiers, but capsizes Sean and Kelly's bumper boat, and Kelly gets a laceration from the shark's coarse skin. FitzRoyce leads the shark into the filtration pipes where the water from the ocean is brought into the lagoon, hoping to trap her inside. However, he drifts right into her mouth after his lifeline rope snapped. He prepares a grenade, but he is crushed to death before he can use it. Unaware of this, Michael has gone down to repair the underwater tunnel so the technicians can restore air pressure and drain the water, with Katherine to watch his back. He welds the repair piece, but, with no pressure in the pipe to restrain her, the shark breaks free of the filtration pipe and attacks Kaye again, but as usual, she is protected by her dolphins. They return to the control room with Calvin and the technicians. But, the shark smashes through the acrylic glass, flooding the room. As everyone tries to escape, Mike notices that FitzRoyce's body is still resting in the shark's mouth with the grenade. Mike uses a pole to detonate the grenade and it explodes, blowing the shark to pieces. Kaye and Mike float up to the surface, explaining that Calvin managed to rescue the female technician, though the shark attacked the male technician and dropped him. But Kaye is terrified for her dolphins, until they triumphantly show up in a splash, performing the tricks they refused to do since the movie's beginning. “Jaws: The Revenge”: The story returns to the Brody family in Amity Island. Martin Brody had died of a heart attack, although his widow, Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary), claims that "it was the fear [of the shark] that killed him." She discusses with her youngest son Sean (Mitchell Anderson), and his fiancée Tiffany (Mary Smith), arrangements for the Christmas season. Now working as a police deputy in Amity, Sean is dispatched to clear a log from a buoy. As he does so, he is attacked by a shark. He is killed as his screams are drowned out by the carol singers on the island. Ellen is convinced that the shark had deliberately targeted Sean due to some evil curse, and visits her eldest son, Michael (Lance Guest), in the Bahamas. Michael now works as a marine biologist, fearing he will be attacked next by the shark. Ellen hopes to convince him to take up a new job on dry land. She meets Hoagie (Michael Caine), and they begin dating. Michael's wife Carla (Karen Young) is an artist and one day during her art exhibit, Ellen's granddaughter Thea (Judith Barsi) asks if she can go out on a banana boat with her friend Margaret and her mother (Diane Hetfield). The shark attacks the boat with Thea on it. The shark ends up devouring Margaret's mother in the process with blood flying everywhere. Ellen becomes convinced that the shark has tracked her family to the Bahamas. She takes a boat out to sea on her own, intent on confronting and killing the shark to break the curse, or sacrificing herself hoping the shark will leave her family alone. Hoagie flies Michael and his friend Jake (Mario Van Peebles) out to sea so that they can find Ellen quickly. Hoagie lands the plane on the sea, but the shark sinks it. Looking out for the shark while using a device that emits electromagnetic impulses to drive the shark mad, Jake moves to the end of the prow. The shark unexpectedly leaps from the surface of the water to grab Jake, biting into him and dragging him beneath the surface in a gory fashion. The device causes the shark to repeatedly leap out of the water and Ellen steers the boat directly for the shark, impaling it on the broken bowsprit killing it. After killing the shark, they find Jake wounded but not dead and are able to save him. Near the end of the film, Ellen is relieved that the curse of the shark is no longer on her family. The film ends as Hoagie flies Ellen back to Amity Island. Sometimes, a good monster doesn’t have to be an actual monster. I mean, sure, the Xenomorphs and Predators are pretty damn scary. But, the animals that actually exist on this earth can be just as scary as any alien. And, the shark from “Jaws” proves that. Hell, that shark conjured up so many scares that beach attendance was down in the summer of 1975 due to the film’s profound impact. Though a horror classic, that shark is widely recognized as being responsible for fearsome and inaccurate stereotypes about sharks and their behavior. Peter Benchley has said that he would never have written the original novel had he known what sharks are really like in the wild. He later wrote Shark Trouble, a non-fiction book about shark behavior and Shark Life, another non-fiction book describing his dives with sharks. Conservation groups have bemoaned the fact that the film has made it considerably harder to convince the public that sharks should be protected. That damn shark was so damn scary that it has cause trouble for its real world counterparts. And, there were a lot of things in that original “Jaws” movie that conjured up some many fears. For one, that cello music that played whenever the shark showed up helped. That soft, building music can give people goosebumps even before the great white appears. And, when it does, that shark is vicious and merciless, ripping people in half and eating anyone, from little kids to beautiful blonde girls whose only crime in the world was wanting to skinny dip in the ocean at night (GODDAMN YOU, SHARK!!!!). That shark has come to represent a lot of man’s fears over the years: fear of the unknown, fear of the wild, fear of ourselves and our own brutality and ambition. And, it just looks scary, with its cold, black, “doll’s eyes” and razor sharp teeth. The interesting thing about the shark is that over the years it grown from wild animal into a creature of such great villainous proportions that only our imaginations know the boundaries. Hell, not even three crappy sequels have been able to kill the impact of the fear it created in the first “Jaws” movie. Thanks to the shark in “Jaws,” no one has felt safe in the water since the summer of 1975.
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Post by MM is on a Drunken Patera Rant on Jun 15, 2008 18:05:09 GMT -5
Okay I've only gotten to number 94 but already I love this f***ing thread and countdown. Good job man.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 15, 2008 18:43:26 GMT -5
11. Darkseid Who is he: The tyrannical dictator of Apokolips. What is he from: DC Comics, most notably the Superman comics, Jack Kirby’s Fourth World titles, The Great Darkness Saga, Legends, Cosmic Odyssey, Our Worlds At War, Crisis On Infinite Worlds, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. What has he done: Ruled Apokolips with an iron fist, waged war with New Genesis tried to make Supergirl one of his followers, attacked the Amazons, the Martians, Earth, and countless other peoples throughout the DC universe. Intelligence: Superhumanly smart and a master schemer and strategist. Power: Rules Apokolips and possesses many powerful technologies. Vileness: He rules a planet called “Apokolips,” which definitely indicates he is not a nice guy. Sway: Fear and intimidation is how he get things done on his planet. Purity: Is consumed with obtaining the “Anti-Life Equation,” which will give him dominion over all living creatures in the DC universe. Physical Prowess: Huge man who looks like he’s made of stone, with superhuman strength, stamina, and durability and has the power of the Omega Beams, twin energy beams he emits from his eyes and can be used as either concussive force or beams of disintegration, capable of erasing most objects and organisms from existence as well as reform them; he also has pinpoint control over his Omega Beams, and his unerring aim allows them to travel in straight lines, bend, twist, or curve around corners, and can pass through matter and energy. Name Coolness: “Darkseid” is pretty cool. Created by: Jack Kirby. Portrayed by: Frank Welker did the voice of Darkseid on the animated series Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. Michael Ironside did the voice on the 1990s WB cartoon Superman: The Animated Series and Cartoon Network’s Justice League series. David Sobolov does the voice in the video game Justice League Heroes. Comics: The son of Yuga Khan and Queen Heggra, Prince Uxas, second in line to the throne of Apokolips, plotted to seize power over the planet. When his brother, Drax, attempted to claim the fabled Omega Force, Uxas murdered him and took the power for himself; transforming him into a rock-like creature, and taking a new name: Darkseid. At some point, he falls in love with an Apokoliptian scientist named Suli, with whom he has a son, Kalibak; however Suli is poisoned by Desaad on Heggra's behalf, who believes that Suli was corrupting her son. Following Suli's death, Darkseid's heart grew even colder, and has Desaad poison Heggra, finally becoming the supreme monarch of Apokolips. Darkseid had briefly been forced by his mother to marry Tigra, with whom he also had a son; after murdering his mother, Darkseid had both Tigra and their son, Orion, banished on Apokolips. The destructive war between the rival planet, New Genesis, is stopped only with a diplomatic exchange of the sons of Highfather and Darkseid. Darkseid's second born son is surrendered to Highfather, while Darkseid receives Scott Free, who later becomes the master escape artist Mister Miracle. This eventually turns out to be a setback for Darkseid, with his biological son growing up to value and defend the ideals of New Genesis in opposition to his father; it has been foretold that Darkseid will meet his final defeat at the hands of his son in a cataclysmic battle in the fiery Armaghetto of Apokolips. Seeing other gods as a threat, Darkseid invades the island of Themyscira in order to discover the secret location of the Olympian gods, planning to overthrow the Olympians and steal their power. Refusing to aid Darkseid in his mad quest, the Amazons battle his parademon troops, causing half of the Amazon population's death. Wonder Woman is able to gain her revenge against Darkseid for killing so many of her sisters by placing a portion of her own soul into Darkseid. This supposedly weakened the god's power as he lost a portion of his dark edge. Darkseid's goal is to eliminate all free will from the universe and reshape it into his own image. To this end, he seeks to unravel the mysterious Anti-Life Equation, which will give him complete control over the thoughts and emotions of all living beings in the universe. While he has yet to obtain a working copy of the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid has tried on several other occasions to achieve dominance of the universe through other methods. He has a special interest in Earth, as he believes humans possess collectively within their minds most, if not all, fragments of the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid intends to probe the minds of every human in order to piece together the Equation. This has caused Darkseid to clash with that of many superheroes of the DC Universe, notably, the Kryptonian Superman. Darkseid works behind-the-scenes, using superpowered minions in his schemes to overthrow Earth, including working through Intergang. Following Darkseid's attempt to attack Earth using a brainwashed Supergirl, Superman, believing Darkseid has destroyed (a reformed) Supergirl, hurls Darkseid into the sun where Darkseid is beaten unconscious by Superman who throws him into the Source Wall. However, to pay a debt incurred to an alternate reality Darkseid and in order to realign the timeline, Superman later frees Darkseid from his entombment in the Source Wall. During his imprisonment in the Source Wall, Darkseid had been drained of his Omega powers. Desaad uses a mind-controlled Superman to retrieve Highfather's staff from the Source Wall, and use it as a conduit to recharge Darkseid's energies, via a portal to the Omega Realm. Darkseid is orchestrating events to his liking, observing what is happening across the universe as the death of the Fourth World draws near, plotting to remake the universe in his own image. As New Gods are killed across the galaxy, Darkseid marshaled his forces on Apokolips, even resurrecting Virman Vundabar despite his earlier attempt to assassinate Darkseid--notably putting his forces in defensive deployments. Darkseid is shown to be apparently manipulating almost all the key characters in Countdown to Final Crisis on a giant cosmic chess board. For unknown reasons, he has given his protection to Jimmy Olsen, vaporizing a parademon for attacking him, and he has ensured that Karate Kid, carrier of the Morticoccus virus, survives. He attempts to recruit Mary Marvel as his sorceress using his pawn Eclipso, but she turns on him and escapes. Darkseid has also assigned Desaad to ensure the "Great Disaster" comes about, and assigns Granny Goodness to recruit new Female Furies from Earth in the guise of Athena. It has been indicated by DC that with the Fourth World at an end, Darkseid seeks the rise of the "Fifth World", possibly on Earth, and is harnessing the Great Disaster and the Death of the New Gods to bring this about. Additionally, Darkseid has been manipulating the Monitor Solomon to bring about a war between the Monitors and Monarch for the fate of the Multiverse. Darkseid turns Jimmy Olsen into a container for the powers of the New Gods. He sends Mary Marvel, whom he had coerced into taking back her dark powers, to capture him. Superman comes to Jimmy's aid, only for Darkseid to take control of Jimmy's powers, making him radiate Kryptonite. Ray Palmer manages to shut off Darkseid's control, and the villain is confronted by a gigantic turtle-like Jimmy. After battling Jimmy across the Metropolis landscape, Darkseid moves in for the kill only to witness The Atom emerge from Jimmy's head. Palmer quickly destroys the vessel of the New Gods' powers freeing them into the void. Enraged, Darkseid is taken by surprise when a Boom Tube opens above the skies of Metropolis. His scion and son Orion emerges from the tube, having managed to escape being murdered by the Infinity Man. Orion and Darkseid battle, and after a furious exchange, Darkseid is killed when his heart is ripped from his chest by his own son. However, shortly after his death, Darkseid is reborn in DC Universe #0, albeit he seems wrecked by constant pain in his new form. Darkseid will be a major villain in the DC Crossover Event of 2008 called 'Final Crisis.' Dark Side, the "human" alter ego used by Darkseid in Morrison's Seven Soldiers series, resurfaces later in the "Club Dark Side" crossover. In Flash #240, he leads an army of fanatics, their will broken by the "spoken form" of the Anti-Life Equation, to kidnap the Tornado Twins, in Birds of Prey #118 he runs a club where superhumans fight to the death, brainwashed by drugs produced by Bernedeth, and in Teen Titans #59 it is revealed that he employs the Terror Titans to capture the Teen Titans and use them in his club fights. In the 1982 storyline from Legion of Super-Heroes entitled "The Great Darkness Saga", Darkseid survived into the 30th century. Having been forgotten by almost everyone, he defeated the era's two most powerful villains (Mordru and the Time Trapper) and absorbed their powers, subsequently using those abilities to enslave the entire population of the planet Daxam. Commanding an army of billions of Daxamites (each with the same powers as Superman), as well as "dark" clones of Superman and other super powered beings, he launched a full-scale assault on the United Planets. Only the efforts of the Legion of Super-Heroes and its allies were able to prevent him from conquering the entire known universe. As a result of his defeat by the Legion, Darkseid sought revenge against two of the team's co-founders, married Legionnaires Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl. When the pregnant Saturn Girl was in labor, Darkseid stole one of her twin children, warped him into the monstrous Validus and sent him into the Legion's past, where he became one of the Legion's deadliest foes as a member of the Fatal Five. Later, when his ploy was discovered, he restored Validus to his original form. After the events of the Zero Hour miniseries in 1994, this storyline and all other previous Legion stories were removed from continuity. However, a new incarnation of the Legion was introduced in 2007, in "The Lightning Saga" storyline in the Justice League of America and Justice Society of America titles. Geoff Johns, one of DC Comics' key writers, has stated that this incarnation of the Legion shares the same history as the original Legion up to the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since "The Great Darkness Saga" occurred prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, the question of whether these events are once again part of mainstream DC continuity remains an open one. A variant of the story occurred in Post-Zero Hour continuity, under the title "Foundations". In this version Darkseid called various heroes from the past, including a young Clark Kent, and controlled them to build up his power base (the equivalent of the "dark clones"). His plan was to bring his younger self from the past and absorb his powers. Instead, he was killed by the younger Darkseid, who was subsequently defeated by the Legion alongside two Superboys, Clark Kent and Kon-El, and returned to his proper time. Super Friends: Darkseid appears in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, voiced by Frank Welker. He would frequently combine the villainous agenda of the episode with the scheme of forcing Wonder Woman to marry him. Jack Kirby said that the network executives tried to go behind his back and call the character "Darkside" for the Super Powers TV show, but Kirby was adamant about the name staying the same. An action figure of Darkseid was also made around this time, as part of the Super Powers Collection. Superman: The Animated Series: Darkseid appears in Bruce Timm's DC animated universe, voiced by Michael Ironside. Timm explained that Darkseid was brought into the series in an effort to boost Superman's rogues gallery and give him a more powerful villain with whom to contend. After making a series of brief "teaser" appearances throughout Superman: The Animated Series, Darkseid was featured prominently in a pair of two-part episodes; "Apokolips…Now!" shows Darkseid leading his forces in an invasion of Earth. Darkseid confronts Superman and offers him a place at his side, but Superman rejects the offer, leading Darkseid to declare: "If you will not be my knight, you will be my pawn." After he captures Superman, he threatens to destroy Earth unless the human race surrenders. Unwilling to capitulate, Detective Dan Turpin, a hard-boiled police officer (based on Darkseid's creator Jack Kirby) who had been Superman's friend, frees Superman. Before Darkseid and Superman can battle, Darkseid's plan is foiled by the appearance of armies from New Genesis, the leaders of which declare Earth to be under Highfather's protection. Just as Darkseid leaves, though, in one of the most shocking moments of the series, he tells Superman that no victory comes without a price, and vaporizes Turpin with his Omega Beams. In the audio commentary for this episode, Timm explains that Turpin's funeral was intended as a tribute to Kirby's death, going so far as to hire a real-life rabbi to deliver the fictional flatfoot's eulogy. In "Legacy," the two-part series finale for Superman: The Animated Series, Darkseid makes good on his promise of making Superman his pawn. He captures the Man of Steel and brainwashes him into thinking that he is Darkseid's adopted son. Darkseid sends Superman on several conquests throughout the galaxy before sending him to invade Earth. When Superman regains his memory, he finds that he has destroyed parts of Metropolis, nearly killed Supergirl, and lost the world's trust. Traveling to Apokolips, Superman seeks revenge on Darkseid and engages him in a brutal fistfight. This is the only time Darkseid engages in a direct fight throughout the show. Darkseid quickly proves too powerful for Superman, but just as he's about to finish off Superman with his Omega Beams, Superman covers Darkseid's eyes, causing a massive explosion that severely injures both, though Darkseid is far worse off. Superman then tosses a battered Darkseid to his slaves. To his shock and disgust, the slaves pick up Darkseid and carry him away, promising to help him. Darkseid tells Superman that "I am many things, Kal-El…but here, I am God." Justice League: Darkseid returns in the Justice League episode "Twilight", seeking help against the threat of Brainiac. Despite severe misgivings, Superman eventually agrees to help after being pressured by his fellow League members. Though they are able to defeat Brainiac, and even follow him back to his base of operations, the entire thing is revealed to be a setup. Darkseid has made a deal with Brainiac, aiding in the capture of Superman in exchange for a truce between the two. However, Darkseid double-crosses Brainiac, using a Mother Box to take over Brainiac's main systems in an attempt to have the super-intelligent machine solve the Anti-Life equation for him. Batman and Wonder Woman (who had been unsuccessfully dispatched to seek help from New Genesis) step in to free Superman, destabilizing Brainiac's power systems. With the base about to explode, all but Superman attempt to escape; Superman is quite insistent on killing Darkseid personally. What follows is a particularly brutal confrontation between Superman and Darkseid, Superman just barely edging out Darkseid. With both ignorant of their impending deaths, Batman interrupts the fight and pulls Superman out via a boom tube just as the asteroid explodes. Just before his inevitable death, Darkseid chuckles to himself about Superman's failure to finish the job. Justice League Unlimited: Following Darkseid's death, as shown in Justice League Unlimited, civil war breaks out on Apokolips between the armies of Granny Goodness and Virman Vundabar in an attempt to fill the vacuum left by his absence, which the Justice League makes an effort to ensure keeps going so that neither of them threaten Earth. In the two-part series finale of Justice League Unlimited, Lex Luthor, obsessed with resurrecting Brainiac, commands the members of the Secret Society to transform their base into a spacecraft which he uses to travel with them to the location of Brainiac's destroyed base. After a failed mutiny which ends in Luthor's favor, he uses Tala as a magic conduit to draw Brainiac's remains together. However, rather than recreate Brainiac, this instead resurrects Darkseid, evidently enhanced by Brainiac's technology. This is suggested in the DVD commentary to be Tala's final "screw you" to Luthor. As a reward for their help, Darkseid grants Luthor and his cohorts a quick death. After reuniting Apokolips under his rule once more, Darkseid stages an attack on Earth and planned to attack New Genesis once he was done. The remnants of the Secret Society, having been saved by a force field created by Sinestro and Star Sapphire, warn the Justice League of the impending threat. Soon after, boom tubes open all over Earth, unleashing an armada upon the planet. Superman tracks down and engages Darkseid in battle. The battle at first leans in Darkseid's favor, but when Batman valiantly attempts to fight Darkseid himself, Superman is convinced to stop holding back. Using his full strength, Superman effortlessly beats Darkseid halfway across the city. Before Superman can finish him off, Darkseid traps him in a neuro-stimulation of pain called the Agony Matrix. Before Darkseid is able to use a Kryptonite knife, Lex Luthor appears and presents him with the recently acquired Anti-Life equation, which he attained with the aid of the New God Metron. Although Luthor seemingly perishes with Darkseid in an explosion of light, Batman remarks that they will likely see the two again. Justice League: The New Frontier: Darkseid has a cameo appearance in the animated film Justice League: The New Frontier. He is seen during the famous speech by John F. Kennedy amidst a collage of infamous DC villains. Video Games: Darkseid is a playable character in Justice League Task Force. Darkseid appears as the primary villain in the video game Justice League Heroes voiced by David Sobolov. In this continuity he has at some point been trapped in another dimension, and thus remains behind the scenes for most of the story as he manipulates Brainiac with promises of unleashing great power and knowledge in exchange for acquiring a Mother Box from the Justice League Watchtower. Using the power of the mother box and the sensory field matrix that served as his prison, Darkseid is able to escape - saying that he has fulfilled his bargain to help Brainiac unleash great power, with the great knowledge being that one should never trust Darkseid - and remake Earth into a new Apokolips. He subsequently attempted to destroy the League with his Omega Beams, but Mother Box was able to save the League by altering the Omega Effect to send them to another dimension filled with a strange ambient energy that renders the Omega Beams useless. Now protected from Darkseid, the League return to Earth and defeat him, Wonder Woman subsequently using her Lasso of Truth to learn that only the hypercube that imprisoned Darkseid originally can imprison him again. The league activates the cube and Superman defeats Darkseid, imprisoning him once again. With Darkseid defeated, Mother Box restores Earth to normal, with Green Lantern promising to take Darkseid's hypercube somewhere where it can never be discovered and Darkseid released again. There’s a saying on Apokolips: Darkseid is. It means, he is the end all and be all, the alpha and the omega on that planet. However, he wishes to one day have that saying apply to the entire DC universe. And, if you look at Apokolips, then you will know that Darkseid as the supreme ruler of all the universe will be a horrible thing to imagine. The population is a downtrodden lot, including many kidnapped from other worlds before being "broken." The majority of the population are called "Lowlies", a bald and fearful race that has no sense of self worth or value. The Lowlies are subject to constant abuse that ends only with death. Nevertheless, Darkseid has broken them to the point that they love him no matter what. Just look at the last episodes of the Superman animated series. Superman has laid out a beaten Darkseid, but the Lowlies graciously help him up. Darkseid employs many people to do his dirty work. There are the Parademons who serve as the keepers of order on the planet. Higher above the Parademons are the Female Furies who are Darkseid's personal guard. (Male Furies also exist, but are less common) They are blessed with unnatural strength and longevity and are either trained for their position in the Furies from birth, or are promoted from the ranks of general Apokolips troops. The leaders of the Furies are Granny Goodness, who sports the appearance of a matronly old woman while being the most powerful of the guards, and Kanto, who enjoys a unique position as Darkseid's master assassin. The chief guard, Big Barda had a third position under Granny which has not been filled since her defection from the group. Darkseid rules Apokolips as its theocratic god/despot, but he delegates most of the actual day to day ruling to his counselor Desaad. Darkseid has no real contenders for the throne of Apokolips except the demon Mantis, although his sons Orion, Grayven, and Kalibak are also potential contenders. Darkseid is cursed by Grayven and Kalibak's stupidity and Orion's service of good. Interestingly enough, he is responsible for Orion’s morality. In order to bring a truce between Apokolips and New Genesis, Darkseid agreed to give Orion to Highfather, New Genesis’s leader, in exchange for Highfather’s son Scott Free. And, while Orion was treated with love and kindness by Highfather, Darkseid had Free tortured by Granny Goodness in evil orphanage. However, Darkseid has unleashed his evil on other places besides Apokolips. He has attack Mars and Earth on numerous occasions and is obsessed with acquiring the Anti-Life Equation. If you want to know how bad the Anti-Life Equation is, here’s the formula: loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark side. With it, he will rule the DC universe with the same ironfist that he rules Apokolips with. And, only the collective forces of all the heroes in the DC universe can stop Darkseid.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 15, 2008 18:44:56 GMT -5
Tomorrow, we enter the top ten. Here are the hints:
He controls the dark side, and he's the antagonist for an elementary detective.
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Post by Smokey McTrees on Jun 16, 2008 13:39:55 GMT -5
Moriarty and Palpatine, methinks.
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Post by Hulkshi Tanahashi on Jun 21, 2008 15:21:08 GMT -5
Since I've been gone a week, I'll do the Top Ten on Sunday and Monday. Here are the hints for 8, 7, and 6:
He wants to suck your blood, she's possessed, and he's rich and bald.
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Lupin the Third
Patti Mayonnaise
I'm sorry.....I love you. *boot to the head*--3rd most culpable in the jixing of NXT, D'oh!
Join the Dark Order....
Posts: 36,332
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Post by Lupin the Third on Jun 21, 2008 15:42:06 GMT -5
Villian for elementary detective: Moriarty Controls the Darkside: Probably Palpatine (Darth Siduous) or Vader Blood-sucker: Dracula Possessed: Carrie? Rich & Bald: Mr. Burns or Sinestro, possibly?
Edit: Also, even though it lacks Cell, this is still an excellent list, Hulk. I tip my hat to you.
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Abadebe
Don Corleone
Man of the Hour
Posts: 1,469
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Post by Abadebe on Jun 21, 2008 16:37:17 GMT -5
Moriarty Palpatine Dracula Regan MacNeil Lex Luthor.
That leaves five more, and there are still some great villains we haven't seen yet like Apocalypse, the Joker, Unicron, Kefka, Hannibal Lecter, Wicked Witch of the West, Blofeld, etc.
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