In video games, we meet the most outlandish personalities and the most down-to-earth. As with our favorite TV shows, we tend to spot particular traits in them, and formulate opinions very quickly as to whether we like or dislike those characters. We might even identify with certain aspects of them. Love them or hate them, though, there’s no denying that arrogance is in no short supply among the heroes and villains of the gaming world.
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Audiences love their main characters in video games. Great protagonists shape the world around them while captivating the hearts and minds of players.
The bravado of a hero who knows that’s exactly what they are. The shocking over-confidence (and perhaps constant wise-cracking) of a villain. All of these and more are on full display in this roundup of some of the most arrogant personalities in games.
10Seifer Almasy: Final Fantasy VIII
Balamb Garden’s Bully, Edea’s Knight
What Makes Him So Arrogant?
Seifer occupies an unusual position in theFinal Fantasyseries. He’s not a key villain of Kuja or Sephiroth’s stature, but he’s certainly obnoxious enough to be. Leading the Disciplinary Committee at Balamb Garden, he delights in even adding Instructor Trepe to “the list,” whatever this might be, and opposes the party alongside Edea several times once they join forces (and allying himself with Galbadia Garden thereafter).
Supremely confident in his own gunblade-wielding prowess, and never missing an opportunity to deride those he doesn’t respect (dubbing Zell “chicken wuss”), Seifer is a constant thorn in the team’s side. He could have ranked higher had he been more than a supporting antagonist.
9Lash: Advance Wars Series
An unyielding confidence in the destructive power of her own inventions
What Makes Her So Arrogant?
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp
The dastardly Black Hole Army is a potent force in the world of Advance Wars. They’re again primary antagonists of Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, with some new COs added tothe game’s wide roster (as seen again in Advance Wars 1+2 ReBoot Camp). Among their number is none other than Lash, the mastermind behind the unique weapons (such as Black Bombs) they wield.
Lash’s unique talents reflect her status as a brilliant technician: her units receive an increased stat boost from the effects of terrain. She’s a mastermind who’s fully aware that she’s a mastermind; hating to be defeated by those she deems intellectually inferior to herself. Flak, her brawny subordinate, often feels her wrath, but it’s important to note that her confidence isn’t unfounded.
8Bayonetta: Bayonetta Series
The Wicked-Tongued Umbra Witch
WHERE TO PLAY
As is generally the case with PlatinumGames protagonists, Bayonetta spends much of her time in her titular series stylishly smashing her way through a huge range of enemies. Sometimes they’re ghastly, towering bosses, sometimes they’re hordes of smaller enemies, but Bayonetta remains confident in her ability to take them down. A significant amount of the game’s dialogue consists of her insults and innuendos towards them, in fact.
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Blasting, slicing, and generally eviscerating the forces of both Inferno and Paradiso (whoever happens to be opposing her at the time) is no trouble for this formidable Umbra Witch. Her bold and brash personality defines her just as much as her Wicked Weaves and delightfully ludicrous transformations, but she isn’t making false claims about her capabilities.
7Shadow The Hedgehog: Sonic The Hedgehog Series
It Can’t Be Easy Living In Sonic’s … Shadow
If the Metal Gear Solid series ever gets remade with the cast swapped for small, adorable mammals (which is a million dollar idea, by the way, if anyone at Konami is reading), Shadow The Hedgehog would be the Liquid Snake to Sonic’s Solid Snake. He is a reflection of our hero, another side of the same coin. To differentiate between the two, beyond the difference in hue, Shadow highlights his anti-hero status with a dark, brooding personality.
The self-proclaimed ultimate life form, perhaps threatened by Sonic’s existence, has an abrasive personality, a world apart from the happy-go-lucky Sonic. He tends to make a point of distancing himself from Sonic and others, neither needing nor wanting their company most of the time. He isn’t always uncaring, though.
6Handsome Jack: Borderlands Series
As Obnoxious And Vicious A Villain As You’re Likely To Find
Borderlands 2
TheBorderlandsseries always blends bold, brash, silliness with dark and grim subject matter. This dichotomy is personified in the character of Handsome Jack, a man who is at once a wisecracking meme machine and a chilling and merciless villain. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel presents Jack as an ally to the chosen player character, and the inevitability of his descent into megalomania during his assault on Helios and pursuit of the Elpis Vault lends a lingering menace to proceedings.
In Borderlands 2, Jack constantly taunts the Vault Hunters through a communicator connection, as he fights for another Pandora Vault. He considers himself all but invincible, his ideals untouchable, but ultimately, isn’t much of a threat himself. Once The Warrior is defeated, Jack proves to be nothing but a braggart who is defeated swiftly at Lilith’s hands mid-tirade.
5Liquid Snake: Metal Gear Solid Series
A Huge Threat To The World With A Strong Yet Fragile Ego
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1
In the convoluted world of Metal Gear lore, character relationships can become very complicated. Original PlayStation classic Metal Gear Solid introduces Liquid Snake, Solid Snake’s brother who was created, like David, from the DNA of Big Boss.
Liquid is responsible for the events on Shadow Moses Island, leading his fellow FOXHOUND members in their occupation of the island. A devious man with endless tricks up his sleeve, he impersonates Solid Snake’s mentor, flies a Hind-D into a helicopter to dispatch two F-16s, and is seemingly never beaten. His hatred for Solid Snake, whom he believes to possess their father’s dominant genes, leads him to engage the iconic agent from within Metal Gear Rex, in a humble fistfight atop it, in a protracted jeep chase, and everywhere in between. Though Liquid’s arrogance is tempered by his insecurity regarding his genes,he and his brother share one of gaming’s greatest rivalries.
4Wario: Wario Land And WarioWare Series
Gaming’s Greediest And Most Self-Absorbed Star
Wario’s personality, as it evolved, came to be defined by two key traits: his all-consuming hunger for treasure, and his desire for more success, more fame, more accolades. This is often combined, as is seen in theWarioWareseries, with his desire to achieve these things with as little effort as possible, by manipulating his friends into doing the work for him.
All in all, he’s probably the most loathsome personality in the Nintendo stable.
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Over the years, we’ve seen several amazing Wario games coming out for the community, but these are indeed the best ones in the franchise.
Arrogance and posterior-shaking boasting are par for the course with Wario, but he’s carved himself a foul-smelling niche as a result of it. There aren’t many characters who can outdo him in the arrogance stakes.
3Albert Wesker: Resident Evil Series
A Traitorous Team Leader Who Believes Himself To Be More Than Human
Resident Evil 5
In the originalResident Evil, Albert Wesker’s dastardly objective of testing the combat capabilities of B.O.Ws against S.T.A.R.S. members was just the beginning of his villainy within the series. An inflated sense of his own importance and his disregard for others makes him unpleasant enough to deal with, and the power of the Progenitor Virus leads to his becoming a threat to humanity itself.
Manipulating those that would prove useful to him and casting them aside when their purpose has been served, Wesker believes his corruption is an asset. His climactic battle against Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar in Resident Evil 5 showcases a Wesker at the height of his arrogance: Refusing to back down, resolute in his grotesque beliefs, and underestimating the threat his opponents posed to him.
2Shao Kahn: Mortal Kombat Series
A Hulking Warrior Who Has Defied The Elder Gods Themselves
Mortal Kombat 11
Granted, not many of us wield the deity-threatening power of an Outworld emperor. Nor the potent black magic or ludicrous weaponry Shao Kahn tends to bring to the table. As such, he can be excused for being rather self confident.
By virtue of nothing more than his sheer power and greed alone, Kahn believes he has a claim to Earthrealm as well as Outworld. The Elder Gods, however, have disagreed with this notion, as was seen again in 2011’sMortal Kombatreboot (in which the very forces Kahn defied ultimately destroyed him through Raiden). He’s an opponent as formidable as he is boastful and obnoxious, and he’s all the more notorious for being such a difficult boss to defeat inthis beloved and influential brawling series. Perhaps there’s only one other video game character who can rival his arrogance.
1Duke Nukem: Duke Nukem Series
There’s No Love Like This Man’s Love For Himself
In theDuke Nukemseries, the planet is under night-constant threat from malevolent aliens. Who and what do we have to defend us? Duke Nukem, that’s what. Still, if the likes ofDoomhave taught us anything, it’s that one person is more than enough to save the planet, if that person is fearless, mighty, and all-around self-confident enough.
The shades-wearing, pistol-brandishing, one-liner-spouting Duke certainly qualifies, as he insists on repeatedly telling everyone within earshot. He’s a walking action movie cliche, eternally self-confident and disparaging toward his unfortunate targets. Blasting away at waves of foes while tooting his own horn harder than Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston, He’s really the last word in video game arrogance.
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