my favourite villain

body hijacking! what makes this version so great is that for a lot of the show, the father wasn’t possessed by the malevolent spirit of the story so seeing him then *become* possessed was super delightful because of how different he became.

i love me some cute caricatures that are also corrupt in such monstrously power hungry ways, but they genuinely care for people too.

dude recites his evil monologue THREE TIMES IN THE EXACT SAME WAY to THREE SEPARATE PEOPLE. gotta love him for that and his stylish wardrobe!

this show chose the wrong endgame villain BUT if it hadn’t done that, i would not have seen a sweet and caring mother turn into an absolute nightmare.

the hierachy is so good! boss spends most of his time being a bartender, whereas moon-shik sincerely cares for his brother and wife, and is sympathetic and tragic, but has such a good rep no one can believe he's terrible to begin with, and both turn away from him; secretary oh does excellent mocking gestures. 

this series went straight into terrible by the end, and not even the villains could save the show.

BUT. main villain was an excellent poser, sitting in his chair, holding a steaming cup, that he couldn't actually drink, while he waxes solipsism. and the trio of minions were adorable and were the heart of the show to me by the end. all of them did not deserve their final fates.

the villain was like a vengeful wraith! always appearing in the background with murder in his eyes, creepily letting the audience, not necessarily the character in danger, that they were not alone. surprisingly heartbreaking performance, but had a devious justice enacting mind, and was really captivating to watch.

threefold. fantastic villain utilitarian who is always one step ahead, and has a variety of (adorable) minions who either stand by him or cast him off, and the conflict that it brings. his death was not the end of it, which i adored. second, villain monarch in which being the king slowly drives the person into becoming cold and ambiguously evil, but each king is regal in their own captivating light, clashing against the main villain in terrific ways. third, badass assassin who was ridiculously cool and his actor surprised me in such a delightful way once i recognized him.

tldr; a really interesting take on how power corrupts, and even the path of good intentions can turn them all into monstrous beings. also: the ending that blood and those minions deserved, tbh.

wonderfully self-centred villain who has no qualms offing his minions, both whom were complicated and well-intentioned. he despised everyone and only cared about money and power, despite originally coming across as quite affable, and infuriated everyone with his serene demeanor. also radiated such smugness in some scenes that it was a joy to see him act so terribly, especially when he knew he'd won.

bonus: not really a villain, but certainly an antagonist lawyer who hates the main characters guts and delights in obstructing them, all in the name of pettiness.

i actually wasn’t interested that much in the villain to begin with, but the more he began to emit black smoke and be more overtly an evil spirit donning a person suit and had no more patience being nice or seen as a good person, i began to really invest in him tbh. I was sad to see him go, even though i am glad his host became free, even if he was unjustly punished imo.

the MOST backstabbing backstabbers, love them both dearly. one who slowly became embittered and tragic with corruption, but loved his wife to pieces, and wished for the other, my actual fave, urged him to be better. chang-joon may have become a monster, but he was a dreamer too. my fave, dong-jae, armed with a shark-grin, trapped in blood infested waters, who looked out for himself, but also sincerely cared about eun-soo, despite being terrible to her in a couple of moments of panic, however will ultimately just say anything and everything just to stay on top.

dark mirrors to our protagonists! super cute concept executed really well, especially as our protagonists work under them and are turned against each other due to the politics of prosecutors vs police.

bonus: possibly wannabe villain widow of last season’s villain, who has a minion terribly in love with her.

mother-daughter duo that tried to out-villain each other in the name of loving ni-na. it did make me laugh that young-ja could excuse drugging, blinding and fraud, but drew the line at ru-na attempting MURDER. i liked that young-ja regretted, tried to atone, and correct her parenting style, whereas ru-na remained unrepentant to the bitter end and her attempt to make ni-na the star of the show was a hollow victory.

super adorable villain couple who become king and queen of the land, greedy for love and power, know each other’s faults but loves so completely. also prince saya, tagon’s son, agent of chaos who longs for freedom, but also kind of likes to plot things, just for fun, is enigmatic so idk what his endgame plan or true loyalty lies, but he’s very fun to watch all the same. truly, a fantastic villain family who have complicated feelings about each other.

might be unfair to put this show here since only season 1 has been made, and it’s unclear who the final villain is, but. i love them.

tbh, he was less villain and more antagonist, tbh? but on the other hand, i greatly enjoyed his messing with the protagonist for no other reason than he just wanted to, and EVERYBODY had to suffer through his moods. i did like him for being very pathetic and pitiful, and even he got a good ending, which was sweet.

also super loved the egomaniac star baseball player, who also struggles to redeem himself but also becomes a better person by the end.

idk if edward counts, but like? edward and sophia. kim jae-wook and jung bok-ji. unrepentant scammers to the very end. deeply in love with each other, to the point that he knew that she made him vulnerable and weak and tried to escape her so he could become more ruthless to achieve his revenge. despite that, she tracked him down, and he still tried to protect her when she was in danger. made some really wonderful anguished reactions whenever they reunited and he didn’t expect her to be there. they had great ust and make outs tbh. his pyromancer days were fab tbh, with lee jung-hwan becoming increasingly uncomfortable with his shenanigans,

bonus: vivian the dog saved his life countless times.

the entire family sans the grand dowager empress and prince yoon are vipers, hissing and seething at each other because of their greed and selfishness. i love all of them and their two faced behaviour even as they spiral into paranoia and try to manipulate the masses into thinking that the are the innocent party. i absolutely adored all of them for being bananas. special kudos to dowager empress kang, who remained convinced of her innocence til the end, throwing everyone under the bus.

also: min yu-ra, eventual antihero who goes to some extreme depths to get what she wants, but does not deserve her final fate and seo kan-hee, both entertaining spanners in the works who constantly want more, more, more.

such a helpful murderer, who plays multiple games of cat and mouse with the protagonists attempting to solve his case, who believes in his higher purpose, who is right in front of the protagonists faces and they don’t even have a clue as they try to solve his serial killings, even when they think it’s another murderer and not him. i love the realisation, the hurt, the anger that the protagonists undergo when they figure who it is, and how they can’t believe that he was could have ever been their friend.

literally everybody in the eden residence became evil but shout out especially to seo moon-jo, dentist who looked great in glasses, had a lucky charms teeth bracelet of teeth, and considered himself an artist, corrupting everyone into cannibalism and murder. he may have died, but his memory lives on in his greatest masterpiece, who will never be the same again. 

oh boy, the real baek hee sung is a real piece of work, stressing his family to unbelievable levels that of course the cracks begin to show as he spirals angrily out of control and his family tragically try to steer him to a safer path just because he’s their son, even if they sell their souls, it’sall for naught.

shout out to do min seok, who haunts our lead, his death shadowing him always, even as he tries to shape his finest partner into committing various crimes.

super loved team imugi plus lee rang! imugi was great, and i loved seeing him plot against lee yeon and feel drawn to ji ah, his other half, who shined best possessed. ceo kwon hae ryong was fab for his cockroach self-preservation skills, wanting to live eternally, and keeping lee rang under his thumb for a debt that has lasted centuries. honestly gets what he deserves, but damn if i didn’t love his ruthless nature.

lee rang, i adored him for his complexity. what makes him into a villain is also what redeems him. love, love, love. he is so hurt at lee yeon’s abandonment of him, and it’s just a joy to see the complicated feelings these estranged brothers have towards each other, because despite everything, yeon is still rang’s most precious person. despite relishing in mischief, rang cannot help but help people in need, if they are badly hurt. still, rang is super fun to watch because he’s so chaotic and annoying to yeon, even after they reconcile, as younger siblings should be.

jin yong-tae, cockroach human of my heart. loved him, his vanity, and his eventual redemption storyline. mayhaps he doesn’t count, but listen, i adore him and his survival instinct and constantly ending deals by saying okay. faking his death and becoming a handsome cafe owner is exactly what he deserves. 

the headmaster just wants to travel through space and wants a space buddy. he’s too impatient for such a trivial thing like safety protocols. it’s ridiculous, i love it.

all the greeed, really. all of them are tragic, feeling incomplete. all of them have interesting wants and desires. i love that ankh rejoins them, only to realise that it’s worthless. and dr. maki, mad scientist who grows emptier and cruel after the truth of his older sister is revealed, yet still cannot abandon a doll, which instills him with confidence he otherwise lacks.

asakura takeshi. murderous, twisted rider who kills if it entertains him. ate mud, apparently. kills his own brother and started the fire that killed his family. nothing is remotely redeemable about him, but gosh, he’s fun to watch when all he wants is to have a good time killing people.

basco ta jolokia. chaos incarnate, ex-best friend of captain marvellous, total scumbag, but very entertaining .

honestly, i loved everyone on the shadow line. but i especially adored zett with his fascination with the light and things that glitter.

enter and escape were a delightful duo that caused trouble for everyone even themselves. and i loved the way enter kind of missed escape, afterwards.

they’re a silly biker gang, who defect at the last second and manage to defeat their former boss by feeding him expired food. what’s not to love? also: zonette, rebel princess who falls in lovewith kyosuke, was great.

rio and mele! evil and in love! they love each other from the start, but rio is too obsessed with becoming powerful to notice his own feelings despite implying it several times. mele stops his rain, and oh, they cannot stand to be apart from each other.

yabaiba and tsuetsue, fave incompetent one horned orgs forever. they’re absolutely terrible as villains, just like team rockets very own jessie and james, but are all the more endearing for it as they try to serve their three high duke org masters, and fail very badly at their jobs. they’re in love, working together, supporting each other and rescuing each other from org hell.

kang do young, kind of weird in how he sets up a conspiracy game show in which he starts off as the host but then becomes a contestant in order to reunite his childhood friends at the orphanage and get them to try to kill him, but! that’s kang do young for you, constantly charmed at the other contestants backstabbing each other and gloating about it, possibly a sad cog in the machine of something greater than himself. cannot rid himself of his humanity despite trying really really hard.

sora was super delightful and impish and clever, getting on everyone’s nerves, completely uncertain of his endgame plan, and wholeheartedly messing people up in a chaos harbinger way. irredeemable, remorseless, so incredibly terrible.

londars family trio! gien’s backstory and end is nothing but tragic and he made me cry a bunch and his long lasting friendship with don dolnero made my heart ache by how sweet and well-intentioned it was, but went so badly wrong. gien’s increasing penchant for death and destruction was such a far cry of who he used to be, and for that, i weep. i loved don dolnero’s love of money, money, money, both getting it and spending it, and his softness for both lila and gien was his undoing. even if lila didn’t particularly like gien, it was sweet having her admit that she did like don dolnero evenwhen he lacked both money and power.

also: secret mastermind who controls the shape of history. what won’t he do in order to avoid his death?

both the queen dowager and shin chi soo were nasty pieces of work, but i loved them for their vindictiveness and snobbery. queen dowager wanted justice for her murdered son, whereas shin chi soo was corrupt from the start and the real king trusted him for unknown reasons, but both masterfully played politics and were unafraid to fight dirty.

wang yo, wickedly upfront about his ambitious desire for the throne, even if that made him the worst sibling. i loved him for his slow realisation that he was nothing more than a tool for his mother to throw away, and the guilt of what he had done to attain the throne haunted him to the very end. he tried hard to drown out the sound of his brothers’ voices that he loved despite trying to discard his heart but in the end could not succeed.

geum tae woong, a man of wealth and taste. the head of an art gallery. his own wife’s murderer, who he married solely for the money, never mind that he was already married and had a son, framed his busing partner for his crime. deceived his father in law for years about his daughter’s murder, and got rid of him the instant he stopped being useful. smart and crafty, he’ll use anyone to save his own skin, and i loved how his irony was his undoing. he trusted his son, when his son didn't trust him. delivers a truly fantastic final monologue in prison.

no poong-shik, mastermind behind our main character’s zombification, devoted husband turned monster in trying to return his wife back to life. devoted mad scientist who experiments on animals, humans and eventually turns himself into a zombie and discard any trace of humanity inside of him. an evolving human.

kyung pil, headmaster in a pact with an evil spirit, who devours the souls of the worst student of the school, only wants to make his school the best school ever! who cares if a couple of students with bad grades die? i love them SO much!

ngl, do hak sung was having a blast murdering everyone who got in his way and could potentially lead back to him with the trail of dead bodies that coincidentally were in the way of his business plans. made false promises as easily as the brightness of his smile and i love his unrepentant soul burning in hell forever.

shout out to kim tae jin, former henchman, former nightclub owner. kicked out because of his incompetence, he finds eventual redemption in becoming adopted by the owners of a restaurant, who are looking for their missing son. while trying to collect intel on our heroes, survive as a shadow of his former self, figures that he might as well help out the couple who he’s living with, and consider that to be his good deed for the year. have to respect a self-prioritising cockroach who wants to survive more than anything in world. and maybe, eventually, become a good person.

han jae hee. wanted the best out of life, determined to ruin everyone else in order to get it. her love was a fire, and it burned the people around her. she truly did care about people and felt guilt for her actions, but it was not enough, she’d throw her morals out the window if it meant that she won, it didn’t matter who she seduced or screwed over, even as things disastrously fell apart for her in the end. always trying to escape her abuse and poverty, and never quite succeeding.

bonus: lawyer ahn min yeoung, who sacrificed his morals the moment he fell in love with han jae hee. he worked hard to maintain that she always continued her goals.

pollution ministers! they want to make the world a dirtier place, but they also want the best for each other, which is super cute! kagalesia and kitaneidas make a cute pair, as does the devotion between yogostein and hiramechimedes, but i especially adore the friendship between kagalesia, kitaneides and yogostein, because even though yogostein died sooner than the other two, they missed him and wanted to meet with him again. also very cute to see kagalesia constantly jumping at the chance to be part of the g3 princesses, a trio of singers with miu and saki.

the cycle of revenge is never ending, despite people trying to break it nonetheless.

kang fam. kang dong-hyun, corrupt father who makes it so his youngest son never goes to prison. kang hee-soo, who knows about his wife’s affair with his secretary, and is getting blackmailed by kim soon-ki, and frames the murder in an attempt to win back his wife. and kang osu himself, who murders a man, regrets it, but never goes to prison himself.

kang osu’s friends. yoon dae-shik, kim soon-ki and na seok-jin. witnesses to the first crime, they become worse people when they’re older.

and of course, orchestrators of everything: jung tae-sung and kim young-chul.

where to even begin with this show? all those who sought to make a puppet emperor out of ta hwan.

first up, yeon chul and his family. yeon chul, who terrorised and ruled with an iron fist. cold hearted but sharp as hell, he was not one to be underestimated. without a doubt, the brains of this household. tanashilli, the baby stealing empress, who hated anyone else near ta hwan, and her two court ladies that poisoned monks. dang kise, who loved and hated seung nyang. tabjahae did not do much, but still, was family. despite every evil act they committed, they loved each other.

next, empress dowager hwang and general baekan. both allies at first, but once the goal of defeating yeon chul had been accomplished, turned against our heroine. goryeo and other outsiders was ruining the yuan empire, as far as they were concerned, and both sought to restore the empire’s former glory, as long as they were in charge. baekan got greedier with yuan purity, inviting the second empress, his niece, bayan khutugh, who is a real piece of work, into the fray, in order to secure his power and the confidence of ta hwan. hwang used and disposed of people depending on how useful they  were to her. as long as she gained power, she did not care who she had to control, and tried thrice to make a puppet emperor with other candidates.

third, king of constantly switching allegiance if it meant that he got ahead in life, yeom byung soo.he could have lived a charming life with yeon hwa by his side, in a big house with lots of kids, but alas, it was not to be.

last but not least, golta. a devious mastermind who ruled the shadows, and in perfect position to rule the emperor as well, poisoning ta hwan when it became apparent that he no longer had any more use for him. he did not betray the emperor in spite of this, because how could it be betrayal when he never considered ta hwan to be his master? his master was money, and and golta was it’s most devoted servant.

neo empire gear! doctor man keeps on building his mecha army, annoyed when they have stupid things like feelings, and hates his own humanity, trying to turn himself into a mecha human. his three ministers, farah, mason, and monster, have five more underlings, the beastnoids plus farah cat, who stick around for a good portion of the show and become super loveable. it’s a strange hierarchy but it works!

bonus, silva the bio hunter, always detecting bio particles, always looking for balzion, always posing. he makes me laugh when he says his catchphrase.

he’s an anti villain, but. I love gu wol ryung, father of the protagonist, brought back to life and infested with evil. he keeps trying to regain control of himself, but alas, his tragic tale can only end sadly. doesn’t mean i love him any less.

lmao, jung fam in spades.

jung gyo-bin. pitiful, philandering husband who cheats on his wife with her best friend. who is never to blame for any of his actions, according to him , he was forced into it! weak-willed and whiny, falls in and out of love quickly, but still thinks he has a chance with eun-jae, despite everyone including eun-jae herself, that no, he really doesn’t. tries to redeem himself in a terribly romantic way, but. still. it’s the thought that counts.

shin ae-ri. spiteful pathological liar who rarely admits fault, always with an excuse at hand. why anyone believes her lies and keeps believing them after she’s long been exposed as a manipulative twisted individual is beyond me, but. it does keep the story going! works extremely hand at achieving her goals, even if she should maybe focus on literally anything else. genuinely does love her son, nino, even if she’s not above using him to further her agenda. her final fate does not redeem her for her actions, nor should it, but, it is hard to continue disliking her at that point.

baek mi-in. truly in her own world with bonkers logic. will always find a way to blame eun-jae. wants a prize for basic decency, which she doesn’t even deserve. can’t understand why things backfire so spectacularly in her face. hilarious for her narcissim, to the extent of thinking that eun-jae is a witch and ae-ri an angel.

min so-hee. wow. should have died the first time around. obsessed with her adopted brother. succeeds in marrying him. teams up with ae-ri and double crosses her because some betrayals really are inevitable.

lee yoo beom. unrepentant asshole lawyer who keeps on being a smug snake even when he really shouldn’t be. charismatic devil who twists things in his favour, gets his own words and logic thrown back in his face. constantly washes his hands to wash away his guilt, his hatred, but it never ever works. used to be friends with everybody, but his actions push them away. love his slowly shifting standards and darkening morals, eventually murdering not one but two people, since he’s truly hit rock bottom, and considers himself unlucky rather than rotten to the core. such an entertaining piece of garbage from start to finish.

babel group!!

jang han-seok. ruthless, murderous, and not as smart as he thinks he is. got a hopeless crush on hong cha-young that will never amount to anything. plays the fool at first, but soon steps into the spotlight because he cannot resist.

jang han-seo. cutie, silly, smarter than originally perceived. deserved to have lived, tbqh. i enjoyed his unsteady alliance with han seung hyuk, which eventually failed. i loved how he became part of vincenzo’s team at the end and deserved to live at vincenzo’s island in malta. not the brightest crayon in the book, but definitely one of the cutest.

han seung hyuk. stupid, backstabber, affable. recruits people to leapfrog his success and sells them out to stay alive, but oh man, does that backfire on him spectacularly! doesn’t make good or smart plays, but they sure are entertaining!

choi myung hee. deadly, dancer, direct. not afraid to get her hands dirty, insanely smart and awful. her rivalry with hong cha-young was fab.

bonus! ant group! lowlife thugs who renounce their ways when they become part of geumga plaza community where they move in and set up a balloon getaway company. unexpectedly adorable as they offer wisdom and advice and earn the respect of their new neighbourhood. 

hae chun moo possesses not one not two but five people, determined to stay in a love triangle that no one (but me) wants, and regularly murders people on the night of a full moon. obsessive, murderous, handsome as hell, what’s not to love?

tbh, i understood not a single thing about the show but i adored lee lim, evil uncle who did nothing but pose and monologue. his back broke from carrying the show, he wanted to live in a stagnant world, where he lived as king forever, and i, for one, supported him.

every corrupt lawyer that had a connection to jo tae-seob i adored, those nasty pieces of work.

jo tae-seo, benevolent trader of favours, who cared in a twisted way for his managers, genuinely grieving when he lost manager kim, missing manager han in spite of her betraying him and the fact he made her brother a constant murderer, with a foolproof method of murder. i loved his public persona and how he formed a network that meant he could basically get away with anything. once a good man, at some point his greed consumed him.

shoutout to kim seok-hoon, jang il-hyeon and choi kang-jin, who were immensely fun to watch as they turned from buddies into sharks, realising too late that kim hui wu was playing them all like fiddles and so they turned on each other like fools.

wu huan!!! started from the bottom, climbs all the way to the top! starts off sweet, then slowly becomes power hungry, the more powerful she becomes. she gets so far thanks to her husband turning a blind eye to her activities for 60, 000 years as she sowed discord across the demon and immortal realms. even at the end, convinces herself that she’s done nothing wrong. realizes too late that she does love and miss her husband, her children, but by then has gone mad, oblivious to her daughter besides her. but for a good while, is not afraid to continuously lie and manipulate her family for her own agenda… until it’s too late.

gong fam represent!! 

i loved gong in woo and his daughter baek san ah so much for being unhinged murderers who had fun killing with yellow umbrellas. i loved san ah’s descent of fraying functionality, and i loved gong in woo haunting his son gong ji cheol and convincing him that it is inevitable that he will kill. artists in their own way, it was great to see how they obsessed and wrecked havoc on others with absolutely no concern to anyone else but themselves.

special shout-out to chun seok tae for being corrupt, jang hye mi for being dubious, kim seo ra for loving jong beom only for his brain, and chun jong woo for being a spawn of the devil.

ronghao, beloved. desperate to do anything to get his master back, even fighting his sole true friend, changheng. i loved how consistently claimed he didn’t have a choice, even when he achieves his goals, and then gaslights her into pretending everything is fine… to tragic consequences.

lbr, his real crime was his cgi mask that he wore constantly and looked atrocious on him.

park il-do, absolute tormentor and cruel spirit, driven back to the sea. possessing people for fun and murder, i enjoyed his strange machinations and his relationship with his minions, yang yoon-mo, who sold his soul willingly, and park hong-joo, park il-do’s granddaughter, who retains a nasty temper even though she gets away scot-free. while i don’t think he was truly vanquished, i think it suits the show that his fate remains uncertain, and who he truly hides inside, as our trio tries to exorcisle him.

minions of jeffery, represent!

first off, qiao xi chuan and zhou lian, who worked as a close knit duo that were slightly too close to each other to not be in love. he’s a master of disguise, she’s a femme fatale, and it was gutting to see qiao xi chuan work alone after her death, and then cooperated with the national service. he never killed people directly, but oh, he’s to blame for a lot of people’s deaths, including zhou lian, to his dismay.

next, the bat. arrogant to the core, he was still an entertaining spanner in the works, though never as successful as he thinks he is.

last, chang lei. mild mannered at first, before he unravels as the end is nigh, and he becomes utterly sociopathic, selling out his cohorts if it meant he could escape. i loved how he flew under the radar before ma shang deduced that the sleeper agent had to be him, and how unhinged he is becomes apparent.

gwi, gwi, gwi, darling, beloved, dearest. hedonistic, sinful, depraved. i loved how he shaped a nation in the shadows, dwelling in an underground palace, but as the royalty began to resent him, he decides to take the throne for himself. i loved his fascination with kim sung-yeul and hye-ryeong, never suspecting that they would be his downfall. though he distrusted humans, he could not help but envy them, a fact choi hye-ryeon knows all too well, even if he himself seemed unaware of it. he loves, he regrets, and drinking all the blood in the castle does not satiate his grief. in the end, it is the sun that defeats him. despite everything, i loved his tragedy.

choi chul-jong, chief minister who trades his daughter for power, and only loves money and staying alive. (despite caring for choi hye-ryeong, did not seem to be upset at her death, a fact which shocks even the guardian gwi.) 

bonus: choi hye-ryeong, technically a pawn for gwi to use, sharing an identical appearance to lee myeong-hee, she burns with anger at her father’s lust for power, understanding gwi a little too well, and falls for crown prince lee yoon despite only intending to initially use him to attain her goals. i love how she held information close to her chest and thwarted many plans.

lmao, as if i wasn’t going to love these interpretations of “richelieu”, “milady de winter” and “rochefort”.

kim ja-jae/richelieu, kingmaker who shapes the realm. once backed the king, now thinks of usurping the father for the son. i love how he plots and schemes and feigns innocence, all for ‘the good of the kingdom’, and how he pities mi-ryung in her heartbroken plight.

no soo/rochefort, henchman who lives on spite. effortlessly cool and sexy. how could i not lovehim?

jo mi-ryung/milady. who loves and hates the prince and likes the position of crown princess, who loves revenge just as much. i love how her heart surprises her, even though she keeps making the wrong decision because she wants too much. her desperation is both pitiful and understandable.

ning qing, wanted to raze the world for killing his master, forgetting that he himself was instrumental in her demise and that he betrayed his best friends first. horrified at his past self, shocked that he forgot, the real truth is that he hated himself so much he couldn’t stand it, but in pretending to hate the world, he believed his own lies. i loved his all-knowingness, and his patience, his smug indulgence and remorse at the end.

i loved his apprentice fairy shunde, who he only cared for her appearance because she looked like the one he truly cared about, and she became steadily more unhinged as time went on. once sweet, she already was pretty nasty by the time the show starts. i love that she becomes the final villain.

zhu yan, evil cloud of darkness with a mask on top. love this super generic villain because he reminds me of noein, and how he whispers evils to the vulnerable. he is the curse that so many cannot defeat.

agent abrera, who works in the shadows as an arm dealers and only cares about the money he makes and the destruction his clients create. has previously caused seven galaxies to get destroyed. eventually gets fed up of our heroes thwarting his business and defeating his clientele, and decides to plunge this galaxy into lawlessness and warmongering, if only he can get rid of those pesky dekarangers first.

king geum-wa and his sons, holler!

i actually loved geum-wa’s slow descent into villainy and atonement, tbqh! he so wanted the best for his adoptive son, and was proud of him for fulfilling hae mo-su’s dream, but greed and insecurity prevented him from properly accepting it. rage blinded him into killing the love of his life, and instantly once he came back to his senses, regretted it. eventually, he walks the earth and lets go of his kingdom and grudges, and tries to make amends for the wrongs he committed. i mourn his death, tbh, how he tried to make his sons better with his final breaths.

dae-so, beloved incel. always wants to do the right thing, and make his father proud of him. always chooses fantastically terrible short-sighted results. has a terrible temper. and yet! dearly loves his mother, and tries to respect his brother even when his patience runs thin, thin, thin. i love his character development into something almost approaching decent, but honestly? what a well-rounded character, who tries and fails and wants so desperately to make people proud of him! if only, well, his ego and greed, weren’t in the way.

young-po, darling himbo. sleeps during an eclipse. decides he’s a brilliant manipulator when hehas zero common sense. has no idea how closely he comes to death daily based on his own terrible self-interested choices, and if he wasn’t dae-so’s brother, would likely be dead by the end. okay, he gets a bit smarter during the final time skip , but still all his decisions backfire on him, and rightly so. he lives in a world of his own, which is quite frankly, hilarious to watch, since he’s so out of his element, and everybody knows it.

i’m a sucker for some terrible married people, jang se-joon and choi yoo-jin, who are miserable together, and manipulating each other for their own goals. but they know how to play their part under the spotlight even if they hate and resent each other when they are no longer witnessed by the public. neither of them are particularly good people, steeped in ambition and blackmail, but despite not wanting them to die, i thought they had a fitting end that suited their unhappy marriage.

bonus! choi seung-won, affable and goofy, but smart as a whip and sharp as a shark. knows more than he lets on, and clearly likes being underestimated but not even he is fully in control of the situation like he thinks he is. i really enjoyed every time he talked to his half-sister choi yoo-jin, playing up his friendliness while she couldn’t stand him, and how he was only nice to an-na when it suited him.

also, park kwan-soo, what a backstabbing weasel! he’s just here to make connections and watch the chaos unfold.

vyram four!!!

first, radiguet, absolute monster who wants all the glory and to possess maria. does some horrific things to attain his goals, even if he’s smug and unbearable to his teammates, as they quarrel who will be the leader of the vyram, and he’s so convinced it’s going to be him, in the end. he’s right, but he had me doubting him when tranza happens! has a chance to redeem himself, utterly squanders it.

second, tran, who evolves into tranza through the power of rage. kid turned nightmare and maybe gets the worst fate of all. i enjoyed his wacky plans, and then his obsession at beating the rangers at their own game. could have won had radiguet not sabotaged him.

third, grey! beloved sweetheart who cares for nothing and no one until maria plays piano for him, and then his sad tragedy begins. pretty much just wants to listen to classical music, smoke, drink wine and be left alone. but gosh, i cried when he cried. his greatest desire is for the love of his life to be okay.

lastly, maria! deserves the world, deserves better. brainwashed by the vyram, and cannot remember that she was once a human named rie and she was engaged to tendou ryuu, she’s all rage and viciousness, but sometimes rie slips through. her care for grey was sweet and so i am so glad she stabs radiguet fatally before her tragic demise.

king bai lin/hao chen! his paranoia ruined everything, oh my goodness. does not realise that he’s the bad guy until the very end. i love him anyway because of his wild commitment to control his best friend in the three realms, and trying to paint si-feng as the bad guy. 

yuan lang, ambitious to the max. dies and comes back. what a smug son of a gun! def. had fun with playing people as pawns to further his own agenda and feign innocence while he waited for the fruits of his long con to bear results.

wu tong, terrible in his love for linglong. still fun to watch as he developed a complex about her and realised too late that what he really wanted was her attention.

in my defence, i threw away my moral compass a long time ago for run yu, who deserves happiness and the world! it’s just. the loneliness, and how much he suffered so horribly, that.  idk. he deserved to lash out and make some terrible decisions. as a treat!

idk, i know he’s a villain, but it’s hard to see him as one, considering how much he was mistreated, but then again he does some unforgivable things to jin mi, but honestly i kind of support most of his wrongs, tbh.

jin mu!! hungering for power, always. deliciously camp in his posture and plotting. super obviously evil and yet people kept trusting him anyway! how could i not love him, and how his downfall was discarding a cute turtle that the crown prince cherished so much.

also his second body was delightfully hammy! slicking his hair back, constantly smirking and arching his eyebrow! devilish indeed!

yi yoong, my beloved!!! so badly did he want someone on his side, so badly did he want to prove his father wrong and not become a tyrant, so badly did he spiral and push people away as a means to protect them. smarter and more aware than he let on, i pitied him for his warmth turned cold, as he became more paranoid and violent and lonely, as he knew everyone preferred his brother to him and resented that fact bitterly. he was blunt and brutal and crafty, but he had a heart once and people miss that about him! i don’t blame him for becoming cruel and spiteful but i cry for him instead.

even if he was just an au version of the character, i would marry apollo geist, blight of the earth, in a heartbeat because of his fashion and hella cool evil outfits.

sonozaki fam!!

ryuubee, the dad, who thrived on terror and adored his youngest daughter. truly having the time of his life being evil and whimsical as he ran his museum.

saeko, who eventually resents her sister but saves her all the same. i’m soft for her relationship with her husband, kirihiko, who kept on disappointing her but tried hard anyway. i know she probably never loved him, but i was moved by the fact she used her husband’s memory and became nazca as well. if you fall in love with saeko, you will die!

kirihiko married into the family, but even his affection for his wife and their business can’t compare to how much he loves fuuto city, and him and shoutarou bonding over that delighted me.

wakana, from radio princess to museum successor to priestess of the earth, i loved her arc and her gradual bond with phillip which they both decided to keep mysterious until they realized their original connection to each other.

also, mikku! cutest cat executioner in the world!

i guess saeko’s other two suitors count too. isaka, who i loved for his unethical science experiments and general creepiness. and kazu, monotone and stoic, yet madly in love with saeko, who couldn’t stand him, i loved him for his unsettlingly still demeanour and his clumsiness.

lmao, the fact that gaslight gatekeep girlboss baek seung hee gets a happy ending is audacious, when she really should go to jail. however, everything she did was for her daughter’s sake, and if that meant that she’d tear heaven and earth apart with nonstop lies, then so be it, eun sung and her family be damned. she was entertaining all the time, and look, if seung mi is happy with her mom, moving away and starting anew, then i’m happy for seung mi.

truly the worst step mother of all time, but oh my god, what a performance, to have everyone believed her never ending lies even when the cracks began to grow, and be so unapologetic about it.

loved the evil spirit that possesses three people, all terrible people in their own right, but such interesting individuals all the same. the first, ji chung-shin, henchman who gathers other evil spirits together but genuinely has a soft spot for orphans. the second, shin myeong-hwi. his boss, mayor turned aspiring politician who secretly murders his competition in the dark, and has great pr. the third, his son, shin hyuk woo, high school bully who torments so mun, and gradually realises that his life is not as great as he projects to others, and slowly tries to turn his life around by the end.

lmao, the trio of fully merged with their humans evil spirits hwang pil-gwang, gelly berherd and wong yeok were superb! love this harmonious chaotic trio who worked well together until it falls apart and choosing not to save wong starts the rift between hwang pil-gwang and gelly until it fully explodes and they turn on each other.

i loved hwang pil-gwang so much for his coldness and stillness, how he could never decide quite what gelly meant to him — was his affection sincere or did he only desire her for her power? i loved his sadistic side, and how he only had fun when he saw a challenge like so mun. i loved how he observed people and push their buttons. and even inside of ma ju-seok, he still found a way to feast on that rage, and overpower ma ju-seok’s evil spirit.

gelly berherd was great for being a spiteful loose cannon, and her hatred for do ha-na in particular. i loved her for ruining hwang pil-gwang’s plans, and yet, in the end, it amounts to nothing and though her evil spirit gets summoned, the regular human gelly berherd’s spirit gets trapped within hwang pil-gwang anyway, much to hi twisted dismay.

bonus: ma ju-seok, kind man who snaps and gives into his rage, and desire for revenge, and an evil spirit takes advantage of the opportunity and whispers lies into ma ju-seok’s ears, fuelling his vengeance for his wife’s murder. i loved that his kindness never truly went away, despite being so submerged in grief, and that’s what prevented both his evil spirit and hwang pil-gwang from fully taking him over.

first! tantai minglang! jealous half-brother that dies not by rats, or being set on fire, but became pecked to death by crows! loved this unstable mess of a person with misplaced anger issued towards tantai jin.

second! ye bingchang! demon doing her own mortal tribulations, too desperate for love, steals some heart threads, insecure of that same love, unaware that she’s causing her own tragedy. actually learns from this once she’s mo nv and how this impacts her relationship with gongye jiwu.

third! siying and jingmie! minions to the devil lord, and maybe secretly in love too? jingmie gets dolls of them, and siying gets sad when jingmie died. i just. idk. they were sexy together.

fourth! dimian! constantly has to choose between love vs power, and power wins every time! he. just. made me laugh with his choices and reactions to things, and tries to be good temporarily, but alas, his desire for power undermines him every time.

fifth! the devil lord himself! v. sexy and v. pretty, and i would let him raze the world, idc. not actually tantai jin.

goongtan. lmao, what was i supposed to do? to not sympathise with a boy-turned-monster, and so off lost his humanity and hated everything in the end? even then, as starved for affection as he was, found a friendship with a little girl, and a strained friendship with van, that was sweet while it lasted. his visuals, his disdain for the world, yeah, yeah, yeah, he captivated me.

kang hyun-chae.

seo do-gyun.

yeo seo-il.

lee taek-kyu.

wang poong, beloved. smart but not smart enough! the arrogance of being the son of a villain, and all the youth and recklessness that entails. he was fun to watch, smugly smirking and being oh-so-condescending because he thought he had the upper hand.  he took his time to arrive tbh!