User blog:Misry6/Pure Evil Proposal: Rallah

Okay, having watched the Pure Flix movie Samson, it's time for me to propose a new villain today. Meet the evil monarch, Rallah. And even though I haven't made his article yet, I decided to propose him anyway.

What's the Work?
Samson is a 2018 PG-13 rated Pure Flix movie which centers around the biblical character named Samson, anointed by God with supernatural strength to judge the enemies of Isreal. Isreal has done various immoral acts which caused its enemies to be able to take over. In this case? The Philistines, led by King Balek, but he's not the candidate here. It's his more sadistic and wicked son who wants to usurp his throne so he can become the new King of the Philistines, wipe out Isreal, and spread his conquest through the Middle-East.

Who is the Villain?
You guessed it; Rallah is the evil son of King Balek and comes off as the main antagonist of the film. He is the Prince of the Philistines who regularly condemns the Isrealites to starvation and slavery, and eventually takes his father's throne for himself. How does he do it, you ask? Well, that's what I'll explain in the next section.

What Has He Done?
When we first see Rallah, the tribute has been doubled, and a Hebrew named Tobias politely asks Rallah for mercy by giving him food. Rallah's response is to proclaim that Tobias "will never hunger again", by having one of his soldiers literally stab him in the back to his death. Rallah then asks his Hebrew slaves if anyone else wants mercy, and then has them go back to work.

Later, he hires a very strong warrior named Bolcom from Egypt to drive Samson out of Isreal. During a contest between Samson and Bolcom, the former is briefly distracted by his future wife, a Philistine woman named Taren, which allows Bolcom to viciously attack him several times. However, Samson regains his attention, using his strength to defeat Bolcom and almost kill him by crushing him with a boulder. After the contest, Rallah tells Taren, another Philistine named Jodel, and Bolcom that they will work for him until their debt is paid, but not all of them, as Rallah gives off the signal for his soldiers to shoot Bolcam to his death out of sadism.

Rallah then concocts a scheme with Delilah to rule as king with her as queen, and bit by bit, he tries to control his father's kingdom as well as the Hebrews. Delilah tells Rallah that Samson and Taren plan to get married, but his head soldier, Ashdod, tells Rallah that to do so would be heresy to Dagon because a Hebrew would be married to a Philistine, and then Delilah reveals that if he blessed their union, they'd be in his debt. In other words, Samson would never fight back against him, and Rallah would have the throne. Rallah now realizes that it would be easier to control them that way, so he decides to let them get married.

That night, Rallah and Delilah host the wedding feast. Samson then tests Rallah and thirty of his men to a riddle contest and gives them a question that was very hard to solve. Samson tells them that they will have to give up their tunics to him if they lose, but Rallah adds to that, saying that if Samson loses, he has to surrender the same, and if he doesn't, he will decapitate him or Taren. Samson then gives out his riddle: "Out of the eater, something to eat. Out of the strong, something sweet." He then tells then that they have until the next day to answer. Meanwhile, Delilah spies on Samson and Taren having a honeymoon as he tells the latter the answer to the riddle: "For what is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?" Delilah tells the answer to Rallah off-screen, so the next morning, Samson is surprised to find out that Rallah figured out the answer, but he also remembers what happens if he loses the riddle. Samson tells Rallah he does not have the tunics, so Rallah responds by threatening to behead Taren. So, Samson tells Rallah he will find the tunics, runs off, and kills thirty Philistine soldiers and gathers their tunics.

Samson soon gives the thirty tunics to Rallah and demands to find Taren. However, Rallah tells him he doesn't have a wife because he didn't come back in time to finish the wedding ceremony, and because he killed his men, he will spend the rest of his life working in the mines, and sadistically laughs at said fact as Samson runs off again. Samson finds a skulk of foxes and ties up their tails. At night, he lights the branches on fire and releases the foxes onto the Philistines' crops. He then demands Rallah to release Taren. However, Rallah has Ashdod and another soldier show Taren and her father, Ahar (a prisoner of the crown) to Samson. Ashdod tells Somson that he releases Taren and Ahar, before he and the other soldier toss them to their deaths into the burning crops. Rallah then snickers at Samson's immediate distraught.

The next day, Rallah threatens to the people of Isreal that if Samson does not show up, then his father, Manoah, will be killed, and their village will be burned. After Samson returns to his people after being convinced by his brother, Caleb (Samson has been mourning over Taren's death in a cave at the time), Rallah announces that Manoah and the village will be spared. However, he comes over to Samson and sdistically reveals that after Samson's death, he was going to kill Manoah and burn his village anyway, and has his soldiers murder Manoah. Enraged by this, Samson starts fighting Rallah and his minions, picks up the jawbone of a donkey, and uses it to make a scar over Rallah's left eye before proceeding to kill a thousand of Rallah's soldiers, including Ashdod. However, Rallah survives. Because of his failures, Rallah is punished by the King to lead campaigns across Egypt and other lands.

However, after many years, Rallah returns to his kingdom and increases the burden on the Isrealites, on the brink of starvation, and continues his scheme with Delilah to overthrow his father as the King of the Philistines. He has Delilah spy on Samson so she can learn his secret, and tell it to him (Rallah), but threatens to kill her if she fails. He also beheads two traitorous Isrealites who come to warn the King of a possible rebellion. Eventually, Samson is foolish enough to tell Delilah the truth about his strength, and she lulls him to sleep, and cuts Samson's hair. Because Samson allowed Delilah to do this, his strength leaves him, so when she reveals, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!", he punches one of the Philistine's shields, but wounds his fist because of it. Rallah arrives on the scene as Samson is held captive by two of his soldiers, and puts the tip of his sword over fire. He then uses it to burn out both of Samson's eyes, with Delilah being forced to watch. Once Samson is in prison, Rallah proceeds to abuse him, demanding to know the truth of his strength, but Caleb tells rallah that to get his strength, he needs to humble himself or God will humble him.

Eventually, Rallah gets into an argument with the King, but fatally stabs him to death, taking his mantle for himself. As the new King of the Philistines, Rallah has his soldiers station Samson between the two pillars that are supporting the temple they are in, which holds over three-thousand people. He has his guards whip Samson over ten times. After this happens, Samson tells God, "Father, give me Your strength one last time. Let me die with the Philistines," he gets his strength back, and proceeds to push down both the pillars in a Taking You With Me scenario, killing all of the Philistines there. After Delilah is crushed by the rubble, Rallah collapses, and tries to reach his crown. However, the statue of Dagon collapses on him, killing the despot once and for all.

Freudian Excuse
Absolutely none to speak of. Rallah does not have a tragic backstory, and he does not have a tragic death. In fact, what happened to him was very well-deserved, as it is equal to all the crimes he has committed.

Mitigating Factors
Again, no. Rallah doesn't even have a lick of a redeeming quality. He is a sadistic despot who only wants more and more power, caring about no one about himself. While it would appear at first that he cares about his soldiers because of his comment, "Now, since you murdered my men and stolen their clothes, you will spend the rest of your very short life working in the mines," he dismisses the fact that his men died instead of showing any real sympathy whatsoever about their deaths. He also sadistically laughs at he fact that Samson will be working in the mines after that. Also, when the temple is collapsing and his men are being killed there, what does Rallah do? Nothing, except trying to reach for his crown in his last moments. He also never cared for his father; even though his father loved him, he never loves him back. He just wanted the power.

Heinous Standards
Let's see… Rallah continually commits needless sadistic acts whenever he can? Check. Threatens to burn a village before our hero comes to the screen, tells the hero's village they will be spared, before he reveals he was going to burn it anyway? Murders the hero's father after the hero returns, and after telling the village his father will be spared after threatening he will be killed if the hero does not show up? "Releases" Taren (Samson's Philistine wife) and her father into fire after Samson tells him to release her? Check, check, and check. Would a generic tyrant ever do that? No. With all that spoken out, Rallah is a tyrant who commits uniquely vile actions for his own personal gain.

As for the movie? Rallah is the Big Bad. He stands out as the worse character to ever appear in the film. His father, King Balek, would not give the Isrealites back their harvest, but his son, Rallah, takes it to a whole new level. He even kills an innocent Jew after the latter begs for food. He also topples his father in terms of heinousness when he kills him and takes over the throne, and ending up becoming an even worse ruler than Balek. And even though Delilah cut Samson's hair and giving the signal for the Philistines to come over, and was working with Rallah on the latter's scheme to overthrow his father as the King, she never comes close to being as heinous as him. Delilah never kills the hero's father, never throws the hero's wife and her father over the balcony and into the fire, and never kills her own father either. Oh, and she's horrified as she is forced to watch as Rallah burns out Samson's eyes, and she is honorable when Samson, in the prison, tells her to free his brother, Caleb, instead of him, and does so. In contrast, Rallah is a cheater, and he never fights fair.

Final Verdict
Rallah is a stone-solid qualifier in my opinion because of the mountain of atrocities he committed, and he easily sets the heinous standards when it comes to the movie he's from as well as conquerors in general. What do you think?