User blog:Misry6/Pure Evil Proposal: Syndrome

This is my first Pure Evil proposal here in the post blogs.

While Syndrome was added to the Pure Evil category, it was only because TV Tropes accepted his comic incarnation as a Complete Monster, but still wasn't accepted as a CM in the film (which is also why the Type Dependent on Version category is in Syndrome's article here in this wiki). Now, Syndrome has been fully accepted as a Complete Monster by TV Tropes, but that doesn't mean the Type Dependent on Version category will be removed from there anytime soon because Villains Wiki is not the same as TV Tropes (though I do admire both sites for their hard work).

However, this isn't why I'm making this proposal. The reason why I'm making it is because I truly believe Syndrome (in both versions) does enough to count. (Note: If Film!Syndrome is accepted as Pure Evil here, the Type Dependent on Version can be removed from the article. If not, then the latter category stays.) Overall, this proposal is about Film!Syndrome.

What's The Work
The Incredibles is a family-friendly superhero movie created by Disney • Pixar in 2004. It's about a superhero family consisting of Mr. Incredible (the father), Elastigirl (the mother), and Dash, Violet, and Jack-Jack (the kids). The former two were among the Earth's greatest crime fighters, but were eventually forced to live in civilian lives. One day, Mr. Incredible comes to a remote island because of an enigmatic communications signal, and gets his chance to save the day once again, but he soon faces one of his greatest threats: Syndrome.

Who is the Candidate
Syndrome (real name: Buddy Pine) is an exceptionally heinous supervillain and mad scientist who was once a kid from Mr. Incredible's fan club, and called himself IncrediBoy because he wanted to become Mr. Incredible's sidekick, but was rejected by Bob due to his recklessness. Because of that, he now plans to unleash the Omnidroid 10 onto a city full of innocents and pretend to be a superhero, but his actions go much further than that. Much further…

What Has He Done
Buddy Pine was once part of Mr. Incredible's fan club. When they meet, Buddy (as IncrediBoy) got in Mr. Incredible's car as the latter was going to take off to stop a tour bus robbery, and told him that he doesn't need to be trained because he knows everything about the latter's moves, crime-fighting style, favorite catchphrases, etc, claiming himself to be the latter's #1 fan. Because of this, Mr. Incredible threw him out of his vehicle.

Later on, Incredibly interferes when Mr. Incredible was capturing a villain named Bomb Voyage. IncrediBoy told Mr. Incredible that he has rocket boots, and that he is the latter's ward. He further shows off his recklessness and arrogance after Mr. Incredible told him he's taking it too far, assuming (without any evidence) that it's because he doesn't have special powers, and tells Mr. Incredible, "I invented these! I can fly! Can you fly?" With that, Mr. Incredible tells him to fly home because he works alone. IncrediBoy begs him for another chance, and then decides to tell the police, not noticing a bomb stuck to his cape (referencing Edna Mode's superhero rule of "No capes!" that would be shown later on in the movie). As IncrediBoy flies away, Mr. Incredible latches on to him and takes off the bomb from the cape, which falls onto a train track and blows up, causing Mr. Incredible to prevent the train from falling, saving the passengers' lives, but Bomb Voyage is left at large. Mr. Incredible takes IncrediBoy to the police, telling them to take him back to his mom. After that, Buddy hates Mr. Incredible, and decides to become a supervillain.

Fifteen years later, Buddy (now known as Syndrome) operates on an island and lures retired superheroes to said island to be killed by his Omnidroids, with much fewer Omnidroids killed than supers, but all the supers lured there are killed off by the Omnidroids. Mr. Incredible is also lured there, but he faces Omnidroid 08 and kills it. Soon, he faces Omnidroid 09, which is shut down by Syndrome so the latter can deal with Mr. Incredible personally. Syndrome reveals his past and repeatedly thrashes Mr. Incredible using his zero-point energy ray, and taunts him before accidentally thrashing him into a river. Syndrome drops a bomb into the river, and Mr. Incredible barely escapes. Then, Syndrome releases a scanner to find him. The latter hides behind the skeleton of one of the superheroes Syndrome killed (which is pretty disturbing for a kid's movie) to fake his death, so Syndrome smiles wickedly after hearing that Mr. Incredible has been terminated.

Mr. Incredible makes his way into Syndrome's lair and clicks on "Supers", and sees all of the images of the supers killed by Syndrome (including the image of the super whose skeleton Mr. Incredible hid behind earlier), and makes a hand palm and sighs, knowing the monster Syndrome has become. He also finds out about Operation Kronos, which is about unleashing an Omnidroid from a rocket into a populated city so Syndrome can play super. However, he is captured by Syndrome's henchwoman Mirage. After that, Syndrome forces Mr. Incredible to listen to a transmission line of his own wife (Elastigirl) and children (Violet and Dash, excluding Jack-Jack who is with his babysitter back at home) in an airplane targeted by Syndrome's short-range missiles. The missiles blow up the plane, but Elastigirl, Dash, and Violet have survived. Mirage, deeply saddened by what just happened, tells Syndrome that it was a direct hit, but the latter arrogantly tells her that she'll get over it. As Syndrome laughs, Mr. Incredible grabs Mirage and threatens Syndrome that he'll crush her if he doesn't release him. Unlike the generic supervillain who would release the hero because he doesn't want his henchwoman to be killed, Syndrome's response is, "That sounds a little dark for you. Well, go ahead," completely uncaring about Mirage's life and even telling Mr. Incredible to kill her with him watching, but the latter doesn't do it and releases Mirage instead. Syndrome calls him out on not killing her by claiming him to be weak. Eventually, because of this, Mirage tells Syndrome to bet on his own life the next time he gambles, and even releases Mr. Incredible.

Syndrome soon captures Mr. Incredible (once again), Elastigirl, Violet, and Dash, and tells them about his ultimate goal: have the Omnidroid 10 destroy buildings and kill people until he defeats it, claiming he'll be a greater hero than any of them were. Syndrome also reveals that when he gets elderly and retires, he would sell his inventions to the public so that, "…everyone will be superheroes. Everyone will be super! And when everyone's super, no one will be" (which is basically genocide), fully knowing the consequences of selling his weapons to potentially irresponsible people and not giving a crap about it.

Syndrome goes to enact his plan by releasing the rocket from the volcano where his lair is, with the rocket crashing into the city with the Omnidroid 10 attacking it, and then him attacking the Omnidroid so he pretends to be a superhero. However, when the Omnidroid discovers Syndrome is controlling it with his remote, it shoots his remote off his wrist, so he (unlike a true superhero) cowardly flees the scene, thus putting his own life above the lives of others. He gets furious, however, when he sees that the Incredibles have foiled his plot by destroying the Omnidroid, so he goes over to the Incredibles' house and kidnaps their baby, Jack-Jack, intending to make him grow up to be his sidekick. Syndrome tries to fly off with him into his airplane, but the latter turns into fire, a metal object, and a monster, and repeatedly attacks him by ripping off parts of his hair and destroying one of his rocket boots. Jack-Jack falls, but Elastigirl saves his life. As Syndrome tries to get on his plane, he tells the Incredibles that he will get their son eventually, but Mr. Incredible throws his own car into Syndrome's plane. This causes the latter to lose his balance and fall dangerously close to the plane's turbine. Syndrome tries to escape, but his cape is snagged into the turbine where he is dragged into it and (off-screen) shredded to his death (again, referencing the, "No capes!" rule.

Freudian Excuse
Syndrome's freudian excuse is that he was rejected by Mr. Incredible when he wanted to become his sidekick. It's understandable why Syndrome has an agenda against him, but it stands very weak against the fact that he used his Omnidroid models to murder superheroes, forced Mr. Incredible to listen to a transmission of his own family getting killed, tried to have him kill his henchwoman Mirage, and planned to commit genocide on all supers.

Oh, and that's not to mention that almost everything Buddy did in his backstory was bad, as he was very reckless and arrogant to Mr. Incredible, which caused the latter to save him from being blown up by the bomb caught on his cape. Also, earlier than that, IncrediBoy told Mr. Incredible that he didn't want to be trained. Really, Buddy?

Mitigating Factors
Syndrome has no redeeming qualities. His plan to sell his weapons to the masses so "everyone can be super" was only to eradicate the supers, not help people.

Also, even though the movie doesn't actually show Syndrome's Omnidroids killing superheroes, that's not Offscreen Villainy. Mr. Incredible found out about it when he clicked on "Supers" and he saw the list of superheroes that have been terminated by the Omnidroids, with him face-palming and making a disappointed sigh. Also, he hid behind the skeleton of one of said superheroes, and when he typed in his own superhero title, "Mr. Incredible", he was listed as terminated, but that's only because Syndrome thought he died in the explosion caused by the bomb. So, while it's not onscreen, it still counts as an onscreen crime because of the visible effects of the kills.

Last, while Syndrome is Laughably Evil at some moments, these moments go only to point toward his villainy, not detract from it. He's played as a completely serious threat from beginning to end.

Heinous Standard
Syndrome is beyond being a generic supervillain, as when Mr. Incredible threatened to kill his henchwoman Mirage if he doesn't get released, Syndrome actually tells him to "go ahead", and when Mr. Incredible said that it'll be "like breaking a toothpick", Syndrome demanded that he shows him that. Also, he forces the movie's main protagonist to listen as his family is supposedly killed by his missiles. Now, this is a new level of heinousness caused by a supervillain from a family-friendly movie, making him a very hatable character.

Also, he sets the heinous standard for The Incredibles series. The only one who comes even close to competing with Syndrome is the missile launcher from the "No capes!" scene in the movie, who was intending to have a rocket pointed toward a city. However, the missile launcher fails the heinous standard because the body count in his plan is never made clear, while it's made very clear that Syndrome's plan was to commit genocide on all supers. The villain from Incredibles 2, the Screenslaver (real name: Evelyn Deavor), also fails the heinous standards because while she was intending to have a ship crash into a city, she only wanted to make supers illegal forever, compared to Syndrome's plot to destroy all supers. Talk about genocide.

Final Verdict
I definitely think both Film!Syndrome and Comic!Syndrome count as Pure Evil. However, this proposal is for Film!Syndrome who currently isn't listed as PE here (which is why the Type Dependent on Version category is still in the article), so… thoughts?