User blog:Misry6/Pure Evil Insertion Proposal: Surtr (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)

Note: If any of you are wondering, the reason why I'm calling this an "insertion proposal" is because it's proposing for the Pure Evil category to be inserted to an article, as opposed to the "removal proposal" which proposes for the category to be removed from an article. This is basically a normal PE proposal. Now with that being said, let's get started.

So, here's another candidate that I am proposing for them to be approved and inserted into the Pure Evil category. Mind you, this one has been on my mind for months already, but now is the time for me to get down to all this. Let's discuss… Surtr, or should I say… Metal Beak.

What's the Work?
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is a 2010 CGI family-friendly film that is inspired by the Guardians of Ga'Hoole 16-book series by Kathryn Lasky. The movie is about Soren, who wanted to become a Guardian since his childhood. One night, while their parents are hunting, he and his brother Kludd are kidnapped by the Pure Ones, but while Soren continues to defy them and eventually trains to become a Guardian to save the owl kingdoms, Kludd joins the Pure Ones and becomes deeply fanatical to Nyra. And the cause of the whole conflict? Well… you guessed it.

Who is the Candidate?
Our candidate here is the Greater Sooty Owl named Surtr, more commonly known as Metal Beak, who is the main antagonist of the movie. He is the despotic and darwinistic leader of the Pure Ones who sees any owl kingdom that is not named "Tyto" as weak and should be dominated and enslaved. As he put it in his own words, "The strong shall rule the weak." However, when we get to Metal Beak's acts, we see what just might push him across the extra mile for him to qualify.

What has he Done?
Surtr was an evil owl who was responsible for leading the Pure Ones against the Guardians who were trying to protect the owl kingdoms. During a realistically-depicted battle known as the Battle of the Ice Claws, Surtr clashed with Ezelryb, who held the title Lyze of Kiel; it was during this time that the latter scratched Surtr's beak off. The Guardians were victorious, and the Pure Ones were forced to retreat.

Despite this, Surtr survived his duel with Ezelryb, forged a metal mask which was "a symbol of the Pure Ones' strength and resolve", and became known as Metal Beak, being perfectly willing to set the owl kingdoms on fire (literally) so he could conquer them all. During one of his war campaigns, an owl named Grimble fought back against the Pure Ones, so they kidnapped his entire family, with Surtr promising him that if he does his dirty work, then no harm would come to them.

Surtr was also responsible for having the Pure Ones abduct hundreds of owlets from their nests to force them to become his slaves and soldiers. As for the owlet slaves themselves? They are treated horribly, especially since they are put in a process called "moonblinking". Moonblinking is when owls collapse under the moon and fall unconscious, and when they wake up, they forget everything that has happened to them. However, it's revealed that Surtr has a much bigger purpose behind the moonblinked owlets: they are forced to pick up metal flecks from other owls' pellets. These flecks contain magical blue energy that severely weaken the owls' gizzards and make them fragile and weak. The bats would then pick up the flecks and store them in a massive trap that Surtr set up for the Guardians so they could suffer from the same torture as the owlets, which would result in them bleeding to death because of the bats sucking their blood.

When his double-agent, Allomere, arrives to his lair, Surtr promises him that once enough flecks are amassed and Allomere leads the Guardians to his trap, then he would grant Allomere full permission to become the new King of Ga'Hoole, which was what the latter wanted all along. However, once Allomere does betray the Guardians to rule over the Great Tree, Surtr betrays him out of complete arrogance that, "There is only room for one king!", and has him dragged away by the blood-sucking bats, thus showing that he was never going to keep his word. Once Soren destroys the trap and frees the Guardians, Surtr and Ezelryb go in a showdown, where the latter gains the upper talon at first, but once Nyra, Surtr's mate, arrive, they brutalize him to the point he's knocked to the ground. Soren soon arrives with a flaming branch and confronts Surtr himself just as the latter was going to kill Ezelryb. Since Ezelryb was Soren's teacher and his hero, Surtr decides to force Soren to watch as he kills his teacher, but this only motivates Soren to find the courage to fight back. After a brief duel, Soren impales Surtr with the flaming branch, thus putting an end to the Pure Ones' threat against the Guardians and the owl kingdoms.

Freudian Excuse
None. Surtr has no excuse to justify his cruel and horrendous actions. He is only motivated by a lust of power and a darwinistic point of view, in which he believes that the Tyto class is superior to all other owl classes. However, he's perfectly willing to kill a Tyto if he or she so happens to get in his way.

Mitigating Factors
Onay, so this is where things get a little interesting, but let me explain. There is not a single redeeming quality that Surtr possesses. Yes; there is that scene where Nyra is horrified to see that Soren killed her mate and she retreats with the remaining Pure Ones, but this only means that she was in love with him, not vice versa. There's nowhere in the movie that implies that he loved her back.

Also, there is the scene where Nyra and Surtr see the Guardians being tortured by the blue energy of the metal flecks, and he says, "It would be cruel for them to wait much longer," before sending his bats to kill them off. Here's the thing: that trap being set up for the Guardians was Surtr's idea, not Allomere's. He promised Allomere that he will be the King of the Tree if he betrays the Guardians by leading him into the trap, so ultimately, the trap the Guardians were in at that very moment can be traced back to Surtr. Also, when he says it, he's not showing any sympathy for the Guardians like he's thinking, "Boo-hoo! I can't bear to watch them being tortured any longer, so I'll give them a mercy kill!" It was nothing like that. He's just saying that he didn't want them to wait longer because he detests them, and besides, the bats were going to bleed the Guardians to their deaths if not for Soren's interference, which is a cruel and horrible way to die.

Lastly, while Surtr did promise Grimble that his family won't be harmed by the Pure Ones if he joins them, we never see him keeping his promise and the film never alludes to it. However, we do see that Surtr promised Allomere that he would rule over the Great Tree, but then we find out that Surtr was never going to keep his word in the first place. Now, I'm not going off to a Fridge Horror argument. I'm just pointing out that we can't safely assume that Surtr kept his promise to Grimble because we never find out that he did keep his promise.

Heinous Standards
With everything he's done, I wholeheartedly believe that Surtr does everything he can to go the extra mile for a family-friendly movie, especially with him moonblinking hundreds of owlets and forcing them into slavery while converting others to become members of his Pure Ones, using a double-agent to lead the Guardians into a devastating trap to kill them all through torture and bleeding, before betraying the double-agent because he himself wanted all the power for himself even though be made a promise to the double-agent that he would rule the Tree, and finally forcing Soren to watch as his teacher and hero is almost killed by his mate.

As for the movie itself? Surtr sets it. He's the one who was behind the Pure Ones and orchestrated the kidnappings of Soren, Gylfie, and Kludd (even though the latter chose to join the Pure Ones later on), caused a warfare to enslave hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent owls that he sees as weak because they're not Tytos, and besides, Nyra, Kludd, and Allomere all served him. He is the story's main antagonist after all, and it is non-canon to the books.

Final Verdict
I believe that, for such a lighthearted movie, Surtr does enough to qualify. However, you are free to cast your votes down below so you can express your opinions.