Ares (DC Extended Universe)

"You're right, Diana - they don't deserve our help... they only deserve destruction."

- Morgan revealing himself as Ares to Diana

"I am not the God of War, Diana. I am the God of Truth."

- Ares during his meeting with Wonder Woman

Ares (also known as Sir Patrick Morgan and The God of War) is the main antagonist of the 2017 superhero film Wonder Woman. He is the fearsome, manipulative and ruthless Greek God of War, son of Zeus and Wonder Woman/Diana Prince's arch-nemesis as well as her half-brother. He is bent on wiping out humanity at any cost via World War I.

He was portrayed and voiced by actor David Thewlis, who also portrayed Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter franchise and King Einon in Dragonheart.

Early Life
Ares was born millions of years ago to Zeus, the King of the Olympian gods, as one of the latter's many godly children. In his childhood period, he came to a point of realization that he has mighty powers and that his role is the God of War.

In some point unknown, Zeus had created the human race and made them in the gods likeness, and Ares saw the race with disdain and corrupted the humanity with war, fights, blood-thirst and violence. As a response, Zeus created a new race known as the Amazons which were intended to defend humanity from Ares's corrupting influence while also spreading love and compassion.

However, Ares violently rebelled and killed other gods for disagreeing with his blood-thirst and extremism. To that end, Zeus was left as the only god and faced against his own son at combat and managed to wound him and temporarily subdued Ares for a while but not before Zeus fathered Diana as a contingency weapon that could one day save humanity by defeating Ares, who is the daughter of Hippolyta, and therefore he created the protected island paradise Themyscira for the Amazons to live, being hidden away from the god of war.

Afterwards, Ares re-appeared and succeeded to kill Zeus, but not before he vowed to wipe out humanity.

Manipulating World War I
In 1918, Ares had arrived to the city of London, capital of Britain, where he had used his shape-shifting ability to take a human form, and dubbing himself as Sir Patrick Morgan. Under this identity, Ares managed to hide his true-self and disguised himself as an advocate member in the War Council, only to manipulate both sides of the Central Forces and the Allied against each other, in order to advance his goal to destroy humanity.

Diana, who now received the surname "Prince" because of her being a princess in Themyscira, had arrived with Steve Trevor straight to London, where Ares witnessed her arrival. He had maintained his disguise and pretended not to know his identity.

Afterwards, Steve delivers Doctor Poison's notes to his superiors at the Imperial War Cabinet, including Sir Patrick Morgan whose Ares himself, who is "trying to negotiate an armistice with Germany". Steve believes General Erich Ludendorff (the film's other main antagonist) will complete and use the gas regardless of an armistice, and Diana concludes Ludendorff is Ares himself and slaying him will end the war.

Steve and Diana decide to travel to the front lines to stop Ludendorff, accompanied by Steve's team: spy Sameer, marksman Charlie, and smuggler Chief. Arriving at the Western Front in Belgium, the group's progress is halted by enemy trenches, until Diana pushes alone through the German lines, rallying the allied forces behind her to liberate a village from German control. Diana and the team celebrate the freedom of the villagers, and Diana grows close to Steve.

Mastermind
Learning that Ludendorff will attend a gala at a nearby castle, Steve infiltrates the party and is followed by Diana, who intends to kill Ludendorff. Steve stops her to avoid jeopardizing the mission to destroy the chemical stores, and they quickly learn that Ludendorff has used the gas to bomb the nearby village with severe consequences, causing countless deaths on the innocent civilians.

Diana is devastated that Steve interfered, allowing the loss of life. In rage, Diana pursues Ludendorff to a complex where the gas is being loaded into a bomber to attack London. Diana fights and slays Ludendorff, but is stunned when his death does not stop the war.

After she had killed Ludendorff, Sir Patrick arrives to the place, and confronts Diana. During their conflict, Morgan finally reveals himself to Diana as the true Ares and he explains her that though he has encouraged them to destroy themselves, humans themselves contain the dark impulse to make war. Then, the meeting between them leads into a lengthy, harsh, extremely destructive and violent battle.

Final Battle and Defeat
"The god-killer sword could not defeat me, the Lasso of Truth could not hold me, and you will not see the end of this day."

- Ares to Wonder Woman, during their battle

As they fight, Ares attempts to convince Diana that humanity does not deserve to be saved, and reveals that she herself is the weapon of Zeus: his last child. As Ares overpowers Diana, Steve hijacks the bomber containing the gas and sacrifices himself to incinerate it at a safe distance.

In rage and grief, Diana attacks the oncoming Germans and effortlessly beats down all of them. Ares triumphantly throws Dr. Poison's getaway vehicle towards Diana, sending Poison tumbling out, her mask falling away to reveal her gruesome face underneath. Ares says that she is the perfect example of humanity and tells Diana to destroy her. Diana lifts a truck and considers crushing Poison with it, until she remembers Steve's last words to her and his declaration of love for her.

Inspired by Steve's selflessness and his final words, Diana spares Poison and lets her run off. Diana says that humanity is indeed everything Ares claimed, but they are also so much more. She dedicates herself to defending mankind and summons her power to stop Ares and spare humanity. He decides that he must kill her and summons lightning before throwing all of it at her. Her bracelets absorb the lightning, and she says goodbye to her brother and flies up before unleashing the full power of her lightning at the God of War, which blasts through him and obliterates him completely. The remaining German troops retreat immediately after.

Back in London, Diana and the team solemnly celebrate the end of the war as they gaze at a photo of Steve along with the other photos of several soldiers in memory on those who died in the war.

Personality
As the God of War, Ares is an extreme megalomaniac, egotistical, bloodthirsty and manipulative mastermind of terrorism and war from the most diabolical kind ever imagined.

Actually, Ares represents the ultimate personification of destruction, war, anarchy, chaos and death, and sees nothing more or less than wiping out humanity at any cost with the usage of World War I.

Powers and Abilities
As a Pagan/Olympian god, Ares had many powers and abilities such as:

Powers
Pagan God Physiology: As an Olympian god, Ares is an incredibly powerful being, enough to surpass the already tremendous might of Wonder Woman.
 * Super Strength: Ares has a tremendous level of superhuman strength, notably superior to that of Wonder Woman, with him able to send her flying vast distances with his incredibly mighty blows.
 * Invulnerability: Ares, as an Olympian god, cannot be killed by normal superficial means, given as how Zeus was only slain by another Olympian god, Ares himself. As such, Ares withstood numerous tremendously mighty blows from Wonder Woman, conflagrations, and the full force of massive explosions.
 * Healing Factor: He has vast regenerative capabilities, given as how he survived being mortally wounded by Zeus and recovered in a very short time.
 * War Manipulation: Ares, as the God of War, has the formidable power to manipulate war, strife, combat, bloodlust, rage, and other forms of conflict. This power also allows Ares to naturally be incredibly skilled in all forms of fighting, and weaponry.
 * War Empowerment: With violence, conflict, bloodshed, and the deaths of millions serve to make Ares more powerful, as it is these emotions themselves which make him powerful.
 * Violence Telepathy: Ares can induce conflicts by influencing people or events - raising personal and fanatical armies, shown when he corrupted humanity with warfare shortly after the race's creation, and latter instigating the extremely devastating global World War I. He can even influence people and secretly inspire them to create weapons of mass destruction, given as how he influenced and inspired Doctor Poison to create a hydrogen-based mustard gas and a special gaseous super soldier formula for General Ludendorff.
 * Electrokinesis: Ares can generate and control electricity to an extreme degree, generating tremendous lightning torrents from his hands, though he was also capable of far more precise small sparks as well. Ares promptly conducted an extreme amount of electricity through the Lasso of Truth, in order to instantly break free from Wonder Woman's otherwise unbreakable noose.
 * Telekinesis: Ares can move, hurl and manipulate objects' movements to an immense degree with mere hand gestures, thus keeping the Lasso of Truth from entangling him while fighting Wonder Woman, as well as telekinetically projecting waves of debris and hurling entire tanks at her.
 * Thermokinesis: Ares can manipulate and conduct an immense amount of heat, notably doing so when Wonder Woman tried stabbing him with her Godkiller sword, with the blade melting and harmlessly breaking into pieces upon touching the war god.
 * Teleportation: Ares swiftly disappears as soon as Wonder Woman slashes her sword at him, promptly reappearing some distance away.
 * Invisibility: Ares can render himself imperceptible to humans as he covertly manipulates and corrupts them, notably doing so to General Ludendorff and Doctor Poison.
 * Illusion Casting: Ares can conjure up extremely realistic and vibrant illusions, notably temporarily altering the environment around himself and Wonder Woman to look like a luscious forest ally.
 * Flight: Ares can fly at considerable speeds, capable of maneuvering with precision in any direction, as well as hovering in one place.
 * Shape-Shifting: Ares can alter his true godly appearance, notably when he disguised himself as the human "Sir Patrick Morgan."
 * Immortality: Ares, due to him being an Olympian god, has been alive for millennia, predating the time when Zeus created humanity and the Amazons.

Abilities

 * Expert Deceiver: Ares is extremely skilled in deception, as he very convincingly posed as the human "Sir Patrick Morgan", and deceived not only Wonder Woman, but even the highly experienced spy Steve Trevor into believing that he was a staunch Allied Powers supporter, with him notably funding Steve Trevor's Team for their military expedition to find and defeat General Ludendorff, with Wonder Woman never suspecting "Sir Patrick" until Ares willingly reveals himself to her.
 * Warfare Expertise: Ares, as the God of War, is an expert in all areas of warfare, with him effectively using this knowledge while posing as "Sir Patrick Morgan" of the War Council.
 * Weapons Intuition: Ares also revealed to Wonder Woman that he had not been the one to start World War I, but merely taught both opposing sides of the global war how to create weapons of mass destruction, which induced humans themselves to choose war with one another.
 * Master Combatant: Ares, as the God of War, is a tremendously skilled, fierce, and formidable armed and hand-to-hand combatant, a master of numerous martial arts, as well as an expert in wielding weapons, with centuries of combat experience. Indeed, Ares' tremendous combat skills have allowed him to defeat and kill off all of the other Olympian gods (even his more powerful father Zeus), and to consistently maintain the upper hand against the extremely skilled Wonder Woman, mocking her skills, and with Wonder Woman only managing to ultimately defeat Ares with considerable effort and initial failure.

Family

 * Zeus † - Father and Victim
 * Wonder Woman/Diana Prince - Arch-Nemesis, Paternal Half-Sister and Killer

Enemies

 * Olympian Gods † - Victims
 * Wonder Woman/Diana Prince
 * Steve Trevor's Team
 * Steve Trevor † - Ostensible Ally turned Enemy
 * Sameer
 * Chief
 * Charlie
 * Etta Candy - Ostensible Ally turned Enemy

Trivia

 * This is the first time where David Thewils plays a comic book villain character.
 * This is the second time in which David Thewils stars in a Warner Bros. produced movie since his recurring role as Professor Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series.
 * His appearance in Wonder Woman is very similar to the appearance of Talia al Ghul in another DC comic book movie adaptation, The Dark Knight Rises. Both of them are masquerading as peaceful civilians, prophets of good during most of the film (Ares as Sir Patrick Morgan, politician speaking for peace on Earth, and Talia as environmentalist Miranda Tate), making their actions through the hands of other villains and only revealing their true nature and real intentions in the third act (interestingly, both of them by their own will), when they start the open confrontation with the superhero protagonist.
 * Similar to Quirinus Quirrell, the central villain of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, Ares uses physical disease to create an image of a poor man and make other people feel pity for him, which helps to hide his ominous nature from anyone to discover. David Thewlis, who portrayed Ares, coincidentally auditioned to portray Quirrell however Ian Hart ultimately ended up being the one to portray him leading to Thewlis being called in for the third film to portray Professor Lupin instead.
 * Ares shares few similarities with the following villains:
 * Loki from Marvel Comics:
 * They are both gods.
 * Both of them are masterminds and manipulators.
 * Both of them are archenemies to siblings, Loki was adoptive brother to Thor while Ares was Diana's half-brother.
 * Both Loki and Ares are shape-shifters.
 * Magneto from the X-Men franchise:
 * Both of them had their share of hatred and prejudice towards humanity.
 * Both of them have the ability to manipulate all forms of magnetism and telekinesis.
 * Both Magneto and Ares are warmongers as both of them sought to destroy humanity within their own purposes: (Ares wants to recreate the world into a new paradise with a reason that the humanity is inherently corrupt while Magneto wanted to establish a place amongst mutants without the interference of humanity which Magneto viewed it as a threat to their existence).
 * The Devil of Abrahamic faiths:
 * Ares opposed Zeus, who created and loved humanity, which is reminiscent of the rivalry between God and The Devil.
 * Both tempt humanity to do negative actions.
 * When Ares was defeated in battle decades ago, he is shown to be lying on the ground like some depictions of Lucifer.
 * Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:
 * They are immortal beings who seek to destroy humanity (Ego wants to terraform other planets into extensions of himself, Ares manipulates the soldiers into fighting each other in order to perpetuate World War I).
 * They adopt human disguises to attain their goals, and act friendly and affable towards others.
 * They have family members who are demigods, but are also on the good side and eventually turn on them (Ares is the half-brother of Diana Prince, Ego is the biological father of Star-Lord).
 * They are incredibly smart, powerful and manipulative.
 * Both their films came out in 2017.
 * However, the only difference between the two was that Ares was an Anti-Villain, while Ego was Pure Evil.
 * Zamasu from Dragon Ball Super:
 * Both possess a supreme god complex (one thinks himself to be the sole most powerful god enacting true justice, the other feels that his brethren were utter fools in respecting his father's love of humanity.)
 * They murdered their fellow gods for differing yet similar reasons.
 * Both detest mortals with a great passion and desire their total annihilation.
 * Both are colossal traitorous hypocrites who blindly see that everything they do is justifiable due to their godhood, in truth however they are infinitely worse than the objects of their ire (Humanity and weak willed gods).
 * The final design of his armored look wasn't portrayed faithfully in any merchandise of the movie. The Lego figure has an animal skull as a helmet, is much taller than Diana and Steve, and uses a sword and shield. The Mattel "Collect and Connect" figure from the Wonder Woman wave also has an animal skull as a helmet and uses a shield and sword. Both figures have a completely black face with red eyes (similar to the comic counterpart, possibly to avoid the spoiler that Sir Patrick Morgan is Ares in disguise. The only somewhat faithful piece of merchandise is the Funko POP, however he still has the black face, and no mustache but no red eyes.