User blog:ScaryMovie53/PE Proposal: Azazello

Here's an relatively unknown villain named Azazello, a dog-man from "The Island of Dr. Moreau" 1996 movie.

WHAT IS THE WORK?
"The Island of Dr. Moreau" is a novel by H.G. Wells, where the psychopathic Dr. Moreau forced animals into anthromophism using vivisection. In the 1996 cinematic version, Moreau had some of the creatures as his "children", one of them is Azazello.

WHO IS THE VILLAIN?
Azazello used to be a dog, until Moreau vivisected him and took him in as his son. Along with his sister Aissa, which used to be a cat, Azazello is one of the few beast folks have somewhat humanly appearance. In addition, he had a fine suit, in contrast to the rags most beast folks were wearing.

Unlike Dr. Moreau, Dr. Montgomery and Hyena-Swine, Azazello is exclusive and original to the 1996 movie. The others villains were villainous in their source material as well. The novel character whom Azazello is based on was heroic. This adaptation from a faithful saint-bernard man to a backstabber hitman makes Azazello even more jarring.

WHAT DOES HE DO?
Azazello was first seen guarding a vivisected animal, chasing the protagonist Edward Douglas after the latter saw the poor creature. Later, when Lo-Mai the leopard man is being publicly judged for breaking the beast folks law, Azazello made his first on-screen villainous deed in the shape of shooting him without neither order nor premition from the doctor. His claims of "wishing to protect the law" couldn't hide his visible sadism. Not a savage animalistic sadism. The kind of sadism we usually see on human psychopaths. He didn't even bothered to hide his vicious smile, both when seeing Lo-mai's scared face prior to his sentence and after shooting him.

When Hyena-Swine and some other beast folks revolted and kill Moreau, Azazello showed no sign of caring about his master/father. Joining Hyena-Swine and his group was more about mere survival. Azazello used the ensued chaos to close grudges and having a sadistic joy while doing so. His first stop was to kill the delirious Montgomery. Mocking him a little, commenting about the canine instinct to kill, and lastly shooting him.

In the climax, Azazello led an armed squad and hunted down Douglas and Aissa. Douglas was brought to Hyena-Swine, and Aissa was hanged. The last words she heard was Azazello talking about past attempts to rape her (in Azazello's words: "Remember? Remember how the master whooped me? But he never touched your soft skin, did he?").

By the time Hyena-Swine shot Azazello to death, no one could feel bad about Azazello. It was more than just "you out-lived your usefulness". Hyena-Swine also avenged Lo-Mai, who was his close friend.

Redeeming qualities
Hardly. His sadistic glee downplays his status as a pawn. More importantly, he chose to stand aside when his master/father was brutally killed. Even the fact he technically didnt betrayed Hyena-Swine can't be considered as true loyalty. Even if we disregard the fact he killed Hyena-Swine's close friend, Azazello could very well betray Hyena-Swine if the opportunity ever presented itself.

He was the only villain in the movie who had no redeeming quality. Dr. Moreau was an anti-villain and amoral. The doctor's cinematic version even had a certain care toward his "children". Montgomery was genuinly nice despite being a psychopath and is considered scapegoat due to being murdered by Azazello while being delirious in contrast to Azazello's chilling sanity. Hyena-Swine was tragic, with being tortured for most of his life and losing his friend (maybe even more than one friend). Azazello can't claim any of this qualities. He had a perfect life compare to his fellow beast folks (grew up with a caring father and had a family), never showed any real empathy and never tried to achieve anything remotely noble (not an extremist, nor vigilante). His sadism cannot be justified. Definitely nothing funny about him (he's a serial killer who tried to rape his own sister multiple times. Obviously not incompetent, comic relife, or any other comedic quality). His actions also rules him out from being protective, scapegoat, remorseful, honorable, possessed/brainwashed, grey zone, in love and on & off. He is a villain, he chose to be this way and liked every minute.

Freudian Exuse
A lame one. He was whining about being the so called less favorite son. But, when you put in mind that the reason for that is multiple attempts to rape his own sister, one can't help but wonder why Moreau still raised him as his son despite everything.

HEINOUS STANDARD
The heinous standard of "The Island of Dr. Moreau" is medium-to-low, at least compare to modern works. Moreau and Montgomery are the typical mad scientists who do bad things "for science". Hyena-Swine is Azazello's only true competition. Except Hyena-Swine was tragic and killed people who truely wronged with him. Azazello's 3 on-screen victims never wronged him in any way. And again, sexually attacking his own sister is something not even Hyena-Swine would do.

His worst moments
1. He killed Lo-mai while the latter was on the verge of redemption. Lo-Mai was remorseful about killing the rabbit, which is considered against the beast folks' law, but was murdered before he could be forgiven, knowing in his last breath that he'll be always be rogue and not belong to this earth.

2. Guiding the revolting beast folks to a stash of weapons. It's almost as if he personally gave Hyena-Swine an assult rifle. Azazello can blame only himself in his death.

3. The disturbing part about killing Montgomery wasn't just the act. Not even the fact Montgomery greeted him with a hug and talked to him like a good friend before being murdered. It's the modus operandi. Azazello shot him in the chest. That's how humans kills their enemies. No animaism involved. The cruel irony is that the fact Azazello committed his kills in a human way makes him more savage.

4. All of those times he tried to rape Aissa. I can only guess how many years did he tried to do that. As if rape isn't worse enough, we are talking here, and I can't stress this enough, about a psychopath who hate is own sister just for being born and is willing to rape her out of sheer hate.

5. A bonus moment of fridge horror: He's based on a dog. Except for those cruel dogs who kill children, most of them are loyal and devoted. There's something scary about being stabbed in the back by your own dog. Double points for being betrayed by both his own dog and his own son.

Verdict
You decide. Personally, i know there are many PE villains who are far worse than Azazello. But in his universe, he's the absolute worst.

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