Ares (DC Extended Universe)


 *  NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Ares from the DC Extended Universe. The mainstream version can be found here: Ares (DC). 

"You were 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. "Yes, Diana. Take them all. Finally you see. Look at this world. Mankind did this, not me! They are ugly... filled with hatred... weak... just like your Captain Trevor. Gone and left you nothing. And for what? Pathetic! He deserved to burn!"

- Ares to Wonder Woman

Ares, also known as Sir Patrick Morgan and the God of War, is the main antagonist of the 2017 DC Extended Universe film Wonder Woman.

He is the fearsome, manipulative and notorious 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. As the God of War, Ares is an extremely megalomaniacal, 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.

He is portrayed by David Thewlis, who also played King Einon in Dragonheart, and V.M. Varga in the third season of the television series Fargo.

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 saw them "ruin the world day by day." Despite this, Ares briefly put aside his hatred of mankind as he and the other Olympian gods helped them in warding off the invading Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons from stealing the three Mother Boxes.

Following Steppenwolf's retreat, Ares reverted back to his hatred of mankind, hoping to wipe them out by corrupting them with 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 influence while also spreading love and compassion.(Even though man is capable of waging war without Ares)

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 reappeared 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 secondary 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, Patrick finally reveals himself to Diana as the true Ares and he explains her that though he has encouraged the humans to destroy themselves, they contain the dark impulse to make war on their own without his influence. He also explained that Diana herself is the true God Killer (as a God can only kill another God) since she is a daughter of Zeus. 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 as she was 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 over Steve's death, Diana attacks the oncoming German troops and effortlessly beats down all of them. Witnessing Diana's rage, Ares becomes very delighted and 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 agreed with Ares that humanity is indeed everything he claimed, but they are also so much more. She also stated that whether they deserve her protection or not, she dedicates herself to spread love towards them instead of hate. As such, Ares angrily vows to kill Diana 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 to his death and forcing 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 extremely violent, blasphemous, malevolent, sinister, and selfish, willing to wipe out humanity, and violently killing off all of the other Olympian Gods in the War of the Gods when they opposed his hatred of humanity, even unmercifully killing Zeus. Ares is shown to be evil, arrogant, and irredeemable, a far more cunning and villainous leader than General Zod, as he doesn't hesitate to turn against his allies when they are useless to him, and even against his own family, remorselessly murdering his own father Zeus when the latter stood in Ares's way. Indeed, his trustworthy and loyal feeling is only to those that can be more useful to him than others, as he only aided the Central Powers of World War I and Erich Ludendorff primarily because Ludendorff shared Ares's own sadistically romantic view of war, and because Dr. Poison's inventions offered him an easier way of wiping out much of humanity. Overall, however, Ares genuinely views himself as an altruist, given his belief that without humanity existing on Earth, the planet would be paradisaical. Despite his status as the God of War, he does not actually corrupt humans to wage war as he is aware that they are more than capable of doing that themselves. Instead, he subtly influences them and gives them a helping hand in waging wars in the hopes that they will wipe themselves out.

Ares is also extremely intelligent, manipulative, and divinely wise, given his tremendously long godly lifespan, allowing him unparalleled insight into humanity's darker traits, something no other Olympian God had, apart from Zeus. Hence, even when not utilizing his divine powers, Ares is still extremely dangerous and absolutely lethal.

Despite his bloodthirsty and destructive nature, Ares (much like Lex Luthor after him) is capable of providing an impressive facade of calmness, kindness, perception, as well as his persuasive rhetoric, to individuals who could be useful to him like Wonder Woman. Indeed, while posing as the human "Sir Patrick Morgan", Ares deceived not only Wonder Woman, but even the highly experienced spies Steve Trevor and Sameer 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. Also, despite his hatred of humanity, he temporarily allied with them to ward off the invasion of Steppenwolf and his army.

Ares is also a phenomenal and sensational demagogue, with the usage of seemingly rational and argumentative reasons making his method even more effective. Hence, even after revealing himself and his motives to Wonder Woman, Ares claimed to be "the God of Truth, not War", and is still quite persuasive and influential in presenting his viewpoints to the point that it gave even Wonder Woman some pause before she could even respond. As such, Ares succeeded in riling up Wonder Woman to a ferocious display of violence, and almost got her to kill Dr. Poison.

His greatest weakness is his occasional overconfidence and arrogance, with the God of War believing that his phenomenal divine power and ability to enhance himself from violence makes him practically unbeatable. This ultimately becomes his downfall, as Diana is able to use her nonviolent emotions of love and compassion to overpower and defeat Ares, fulfilling her role as the Godkiller.

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, blood-lust, 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(Though he does not actually corrupt humanity as they are capable of waging war by themselves) - raising personal and fanatical armies, shown when he subtly influenced 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 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 manoeuvring 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
 * Olympian Gods † - Victims

Allies

 * Erich Ludendorff † - Thrall
 * Isabel Maru/Doctor Poison - Thrall

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
 * Steppenwolf †
 * Parademons

Trivia

 * Ares is David Thewils' first portrayal of comic book villain.
 * The final design of Ares' 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.

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