User blog:BigBadSquid/PE Proposal: Boss (Metroid)

Already upvoted (even with only two votes...), but with the new rules in play I'm moving it to the blogs.

Original:

What's the Work?
Metroid Prime: Episode of Aether is the manga adaptation of the Gamecube game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It follows the game’s story similarly, but there are several major changes that differ from the game. One such change is the events from Chapter 1, occurring before where the game’s prologue began. This involves a merchant ship called the Crest coming under attack by Space Pirates led by their unnamed leader. He's only addressed as "Boss", so that's what I'll refer to him as.

Character's Traits
Boss is the egotistical leader of the Space Pirates that invade the Crest to steal their cargo. Along with his crew, he hijacks the space ship, killing the guards who stand before him. As the captain pleads for mercy, Boss overhears a boy calming his worried sister with hope that someone will come and save them. Boss torments the boy’s hope of a hero and kicks him around before preparing to kill him. When Samus comes to the rescue, one of Boss’s rookies panics knowing who she is and tells Boss they have no chance against her, only for Boss to strangle him. Once Samus reaches the bridge, Boss takes the boy and the captain hostage. Samus refuses to lower her aim at Boss, so he decides to return the hostages, as in by throwing them at her with intentions to slice them all in half.

Heinous Standards
At first, Boss has the standards of your average Space Pirate: raiding ships, terrorizing innocent civilians, and killing everyone who stands in his way. However, he sets the heinousness straight when he comes very close in killing a child; two of them in fact. With the exception of Ridley, no character from the series ever came close to torment the life of a child as much as Boss does, let alone taking one hostage. Compared to Ridley’s case, while Samus was the child he tormented, Boss not only torments a child, his sister, and Samus (although an adult), he is also willing to abuse his own minions when they show fear.

Moral Event Horizon
Boss crosses it when he physically and psychologically abuses the boy for protecting his sister, and later uses him as a hostage to make Samus lower her gun so he can kill everyone on the Crest. After telling Samus she can have the hostages, he still tries to kill them.

Individual Capabilities
Boss will use any of his skills at the right opportunity he has. When the boy calms his sister with the hope of a hero, Boss torments them that no hero will come. When Samus destroys the Pirate ship, Boss kills one of his minions for panicking at the sight of just one bounty-hunter and sends out the other members of his squad after her, claiming her death by a hundred soldiers to be "exactly what she deserves". When Samus aims her Arm Cannon at Boss, he takes the boy and captain hostage. When Samus refuses to stop aiming at him, Boss throws the hostages at her to make her lose aim as he lunged for them.

Moral Agency
Boss is completely aware of his doings but cares nothing about them. For example, his appreciation to Samus's "complement" that he can and will kill everyone on board if she lowers her gun.

No Redeeming Qualities
Boss shows no empathy for any of his actions; from kicking the boy in front of his sister to taking one of them as a hostage. From the throttling of one of his comrades, it's doubtful if he even cares about them. Heck, he still tries to gain the upper hand on Samus after she annihilates his entire pirate fleet.

No Sympathy
Nothing about Boss nor his actions can be taken pity over.

Screen Time
Within just the 35-page chapter, Boss commits every act I've mentioned on-screen.

The Worst
Boss is definitely nowhere close to Ridley or Dark Samus in terms as the worst character in the Metroid series. But out of all of Samus' opponents throughout the series, he stands up there as one of the cruelest and vile.

Final Verdict
Overall, I believe Boss meets the Pure Evil criteria.