| “ | What's done is done... I have fulfilled my function. | „ |
| ~ Hactar's last words. |
Hactar is the main antagonist in Life, the Universe and Everything, the third volume in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy novel series.
History[]
Past[]
An ancient, sentient computer that was ordered to design the "Ultimate Weapon", and pulverized for disobeying that command (it couldn't conceive of any possible scenario where destroying the universe would be a preferable option). Set adrift as an interstellar cloud of still barely-functioning dust, Hactar spends the next several billion years manipulating another planet's inhabitants into reaching the same xenophobic cultural state as its creators, and then reinventing and triggering the same superweapon in order to put an end to all of existence. Hactar explains its motives as mostly simply fulfilling its original function, but partly to take revenge on the Universe for the eons of suffering it has endured as a result of its original decision.
Hactar was very powerful, even in its pulverized state as atoms it had still power enough to make objects. It was the one who smashed the ship into planet Krikkit in order to make the Krikkit people warmongering and xenophobic. It had fun manipulating races and making them aggressive.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[]
Hactar doesn't appear until near the end of the third book, when Trillian has figured out that the Krikkit people couldn't possibly have invented a world-destroying spaceship and the Supernova Bomb in such a short period of time. She orders the people to take her and her crew to their leader, and Hactar appears, creating an illusion of a psychiatrist's office as it admits to being behind everything. It explains its motives as half "fulfilling its function" and half revenge and seems to terminate its own existence, having satisfied itself that it's succeeded. The heroes believe they've saved the day.
However, it turns out that Hactar cunningly planted the Supernova Bomb on Arthur Dent, who shortly after the interlude finds himself suddenly urged to attempt a cricket ball throw. Fortunately, he messes it up, and the Supernova Bomb doesn't detonate. Hactar's terrible plot is posthumously foiled, and the Universe is saved for good.
Personality[]
Hactar was a self-righteous machine who believed to be acting in the interest of the Universe. At first, it did honorably attempt to dissuade the Silastic Armorfiends from detonating the Supernova Bomb; the trouble is, Hactar was the one who made it Universe-destroying in the first place.
Hactar saw its interrogation as a joke and manipulated the environment to make its surroundings that of a psychiatrist's office, and made itself sit on a five foot couch, which was remarkable because it itself was a thousand miles long.
While it claimed it was simply serving its purpose, it evidently derived a satisfaction from attempting to annihilate the Universe as it felt bitter that it had been wronged by it.
Trivia[]
- Hactar is a notably straight example of a villain in the Hitchhiker's Guide franchise with a genuinely threatening presence and advanced plan. Part of this is because the third book is actually a rewrite of a canned Doctor Who movie script by Douglas Adams.
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
InfiniDim Enterprises | ||