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This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains. Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban. |
- NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Vandal Savage from the Arrowverse. The mainstream version can be found here: Vandal Savage (DC).
“ | My hate shall be everlasting. My enmity will never die and I'll follow you from this life and the next and to the next and to the next. | „ |
~ Vandal Savage first attaining his immortality. |
“ | ONWARD TO VICTORY... ONWARD TO IMMORTALITY! | „ |
~ Vandal Savage to his followers. |
“ | I have no desire to kill you. I want you alive. I want you to see the world burn. I have looked so often at your wife and son these last 11 years. Miranda and Jonas their faces etched into my mind and when I finally get to meet them, I will let them know that you and your friends are responsible for their suffering. | „ |
~ Vandal to Rip Hunter. |
Hath-Set, better known as Vandal Savage, is the the main antagonist of the second Arrowverse crossover event, Heroes Join Forces and the overarching antagonist of the 2016-2022 TV Series, DC's Legends of Tomorrow.
He is an immortal who hunts both Hawkgirl and Hawkman, being forced to repeatedly kill the incarnations of them throughout history to sustain his eternal life. He also seeks to conquer the world, having amassed a giant secret army throughout history and finally got what he desired in 2166. This causes Rip Hunter to assemble a team of Legends to travel through time in order to prevent Savage from creating this sinister future.
He was portrayed by Casper Crump.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Immortality: Due to radiation from a meteor in Ancient Egypt, Vandal acquired immortality, but would have to kill Hawkman and Hawkgirl's incarnations throughout history in order to become more powerful. He has lived for 4000 years, yet retains his physical appearance, conditioning, etc. The only known way to truly destroy him that has been discovered is for Chey-Ara (Hawygirl) to deliver the killing blow upon Savage, with objects also affected by the meteor at the time being able to be used against him, as shown in "Legends of Yesterday" when Arrow and Flash used the Staff of Horus to incinerate Savage.
- Regeneration: Despite being incinerated as stated above, he can always restore himself to life from but a single cell; the only way to truly destroy him is for Chey-Ara to do it. Objects from the time of their curse can be used to kill him, such as the Amon Dagger or the Staff of Horus.
- Superhuman Physical Conditioning: After centuries of absorbing the life-force of many incarnations of Khufu and Chay-Ara, Savage gained superhuman physical capabilities. He is so fast, with exceptional responsive reflexes, and strong that he could easily catch two arrows shot at him by the Green Arrow after immediately throwing multiple knives, dodge gunfire at point blank range, and has been seen to easily overpower the likes of Oliver, Team Arrow, Ray in his A.T.O.M Exosuit, and the Legends in battle. His durability are so inhuman being shot by arrows did little effect on him and even a nuclear fire blast from Firestorm with no visible injuries. He was also strong enough to overpower Ray while he was in his A.T.O.M. Exosuit.
- Magic: Savage is well-versed in magic and the occult, to the point where he boasted he was able to give Houdini magic lessons. Savage could seamlessly use sleight of hand spells to summon or shift the position of objects from himself to others, as shown by how he was able to effortlessly slip out of handcuffs and place them on a guard completely unnoticed and in an instant and when Kendra Saunders was about to stab him with the Amon Dagger in 1958, he used some kind of spell to easily summon the dagger to his hand without her knowing. With both the Amon Dagger and Staff of Horus, he could release powerful blasts and waves of energy. Even without them, Savage was shown to be able to create an energy shield around himself, able to defend himself from Oliver and Barry's use of the Staff of Horus. In addition to having used a spell to connect himself with Khufu and Chay-Ara, granting him immortality by absorbing their life-force and allowing him to sense them, Savage could even grant longevity to others, as he used the blood of Carter to bestow his cult a longer lifespan than normally possible to allow them to live for centuries. Vandal also knew an occult ritual that would have destroyed, and recreated the timeline with him as the ruler of the new timeline, presumably unaffected by the ritual.
Abilities[]
- Genius-level intellect/Master tactician/Master leader/Master manipulator/Master deceiver/Great Political Acumen/Great Business Acumen: Having always been a man of exceptional intelligence and gifted with great talent in leadership and tactical warfare, Savage was the High Priest of Egypt and Pharaoh Ramesses II's closest advisor and was able to keep up the façade of being loyal despite his resentment of him. His long lifespan and 4000 years of experience has greatly increased his intelligence, tactical and leadership abilities to extraordinary levels and he became incredibly skilled in the arts of deceit and manipulation and well-versed in politics, as he was capable of associating with and offering guidance to various political and military leaders throughout history, personally manipulating those parties into war, accurately thinking many steps ahead to predict the events needed to start the war and orchestrating many of the most devastating conflicts on the planet while tracking down and killing the incarnations of Khufu and Chay Ara for over 206 times, even causing calamities such as flooding the Yellow River of China, rumored to have been the most trusted advisor of Genghis Khan and having also guided Julius Caesar through the Gallic Wars, as well as also instructing a dictator from the Soviet Joseph Stalin in tactical warfare, while building an army over the centuries and leading and expanding it in secret and also engaging in illegal activities such as black market sales and human experimentation without leaving any traces to himself, giving the Legends great trouble in locating him, with what little record of his political and strategical prowess comparing him to the likes of Machievalli and the prophetic Nostradamus, until his army became so powerful he was able to conquer the entire world, a feat that no other dictator has ever achieved, with Rip even noting he made the likes of Caesar, Hitler and Per Degaton look like children. The Oculus also predicted Savage was the only leader with enough forces and skill to repel the Thanagarians assault, which in any other outcome would end in Earth's destruction and would have made him a hero. Savage also had tremendous knowledge of business which allowed him to successfully amass a considerable amount of wealth and host many illegal sales on the black market, attracting many of the most dangerous criminal organizations. As part of Kasnia Conglomerate, Savage was able to establish himself as one of the main members of it's leading council and was trusted with tutoring Per Degaton. He was swiftly elected as the proxy of Kasnia Conglomerate after the death of Tor and managed to lead it successfully for years and use it as a foothold for his rise to power.
- Master Cook: During his lifespan, Savage was able to master the art of cooking an assortment of dishes; under the alias of Dr. "Curtis Knox" in 1958, his casserole was widely praised, with Ray even stating that Savage makes one hell of a casserole despite all he did.
- Master Scientist/Doctor/Engineer: Over the years, Savage came to acquire a deep penchant for the arts of science, which extended to subfields such as the medical and engineering field, proving to be an extraordinary scientific researcher, his long lifespan allowing him to accumulate knowledge of sciences and technologies lost and even work on futuristic fields successfully. In 1958, working at the Harmony Falls Psychiatric Facility as a surgical doctor, Savage was one of the most prominent psychiatrists of the facility, being entrusted with the top secret Hallway H and carried out many highly dangerous experimentation successfully, well-regarded for his work. He was also able to extract all of the Nth Metal of the meteor of the same year and use it to experiment with the survivors of the meteor fall, turning them into monstrous bird-like creatures that did have the intended effect of having the powers of Khufu and Chay Ara, though he failed to replicate on their immortality, and was able to devise prisons and restraints capable of holding them despite their superhuman powers. In 1975, upon acquiring a piece of Ray Palmer's futuristic A.T.O.M Exosuit, Savage was able to quickly analyze it's capabilities as hailing from the future and use it safely at least once whereas his engineers had trouble figuring out the technology, even mocking their capabilities and calling it simple, and would have successfully reverse-engineered it to develop a weapon beyond the advancements of the era. With just one encounter with F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M, he was able to successfully analyze the science behind his powers enough to be able to start Project Svarog and was Valentina Vostok's most primary key advisor. Savage also greatly contributed to the development of the Armageddon Virus that he would have Kasnia Conglomerate unleash upon the world to make it ripe for conquest. Savage was even able to figure out that time travel was possible immediately after encountering Rip and his team and after 200 years of research, was able to successfully accomplish the feat to retrieve advanced technology from the future, with which he constructed the super-robot Leviathan, far more technologically advanced than anything in 2166. He learned a great deal from Jack the Ripper on human anatomy, including the technique of surgical dissection, and was able to successfully extract the maximum amount of blood from Carter Hall's corpse to gain enough blood for all his followers to gain prolonged lifespan.
- Master Torturer: Learned from Joseph Stalin, Savage was an accomplished torturer, even describing his skills in torture as being an "art". He learned the techniques of carefully precise strikes to the bridge of the nose, along the shoulder blades, and right underneath the chin to "break a man" and was even entrusted with a special torture device by Stalin, as well as also mastering the art of psychological torture. In addition to having successfully tortured Martin Stein physically while leaving him still more than capable of talking, Savage had Ray and Rory tortured in front of Stein, guiding his torturers on the way to inflict maximum pain on both of them, to the point where Ray began asking for rest, and quickly broke Stein. After his death, Savage's skills in torture spared him from being tortured and he was entrusted with torturing other souls, which he clearly carried out successfully, being entrusted with torturing hardy souls such as Ray Palmer.
- Master Combatant: Even at the ancient times, Savage was already an excellent fighter, being able to kill the expert warriors Khufu and Chay Ara and compete with the future Rip Hunter. His 4.000 years of experience allowed him to master all sorts of fighting styles, becoming a phenomenally accomplished and dangerous fighter, proving to surpass and overpower the likes of Oliver Queen without much effort, whereas many other foes who did so struggled, and swiftly outclassed Team Arrow and the Legends. Trained in every hold and pressure point known, Savage's skill allowed him to effortlessly restrain the likes of Mick Rory and Sara Lance despite their own deadly skills. Even while weakened due to the meteorite, neither Sara nor Mick, despite facing his younger and less experienced selves, as well as the combined might of Kendra Saunders and Scythian Torvil were able to defeat him without considerable effort.
- Master Fan Fighter: Savage was highly adept in using fans, able to block every arrow shot at him by Oliver and even counter most of his and Thea's shots before getting overwhelmed.
- Master Archer: Savage's skill in archery was such that he taught Robin the Locksley, a famous archer, everything he know about how to use a bow.
- Master Knife Fighter: Savage was a highly skilled knife wielder and knife thrower, carrying various types of knives, allowing him to swiftly defeat and kill multiple enemies with incredible efficiency. He was also outstanding while throwing his knives in rapid succession, with his speed being so fast that neither Carter or Oliver could have reacted to it. He was able to throw five knives at once that would have hit all his targets if not for Barry Allen's high-speed interception. Later, Savage managed to throw a knife faster later in order to hit the speedster.
Appearances[]
Killed Victims[]
- Khufu
- Hannibal Hawkes
- Joe Boardman
- Unnamed 1941 incarnation
- Carter Hall / Hawkman
- Plus 203 other lifetimes
- Chay-Ara
- Kate Manser
- Edith Boardman
- Kendra
- Plus 204 other lifetimes
- Tor Degaton (Caused)
- Per Degaton
- Miranda Coburn
- Jonas Hunter
- Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Indirectly Caused)
- Sgt. Rook
- 2 million Chineese residents (Caused; Yellow River Flood)
- Numerous unnamed people (Caused and Direct)
Erased Timeline[]
- Carter Hall/Hawkman
- Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl
- Oliver Queen/Green Arrow
- Laurel Lance/Black Canary
- John Diggle/Spartan
- Felicity Smoak/Overwatch
- Thea Queen/Speedy
- Cisco Ramon/Vibe
- Caitlin Snow
- 2 million Central City residents
Trivia[]
- Rip Hunter states that world conquering dictators such as Julius Caesar and even Adolf Hitler are amateurs compared to Vandal Savage which speaks volumes about Vandal's power as a warmonger and as a dictator.
- His Egyptian name "Hath-Set" is roughly-translated as "maker of evil". Fittingly enough, Savage is one of the most cruel villains in the Arrowverse.
- He is the second antagonist in the Arrowverse to be fought and defeated by more than two heroes; he was faced in the Arrow/The Flash crossover by Arrow, Flash, Hawkman and Hawkgirl and then again in DC's Legends of Tomorrow by Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Rip Hunter, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Firestorm and Rip Hunter. The first is Eobard Thawne in The Flash Season 1, as he was defeated in "Rogue Air" by Arrow, Flash and Firestorm.
- If the statement made by various characters is to believed (that he has killed Chay-Ara's incarnations 206 times and Khufu's 207 times, counting in "Pilot, Part 2"), then that means Savage kills the incarnations during their early 20's.
- He was the longest-surviving character in the entire Arrowverse, having lived for over 4000 years using energy from a meteorite; this exceeded the life-span of Ra's al Ghul in Arrow Season 3.
- By "Pilot, Part 1", which showed the world of 2166 during Savage's attack on London, Savage has encountered Rip Hunter numerous times. By killing Miranda and Jonas in the future, Rip is motivated to attack him in the past, leading to a Predestination Paradox, wherein by knowing of a future event unfolding, that event is caused despite any attempts at interference.
- In "Night of the Hawk", Savage's alias, Dr. Curtis Knox, is taken from the Smallville character of the same name, who in turn was heavily based on Savage (although, at the time of Smallville's broadcast, the series wasn't allowed to use the name Vandal Savage).
- In the comics, Savage is the ancestor of Roy Harper/Arsenal, who coincidentally appears in Arrow.
- The creators of Legends of Tomorrow thought this version of Vandal Savage was terribly underwhelming.
- Although Savage was only the main antagonist of the first season of Legends of Tomorrow, he is arguably its overarching antagonist considering that he is the primary reason for the team being assembled. Also, his alliance with the Time Masters is the reasons that they were destroyed, which resulted in the timeline being left unprotected and thus setting up the subsequent seasons.