Antagonists: Baldur's Gate

Next in my series of game antagonists, I'll discuss one of the great PC RPG classics: Baldur's Gate. Of course, spoiler warning for the game...

Baldur's Gate gives the player a fantastic antagonist. Right from the opening cinematic, the player sees the game's villain, Sarevok, though you don't find out his name until much later.  You do, however, encounter him as a mysterious armoured figure who cuts down your father figure in front of your eyes.  So running scared, you escape from this antagonist... certain you will have to face him before the end of the game.

Shiny, spiky armour... it's one way to attract attention.

But you flee, and start looking into the troubles within the region at the behest of some other travellers. As you progress through the game, you uncover a plot to poison the iron ore of local mines, which is part of a greater plot to control the trade of iron in the region.  Through your actions, you become known to those behind the plot, and they send assassins to kill you. You slowly make your way through the lower ranks of the conspiracy through various trials and difficulties, and eventually uncover that an organisation called the Iron Throne is the mastermind of the plan.

It turns out that this organisation is led by Sarevok's father Rieltar... thus it appears he is to blame. Yet Rieltar, his second in command are in your childhood home of Candlekeep. You can then either kill Rieltar and his offsiders or be framed for their murder... Sarevok will kill his father and company himself if you do not do it! You are both children of the (dead) God of Murder, and he means to kill you. It is soon revealed that Sarevok plans to plunge Baldur's Gate into war with the nation of Amn... and subsequently that he wishes to do so in order to have a war of sacrifice believing he can become the new deity of Murder.

As a player, you're very happy to defeat Sarevok in the final battle of the game. Not only did he kill your foster father, but he helped mastermind a crisis across the entire Sword Coast through his lackeys. You fought and defeated all of them along the way, and endured many attempts on your life at their hands.  However, Sarevok wasn't fully aware of all those attempts, so you didn't get the impression he didn't consider you a threat. He didn't really underestimate you until right at the end of the game, and even then, he pulled so many strings to get you out of the picture it made it really seem as though he was trying. After all, this is someone who came for you personally right at the start of the game.

This is what made Sarevok a great villain. So often the player's character is ignored as "an insignificant threat" by the main villain, and we must prove them wrong as they send a series of ineffectual lackeys, each slightly more powerful than the last until we finally possess the power to defeat the villain themselves. For starters, this is a cheap plot device. Secondly, if someone if making a nuisance of themselves to the villain's plan, they're not going to remain idle, they're going to ensure that person is stopped rather than letting them grow in power. When Sarevok finally heard of you again after the first encounter where you escaped, he pulled out all the stops to ensure you couldn't prevent his plans. Ultimately he failed, but he made you really want to defeat him. That is the hallmark of a good antagonist, and a significant part of what made Baldur's Gate such a great game.