To be clear, when I speak of evil companions I mean companions in games with an alignment system, where PCs and NPCs are labeled as some variation of good, evil or neutral. What I don't mean is characters in games, where such a system is not in place and where the player himself makes an assessment. So I won't be talking about Marcus and whether or not he's evil because he is pro-Master or whatever.
This is important because alignment systems inherently put certain expectations on a character, which developers are usually aware of. Hence, whenever they are given the task of designing evil characters, they make sure that they read as "evil". When designing antagonists, making them feel evil is quite easy, because inevitably they will be at odds with the PC. When it comes to companions though, developers are faced with another kind of challenge, namely making evil companions worthwhile.
A well designed companion is both a pleasant character to have around personality-wise and useful from a gameplay standpoint. However, if the companion is supposed to be evil, the option of having them "pleasant" in the strictest sense of the word often falls right out the window, because that's not a trait that's usually understood as befitting a villain. Done badly, an evil companion usually ends up an insipid psychopath, who groans at every lost wallet you return to their owner and threatens to ditch you, if you don't step up your genocide game. In short, they end up as caricatures of what we usually perceive to be a bad guy, who are evil for the sake of it.
Enter Korgan Bloodaxe. Korgan is not the most complex character ever written. However, this does not mean that he's not a great and memorable character and a good example of an evil companion done right. Korgan is classified as CE, not necessarily because he is a raving lunatic who only joins up with you merely for the chance at bloodshed. Rather, Korgan is evil because he does evil. He kills for fun and has no qualms about subjecting others to cruelty, either physically or mentally, as shown by his tormenting of Aerie because he sees her as weak. All in all though, he is completely sane. At the same time, he has a jovial bent, often cracking jokes, off-color as they may be, and playfully hurling insults at others. He is not pleasant to have around per-se but he's the kind of rough neck you could have some great banter with. He is a bit unhinged yes, but not anymore unhinged than someone like Minsc, who orders his hamster to chew people's eyes out. Additionally, Korgan is also the best fighter/tank in the game, which makes him worth keeping around for that fact alone.
All of this is in stark contrast to the other two evil companions of BG2 and many other evil companions from other games. Edwin for one is played as a joke, an arrogant, infantile and dweebish saturday morning cartoon villain, who gets subjected to bimbofication for laughs. Because of this he never reads as evil really. Viconia, while being a bad bitch, is a bit of a cop out due to her nature as a romance option, which requires her character to pander to the player in one way or another. Her backstory is meant to make her more sympathetic despite her vicious attitude but the "cunt with a heart of gold" trope is very clicheed and anime af imo. Maybe it was new at the time but these days it's a bit played out. Like Korgan though, they are both the best companions for their respective classes, which is a great tradeoff not many games go for these days.
At any rate, Korgan does not rely on being made into comedic relief, a love interest or any other cop out to essentially make him nominally evil but not really, if you catch my drift. He is weirdly sympathetic despite everything and bends for nothing and no one. Honorable mention goes to Torian-Kel from Arcanum. Much like Korgan, he is evil not necessarily because of his personality or mental state but because he willingly fought for an evil cause. His quest is actually quite a noble one, wanting to free his undead comrades from eternal torment, though considering that his comrades also fought for evil, this quest itself becomes evil in turn. It's like if you wanted to bring your dad back to life but your dad was Stalin. This is in contrast to Viconia's backstory, which remains driven by pretty much unambiguously "good" motivations. However, he, much like anything else in Arcanum, is very much underdeveloped, which is why I don't rate him too highly.
Which evil companions do YOU like, fellow codexians and why?
This is important because alignment systems inherently put certain expectations on a character, which developers are usually aware of. Hence, whenever they are given the task of designing evil characters, they make sure that they read as "evil". When designing antagonists, making them feel evil is quite easy, because inevitably they will be at odds with the PC. When it comes to companions though, developers are faced with another kind of challenge, namely making evil companions worthwhile.
A well designed companion is both a pleasant character to have around personality-wise and useful from a gameplay standpoint. However, if the companion is supposed to be evil, the option of having them "pleasant" in the strictest sense of the word often falls right out the window, because that's not a trait that's usually understood as befitting a villain. Done badly, an evil companion usually ends up an insipid psychopath, who groans at every lost wallet you return to their owner and threatens to ditch you, if you don't step up your genocide game. In short, they end up as caricatures of what we usually perceive to be a bad guy, who are evil for the sake of it.
Enter Korgan Bloodaxe. Korgan is not the most complex character ever written. However, this does not mean that he's not a great and memorable character and a good example of an evil companion done right. Korgan is classified as CE, not necessarily because he is a raving lunatic who only joins up with you merely for the chance at bloodshed. Rather, Korgan is evil because he does evil. He kills for fun and has no qualms about subjecting others to cruelty, either physically or mentally, as shown by his tormenting of Aerie because he sees her as weak. All in all though, he is completely sane. At the same time, he has a jovial bent, often cracking jokes, off-color as they may be, and playfully hurling insults at others. He is not pleasant to have around per-se but he's the kind of rough neck you could have some great banter with. He is a bit unhinged yes, but not anymore unhinged than someone like Minsc, who orders his hamster to chew people's eyes out. Additionally, Korgan is also the best fighter/tank in the game, which makes him worth keeping around for that fact alone.
All of this is in stark contrast to the other two evil companions of BG2 and many other evil companions from other games. Edwin for one is played as a joke, an arrogant, infantile and dweebish saturday morning cartoon villain, who gets subjected to bimbofication for laughs. Because of this he never reads as evil really. Viconia, while being a bad bitch, is a bit of a cop out due to her nature as a romance option, which requires her character to pander to the player in one way or another. Her backstory is meant to make her more sympathetic despite her vicious attitude but the "cunt with a heart of gold" trope is very clicheed and anime af imo. Maybe it was new at the time but these days it's a bit played out. Like Korgan though, they are both the best companions for their respective classes, which is a great tradeoff not many games go for these days.
At any rate, Korgan does not rely on being made into comedic relief, a love interest or any other cop out to essentially make him nominally evil but not really, if you catch my drift. He is weirdly sympathetic despite everything and bends for nothing and no one. Honorable mention goes to Torian-Kel from Arcanum. Much like Korgan, he is evil not necessarily because of his personality or mental state but because he willingly fought for an evil cause. His quest is actually quite a noble one, wanting to free his undead comrades from eternal torment, though considering that his comrades also fought for evil, this quest itself becomes evil in turn. It's like if you wanted to bring your dad back to life but your dad was Stalin. This is in contrast to Viconia's backstory, which remains driven by pretty much unambiguously "good" motivations. However, he, much like anything else in Arcanum, is very much underdeveloped, which is why I don't rate him too highly.
Which evil companions do YOU like, fellow codexians and why?