| “ | I lived ten-thousand lifetimes before the first of your kind crawled out of the mud. It was I who broke through the divide that separated the plane of Spirits from the material world. To hate me is to give me breath. To fight me is to give me strength. Now prepare to face OBLIVION! | „ |
| ~ Vaatu to Avatar Wan - his famous quote. |
| “ | So you've returned, Raava. The Harmonic Convergence is coming soon, and this time, I'm going to wipe you out for good. | „ |
| ~ Vaatu to Avatar Korra |
Vaatu, also known as the Great Spirit of Darkness and Chaos, is the overarching antagonist of the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise.
He is the overarching antagonist of the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series The Legend of Korra. He is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Unalaq) of Book Two: Spirits and one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Unalaq) of Book Three: Change.
He is the ancient spirit of darkness and chaos and the foil to Raava, the spirit of light and peace, as well as her arch-nemesis. Since Raava is the Avatar spirit and Vaatu is her foil, he is the Dark Avatar spirit. He is also responsible for the creation of the Avatar cycle and battled two Avatars during the Harmonic Convergence, Avatar Wan (the first Avatar of the first cycle) and Avatar Korra (the last Avatar of the first cycle and the first Avatar of the second).
He was voiced by Jonathan Adams.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- His entire goal was to peak his powers during both instances of Harmonic Convergence so he can bring the end of the world by plunging the entire material realm into 10,000 years of darkness upon ravaging it entirely, use his negative influence to enslave all of spirit kind to his and Unalaq's malevolent will, and then recreate the world in his profane image to create a Draconian rule that enslaves all life as he rules the world as a God.
- With this, he, and by extension Unalaq, are the most heinous villains in the entire franchise on the basis of scale, seeking to bring unprecedented ruination not just to the four nations but to all of the spirit world, which not even Ozai and Sozin sought to do.
- While he is meant to maintain the balance of the universe alongside his good counterpart, Vaatu is capable of bypassing his divine purpose and he fully embraces being a card-carrying villain in mockery of his intended purpose of mediating light, with him intending to cause as much damage and death as he can.
- Furthermore, Raava herself started off as being a standoffish jerk who was willing to resort to collateral damage that would endanger other spirits and she had a low opinion of humans, only to gradually grow out of those prejudices, further showing that Vaatu would not be bound by his cosmic role.
- While he never betrayed Unalaq and even allowed him to have full control over his mind and personality after they fused together, it's unlikely to be anything other than pragmatism so that his goal would be achieved much more easily on account of having a host body to subject to spiritual possession.
Background[]
- He tricked Wan into freeing him by attacking and weakening Raava so he can be freed and she can be weakened and cause havoc, and then mockingly thanked him for allowing him to wreak havoc on the world.
- He corrupted spirits near an Air Nomad settlement and terrorized them.
- He corrupted a bunch of spirits and negatively influenced a bunch of firebenders to have them fight each other and have the firebenders killed, to which he sadistically revealed they were killed to Wan, knowing his victims were friends to him.
- He tried to kill Wan.
- He partially influenced Wan's decision to separate humans and spirits by closing the spirit portals:
- By corrupting spirits, he made them more hostile to humans, aggravating fights between humans and spirits.
- Closing the spirits reduced the likelihood of Vaatu breaking through since (1) Vaatu is able to independently break his seal inside the Tree of Time only if the two portals are open during the next Harmonic Convergence, and (2) to reduce the risk of him being freed by a human.
The Legend of Korra: Book Two: Spirits[]
- He made an alliance with Unalaq and told him to capture Korra, and when he believed he had failed, he informed him that she was in the spirit world.
- He sadistically informed Korra that Jinora was Unalaq's captive, excited to see the harmless little girl suffer.
- Upon emerging from the Tree of Time, he tried to kill Korra.
- When he merged with Unalaq, he ripped out Raava and severed the connection between Unalaq's niece, Avatar Korra, and her past lives forever when Unalaq murdered Raava for their powers to peak.
- He and Unalaq assaulted Republic City with the intent to destroy it. The damage included an unprecedented infestation of spirit vines and wrecking Aang's statue on Memorial Island.
- He attempted to kill Korra one last time by having her body corrupted and destroyed.
Trivia[]
- A recent fan theory suggests that Vaatu used the approaching harmonic convergence to spread dark energy which ultimately caused Fire Lord Sozin to kill his friend Roku and exterminate the Air Nomads. This theory also has some in-universe basis, since, in Beginnings: Part 2, a tribe of fire benders attempted to take lands from spirits for themselves and became violent and destructive in order to achieve this goal. This occurred due to Vaatu's malevolent influence growing from the upcoming harmonic convergence. If this theory was actually true, Vaatu would be even worse than what he is now since he not only indirectly caused a cold betrayal among best friends and a genocide, but also an entire war that damaged the world for nearly two centuries.
External Links[]
- Vaatu on the Villains Wiki
- Vaatu in The Ultimate Evil Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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