The Unholy Alliance

Holy Unholy Alliance, Batman!

Last week we talked about what I called the "villain combo platter" with different types of villains that could make for multifaceted kinds of conflicts for the hero to face.

At the time, PaulEberhart mentioned the alliance between villains that happened at one point during Deep Space Nine, and I remembered it well as one of my favorite runs of episodes in that series.

It played out after several seasons that developed the villain named Dukat, who was in charge of the titular space station before the series began.

Hey, I've never used the phrase 'titular something' before. Firsts!



Anyway, Dukat was well established as an occasional Antagonist in the series. The Dominion (a force from the far side of the Galaxy that I talked a bit about last week) had been around for a short while. When the Dominion joined forces with the Cardassians (represented by Dukat), they became a formidable force, and in one of the biggest shakeups in the series, actually took over the…titular space station, taking the actual setting of the series away from the heroes.

Don't get me started on DS9. I do go on, eh?

The point is that different kinds of villains, in a longer-running series, can be brought together to great effect, creating a greater threat for the heroes, and showing a different side of them as characters. It can be a delicious kind of conflict to watch, as we saw in season five of DS9, and also in Better Call Saul.

Yes, it had to show up yet again!

In the 'Saul sequel, we actually got to see the beginning of the association between criminal Mastermind Gustavo Fring and ultimate soldier Mike who joined forces against a common enemy.



Do you love it when villains come together? It doesn't always work I'm sure. But at the very least, it can be a lot of fun to see separate villains coming together and sharing the page or screen.

See you next time!

-Banes