Malevolent March: Day 1

For the month of March, I'm going to try something new for the blog, so every day I am going to spotlight a different villain from comic books, movies, TV, etc. It's mostly going to be my all-time favorite villains, with some crazy random ones thrown in there for good measure, so check back every day to see the newest villain in Malevolent March!

I'm kicking this feature off with one of my favorite villains of the 2000's, and in fact one of the most interesting and compelling villains in recent years: The Operative from Serenity. Hit the jump for the villain!

The Operative

Serenity (2005)

Background:

Based in the universe of the incredibly awesome TV series Firefly, Joss Whedon wrote and directed this film as a way of answering all of the questions left dangling from the series and serve as a proper coda to the tale of Captain Malcom Reynolds and the crew of Serenity. In the film, they introduce The Operative, who is played brilliantly by the wonderful Chiwetel Ejiofor, a top level assassain of the Alliance. The Operative is a true-believer in the Alliance, and therefore is wiling to do whatever it takes to bring River Tam back to the Alliances labs. The Operative is cold and calculating, going as far as wiping out entire towns of innocent people that have sheltered the crew after heists, and he is an expertly trained hand-to-hand combatant and swordsman. It is implied, at least I think so, that Shepard Book from the crew of Serenity used to be an Operative until his faith in the Alliance was destroyed when he found out some awful truth about them, and thus became a man of God.

Great Quotes from The Operative:

-The Operative: "I'm sorry. If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to. You should have taken my offer. Or did you think none of this was your fault?"

Mal: "I don't murder children."
The Operative: "I do. If I have to."
Mal: "Why? Do you even know why they sent you?"
The Operative: "It's not my place to ask. I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin."
Mal: "So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?"

The Operative: "I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster.What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done."

-"Madness? Have you looked at this scan carefully, Doctor? At his face? It's love, in point of fact. Something a good deal more dangerous."

 

-"And every minute you keep her from me, more people will die."

 
-"Key members of Parliament. Key. The minds behind every military, diplomatic and covert operation in the galaxy, and you put them in a room with a psychic?"
 
-The Operative: "You know, in certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords."
Dr. Mathias: Well, unfortunately, I forgot to bring a sword. 
The Operative: [Draws sword] "Would you be killed in your sleep, like an ailing pet?"

-"You should have let me see her, Captain. We should have done this as men - not with fire."