So nefarious, even its post invaded a day for other villains! In reality, this post was pushed back a day in favor of mourning the passing of Sir Terry Pratchett. If my heart doesn’t seem like it’s in this post (or the subsequent one that was meant for today), there’s the reason why. Alternatively, I feel like if Sir Terry could push through his Embuggerance and continue writing, it would be downright insulting to falter from just being sad. Easily an over-simplification of things, but I need some motivation to help kick me into not being a lump.

Invading species-types of villains are fun, if only because there’s so much variety to them. There’s aliens, sure, but there are also demons, monsters from other dimensions, hyper-evolved diseases, giant bugs (or arachnids), and so on and so on. Even humans qualify, as it’s not always about invading, and subsequently wrecking, Earth. Regardless of the location, the invading species usually has goals of domination and eradication in mind, though enslaving the native population also seems to work at times. It really depends where said invaders fall on a certain spectrum involving homicidal rage and sadism.

Demons – There are plenty of ways demons can end up invading. Take Supernatural, for instance. Minor demonic incursions happen here and there with no real rhyme or reason, at least up until a point. Bigger-name demons show up with the intention to open this gateway to Hell or that portal to Hell or whatever, and that’s when everyone’s suddenly possessed and trying to peel the skin off of other people’s faces or something equally horrifying. For enemies that are so powerful and dangerous, the demons of Supernatural seem to find themselves failing more often than not. The Winchesters are clearly a force to be reckoned with, yes, but these invading forces seem to have an end-game similar to Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget; there’s always next time. Other examples include the various monstrosities of the Burning Legion, who are also sort of aliens if you think about it, as well as the various creatures in the Shin Megami Tensei games.

Aliens – Or, in this case, humans as aliens. We travel to Pandora, get greedy, and nearly make a tremendous mess of things for the blue cat-people native to that planet (I didn’t feel like Googling it and I’m not sorry). Basic elements of an invading alien species include greed for more resources, new habitats, and imperialistic colonization, as well as a possible desire to wipe out other species from the galaxy/universe/multiverse. Other than humans, the Burning Legion counts in this one. So do the monstrous Kaiju from Pacific Rim.

And then, of course, there are the subject of today’s post…Old and/or Forgotten Gods.