I love
March Madness. I love filling out my
bracket, and I love watching it unfold over the month. Hell, I even love the selection show. In the spirit of one of the best times of the
year, we are bringing back the Eat @
Shrimpy’s annual bracket. This year,
we want you, the people, to choose your favorite villain of all time. Joining me in the analysis of this bracket is
my brother Nik.
A note
about the selection and seeding process.
The villains were split into four different categories, comic books,
movies, cartoons and video games. I
completely admit that I have probably forgotten someone’s favorite villain in
there somewhere, but I think there’s a fairly decent representation of some of
the best rogues of all time. Obviously,
I probably could have done an entire Batman or X-Men villains bracket, but I
wanted to mix that up a bit.
Yes, there
is some crossover, you can make a case for Megatron in all four regions for
example, but I tried to categorize the villain in an area that they were most
known for. You can absolutely take
everything into account, all of the dastardly deeds in every medium, when you
make your final determination as to who is the vilest of all time, but that’s
up to you.
Okay Nik, before we get into the
breakdown of the individual matchups, what’s your general thoughts on the
bracket itself? Do you think the
seedings are accurate? What are your
predictions? We’ll pick our projected winner of each region, a big upset and a
potential sleeper pick (from the lower seeds) that could come out of nowhere
and shock the world.
Nik: This is year two for me doing this, and no
matter how many times you explain it to me, I still have no idea what
“seedings” are. There are very few on the list this year that I don’t
recognize, and have some fondness for, so I’m pretty excited for this season.
This feels more personal to me than the cartoons from last year, even.
I’m really excited to see people’s reactions and see where
things flow along the weeks.
Region one – Comic
Books:
Matt:
This region
is near and dear to my heart, for obvious reasons, and while I could have
filled it up with worthy villains from just Marvel comics, I wanted to try and
mix it up a bit. It’s interesting how
things will work though, will people take this as the old “who would win in a
fight” challenge? If that’s the case, I
would have to think that Galactus at number five could run the table, because
it’s freaking Galactus. However, I think
this might be an amalgam of that with a “who’s cooler” kind of thing, or “who’s
more of a villain”. In that, I would
have to go Dr. Doom, all the way.
By the way,
if you’re wondering why Venom isn’t higher on this list, it’s because he’s not
even really a villain anymore, so while he still makes the cut, he’s not as
high as he would be had he stayed the angry, Spider-Man hating villain that he
was upon his initial introduction.
Winner: Dr. Doom (1)
Sleeper: Galactus (5)
or Thanos (6)
Upset: While I don’t
see too many upsets in this region, Apocalypse (10) over General Zod (7) is a
possibility.
Nik:
This one’s
fun, like Matt said. Between this region and video games, it just feels like my
childhood. These are debates had at school lunch tables all throughout my
childhood. Regardless of whether it’s “who’s cooler”, “who’s more
villainesque”, or “who’d win in a fight”, I am very excited to see what people
think of it, and why they make the choices that they do.
This is tougher than I thought it’d
be, honestly. Because a lot of these guys have come back into the mainstream in
the recent years, making them more accessible.
Winner: Joker (2)
Sleeper: Loki (9)
Upset: I think we may see Ra’ Al Ghul (11) take Thanos (6)
on this one.
Region two – Cartoons:
Matt:
There were
so many good villains in cartoons when I was growing up. Making the list wasn’t as hard as trying to
properly seed it.
Winner: Megatron (1)
Sleeper: Shredder (3)
– Not a true sleeper in the sense of a low seed, but if it’s not Megatron, I
can easily see Shredder taking it, if for no other reason than sentimentality
(pour one out for Uncle Phil).
Upset: Watch out for
Krang (7) to possibly upset Cobra Commander (2) in round two.
Nik:
There
are tons of Villains in here I’d like to see, but that can be said
indefinitely, but I think the spread is very fair, over several decades and
generations of cartoons.
Winner: Shredder (3)
Sleeper: Skeletor (4) – because I think he’s either gone on
the first round, or sticks through to the end.
Upset: Snidely Whiplash (15) – because it’s one of the best
villain names ever.
Region three - Movies:
Matt:
Honestly,
it just seems like this region is Darth Vader, and everyone Darth Vader will
defeat, but you never know. There are some interesting choices here, including
monsters, aliens and just really bad people.
Winner: Vader (1)
Sleeper: Dracula (6)
Upset: While I don’t
expect it to happen, how cool would it be if John Doe (15), Kevin Spacey’s
character from Se7en takes out the
Predator (2) in round one.
Nik:
I think
giving it to Vader immediately is not giving the rest of the baddies enough
credit. I think there are some fantastic choices on here. I do think it’s not
fair for Oogey Boogey to be going up against Vader so soon, though.
Winner: Sauron (4)
Sleeper: Gozer (14)
Upset: I think Freddy Kreuger (9) could actually take Darth
Vader (1) in round 2, honestly.
Region four – Video
Games:
Matt:
This was a
difficult region to seed, especially the top seeds. In the end it came down to the fact that when
you think of video game villain, your first thought is Bowser from Super Mario Brothers. This may be the most wide open region though
as most of the villains here have a distinct chance of winning the region.
Winner: Ganon (2)
Sleeper: Goro (7)
Upset: If Goro (7)
can get past Ganon (2) in the second round, watch for him to go the distance.
Nik:
Being a
zealot for Zelda, I want to say Ganon will destroy. And I want that to happen.
But I dunno if it will…
Winner: Bowser (1)
Sleeper: Pac Man Ghosts (16)
Upset: I can see King K. Rool (14) taking down Dr. Wiley (3)
in the first round.
Matt’s Final Four:
Dr. Doom (1)
Megatron (1)
Darth Vader (1)
Ganon (2)
Projected Winner: Vader
takes care of Ganon and Dr. Doom finishes off Megatron in a close one, only to
lose to Vader in the finale. When I was
putting this bracket together, that’s the scenario that popped into my head
from the get-go, I can’t imagine it changing now.
Nik’s Final Four:
Joker (2)
Shredder (3)
Sauron (4)
Bowser (1)
Projected Winner: Joker takes down Shredder. Bowser takes
down Sauron. And Joker bests Bowser in one of the coolest fights you’ve ever
seen.
Okay, that’s the initial breakdown. To vote, just leave the names of the winners
in the comments section, email me at shrimpman53@yahoo.com,
or find me on facebook. Voting will be
open from Monday through midnight eastern time on Friday. After that the votes will be tallied and
we’ll get you an updated bracket with further analysis the following
Monday. Feel free to print the brackets
out, ask around, poll your friends on who they think should win, or just send
them here to vote themselves. Feel free
to start a rousing discussion of who should win in the comments as well, those
are always fun. Let’s just keep it
civil, no one should be calling anyone else a doody-head.
We will be
back later in the day today with a matchup-by-matchup breakdown and who we
think will prevail. Until then, happy
voting!
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