Christmas is just around the corner! We think it is the perfect moment to write about happiness and joy… But also about The Grinch, of course. He is one of the most iconic characters related to Christmas, a grumpy, green and selfish creature that wants to steal this special Holiday.
There are plenty of villains in video gaming that share many similarities with the Grinch, even physical ones. In this article, we want to remember the five grinchiest characters in video games.
We are excluding The Grinch from this list (he has his own video game), because it would be, you know, kind of cheating.
Wario
Wario is the real anti-Mario, not Bowser. He is everything Mario is not: selfish, evil, narcissistic, and even fatter. His main motivation is getting rich, usually by stealing money from anyone. That is pretty grinchy to me, since he does not care about others and would rather rob anyone than remain poor.
Some would say he is more an antihero than a villain, especially since he has his own line of games, and they are probably right. The Grinch eventually came around and learned to love Christmas, which makes him an antihero as well. However, I do not think Wario will ever stop thinking about money…
Dahlia Gillespie
This woman is the worst and she is really ugly. She is so bad that she does not even care about her daughter, Alessa. She used her to give birth to her Dark God, with horrible results. After a failed ritual resulting in a big fire, Alessa burns and is completely disfigured. She should have died, but her mother keeps her alive with black magic. Disgusting.
Her actions trigger the events in the first Silent Hill, a key figure in the nightmarish town. She puts everyone in danger, and uses them for her own selfish purposes. She is mad, and even a little bit green, perfect for a grinchy person like her.
Professor Hojo
This guy is just despicable. Just like Dahlia, he is the real villain of his game, Final Fantasy VII. He is behind SOLDIER and the Jenova Project, which makes him the creator of Sephiroth, his finest experiment.
Hojo is the typical mad scientist, who does not care about the well-being of anyone, because he sees them as possible subjects for his tests. He performs experiments on himself, and put the city of Midgar and the whole planet in risk, but that does not matter to him at all. He even finds enjoyment in the suffering of others. You cannot get grinchier than that.
Gruntilda
The first and only green character on this list, Gruntilda is the antagonist of Banjo-Kazooie. She is clearly inspired by The Wicked Witch of the West. She is so selfish that, when she discovers that Banjo’s sister is the prettiest girl in the land, she kidnaps her and tries to steal her beauty.
She goes even further in the second game, when she tries to steal everyone’s vital energy to restore her body. She would rather kill everyone than remain ugly. Just as all the characters in this list, she does not care at all about anyone other than herself.
GLaDOS
What else can I say about GLaDOS (just her quotes tell you everything) that has not been said before? She is one of the greatest villains in video games, and she would make a great Grinch with her sarcastic and powerful humor. The gift is a lie!
She uses Chell in both Portal games as test subject and killed almost everyone in Aperture Science. She becomes corrupted by power and, as usual in this article, does not care about anyone. In the second game, she starts to change after she loses control of the facilities and becomes kind of good, which redeems her a little bit — but was it all a ploy to get back in control?
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This is our list for the grinchiest, grumpiest and most cold-hearted characters in video games. As always, there are many more in the history of gaming that could fit in this description.
What do you think about these characters? Who do you think could make a great Grinch? Let me know in the comment section below!
