I think I would be inconsiderate to reply to Velocity7’s answers to my “interview” questions without explaining who this guy, Ali-Al Saachez, is.
Antagonist, And Proud Of It
Imagine, for an instant, a war otaku who’s good at the real thing. A connoisseur of death, destruction, war, conflict, and violence in all their forms. A man who seeks battle purely because he enjoys it. A man who is a shameless mercenary, not because he wants the money, but because it’s a legal way to get to kill people. A man who founded a terrorist group using child soldiers to resist the invasion of his homeland in the name of God, blaspheming that name to justify every atrocity, every murder of innocents – and who enjoyed killing so much, he adopted it as his new lifestyle.
Back in his terrorist days, his child soldiers were required to murder their own families to prove their devotion to God (or more accurately, to Saachez). One of these child killers left the nest and became the main character of Gundam 00, adopting the alias of Setsuna F. Seiei and acting to bring about an end to war. Seeing no fun in that, and truly enjoying the idea of toying with his former student (and more importantly, getting the best of his Gundam, a dedicated close combat weapon that seems to exist to goad Saachez, a close combat specialist), Saachez spends much of the show fighting Setsuna and Celestial Being, both on a tactical level (combat) and a strategic level (fostering war and conflict).
In short, Ali-Al Saachez comes off as the living embodiment of everything the protagonists are trying to stop in the world.
Due to the risk of the rest being spoilers in some way – the above wasn’t, it’s background that the show freely offers – I’ll put the rest in spoiler space.
So, if you went through everything in the spoiler space, you can see that Ali-Al Saachez was a very busy man, a real fountain of inspiration for psychopaths everywhere.
Small wonder Velocity7 finds Saachez to be one of his favorite antagonists. I mean, if you’re going to be a murderous psychopath, have some pride in it, you know?
Saachez cannot be accused of lacking pride in his work. Or put another way,
If you enjoy what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. – The Punisher
Let it be said, Ali-Al Saachez truly enjoyed his work.
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