Greatest Villains of All-Time: Eric Sparrow
The Search for the Greatest Villain of All-Time
Don’t worry if you didn't see this coming, but it's true, a video game about skateboarding gave the world one of the most memorable villains of all-time. For those of you who played Tony Hawk's Underground in 2003, a deep-seated resentment just came boiling to the surface. By leaps and bounds, Eric Sparrow is the single most hateable villain in any game ever, and it's not even close. He is easily the most want-to-punch-in-the-face character ever.
True Hatred
It's often said that a villain’s greatest weapon is fear. After achieving power and reputation, they usually end up never having to use their power because of their reputation. The instilled fear from this then keeps people in line. But they are only feared because the average person cannot oppose them. People merely hope they will never have to face the villain’s wrath, often going out of their way to stay out of the villain's way. Fear is how nearly every villain is viewed, and understandably so.
But Eric Sparrow invokes a different response: hatred. You are not afraid of him, because you are better than him. You can not only oppose him, you can defeat him. You hate him because he continuously gets away with his backstabbing pettiness, and you know that he will never face the consequences for his crimes against the human spirit. Eric's evil is not just determined by his actions, but by the fact that his continued ability to breathe is a constant reminder that justice is dead.
Wanting
Although cowardly and petty to the point of cruel, he still carries the entire narrative on his shoulders. From blocking you from entering a life-changing skate competition, to stealing a tape of you performing an epic, career-making trick over a helicopter in Hawaii, to stranding you in a Russian jail for a crime he committed, he is the driving force of the story. But his sense of self-awareness is what makes him cruel. He knows what he’s doing and is constantly stealing the spotlight because he can't earn it. He wants nothing more than to be better than everyone else. He doesn’t want what you have, he wants you to have nothing.
I played this game to death when it came out, and what I remember most after all these years aren't the levels, the skater cameos, or special moves, it's Eric Sparrow's face, and I want to punch it.
Our Cruel Reality
The root of this hatred comes from the fact that we all know someone like him. We all have, or have had, an Eric Sparrow in our lives. The “friend” who repeatedly took advantage of us, the believable liar who we naively kept forgiving only for them to stab us in the back yet again. In Tony Hawk's Underground, Eric Sparrow is your “best friend”, and yet he wants to hurt you. Over and over again, every time you try to better your life, Eric is there to take it all away.
Overcoming torment is never easy, and Eric Sparrow is a harsh reminder of our cruel reality. It’s seeing the douchebags of the world continue to be rewarded. It’s the pain of a bullied child finally working up the courage to point an accusing finger at their tormentor, only to find that the world doesn’t care.
