18 Fan Theories About Villains From Underrated Fantasy Movies That Are Wickedly Clever

From Redditor u/Lucian_the_Cherry:

The other mother is referred to as a baldam, which means witch. Witches are known for having black cats, like the one that helps Coraline. 

It made me think, "why would he help Coraline if he was working with the other mother?" I then remembered that she likes playing games, and now I think that it's a game they play.

The cat tries to save the children, while she has to try to capture and keep them. It would also explain why he has access to the other-world and disappears into it at the end of the movie. 

From Redditor u/goldfish_k:

Agent Muska, imo, is the personification of the Laputa, the last castle in the sky. Muska, as the one of the last descendants of the royal family, symbolizes the same greed that caused the destruction of the old nation. Referring to the aforementioned environmental concerns, examples like moss growing over the robots, the robot offering a flower to Sheeta can show that men and nature can coexist, but as in the opening sequence with the castles falling back to earth and the end where the last castle crumbles, there’s the message that nature will reclaim what men have taken if they are consumed by their greed. The opening sequence tells a story with just beautiful animation. Although cooperation and ambition is what raised the people of Laputa to the sky, the ambition turned to greed and they fought each other and destroyed one another. The same greed that dragged sky-faring people of Laputa is personified by Muska as he betrays the military he worked with once he reaches the skies, consumed by greed. 

From Redditor u/andreagtr:

I [think he's] the devil's son. As he is the Lord of Darkness, that's nowhere near a minor demon or just a minotaur. Maybe Satan is ruling the hell and he rules the upper world of Darkness, that's why he's fighting the last power that can make the sun rise again.

From Redditor u/strangenchanted:

Captain Vidal is the antagonist, and he represents a form of authority that will not be gainsayed, and demands blind, unquestioning obedience. Ofelia lives in a world where this type of authority is dominant, and the film shows us the effect this has on people who are not willing to be sheep, as well as the consequences to the representatives of the authority in the long run.

It is not a coincidence that Ofelia's mother married Vidal. She represents a type of pragmatic realist who is resigned to how the world is, and will not entertain the possibility of change. Note how she tries to make Ofelia give up her fairy tales. She wants Ofelia to "grow up" and be like her - accepting the world as it is, and give up the fantasy that things can be better.

From Redditor u/double-positive:

In The Dark Crystal we see that the Skeksis drink the vital essence of other creatures to retain their youth. Or more specifically only the Emperor of the Skeksis is allowed to drink the vital essence. But when we meet the Emperor, he's dying. He's frail and falling apart. He dies by literally disintegrating into dust.

So if he is drinking the vital essence, then why is he so much older and weak than the other Skeksis. My theory is that while the vital essence gives temporary youth, the body rebounds hard after its effects wear off.

We see the General drink some of the life essence of a Podling, and he doesn't stay young for very long (half a minute at most). We see him go right back to being old.

As well, we are told by the Scientist says that it worked better with Gelflings. So my assumption is that as long as they could continuously consume vital essence, the emperor stayed young and strong. When they could only rely on the lesser vital essence of Podlings the rebound effects were significant. This caused the Emperor to become the broken, shell which we see in the movie.

There is also some evidence in some of the expanded works to suggest this as well. In the Creation Myths comics, the Skeksis are shown as using all four hands like the Mystics. When Gelflings were in abundance all of the Skeksis partook in the drinking of vital essence. But when they became more scarce only the Emperor could. We see in the movies that the Skeksis still have four arms (it can be seen when the Chamberlain gets disrobed). However, their second set of arms have atrophied to the point where they are shriveled up and unusable. I believe that this deterioration may have been caused from them drinking vital essence.

Lastly, it's possible that the Skeksis could have realized that it was killing them faster. No doubt the Emperor noticed he was dying at an accelerated rate compared to the others. The Skeksis are however so vain and so short sighted, that I imagine they cared more about how they looked in the moment and would ignore any long term effects the vital essence was having.

From Redditor u/dj_soo:

Fairly obvious - just look at the characters

Willow = Luke

Madmartigan = Han

General Kael = Vader

Sorsha = Leia

Fin Razael = Obi Wan

Bavmorda = Palpatine

Franjean and Rool = r2D2 and C3P0

All the archetypes are almost identical.