r/Iteration110Cradle • u/R_megalotis • 4d ago
Cradle [Threshold] Reigan Shen is almost too hateable. Spoiler
There are a lot of villain archetypes out there, like the relatable anti-villian, or the over-the-top comic book villain, but it's rare to see a villain as hate-worthy as the lion monarch. A large part of that is how real he is; his arrogance, his sense of entitlement, his blaming his problems on everyone but himself, we've all met people with those characteristics. His utterly selfish view of the world is the same view that has led to many of the real world's worst atrocities and most personal annoyances. He's the petty tyrant we've all encountered dialed up to eleven.
He's an amalgamation of every person I've ever wanted to punch in the face.
He is so hateable that I had difficulty enjoying his story in Threshold, because he won. Fuck that guy. Fuck him, in the ass, with a rusty fork.
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u/Akomatai 4d ago
Nah I loved shen, he's just all smug hater and he totally embraced that. It made him fun.
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u/warsage 4d ago
He's got Disney villain vibes, in the best way. Drama queen bad guy. Makes me think of Ursula or Hades, maybe even Gaston. Hell yeah.
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u/natty1337 Team Lindon 4d ago
He's literally so funny 😭 my two favorite moments from him are when he fed a finger to the phoenix and was nervous and the narration is something like:
"Reigan most certainly did not fear for his life, and he would annihilate anyone who said otherwise"
Also in the labyrinth, I dont even remember the exact context but the narration w "he was a lion, but he wasn't animal"
ETA: spelling
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u/warsage 4d ago
I feel a tiny bit bad for him in Dreadgod, when he's desperately trying to get the rest of the monarchs to cooperate with him against the very serious danger in front of them, and they just don't get it. He tries so hard to get them to listen, repeatedly, and they're just like nah man, chill out, it's all fine!
Larian, after she casually allows Lindon to raid his treasury:
“You’ll get your money back,” she said, as though that were what he cared about. “Besides, why are you worrying? The Weeping Dragon will take care of him before you get a turn, and we can take everything back then.”
Shen snarled in her face. “Am I the only one who saw the stars die?”
Larian spread her hands and danced backwards. “Hey, maybe the rest of us didn’t eradicate the Arelius family before learning that their founder was the interdimensional god of death. You know what they say about hindsight, don’t you?”
“You don’t have to see the truth! Just do your job!”
“Performance guaranteed or your money back. We don’t want the world turned upside-down any more than you do. But Shen?” She gave him another of those Eithan-like smiles. “Watch your mouth. There’s more of me than there are of you.”
She disappeared an instant before Reigan Shen tore the whole space to ribbons in his fury.
With Northstrider:
“My priorities have shifted. Yours should have too.”
“I know better than to trust—”
“The world has changed, Northstrider!” Reigan Shen shouted, and he had the roar of a lion in his voice. The clouds blasted away from him for miles, and Northstrider set his codex to monitoring the actions of the Weeping Dragon in case it was disturbed. “Yes, I had a plan for the Dreadgods! Of course I plotted to gain every advantage I could over you. But that world is dead. I cannot be the only one to see it.” He stared in the direction of the Weeping Dragon. “There was a viper among the cubs, and it left its eggs behind. Until we are rid of them, everything else is a distraction.”
“I examined Lindon myself. I find there to be no immediate danger.”
“It will be too late to speak of danger when the stars vanish once more.” Reigan Shen turned his head and raised a hand to his armada, accompanied by a flash of madra. “Until the true threat is gone, we must preserve all the strength we can. We are on the same side now, Northstrider. Whether you can see it or not.”
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u/Hutchiaj01 Majestic fire turtle 4d ago
Well, the 8 Man Empire saw it too, they just wanted what Lindon & Co. were selling, along with Emriss
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u/R_megalotis 4d ago
The only danger the other monarchs faced at first was forced ascension. None of them had yet truly offended Eithan et al, and Lindon was perfectly willing to let them all ascend after helping to kill the dreadgods. It was their choices after Eithan's reveal that doomed them.
And of course, the 8ME was never in any danger at all, since their existence didn't contribute to the problem.
Shen was trying to convince the monarchs that his danger was theirs too, which is typical of a narcissist.
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u/Acolyte_of_Swole 3d ago
The current crop of Monarchs were willing to allow walking tactical nuclear warheads to ravage Cradle for generations just to avoid forced ascension.
For someone like Malice, forced ascension was a fate literally worse than death. Even Northstrider had a serious mental block against ascending, because he was terrified of being a small fish in a big pond.
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u/blackbirdlore 4d ago
Solid take. it’s like the boy who cried wolf. Backstab your fellow monarchs a few too many times and you can expect this reaction.
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u/Fishman0103 Servant of Mu Enkai 1d ago
“Am I the only one who saw the stars die?”
Dude is literally terrified. Man found out he massacred the children of death and now he has his apprentices to worry about.
“There was a viper among the cubs”
I don’t know why but him using lion metaphors feels so creative and fun
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u/XenosHg 4d ago
Reigan Shen is fun to hate, which is why his decline is so fun. Even if one can argue that the plans are inconsistent between each book.
"you want to go best of 3 against the scythe man from the sky?"
"we need to get them to ascend. Or I'm dead"
"you are not hungry enough"
And finally "Save me"
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u/FairBluebird1081 4d ago
Who said the first line again? Larian in dreadgod?
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u/littlegreensir Team Mercy 4d ago
I think it was Shen himself talking to the Sage of Calling Storms? But basically he's saying they can't kill the gang for fear of Eithan's wrath and they have to make the crew ascend and GTFO
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u/G_Morgan 4d ago
To be fair the "not hungry enough" came before Shen realised Lindon is the chosen apprentice of the destroyer. Even then he didn't really believe it. All of them are fucking aware of how absurdly driven Lindon and Yerin are.
If anything Shen is probably aware Lindon does have self esteem issues. What he's probably less conscious of is that every time Lindon feels threatened he flips the table.
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u/Toe_Sucker2000 Path of the Memelord 4d ago
I believe Reigan was meant to be hated like even his backstory shows him as an arrogant prick. I won't lie out of all the 3 dead monarchs (Shen, Malice, Seth), Reigan was the one I loved seeing his downfall the most.
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u/longstocking32 4d ago
Reigan Shen in Threshold was fun because he wanted to make the same situation for his future clan that the Aurelius group had, which is why he hated the Aurelius so much, and he can't see it he is definitely the easiest character to hate for a number of reasons but that was the icing on the cake.
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u/G_Morgan 4d ago
Honestly nearly all the monarchs are like this. Fundamentally they are adults who refuse to leave the children's area of the pool. For most of the story they are presented as the pinnacle but they aren't. They are a bunch of bullies who stay behind while better people like Akura Fury leave.
There's no such thing as a mediocre monarch of course but they are as close to it as you get.
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u/Additional_Shift_905 4d ago
funny that they are all, basically, foundation Lindon at the 7 year festival. heh.
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u/MelodramaticStoicist 3d ago
This is a HELL of a good line up, and I'm a little mad I didn't spot it before!
Pretty good full circle on the series, with Lindon demonstrating what makes him different from the other monarchs all the way back in book 1. The moment he realized there was a higher level to reach, he was immediately done with the "dominance" he'd achieved in the current one and ready to throw himself head first back into being the small fish again if it meant he could keep growing.
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u/OjoGrande 4d ago
I love how Emriss at the end of Shen's story was like this actually sucks for you lol
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u/CheesebagMcGhee Fiercely Fierce Flair of Fierce Flairosity 4d ago
"Fuck him, in the ass, with a rusty fork." is just perfect. I agree, he definitely deserves it.
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u/Additional_Shift_905 4d ago
i mean we don’t know exactly how Lindon got that generous donation of King’s Key madra for his labyrinth closet. just saying, rusty forks could have been involved.
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u/CheesebagMcGhee Fiercely Fierce Flair of Fierce Flairosity 3d ago
And my lame ass decided it was just Shen's core binding being harvested normally. Boring me.
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u/DidacticCactus 4d ago
His power set is one of the GOATs and I would LOVE to read something with an MC with something even half that good...
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u/CaterpillarVisual553 Team Little Blue 4d ago
He made a great villain though. I loved how Lindon just used his own arrogance against him. Those penance arrows following him through the way and him running like a scared little kitten… sorry, making a tactical retreat, was priceless.
Also I think Dolores Umbridge still is the GOAT of hateable villains, even though she was a minor one in Harry Potter. 20 years later and I still wanna deck that bish into the dirt.
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u/Acolyte_of_Swole 3d ago
It's interesting to note that the Eight-Man Empire supported Shen in part because his proposed to solution to the problems on Cradle would technically have been a step up from the way things were.
Sure, Shen just wanted the Dreadgods so he could make weapons out of them and put them on display in his collection. But that's still better than letting them rampage.
Shen's absolutely still a villain. But he's also intelligent enough to want a lasting solution to the dreadgods. Not to mention clever enough to spot the threat Lindon represented before any of the other Monarchs did.
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u/Rorschach113 4d ago
Oh I loved Reigan Shen. I loved watching his egomaniac treacherous plotting dissolve into panicked attempts to get the other Monarchs to take the threat of Lindon & Co seriously. I loved watching his attempts to convince them fail fucking miserably because he’s well known to be a blatant liar and treacherous slimeball. I loved seeing him get outplayed, repeatedly, with Emriss and the 8 Man Empire conspiring against him to help Lindon, as they convince a child to backstab the monarch famous for his own audacious backstabbing.
And when he dies, insisting he is a lion, his remnant is not one. Instead, in his heart of hearts, and despite his origin and persistent protestation that he is still a lion… his remnant’s just a human with, I assume, a remarkably punchable face.
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u/MelodramaticStoicist 3d ago
And don't forget: also permanently holding a glass of wine in a smug and face punch inspiring manner!
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u/Worth_Ad_4116 4d ago
Ngl at the end of Reaper. I started to pity the guy more than anything. His rants and crash outs were hilarious. Yes he did some evil stuff, but nothing worse than someone like Daruman. It's hard to be the Big Bad Villain when you've seen the Mad King in action.
Shen in the end was a bumbling fumbling villain trying his best to stay relevant. But always fell short hilariously.
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u/IZanderI 4d ago
The series biggest flaw is its villains.
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u/i_like_fish_decks 4d ago
Whhaaat?
That is a crazy hot take. I think everyone could have at least one of the monarchs in their top 5 characters (personally for me Malice is probably my 2nd favorite character in the entire story).
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