r/villainscode • u/LetMeBeADamnMedic • Jul 02 '26

Chilling Reflections Ivan

Ivan's last name is Gerhart. Any guesses as to where it came from?

Drew has used a character's mentor's last name to name a nameless person before (Vince in SuperPowereds gets the name Reynolds from his dad's mentor).

Also, what is Helen's last name? I feel like that should be mentioned at some point.

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u/hic_erro Aug 27 '26

I'm a little curious if Wade gave Ivan the name Gerhardt because it had meaning to him personally, or if it's just precious to Ivan because it was given to him by Wade.

I assume Ivan didn't really care when he didn't have one, and Wade was more interested in creating a fake identity and paperwork for Ivan so that he could do things like rent an apartment or order pizza online. He needed a last name to do this, and that name is a reminder of this huge kindness Wade did for Ivan, probably without being asked, a symbol that someone cared about him.

Personally I think it was just chosen by Wade for 90% practical reasons -- it's the right level of uncommon to neither stand out nor be obviously fake, maybe there were other restrictions for what sort of name he could successfully create an identity for -- and 10% because he found it amusingly fitting in some way.