Analyzing Evil: Syndrome From The Incredibles

Hello everyone and welcome to the one hundred forty-second episode of Analyzing Evil! Our feature character for this video is Syndrome from The Incredibles. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for watching. If you have any feedback or questions feel free to let me know below!

The song in this video was provided by CO.AG

#disney #evil #pixar

[danielsantiagourtado]

Syndrome was SO fixated on the super part of superhero that he completely neglected the most important part: the hero part

[justinriley]

I love the symbolism of Syndrome being codenamed Kronos, the father of gods, being undone by his own creation, much like Kronos being killed by his own children.

[Mistashiba]

The tragic part of his character is how much he actually has and what he wastes it on. He has a private island, is extremely rich, super technology and is wickledly intelligent, but he WASTES all of this on the most petty and ultimately pointless plans ever. It is somewhat played for laughs, but when you think about it more its quite tragic.

[yoeski]

Another detail that people never catch is during the “Fly home buddy, I work alone” scene, we see Bob confronting and dealing with Bomb Voyage, yet in Buddy’s perspective and flashback, we just see Mr. Incredible denying and turning him down in a freshly lit room for no good reason.

This really lets us know that Syndrome’s obsession with Mr. Incredible is so far off the deep end that he forgot why he liked and idolized Mr. Incredible in the first place, being a superhero.

[speedracer]

Syndrome’s biggest problem was his inability to let go of the past. He believed that Mr. Incredible’s rejection of his offer to be his sidekick vindicated his belief that his lack of superpowers prevented him from becoming a superhero, when, in truth, he was an impulsive kid, who was bound to get himself killed, due to this. He never tried to better himself or recognize his flaws, but chose to lash out at those that denied him what he felt he deserved.

[WeeabossVA]

There's something so chilling about how Syndrome wants to go beyond just killing superheroes and instead, gravitates towards destroying the very concept of a "super" by giving everyone powers.

[DessertEagle]

Syndrome was likely a malignant narcissist. One minor slight was enough to make him change the entire course of his life, and in the flashback with Mr. Incredible he hyperfixates on being talked down to so hard that Bomb Voyage isn't even there.

[MrTerrorFace]

Fun fact: according to a behind the scenes segment on DVD, in an early draft of the movie Syndrome was supposed to be a minor villain who appeared and was destroyed at the beginning of the movie, but the staff adored the character and reworked the story so he could be the main villain in the final version of the movie.

[TonyDSaint]

This was brought up to me a while back:
When Buddy was rejected, Mr. Incredible was dealing with a supervillain (one whom he seem to have past altercations), so he’s constantly moving his eyes between Buddy & Bomb-Boyage. Yet in Buddy’s “memory”, Mr. Incredible is posing, lording over him, even ending with a dismissive wave. None of that happen; heck Buddy just “forgets” that their was a villain in the same room, he evens ignores the damage he (intentionally) caused on the train bridge.

[KZoopam]

The irony is that Syndrome actually did have a super power. He was super intelligent and manage to build advance technology at a very young age. Unfortunately he did never use his talent on doing good deed only using it for selfish reasons.

[cherryhazard]

That scene where Mr. Incredible is with the computer still gives me pure chills to this day. Mr. Incredible thinking that Syndrome was "just a kid", then he grows up, shows him he is pure evil and that he is directly a threat to him now. Masterful.

[kamalalsb]

I do think you missed a tiny point in the car conversation - Mr Incredible isn't frustrated at having to do that generally, it's that Buddy, by this point, is effectively stalking him and seemingly takes up a LOT of his time doing... not quite this sort of thing but verging on it. I always got the impression that this is not the first time Mr Incredible has had to let Buddy down, and he'd BEEN gentle every other time - but Buddy just ignored it until he ACTUALLY got into trouble.

[Crimson]

“I am your number one fan” never got creepier. Syndrome/Buddy Pine shares similarities with Reverse-Flash, Annie Wilkes, and Gil Renard from The Fan (1996). They’re all obsessed with their idols to the point of nearly deifying them. When they get let down or their image of them shatters, that obsession turns into hatred. That hate fuels their motivation to destroy that image. They essentially fall in hate with the hero/protagonist.

[cherryhazard]

Syndrome has one of the best quotes on western animation I have ever seen.

"See? Now you respect me, because I am a threat."

"And when everyone is super, no one will be."

God, why don't they make western animation THIS GOOD anymore?

[epicrotfl]

I’m so glad you mentioned that Syndrome had a super power because it really doesn’t get talked about enough.

[chasehedges]

“AND when everyone’s super, No one will be.”

Awesome line, awesome villain

[SebasTian]

It's definitely true that Syndrome really took what Mr Incredible said to heart, but it's also been twisted in his mind by his hatred. When you compare the actual scene of Mr Incredible telling him to go home or that he works alone(i forget which one) to the version he remembers, it seems much worse than the actual scene was.

[tenkyu]

The thing about Buddy is that doesn't he seem to understand the life he had built for himself. He was super rich, a genius, he had a private island and a woman to himself. But his inability to let go is what tore all that apart. Not to mention the dozens of superheroes that were killed because of him, all because he wanted to play hero.

So he pretty much deserved his fate.

[conormcginn]

Unexpected but such a welcomed surprise. Finally we get the best Pixar villain on the Analyzing Evil channel!

[ringkunmori]

How did Pixar follow up one of the greatest villain in animation history with one of the most forgettable in the sequel?