| “ | You have won, nephew.. You have won… Now.. Play with me. | „ |
| ~ Vortigern in his Demon Knight form confronting Arthur. |
| “ | I think that sword belongs to me now... | „ |
| ~ Vortigern to Arthur. |
King Vortigern, also simply known as Vortigern, is the main antagonist of the 2017 epic fantasy/action-adventure film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
He is Arthur's uncle and brother of Uther, who is also a powerful warlock and tyrannical ruler of Camelot. Vortigern seeks the mighty sword known as Excalibur, so that he can rule every country and enslave humanity.
He was portrayed by Jude Law.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- As shown that he was jealous of his brother Uther, he made a deal with Mordred that they will share power and conquer England. However this was just out of pragmatism as he wants power for himself.
- He orchestrated a coup’ d’ etat to kill his brother and many of his loyal followers. He also attempts to murder his nephew Arthur but he manages to escape.
- He made a deal with some moat hags by sacrificing his wife in order to become the Demon Knight to kill Uther and his family.
- After becoming King of England, he enforced many Blacklegs to build a tower similar to Mordred’s tower to conquer the world and enslave humanity. If some of the workers fail or start rebelling against him, he has them executed.
- He ordered the overall genocide of all mages, with only one Mage being alive, out of fear that they rivaled his power.
- Once he found out that Arthur was alive and being taken by some prostitutes in Londinium, he has Arthur to admit he is not the true king so they can kill him, and out of sadism, he has one of his generals execute Lucy, the prostitute who raised Arthur.
- It's mentioned that after Voltigern learns the identity of Arthur, he sends his men to look for more information about him and they slaughter half the neighborhood where Arthur is raised.
- He attempts to have Arthur publicly executed to break the spirit of his subjects.
- He has enslaved many people as shown when the Resistence ambush one of his columns carrying slaves.
- He makes a treaty with the Viking King to gain passage to the Northern Seas. Vortigern plans to give him 10000 boys taken from their families to the Viking King and 5000 each year afterwards, so the boys would be raised to be absolutely loyal to the Viking King and fight for him.
- He found out that the Resistance is planning to kill him through his maid, Maggie, and so he used a double as a trap to expose the Resistance, but it ended up with the Earl of Mercia’s death in the process.
- He has his dogs track Backlack’s blood, as he interrogates him for Arthur’s location, he cuts his ear and later slashed his throat. What’s worse is that Voltigern killed him in front of his son, Blue.
- He brutally tortures a captured member of the Resistence called Rubio to reveal the location of Arthur and his men.
- He captured both The Mage and Blue so Arthur can surrender himself and deliver Excalibur to him so he can execute his nephew with it.
- He made another deal with the moat hags, this time sacrificing his daughter Katia, so that he can become the Demon Knight once again to get rid of Arthur.
- If Vortigern's plan had succeeded and he had won, as Nimue showed to Arthur in a vision, England would be destroyed by the very dark forces Mordred had commanded in the past and Vortigern would cause a massive destruction to all the world and would enslave humanity.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Despite sacrificing them to the moat hags, he genuinely loved both his wife and daughter so much that he was saddened that he had to sacrifice them to the moat hags just to obtain power and he cried for them after sacrificing them.
Trivia[]
- Vortigern is very similar to Scar from The Lion King:
- Both are evil uncles of the main protagonists (Arthur and Simba).
- Both are brothers of the protagonists' fathers (Uther and Mufasa), who are also rulers of their kingdoms.
- Both take over their kingdoms after the death of the protagonists' fathers while the main characters are banished, only for them to be raised (Simba is raised by Pumbaa and Timon while Arthur raised by prostitutes).
- Both attempt to kill their nephews and end up fighting with them, only to be defeated by them in which their nephews then become the new rulers of their kingdoms at the end.
- However, while Vortigern loves his family and he is sad that he has to sacrifice them to achieve power, Scar doesn't love anyone as he only cares for himself.
