View source for Walter Simmons

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{{Near Pure Evil Infobox
|image = Walter Simmons.png
|full name = Walter Simmons
|alias = Mr. Simmons
|origin = ''[[Wikipedia:Godzilla vs. Kong|Godzilla vs. Kong]]''
|allies = [[w:c:inconsistently-heinous:Alan Jonah|Alan Jonah]]<br>
[[w:c:villains:Maia Simmons|Maia Simmons]]<br>
[[w:c:villains:Ren Serizawa|Ren Serizawa]]<br>
[[w:c:villainous-benchmark:Mechagodzilla (MonsterVerse)|Mechagodzilla]] <small>(formerly)</small>
|powers/skills = Leadership<br>
High intelligence<br>
Vast wealth and resources
|goals = {{Scroll box|Make an artificial Titan which can defeat any other, including Godzilla, and satisfy his ego.<br>
Use Mechagodzilla to conquer all the Titans on Earth.<br>
Make mankind the dominant species and make himself a hero in the public's eyes.<br>
Enslave as many Titans as he can and wipe out the rest.<br>
Manipulate Godzilla into endangering and decimating millions of civilians to frame Godzilla as a villain in the public's eye.<br>
Send Mechagodzilla to kill Godzilla.<br>
Prevent the truth of his plans and crimes from being exposed.<br>
Rule the world through his corporate empire <small>(all failed)</small>.}}
|moral event horizon = Developing the Oxygen Destroyer for the military to kill Titans, accidentally exacerbating King Ghidorah's global rampage.<br>
Ordering the death of Bernie Hayes' wife Sara in a car accident.<br>
Deliberately hurting or killing thousands and endangering millions more by provoking Godzilla to aggression.
|kill count = Hundreds to thousands<br>
Millions <small>(attempted)</small>
|crimes = {{Scroll box|Corruption<br>
Incrimination<br>
Mass murder by proxy<br>
Terrorism<br>
Bribery<br>
Treason<br>
Animal cruelty<br>
Kidnapping<br>
Conspiracy<br>
Usage of illegal operations<br>
Environmental damage<br>
Attempted mass enslavement<br>
Attempted world domination<br>
Crimes against humanity}}
|type of villain = Hypocritical Supremacist}}
{{Quote|And now, my [[w:c:villainous-benchmark:Mechagodzilla (MonsterVerse)|Mecha]]. It's not only [[w:c:inconsistently-admirable:Godzilla (MonsterVerse)|Godzilla]]'s equal, but his superior. The Apex Titan of my own hand. It's time to show the world what you can do.|Walter Simmons upon witnessing the full activation of [[w:c:villainous-benchmark:Mechagodzilla (MonsterVerse)|Mechagodzilla]].}}
'''Walter Simmons''' is the secondary antagonist of the 2021 {{w|Monsterverse}} film ''{{w|Godzilla vs. Kong}}'' and the overarching antagonist of the {{w|Apple TV+}} prequel series ''{{w|Monarch: Legacy of Monsters}}''.

He is the head of the robotics company [[w:c:villains:Apex Cybernetics|Apex Cybernetics]], and supposedly wants to help mankind recover from the damage caused by the Titans and prevent it from happening again. But in reality, he's an ego-driven narcissist who wants to use [[w:c:villainous-benchmark:Mechagodzilla (MonsterVerse)|Mechagodzilla]], which he created in secret, to control the world with a corporate hegemony after he establishes mankind as the supreme species over the Titans, and he is willing to kill millions of civilians via provoking [[w:c:inconsistently-admirable:Godzilla (MonsterVerse)|Godzilla]] in order to do so.

He was portrayed by [[Wikipedia:Demián Bichir|Demián Bichir]].

==His Evil Ranking==
===What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?===
====Both versions====
*He focused his wealth and resources on masterminding a corporate conspiracy to build Mechagodzilla in secret using his advanced technology, attaining the malevolent World Ender Titan [[w:c:pure-evil-villains:King Ghidorah (MonsterVerse)|King Ghidorah]]'s leftover skull to form a telepathic circuit with which to pilot the Mecha.
*He plotted to use Mechagodzilla to kill and usurp Godzilla as the Earth's dominant Alpha Titan and make mankind the dominant race against the other Titans, not out of compassion but out of his fanaticism that mankind should be the apex species and his greed to have his corporate empire on top, which is why he named his corporation "Apex Cybernetics".
*He is responsible for aggravating Godzilla into acting dangerously aggressive and homicidal via Mechagodzilla's activation, causing the Titan to endanger thousands of people in Pensacola, Florida, killing eight people, and causing mass property damage. 
**He would then, instead of stopping his experiments, manipulate the public's ensuing panic and confusion by lying to the world that Godzilla has turned rogue towards them; covering up that Godzilla's attack was entirely Simmons' own fault, and cultivating the image that Godzilla is humanity's enemy to justify his own plan to usurp Godzilla in the world's eyes. Not only that, but this would also lead to Godzilla and [[w:c:inconsistently-admirable:King Kong (MonsterVerse)|King Kong]]'s rivalry in the first place (likely due to Godzilla's hatred against apes after one of his ancestors was killed by the [[w:c:pure-evil-villains:Skar King|Skar King]] in the past), despite Kong posing no threat to Godzilla.
*In his headquarters in Hong Kong, Simmons had Mechagodzilla tested against smaller monsters which his company had captured and/or bred in captivity. One of the Titans was a Skullcrawler referred to as "Number 10", which Mechagodzilla sliced in half with its Proton Scream while a pleased Simmons watched from an observation deck.
*Simmons approached and manipulated Monarch member Nathan Lind to jump-start a Monarch expedition with Maia down to the Hollow Earth, using Kong as their navigator so that Apex could extract its powerful natural energy to power Mechagodzilla in order to defeat Godzilla.
*Simmons exhibited an extreme lack of empathy for the millions of Hong Kong residents that his plan endangered, cackling with glee when Godzilla started violently drilling through the ground in the middle of the city with his atomic breath that Godzilla's actions meant Maia had found the energy source.
*He implicitly threatened his right-hand man and Mechagodzilla pilot Ren Serizawa in a flash of anger when the latter advised postponing Mechagodzilla's activation until they understood the Hollow Earth power source better, coldly hissing at him in impatience to "get in the goddamn [pilot] chair".
*When [[w:c:near-pure-good-hero:Madison Russell|Madison Russell]] confronted Simmons by telling him that he provoked Godzilla into war and caused thousands of innocent people to lose their lives through his operation and endangered millions more, Simmons didn't care and went so far as to call Godzilla's attacks "providence" because of how they benefitted him. 
*When Mechagodzilla under Ghidorah's influence killed Simmons, it wasn't played for any sympathy, as he outright deserved it for his heinous actions.
*All of Simmons' worst actions and lack of empathy show that beneath his public façade is a cold, selfish man who only cares about making mankind the dominant race to satisfy his ego without caring about how many casualties his plan caused.
*Despite having more resources than [[w:c:inconsistently-heinous:Alan Jonah|Alan Jonah]], who was successful in a higher body count of hundreds of millions and attempted billions, shot a man onscreen, and indirectly responsible for provoking far more Titans because he wanted all of mankind to be annihilated. Simmons can't do so because he is lacking the ORCA which can awaken Titans, making him stand out as the quality over Jonah's quantity.
*Despite having comedic moments, he is still taken seriously.

====Novelization version only====
*Simmons purchased two Ghidorah skulls (the origin of the second skull is left unexplained given the nature of Ghidorah's death in the films) directly from an underground marketeer who was heavily implied to be Jonah after meeting the latter in person, making Simmons guilty of having black marketeer dealings with Jonah and allowing the latter to walk free despite being fully aware of Jonah's crimes against humanity.
*Bernie Hayes speculated that after usurping Godzilla as the apex lifeform, Simmons intended to enslave as many of the other Titans as he could and kill the rest, regardless of whether those Titans were good or bad for the world.
*He is behind the creation of the Oxygen Destroyer, having presented it as a weapon for the military to use to kill Titans including Godzilla, making him indirectly responsible for the near-death of Godzilla and for King Ghidorah's reign of terror, which caused an untold number of deaths, mass destruction of cities and ecosystems around the globe, and almost led to the total slaughter of humanity and all other life on Earth's surface as we know it. After this, Simmons only changed his plans for how to usurp Godzilla instead of abandoning them, and he bailed himself and his company out of all accountability for the Oxygen Destroyer's role in Ghidorah's global rampage via his wealth and government connections.
*He had Bernie Hayes' wife Sara murdered in a car accident because she uncovered the truth about the Oxygen Destroyer. In turn, this is what motivated Bernie to go undercover in Apex so he could expose their agenda.
*He shows no genuine care about his daughter Maia, despite her seeking his approval. This was shown when Maia revealed to Nathan Lind that Walter played mind-games with her to test whether or not she was worthy of inheriting Apex, keeping Kong's involvement in the Hollow Earth mission a secret from her in advance.
*Although Godzilla's first attack in Pensacola due to sensing Mechagodzilla's activation genuinely wasn't intended nor expected by Apex, after Simmons realized what had happened, he deliberately made it so that Godzilla would go to Hong Kong - one of the most densely-populated cities in the world with eight million people - and decimate the millions there, and Apex can then use Mechagodzilla to kill him so that Simmons can paint himself as a "savior" and systematically take over the world through Apex as a corporate empire.

===What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?=== 
*Even though he engineered and attempted to engineer mass casualties in Hong Kong, he still had some form of honor towards Nathan Lind's late brother David, expressing condolences to Nathan for his brother's death and saying that he was "a true pioneer", which isn't subverted. However, this is a small deterrent, as Simmons' high-functioning sociopathy and the dead-eyed look in his face when he mentions David Lind shows that at best, he only had some twisted respect toward David for "pioneering" humanity, or at worst he was solely using the mention of David as a manipulation tactic and nothing more.
*He expresses high confidence in his daughter Maia and tests her if she can inherit his corporate empire, suggesting he cares for her.
**This is all but subverted in the novelization version, which implies more heavily than the film does that he's psychologically abusive to her and reveals that he withheld relevant information about the life-threatening Hollow Earth mission from her as nothing more than a test and a joke.

==Trivia==
*Walter Simmons is one of two Near Pure Evil in the ''Godzilla'' franchise to be humans alongside [[Dr. Susumu Okubo]]. 
*He is the only Near Pure Evil in the ''King Kong'' franchise and in the ''MonsterVerse''. He, [[Mecha Kong]] and [[the Developer]] are also the only King Kong related Pure Evils.
*Alex Garcia, who produced ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', stated that Walter Simmons is "not necessarily a Machiavellian character. He believes something, he's not necessarily our villain, by the way, but he is a very complex character who believes he's doing the right thing. And he may be, but that's where the mystery at the core of the film comes into play."
**However, this post was before the international release of the movie, and if Walter believed that he was doing the right thing, it was only out of his delusions of grandeur due to his intention to destroy millions of lives through Godzilla, thus making him Near Pure Evil. It is possible that the post was made to hide any hints of his true nature.
*Despite his status as Near Pure Evil and one of the evilest human antagonists in the MonsterVerse alongside Alan Jonah and Emma Russell, Simmons has received a disturbing deal of sympathy from viewers, simply because Simmons' agenda on the surface involves building a weapon to fight Titans in the name of ostensibly making humans the dominant species again; glossing over or outright ignoring that he:
**Deliberately engineered the deaths of millions for no better reason than to make himself look like a "savior" when he enacts his plan.
**Fired the first shot which ended a peaceful and entirely beneficial coexistence between humans and Titans.
**The film's implications (which are more explicitly confirmed in the novelization) that Simmons planned to use Mechagodzilla to take over the world for himself after Apex had succeeded in murdering Godzilla.
*In the film's novelization, it's explicitly revealed that Simmons engineered Godzilla's rampage in Hong Kong with complete deliberacy, counting on Godzilla causing so much destruction in one of the most densely-populated cities so Apex can be the "saviors" once Mechagodzilla is set loose. If his one mitigating quality concerning Nathan's brother is debunked, Simmons (or his novel version at least) may qualify as Pure Evil after all.

==External Links==
*{{Wiki|Walter Simmons|Walter Simmons|villains|Villains}}
*{{Wiki|Walter Simmons|Walter Simmons|godzilla|Godzilla}}

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