A reader complains that video game villains lack depth and proper reasons to hate them, while praising the bad guys in Rockstar’s GTA 4: The Lost And Damned. I don’t think video game villains hit as hard they should. Many of them appear to be evil for the sake of being evil and to give the protagonist an almighty foe to face off with, come the endgame. The best antagonists are irredeemable pieces of excrement, who you longingly wish to shut up and vanquish from ever invading your eyesight and ear lobes.
![[Brian Jeremy artwork from GTA 4: The Lost and Damned]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_235580249-d05e.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Sometimes though, it’s the secondary antagonists that can be more entertaining in how they obediently carry out their masters’ bidding, and their personalities can be so smug and righteous, that they make a bigger impact than the main antagonist. Of all the video game villains I’ve encountered in my 25+ years of video-gaming, Brian Jeremy from GTA 4: The Lost And Damned has to be the most snivelling brown-noser of a secondary antagonist I ever saw. The right-hand man to central antagonist Billy Grey, Brian Jeremy is quick to take sides with Billy anytime protagonist Johnny Klebitz has a problem with the way Billy is running The Lost biker gang.
Brian Jeremy is a tremendously arrogant, goofy little wretch, who may as well be Billy’s pet because he is nothing more than a subservient ass, who waddles along like the nerd Algie from another of Rockstar Games’ mega hits Bully. Brian is proof positive that some of the most despicable characters in games are unflinchingly loyal pests who always side with their masters no matter what.
