| “ | Zhu Li, do the thing. | „ |
| ~ Varrick's most famous catchphrase |
| “ | Yep, I like to think I'm always there to stand up for the little guy. Especially if that little guy can help this guy become a bigger guy. | „ |
| ~ Varrick buying a controlling share of Asami's company |
| “ | I know, it's not like me, right? Usually I look at a project like this and think, "Wow! "I could make a ton of money off this!" But recently, I've been having these strange feelings ... inside. It's like I'm ... concerned with others. And there's this nagging voice in my head constantly telling me what's right from wrong! | „ |
| ~ Varrick explaining his newfound morality |
Iknik Blackstone Varrick, or simply Varrick, is a major character in the 2012 animated series, The Legend of Korra. He is the secondary antagonist of Book II: Spirits, a minor character in Book III: Change and a major protagonist in Book IV: Balance.
He is a greedy businessman and founder of the Varrick industries Global, who by the time of the series, is the one in control of the world's shipping business. He is an on-off ally to Team Avatar who he has been manipulating to orchestrate a war for profit, before eventually fleeing to Zaofu. Joining Kuvira's army to provide a clean & safe energy source using spirit vines, he ultimately defects and redeems when Kuvira was too ruthless for him to work for.
He is voiced by John Michael Higgins.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- Is perhaps the funniest villain in the entire franchise and one of the franchise's best comedic reliefs to the point of even rivaling Sokka in how much comedy gold he has, no less thanks to the timing of John Michael Higgins' delivery that mesh well with Varrick's zany and goofy quirkiness. As a result, he becomes easily one of the most charming villains in the franchise.
- The best part of this is that Varrick is putting all of this for show. He purposefully pretends to be a zany and eccentric maniac so he can appear too silly to actually be a genius and diabolical mastermind in truth, and is why he got off for so long without anyone suspecting.
- Using his zany and eccentric façade, he charms nearly every character he finds and gets on their good side, and as a result, manipulates them for his own ends. The only character to actually not be charmed by Varrick is simply Mako, who generally is sour and not so openly friendly.
- Is a brilliant inventor who could make up any invention from scratch, and as a result, is the one who brought motion pictures and wired bombs to the world.
- He built his major business empire that ends up controlling the world's shipping business, all from a simple canoe when a small boy from a family suffering from poverty.
- Overall is very easy to root for as he is pitted against worse villains like Unalaq, who is a very vile Pure Evil villain, and Kuvira, who despite her sympathetic and well-intended motives, is still a ruthless tyrant who went off the deep end.
- He also has two notable standards for a war profiteer:
- He is against any blatant murder, be it ordering or doing so personally. He threatens Mako to kill Asami and Bolin, but doesn't act on it when Mako refuses and frames him instead, while assuring that despite kidnapping him, Varrick had no plans on further harming him at all.
- He is against making weapons of large-scale destruction like a spirit laser, viewing the destruction caused to be far too grave and massive for even him to profit from and is the large driving force on why he redeems himself and turns against Kuvira.
- Taking advantage of Unalaq having his army invade the Southern Water Tribe and conquer it for his grand ambitions of power, Varrick takes advantage of it by secretly holding meetings and organizing a rebellion against Unalaq, all to pit the two tribes against each other and sow seeds of conflict between them which he uses for his own ends.
- When the men he ordered to kidnap Unalaq failed and got arrested, he was at least willing to bribe them to freedom.
- Using money, he manages to distract the crowd and guards with money, and by using his ship, he helps Korra and the rest of Team Avatar escape back to Republic City.
- In order to hinder his bets, he actually contributed a lot to President Raiko and his competitor's campaign secretly. Using this, he helps Korra by setting him up with President Raiko to join the war.
- When Raiko refuses, he casts Bolin as his star to produce hilarious propaganda films to sway the general public against the Northern Water Tribe, nearly making President Raiko take action against Unalaq.
- Using a middle man to make himself untraceable, Varrick hires criminal organizations for his own ends and orchestrate attacks to manipulate the United Republic of Nations into joining the war.
- He makes a deal to do business with Asami, and then hires the Agni Kai Triad to attack Future Industries shipments to bankrupt the company and buy a controlling share of it off her.
- His final move to and up buying off Asami's company itself is a very impressive one, handing Varrick one of his ships when overhearing Mako and Asami planning a sting operation, and then uses his middle man to bribe the Triple Threat Triad after Mako made a deal with them to be his muscle to keep them busy while the Angi Kai Triad raid the Future Industries Warehouse completely.
- When Mako discovers he has gotten an idea on who was behind the attacks and that he is investigating him, Varrick immediately acts by offering Mako a job in his security force and when he refuses, plants fake evidence and bribes the Triple Threat Triad to frame Mako for his crimes.
- He has his kidnappers disguise themselves as people from the Northern Water Tribe when ordering them to kidnap President Raiko in order make a final straw to manipulate Raiko into joining the war.
- Having anticipated that he could get caught, Varrick had actually built a luxurious prison cell for himself when funding the construction of the prison. When confronted by Korra and the team, he refused to show resentment towards them after being exposed and gave them a friendly talk while they're being hostile to him. When having no way to benefit from and learning about the true scope of Unalaq's threat against the world by freeing and fusing with Vaatu, he gladly gives them his warship that has the mechasuits that he stole from Asami.
- When UnaVaatu ends up destroying his cell when he attempted to ravage Republic City, Varrick, having prepared a glider for the moment, takes the opportunity and escapes prison with Zhu Li and flee to Zaofu where he became the head of the Invention sector.
- When Aiwei framed a soldier as the inside-man for Zaheer and the Red Lotus, he was one of the few who got the idea that due to Aiwei being the only one who could keep a secret in Zaofu, that he is the actual traitor, having used the time he framed Mako as reference.
- Upon joining Kuvira to create a clean source of unlimited energy, Varrick is responsible for creating all of its advanced weaponry such as the enhanced Mecha Suits.
- Ultimately gains a conscious that made him against developing a spirit laser weapon of mass destruction, Varrick redeems and turns against Kuvira, creating a bomb under everyone's nose to cause an explosion that destroyed all of his research, with Varrick willing to stay in the explosion and sacrifice himself to ensure Kuvira can never weaponize his research.
- Using his skills, he is why he, Bolin and the rest of the refugees they find, were able to evade the Earth Empire and flee to Republic City by causing an electromagnetic pulse that deactivates the Mecha Suits.
- Using his skills, during Kuvira's invasion o Republic City, he creates a huge electromagnetic pulse that deactivates all the Mecha suit in response to the prototype hummingbirds being unflyable.
- Upon hearing Zhu Li's words about wanting to be treated as an equal and how he treated her as inferior, Varrick improves his treatment of Zhu Li and even married her, funding her campaign to be Republic City's next president and have the roles reversed where he becomes her assistant instead.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- Is a war profiteer that orchestrated the Water Tribe Civil war purely for profit, and then orchestrates terroristic attacks on Republic City to increase the scope of the conflict to the point of becoming a world war.
- Attempts to kidnap President Raiko for his own ends.
- Even after redeeming, Varrick still has some questionable moments such as in his very own attempted heroic sacrifice in which he drags Bolin into the explosion and forces him to give up his life when he didn't want to as he never filled Bolin on the entire plan, endangering his life in the process.
External Links[]
- Iknik Blackstone Varrick at the Villains wiki
- Iknik Blackstone Varrick at the Heroes wiki
- Iknik Blackstone Varrick at the Avatar wiki
- Varrick at the Inconsistently Heinous wiki
[]
 Magnificent Baddies
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Avatar: The Last Airbender The Legend of Korra See Also | ||