| “ | ME!!! Charming sing along. Now let's get down to business. I waited a long time for this day. What about my new land! | „ |
| ~ Ruber's first lines. |
| “ | One day, that sword will be in my hand, and all will be mine! | „ |
| ~ Ruber seeking to steal the sword, Excalibur and threatens to take over the kingdom of Camelot. |
| “ | I told you once…and I told you twice. Everything you see before you, every last bit of it... will... be... mine. | „ |
| ~ Ruber |
| “ | Oh no, the stone! | „ |
| ~ Ruber's last words. |
Ruber is the main antagonist of Warner Brothers' 1998 animated feature film Quest for Camelot.
He started out as a knight at the Round Table who served King Arthur out of convenience. Eventually, Ruber grew tired of serving Arthur but failed to kill him due to Arthur possessing the Excalibur, leading him to seek out ways to claim the magic sword and take over Camelot for himself.
He was voiced by Gary Oldman, who also played Egor Korshunov in Air Force One and Lord Shen in Kung Fu Panda 2.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Ruber starts out as a knight serving under King Arthur along with Sir Lionel and the other knights of the Round Table. However, while all the other knights want to serve their people and are not interested in selfish desires, Ruber only follows Arthur because he wants to be rewarded.
- During a meeting, Ruber demands to be given more lands, but when King Arthur tells him that they have to take care of their people and everyone would receive only what they need, Ruber proclaims that then he should be made King. Sir Lionel calls him out that they don't need a false king, Ruber grabs his mace and attacks King Arthur in an attempt to kill him.
- The other knights of the Round Table immediately jump with their weapons to defend the king, but Ruber cuts through all of them to reach King Arthur which results in the death of one of them, Sir Lionel, and knocks out the other knights. Then tries to murder King Arthur himself. However, Arthur protects himself with the magical sword Excalibur which knocks Ruber back. Ruber swears that the sword and everything else would one day belong to him before making his escape from the angry knights.
- The death of Sir Lionel is presented as the saddest moment in the whole film and because of it, Kayley is forced to grow up without a father while her mother Juliana becomes a widow.
- Years later, when Kayley has become a teenage girl, Ruber tries again to usurp King Arthur. He sends his monster, the Griffin, to burst through Camelot's roof and steal the sword from King Arthur. In the process, the Griffin seriously injures Arthur's arm and manages to escape with the sword. However, the falcon Ayden attacks and the scared Griffin drops the sword in the Forbidden Forest and can't retrieve it from there.
- Meanwhile, Ruber and his men attack Juliana and Kayley's home and take them along with their peasants as captives. He cruelly mocks Juliana over the fact he killed her husband years ago by asking her "How about a kiss? I hear you're still single." and even touches her chin.
- Then, he orders his men to bring forth Juliana's teenage daughter, Kayley, and Ruber threatens Juliana that if she doesn't do what he asks of her, he is going to murder her daughter in front of her and bursts into sadistic laughter at how horrified Juliana is.
- Even though Kayley is the main protagonist of the movie, at that point in the story, Ruber still doesn't perceive her as a potential threat to him or to his plans and just sees her as a teenage girl that he could use to force her mother to do what he wants. For that reason, this action doesn't fall under generic "Trying to kill the heroes" villainy.
- Additionally, it is implied that when he recaptures her, he intends to renege on the deal once Camelot is conquered.
- He also sings a song about how much he hates the current peace and "foolish acts of kindness", how much he wants to go back to war and violence, how he wants to be worshipped and revered after he becomes king, that everything would belong to him and to no one else after he becomes king which shows what his reign would be like if he wins.
- Throughout the whole film, he acts very abusively towards his Griffin, who is a sentient being, constantly insulting him, ordering him around, grabbing him roughly, and, after he learns that the Griffin has lost the sword in the Forbidden Forest, even angrily plucks some of his feather which causes the Griffin to scream in pain.
- After Kayley manages to escape from him and go into the Forbidden Forest to retrieve Excalibur and befriends a young blind man, Garrett, and a pair of conjoined dragon twins, Ruber and his men chase after them and repeatedly try to kill them all.
- On one occasion, when the heroes try to escape by sliding down a steep slope on the belly of the twin dragons, Ruber rudely kicks three of his henchmen down the steep slope to slide after the heroes, not caring about their safety.
- Near the end of the film, Ruber manages to capture both Kayley and Excalibur and uses magic to merge the sword to his hand. He then threatens Juliana yet again that if she doesn't follow his plan to get them inside the castle, so he could murder the king, he is going to kill her daughter.
- After his cover is blown up, he orders his men to attack while he enters the castle to murder the king. This results in a fight between Ruber's men and Arthur's soldiers across the castle grounds. The horrified civilians are running for their lives, Ruber's men fight against Arthur's soldiers with weapons like maces, axes and spiked claws which means that, presumably, some of the soldiers may have been killed or injured with the lives of many others being endangered. Several fires are also started across the castle grounds which further endanger the lives of people.
- He corners the injured King Arthur at one of the halls. Even though he could kill him quickly since Arthur is injured and Ruber has a much better weapon, Ruber instead decides to draw out his death for his own amusement. He starts grabbing Arthur and throwing him around the hall, narrowly misses him with the sword just to humiliate him. He then demands from Arthur to greet him as his new king, and when Arthur tells him he is no king, Ruber responds that perhaps he is more of a god and throws him yet again on the table causing Arthur to hit himself again.
- When Kayley intervenes to save the king, Ruber starts mocking her over her father's death just to hurt her and tries to kill her to "help" her be just like her father if she wants to be like him so much.
- When Garrett also appears and attempts to strike Ruber with his stick, Ruber slices it in half and mocks him about his blindness and that he can't orient himself without his stick or the falcon. Then, he tries to kill both Kayley and Garrett with one single strike.
- While he has one moment where he gets severely humiliated and subjected to slapstick humor when a giant sits on him and the Griffon, they get trapped under the butt and then the giant farts over them which catapults both of them away and then they both has squeaky voices for a few moments, this is the only moment in the whole movie where he is played for laughs and the rest of the time he is played completely seriously and as a genuine threat to the heroes. Furthermore, he subverts this comedic moment because during the final parts of the film he is once again presented as a dangerous foe and a genuine threat who almost succeeds in his goals and his final defeat is him getting disintegrated while he is still alive and screaming from the curse of the stone, showing that he is supposed to be taken seriously.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He relies on too much Fridge Horror to be Pure Evil because it's not confirmed if anyone died during his attack on Camelot or what he would do once he becomes King and starts ruling.
- However, it's not too much Fridge Horror because during the attack against Camelot, there are civilians, including children, who flee in terror from his subordinates and his men use weapons like axes, maces and spiked claws to fight against Arthur's soldiers and one of the soldiers is hit so hard with a mace that he struggles not to faint in Juliana's hands. There are also several fires that are started during the fight which further endanger the lives of the people. While no one is confirmed to have been killed by Ruber's men, when taking all of this into account, it's not too much Fridge Horror to assume that some of Arthur's soldiers were killed off-screen and that their lives along with the lives of the civilians were in danger.
- Furthermore, during his song, Ruber sings about how much he hates peace and how he wants to go back to the "good old bad days" of war and violence which indicates that if he becomes King, people are going to die to satiate his bloodlust and Juliana is shown to be horrified at the prospect of Ruber becoming King, urging her daughter to stop him and telling her she is their only hope.
External Links[]
- Ruber on the Villains Wiki
- Ruber on the Warner Bros. Entertainment Wiki
