A Villain Named "Z__rg"

Perhaps they're related?

Be it because of its outlandish sound or its harsh structure, there seems to be a trend of naming sci-fi villains — and especially stereotypical ones — after the three consonants Z, R and G (sometimes with a K instead of a G and an X instead of a Z), with a random vowel in-between and possibly some letters before or after. When these villains are not of this world, they likely hail from A Planet Named Zok.

Compare Law of Alien Names, Xtreme Kool Letterz, Names to Run Away from Really Fast, Name-Tron. Contrast Tom the Dark Lord.

Not to be confused with Zerg Rush (though the Trope Namers for that trope are an example of this one). noreallife

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Voltron has King Zarkon.
• Battle of the Planets has Zoltar.
• Space Warrior Baldios has Zeo Gattler.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • In the original manga, (and anime adaptation), there's the "Dark Master Zorc" and, flipping the letter order, "Gorz the Emissary of Darkness."
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, there's ZARC, the Greater-Scope Villain.
• Zoltar ^note Berg Katse from Battle of the Planets. Also 7-Zark-7, though he's a good guy.
• Star Blazers has Prince Zordar.
• Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross has the invading Zor fleet. In Robotech, Zor was changed to a single character's name.
• GaoGaiGar has the sinister biomechanical alien invaders known as the Zondars. Individual Zondars that have names averts this, though, having Italian-sounding names that all begin with the letter P.
• Dragon Ball usually averts this despite the large number of aliens in the series by adhering to Theme Naming, although Frieza's henchman Zarbon applies, even if he still adheres to the Edible Theme Naming rule much of the cast adheres to.^note In his case, Zarbon is named after the Japanese term for the Pomelo fruit, "Zabon."
• Subverted with Zagato from Magic Knight Rayearth. He is presented to the Magic Knights (and to the audience) to be the villain — but he is actually not.
• The Zetsuborgs from Go! Princess Pretty Cure; their name is a pun on the words zetsubou (Japanese for "despair") and "cyborg".
• The Evil Prince from Voltes V is Prince Heinel^note His name is a pun on "your highness", but in the Philippine-English dub he was known as Zardoz, and the Italian dub he was known as Sirius.

Comedy

• Comedian and ventriloquist Mason Taylor has a bit where he flips his pig puppet, named Paco, upside down and "realizes" that he could make a new puppet out of the hole for his hand. He named it "Zarkon, the alien Teletubby." Seen here.

Comic Books

• The Avengers:
  • Kang the Conqueror. It's not his birth name, which is Nathaniel.
  • Korvac, a time travelling cyborg with a god complex. Korvac's his surname. His given name is Michael.
• Spoofed in Spirou & Fantasio with Zorglub (portmanteau of Zorg and "Arglub" which is a standard Written Sound Effect for accidental strangling in Franco-Belgian comics). Notable in that it is currently the older example known — even before Starcraft — and already a parody.
• The Mighty Thor has an enemy from the future named Zarrko the Tomorrow Man though he's nowhere near the level of Kang.
• The Micronauts battle the evil Baron Karza.
• Marvel Comics' early, pre-superhero giant monster comics had critters with names like Gruto, Zetora, Gigantus, Gargantus, Goom, Googam, Gorgilla, Groot, the Creature from Krogarr, Dragoom, Gor-Kill, Grottu, Orrgo, Rommbu, Spragg, and on and on. Stan Lee seems to have really liked the letters G and R.
• Batman:
  • His enemy Ra's Al Ghul, which is Arabic.
  • Heroic example: The "Batman of Zur-en-Arrh."
• Superman:
  • Several Silver Age Supergirl villains were called names like Drang, Zond, Klax-Ar (Strangers at the Heart's Core). Nowadays she still has to contend with enemies like Xenon (Many Happy Returns), Deimax (Last Daughter of Krypton) or Vax (Crucible).
  • One of Superman's greatest foes is the Kryptonian General Zod.
  • The Untold Story of Argo City: Back when Kara was a baby, an alien monster named Zygor attacked Argo City.
  • In The Death of Lightning Lad, the Legion of Super-Heroes prevent Zaryan the Conqueror from taking over the galaxy.
• The Tick: Alien invader Thrakkorzog. In the cartoon he helpfully offers The Tick a pronunciation guide.
• Thorgal: In stories revealing the protagonist's family history, his grandfather's and father's names are revealed to be Xargos and Varth, respectively.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Volume 1: In issue 107 Wonder Woman fights an alien named Zugggm whose people are thinking about invading earth.
  • Vol 2/Post-Crisis, Vol 3/Pre-Flashpoint & Vol 5/Rebirth: the God of Evil Urzkartaga, who demands human sacrifices and whose own "worshipers" did everything they could to hide away all mentions of him in order to drain him of power and kill him, fights Diana through his human avatar and "wife" Cheetah.
• G.I. Joe had Cobra master-of-disguise Zartan, his siblings Zandar and Zarana and, later, their Dreadnok teammate Zanzibar

Comic Strips

• Calvin and Hobbes: Besides the three-plus different evil aliens called the Zorgs, Spaceman Spiff has also had to deal with the Zargs, Zorkons, Zogwargs, Zondargs, and three different Zogs (close).
• Dutch comic Scribbly has Lord Zirtox, evil alien warlord and father of protagonist's-best-frient, Zark (and his twin Kraz).
• Inversion: Hans Zarkov from Flash Gordon, who's one of the good guys.

Films — Animated

• The alien villain in Space Chimps and its sequel is named Zartog.
• Buzz Lightyear's archnemesis from his in-universe franchise in Toy Story is called Emperor Zurg. His action figure appears in Toy Story 2 and he's a (very obvious) Darth Vader knockoff.
  • Zurg also appears in Lightyear, which is about Buzz Lightyear's universe and not toys anymore.

Films — Live-Action

• A case of Aerith and Bob occurs in Betty Blue, where Zorg is a perfectly normal handyman in the France of the Eighties.
• The Fifth Element: Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg. Especially significant as the whole movie is a reconstruction of sci-fi movies and comics of the 1970s and 1980s.
• In the film Zathura, the evil lizard race are called the Zorgons.
• The Last Starfighter comes pretty close with Xur (pronounced "zur").
• Ghostbusters (1984) gives us Gozer the Gozerian, Vinz Clortho (pronounced "Klortho"), and Zuul.
• Ultraman X The Movie: Here Comes! Our Ultraman! has an ancient kaiju named "Zaigorg" serving as the main villain, and a Satanic Archetype to the Ultra-verse.
• Zontar, the Thing from Venus gives us the titular character.

Gamebook

• Lone Wolf absolutely lives off this trope, especially with its double A phoneme; Zagarna being a fine example, the Negud-Kor-Adez, Kaag, Helshezag, if it sounds harsh and guttural it's probably somewhere in the language of evil. This isn't strictly reserved to the bad guys however, with noble if dangerous places named things like "Zaaryx".
• Fighting Fantasy also uses this trope on occasion. Notably in Zagor, the name of the warlock from the first book (not that we find it out during the book, though).

Literature

• Prince Zorzal from Gate is human but he's far from humane.
• Emperor Zhark from the Thursday Next books is a near-example (in two different ways). He's the villain of his own pulpy sci-fi series, but in the metafictional main story, he's one of the good guys.
• The Ax-Crazy Prince Serg from the Vorkosigan Saga might count, because his name is pronounced "zerg".
• The rat-things called Zoog in H. P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, an almost-example.
• An inversion: in the Star Trek novel Yesterday's Son, Spock's son (a good guy) is named Zar (named by Zarabeth, a character from the original series.
• J. R. R. Tolkien's works have Orcs with names such as Azog and Bolg. Tolkien intentionally used this trope, he was of the opinion that evil creatures should have an evil-sounding language. In The Silmarillion, when Sauron was taken "prisoner" by the Númenóreans, they dubbed him Zigûr, meaning wizard in their native language (Adûnaic). Given that Adûnaic is heavily implied to conform to a consonantal root system, like Hebrew and Arabic do in real life, Sauron's name while in Númenor would have been spelled simply as Z-G-R.
• Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire has Prince Xizor (pronounced "SHEE-zor").
• Willy Wonka's most hated foes are the "Vermicious Knids" from the planet Vermes.
• Murderous Maths has the recurring Evil Gollarks from the planet Zog, who repeatedly try to invade Earth. And to knock over our wastepaper baskets.
• The Big Bad in Shirley Rousseau Murphy's Dragonbards Trilogy is named Quazelzeg.
• The three alien villains of Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space are called Zorx, Klax, and Jennifer.
• Wars of the Realm: quite a few of the Fallen have names like this. Examples include Durgank, Tinsalik Barob, Guldomak, Poxel, and Tulgard. Perhaps the most literal example of this trope is the demon commander Zurock.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: The episode Grey 17 is Missing has a humanoid predator species named Zarg.
• Barizorg from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. The name is presumably a corruption/portmanteau from 'cyborg'.
• Zurgane from Power Rangers Ninja Storm.
• Land of the Lost (1974) has the Zarn.
• Star Trek:
  • Klingons love the letter K. Star Trek: The Original Series gives us Kang, Kor, Koloth, and Kahless, and the movies have Kruge, Klaa, Koord, and Gorkon. In the Expanded Universe, their home planet used to be called Klinzhai, but the official canon later renamed it Qo'noS (pronounced "Kronos").
    • Ironically, in-universe "Klingon" is corrupted from their native word for themselves, tlhIngan, due to the "tl-" consonant cluster being too harsh for the English-speaking humans who encountered them. This sound is sometimes "restored" by translations into languages where it's more common (such as the Irish rendering Tliongánach).
  • Star Trek: Voyager has the Kazon.
• Doctor Who gives us Zygons, Krotons, planet Skaro, planet Karn, Gavrok the Bannerman, and Izlyr the Ice Warrior (though Izlyr was a good guy).
  • Nu Who gives us Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe, Raxacoricofallapatorians, and Bannakaffalatta (who was also a good guy). The concept is also referenced in Russell T Davies's comment about maintaining the human element of the show, so it wasn't just about "Zogs from the planet Zog".
• Inspector Spacetime from Community's Show Within a Show has the Blorgons, Vosrda, Crütonnes, and many, many more.
• Jason of Star Command fought the evil Emperor Dragos.
• The Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills fight the evil Emperor Gorganis.
• Tom Zarek from Battlestar Galactica (2003). Not stereotypical for a Sci-Fi villain (he begins the series as a political activist prisoner) but other than the Cylons themselves (heck, even compared to a lot of the Cylons) is one of the most antagonistic characters on the show.
• Pee-wee's Playhouse has Zyzzybalubah, who starts out evil (well, incredibly self-centered at any rate) but turns out OK at the episode's end.
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Bat Cave Affair" has Count Zark, who plans to release swarms of genetically modified bats so that their enhanced echolocation can throw off airport radar and make global travel impossible.

Music

• Gloryhammer has Zargothrax, Dark Sorcerer of Auchtermuchty.

Radio

• The French spy fiction parody Bon Baisers De Partout had Double Reverse Quadruple Agent Zorbec Le Gras as its main antagonist.
• The prophet Zarquon from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), though he isn't evil. The common galactic obscenity "zark off" is derived from his name as well.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons editions 3.0 and 3.5 has multiple characters with such names.
  • Graz'zt, Prince of the Dark, is one of the top three demons in the Abyss after Demogorgon and Orcus.
  • Exemplars of Evil has Zargath Human-bane, an orc warlord with plans to commit genocide against humans, elves, and dwarves.
  • The last chapter of Elder Evils is about Zargon the Returner, one of the ancient Baatorians who ruled Baator before the arrival of Asmodeus and the other baatezu devils.
• Spelljammer has the living suits of alien armor called Zodars.
• Warhammer 40,000: The ork word "zog" occasionally sees use in a name. It carries multiple meanings, from "go away" to "annoyance" to "I doubt your veracity", in the same sense as "fuck off".
• The Big Bad of HeroQuest got hit with this in the American Dub Name Change, becoming "Zargon" (instead of "Morcar").

Toys

• Transformers has the Decepticon Scorponok's head, Lord Zarak.
• Zoids has the pterodactyl droid Radoz.
• Starriors has the transforming brontosaur / motorcycle named Strazor.

Video Games

• StarCraft: The Zerg, a Horde of Alien Locusts.
• Zorg: An alien race in the video games Strange Adventures In Infinite Space and Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. They weren't exactly villains, though. Just... alien.
• Yars' Revenge is set in the Razak Star System and uses the Zorlon Cannon (neither of which is evil, however)
• Gorf has the evil Gorfian Empire.
• The Deadly Six in Sonic Lost World are named Zavok, Zazz, Zeena, Zik, Zomom and Zor. In addition, they are members of a species known as Zeti.
• Zelgius from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance might count, especially given that Japanese does not distinguish between L and R.
• The evil emperor in the original Breath of Fire is named Zorgon in the original Japanese version; his US name, Zog, is a lesser example.
• The Big Bad of MediEvil is an Evil Sorcerer named Zarok, who one day decides to turn the population of Gallowmere into zombies.
• First episode of Commander Keen has the Gargs.
• Crystal Quest has the Zarklephaser enemy, which "emits bullets like a hailstorm".
• The levels of Arkanoid 2 are supposedly set aboard a spaceship called Xorg, controlled by the villain of the series (named Doh, in an aversion of this trope).
• The evil cyborg race known as the Grox ("Xorg" spelled backwards) in Spore.
• Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers has its main villain called Director Zarog.
• The eponymous antagonist of Epic Games' platformer Xargon (pronounced Zargon).
• The Hobbit had orcs named Ugslap and Krugbit, in typical Middle-earth fashion.
• Duke Nukem for Gameboy Color (a remake of Duke Nukem 2) has the original Rigelatins replaced with aliens called Zorgonites.
• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! has Colonel Zarpedon as the main antagonist for most of the game, with her ridiculous name being treated as a joke by the characters. When she reveals that her full name is Tungsteena Zarpedon, Jack bursts into laughter and asks if her parents hated her.
• Fire Emblem Warriors' main antagonist is named Velezark in English, and Evilzerg in Japanese, making him a dual-language example.
• Stray: A recurring threat in the game are the huge hordes of bug-like creatures called Zurks.
• War of the Monsters goes as far as to give this trope its own appended flair, with its alien monster Zorgulon.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick: Invoked by Xykon, in his print-only prequel Start of Darkness.
  Xykon: Hey, I should give myself a cool name with an "X" in it ... I've got it — "Xykon." Yeah, that's badass. Xykon the sorcerer.
• qxlkbh has a group of villains named the zvillainsrg to parody this. All of the members have names fitting this format, even zOption 12rg and zAlicerg.
• Sluggy Freelance: In "A Very Big Bang", the bad guy race in the Punyverse are called the Zorgons. The main reason for this seems to be so that their leader, Zorgon Gola, can be a pun on "gorgonzola".
• In TRU-Life Adventures, the Show Within a Show Johnny Blastoff features the villainous Emperor Zarnack.

Web Original

• The evil spirit Thrackerzod from My Little Pony: The Mentally Advanced Series.

Western Animation

• Bob's Burgers: In "The Equestranauts", the eponymous Show Within a Show has the Equestranauts fight an evil wizard named Xandar.
• The archnemesis of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 2 (and its spin-off series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) is called Zurg. Another reconstruction, by the way.
• Space Ghost's arch-nemesis Zorak (who was promoted to Token Evil Teammate for Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Cartoon Planet).
• The eponymous protagonist from the series Invader Zim.
• Futurama:
  • "I AM LRRR OF THE PLANET OMICRON PERSEI 8!"
  • New students at Mars University have to wait in one of three lines by alphabetical order of name: A-L, M-Y, and Z. The line for Z is by far the longest and consists solely of Starfish Aliens.
  • Inverted with Zoidberg, who's an alien but a good guy.^note Though his patients generally think otherwise.
• The twin villains Tomax and Xamot from the old G.I. Joe cartoon probably count, as they were always named together and their names respectively end with a "ks" or start with a "z" sound. Then of course there's Zartan and his relatives Zandar and Zaranna.
• Corvax from Muzzy in Gondoland. This also makes him the Odd Name Out, since everyone else in Gondoland have names like Bob, Sylvia or Amanda.
• Adventure Time has a Villain of the Week in the episode "The Silent King" called Xergiok, the X at the beginning of his name being pronounced as a Z.
• Being a rebooted continuity, it only makes sense for Voltron: Legendary Defender to be helmed by the villainous Emperor Zarkon.
• An episode of Dexter's Laboratory featured Puppeteer Parasites possessing Dexter's family to stage an Alien Invasion. The parasite who had intended to possess Dexter was named Zigor (or Zygor).
• King Zog of Dreamland in Disenchantment is not necessarily an villain, but he is very cruel, mean-spirited tyrant that happens to be the protagonist's father.
• The Dreamstone: The Big Bad is Zordrak, lord of nightmares, Once an Episode sending his soldiers to steal the eponymous object.
• In Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, the villain is named Zygon.
• Zarlak, the evil wizard from Ultimate Book of Spells.

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