Idol: An image used as an object of worship. One that is adored.
Idolatry: Worship of idols. Excessive devotion.
Idolize: To regard with excessive or uncritical admiration or devotion.
Many villains naturally assume the form of a god-like figure, and when they cannot inherit such titles as birthrights, or by working to achieve such ends, oftentimes they simply take what they desire and proclaim themselves as rulers or divine figures or deities.
C.S. Lewis: The final work in the series of The Chronicles of Narnia, the book known as The Last Stand, there is a creature known as Shift the ape, who is a conniving character. His lowly henchman is a timid donkey known as Puzzle, he forces the donkey to wear a fake lion costume that is made up of a lions skin that has been discarded. He parades the donkey/lion around Narnia and proclaims to the other animals and creatures that Aslan has returned. He convinces many of them and manages to acquire further support from the armed men known as the Calmormenes. With a host of soldiers at his behest, and a fake Aslan by his side, the fearful Narnians have no choice but to accept Shift's rule. Any opposition that does arise is thrown into a barn and murdered by a creature known as Tash, a wicked and fearsome deity. In reality, there is no demon inside the barn, only one of the Calmormenes soldiers who disposes of animals that protest. This charade of lies and false characters causes a set of unexpected events to occur that the ape did not plan for. Shift unwittingly awakens the real demon Tash who travels to Narnia to find the fraud donning his name and pretending to be him as the evil creature. This is how the ape meets his own demise later on in the book. The real Aslan also makes an appearance and comes forth to set everything aright.
In the more popularly known book The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, the character of the White Witch is portrayed as a false idol, she proclaims herself to be the Queen of Narnia. The lion Aslan has disappeared for a very long time, and in his absence she rules unchallenged. The witch has cloaked the land of Narnia with an icy winter that never ends. Her reign was said to have been for over a hundred years, and in all that time, there was only winter and never Christmas. The winter she has imposed upon the lands only begins to melt when the true King of Narnia, Aslan returns and is on the move.
Set: In the film Gods of Egypt, the character of the banished God Set is the villain that usurps the throne and murders his brother Osiris. He drives out his nephew Horus and steals his wife. Every God in the land kneels to Set out of fear, and mortals worship him otherwise they are enslaved. In the fashion of many like-minded rulers and dictators, he has grandiose building projects and monuments erected during his rule as a testament to his glory. One of which is a towering obelisk far taller than any impressive skyscraper. He massacres many of the remaining Gods, Nephthys and Thoth among others, and takes their powers so that he may become a Supreme God. The most destructive act of all his murders was the killing of the God Ra, where Set refused the future offered to him of battling the nightly worm of darkness who threatened to devour earth and all of its creations. The inevitable occurred and the tyrannical son killed his father, though not to take his place as protector in the sky.
1984: The character of Big Brother does not appear in the novel, nor are his motives made entirely known. The repetitive act of his face appearing, which is often brought forth before large gathered crowds, shows an enormous close-up of a man's head upon a gradient screen during public ceremonies and announcements. This acts a visual reinforcement of Big Brother's authority. The use of his face in this omnipresent manner becomes a symbol of mandated and enforced idolatry. Oppositely, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, who the general public were led to believe was a disgraced member who left the prominent party and formed the Brotherhood, is similarly presented to audiences, with his enormous face upon a screen which acts as an immediate trigger of hatred. Big Brother is the face of trust and ever-watchfulness, and Goldstein is the face of a traitor who incites rage within the masses. Every person in the crowd is meant to respond collectively. They applaud and signal their allegiance when expected to, and they frown and are filled with boiling anger when they are supposed to. Only through the medium of film does this appear to be so effective, where audiences watch as a wave of the same emotions pass upon the crowd, where each party member reacts simultaneously in kind, with the same identical reactions to those around them. Cheering and solidarity with one, screaming and rage with the other.
Interestingly, both figureheads are venerated even if for different reasons, the crowd manages to show up to worship before both screens of authority and hatred. Neither figures have been verified to exist, yet all the party members still abide by the instructions of one, and pour their inflamed aggression into the other. The party members have accepted the order of things, and do not appear to mind how groups have been herded into such stark divisions. In the story, it is also this very extreme polarity that herds people onto the cooperative side that bends to authority, lest they become associated with the Brotherhood and become hunted. The removal of a center or a gradient scheme of separate political parties that hold a myriad of different views does not provide people much in the way of choosing power, nor does it give them much to decipher when it comes to information or outlooks on life. The choices the general public have are simply the Party or the Brotherhood, and that's it. In the film especially, it shows how easily people are herded into one category or the other.
The Wizard of Oz: This film is brought up quite a bit in this blog, and will continue to be written about because of the many-layered themes that can be analyzed. The Wizard can be considered a false idol. It has been supposed in different adaptations that he had no choice but to accept the role of Wizard when he wound up in the magical land of Oz. Whichever origin story one chooses to believe, whether he was whisked there intentionally, or by accident, he still assumes the title of Wizard and therefore leader of Oz. He is but a mortal man, and does not possess any of the powers that the Witches do, yet they follow or fear him and act as agents under his rule. He resorts to fearful projections and smoke and mirror tactics to instill fear in any of those who come before him.
When Dorothy and her companions are first summoned before Oz, they are led down an ominous tunnel by a bellowing voice demanding that they come forward. When they enter the chambers of the Wizard, there is no one there save an empty stage. An enormous green head appears above the platform hovering without a body and screams orders and insults at each of them. Great blazes of fire are shot up that surround the stage, and there are shrill and intermittent orchestral noises which add to the greater dramatic effect of the scene. The spectacle of his appearance frightens the four characters, and they are effectively silenced into submission by his theatrical antics, where they humbly agree to perform the tasks demanded by the wizard.
Leonardo da Vinci wrote about the power of painting and its ability to summon people to marvel before such works as a medium, historically it is important to consider that painting in its day, in many respects, had the same gravity and impact that a medium such as film does today.
Taken from a section known as the Comparison of the Arts in Leonardo's notebooks;
"Do we not see great kings of the East go about veiled and covered because they think they might diminish in fame by showing themselves in public and divulging their presence? Do we not see that pictures representing Deity are kept constantly concealed under costly draperies and that before they are uncovered great ecclesiastical rites are performed with singing to the strains of instruments; and at the moment of the unveiling the great multitudes of peoples who have flocked there throw themselves to the ground worshipping and praying to Him whose image is represented for the recovery of their health and for their eternal salvation, as if the Deity were present in person. The like does not happen with any other work of man; and if you assert that it is not due to the merit of the painter but to the subject represented we answer that, if that were so, men might remain peacefully in their beds provided their imagination were satisfied, instead of going to wearisome and perilous places as we see them doing constantly with pilgrimages. And what necessity impels these men to go on pilgrimages? You surely will agree the image of the Deity is the cause and that no amount of writing could produce the equal of such an image either in form or in power. It would seem, therefore, that the Deity loves such a painting and loves those who adore and revere it and prefers to be worshipped in this rather than in another form of imitation; and bestows grace and deliverance through it according to the belief of those who assemble in such a place."
From the Bible:
"And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you."
Deuteronomy 9:16
He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
Exodus 32:4
What other examples come to mind?