WARNING: The following contains spoilers in director James Wan's Aquaman, in theaters now.

When it comes to superhero movies, everyone ultimately ends up talking about the villain more than the hero. Loved Black Panther? Killmonger stole the show. Same with Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Fans will remember Orm and Black Manta in Aquaman, but neither of them are the true villain of the film. Unfortunately, we're unlikely to ever see the real bad guy.

If you've seen the movie and paid attention to their motivations, you'll know exactly who we're talking about. The real villain in Aquaman is none other than Orvax, who is never seen on-screen at any point in the movie. Who? OK, you're forgiven if you missed reference to this character, especially on the first viewing, but it's true. Orm's father, former king of Atlantis and the would-be murderer of Atlanna, is the real villain here.

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But the man's dead. In fact, it would seem he's been dead for quite some time when the film starts, so how exactly can he be responsible for the events of Aquaman? It would seem that our influence over others, especially the vulnerable, persists long after we are gone.

A Villain Born From a Toxic Environment

Orvax is the former king of Atlantis. Following Atlanna's trip to the surface world that produced Arthur Curry, she returned to her kingdom to fulfill her duty. She married Orvax, who then became mad with power and had his queen executed. Under his rule, Atlantis embraced isolationism and increased their disdain for the surface world. However, his greatest crime is shaping the mind of his son.

As bad as Orm is in the movie, it's Orvax who turned him into the monster we see today. Orm kills those who disagree with him and bullies his people around, but it is eventually made clear that he's not truly evil. He simply wishes to make Atlantis safe from harm by eliminating its most dangerous rivals -- humanity.

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Unfortunately, he is filled with so much hatred and pain from the loss of his mother and the toxic influence of his father, that he can no longer see how broken he has become. In reality, a war with the surface world doesn't make his people safer, it puts them in harm's way and creates an enemy where there wasn't one before.

Who put him down this path? His father. It was the former king of Atlantis who lied to him about his mother's fate, leaving Orm to blame the surface world for his loss. This brewing hatred and the access to the military might of his people allowed him to gain power and pick up where his father left off. Orvax successfully manipulated his son into doing his deranged biding, even from beyond the grave.

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The Endless Cycle of Abuse Continues

Aquaman

In order to pursue his plan to eradicate the surface world, Orm has to unite the kingdoms of Atlantis and build an unstoppable army. The problem for him is that not everyone cares about the human race like the king does. This means Orm needs to take a page out of Orvax's playbook in order to gain the full support of his people -- he lies to them.

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The promise of safety is a tempting offer for Nereus of Xebel, but he isn't quite convinced of Orm's plan until he sees what they are capable of doing firsthand. This is where Black Manta comes in: Ocean Master pays Manta to attack Atlantis and make it look like humanity was an active threat to Atlantis. Following this staged attack, Nereus is quick to sign up.

While David Kane is by no means a good man when we first meet him, it is his blind hatred of Aquaman that Orm uses to his advantage. Seeing how desperate Manta is to get another crack at Arthur Curry, Ocean Master essentially turns the pirate into a weapon and unleashes him against his enemy. Providing him with high tech armor, he turns a damaged man into a monster.

And where have we seen this tactic before? Perhaps Orm does it to a far more literal degree, but like his father before him, he takes someone who is grieving for a loved one and manipulates him into doing his bidding. Orvax did this with his son, and now the Ocean Master is continuing the cycle of self-destruction by taking advantage of David Kane.

Aquaman and the Power of Family

For a superhero movie, Aquaman has a lot of different messages hidden in the subtext. As much as it is about a hero discovering who he is and what he is capable of becoming, it is also a film about legacy and the influence of family. Through the familial ties of three characters, we learn that the ideals we pass down from generation to generation can create heroes or villains.

A complex family drama plays out through much of the film. Aquaman and Orm are half-brothers, but the way they were raised makes all the difference. Arthur is a hero thanks to the influence of his father, while Orm is a destructive tyrant following years of manipulation by Orvax. We all want our parents to be good and loving people, but sometimes that's not always the case.

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The toxicity of Orm's relationship with his father is driven home at the end of the film when Orm discovers that Atlanna is actually alive, that Orvax had lied to him and that it had turned him into someone unfit to rule. Most importantly, thanks to his mother, he also learns that none of it is entirely his fault. In his moment of defeat, it would almost seem that he is actually relieved to finally be free from the ghost of his father.

As much as Arthur and Orm's upbringings mirror one another, David Kane introduces another element into the conversation: It's not how you were taught, but what you were taught. While Jesse Kane is shown to be a loving father, he still trained his son to be a vicious pirate. In that sense, David's transformation into Black Manta isn't all that surprising.

What sets him apart from the others, though, is his lack of familial bonds. He has no mother to speak of, so, after losing his father, he has no one else to turn to. He doesn't receive the same intervention Orm gets from his mother, and in that sense he is never put on the path of rehabilitation and redemption. Now, while Orm remains in the good graces of his mother and brother, Black Manta's hatred can only fester.

Directed by James Wan, Aquaman stars Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Amber Heard as Mera, Patrick Wilson as Ocean Master, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Temuera Morrison as Thomas Curry, Dolph Lundgren as Nereus and Nicole Kidman as Queen Atlanna.