Erik Visser

Hate Sink
Full Name	Erik Visser
Alias	The Protector (by the Quen)
Origin	Horizon Forbidden West
Allies	Gerard Bieri Tilda van der Meer Beta (formerly) Far Zenith Verbena Sutter
Powers/Skills	Advanced weaponry Energy shields Leadership Longevity Weapon creation Nigh-immortality Superhuman strength
Goals	Escape Earth through the Odyssey in the past. Kill Varl. (succeeded) Steal GAIA in Earth before escaping to another planet to flee from Nemesis's onslaught. Kill Aloy and her allies. (both failed)
What Makes Them Despicable	Abused Beta with Gerard on his side, who simply sees her as nothing more than a tool. Mass-murdered other tribes he and the Zeniths encountered, while arrogantly proving his superiority over them. Killed Varl in front of Aloy out of utter sadism.
"Love to hate" factors	His design looks cool.
Type of Hate Sink	Sadistic Dark Knight

“	I snap a lot of necks in VR...! ...but that certain tremor as life fades from the eyes... ooh! No holo quite gets it.	„
	~ Erik's infamous quote.

“	Now we're having fun, right?	„
	~ Erik gloating in front of Varl.

Erik Visser is a major antagonist in the 2022 video game Horizon Forbidden West.

He is the brutal, sadistic commander of the Far Zenith remnants, serving as the right-hand man of its leader Gerard Bieri. He has taken a twisted interest in targetting the tribes of the New Earth to satisfy his bloodlust, with him being responsible for the death of the Nora Brave, Varl, and countless other tribesmen he encountered.

He is voiced and portrayed by Marc Kudisch.

What Makes Him a Hate Sink?

• Like many of the Zeniths, Erik is shown to be a spiteful egotist who has superiority complex over the tribal Earth humans, due to his extremely advanced technology and weaponry.
• While he acts as Bieri's second-in-command, he simply only uses his position to murder anyone who stands in his way.
• He willingly partake in Bieri's pursuit of locating GAIA and its Subordinate Functions around the Forbidden West, only doing so for his sadistic interests to see the world's inhabitants getting slaughtered by Nemesis, their abomination of a creation.
• Installed three Zenith machine lures around the Valley of the Fallen and remarked the Zenith AI Julius to use the robots around its vicinity to clear it of "local vermin", as he planned to "stay focused" while wanting to have "fun" for both him and Bieri. This only resulted in several of the Lowland Tenakth getting slaughtered and others who were injured by the machines lured by it.
• Killed Varl, who is Zo's lover, out of utter sadism in front of Aloy, his lifelong companion.
• His demise from Aloy and Zo is not played for sympathy, nor it is a redeeming factor, as he only stated with an "I almost forgot what it was like to hurt." This only shows that he is "remorseful" for not being able to inflict pain towards others he deems low, thus it is not treated as sympathetic at all, as he shows absolutely zero culpability for his actions.

External Links

• Erik Visser on the Pure Evil Wiki
• Erik Visser on the Villains Wiki
• Erik Visser on the Horizon Wiki