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"As you raced through time, the whole world went to heck!"
— HIM, Speed Demon

HIM is a powerful, flamboyant demon, and the series's secondary antagonist. HIM is the king of darkness, and by far the greatest enemy of the Powerpuff Girls

Many think that he is the series interpretation of the Devil himself. Throughout the series, he is shown to be the strongest and most deranged of the villains.

Appearance

HIM has a very androgynous appearance. He has large lobster-like claws, pointed ears, black widow's peak hair, lime green eyes, a hooked nose, and a long, curled beard. He has three long eyelashes on each eyelid, rosy pink cheeks, and black lips, very often in a wide smile. A lady's red jacket and skirt with pink tulle at the collar and hemline, a black leather belt with a bronze buckle, and black, thigh-high, spike-heeled boots complete his look. 

He has been shown in numerous satanic forms as well, most of which are often revealed in apocalyptic, hellish situations or realms. These forms often enhance his power and cause him to grow an enormous size. When engaged in battle, he is an entity to be reckoned with; one example of his true form was witnessed in Speed Demon when he became a giant muscular red-skinned demon with yellowish-green glowing eyes, pointed ears, and sharp jagged teeth. His torso was bare, revealing a toned chest and well-defined abdominal muscles. His lobster-like claws became enormous and turned shining black. He sported black thighs, high spiked boots with a scale pattern and a pink garment made of fur with his voice also losing its original effeminate falsetto and being replaced with a full demonic, masculine growl.

History

Very little is known about HIM's motives for wanting to harm The Powerpuff Girls. In his first appearance, he shows a strong contempt towards them, but the main focus of his monologue is pointed towards being humiliated by the recent defeat of one of his monsters, rather than an overall explanation. He often plays on weaknesses, such as fear, and seems to have a goal of breaking up their group, mainly through making them hate or fight each other.

Unlike other villains who would prefer to destroy Townsville themselves or through physicals means, HIM, on the other hand, prefers using psychological methods of doing so that often orchestrate events and psychological tortures in an attempt to drive the Powerpuff Girls apart or make them scared, many of which often come close to succeeding. He uses Bubbles' innocence and gullibility to move his plans along, making him the most threatening villain. 

He made his first appearance in "Octi Evil" where he possessed Bubbles’ stuffed cute purple octopus doll, Octi. Using a microphone in a mysterious way which is purposefully never explained, he speaks to her through Octi. By gaining the trust of Bubbles, he tries to turn the other two girls against one another. When they finally end up enemies, Bubbles turns to Octi, who HIM has now fully possessed. Bubbles then ends up realizing his identity, but by that point, Octi has grown gigantic, and he goes to destroy Townsville, or according to HIM's words, "the world". Instead of asking the girls for help, as both are at war with each other, she goes on her own to try and stop HIM. She flies up to Octi, who is on top of a skyscraper, and screams that HIM had used her to separate the three sisters. HIM uses Octi's tentacle to hold her, and slowly crushes her, leading Bubbles to scream so loudly that her cries are heard by Blossom and Buttercup, who meet up and rescue her even though The Professor put them in time out for fighting. While the girls do not attack Octi, instead choosing to save Bubbles after putting aside their differences, HIM, angry at their choice, screams "No!" before bursting into flames and disappearing.

His next main episode was in "Telephonies" where he is one of the villains the Powerpuff Girls visit because of the prank phone calls. When the girls burst in, HIM was viewing a workout video and exercising along with it. Unlike Mojo and Fuzzy, the girls did not attack HIM, suggesting that either they know what a threat he is, or that they suspected that he was innocent based upon their encounters with Mojo and Fuzzy. HIM explained that he had taken some time off to get into shape, speaking amicably with the girls all the while. After they depart, HIM calls Mojo and Fuzzy to find out what's going on, even going to form a temporary alliance with them. HIM called the Mayor to complain only to discover that the Gangreen Gang was behind the calls. Immediately, the three villains stormed City Hall and beat them up. The Mayor, who saw this, called the Powerpuff Girls about this. However, the girls hung up on him, thinking that it was another prank call.

During "Tough Love", disgusted over how the citizens of Townsville treated the Powerpuff Girls, HIM used his evil master-mind powers to form no love into Townsville's citizens' hearts and came up with a spell designed to turn the population against the girls. This worked as the normally-loving residents become evil, rising up against the Powerpuff Girls and unwillingly becoming his puppets. The girls foiled HIM's plan by fighting back and swore to HIM that if he ever made them do that again, it would be his end. HIM confirmed to the girls that he never gave repeat performances and promised that he'd back before vanishing in a puff of pink smoke.

In "Speed Demon", set fifty years into an alternative future, The Powerpuff Girls themselves have gone missing. HIM managed to gain control of the entire planet, which in turn resulted in his powers becoming greater than ever before. He is able to take The Powerpuff Girls' punches head-on to badly injured. In this setting, he was enraged and turned back into his true form of himself. These events were apparently erased when the girls went back to the present. As well as being considered one of the darkest and scariest episodes in the series by fans, this episode clearly showed just how much of an actual threat HIM truly was compared to other villains in the series such as Mojo Jojo, as even the girls could barely defeat the malevolent entity at the state he was then.

Personality

"This is a villain so evil, so sinister, so horribly vile that even the utterance of his name strikes fear into the hearts of men. The only safe way to refer to this king of darkness is simply... HIM."
— The Narrator, Octi Evil

HIM is shown to be an extremely dark soul. He is bitter, evil, ruthless, mysterious, diabolical, domineering, and possesses seemingly no motive other than the personal sadistic pleasure of others suffering. He treats everyone as a plaything, an easily replaceable toy that can be controlled and broken to his heart's content. It is shown that HIM could destroy the world quite easily if he wanted to, though his insistence on playing mind games with the girls to make things entertaining for himself is always his downfall as he has a bad habit of underestimating the girls' willpower and overall resourcefulness as a unit. This is likely due to his inability to comprehend their sisterly bond and the internal strength that comes with it.

Unlike most villains, HIM learns from many of his mistakes as he mentioned himself. Pretty much everyone, even the villains in Townsville, are frightened of HIM, though it is shown he is on decent terms with some of them from time to time.

Despite his psychopathic nature, he generally carries himself with a very flamboyant demeanor usually speaking in an echoing effeminate falsetto; However, when he becomes furious, his voice changes to become a deep, masculine, commanding, and demonic growl.

HIM is actually shown to be quite polite when not causing mayhem. When the Girls first confronted him in "Telephonies", HIM acted nonchalantly and non-violently until they left, though it was shown afterward that HIM was actually angry about it. He is also been shown to have fatherly pride in the Rowdyruff Boys in "Custody Battle", even shedding tears of joy when they made him proud. Whether this is actual love or simply immense satisfaction of his competent minions is unknown.

Powers

  • Size Alteration: HIM has shown the ability to grow in size.
    • Telephonies: HIM grew the size of his arms to grab Ace by the neck and slam him into the floor.
    • Speed Demon: HIM grew incredibly big when fighting the Powerpuff Girls.
    • Him Diddle Riddle: HIM grew really huge when talking to the Powerpuff Girls.
    • Meet the Beat-Alls: HIM grew really huge when he went to attack The Powerpuff Girls.
    • The Boys are Back in Town: He appears big when he got mad at The Rowdyruff Boys for not defeating The Powerpuff Girls, however, he is normal size because of the Rowdyruff Boys are small.
    • The Powerpuff Girls Rule!: HIM grew incredibly big.
  • Transformation: HIM has the power to assume other forms, ranging from ones based on inanimate objects to existing animals to monsters.
    • All Chalked Up: He changed into a butterfly.
    • Him Diddle Riddle: HIM transformed into a clock tower, a telephone stand, a train engineer, and a giant monster.
    • Power-Noia: HIM turned into some kind of red smoke that he used to go inside of The Powerpuff Girls' minds. In their dreams, He changed into Ms. Keane, kids at the school, demonic toys, spiders, and a giant crab-like monster.
  • Mind Control: HIM has the ability to control other people's minds.
    • Tough Love: HIM took the love for the Powerpuff Girls from every citizen in the City of Townsville and turned it into hatred.
    • Birthday Bash: HIM willed the Professor into allowing the girls to open a monstrous present.
    • Custody Battle: He hypnotized two scientists into sending the earth out of orbit.
    • Second Chances: Mind-controlled the villains of Townsville into becoming heroes.
  • Telekinesis: HIM has the ability to lift objects with his mind.
  • Acid Spit: HIM can spit acid.
    • Meet the Beat-Alls: HIM spit acid on The Powerpuff Girls multiple times when he was stopping them.
  • Eyebeams: HIM can shoot red lasers out of his eyes.
  • Energy Blast: He can fire red energy blasts from his claws.
  • Invulnerability: In Speed Demon, when the Powerpuff Girls punch HIM several times, he didn't feel any kind of pain.
  • Flight: He can move through the air, the same way the Powerpuff Girls do.
  • Teleportation: The ability to move instantaneously from one location to another without physically occupying the space in between.
  • Resurrection: He used this power to bring The Rowdyruff Boys back from the dead in the episode The Boys are Back in Town.
  • Dream manipulation: The power to enter, manipulate, project, alter, and control the dreams of others.
  • Reality warping: He can warp reality to a large scale. For instance, he could make Bubbles' drawings come alive.
  • Weather Control: He can control the weather by summoning lighting.
  • Possession: He can possess inanimate objects.
  • Animation: He can bring inanimate objects to life.
  • Negative Feelings Empowerment: He can become stronger and more powerful by feeding off the negative emotions of people such as hatred, fear, pain, etc.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes

Dislikes

Episode Appearances

Gallery

Click here to visit HIM's gallery

Trivia

  • In "Him Diddle Riddle", HIM owns his very own diner called the "Otto-Time Diner". This same diner is presented in the Powerpuff Girls parody short by MAD, whereas Tom Kane reprises his role in the segment "2 Broke Powerpuff Girls" alongside Tara Strong as Bubbles.
  • HIM shares the same voice actor of Professor Utonium, both voiced by Tom Kane.
  • The spell HIM used in "The Boys are Back in Town," to revive the Rowdyruff Boys, was apparently taken from the Internet.
  • HIM has a rubber duck named Mr. Quackers in "Tough Love".
  • His voice and mannerisms were inspired by the Chief of the Blue Meanies in the Beatles film Yellow Submarine.
  • His physical appearance is a combination of sorts, borrowing a mix of concepts and imagery in regards to Satan with cross-dresser attire.
  • He usually hypnotizes others to do all his dirty work (except for in "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey").
  • The version of HIM in Powerpuff Girls Z was based on the 8 Headed Serpent Yamata No Orochi.
  • One of HIM's commonly used victims would be Bubbles; taking joy in using her naivety against her sisters in an attempt to break them up so he could take over Townsville and the world.
  • HIM is known to spy on others through the means of using monitors of some sort with even having the ability to know what the girls are up to once in a while.
  • HIM and Fuzzy are both the second most recurring villains appearing in 19 episodes if one counts the pilot episode Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins as an episode.
  • According to Craig McCracken's scale of the villains on The Powerpuff Girls, HIM is at the top simply because he is the evilest.
  • HIM is good at making pancakes, as seen in "Him Diddle Riddle".
  • He sometimes speaks in rhyme.
  • Also, his talking style is similar to Red Guy from Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel, two other Cartoon Network shows that feature a devil-like character.
  • Incidentally, both have co-starred in a bumper on Cartoon Cartoon Fridays as well as Johnny Bravo.
  • In his world, random clips of a plane crashing and people doing random things can be seen.
  • He is possibly underweight, as his limbs are slimmer than the PPGs' and his face is extremely thin.
  • It is shown in Tough Love that his feet are shaped like his boots.
  • HIM could destroy Earth if he wanted to, as seen in "Custody Battle", where he almost put the Sun to the Earth until Mojo Jojo stopped him by pointing out how stupid that is.
  • According to his voice actor Tom Kane, if one is to utter his name they explode.
  • In an update of the Cartoon Network crossover mobile game, Cartoon Network: Match Land, HIM appears as the shop owner of Power Peppers.
  • Sedusa and HIM do not appear in the parade of criminals In Daylight Savings.
  • HIM somewhat bears a few resembalances to Satan.
  • His voice doesn’t echo when he sings in See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey. It also doesn’t echo in Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL.
  • MsMojo ranked HIM as the #1 Powerpuff Girls villain.
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