Syndrome is the main antagonist in Disney/Pixar's 2004 animated film, The Incredibles. He originally wanted to be a superhero, but when his former idol, Mr. Incredible turned him down and rejected his offer, Syndrome went insane, became a supervillain and devoted his life to killing superheroes in revenge on Mr. Incredible, so that he could take over as the world's sole "superhero", in addition to selling his impressive inventions to the world so that "everyone could be super", and therefore nobody would be unique.
Personality[]
As a young Buddy Pine, the boy who would become Syndrome aspired to become a superhero and this goal led him to beg Mr. Incredible to hire him as a sidekick IncrediBoy. Sadly, after Bob categorically refused to grant Buddy's favor, Buddy returned home in disgrace and rejected the righteous path. He became embittered and eventually descended into megalomania.
Buddy was a technical genius and even at an early age, could create wondrous gadgets to circumvent his lack of "super" powers. After his dismissal at the hands of Mr. Incredible, and the dissolution of classical superheroes, the young man turned his gifts towards evil, eventually killing several superheroes with his Omnidroids and various super weapons. He was a classical sociopath, caring not at all for the rules of society; and seeing it as his mission to make himself the world's ultimate hero through trickery and technology, and when he grew tired of that, to make superheroes entirely obsolete by selling his weapons to the highest bidder. Because "when everyone is super... no one will be."
Syndrome appeared to be driven at an early age for recognition and ego nourishment, which are normal traits for that of a child prodigy as seen by him trying to overcompensate for his lack of super abilities with his brainpower and technology. Perhaps even if Mr. Incredible had not rejected Buddy, he would have still descended into villainy as he proved of having no grasp on the terms of what it means to be a hero, which was shown when he still considered himself one despite having killed real heroes. To put it simply, Syndrome, having never been told he was special or could do great things, wished to remove the world of its specialties (specifically supers) by either eradicating them or turning them redundant with his technology, which made him a bit of a complex character as well.
Aside from being bitter and sociopathic, Syndrome was intensely sadistic as shown by how he taunted Mr. Incredible with his family's supposed death and a second time when he gloated to the family on how he would steal away Jack-Jack and turn him into a sidekick in a last-ditch attempt to spite Mr. Incredible.
Though it was years and his vindictiveness had completely absolved him, Syndrome did have a memory of why he respected Mister Incredible and was visibly impressed when he tricked the probe by hiding from the corpse of Gazerbeam while claiming "he truly was Mister Incredible" and was "still geeking out about it."