Antón Castillo (2024)

Antón Castillo, also known as El Presidente, is the main antagonist of the 2021 first-person shooter game, Far Cry 6, and the protagonist villain of the prequel comics Far Cry: Rite of Passage.

He is the fascist dictator of Yara, son of Gabriel Castillo, father of Diego Castillo, uncle of José Castillo, and Clara García and Dani Rojas' archenemy.

After witnessing the execution of his father back in 1967, Castillo became determined to make Yara a paradise by ruling his land with an iron fist. Due to abusing his power, he has earned enemies with Libertad, a guerilla faction determined to depose of Antón to make Yara free. While maintaining control over each region with his most closest allies, Antón grooms his son Diego to follow in his bloody footsteps.

He was voiced and motion-captured by Giancarlo Esposito, who also played Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian, Stan Edgar in Amazon Prime's version of The Boys, Frank Dawson in Okja, Gustavo Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Sidney Glass in Once Upon a Time, Lex Luthor in Harley Quinn, and The Dentist in Payday 2.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Antón Castillo was born in 1954, Yara to Gabriel Castillo, the president of the country, and jazz artist Yolanda Rodríguez, and also has an unnamed brother who was born either before or after him. During his youth, Antón remembered his father's favorite biblical verse of God giving victory to lions. Gabriel also told his son that a leader should be both a lion and a lamb, to be strong, but to understand suffering. During the early 1960s, Gabriel's rule was threatened by the Legends (later known as the Legends of '67), a guerilla faction that believed Castillo was destroying their land by working with offshore corporations. The Legends then decided to depose him with the assistance of Santos Espinosa, a Yaran communist professor who managed to get help from the Soviet Union and became the faction's leader.

In 1967, a thirteen-year-old Antón would witness his father be dethroned by the Legends and Espinosa, and was sentenced to prison alongside the rest of his family. While in his prison cell, Antón would speak to his father every night through the vents, but the guerillas would remove Gabriel's tongue. Antón then witnessed the torture and later execution of his father by the orders of Espinosa, who then had the teenager sentenced to work in the tobacco fields for fifteen years. While his mother reminded him that his father lost everything he built, his grandmother pushed her view onto him that the Castillo's were lions and that Yarans were lambs. During the fifteen years, Yara would experience great turmoil and decline, as the United States imposed sanctions since Yara allied with the communist and Espinosa proved to be far more incompetent than Gabriel. Eventually, Espionosa had no choice but started to work with corporations to sell offshores and at the same time indulge in pointless hobbies, leading many of the revolutionists to be disillusioned of him and his regime. After Espionosa passed away in disgrace and seeing his country decline after being released, Antón started to believe that his family were the only people that make Yara a paradise.

During the 2000s or 2010s, Antón started to work on the chemical PG-240X that could treat cancer patients, personally working with Dr. Edgar Reyes, the Viviro society and Biovida to create it. The chemical would be named Viviro by the company that made it and was sprayed onto tobacco plants to make several products. Despite acting as a treatment for cancer, the chemical would affect those who were exposed to it directly. In 2007, Antón would learn that his mother passed away from breast cancer, and that he had acute leukemia, a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Due to this discovery, Antón decided to increase the production of the chemical, but María Marquessa gave him another option - to have a child to act as insurance so that his bloodline could continue his work. Despite hating children, he agreed and María gave birth to his son, Diego, in 2008.

Now more determined to make Yara a paradise, Antón decided to run for election by promising his fellow Yarans economic and political stability, and providing an answer to treating cancer with Viviro. Due to Espinosa's terrible presidency and Yara's economic decline, many Yarans (such as Clara García) believed in Castillo's words. Antón then won the election in 2014, but started to rule Yara with an iron fist by forming the Fuerzas Nacionales de Defensa (FND), getting rid of fundamental freedoms, forcing propaganda against the Legends of '67, and putting anyone in forced labor if they opposed him. Economic sanctions would return during Castillo's reign, but this is presumably due to him not giving America and other countries Viviro until he decided to. During his early tenure as president, Castillo decided to place some of his closest allies as leaders of different regions over Yara, and worked with Sean McKay to invest in his work on Viviro.

He gave his nephew José control over the air force and the region Madrugada, but didn't like José due to his need to earn Antón's favor over Diego. For the region of El Este, Antón decided to place a naval officer, and chose Aña Benítez since giving her that position would make more women join his army. He then gave Marquessa and Dr. Reyes the region of Valle De Oro, which allowed María to become Castillo's spokeswoman as Edgar would continue his development of Viviro. While staying in his headquarters in Esperanza, Antón started to make titles to Yarans, such as "true" and "fake" and separate those who he saw as loyal and those who were outcasts. Thirteen years before the events of Far Cry 6, Castillo's medical treatment ceased to help slow his cancer, and Antón started to groom Diego to become his replacement before he died from leukemia.

Far Cry: Rite of Passage[]

In Rite of Passage, Antón decides to tell Diego the backstories of three people - the unstable pirate Vaas Montenegro, Kyrat ruler Pagan Min, and cult leader Joseph Seed, and their rise and eventual downfall.

Far Cry 6[]

In the opening, Castillo gives a speech to his people on the draft, which will pick Yarans to work on the fields to produce Viviro. Later that day, he would be informed of Diego's attempt to leave Yara, and tasked General Sánchez and his soldiers to locate his son. The FND would notice a boat trying to leave the country, and Castillo arrived and spoke to the crowd before calling out Diego to come out of hiding. Seeing no need to keep the refugees since they're trying to leave Yara, Antón orders Old Dog and his men to kill them as he leaves the boat with Diego. Unbeknownst to Castillo, the boat contained Dani Rojas and his friend Lita Torres, who was a member of Libertad and tasked Rojas to find Clara García once they washed on shore.

Rojas would work with Clara to escape from the island, hitting a plantation that was producing Viviro, and Castillo's naval blockade that prevented Libertad from leaving Isla Santuario. Despite the destruction of the blockade, the FND were able to capture Libertad member Julio Vélez. Upon being informed of Julio's capture, Antón decided to teach Diego about the difference between a true and fake Yaran, and had Vélez beaten to death by Old Dog when Diego was unable to put Julio out of his misery. Despite their loss, Clara continued to lead Libertad with the help of Rojas, whom she sent to recruit the Montero family, the Legends of 67, and Máximas Matanzas from each region to corner Castillo in Esperanza. While Dani goes to interact with these groups, Castillo continues to mentor Diego to follow in his footsteps while also trying to speed the process of Viviro.

In Madrugada, Antón's nephew José runs tobacco fields and the slave trade, but he has to deal with the Montero family led by Carlos and his daughter Camila. When Rojas arrives and starts to interrupt Castillo's control over the region, José decides to use Carlos' son Alejandro to bring out Carlos and kill him. While teaching Diego how to shoot, Antón is informed of the recent event by his nephew, but Castillo instead tells José that his planed was flawed, since the Montero family's roots run deep in the region, and now he has made the most famous member a martyr. Following this, José is killed by Camila to avenge her father's death, thus breaking the FND's control over the region and their tobacco supply. Afterward, Antón brings Diego to his nephew's funeral, explaining that José was weak before burning the building. Libertad's success with recruiting the Montero family allowed Clara to plan a strike against Castillo in the capital, sending Dani to plant explosives across the city to infiltrate the tower. Though successful, Rojas only found Diego, whom helped him escape from the tower before telling them that his father was sick.

In El Este, Admiral Benítez and Sean McKay protect the shores to maintain Castillo's trades, but deal with La Moral, a new rebellious group led by Yelena Morales. When Benítez starts to lose control over region once Rojas arrives, Antón personally calls the admiral, admitting his frustration and that he only placed her there because she was a woman in uniform. Despite giving her a warning, Benítez is killed by Rojas when they assault her island with the Legends and La Moral. Despite the loss of the admiral, Castillo gives control to McKay, whom maintains the industrial plants and later has several members of the Legends and La Moral killed with the PG-240 chemical. Despite believing that McKay could keep a tight grip on El Este, Sean will either betray Castillo by giving finical support to Libertad after having made a deal with Juan Cortez, or will be killed by Rojas during his attempt to flee Yara.

During the fall of the FND's control over El Este, Cortez calls Rojas and asks them to help him trade Viviro to the Central Intelligence Agency. While retrieving the chemical, Castillo was informed of the situation, and sent General Sánchez to kidnap the guerilla and bring them to the cell his father Gabriel was held. In the prison cell, Antón and Sánchez torture Rojas, but Old Dog is killed by Diego, who tells his father that he will do as he asks. Though Castillo decides to leave with his son, he secretly sends a grenade towards Rojas, whom manages to survive by using Sánchez's corpse as a shield. Antón wouldn't know of Rojas' survival, but continued to teach Diego and implement paradise across Yara.

In Yara's central region, Valle De Oro, Antón's keeps the region in control with María promoting propaganda and censorship as Dr. Reyes continues to create Viviro and experiment on citizens. Rojas travels to the region and meets with Máximas Matanzas, and continues to disrupt Castillo's control by wrecking María's propaganda. Around this time, Castillo is interviewed by American journalist Tilly, who asks the dictator if his cancer treatment was made from slave labor. Antón rebuffs her questions, reminding her that America was made off the backbone of slavery, and that once Viviro is distributed across the world, no one will care about his methods. Later on, María is killed by Talía Benavídez on a live broadcast, and Castillo is informed of the event. Taking a quiet moment with Diego, Antón tells his son that his mother is dead, thus revealing to him that María is his mother. In addition, Dr. Reyes was killed by Rojas to stop the creation of Viviro and the experiments of Yaran citizens.

Following the loss of all of his generals and close associates, Antón starts to feel the isolation as each region has cornered him within Esparaza. While receiving treatment for his leukemia, Castillo received a phone call from Clara, warning him that Libertad were close to ending his tyranny. Despite the threat, Castillo decided to trick Clara into meeting him at his villa for dinner, but it's interrupted by Rojas. During the confrontation, Antón reveals his sickness and that he plans on having Dani become the figurehead of his regime since they have become a legend. When Cortez attempted to kill Diego, Rojas stopped him before Castillo murdered Clara in retaliation. Antón and Diego escaped from the villa while Rojas eliminated all of the FND presence there, thus securing the villa for Libertad.

Returning to the capital with his son, Castillo continues to his diorama despite being warned that he should be evacuated from the city. Libertad attacks the city with the other rebels, and Rojas succeeds in eliminating the FND that are protecting the tower, thus confronting Castillo. Antón laments on how Dani has destroyed his dreams of paradise and that they will become a dictator themselves, seeing that they are not politically skilled like Clara. Speaking with Diego one last time, Castillo asks Dani will they protect his son from their allies when he is dead, but seeing that they can't, shoots Diego and slits his own throat. Antón dies alongside his son, thus ending his dictatorship for good and Castillo bloodline. Despite Libertad's victory, insurgencies began to emerge across each region, with each insurgent leader trying to take back Yara and continue Castillo's philosophies.

Alternate Ending[]

In the alternate ending, Rojas leaves Yara for Miami after helping Libertad break the naval blockade, and they are seen three months later on a beach. On a radio that Dani is listening to, the broadcaster states that Castillo's special forces managed to kill Clara, but it's left uncertain due to Yara's tight censorship. It is unknown if Antón passed away from his disease, or if the Viviro managed to work again against his disease, but it seems he managed to teach Diego everything he knew to continue his dream of paradise regardless of his death or survival.

Personality[]

Castillo's personality is a very different take on a psychopathic villain, and it is one that is unfortunately not as successful as Vaas' unhinged mania. Throughout Far Cry 6, most of the scenes that players see him in revolve around him trying to groom his son Diego to be a successful leader.

Castillo's philosophy is based on fascism and nationalism, wanting Yara to be prosperous by becoming a world power. He came to create an cure for cancer named Viviro, and he believed that when Viviro was fully developed, Castillo would enrich his country by selling the cure.

Although a master manipulator, Castillo himself does not like lies, as he always ask people if they are saying is truth or lies. Still, Castillo managed to manipulated Yarans through propaganda without lying.

Despite himself being among the most notorious antagonists in the Far Cry franchise, he is actually a true patriot of Yara, and he genuinely believes in the country's greatness. As well, he truly cares for Diego, his son (even though he stated that Antón himself "hated" children), and he apologizes to him when they were had at gun point during the siege of Esperanza, Yara's capital.

Also, it should also be noted that despite his oppressive, easily provoked violent tendencies, he has an extremely soft spot for his son, Diego, going as far as to not punish him for his attempted flee from Yara, nor for gunning down and killing one of Anton's most powerful lieutenants directly in front of him, mildly showing shock at the situation.

Quotes[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

• Anton's surname translates in English to “Castle”.
• Although he has a nephew, this would mean he has a brother, yet he was never brought up in any conversations nor was he mentioned anywhere else.
• It is heavily implied but not confirmed that Yara was once a racist society following the ouster of Anton's father, which may have hardened Anton's resolve and made him even more twisted (due to Anton's family being black).
• Despite having a surname that sounds similar to "Castro", he is primarily based on Fulgencio Batista, the former dictator of Cuba. Both men oversaw a brutal regime of government repression, censorship and corruption. Like Batista, Castillo is locked in a civil war for control of his island nation. He is also not above doing business with foreign investors such as Sean McKay, despite severe economic sanctions. Unlike Batista, he does not flee his country when the war turns against him, instead preferring to kill his own son and himself rather than suffer at the hands of the rebels.
• He is the second antagonist in the series that is a military dictator, the first being Pagan Min.
  • Unlike Min, Castillo is a native of his game's setting, as well as conservative in his attire and mannerisms. He also came to power through free elections rather than deception and violence.
• Antón is the only main antagonist not to be directly killed by the protagonist, he instead commits suicide after killing his son Diego.

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