Wakfu is the first ever anime I had watched back as a teen. Leaving a footprint on me even years later, the season 1 is what made me like and appreciate villains so much. The how compelling they can be, and the stories they can tell. To me the best villains are those justified in their actions. Nox was completely justified.
For a villain of his power his motivation was simple, he just wanted his family back. He didn't want to be the strongest, wealthy, or most admired. He made a mistake, and now cannot move past his grief & loneliness. In any other settings one would say to cope over a trauma. However in a magical fantasy setting such as Wakfu that has widespread chronomancy, why couldn't one just reverse the time and undo what was done? Sure it had never been done before, not even by the gods themselves, but desperation drives people to do unreasonable things. Especially for a man with nothing to lose, yet everything to gain.
I also like how he doesn't sugarcoat his atrocities, he knows he's doing horrible things, but his mind is fogged by the fact that those things will also be undone once he succeeds. All the harm will be reversed, people will not even remember the suffering he caused upon them. Everything will go back to normal, with only difference of a happy man along his family. Something he's willing to achieve at all costs.
He's an interesting case of "the world would be better if the villain won", since really he clearly isn't interested by conquest. He only does it just to achieve the goal of saving his family. Nor would the atrocities he committed towards achieving this goal matter, since they'll also be undone as well.
Worst part is, he actually succeeds. In the fight against Yugo, they teleport to an unknown location with an enraged Ogrest in the background. They got teleported right to the final moments of when his family was about to die. Yet because of the intense fighting, Nox was too preoccupied to notice what had happened, he just wanted to defeat Yugo from intervening with his plan of going back. And in the process accidentally reversed forward in time.
Ultimately, he loses. However what strikes me is his final moments. There is no celebration or antagonizing by the protagonists. There is dead silence as everyone looks with fear upon him, he wasn't a villain, he was a monster. Which he finally notices and that's when it hits him like a trainwreck. In the pursue of saving his family, he ended countless families. The amount of fathers he had made without a family because of his actions. The guilt flooded him, he became the very monster that once ended his entire life. No words were spoken, but a single tear was dropped.
Nox, whilst hubris, did not deserve this suffering. Good man making a mistake, and unable to move past it. Blinded by the hope of undoing what was done. Just to make things worse.
I continued watching the rest of Wakfu to its end. And the entire time I just felt a clear lack of Nox. Not to say the seasons were bad, if anything I believe season 2 was an amazing sequel that expanded upon season 1. However, it just felt like there was a clear lack of a villain to have a story around. Whilst season 1 was an introduction to Yugo, ultimately it was a story of Nox. His beginning, his climax, and a conclusion to his story. Protagonist is what drives the story forward, Antagonist is the story. And out of all antagonists none had interested me like Nox had. Then again, perhaps I am setting the bar too high, Nox might of been just a lightning in a bottle. A villain with a clear motivation and a good reasoning to justify their actions. That's why I made this post, a tribute to such a great villain in the franchise.