We think we know all we need to know about Venger. He's the Nemesis, the opposite number of DungeonMaster, bipolar opposites, Manichean universe, yadda yadda yadda--

That's why "Citadel of Shadow" was such a shock to most viewers, I imagine. Like the kids, we were flabbergasted to realize Venger had a sister. It certainly takes him down a peg or two.

With that in mind, what else can we figure about Venger that isn't simple conventional wisdom?

Let's start with the obvious and unproveable: if Venger had a sibling, it cannot be denied that he had parents. He is, in a word, mortal. So the threat posed by Hank in the Dragons' Graveyard, and by Tiamat in a variety of locales, is a real one. Venger could be killed. That he never was killed owes partly to the scriptwriters, and partly to a character with considerable tenacity.

We know that he and DungeonMaster have a history, but we never learn what that history was. In the pilot episode, "In Search of the DungeonMaster", Venger tells him that DM's powers have grown weak and feeble. Either he was talking through his hat (or horn) or Venger had a basis for comparison. He must have known DungeonMaster's powers in another era. This reinforces the notion that, if Venger was an analog to Darth Vader, then DungeonMaster was an analog to Vader's betrayed teacher, Ben Kenobi.

Venger has said on more that one occasion that he will not stand for defiance; when he gives an order, he expects it to be carried out. He's an autocratic, top-down kind of administrator. In this, he is DungeonMaster's opposite, since DM pretty much lets the kids learn by fumbling around on their own.

"Dungeon at the Heart of Dawn" throws another curveball at the viewer. Venger has a boss, a master, someone who, in part, made Venger what we know him to be. Is a betrayal scenario out of the question: that DungeonMaster instructed Venger in magic arts, yet he found reason to sell himself out to the dark forces that "wish ... to rule the entire cosmos with evil"? Was Venger promised control over the Realm in exchange for embracing dark forces? He certainly didn't have that kind of control before the kids came along.

"The Treasure of Tardos" not only gives us DM's clue about Venger's origins but also a glimpse into his character. He has created Demodragon in order to get dragonbane to use against Tiamat; the kids use it against Demodragon instead. Either Venger didn't have a clue as to what wasted his creation, or he knew but was willing to let it slide, since the kids did him a favor by chilling out Demodragon. Yes, Venger was treacherous, giving Hank an amulet that didn't really work against Demodragon, and threatened the kids any number of times in any number of ways. But, in that one instance, did we get a glimpse into what was left of Venger's human heart?

from page 643 of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", a description of Lord Voldemort:

"Harry stared back into the face...whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils..."

Sound familiar?