Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Wonder Woman 1984.
Much has been said about Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig's respective performances as Maxwell Lord and the Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984, but the real villain behind the film's action - an obscure Golden Age Wonder Woman villain known as the Duke of Deception - was uncast and largely unnoticed. This is fitting, however, given that the Duke of Deception often acted through proxies and pawns, being an ancient trickster god who was empowered by lies.
The plot of Wonder Woman 1984 was driven by a magical artifact dubbed the Dreamstone, which had the power to grant the deepest wish of whoever held it. Both of the film's central villains fell prey to the corrupting power of the Dreamstone, with businessman Maxwell Lord coming to possess the Dreamstone's power after a lifetime of searching for it. The Dreamstone was also responsible for transforming Dr. Barbara Minerva into a powerful feline-human hybrid who could go toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman, after she quietly wished that she could be more like her confident co-worker Diana Prince.
The true power behind the Dreamstone was not revealed until well into the second act of Wonder Woman 1984, when Diana reasoned that some deity must be responsible for creating the Dreamstone and providing the power that allowed it to reshape reality. Her suspicions were confirmed in an ancient book written by the survivors of the fall of the Mayan civilization, which identified the creator of the Dreamstone as Dechalafrea Ero. Comparable to the Norse god Loki, Dechalafrea Ero was a bad god, according to Diana, and known by many names including Dolos (the Ancient Greek god of deception) and Mendacius (the Roman god of illusions), but was also simply called the Duke of Deception.
The Duke of Deception is one of Wonder Woman's oldest enemies in the comics, and was created by writer William Moulton Marston and artist Harry G. Peter. First appearing in Wonder Woman #2, the Duke of Deception was one of several minor gods who served the Roman god of war, Mars, and aided in his schemes to corrupt the spirit of mankind. As his title implied, the Duke of Deception was Mars' propaganda officer, specializing in the spreading of misinformation. Rarely going into battle himself, the Duke of Deception often posed as other people in order to turn friends against one another or took possession of unwitting subjects to spur conflict.
While it may seem incongruous for such an evil god to create something like the Dreamstone, the idea plays well into the film's central theme of being careful what you wish for. While the Dreamstone may grant a wish, it will do so in a ironic fashion that negates the point of the original wish. Diana, for instance, was able to restore Steve Trevor to life, but only by subverting the life of an innocent man in a betrayal of every ideal she ever stood for. The Dreamstone also took more than it gave, literally draining the essence of the wisher. This was why Diana began to lose her powers, Maxwell Lord suffered ill health and Barbara Minerva became more monstrous as she abandoned who she was. Everything that happend in Wonder Woman 1984 was ultimately due to the unseen hand of the film's real villain, the Duke of Deception.
