In my opinion, a good villain is one of the most important parts of any story. I have always had a preference to the fallen hero type of villain. So I want know, who are your favorite villains and why, these could be villains from any form of media (anime, novels, cartoons, shows, games, etc)? Some of my Favorites are: Sephiroth, from Final Fantasy 7 (video game): Sephiroth is a fallen hero who went insane due to experiments done to him while he was still inside of his mother. Unlike a lot of villains, he thought on a grand scale. Most villains just want to kill the protagonist. Sephiroth wanted to kill all life on the planet, convert the planet into a space ship, and use it to spread evil throughout the universe. Also, he is one of the few villains that does manage to kill off some of the heroes. Light Yagami, from Deathnote (anime): I like Light's story because he is someone that could have been one of the good guys. He wanted to create a world that was free of crime. He used the deathnote, which is capable of killing anyone, to kill criminals. However, with each kill, Light's ego grew. Eventually he considered himself a god and used to deathnote to kill anyone who would try to stop him, thus becoming a villain. He is an example of the old saying: absolute power corrupts absolutely. Adrian "Ozymandias" Veidt, from Watchmen (graphic novel): The Watchmen takes place in an alternate-timeline, in which the U.S. and Soviet Union are on the verge of going to war. He plans to prevent this war by making them think that there is an enemy that is a threat to both nations. To make this imaginary enemy's presence known, he plans to destroy part of Manhatten. What seperates him from other villains is that he succeeds. If the hero's still try to arrest him for killing those people in Manhattan and tell the world what really happened, then the U.S. and the Soviet Union would likely get into an all out nuclear war. So in this case, the villain is the one who saves the world.
A lot of Stephen King's villians are my favorites. For example, have you read The Green Mile? I really liked some of the villians in that book - Delacroix and Percy, among others. I think King does a great job creating villians that seem realistic at the same time as terrifying. I've always been a fan of the fallen heroes too, though to be honest with you I can't think of any right off the top of my head.
I agree with SD: Veidt is truly excellent as a villain (in both the sense that you like reading about him, and that he succeeds). I also dig any given Big Bad from BtVS (Although first place might be a tie between Glory and the Mayor), and pretty much every antagonist ever written in a Discworld book, from the Elves to the Auditors.
In the 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Alan Rickman played the Sheriff of Nottingham. I think his part carried the movie. He was very witty and humorous for a villain. To this day he is still my favorite bad guy. -Mark
Probably the oldest recurring supervillian in "modern" literature, Professor James Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle just makes him perfect and the whole idea is brilliant. Started off a character type there !
Oh wow... lol. You're the first person that I've seen put Glory at the top of their list, most rate her the lowest... For me I'd pick the Trio - I love those guys. And, of course, Spike is just in a league of his own. Shishio from Rurouni Kenshin is a favourite villain of mine, also. Though, I have a tendency to prefer watching/reading 'villains' where the lines between good and bad are completely blurred - Jef from John Woo's The Killer is a perfect example of that.
I really liked Shishio, he was the perfect villain for Kenshin to fight, and I also agree that it is better when the line between good and evil is blurred.
I thought Snape from Harry Potter was a great villian, espcially at the end of the last book. I also thought the dude out of The Hitcher was brilliant, I want to know why he killed them ... lmao.
Way to drop spoilers there, Heather. While anyone who has read it probably already has, it would be polite if you were to change your text.
I don't think Spike can be quite counted as a villain...but he's a great character, that's true. =P Also, I've been on a Doctor Who kick recently, and I have to say- the Daleks are really worming their way onto my favorite villains list.
I'm with you, Ivan, with respect to Glorificus and Mayor Wilkins. Both were wonderful, quirky villains, then they wrapped up the series going against the First!
The way I look at it is that he spent six of seven seasons as a villain. Certainly, in the fourth, those lines became blurred, and it became easy to forget what his true nature was - but season six brought it back into light, I think - and it was actually the intention of the writers to do so. Don't get me wrong, Spike is one of my all time favourite characters from pretty much any show (I'm a huge Spuffy fan, also), but when I look at the character beyond my fond affectations, I can't discount the fact that just because he was able to love, but not able to kill a human, doesn't negate what/who he really was - if you know what I mean. That is why I also said 'a league of his own'.
I'd have to say: Light Yagami (Death Note, manga) Sylar (Heroes, TV show) Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars, movie) Yggdrasil (Tales of Symphonia, video game) Voldemort (Harry Potter)
Ver soory, didn't cross my mind as the book has been out for so long. I just thought it was like talking about what happens during every other book, which happens. My mistake.
The Master from Dr Who easily. Hmm, Magneto in the X-men cartoon was also an intense character as was Dr Doom, they both evolved greatly. Plus I've gotta love The Mayor he was brill, but also gotta love Cole as Balthazaer and The Source. Yeh if ya've not guessed, I love a lot of stuff like that. Hmm, also in The 4400 the guy who became a messiah figure was considered a bad guy for a bit. Lastly, not really a bad guy James Lester leader of the Organization in Primeval, he seems like a bad guy, but he's not the major bad guy. But yeh he's a amazing character. When he was about to die, I was like no, he can't. But he kicked the things ass! WHOO! *Is hyper* XD
I saw Batman: The Dark Knight last night and i have to say that Ledger's Joker was awesome. Too bad he dead though : \.
I have to agree. I just got through seeing it. He was an amazing villain. And is now one of my favorite villains. Along with Sylar from Heroes I guess I like the crazies.
Haha, I love Dr. Horrible, but the Part III ended on a sadder note than I wanted. I was all excited that Part III was released today, and then I was kinda depressed when I finished watching it.
Annie Wilkes. She is, in my opinion, one of Stephen King's scariest villains, and there's nothing at all supernatural about her. The scary thing about her is that she's not openly evil, it's much more subtle (until the end of the book anyway, when she starts to get really sadistic).
Yes, but it's Joss, so you know that love will never prevail. I saw it coming...but I was still hurt when it happened. =P
