History Main / SilentAntagonist

* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' foe Murmur has [[TongueTrauma got his tongue cut out]] and his lips sewn together.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Joker}}'', ComicBook/HarleyQuinn of all people is this. She does do some awesome stuff (and [[OfCorsetsSexy look]] [[{{Stripperiffic}} damn]] good doing it), though. This might just be because Harley's [[PerkyFemaleMinion usual characterisation]] wouldn't gel with the comic's atmosphere so well. It's implied she is capable of speech since she's shown opening her mouth in several panels as if mid word, but since the story is told from the point of view of a man named Jonny the implication is he's not paying attention to what she's saying as part of his general issues with women.

* ''Series/{{Hawkeye}}'': Maya is initially the antagonist to Clint and Kate, who doesn't speak at all. {{Justified|Trope}}, as Maya has been deaf all her life, and thus has little reason to talk. She does communicate through ASL though, with Kazi translating for Clint and Kate. In ''Series/Echo2024'' Mays speaks a little, but quite softly so it's hard to discern. However, by this point, she is the protagonist.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': King Sombra, in contrast to the loud and hammy villains like Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Queen Chrysalis, gets exactly five lines in his entire two-parter and none of which is longer than four words or said to any of the heroes. WordOfGod is that it was done to enforce that, more than anything, he was an AdvancingWallOfDoom waiting to lay waste to the Crystal Empire the second Princess Cadance's rapidly draining stamina gave out and her force field collapsed. Averted in his return during the two-part season 9 premiere, where he's much more talkative.

* None of the villains featured in ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' spoke a single word leaving their motives and personalities unknown. This includes the Digimon Emperor, Alphamon, Imperialdramon, the resurrected Dark Masters, and Yggdrassil. Gennai is the only aversion to this trope so far as he speaks while revealed to be the bad guy.

* [[EldritchAbomination GOLB]] from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' doesn't speak a single word. [[spoiler:Not even after [[ActofTrueLove Betty fuses with him]].]]

* Skurge the Executioner, Annihilus, and Galactus do not speak at all during their appearances on ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes''.
* [[AIisACrapshoot X.A.N.A]] is one of the scariest foes in ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' without needing any words. All it needs is a computer to send monsters to deal with its problems.

* While vacationing, ''WesternAnimation/HongKongPhooey'' once encountered a pickpocket who never spoke.
* The fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' features an apparent EnemyWithout of the title character who appears to her in the Avatar state and dressed as she was when she fought the previous season's big bad. She never speaks the entire time she repeatedly beats up Korra, and what exactly she is remains ambiguous to the end.
* [[NoNonsenseNemesis King Sombra]] from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', in ''stark'' contrast to the loud and hammy villains like Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Queen Chrysalis, gets exactly five lines in his entire two-parter and none of which is longer than ''four words'' or said to any of the heroes. WordOfGod is that it was done to enforce that more than anything, he was an AdvancingWallOfDoom waiting to lay waste to the Crystal Empire the second Princess Cadance's rapidly draining stamina gave out and her force field collapsed. Averted in his return during the two-part season 9 premiere, where he's surprisingly very talkative.

* This is what Jinmay from ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo'' is in her first appearance when she was under Sakko's control.

* ''Series/{{Hawkeye}}'': Maya is initially the antagonist to Clint and Kate, who doesn't speak at all. {{Justified|Trope}}, as Maya has been deaf all her life, and thus has little reason to talk. She does communicate through ASL though, with Kazi translating for Clint and Kate. In ''Series/Echo2024'' Mays speaks a little, but quite softly so it's hard to discern.

* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' has the titular Hollow Knight has the mute BigBad. The Broken Vessel and Nosk also lacks any dialogues.

* Leatherface from ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre''.

* The BigBad of ''WesternAnimation/{{Migration}}'' is a New York chef who doesn't ever speak and only growls, laughs, and screams.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}}'' The Blockheads never speak aside from laughing.

''WesternAnimation/Gumby'' The Blockheads aside from laughing they never speak.

* None of the villains featured so far in ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'' spoke a single word leaving their motives and personalities unknown. This includes the Digimon Emperor, Alphamon, Imperialdramon, the resurrected Dark Masters, and Yggdrassil. Gennai is the only aversion to this trope so far as he speaks while revealed to be the bad guy.

* From the French film ''Film/TheUmbrellaCoup'', [[ProfessionalKiller Moskovitz]] doesn't speak outside of a single line. It was done due to his actor, Gordon Mitchell, not being fluent in French and it fit the character of a cold-hearted hitman anyways.

* Israphel, from the ''[[WebVideo/YogscastMinecraftSeries Shadow of Israphel]]'', never says a word in any of his appearances. Even his most recurring CoDragons, who have spoken a combined total of ''two words'', are chattier. To get around this, he occasionally leaves mocking signs, but he does this less as the series goes along.

A {{Subtrope}} of HeWhoMustNotBeHeard. The {{Supertrope}} of EnemyMime (thought not all villainous mimes have to be fully silent). SisterTrope to EnigmaticMinion. See also SoftSpokenSadist, who ''does'' speak, but is very calm and relaxed.

* Played to horrifying effect in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush "Hush"]] with "the Gentlemen", a group of demons/monsters/whatever-the-hell-they-are who show up to steal people's voices and rip out hearts. Throughout the episode, they never utter a word, just grin at each other and use gestures... and yet they still manage to be ''absolutely terrifying.''
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]], the Flood says all of a few lines through one of its victims, and then never says a word again [[HellIsThatNoise Inhuman screeching and roaring]], on the other hand... Used to great effect, since the focus of that episode wasn't on the Flood at all, but the Doctor's own [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds rapidly unraveling mental state]].
* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'', the only vocalizations the White Walkers ever make is a sort of shrill screech, and even then it only happened twice (once in Season 2 and once in Season 3). It's unknown if they either can't speak, choose not to speak, or don't understand/haven't bothered to learn the CommonTongue that mankind uses.

* In the ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' episode "Incident on and Off a Mountain Road", the villain Moonface fits the typical mute serial killer character. His only sort-of dialogue is shushing his victims to be quiet while he tortures and murders them.

** Flukeman in "The Host" is a humanoid radioactive parasite incapable of language.
** The Peacock Brothers in "Home" seem to understand English, as their mother speaks to them, but they remain silent while onscreen.

A {{Subtrope}} of HeWhoMustNotBeHeard. The {{Supertrope}} of EnemyMime. SisterTrope to EnigmaticMinion. See also SoftSpokenSadist, who ''does'' speak, but is very calm and relaxed.

[[quoteright:176:[[ComicBook/TheFlash https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3179917_wallyandhunterroguespic.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:176:As silent as the grave he's going to put you in.]]