What's Your Top Western Animation Villain?

For me, the top Western Animation villain is...Skullmaster of Mighty Max!

1. Skullmaster amply demonstrates his Complete Monster tendencies, and it does not come off as lazy writing at all!
2. Skullmaster averts Never Say "Die", and this is a show supposedly aimed at kids in the 1990s!
3. Skullmaster hints that there is The Man Behind the Man, but the show was cancelled, so we never get to see who (or what) his master is. I'm willing to betcha that his master is an Eldritch Abomination that is the equivalent of Satan - perhaps more so than Skullmaster himself!
4. Skullmaster wins in the finale. Yes, The Bad Guy Wins. Max was lucky to hit the Reset Button so he can try again in taking down this guy!
5. Skullmaster is voiced by Tim Curry. Some people try to make it sound like it's a bad thing, but I disagree. I think TC is very good at what he does!

Skullmaster is a villain who shows how to break out of the Animation Age Ghetto that plagues Western Animation. It is my fond hope that the AAG will, one day, be destroyed.

The Blue Meanies. It's one thing to conquer a small country, it's another to do it with this much style.

I consider him more complex than just villain but David Xanatos is one of the best; you really don't think of him as evil so much as an affable person who wants to achieve certain things, and has confidence in what he does, without falling into most villain cliches.

May have to give this one to Slade from Teen Titans.

Charles Montgomery Burns, of course.

Oooh man, I got a LOT! I can't pick just one.

Oh, hard to pick- Xanatos and Demona from Gargoyles, Azula from Avatar the Last Airbender and Amon from "Legend of Korra", Slade from Teen Titans, Joker and Darkseid from the DCAU, Green Goblin from Spectacular Spider-man- still, at the end of the day, I'll go with the tied trifetica of Xanatos, Azula, and Slade.

I'd say Belphegor from... well, Belphegor. I don't remember everything about that cartoon, but I remember the villain fascinated me. The guy was very mysterious, had a badass deep voice, utilized a lot of BatmanGambits and was always a step ahead of the protagonists.

And what's interesting is that you can't really read him. Sometimes he'll save some of the protagonists or reveal part of his plan to them, gambling on what they'll do with the knowledge and even putting his life on the line, relying on what he thinks they'll do. Other times he didn't care and left them in mortal danger. Most of his plans didn't become clear until the end of the episode and he often seemed to do things just to toy with people. Belphegor had some standards and morals, but most of the time he had no qualms about psychologically torturing people, even using fake death traps and mind control, if he couldn't manipulate them otherwise.

The Chessmaster, a Diabolical Mastermind, a Manipulative Bastard with an unflinching walk, a Phantom Thief... The list goes on and what I find more interesting is that he pretty much always wins, even if sometimes it's a small victory. Not many bad guys do.

edited 10th Aug '12 12:42:55 PM by whataboutme

Put in my vote for Xanathos as well. Though Slade and Azula follow closely.

Belphegor sounds fascinating, like an evil Batman. The intro even recalls BTAS.

edited 10th Aug '12 6:10:17 PM by Sijo

The Urpneys of The Dreamstone. While Zordrak is the actual Big Bad, these guys are the real show stealers, the ones planning every scheme and trying haphazardly to act it out, and somehow gain my vote despite being so complex and un-villainish they are actually far more likeable than the good guys themselves. They also gain credit given that, despite being incredibly oafish, there is actually only so many times the heroes genuinely outsmart them, rather than relying on a Deus ex Machina or god modded trinket to stop them. Urpgor, being the most efficient and genuinely evil Urpney, probably deserves special mention (look at episodes like The Nightmare Stone and Wildit's Whistle and say he isn't underhandedly awesome).

Special notice must be given to Mr Burns, Don Karnage and Shere Khan, Dr Rrrrrrrobotnik, Megatron and of course, pretty much the entire Looney Tunes Rogues Gallery.

edited 10th Aug '12 9:23:34 PM by Psi001

Lets see Dark Danny,The Joker,Tarrlok, Discord are contenders for sure,but I'm not sure I can narrow it down to just one.

Not to mention Azula,The Monkey King, the villains voiced by MarkHamill make strong arguments for top as well

Technically he's more of a comic villain, but I think Phantom Blot's pretty awesome.

I've got to go with the DCAU's Lex Luthor. Part of it is Clancy Brown's amazing delivery, and part of it is the sheer lack of fucks that he gives for anyone else, friend or foe. One of my favorite demonstrations of this is an episode near the end of JLU's run in which he accidentally ends up in a Body Swap with The Flash. He immediately becomes far more dangerous than Flash himself ever was, because he's willing to use his powers in ways that that the original wasn't, because they more or less ran the risk of atomizing everything and everyone around him when he used them.

@Sijo: Yeah, I guess he kind of does seem a bit like an evil Batman. Except he has henchmen and he never reveals his identity.

It's too bad the series can only be found in French on youtube or other sites now, which I don't speak, so that didn't help me remember all that much about it. The cartoon had its problems now and then, but it always kept you in suspense and it was fun, especially the villain. A shame they decided to make only 26 episodes.

Otherwise, other pretty interesting villains were Xanatos and Azula, though I found out about them rather late. And I liked Maleficent when I was very little. She was a very cool sorceress and had a great evil laugh.

I love a ton, such as the aforementioned Green Goblin from The Spectacular Spider Man, but one of the ones I'd like to give credit to is Megabyte. He's a fairly generic Evil Overlord, Wicked Cultured and all that, but he's also a Genius Lightning Bruiser who's got a damn scary animalistic side and is brilliantly voiced by the late Tony Jay.

What makes him unique from just about every villain in western animation I've seen, though, is that his Villain Decay is inverted. He becomes progressively more of a threat as time goes on. And while the term "Magnificent Bastard" has been thrown around so much it's lost all of its meaning, Megabyte truly, truly deserves that adjective as a damn likable bastard who avoids any sort of Villainous Breakdown.

edited 11th Aug '12 8:04:24 AM by romanticaveman

Leonardo Leonardo and Vlad.

Disney obviously considers Maleficent to be their greatest villain, as not only she has a major role in Kingdom Hearts but is the star of her own live action movie! (coming soon!) (Though Disney may be trying to steal Wicked's thunder there.)

Amon without a doubt.

Considering the other characters in Sleeping Beauty were rather flat and generally uninteresting (except maybe the fairies), Maleficent was usually the one I looked forward to seeing. Sure, her motive was a bit exaggerated, but nevertheless she had more personality than the prince and even Aurora, who was the main character and had far more screen time.

Heh, I guess if she's getting her own live action movie that just proves she's a villain interesting enough for most. I'm curious to see what they'll do with it.

edited 11th Aug '12 10:38:41 AM by whataboutme

Even though he's a bit generic for nostalgic reasons I've always been partial to Venger from the D&D animated series. Awesomely voiced by Peter Cullen (who also voices Optimus Prime), the character seemed like he was loosely based on Evil (David Warner) from Time Bandits.

I also like Darkseid, who made is animated debut in the final iteration of the Superfriends (The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians) back in the mid 80s. He of course was also in the 90s Superman Cartoon as well as several DC animated movies over the years. It's also looking more and more likely that he'll make an appearance on Young Justice, possibly as the ultimate big bad behind the whole Light conspiracy. Put simply, Darkseid is a badass and one of the few villians who can go toe to toe with Superman both mentally and physically.

Judge Claude Frollo. The meanest sonofabitch in all of Disney.

I have to agree that Judge Claude Frollo is probably the top villain Disney has ever come up with. Here's a clip to prove it:

Does this guy count?

Joker, Catwoman, Two-Face and the Phantasm from Batman: The Animated Series.

Lex Luthor from JLU.

Green Goblin from Spectacular Spider-man.

Slade from Teen Titans.

Dark Danny and Vlad from Danny Phantom. I like Ember too.

Azula!