Card Carrying Generic Doomsday Villains.

To keep the new thread direction going, I'm clearing this post.

0dd1's idea is better, post your favorite villain types.

edited 29th May '13 12:52:28 PM by SalmonPunch

I don't think there are many of these nowadays, honestly, except when talking about established franchises.

I mostly hate villains who seem to always win no matter what. Like in the remake of V, Anna won everything. If they'd gotten a 3rd season, they would basically have had to start from scratch since Anna kiled everyone.

Or villains who only win through luck.

Cartoony villains are unrealistic? Stop the presses.

Personally, whether or not they're meant to be taken seriously, I love villains like you described. They're just always hilarious, whether or not that was the intention.

I was exaggerating, and didn't mean cartoony. They dont have to actually laugh evilly and talk about doom lasers, I just mean unredeemable doomsday villains who want to end the world.

And to people who think this archetype is extinct. Play some RP Gs or watch a few Animes, which is where I usually run into characters like this.

If you can get through ten series in a row of either medium without running into at least one of these I'll eat my keyboard.

edited 28th May '13 1:36:52 PM by SalmonPunch

...I actually kinda like the cartoony supervillains. Then again, I'm even more sick of the Anti-Villain Freudian Excuse fangirl-baiting "He's evil but he has a good side to him and a really tragic reason/motive/past/looks that tooooooootally absolves him of all the evil he did" Draco in Leather Pants villains...than I am of paper-thin puppy-kicking jerkwads.

At least with the former, you know for sure where the writer stands.

edited 28th May '13 1:57:26 PM by Raidouthe21st

I sort of feel the same way. I love me a cartoony supervillain. Complete with Evil Is Hammy.

edited 28th May '13 2:05:56 PM by MissKitten

^^ You say that like the former doesn't get Draco in Leather Pants treatment anyway.

So you made this thread just to complain about a character archetype you don't like? Okay.

Inb4lock

-takes out popcorn-

Well, we can turn this around into something constructive. What do you guys think makes a good villain? Or at least an enjoyable one?

Mephiles.

Crazy, actually does something, deadly, manipulative, and looks awesome. Also a great in-series nod to Tails Doll.

I like unrepentantly evil villains, specifically ones without a sooky back story to fall back upon.

I can't argue that this makes a good villain, because what makes a villain a 'good' one differs from person to person I imagine. At the very least, I find them entertaining.

Depends on the story, because I like a lot of villain archetypes.

For character-driven stories, generally...A: A villain that contrasts with the hero (Goku and Vegeta, Lex Luthor and Superman), B: A villain that complements them or at least shows very similar traits and/or motives (The Doctor and The Master, Dr. Venture and The Monarch, Raiden and Senator Armstrong), or C: Someone that gives the main characters a personal stake in the matter at hand beyond just being there (Luke and Darth Vader, Domon Kashuu and Master Asia).

For lighthearted stories or comedies, a good sense of humor/gags/wit, and maybe a large slice of ham with a side of cheese.

For anything intended to evoke horror or darkness, a sense of imminent or immediate danger, like a force of nature or divine intervention or a seemingly unstoppable alien being, to give the audience a real sense of just how much deep shit things are.

makes for some of the best kind of villains, since the story doesn't have to go into apologetic mode to make you like the villain, you decide on your own that Evil Is Cool. Evil doesn't have to be without any sort of redeeming value, it just has to be overly ruthless.

Basically, any villain that perfectly supports the hero in making the story entertaining for everyone watching.

I'm trying to think of my favorite villain as a child and it as probably the bad guy from The Great Mouse Detective. That guy was pretty much always evil and turned out to be totally psychotic in the end. But for the most part he seemed like a suave guy.

In literature, the Un-man from Peralandra takes the cake. He is literally evil put into a man but for the most part is polite, witty, and tries to get what he wants through talking. But when no one is around to stop him he just commits pointless acts of evil for the sake of it, like killing animals for no reason or ripping up plants or just saying the protagonists name over and over again to annoy him to the point of insanity. He's smart, but when being smart isn't required, he doesn't apply his brain power at all to his villainy.

So if you asked me, a good villain has another layer to them. A lot of people would use that layer to make them sympathetic, but I like it when instead it adds a whole new dimension to their evil.

Having just finished Birth By Sleep, my favorite villain of the moment is Vanitas. I like him because he's an Evil Counterpart, not just in alignment, but in tone. While I love the Kingdom Hearts series, it's packed chock-full of cheese, the power of light and friendship and hamtastic speeches. Which is fine and all, but it still gets ol on occasion.

Enter Vanitas. He comes in without bombastic speeches, cartoony motivations or overblown theatrics. Just a bone to pick, a load of arrogance and a bucket of sadism. Which could be cliche in other settings, but here, his casual insults and petty evil contrast so well with the heroes' light-and-friendship speals and redundant dialogue, I'd cheer every time he appeared onscreen.

Oh, fuck. Ratigan was terrifying. He's all charm and sophistication until one of his own henchmen calls him a rat (which he is) in the throes of drunkenness, and then he fucking feeds that guy to the cat.

Loki. -_-

It sucks when you actually like the villain and think they're an engaging character, but their fans are so annoying.

Since I started watching the Captain Planet series again, I've found the title villain to be kind of refreshing. Everyone wants a great three-dimensional villain with a sympathetic background and motives that could be construed as good, so every now and again it's cool to watch a series in which the villains are evil for its own sake. Hogs Greedly flies an airbus in the shape of a pig in one of the early episodes, it doesn't get much more unsubtle than that.