Media with fantastic villains

He is. At times scarily so.

His big plan had a lot of flaws and it got him in the end so he's more of a Smug Snake.

But even if he gets the dilp treatment far too often, he's still an entertaining villain.

edited 17th Jan '12 9:04:28 PM by lolacat

Littlefinger and Tywin Lannister from A Song Of Ice And Fire. Varys is cute but I don't know if he classifies as a villain or not.

I'm gonna say Hans Gruber from the original Die Hard.

Actually, we determined in Live-Action Film that the OP doesn't really give a shit about the villain. S/He cares about the antagonist.

So, the real request here is "media with fantastic antagonists," insofar as I can tell. I don't have one, currently, however.

If you want a game, Dragon Age Origins has an excellent human villain. Ignore the darkspawn for villainous potential — they're just an excuse for you to fight endless waves of enemies — as the human villain is much more interesting.

On another note, Mount And Blade is sort of the 100% interactive counterpart of A Song Of Ice And Fire. If you play it to the extent that you end up with over a few dozen men at your disposal, you'll understand what I mean. There are a variety of moral choices that you might end up making without thinking about it, only to realise you're doing horrible things. On my first playthrough, I realised that I had made a habit of raiding enemy villages for supplies and leaving some of my men behind against enemies that heavily outnumbered me so as to slip away. I became the villain not through willing it, but because villainy was economically efficient.

Umineko No Naku Koro Ni. All the antagonists are fantastic trolls of varying caliber, and you'll grow to love to hate them. Durarara has Izaya Orihara, who's a fantastic, fabulous antagonist who loves to toy with every single character in the series.

Read Stephen King. Read all the Stephen King. Mr. Grey and Pennywise are two of my favorites, as well as my current avatar, Andre Linoge.

And while the Big Bad isn't terribly impressive (he's not bad, but he's not great), FMA has some awesome villains. Case in point, Solf J. Fuckin' Kimblee.

edited 18th Jan '12 10:53:06 AM by KSPAM

Teyrn Loghain from Dragon Age: Origins is an amazing villain.

Also Saren Arterius from Mass Effect.

Frankly I can't think of anything right now that people haven't already said but I remembered now that that Dark Action Girl with Guns Akimbo from Transporter 2 was the only thing I liked in the movie.

Cave Johnson and to a lesser extent Wheatley from Portal

The former wasn't really evil, just amoral and incompetent. The latter, while openly antagonistic, was at his most dangerous when he wasn't trying to kill you.

edited 19th Jan '12 6:45:24 AM by Nizbel

Couldn't you have said those referred to Portal before the spoilers?

I think the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus from the Spiderman movies are good at remaining villainous while still being sympathetic.

For a stone cold source-of-all-evil bastard, though, you can't go past the Emperor, particularly in Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi.

Captain Vidal from Pans Labyrinth. The film does a fantastic job at making you loathe him.

Doctor Doom, people. I don't think I need to say much more than that. Dude's a fantastic villain.

Also, the Shredder from the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. A mastermind, Complete Monster, extremely menacing, and full of so many surprises!

Dio Brando earns points in my book for using one extra tool in his arsenal aside from his superpowers and intelligence: his charisma. The man himself is dangerous enough, but what really allowed him to mobilize a significant army of villains is that he inspires practically religious devotion in his followers when he has conversations with them. He's pleasant company, really, as long as you're loyal to him...

Why do fans like the Villains even though most people hated them for being wicked and villainous, (Yeah i Love Scar for killing mufasa and enjoy simba mourn his death without crying, Maleficent for cursing Aurora and trapping Phillip into her Dungeon, Frollo for Murdering Quasi's mommy and kill and attack gypsies and raping esmerelda and Syndrome for torturing Mr Inc, threatening him into killing his wife and children, mass murder all superheroes and kidnap Jack-Jack Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I Love Evil. ) are they inherently evil? if so call the Moral Guardians, The Watchdogs and Christians to stop them or they would become Psychopaths when they grow up!

Edited by duffhead on Mar 19th 2019 at 6:30:13 AM

Arrowverse can be about 50/50 with the quality of its villains, but the good ones are genuinely terrifying. Dollmaker/Bart Mathis terrifies me to no end, Prometheus is downright Paranoia Fuel, Reverse Flash is pretty freaky, and even if he isn't AS good of a villain, I still found Zoom pretty creepy- he looks absolutely demonic.

Ego and Enrico Pucci.

They really embody my favorite kind of Villian. That being that I cannot actually tell if they genuinely do not realize that what they are doing is evil or that they fully comprehend they're actions and just do not give a fuck.

Pick a Batman villain! My favorites are Scarecrow, Joker, Anarchy, Firefly, Penguin, and Mad Hatter.

Also, the villains in American Gods are awesome.

Edited by Scarecrow4774 on Mar 20th 2019 at 3:16:36 PM

Ooh so many to choose from. Darth Vader, Frieza, Cell, Kefka Palazzo, The Joker so many great villains. But I think the ones that stick out in my mind have to be either Jafar or Maleficent.

For me, it has to be Solomon Lane from Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout. He is what Professor James Moriarty is to Sherlock Holmes: an absolute chessmaster. And I felt that this villain was what the Mission: Impossible series needed, being one step ahead for Ethan Hunt.

I liked that he was basically a Non-Action Big Bad, staying in the shadows and watching his meticulous plans come to light in surprising ways. And while he grew out of the "non-action" status in his next appearance, he compensated for that by maintaining his increasingly obscure, yet best-laid plans, as well as a darker mindset (Compare his appearance, from this◊ to this◊).

In all honesty, I think he was better than Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Owen Davian, who is second on my list of ranked villains in the M:I franchise.

Uh, lets see...

Thrax from Osmosis Jones might be the only truly memorable part of that movie, being a significantly more mature character than everything around him. He creeped me out the first (and only) time I watched that movie.

Riku and Xion from Kingdom Heats 1 and 358/2 Days - both for playing into one of my favorite tropes, the hero's (pen)ultimate villain being someone close to them.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, I'll get them later.