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Favorite Villains?


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To answer my own question: 

-Stormlight: Amaram, Mraize and Nale.

-MCU: Loki, who is a fantastic character, with great development. Vulture, who had a tragic story. Killmonger, who was a villain because of the things done to him.

-Faithful and the Fallen: Braith, who is funny, and seems like an ok guy deep down.

-GoT: Tywin. He is so cold. 

-Star Wars: Kylo Ren, who is another beautifully complex and tragic figure, basically created by the mistakes made by Luke, Leia and Han. 

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Gotta love Joker and Harley Quinn.  Two of my all time favorites.  Batman just has the best rogue's gallery period.  

In video games...hmmm, Sephiroth comes to mind.  As does Andrew Ryan, and Handsome Jack.

Darth Sidious was great, he was just brilliant.  

In books, Taravangian, he's absolutely fascinating with such a unique concept.  Artemis Entreri, oh and Raistlin Mejere.  He was only technically a villain for a short time, but it counts.  :P

 

I have others but I should give a chance for other people to name some.  :P

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As a temporary aside: Not all video-games have a real story to them, so some people like the villains b/c they look cool/have good one-liners :)
What kinds of "favorite" are you actually looking for @Toaster Retribution? Story, Looks, Archetype/Concept, Quotes, Other, etc...


I've noticed that several of mine are from me admiring the execution of the concept as much as they're from me liking the character. Case in point:

◘ Darth Caedus (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi)   ◙ Grand Admiral Thrawn (Star Wars: Heir to the Empire)   ◘ Makuta Teridax (Bionicle)
◘ The Shroud (Star Wars: The Old Republic)   ◙ The Worker of Secrets (Infinity Blade)   ◘ Szeth, Assassin in White (Stormlight Archives)

Caedus takes the "necessary evil/for the right reasons" angle the prequel trilogy tried to build into Anakin's character, but do it much better. (I liked the prequels as movies, but the story was a tad basic) Caedus has more books in which to flesh it out, and better motivations. To quote myself from before

Quote

...where the main character's motivations and goals get largely set in stone early on, but where they would stand on the scales of good/evil  &  hero/villain shift around as the story progresses. There were times where I'd consider their actions as evil, but everything else about them screams "hero," and there were times where I questioned who was really the "good guy." It was a wonderful change of pace from the "Republic is good, Empire/Separatists/Other are bad" plot that permeates all of Star Wars,

Both Thrawn and The Worker of Secrets are takes on the villain who simply knows too much. Thrawn studied cultures through their art to give him a unique insight into them, and combined that with a tactician's mind, while The Worker of Secrets is simply old/experienced enough to appraise a person's personality and predict what they'll do(imagine TLR's lie-detector ability to read someone, add many millenniums of experience, and expand it to more than just honesty.)

Teridax is somewhere in the middle. He has an overall goal, and plotted out how to get there, taking into account just about everything along the way. And I mean everything, the full plan prepared for setbacks, even counted on the hero's succeeding at minor points to unwittingly advance his overall plot.
"Sometimes, my brothers, the best way, the only way to win... is by losing."

The Shroud on the other hand, would be a perfect fit to take up the Shard of Ambition. The only real rationale behind why he does what he does is because he can do it, and because he can get away with it. He doesn't care if it's good or evil, he only cares about the challenge of doing the task, and the extra challenge of getting away with it(since the amoral often end up doing something highly illegal). Minor Spoilers:

Spoiler

His plot involved taking two battle cruisers/dreadnaughts(something Star Destroyer sized) and jury-rigging them to kamikaze into hyperspace beacons he planted on Coruscant and Dromund Kass with the intent of destroying the governments of both the Republic and the Sith Empire in one fell swoop, and plunging the galaxy into chaos.

"Every day brings new threats, new alliances, new fronts in this blossoming war. The galaxy is in a state of unrelenting, explosive change. Change breeds chaos. And chaos, opportunity—for me."

And Szeth is the perfect example of "too much of a good thing can be a bad thing." Calderis put it best:

Quote

He held to his code of honor, at the cost of his health and sanity and the stability of the world.

Edited by The One Who Connects
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Agreed Thrawn is one of the best villains that star wars ever came up with... shame about what happened to the series

going into anime and manga Acnologia who I enjoyed just because he provided such contrast to the main big bad Zerf  spoilers if you haven't read the end of the series yet

Spoiler

while Zerf needed to be dragged down the path to evil after having everything taken from him over and over, finally just giving up and saying fine let me be evil. Achnologia merely needed a good push (his family getting killed) to get started down the path to villainy and after he avenged them he gleefully continued down that path entirely out of his own free will.

also Za major if you've seen Hellsing ultimate if only because of his war speech

for Video games the Overlord, is it wrong that I loved playing him as an evil monster... every single time.

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I'd like to add The Master to the list. It's rare that you can keep an antagonist around for that long and not have them feel stale.

Special mention to Roger Delgado's portrayal, because it's hard to beat the original, classy Master.

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6 hours ago, I am Witless said:

Thanos.

 

I just finished watching the film, and I cannot stress this any further. Storms, he was one of the singularly greatest villains I have seen come to life on the silver screen.

Spoiler

Part of it is that, like the Chandrian from KKC, he genuinely didn't care about the heroes. They were just people unfortunately in his way that he had to get rid of. There's no kind of attachment there. It's just business. Coupled that with the fact that they changed his motivation for wiping out half the universe from "I have a crush on Death" to "It's simple logistics" made him a much more effective and terrifying villain. He was the first villain that Marvel pulled off that made me cry in fear for the heroes.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/28/2018 at 10:07 PM, The One Who Connects said:

I'd like to add The Master to the list. It's rare that you can keep an antagonist around for that long and not have them feel stale.

Special mention to Roger Delgado's portrayal, because it's hard to beat the original, classy Master.

OH MY GOSH! The Master! One of the best Doctor Who villains!

Roger Delgado was amazing, and even though I like Anthony Ainley, they kept him going as the Master for far too long.

John Simm is my personal favorite. (I also think that they should bring back Derek Jacobi somehow)

Another special mention goes to the Cybermen, who I find completely fascinating. 

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I really love Denth a lot.

Right now I’m enjoying Calvin from the Alvin Maker books.  Definitely a villian, but enjoyable to read his viewpoints.  I have a feeling he’s going to keep going off of the deep end.

Luke from Percy Jackson.

Sphinx from Fablehaven.  He’s just intresting to begin with and then you learn he’s evil.  I just find his story fascinating.

Raj Ahten from the Runelords.  I have trouble explaining why I love this villian so much.  It would help if I knew someone who had read the books then I could talk to them and discover his awesomeness.  Without a doubt he is evil.  (You should all read these books.  They are great.  Epic fantasy.  Might not be Sanderson, but still great.)

I know I have other villians I love as well.  I remember I had a friend who thought I was crazy for liking villains.  But if the villain isn’t good then the story isn’t worth reading.  That being said, sometimes great villains are the ones I hate so much, such as Straff Venture.

 

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Rashek, why has nobody mentioned Rashek... I think the best villains are the ones who turn out to be right. Or at least the ones who have plausible goals.

Spoiler

Wanting to save humanity seems like a logical goal.

 

Edited by Reckless Reader
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On 5/21/2018 at 11:14 PM, Prelude said:

Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes)

Moash (only villain I felt any real tension in SA)

@Captains Domon best Disney villain: wickedly smooth Maleficent.  Thanks for the laugh lol 

Negative.

22 hours ago, Captains Domon said:

COME AT ME, BRO

Edgar is a strong choice, but if you're not going with Tick-Tock, you clearly haven't been paying attention...

10 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

@Prelude @Captains Domon Technically, Darth Vader should be the best Disney villain. 

Also an acceptable answer.

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