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How do!

So as the ongoing glut of super hero movies have shown, but didn’t start? Compelling villains are quite the rarity in media.

Whilst a moustache twirling Git is good fun, the writers all too often get lazy and have the baddie just sort of tell the goodie what they’re up to. And even on occasion exactly how to stop them.

But when they get it right? Oh my are we the audience in for a treat. And I don’t just mean earthly human villains. I’m meaning pretty much any antagonist of charisma and charm. We needn’t empathise with their goals, but we should, on some level, be darkly tempted to sympathise with them and even respect them.

By no means exhaustive, here are my first two. And they’re in no particular order.

Crowley, Supernatural\
Oooooooh what a cad! But a charming and intelligent one. He’s smart as you like, and tends to play his cards close to his chest. And thanks to Mark Sheppard’s acting chops, always has a twinkle in his eye which tells us he knows waaaaaay more than he’s telling the heroes. He’s a big old Richard, yet…..also kinda cool.

Loki
Oh hai low hanging fruit. ‘Nuff said.

Right, your turn!

Magua in The Last of the Mohicans.
Gul Dukat in DS9. He was probably the best "true" villain in a long running series that I have seen.
Alfred Bester cast an oversized shadow on Babylon 5. There were several good villains on that show, but he was the best of them.

Silco in the recent Arcane series was a good villain I thought

Xykon
Order Of The Stick
He's a lich. He literally tore his own skin off when he became undead, and massacred everyone who ever dared mock him. But god-DAMN, he's just so charming! He's slick, he's funny, and unrepentantly evil.

Relatedly, Redcloak is pretty good. My favorite moment is when he brutally murders Tsukiko, and then when asked where she is...

Xykon: "Ok then, let's cast off, ye evil mateys! Where's what's-her-name, the chick with the pigtails?"
Jirix: "Tsukiko? She was here when the sewer team reported..."
Xykon: "Anyone seen her since?"
Jirix: "No."
Assorted Others: "No."
Redcloak: "Not since I brutally murdered her ten minutes ago, no."
...
Redcloak: "Does that count? I guess that counts."

On the unrepentantly evil thing?

Now you mention it, I think that’s an important ingredient in a Good Villain.

They need to clearly believe that they are, in fact, in the right. Or are at least entitled to what they’re after.

This is definitely where Dukat falls. Like all the major Cardassian characters we’re treated to, he’s an opportunist, but with a pretty singular goal - him in charge, Cardassia flourishing.

OK that’s not exactly singular, but it is what makes him so interesting and compelling. Underneath the moustache twirling lurks a genuine morality, albeit one us humans find at least a bit off, and struggling to see. But it is there.

It’s kind of the same with Loki, where even his brother can never be quite sure if Loki is being a big ol’ phallus for lols, and just pretending to help. Yet….mischief is his nature. Even when pretty much all the Avengers get the better of him, we still feel for him. Especially after Hulk’s turn.

Mysterio, aka Quentin Beck, aka we have no idea what his actual name is.

He was so well done in Far From Home that I STILL have conversations with people who think he is dead. It's amazing.

Yep, definitely a solid villain. As an individual, not that powerful. But his plans are simply pristine.

Xanatos from Gargoyles, nuff said.

Gustavo Fring (and arguably Walter White to an extent given that the premise of the story is the gradual birth of a villain) from Breaking Bad. Succeeds in dismantling and defeating Don Eladio's cartel and only loses because of a personal vendetta from the past.

Yoshikage Kira really stands out as a great villain in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. He really does just want to be left alone and I love how he's not the kind that wants to take over the world or anything and how he deliberately aims to be relatively average in everything so as to not stand out. He'd be really chill guy if it wasn't for his occasional murder boners for hands.

Lex Luthor and The Joker from the DCAU. Each one absolutely steals the scene each time they're on screen and each can be frighteningly competent . Hell, Luthor's technically the reason why Darkseid was even beaten at the end of the Justice League Unlimited, and Joker's legacy continues even far into Gotham's future.

Dr. Doom, especially of the proper comic book style variety and not the god-awful movie version. This clip really sums up how above so many superheroes and their "trivial" conflicts in fighting supervillains.




Hannibal Lecter stands out as another major villain done well. Methodical and able to really play with the minds of his captors, it's the eery calmness and eloquence of how he approaches people that makes him stand out compared to the boisterousness of a lot of other villains.

Hans Gruber. Charming, great plan, gonna steal umpteen million dollars of bearer bonds and conceal it as a terrorist attack so he can fake his death and get away clean. If not for a renegade New York cop coming to visit his estranged wife Gruber's plan would have worked flawlessly.

Another good one. Ares, from Wonder Woman. A perfectly understandable motive. Terrible endgame, but his plans had been working just fine for millennia!

Sabertooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Brought the snark and personality to the character that had been missing in previous presentations.

Hal Stewart from Megamind. What happens when you gve a normal guy who's a bit of a loser super powers? You get this. Brilliant.

Dr. Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well executed, well acted, and he actually pulls his plan off. It literally takes divine intervention to stop him!

Darth Vader, one of the best movie villain entrances in cinematic history?

And who can forget Khan Noonian Singh? Ricardo Monteban, not Benedict Cumberbatch; Benedict did a good job with what he had, but you can only do so much with that script. Monteban, on the other hand, played the role perfectly in one of, if not THE, best Star Trek movie script to date.

I quite like Grand Admiral Thrawn from the Zahn books. Urbane, competent, knows what he wants and has the strategic chips to get it, but unfortunately is up against the biggest clown car full of lucky plot armoured heroes known to literature. Every single time he pulls off an amazing trick, there just happens to be the one person in the galaxy present that has been exposed to the preceding plot points and therefore can foil his schemes. He only fails due to Vader’s schemes being foiled by massive happenstance.

Plenty out there

* Mr Swede in Hell on Wheels

* Ramsey Bolten in Game of Thrones

* Billy Russo / Jigsaw in the Punisher TV series

Def agree with Bester,

Not Mr Morden... ?

Most of the 'old' Marvel villians had tremendously complex motivations, Magneto and Dr. Doom being standouts.

But my favorite will always be Auric Goldfinger. Perfect combination of planning, preening, and OCD. Odd Job was the perfect henchman for this character, Bond the perfect foil.

PotC's Davy Jones is criminally underrated (as are the two films he appears in, but that's another conversation). It honestly baffles me a bit that he doesn't sit alongside Vader and Thanos in the rankings more often, because for the generation that grew up between those two, he's comfortably one of the best baddies going. A superb design, wonderful script work, tragic enough while still terrifying, and a frankly stunning performance from Bill Nighy that should go alongside Serkis' Gollum as a marvel of early mo-cap work. What's more, he's got an absolutely killer theme (something of a dying art these days) and in both Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, he's pretty much competent and threatening throughout, undone not by his own folly but by the heroes' cunning, skill and sacrifice.


I'm also going make my claim that Palpatine is Star Wars' greatest villain. Possibly controvertial, but as awe-inspiring and threatening as Vader is, that says just as much about his boss as it does about him. With ANH you get a relentless, murderous and supremely competent figure in Vader, but then ESB introduces the guy holding his leash and to my mind, that's even more terrifying. I also have a huge soft spot for uncomplicated villains with immense power and goals and abilities that verge on the impossible, the 'force of nature' villains that exist in the name of unrepentent, capital-E Evil, the arch-villains, and Palpatine is the best of them.We don't know much about where he came from, or what drove him to darkness, or even really what he wants beyond absolute (or perhaps UNLIMITED) power.

We just know he's the greatest evil, and therefore will only be beaten by tne greatest good, and thus when Luke and Rey defeat him, it cements them as THE heroes, risen to their greatest heights. Ian McDiarmid's performance gives him enough characterisation to be enthralling, and for me, simply his place in the narrative does the rest. Villains exist to show us the quality of our heroes, and the bigger and badder the villain, the greater the heroes have to be.

Ironically, his appeal for me is summed up in the much derided line from RoS, 'Somehow Palpatine returned...' Because that's all we need! It doesn't matter one jot how he did it, or why, and to explain that would ultimately cheapen him, I think. What matters is that the greatest force for evil the galaxy has ever known is back for round two, so it'a go-time for our new generation of heroes to rise to the challenge... It's simple it's effective, and it raises the stakes like nothing else.

I mean... David Xanatos. That the VA is Will Ricker is just the icing. Actually, many of the villains from Gargoyles were really good.

The latest best villains I've seen lately would be Silco and Jinx, from Arcane.

 Lance845 wrote:
Mysterio, aka Quentin Beck, aka we have no idea what his actual name is.

He was so well done in Far From Home that I STILL have conversations with people who think he is dead. It's amazing.

Gyllenhaal's Mysterio was awesome. I loved Dafoe's Goblin and Molina's Octopus as well, both from the Raimi's movies and the last Spiderman's episode.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Vulcan wrote:
Hans Gruber. Charming, great plan, gonna steal umpteen million dollars of bearer bonds and conceal it as a terrorist attack so he can fake his death and get away clean.

A lot of people mention him as one of the best villains ever seen on screen. And I definitely agree. But also his brother from Die Hard With A Vengeance always seemed pretty solid to me, I watched that movie a hundred times.

It does help that both Jeremy Irons and Alan Rickman are both among the best actors of their generation

I’m going to drop in a mention for Gary Oldman as any of his bad guys, but primarily from 5th element and Leon. There is no scenery without teethmarks in their films, but he does crazed but charming so well.

Ah there’s nowt wrong with pouring hot sauce on the scenery and having a feast.

I mean, take Mr Rickman in the other wise fairly turgid Robin Hood Prince of Thieves! He makes that film, with such style and panache. The Sheriff of Nottingham via Dr Frank’n’furter!

Actually, Frankie must get a shout out. He’s not evil as such. He’s just really really hedonistic.

Oh that reminds me. It’s not evil bad guy related, but the kids are still deep in phineas and ferb land, and the dad is voiced by Richard O’Brien and every now and then rocky horror references bubble to the surface. It’s awesome

Mr Teatime from Pratchett's Hogfather always stuck with me as being distinct, clever and not succumbing to evil stupidity.

I've always loved Starscream's blend of malicious violence and cravenness, a true bully character.

I'm trying to think of a worthwhile Bond villain and all I can come up with is Dr Evil, which... ah sod it, he's a great villain too.

 Henry wrote:
Mr Teatime from Pratchett's Hogfather always stuck with me as being distinct, clever and not succumbing to evil stupidity.
.

Loved Marc Warrens version of him too

Ramsey Bolton is an incredible shout. Joffrey and Cersie can also be included, any character that makes you actually despise them is always a villain well done IMO.

The Joker from the Batman Arkham series games specifically.

Sephiroph from Final Fantasy.

Finally, a 40k villain, I personally think Pontius Glaw is an outstanding villain.

Dude from Captain America Civil War

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Dude from Captain America Civil War

Baron Zemo?

It’s a bloody good call!

Eric Cartman

 LordofHats wrote:
Eric Cartman

He's not a pure villain imo.

I’ll endorse Palpatine.

Dude had all his angles covered. Destroyed and discredited his foes. Played both sides. By any measure, he won.

Yet, as Luke said? Your overconfidence is your weakness. And so it was.

Ian McDiarmid is a superb villainous actor.

trexmeyer wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Eric Cartman

He's not a pure villain imo.

That's what makes him truly villainous.

He's like Gul Dukat. He tricks you into thinking he might be a hero sometimes, but really he's just a monster all the time.

And now that I think of him; Gul Dukat. The guy is such a perfect example of how charismatic and sympathetic narcissistic egomaniacs can be. He was so well written and acted, the audience needed to be slapped in the face with how much the bad guy he's supposed to be and still people argue he's not a villain.

To go with something a little different: Michael Corleone.