What Makes a Great Villain?

[monodiabloloco]

Smarts are always needed. Stupid villans have their place in games (mini-bosses! Thug-battles!) but a real villian needs to make you think.
I actually seem to like Lex Luthor types of villians the most. The self serving, obviously evil yet charismatic a-holes who would be able to talk almost anyone into taking their side, buy off most of those they can't, and have the resources to destroy the rest. The kind that never actually fights you him/herself, but has tech or thugs to do it for them... the kind that also always escapes in the end. (that's what ruined the Batman and Spiderman movies for me.. good villians don't die... they escape and return later to haunt the hero)

 

[Burn4now]

Brains over brawn baby! Sure, a little muscle is needed to beat the good guy (will never happen), but the best bad dude is a smart mofo.

 

[blackadvent]

The best villains are often the ones that can actually perform their dastardly evil plans and seem half-way competent. This includes mastering the double-cross and manipulation of allies for the inevitable backstab. Kefka's the only one that clearly succeeds in this regard- how many villains can you honestly say have succeeded at becoming a god AND destroying the world as we know it?

*SPOILER ALERT for multiple games*

Ner'zhul AKA the Lich King from Warcraft III and it's expansion has done this as well, but hasn't completely succeeded yet. He was the Orc leader in Warcraft II's expansion, and cursed to become a bodiless entity by demons after he destroyed the orcish homeworld. You face his undead minions throughout nearly the entire original game, and especially in the Human campaign, I was thinking, 'Someone's gotta be a sick, sick guy to make all THIS.' And then he manipulated Arthas into becoming evil. From then on, he uses Arthas as a sort of puppet figure, killing most of the elves and summoning Archimonde (and saving the world to make sure HE could conquer it), all while trying to get Arthas to Icecrown so he could finally get a new body.

Another example of this is from another Blizzard game (they seem to make great villains, somehow). Diablo from his namesake series. The entire first game was him manipulating your hero so he could get a stronger body and damn your soul for all eternity. The second game was you chasing him into Hell to try to stop (and fail at) him from releasing his brothers from imprisonment. Sure, you killed him at the end of Diablo II and Baal was the main baddy in the expansion, but can you honestly say that he might have counted on that?

Kerrigan, of course, must be mentioned. I don't think I need to say any more other than this- in the span of one campaign in the Brood War, she manages to get the Dark Templar Matriarch offed, kill General Duke, kill Fenix AGAIN (possibly for good), betray Raynor and Mengsk, and hand the UED their ass (causing their military leader to kill himself).

Other great villains aren't necessarily great, they might even be cowards, but they manage to perform deeds that you don't expect that give you motivation to finish the job. Can anyone tell me that they expected Aerith to die that suddenly (without looking at a strategy guide) from Sephiroth's blade? Or did you honestly expect Atlas to be playing you like a pansy from the very beginning, or even Ryan to make you lose yourself? And yea, Guilty Spark was an annoyance, but he managed to kill the invincible Sgt. Johnson, and he survived a Flood infection.

*END MASSIVE SPOILERS*

 

[Dectilon]

Smarts are always needed. Stupid villans have their place in games (mini-bosses! Thug-battles!) but a real villian needs to make you think.
I actually seem to like Lex Luthor types of villians the most. The self serving, obviously evil yet charismatic a-holes who would be able to talk almost anyone into taking their side, buy off most of those they can't, and have the resources to destroy the rest. The kind that never actually fights you him/herself, but has tech or thugs to do it for them... the kind that also always escapes in the end. (that's what ruined the Batman and Spiderman movies for me.. good villians don't die... they escape and return later to haunt the hero)

Show me the corpse or it didn't happen : D

Actually, even if you do show me the corpse I'm not very convinced a villain in a marvel comic will stay dead...

 

[Dectilon]

*SPOILERS*

"Kerrigan, of course, must be mentioned. I don't think I need to say any more other than this- in the span of one campaign in the Brood War, she manages to get the Dark Templar Matriarch offed, kill General Duke, kill Fenix AGAIN (possibly for good), betray Raynor and Mengsk, and hand the UED their ass (causing their military leader to kill himself)."

She gets tricked by the Xel'Naga though : /

 

[monodiabloloco]

Smarts are always needed. Stupid villans have their place in games (mini-bosses! Thug-battles!) but a real villian needs to make you think.
I actually seem to like Lex Luthor types of villians the most. The self serving, obviously evil yet charismatic a-holes who would be able to talk almost anyone into taking their side, buy off most of those they can't, and have the resources to destroy the rest. The kind that never actually fights you him/herself, but has tech or thugs to do it for them... the kind that also always escapes in the end. (that's what ruined the Batman and Spiderman movies for me.. good villians don't die... they escape and return later to haunt the hero)

Show me the corpse or it didn't happen : D

Actually, even if you do show me the corpse I'm not very convinced a villain in a marvel comic will stay dead...

Yeah, I have called comics soap operas for geeks. (and I still read them, damnit!)

 

[The Treasoner]

Charisma.

A true Villain must be more than a one-dimensional hate machine with a lot of power. He must have finesse in his plans, he must have ideals he wants to achieve, possibly even an honor code. He must not EVER assume any who rise against him are fools, he must be able to recognize every threat so he can conquer it.

 

[Dectilon]

Why does Sephiroth get all the credit as being the villain in FFVII?

Jenova was the villain, both Hojo and Sephiroth were just her pawns.

Well, he gets more credit compared to Jenova because she's not really a character. She has all of 4 lines in the entire game, right? Or have I missed something? ~~

Also, it must be annoying to get pwned by the pawns constantly : )

 

[DreamerM]

Also, it must be annoying to get pwned by the pawns constantly : )

VERY annoying.

I love villains who are strong enough and independant enough that they don't NEED to be Masterminds or Evil Scientists, they don't need pawns or minions. They ARE their own army.

Someone like Sylar of Heroes. I don't think he has a gaming equivilant, I guess you need someone who would employ some cannon-fodder and minibosses, but when you can take your entire superpowered party all the way to the end, take ONE LOOK at what you're up against, and just kiss your ass goodbye, THAT is a great villain.

 

[Dectilon]

Also, it must be annoying to get pwned by the pawns constantly : )

VERY annoying.

I love villains who are strong enough and independant enough that they don't NEED to be Masterminds or Evil Scientists, they don't need pawns or minions. They ARE their own army.

Someone like Sylar of Heroes. I don't think he has a gaming equivilant, I guess you need someone who would employ some cannon-fodder and minibosses, but when you can take your entire superpowered party all the way to the end, take ONE LOOK at what you're up against, and just kiss your ass goodbye, THAT is a great villain.

I personally dislike villains that can catch bullets with their fingers and tear down mountains with a wave of their hand right from the offset (See... well, any fighting anime). I actually prefer more the Kefka-like villain, who is actually a pushover most of the time until his evil plan kicks in and he suddenly becomes to most powerful creature in the world : ) You sort of chase him, and he runs in panic just to suddenly stop, turn around and go "HAHA!"

 

[veryconfused]

A good villan is anyone closely comparable to Saren from Mass Effect and GLaDOS is a close second.

I personally enjoy Saren because he knows how to use his power against you and he has complete control over some of his situation.

And GLaDOS is mean cuz she lied about cake. Lying about cake is going WAYYYYYYYYYY too far.

 

[kapitane]

People are saying personality or good writing, but they're the prerequisites what a great villain needs: HATE. You need to hate that son-of-a-thing, you need to take his every action as a personal affront and get swept up in your mission to defeat him. You need to forget that you can continue whenever you want, to get swept up in the final all-or-nothing battle and know that you have to beat him NOW and for all time.

I can still remember crying "Why won't you DIEEEE!" at Liquid Snake, staggering over to me in a flipped jeep. Awesome stuff.

 

[Wixern]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Jon Irenicus (Baldur's gate: Shadows of Amn) yet. He remains my favorite villain to this day. He's driven by his own goals and ambitions, does whatever he needs to do to get where he wants to be, and he can disintegrate a human with a single word.

Also, he was brilliantly voiced: his voice had a certain chill to it that rang in your mind.

*SPOILERS*

He's also the only villain I ever heard of who actually steals your (divine) soul to restore his own. Not to mention he actually managed to get a dragon to do his bidding, had an army of vampires at his disposal, and singlehandedly killed about a dozen mages in a all-on-one battle.

*/Spoilers*

Irenicus was tough. I liked him better than GLaDOS, or any other video game villain.

 

[Singing Gremlin]

I'd give C&Cs Kane a mention here. Incredibly charismatic, just carries the air that their cause is righteous (despite being an evil w****r). I actually found myself arguing with my brother about whether or not NOD was evil. I think if he can convince the player, he's a good villain.

Or, you could just give an average Joe an English accent and you're instantly either an evil super villain or a hopeless romantic

 

[Dectilon]

Well, of course she's a character, but with only a few spoken phrases and one not really knowing how much of what comes out of Sephy's mouth is his own ideas or hers it's hard to define her.

Although... If one cares to include Advent Children in the character analysis one could argue that after Sephiroth's death and rebirth there isn't really two creatures, but one. From Kadaj and his bros, which I guess represents his human side, and the head of Jenova Sephiroth is reborn. Instead of two wills they seem to have become just one : /

I do agree with your point. Ultimecia from FF8 is practically the same. Always present, never in the spotlight

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

Bad-ass beard, mustache, awesome evil laugh, some kind of physical mutation or special power or guns or something cool like that.

 

[Natsu_Blaze]

1) They definitely need to look awesome, or at least be able to look awesome when awesomeness is needed.
2) Cold and calculating is always a plus. *grr* *twitch* *muscle bulge* villains (see DBZ) are cool too, and you'd never want to go toe-to-toe with them, but if you want to completely scare the **** out of your readers, players, what have you, the calculating genius is an excellent archetype.
3) Motivation. And not just any motivation... this has to be a motivation you could actually agree with. It's been said before, but Kira is a shining example of this.
4) Some of the best villains look completely harmless at first. Like Oleander- you wouldn't have pegged him as a villain until you actually saw him doing evil stuff, ya? Until then he's just a sorta oddball camp counselor. And then of course there's my personal favorite, Soujiro (from Rurouni Kenshin). Come on, who would think that sweet little kid could break Kenshin's sword in a duel and kill a man in a moving carriage?

Now, here's a nice example of all four: Damon Gant, from the first Phoenix Wright game for the DS. Every fan of the series knows that creepy stare, but he seems totally harmless and fun at first- yet he's manipulated everyone from behind the scenes for two years. And the reason? All so guilty criminals won't be able to go free. And if that means mucking with the court system... well, so be it!
(Seriously, why has nobody mentioned this guy before?)