Who are the best villains in each medium?

[WhiteNachos]

So I made a post in a different thread about how Iago from Othello is probably the greatest villain in all of stage plays. I stand by that but I'm not sure who to put for the greatest villains in every other medium.

So I ask you Escapist, who are the best villains from each medium and why? And for bonus points which of your picks would win in a fight and/or in a 'most evil' contest?

 

[Jesterscup]

Apologies, but I read the title and thouht of Doctor doom trapped in jello

comics = Thanos, and with the infinity glove he'd kick everybody's ass
books = napoleon ( a bad piggie on a farm, poor snowball )
Music = William Shatner

 

[TheRiddler]

Let's see.

TV: Tough call, but I'd say Walter White. There's nothing worse than an evil you can sympathize with.

Comics: Clearly, I'm biased. But yeah, I really do think the Riddler is a great.

Videogames: Bioshock's Andrew Ryan is a pretty good candidate, I think. The king of a failed Atlantean utopia.

Books: Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, I'd say. Dude was messed up.

Religion: Satan, duh.

 

[Sanunes]

Generally I don't have a favorite villain exactly, what I always enjoy is a guy who actually tries to complete his evil plan. So the typical classic Bond villains always annoy me because of the "I am going to leave this guy in a room all alone after he has proven he can think outside the box and possibly escape" style of villains.

One of the ones that has generally been pretty good is The Joker because he has no real reason for what he is doing, its why I like the portrayal so much in The Dark Knight and that performance probably saves the movie for me.

I think my big problem is I see so many elements in movies that I like from the "bad guy", but always by the end I dislike it because they had to let the "good guy" win so something dumb normally happens.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Video Games - Probably GLaDOS, though I could think of another and may edit.

Spoiler

Television - Davros. Because Davros.

Spoiler

Animation - Yes, I'm cheating here. But seriously, the Lich from Adventure Time. I mean, LOOK AT HIM.

Spoiler

Film - Smaug.

Spoiler

Book - Randall Flagg. He's just so deliciously evil.

Spoiler

Comics - Super tough, because there's a lot of good ones, but I'm going to have to give it to Joker.

Spoiler

EDIT: As for a fight, I guess it would come down to Smaug and the Lich (And HOLY FUCK would that be awesome to watch) and I'm thinking Smaug would win if he can resist the mind control, which he probably could. Most evil is tough... comes down to Lich, Joker and Flagg.

 

[Silvanus]

comics = Thanos, and with the infinity glove he'd kick everybody's ass

Power doesn't make a great villain, as far as I'm concerned. Thanos is powerful, but is fairly two-dimensional, and with a motivation nobody can relate to.

My choices would be...

Television- Walter White (narrowly beating Frank Underwood and the Cigarette Smoking Man).

Literature- Hannibal Lecter (with honourable mentions to HAL 9000 and the demons of 'The Master and Margarita')

Comics- Two-Face

Games- GLaDOS (honourable mention to Andrew Ryan)


Most of these are my favourites in those mediums, but there are a few favourites I left out because it wouldn't really be fair to give them the prize (for whatever reason). Jenova is one of my favourite game villains, for example, but it's unclear how active she actually was during most of the game, and most of the plot details about her come from backstory rather than direct interaction.

 

[SexyGarfield]

Best is kinda open ended, I tend to like my villains on the insane side so that will be coloring my list.

Film - Professor Hess of "The American Astronaut"

Spoiler: His modus operandi is best explained by foil but to sum it up he only kills people he has no grudge against.

Literature - The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair of "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell"
On a whim he commits casually cruel acts with unfathomable magical power effecting nearly every character while only being known to two of them (not even the main ones) for the vast majority of the novel. The two that do know of him are not anywhere near equip to do anything and are unable to talk about it.

Spoiler: Some choice quotes of his

"Beware Stephen! There will probably be a magical combat of some sort. I daresay I shall have to take on different forms - cockatrice, raw head and bloody bones, rains of fire, etc., etc. You may wish to stand back a little!"

"Yet we ought to kill someone!' said the gentleman, immediately reverting to his former subject. 'I have been quite out of temper this morning and someone ought to die for it."

"With the ashes that were her screams and the pearls that were her bones and the counterpane that was her gown and the magical essence of her kiss, I was able to divine your name."

Television - Bob of "Twin Peaks"
An evil spirit from another plane of existence called the Black Lodge. He possesses the bodies of humans and commits acts that will generate pain and suffering for both the host and their loved ones which he then stores and feeds off of for nourishment. When he is hostless he can manifest as an owl.

Spoiler: A picture of Bob

Video games - GLaDOS of Portal
In hindsight I've been pretty nonplussed with villains of this medium. GLaDOS is effective because she's the sole thief of your perceived agency, a liberty few mediums allow you to have in the first place.

Opera - Mefistofele (as played by Samuel Ramey) of Mefistofele
I've only seen a few operas but His performance as captivating beyond anything else I've ever seen in the medium.

Spoiler: There are much better scenes but this is the only one I could find on youtube that had english subs

 

[Thaluikhain]

Television - Davros. Because Davros.

Spoiler

He was much better in the original series. That bit where he condemns democracy, or when he and the Doctor are talking about the hypothetical virus that would kill everything...he's obviously wrong, but he makes it all seems so reasonable.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Television - Davros. Because Davros.

Spoiler

He was much better in the original series. That bit where he condemns democracy, or when he and the Doctor are talking about the hypothetical virus that would kill everything...he's obviously wrong, but he makes it all seems so reasonable.

I like him in both series. Felt very much like a continuum of the same character to me. Remember the hypothetical question the Doctor asked him about destroying all life in the universe? Well, his modern appearance proved that he really wasn't bluffing with his answer.

 

[Ratty]

books = napoleon ( a bad piggie on a farm, poor snowball )

Animal Farm was an analogy for the Russian revolution and the real-life Snowball (Trotsky) got it even worse from Napoleon (Stalin) who had an assassin kill him with an ice-pick like instrument, gruesome details I'll spare you. Fun fact- George Orwell was himself a socialist, and would probably have been appalled at how his works ("1984" as well as "Animal Farm") have been used to paint all socialism and socialists as inherently bad.

Also best villain-

Comics: The Joker
TV/Cartoons: The Joker
Video Games: Dracula
Movies: Dracula
Books/radio: I'm not sure.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Comics - Joker, he paralyzes Batgirl and eventually kills Sarah Gordon. What a bastard, and poor Jim. Definitely takes the cake for best villain.

Video Games - Oh... damn... Kefka. Because fuck Kefka. Fuck that clown bastard. Hmmm, well thinking about it he's pretty much the Joker in Final Fantasy so yeah default win.

TV - Gustavo Fring. His only mistakes were keeping Walter alive and dwelling on his revenge.

Movies, Books - Too many characters floating about my mind and none shine bright enough to make a decision. All that means is there are too many damn good villains in those mediums to choose.

 

[AwesomeDave]

Video Games - I love to hate Handsome Jack.

 

[Username Redacted]

TV - To me the answer this is easily David Xanatos from Gargoyles. Even when he loses he wins.

Video Games - I'm having a tough time coming up with compelling villains from video games. Saren Arterius from Mass Effect 1 is a well executed fallen hero. The issue with him is that he really doesn't get enough screen time. Neither does Andrew Ryan (Bioshock). The advantage IMO that other media have over video games in developing deeper villains is by virtue of being non-interactive it isn't a big deal when the book, TV or movie takes a break from the hero to give the villain some more screen time while in a video game doing so almost always results in taking control away from the player (i.e. a cutscene).

Comics - It was tempting to say 'The Joker' and move on to something else until I realized that the Joker doesn't function in the slightest outside of the framework of Batman. I can think of no other villain whose "success" is predicated more on his enemies self-imposed set of rules than the Joker. He knows that Batman won't kill him and he knows that Batman will prioritize saving someone else over capturing him. This gives him too many easy outs in dealing with Batman as even in a worse case scenario he's merely thrown into the worlds least secure prison/asylum and is one easy breakout away from starting the entire process anew.

Comics (pt. 2) - No idea. Too many villains just aren't at the most basic level credible threats to the heroes. The flip side of that is that going too far the other way results in extraordinarily boring force of nature villains with ~0 personality (see also: Doomsday).

Movies - This is a toss up between Roy Batty (Blade Runner) and Prince Humperdink (The Princess Bride). The former is charismatic and manipulative while the latter is the definition of sniveling scumbag. My test for this was going down the IMDB.com top 250 list and seeing how many of the movies on that list that I'd seen I could actually remember the name of the villain in the movie without having to click on the link.

 

[Asita]

Movies: I'm going to go with Khan. The guy was clever, cunning, vengeful, and ultimately driven by a relatable grievance[footnote]namely that Kirk had exiled him to a planet that - unbeknowst to either - would suffer ecological collapse only a few months after they arrived. Kirk never gave that planet a second glance for almost 20 years and Khan blamed that negligence for the loss of 5/7 of the people he was marooned with.[/footnote] that was warped into a murderous hatred. He's not a cackling, card-carrying villain, he's a man who unknowingly led his people into the mouth of hell and who as consequence wants to avenge them on the man who set them on that course. To me, that's a beautiful motivation and story arc, which was almost perfectly realized by Ricardo Montalbán's performance.

 

[WhiteNachos]

comics = Thanos, and with the infinity glove he'd kick everybody's ass

Power doesn't make a great villain, as far as I'm concerned. Thanos is powerful, but is fairly two-dimensional, and with a motivation nobody can relate to.

My choices would be...

Television- Walter White (narrowly beating Frank Underwood and the Cigarette Smoking Man).

Literature- Hannibal Lecter (with honourable mentions to HAL 9000 and the demons of 'The Master and Margarita')

Comics- Two-Face

Games- GLaDOS (honourable mention to Andrew Ryan)


Most of these are my favourites in those mediums, but there are a few favourites I left out because it wouldn't really be fair to give them the prize (for whatever reason). Jenova is one of my favourite game villains, for example, but it's unclear how active she actually was during most of the game, and most of the plot details about her come from backstory rather than direct interaction.

Am I the only one who thinks Gustavo Fring is a better villain than White? It took me a while to see White as a villain.

Edit: and I'm pretty sure he mentioned his power because I asked who would win in a fight

 

[Pyramid Head]

Okay... here's my list...


Movies: Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest)

Video Games: James Sunderland (Silent Hill 2) (Yes, i do have a reason for this but i don't feel like posting an essay)

Live Action TV: Heisenberg (Breaking Bad)

Western Animation: Eric Cartman (South Park)

Asian Animation: Kyubey (Puella Magi Madoka Magicka) (Again, i have a reason, but it would fall under massive spoilers)

Books: Vogons (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

 

[Silvanus]

Am I the only one who thinks Gustavo Fring is a better villain than White? It took me a while to see White as a villain.

Fring is a brilliant choice, too. My reason with White is that I liked him so much in the earlier seasons, and so every reprehensible thing he did really struck home. I expected it of Fring, but with White, we got to see his fall.

Edit: and I'm pretty sure he mentioned his power because I asked who would win in a fight

Ahh, yes, that's fair enough. The most powerful villain would probably be somebody like Galactus or Brainiac for comic books, and most likely somebody from Final Fantasy for video games.

 

[Guffe]

Bowser!
No one can beat Bowser, from any medium, so Bowser is the master of all mediums!

Spoiler: EVIL LAUGH

 

[WhiteNachos]

Am I the only one who thinks Gustavo Fring is a better villain than White? It took me a while to see White as a villain.

Fring is a brilliant choice, too. My reason with White is that I liked him so much in the earlier seasons, and so every reprehensible thing he did really struck home. I expected it of Fring, but with White, we got to see his fall.

Edit: and I'm pretty sure he mentioned his power because I asked who would win in a fight

Ahh, yes, that's fair enough. The most powerful villain would probably be somebody like Galactus or Brainiac for comic books, and most likely somebody from Final Fantasy for video games.

No I meant that out of your personal picks for each medium who would win in a fight.

My pick for movies is probably Vader and somebody like Fring wouldn't stand a chance (neither would Iago even though I think Iago is more clever than Vader).

Anyway one reason I really love Fring is that he seems like a very meek, soft spoken man at the beginning, but by the end of his appearance, once you know exactly how powerful he is, he becomes a very intimidating man. You remember the Half Measures episode?