Your favorite "Bad guy" characters

[Neverhoodian]

Inspired by this thread:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.822591-Your-favorite-Good-guy-characters

Let's face it, we've all got a darker side to us. Why else do we like bad guys so much?

I'm talking about REAL "bad guys" here. They're bad, they know it, and they LOVE it. Leave that wussy "anti-hero" and "anti-villain" crap at the door. This is for characters that are bad to the bone.

I'll start with a few of my favorites:

*Megatron from Beast Wars.

One of the things I like most about this character is the sheer range of villainy he embodies depending on the situation. It basically covers the whole spectrum, from goofy ham to skin-crawling sadism. And then there's the voice. That magnificent, malevolent, melodious voice. Yeeeesssssssss...

Spoiler

*The Joker from Batman: The Animated Series (and the DC:AU in general)

While other valiant attempts have been made to capture the essence of the Joker, none of them compare to this incarnation. It's the perfect blend of silliness and psychopath. One moment I'm laughing at a pun, the next I'm recoiling in horror at something like this:

Spoiler

Once again, the voice completes it for me. Mark Hamill once compared performing the Joker's laugh to playing a musical instrument, and I'm inclined to agree. Just listen to those laughs. It's like a one-man orchestra of villainy.

Spoiler

*Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars films.

This guy is the dark side of the Force personified. The malevolence he emanated in Return of the Jedi was palpable through the screen (see what I did there?). He was in control, and he knew it. He knew he could kill Luke anytime he wanted, but he wanted his victim to squirm, to suffer both emotionally and physically. Hubris was his downfall, of course, but I can't say I blame him for that. He had eradicated the entire Jedi order and had the galaxy under his thumb for over twenty years. What threat could this one farm boy possibly be to him?

While I didn't care much for the prequels as a whole, the scenes with Palpatine were some of the highlights. I particularly liked how in Episode III he went "screw this noise, I want to have some fun" and proceeded to begin devouring the scenery while gibbering and cackling like a madman. He was just so damn gleeful basking in his villainy that I couldn't help but start giggling myself.

*Iago from Shakespeare's Othello.

Sometimes you don't need huge guns, deadly laughing gas or evil space magic to be a great bad guy. Sometimes you can just be a manipulative bastard. And when it comes to being a manipulative bastard, nobody can beat Iago. The way he plays on the trust of others to ultimately destroy them is absolutely delicious. By the time they realize the true colors of "honest Iago," it's too late. Granted he gets caught in the end, but you have to admit he had a damn good run of backstabbing and treachery while it lasted.

 

[Hazy992]

Man, your criteria throws out so many awesome villains D:

Oh well here goes nothing:

Lord Frieza from Dragon Ball Z

Sure Goku's faced tougher and more dangerous opponents since Frieza, but none of them even came close to affecting Goku or the direction of the series as a whole quite like he did. No other villain caused Goku so much pain, so much anguish and so much anger as Frieza. This is the guy that broke Goku's calm and cheery outlook and made him everything he's not.

On top of that the guy's just a terrifying and cruel villain, committing multiple acts of genocide to further his goal and killing people just because he feels like it. If anybody's the antithesis of Goku, it isn't Vegeta, it's Lord Frieza.

 

[Leemaster777]

Inspired by my thread, eh? Nice.

And I've got to agree with you, Beast Wars Megatron definitely qualifies as one of my favorite villains ever.

Really, it's almost embarrassing how much more threatening, sadistic, and downright EFFECTIVE Beast Wars Megatron is than the traditional Megatron. That's probably why he was recently inducted into the Transformers Hall of Fame.

Oh, and that picture of the Predacons is freaking awesome, where did you find that?

 

[The Wykydtron]

Hold on, i'm going to end this thread right here. Ready? Ok...

[http://media.photobucket.com/user/KingRQM/media/Hazama.jpg.html]

Annnnnnnnd /thread

Seriously, Hazama is just the best, most fun and most evil villain I have ever seen. He lives to troll people, that's literally his entire purpose in life. He outright dies if people stop hating him (the good guys know this but it's not like they can shut down their emotions right? Especially Ragna)

He mindfucks Tsubaki to the point of her honestly trying to kill her best friend in 5 minutes flat just because she had the misfortune to be in a conversation with him and he got bored.

He's naturally the most powerful character in the game without even trying with only a pair of butterfly knives, Ouroboros (which is essentially a glorified whip) and most importantly a badass suit and hat combo that offers exactly zero protection from any weapons. Everyone else has like swords and guns and vampire powers.

He also has a great evil laugh (both English and Japanese version, I don't discriminate) that he does not hesitate to show off at any available opportunity.

Look I could go on about Hazama forever. He's fucking COOL!

 

[ItouKaiji]

There's lots of them. Villains when done well can almost always be more interesting than the heroes. Of course it's that done well bit that trips most of them up.

Anyway I'll go with Ladd Russo. Thank you, fuck you, the villain has arrived.

Ladd is the perfect psychopath. Charismatic with his own sense of twisted morals, he is super fun to watch.

 

[shootthebandit]

Hannibal lecter. About as bad as you can get yet hes somehow so intriguing. Not to mention anthony hopkins plays the part incredibly well

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I believe that pic is from the Teletraan 1 (the Transformers Wiki) entry on BW Megatron. With the subtitle 'Best. Megatron. Ever. Yessssss.' Agreed.

Of course there's also his CGI counterpart, equally as sinister and cunning:

Spoiler

A true blue tyrant, and possibly the most physically powerful character. Even when this guy finds something akin to love in whatever he's got that passes for a heart, he doesn't let it redeem or even weaken him. Instead he turns it into a weakness in those around him to exploit through squick. And in the end... he wins!

RIP, Mr. Tony Jay.

Also, this one:

Spoiler

What is a man?

Yeah, so apparently he used to be a devout worshipper of God, a crusader even. Times change, and even Megatron started out with noble intentions. Not as effective as others on this list due to usually being beaten back into the grave by his ancestral enemies moments after his resurrection, but a classic who must spend his time in limbo just coming up with an awesome new transformation for the next hundred-year cycle... except the more recent time when he chose not to transform at all and ended up being more dangerous than ever before. He's also much more active in the movies to make up for it.

 

[viranimus]

Myself of course.

Ok fine. Kefka.. Definitely Kefka.

Spoiler

And before you start thinking "Joker rip off" or "Sephiroth was better" just remember

Spoiler

Actually Kefka is just one. I was always fond of ID from Xenogears. As a Kid It was Starscream/Shockwave/Soundwave etc who first introduced me to the allure of the dark side. So essentially Im all for the bad guys because with "evil" at least there is no self deluding like "good" always does by thinking it is noble, virtuous, just when it is every bit the same as "evil" is only with a lot more excuses trying to rationalize evil behavior in the game of good.

 

[Skeleon]

Dunno, does Xanatos from Gargoyles count? I mean, he becomes sort of a good guy later, but at the start he's a real villain. An opportunist. A schemer. But also not dumb enough to be driven by petty revenge.

Spoiler

If not, hm. Yeah, I think I'll have to give my vote to goddess SHODAN. Bow before her, insects.

 

[rob_simple]

Haguro from the manga, Wolf Guy. I have never seen a more chaotically evil character in all my life, at one point he goes so far as to

Spoiler: To prevent spoilers but also because it is a bit horrible

Rape and murder the man who is supposed to be his best friend/second in command because he suspects he is protecting the titular wolf guy.

Also, he looks like this and is like a Yakuza boss despite apparently being in high school:

 

[Lieju]

I tend to generally like more morally ambiguous villains, but

Albert Wesker.

The plot of Resident Evil is just convoluted and silly, which is why I kinda enjoy rooting for the bad guys in that series. They are just so cartoonishly evil (and mostly mad scientists).

I also feel kinda bad for Wesky, it's like he is being thrown about by the writers of the games who have no idea what his motivations even are. (Apart from just being a douchebag to everyone.)

I like his characterization the most in Umbrella Chronicles, though. It makes more sense, and since he is playable character he gets his own nemesis Sergei the nutty Russian. Who Wesker then just refuses to take seriously.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Honestly, couldn't come up with one in particular, but I guess that I'll just choose this guy, to give the list some variety.

Marik Ishtar

and Yami Marik

both from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

Both of these versions of Marik together embody the perfect Yu-Gi-Oh! villian, as his original state is a brilliant strategist and manipulator, coming up with devilish plans to defeat Yugi and his allies, always having a back-up to all his plans, and remaining virtually invisible to everyone until he is finally revealed by his darker half. His only fault is that he is not a strong opponent, despite him having a wide variety of powerful cards and resources at his disposal.

His darker half, Yami Marik, is quite the opposite in almost every single way. He is bold, sadistic, and takes a more direct route to completing his objectives. He is skilled at the card game and utilized every manner of trick, mind game, and intimidation in order to kill all those who appose him or send them into oblivion. If he had a bit of tact to his methods, he would have undoubtedly become a force to be reckoned with.

 

[lord canti]

As of right now I really love the phantom troupe from hunter x hunter.

 

[Kaxbe]

I find "I'm so evil" villains to be quite drab for the most part. Sure, I have a few that I enjoy, but for the most part I love the villains who just kill and blackmail and manipulate all while thinking that they're the higher moral ground for doing it and there's absolutely no way you can convince them otherwise. For example, I really like the Disney version of Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame. Villains who know that what they're doing is wrong but do it anyways because it's comfortable for them are okay.

 

[___________________]

Lan Di from Shenmue. That guy is so evil that he was able to stop Shenmue's storyline from being completed in order to not be caught. Damn you Lan Di, Shenmue 3 shall rise some day.

 

[shootthebandit]

This guy. Hans gruber has no political motive or allegence with anyone. He doesnt want anything else other than money and for that reason he is up there on my list


This guy is the epitome of capitalist greed and seedy corruption not to mention his weird sadistic rituals make him my favourite villain ever not to mention that rickman plays him with such a camp flair. In my eyes you are not a proper villian unless you are a bit camp

I think youve guessed the recurring theme of my favourite baddies. If you guessed alan rickman then you are correct. Nobody plays a sinister character like this man

 

[MCerberus]

Query: how is it these meatbags always forget the obvious choice?
Observation: You are reading this in HK's voice.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Not one person here has said Angelus. And that's terrible. You're all terrible.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

/thread

Seriously, if you say anything but the Joker you are wrong. Like, objectively incorrect. Seriously, this guy can match the goddamn Batman.

 

[silver wolf009]

Darth Nihilus takes the cake. Best Sith Lord. Ever.

Spoiler: For Bigness

If you read up on him, he wasn't always evil, but once he started? Dude snapped his moral compass in half long ago.

After becoming a black hole for life, he consumed every survivor of the planetary weapon that blew up Malacor 5. Following that, he ripped spare parts of star ships from the wreckage around the shattered planet, glued them together with his mind, and took flight.

And when the Jedi order convened on a single planet renowned for its Force connectivity to try and combat what was striking at them, they didn't even get the chance. He killed everyone on the planet, except for one girl who he enslaved as his apprentice, and constantly abused for the hell of it.

He's a self-destructing black hole of anti-life that could kill everything in creation if he wanted to. And he does want to.