The Villain Thread

[Ieyke]

It took 7 posts for the correct answer to come up.
I am disappointed in you all for taking that long, but at the same time you've improved. Last time it took til the 13th post or so.

Spoiler: The greatest villain of all.

Doom is the greatest villain of all time.
Few villains are more powerful, few villains are more complex.
He's the inspiration for Darth Vader.
He's the supervillain that basically never takes part in Marvel-DC crossovers because Marvel regards him as too powerful for DC to deal with.
He's one of the smartest men on the planet.
His science makes a mockery of Tony Stark's (by Stark's own admission), and is rivaled only by Reed Richards.
His magic is second only to Doctor Strange's
He has single-handedly wiped the floor with the combined might of the Avengers and Fantastic Four in minutes.

...and he's filled with heroic tendencies that set him constantly on the precipice of almost being one of mankind's greatest saviors.

 

[Butterfly]

The classics are all well and good.
But my current favourite is this guy. Though being that his motives are pretty much ineffable and interpreting his actions as a massive gambit to bring down World Marshall is perfectly possible and quite valid... and in which case he succeeded quite adequately, you could argue that he's the real hero afterall, sacrificing dignity and even self-respect in the name of a cause.

Spoiler: Just LOOK at that shit-eating grin. So dreamy...

 

[NihilSinLulz]

This is the most original, and hilarious/terrifying villain ever conceived! Click the link if you don't believe me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAUfJi8ijCo

 

[Mikejames]

Anyone remember Berserk?

Spoiler

Follow your dreams kid...

Gankutsuou (The Count of Monte Cristo) features the futuristic retelling of a classic tale of revenge, and the Count is badass.

One of my favorite takes on the chessmaster styled manipulator.

 

[debtcollector]

Oh man, too many to choose.

Spoiler: Jumping on this train

To quote Batman Begins: "I respect the mind's power over the body. It's why I do what I do."

Spoiler: Well, now that you've called me by name

I admit, this scene is a huge part of why Frank is so scary, but so cool. So much style.

Spoiler: And speaking of style...

Skip to around 2:40

This movie is all about style, and this guy has it in spades.

Honorable mentions go to the Joker, Silva (Skyfall), Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men), Barthandelus (FFXIII), Ghirahim (Skyward Sword) and Gustavo Fring.

 

[FPLOON]

Damn... Most of you have already said my original choices!

Anyway, I may not be that into Sonic (never was), but I can't help but laugh alongside this guy:

Spoiler: Time for a change of pace!

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae143/SirTobbii/Robutnik.jpg

I'm not just choosing this dude because Ron Perlman is voicing him, by the way:

Spoiler: He'll be waiting for you, Afro...

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu113/Jazzy_the_rocker/2a4tq54.png

And, despite not being not quite as evil as the rest of them, his character seems awesome to hang out with:

Spoiler: Dance, water! Dance!!

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/9170/752291-artimg029.jpg

Honorable mentions go towards Slade (aka Deathstoke) from Teen Titans and Father from Codename: Kids Next Door...

 

[Sable Gear]

Honestly, probably Dark Samus, my most favourite villainess.
I like that she has sort of two villain tropes in one character; by the lore a manipulative vixen, by the gameplay a destructive monster.

Also...

Spoiler

(In spoiler tags because it's big) Some of her unused concept art is totally wicked. THIS monster could have been a late-game boss in Echoes!

 

[Gaianus]

I'm going to try to pick some villains others haven't brought up- mainly because I think they deserve it.

Disney Villains, for me, are some of the best.

And the best of the best, in my mind, is this guy:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QDwexTl1gTw/T77AEktElbI/AAAAAAAACA8/GiqQH7oyT2w/s1600/The-Hunchback-of-Notre-Dame-the-hunchback-of-notre-dame-3572598-768-576.jpg

Judge Claude Frollo is manipulative, cruel, sadistic, cunning, zealous, and yet, is entirely convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that he's doing the right thing. He's one of Disney's scariest, because he's realistic. Witches, evil Gods, they (probably) don't exist. But fanatics that believe in their cause beyond all reason? People who abuse religious beliefs to commit genocide and other horrid crimes? We all know those people exist.

Aside from Disney, I'd have to say

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/Andrew_Ryan.png

Andrew Ryan has something almost Shakespearean. He's a brilliant and charismatic leader, who defied the world to see his vision brought to light. He insisted that he have complete control and freedom of every moment of his life, even at the cost of others' freedoms, to the very end. Interacting with him in Bioshock utterly convinced me that video games were a form of art.

Speaking of Shakespearean...

http://44calibreshakespeare.com/files/cache/2cafe0f9a991636e512e540f3470e5d5.png

Iago, from Othello. Considered one of Shakespeare's greatest characters, Iago, unlike Ryan and Frollo, know he's a manipulative jackass, and revels in every second. He gleefully breaks the fourth wall of the play to tell the audience his plan, plays everyone around him like violins, and when he's finally caught, he doesn't have a single regret. As a villain, he's fun to watch, and is one of the few that proves to be legitimately cunning and quick on their feet.

 

[lord canti]

As of right now I'm really loving the chimera ants and the king from hunter x hunter. While he technicality isn't a villain I also really enjoyed Accelerator form a certain magical index. Dispite killing over 10000 people he is somewhat of a pacifist in a weird way. He believes if he becomes strong enough then nobody will dare try and attack him and getting injured.

 

[Ratty]

Anyone remember Berserk?

Spoiler

Follow your dreams kid...

Absolutely, one of the most chilling villains out there. All the more so because you can see where he's coming from and what drives him to do what he does, but he's still on a whole plane of Machiavellian cold bloodedness of his own. Brilliant villain for a moving series.

Also I'll agree with Doctor Doom as one of Marvel's most interesting and likeable villains.

captcha: "weylan yutani" well yeah captcha but that's more than a single character. Kind of a composite villain I guess.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Kefka Palazzo: Because he did technically accomplish his goal, and he's one of those villains I modeled many of my table-top villains after because he just kept showing up to piss you off. Thats a good villain.

Gustavo Fring: He was smart, ruthless and fearless. He knew what he wanted, how to acquire it and how to stay clean. His only failing that led to his downfall was pride when it came to dealing with Hector, and failing to deal with Walter White effectively. He's definitely going in my hall of Villainy for exactly those characteristics. And that scene where he steps out in front of the sniper fire with the "come at me" look, classic. That was total badass villain there. A guy I wouldn't have messed with. He also had principles which is rare for a bad guy.

I'll also second Dr. Doom because of many reasons including the ones already mentioned by various Escapists.

Last on my list, Gin Ichimaru: He just exuded the reasons why one should hate a villain. And his demeanor was so... creepy. A good villain should be creepy, unnerving even.

Oh this is just a small list, I have a lot more in my Hall of Villainy but these are the ones that came to mind immediately.

 

[MaAlGon3]

This fucking guy runs circles around two-face and unlike many of the villains mentioned above, someone like him CAN exist. http://www.empireonline.com/images/features/100greatestcharacters/photos/46.jpg

 

[lord canti]

Pain from Naruto Shippiden was an amazing villain. He... I'm not really even sure how to explain it. He had gravitas I guess.

Look up his theme song on youtube even. It's amazing! It's called girei.

Darn, didn't think anybody would beat me to it but you did. I have to add more now to my post lol.

OT: Pein from Naruto Shippuden.

He's not the cliche' villain you see in anime... even Naruto acknowledged that after defeating him (barely).

Pein is the type of character who feels the world is corrupted by those who have the biggest mouths of calling out 'Peace' yet have caused much destruction in doing so (Konoha). It's kind of sad because real life is like that too. The USA wants peace, and yet throughout their years- my country has forced it's beliefs onto many countries. It's mostly due to business actually, only coming to aid those who want to have factories and force people in their country/island to work in unfair conditions. I can get more into that, but this is about Pein.

With the belief that fear will make the villages behave themselves, Pein wants to establish order and doesn't enjoy people dying. His backstory is really tragic actually, enough to make you feel more connected with him rather then sorry. Losing your best friend, the legendary ninja you admired being the one to turn your life upside down, having your legs crippled in order to save your other friend, using your dead friend's body as a puppet to carry out your mission... pretty incredible story telling especially knowing how much Nagato overcame hatred until crap really went down.

Also, Pein by himself (through his puppet corpses of six) destroyed all of Konoha and if it wasn't for Naruto- HECK if it wasn't for the Kyuubi and then 4th Hokage stepping in, Naruto would of lost and Pein carrying out his mission. The man doesn't have some sinister laughs, doesn't come up with dumb schemes to torture the protagonist, doesn't even like his own members being sinister- he simply wants to establish peace through force and yet gives a good lecture to Naruto that life isn't white and black... there's a lot of gray. Not only that, he understands how Naruto feels and has respect for their former teacher, Jiraya whom raised them both very well. Pein to me is the character who looks unique, has OP powers but with a clever weakness, and has no evil traits to him other then being a man that has taken a different approach to establish peace.

Oh and Pein did sort of fling Hinata around but to prove a point with Naruto- you aren't a white knight in a world where everything will go peacefully. Your love breeds hatred and seeing people die around you makes reality all the clearer. Of course, this brought that really poorly drawn animated episode of Pein vs 6 tails... the manga was much better but regardless I loved Pein for his character overall.

While pein is by and large the best villain in Naruto (next to Zabuza) I have to disagree on him not being cliche however the way they do him makes it so refreshing. I can't really explain it honestly but to me it's along the same lines as hunter x hunter and one piece are very cliche anime but something about the way they do the stories and characters feel so refreshing to me.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Going for ones I haven't seen in the thread yet...

Spoiler: Excellent! Yesss! It has been quite a while since I have been able to use this video!

Time itself is his plaything. If the human race must be exterminated, if the very universe must be unravelled and remade for his conquest to come to fruition, then so be it. He has killed every Optimus he's ever met and enacted a major machiavellian scheme while imprisoned twice. If Xanatos (mentioned above and rightly so) ever had his mind downloaded into a robot you'd get a less hammy version of this guy.

Spoiler: Name is Hades, Lord of the Dead, hihowyadoin'?

I like Frollo too, ironic since they're technically at the opposite ends of the spectrum (one a minister, the other a devil figure).

Spoiler: The clown is amusing enough I dare say, but there is no purpose to his actions beyond primordial chaos. I, on the other hand, merely do what is necessary.

Captcha: Which one is hottest? There's nobody hotter than Hades, babe.

 

[Blacklight28]

I'd say this Vaas if my favourite villain in any game I've played so far. I just love his personality and the excellent job Micheal Mando did with his acting.

The Payday crew! These guys are the worst kind of people purely because they're villains controlled by players, and we all know how messed up players are.

 

[C F]

I've got one:
<spoiler=KotOR II Spoiler><img src="http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090601053450/starwars/images/4/4c/Kreia_KotORCG.jpg" height="600" /img>

This old lady is perhaps the most magnificent example of a psychological marionette master in any sci-fi RPG.

She is Kreia, and in a setting with a world-killing vampire Sith Lord and an unstoppable Sith Marauder whose hatred can hold off death indefinitely, she is ultimately the biggest threat in the entire game. Why? Because she likes you. So she'll use the entire galaxy to test you. She'll systematically and psychologically break your entire party without so much as a Jedi mind trick just to ensure they will serve you without harming you.
And when she sees the opportunity she will threaten to kill the Force itself, killing you, her, and potentially every force-sensitive being in the galaxy just to see if you'll stop her.

Sure, there was Revan. But it was a long time since she trained Revan. Now that she's lived the life she's lived, walked the path she's walked, she wants to know if there would be but one student she's trained who will actually listen. One who could walk to the edge of the galaxy and back; one she could look in the eye and say "You have learned."

For she is Kreia. And she'll turn the entire galaxy up-side-down and shatter it to its core if it means she can finally have that one student; one to which she can speak the words: "There is nothing more I can teach you."

And then there's this guy:
<img src="http://www.mattcutts.com/images/blackhat-stickman.png" /img>

Or just anybody who remotely resembles him, really. He's a pretty good walking checklist for what I need to like a villain.

 

[KazeAizen]

So a villains thread. You didn't make this hard for me at all.....because I totally freaking love villains! So I'm going to narrow it down to three and try and exclude some of the more mainstream ones which are bound to be repeated.

First a ninja

Spoiler: This guy has turned out to be one of the most powerful villains I've ever seen

He's able to fight against an entire ninja army and not even break a sweat. Plus pulling down 2 gigantic meteors from the sky also helps. Ladies and gents I give you Madara Uchiha!

Now a dinosaur

Spoiler: This was the last time I religiously watched the show and luckily it created possibly my favorite villain in the entire franchise

He's a brilliant scientist. His goal is to to bring the Dinosaurs back and have them rule the Earth believing they are superior to humans.......is this guy really a villain cause if I was 10 watching this I would've rooted for him. My fellow Escapists behold the power of Mesogog!

Ok this last one was a tough one. However I went with bubblegum.

Spoiler: THIS IS ONE PSYCHOTIC PIECE OF TRASH

This guy...this thing....he gave me nightmares but he is also probably one of my favorite villains of all time. He's that one in a million berserker villain that has no strings. Sometimes the ones in control lose their minds and become berserkers. No...not this one. He's insane from the very beginning and there is no one keeping him on a leash at all. If it weren't for Goku, Vegeta, Good Buu, and Hercule the entire universe would've been torn apart. I give you. Kid Buu.