Villains you feel sorry for

[Avatar Roku]

I've always thought that the best enemy is the one you can sympathize with. The kind where you think "Wow, I'd have done exactly the same thing in his/her/its place." So, what villains do you feel sorry for?

For me, it has to be Alma from F.E.A.R.

Spoiler: because...

alright. Lets break this down. She was a powerful psychic, so attuned to the negative emotions of others that she would have horrible, debilitating nightmares. At the age of 8, her father, Harlan Wade, sees that she is the candidate that he needs for Project Origin, the project created to train telepathic commanders for an army of clone soldiers. And so, she's put in a deep coma, artificially impregnated twice (it's implied that the genetic material for this came from her own father), is apparently in so much pain during the child birth (by this time she's 16) that she wakes up through the drugs the gave her while giving birth and screams "My baby! Where are you taking him?!"This happens twice. Once her second son (the first one grows up to be the player character) gets relatively old, Alma's subconscious reaches out to him, he begins to command the soldiers and is stopped after a few casualties. After this, Alma's life support is cut, and she dies 3 days later, living on forever as a tortured ghost. It doesn't get much worse than that. Oh yeah, and then her first son kills her second one. I guess it can get worse.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

Biff from back to the future, the 1950s Biff anyway, his life just seemed so pathetic.

 

[Avatar Roku]

...How could it get worse than that.
Anyway, I don't really feel bad for many villains, if only because their motives are often poorly explained.
Villain protagonists, however, are different.
Dexter is a guy I can agree with pretty much all of the time.

I can understand not feeling bad for some villains, but not Alma? She really was a victim of the whole thing. Or what about Saren from Mass Effect? Sure, he's a bastard at the beginning, but you really have to feel sorry for him once you realize he's indoctrinated.

 

[peachy_keen]

Bowser because he really does love Peach but he has bad people skills.

 

[WolfThomas]

Yeah FEAR was epically messed up. Killing your own brother, watching your mother kill your aunt and grandfather.

 

[The Shade]

Savvedro (No idea if that's spelled right) from Myst III: Exile. So sad, that guy's story. He just wanted to get home to his wife.

Saren, I kind of feel bad for, because he's being manipulated into thinking he's doing the right thing.

 

[Adam Jenson]

Dexter is a guy I can agree with pretty much all of the time.

That's not a good sign. Period.

Francis Dolarhyde from Red Dragon, Roy Batty from Blade Runner, Silas from The Da Vinci Code, Magneto from Marvel Comics

 

[Yermenko]

Magneto. Come on, he only wants to rule the world! But, I honestly root for the villain most of the time. They are more complex characters then your grizzled hero-type.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Surprisingly enough I feel sorry for Dr Breen from HL2. He really isn't evil per se, he has just been persuaded by the powerful will of the combine to lead humanity down the wrong path. In the end I really think he thought he was doing the right thing by humanity, but he was just going about it the wrong way by joining forces with the combine

 

[Ronwue]

I can say the same for Yagami Light from death note. Well... not exactly the same... meh, you get the idea.

...How could it get worse than that.
Anyway, I don't really feel bad for many villains, if only because their motives are often poorly explained.
Villain protagonists, however, are different.
Dexter is a guy I can agree with pretty much all of the time.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Surprisingly enough I feel sorry for Dr Breen from HL2. He really isn't evil per se, he has just been persuaded by the powerful will of the combine to lead humanity down the wrong path. In the end I really think he thought he was doing the right thing by humanity, but he was just going about it the wrong way by joining forces with the combine

I was thinking about him too. Honestly, I don't think he made the wrong choice. He did save all of humanity in the Seven Hour War by surrendering, after all. The only thing is, with Gordon Freeman finally back, he's got a chance to save humanity for real, and he doesn't take it.

 

[Adam Jenson]

Magneto. Come on, he only wants to rule the world! But, I honestly root for the villain most of the time. They are more complex characters then your grizzled hero-type.

He was in a Nazi Death Camp when he was eight. The only reason he does what he does is to make sure nothing like the Holocaust never happens to Mutants.

 

[Flap Jack452]

Wow i feel sorry for Alma now too :*(

 

[Inverse Skies]

Surprisingly enough I feel sorry for Dr Breen from HL2. He really isn't evil per se, he has just been persuaded by the powerful will of the combine to lead humanity down the wrong path. In the end I really think he thought he was doing the right thing by humanity, but he was just going about it the wrong way by joining forces with the combine

I was thinking about him too. Honestly, I don't think he made the wrong choice. He did save all of humanity in the Seven Hour War by surrendering, after all. The only thing is, with Gordon Freeman finally back, he's got a chance to save humanity for real, and he doesn't take it.

Yes, I can see exactly where you're coming from there. He did make the wrong choices, but his reasoning was sound.

Magneto. Come on, he only wants to rule the world! But, I honestly root for the villain most of the time. They are more complex characters then your grizzled hero-type.

He was in a Nazi Death Camp when he was eight. The only reason he does what he does is to make sure nothing like the Holocaust never happens to Mutants.

Too true and well put

 

[Loiosh91]

Sylar from heroes, the poor guys life has sucked

Saren a little bit

people will hate this but i feel sorry for, or at least can empathize with, the Joker from The Dark Knight

one of my favorite villains is Hannibal Lector, not sure whether or not i feel sorry for him though, i'll have to think about it

also Johnny Ringo from Tombstone was a sad villain

 

[Yermenko]

Yeah, that is why he is an interesting character.

 

[sumanoskae]

Delacroix(I think thats how you spell it) from chaos legion what happened really did suck and honestly I would probably do the same thing

 

[Moonmover]

Prince Albrecht from "Diablo."

He was just some kid who didn't have anything to do with the demonic conspiracies going at at first. Then, he done got kidnapped by Lazarus and taken down beneath the Tristram Monostary to get possessed by the demon Lord of Terror. So, I had to put him down.

Sure, his will had been completely consumed by the demon lord, and his body had been twisted into a horrific lizard-thing shape, but I still felt a bit of regret for killing him. When I killed his demon-body, he transformed back into his human self--and couldn't have been more than fourteen years old. Then, he gasped a bit and died.

Killing him was sort of an act of mercy, though, when you get right down to it. He'd been possessed, mutated, and his nightmares had been used as a model from which Diablo created his new Hell.

And then

Spoiler

his death didn't even accomplish anything, since Diablo just found a new host immediately afterwards.

As for what everyone else is saying: please remember that Saren was already a total dick before being Indoctrinated.