Villains you hate

[Ieyke]

I have already said that I am specifically talking about the Arnie version because that is the version I have seen. Hence why I posted a picture of him and not the animated series version.

Ah.
Well, as said, you should really (REALLY) go watch Batman The Animated Series. Not only is it the source of the highly respected version of Mr. Freeze, it (and the rest of the DC Animated Universe) is also the best, most stable, well thought out and put together version of the DC Universe. Better than the comics even. And they are outright among the best cartoons of all time.
The DCAU absolutely set the bar for superhero cartoons, much the same way as the Marvel Cinematic Universe set the bar for movies.

Oh, I know her story. I think you're defining "villain" too narrowly-- many of them are sympathetic, or victims in other ways. Many of the best ones are! In the "best villains" thread I included HAL 9000, who's subject to his own programming and (according to the second book) may have been suffering from a kind of artificial psychological disorder.

They're antagonists because they try to do terrible things and the protagonists must stop them.

Then saying she lacks gravitas or originality of the Joker really doesn't hold up. Those only work if you only consider her surface appearance as just a less serious distaff counterpart of the Joker. She's really not. Her situation is pretty unique and fucked up.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I'm not sure if this counts since it's not an individual but a group, but The Authority in "Rage". Seriously, they spend half the game hyping up how incredibly bad-ass they are and how you don't ever want to mess with them, and then you finally fight them and they're no tougher than half the Wasteland gangs you fight. Additionally, they tell you constantly about how you're supposed to hate them and how evil they are, but they never show you anything bad that they do.

Also, concur with the earlier post about the Governor from 'Walking Dead'. He just went so off the rails that it felt ridiculous. This seemingly intelligent guy, who has the strength, charisma, and leadership to band together dozens of people and build a thriving community in this Zombie hellscape, just decides he's going to kill anyone he runs across for no reason other than "I'm paranoid". He really could have been a great villain, but it seemed like the show had no idea what to do with him.

 

[Silvanus]

Then saying she lacks gravitas or originality of the Joker really doesn't hold up. Those only work if you only consider her surface appearance as just a less serious distaff counterpart of the Joker. She's really not. Her situation is pretty unique and fucked up.

Her situation, yes-- that's why I genuinely like Paul Dini's "Mad Love".

But her modus operandi? That's just ersatz Joker. That's why I dislike her in the countless stories that have come after "Mad Love", the majority of which haven't dealt with her origin at all-- only with her M.O. and her theme.

 

[Ieyke]

Villains that suck:
The Primarch Lorgar (Horus Heresy)
He's a foolish, petulant, weak-willed brat, in the body of a demi-god.
He's whiny and annoying, and is manipulated constantly. And he's even physically one of the weakest, if not the outright weakest of his 20 brothers.
There's just literally nothing he contributes as a character aside from to annoy the reader at how worthless he is.

Unalaq (Legend Of Korra)
He was a much more boring rehashing or Tarrlok.
I really can't figure out why in the world they thought that was a good idea for the main villain.
And he wasn't even craftily "maybe evil" like Varrick.
His villainy was telegraphed MILES ahead of the point where he reveals himself to be the villain, and it just make Korra come off as oblivious for not seeing it coming.

Hades (anything but Greek mythology, basically)
It's not that Hades is a bad villain, per se, it's that he's just NOT a villain. Any portrayal of Greek mythology that treats Hades as a stand-in for the Devil is idiotically misusing Hades, because apparently they weren't clever enough to come up with their own villain or choose one of the bazillion existing Greek myths that WAS evil.
Seriously, I want to punch a writer in the throat every single time I see Hades used as a villain.

Venom (Spider-Man 3)
Man...how can you screw up Venom THAT badly.
They turned him from the hulking super-agile badass monster who absolutely torments Spider-Man into a whiny little "evil Spider-Man" that gets defeated in a couple minutes. And the costume design was stupid. And the Alien Costume apparently also turned Peter into a dancing emo dipshit...

It's surprisingly hard to think of bad villains that aren't just throwaway characters...

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Hrm, I'mma have to go with the Didact.

"I'm going to kill humanity because i'm a ten thousand year old racist and don't care in the slightest how the universe has changed and will not for one moment learn anything about what's going on 'cause i've got deus ex machina and can immediately pilot my own prison, put it inside another giant ship, and have a super mega-death ship, as well as space magic because what the hell, jedi were cool.

Good thing these stupid beasts, you know, the intelligent grunts, elites, hunters, jackals, etc, will blindly follow what I say even though I treat them like crap and actively call them beasts. I mean, I just make no sense in this universe but here I am, with all my space magic."

 

[Artina89]

I must confess that Harley Quinn has a tendency to set my teeth on edge in the Arkham series of video games. Every time I hear her voice it has a tendency to grate on my every last nerve. My brother loves her, but I have to disagree on that one.

 

[Storm Dragon]

I'm going to be "that guy" and say Sephiroth. I cannot fathom why this guy is so goddamn popular, he's an overblown nutcase with a Oedipus Complex, and not a terribly compelling nutcase either. I like to call him Sephiroth Bates (as in Norman Bates).

Make that "one of those guys", I hate him too. Sephiroth is just so boring, he has no personality and I don't think he speaks another word after he gives that little speech after killing Aerith[footnote]Aerith's death is about as much of a spoiler as Darth Vader being Luke's dad.[/footnote]. I have no idea what people think is so cool about him.

 

[Ieyke]

I must confess that Harley Quinn has a tendency to set my teeth on edge in the Arkham series of video games. Every time I hear her voice it has a tendency to grate on my every last nerve. My brother loves her, but I have to disagree on that one.

Is that true of Arleen Sorkin's Harley too, or just Tara Strong mimicking Arleen Sorkin?

Arleen Sorkin is the original Harley from Batman The Animated Series and Batman Arkham Asylum.
Tara Strong took over the role for Arkham City and Arkham Origins.

Just curious.

I can completely understand Brooklyn accents getting on peoples' nerves.

 

[Storm Dragon]

(Snipped for fear of moderator wrath)

Is Cerberus fielding their vanguard and infiltrator specialists as ninjas really that absurd anymore? It doesn't help that I am a vanguard, and I charge and melee things for a living. The question I am asking myself is not "Why do they have a sword?" The question is "Where's MY sword?" I would love to turn this into space Assassin's Creed over here. I am not a human being. I am a heavily-armored and highly mobile hyperspace generator with an emphasis on survivability to repeated bullets in the face. I'd say give me a claymore, but do you know what that would do to my cooldown time? Gimme something light, like a wakizashi.
Hey, wait a minute. Cerberus is doing the exact same thing? Clever.

So if he does everything I wish I could do, why do I hate Kai Leng?
He does it all wrong.

...

I DO mind that you won't man up and use the friggin' sword! You should be all up in my face 24/7, trying to turn me into a meat pie. Instead I'm continually charging at you trying to beat you into a pulp with the butt of my gun. Tell me: what's wrong with that picture?

Biotic-charged brofist, my fellow Vanguard.

I think the reason that that pathetic little wannabe wouldn't close to melee range was because he wasn't man enough to go toe-to-toe with me in melee. He saw footage of me killing Reaper Brutes and Cerberus ATLAS Mechs by repeatedly punching and headbutting them and thought, "I'm gonna stay the hell away from her."[footnote]Shepard is a woman, and anyone who says otherwise is wrong.[/footnote] If the game had let me have a sword, I'd have put it to damn good use.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

If the game had let me have a sword, I'd have put it to damn good use.

The game lets you use a sword as a Vanguard in multiplayer. And it's pretty sweet.
Otherwise, I share this sentiment, as SP use woulda been awesome.

 

[Storm Dragon]

If the game had let me have a sword, I'd have put it to damn good use.

The game lets you use a sword as a Vanguard in multiplayer. And it's pretty sweet.
Otherwise, I share this sentiment, as SP use woulda been awesome.

I don't want to use a sword as Random Vanguard #1537, I want to use a sword as Commander Cassandra Motherfucking Shepard!

And yes, I did name her after the seer from Greek myth who was cursed by the gods to have all of her perfectly accurate visions of the future be ignored by everyone!

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Venom (Spider-Man 3)
Man...how can you screw up Venom THAT badly.
They turned him from the hulking super-agile badass monster who absolutely torments Spider-Man into a whiny little "evil Spider-Man" that gets defeated in a couple minutes. And the costume design was stupid. And the Alien Costume apparently also turned Peter into a dancing emo dipshit...

Ugh, thanks for reminding me of that one. Venom was always one of my favorite villains, and I knew something was wrong when they said Topher freakin' Grace was going to play Eddie Brock. Yes, 6'4, 230 lbs of solid muscle Eddie Brock was going to be played by a guy who looks like he might float away if a stiff breeze hits him. It all pretty much went downhill from there.

 

[Dies Irae]

Villains that suck:
The Primarch Lorgar (Horus Heresy)
He's a foolish, petulant, weak-willed brat, in the body of a demi-god.
He's whiny and annoying, and is manipulated constantly. And he's even physically one of the weakest, if not the outright weakest of his 20 brothers.
There's just literally nothing he contributes as a character aside from to annoy the reader at how worthless he is.

I actually liked Lorgar's story. Think about it. His father(the emperor) basically says to Lorgar that all of his life's work(worship of the emperor) was for nothing. That kind of sadness can foster so pretty corruptible desires. The kind that can start a heresy.

 

[Ieyke]

Villains that suck:
The Primarch Lorgar (Horus Heresy)
He's a foolish, petulant, weak-willed brat, in the body of a demi-god.
He's whiny and annoying, and is manipulated constantly. And he's even physically one of the weakest, if not the outright weakest of his 20 brothers.
There's just literally nothing he contributes as a character aside from to annoy the reader at how worthless he is.

I actually liked Lorgar's story. Think about it. His father(the emperor) basically says to Lorgar that all of his life's work(worship of the emperor) was for nothing. That kind of sadness can foster so pretty corruptible desires. The kind that can start a heresy.

Lorgar's an idiot.
He was manipulated by his own minions.
Lorgar was one of his father's - The Emperor's generals. His father, who had made it his eternal mission to explicitly wipe out religion and bring the light of science to the galaxy, got very logically pissed off when he came to find his idiot son spreading religion of The Emperor being a god.
Wiping out religion was essentially the primary objective of their 200 year-long galaxy spanning crusade.
Lorgar was apparently too fucking dense to get the loudest and clearest message in the history of the galaxy.
So the Emperor told his dumbfuck son to knock that shit off because he wasn't a god, to stop wasting time, resources,and undoing progress, and to get back to work conquering the galaxy and spreading reason.
And then Lorgar got all mopey, and sad, and "WHY DOESN'T DADDY LOVE ME!??", and let his minions talk him into becoming enslaved by the Chaos Gods.

 

[bigmac]

This may sound strange but wario from mario bros totally gives me the creeps

 

[Ieyke]

This may sound strange but wario from mario bros totally gives me the creeps

Wario bugs the hell out of me too. Waluigi's awesome though.
...*shrug*

I don't hate him in the sense of him being a bad villain though.

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

I straight up have a black hearted hatred for the Joker. Seriously, The only time the Joker was actually FUNNY, was when Jack Nicolson played him with Prince songs. Other then that, I hate the Joker. A psychopath painted like a clown. I hate clowns too.

Second would be villains that would be defeated in every single show. Seriously if you are defeated every time, change your fucking profession. examples: Team Rocket, Gargamel, whoever the leader of M.A.D. was in inspector gadget, Shredder, Kraig, Mumroth, skeletor. Granted a ton of them are completely awesome, but they suck as villains.

 

[Artina89]

I must confess that Harley Quinn has a tendency to set my teeth on edge in the Arkham series of video games. Every time I hear her voice it has a tendency to grate on my every last nerve. My brother loves her, but I have to disagree on that one.

Is that true of Arleen Sorkin's Harley too, or just Tara Strong mimicking Arleen Sorkin?

Arleen Sorkin is the original Harley from Batman The Animated Series and Batman Arkham Asylum.
Tara Strong took over the role for Arkham City and Arkham Origins.

Just curious.

I can completely understand Brooklyn accents getting on peoples' nerves.

The voice actress in the animated series wasn't too bad, it is the portrayal of Harley Quinn in the video games that annoys me the most.

 

[MiskWisk]

Spoiler: Spoiler'd for space

I know he seems to have a bit of a cult following, but I'm sorry, no. Just no.

To be fair though, superhero comics and their adaptations have produced far more "villains" that fit the bill for this thread than I can count, particularly if you go back a few years.

Mr. Freeze is an AMAZING villain. That movie version is completely ridiculous dumb and silly, sure, but that just means you're looking at the wrong version of him. That whole movie is that same level of campy-stupid. What did you expect?

Go watch the Mr. Freeze episodes of Batman:The Animated Series. Epic stuff.
Mr. Freeze is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most tragic villains of all, and that originally comes from Batman TAS. Before the cartoon reinvented him he was just a random throwaway villain.

DC Animated Universe episodes (in chronological story order):
Heart Of Ice (Batman TAS)
Deep Freeze (Batman TAS)
Batman & Mr. Freeze:SubZero (movie)
Cold Comfort (The New Batman Adventures)
Meltdown (Batman Beyond)

The Arkham City version is great too, though he only plays a very brief part.

Ah memories of Mr. Freeze.

Anyway, I'm going to go with this guy right here

Everything about Madara annoys me at this point (although I could probably be classed as a masochist for forcing myself to keep reading this stuff). He is effectively a god-mode sue at this point (admittedly, this is unusual for the sue to be the villain) but he just has received power-up after power-up with no real connect to reality. Every damned time someone gets a one-up on him, he just gains a new power to escape and I am not even going to get into how there was no way he should have lived when he ended up with sand forced into his bloodstream. He is just a frustrating cockroach at this point who doesn't even have any goals or real motivations. I suppose you could go with the "whole mind control because the world is a horrible place," bit but Obito covered that (rather poorly IMHO but still covered it) and we don't have enough grounding with Madara's character to care. It's almost like Kishi is now the one writing fan fiction.

Also, I think a couple of people missed the point. This is about villains you dislike because they were bad at being threatening villains and came off more as jokes, not because they are threatening and hateful.

Edit: Aha! Fixed my spoiler box!

 

[laggyteabag]

I'm going to weigh in on my hate for Kai Leng too. He's just that overly exaggerated emo assassin from the future with no special powers and can "beat" you and your highly trained team with nothing but a sword and his stupid plot invincibility. I mean c'mon, you can easily dispatch the best Spectre in the Mass Effect universe, right after running through a Geth infested space station, you can run into the hive of a technologically advanced alien species where they turn humans into jam and destroy the entire thing, and you can stand up against 2 reapers and kick the living hell out of them, but this guy? Oh, this guy beats you with a sword. Christ Bioware.

The Governor from The Walking Dead (TV), I like David Morrissey, and I was excited to see him portray a villain, but what we got was a psychopath with no real motive as to what he was doing, and everybody just seemed to hand him the leadership role for no apparent reason. What really annoyed me about his character was that he would accept some people into his town, and then outright kill others for no apparent reason.