What constitutes a Great Villain?

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shogunblade

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For as long as mankind has had imagination, there have been countless Heroes and Villains that occupy universes and worlds both Fictional and Non-Fiction. To this day, we have villains that range to the Malevolent Lord of the Dark Side, Darth Vader, to the psychological evils that exist in human beings like Hannibal Lecter.

But the question is, What constitutes a great villian? As a person that plays video games, or watches movies, what do you feel makes a great villain? Is it the wardrobe, the way a character is performed by the actor, the things they say, the things they do, ETC?

Listing examples of either video games or movies, adding appropriate spoilers if it destroys the integrity of the movie or game to know what happens next, What is a villain you enjoy and why? What makes a villain memorable to you?

I'll list mine:

I consider Leonard Smalls from "Raising Arizona" a great villain because of his introduction, Nicolas Cage introducing him as the "Lone Biker of the Apocalypse" is more than enough to garner attention, but what's more, as opposed to the Silly nature of the movie, He portrays a sort of darkness not seen often in comedy. As Leonard develops, We might think of him as a silly character, until he warns of his motives in the movie.
Suddenly, he isn't a man, he's a monster, and there is little to tempt him to do otherwise. Even during a final battle with Nic Cage's H.I. do we see that this villain does not lighten up, and though the movie was light hearted, it becomes dark, and killing this husband and wife and extorting a worried father for more money in exchange for his infant son is certainly a heinous act for a character in any movie.

I consider in Video Games the character Gigyas from "Earthbound" to be a memorable Villain. While the game didn't receive the recognition is deserved in the 90s and has become a sort of Different Game to not follow in the traditional RPG Sense like the Spirits of "Final Fantasy", Gigyas is a villain that has caught my attention because of how Unique a character can be. I will disclude a story about how Gigyas was conceived, since it has been spoken of so much that it has now become a sort of Urban Legend of sorts.

Gigyas is scary because for the most part, he never really had a physical body. Where People look at the body of evil, it follows typical characteristics: usually muscular, bronzed, interesting physical scars, What have you, this villain is merely a background image. Instead of falling in the norm of usual villains, here is one that taunts you during battle. Also, the fact this character is fighting teenagers, not the typically viewed 18-19 year old ones in more contemporary RPG's, but 14 year olds, sort of has this ominous feeling, that children that are just getting into High School have to face a force that is scarier than any schoolyard bully.

Suddenly the Universe hangs in the balance too. It's a scary thought, and in a video game with an "E for Everyone" rating too, something that by today's standards, might be too heavy to conceive with the audience out today.

Those are two examples. If you have anyone to mention, please do. What constitutes a great villain to you?
 

Proteus214

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I think that the best villains are the ones that know how to get inside the heads of his victims/nemesis/whatever's heads and remains close to them in some way. In a way they force the hero to "invest" in perpetuating their evil deeds, even though the hero is doing everything to stop them.

And yes, they must have a mustache.
 

ghalkhsdkssakgh

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That aside, I still hold up GLaDOS from Portal as one of my personal favourite villains. She provides plenty of black humour and is perfectly psychotic. And her behavior is explained with The Morality Core.

So to me, a great villain has to be threedimensional, more than just evil for the sake of being evil. Mustaches are optional, but they certainly help.
 

Avatar Roku

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One who you think "If I was in his situation, I'd do the same thing." Saren from Mass Effect fits this.
 

oliveira8

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Hmmm...The Dark Lord Sauron. Yes he does feel cliched and silly but let me explain.

During the Lord of the Rings the characters never enter in contact with Sauron, never see him and never really "talk" to him. He just that dude that will conquer the world but doesn't bother to show up.

But even if he never shows up he is always there. Through his evil minions like the Nazgul, his Orc armies, his puppet evil overlords like Saruman and has the power to call in armies from the most remote places of Middle-Earth to his aid. He is present through out the story but never makes a physical appearence. He is the driving force behind everything and really everyone.

He literally got the Power. And that works. He is never present yet he is there. Even that his master plan is to enslave Middle-Earth he is more than just "YARGH! EVUL!", Sauron has motivation, a aim and a purpose. He knows what he is doing, and is no fool. Even if he was stupid to leave his Ring out in the open. But we have to give credit to Elendil and Gil-Galad to beat the crap out of him, so the other dude could cut his hand.

For a guy to move so much power and strike fear into everyones heart, yet doesn't need to get out of his house, really means "Badass Villain".

And I really like him as a villain. He represents everything bad and more in humanity, but he doesn't need to be there to tell US that. We learn that from others, and if his minions are that evil, how much is their Lord and Master?

Sauron is really a great villain and more complex than some people think. He started the whole "Dark Lord and conquer the world" business, but none really matches him in presence, meaning or complexity.

And he is no fucking Lighthouse no matter how much those movies tell you.
 

Lucifer_Airlines

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NoMoreSanity said:
Kefka from Final Fantasy VI. He is the The Joker, but given God-Like powers, with which he does anything he wants to with. He is Chaos given a body, he does what he wants when he wants.
He poisons an entire Castle's water supply, killing almost everyone inside including some of his own men held hostage.

He made Terra his slave, and forced her to hill his own men because he wanted too.

He destroyed the whole fucking world! Than he uses his newly found Powers to kill anyone who dares rise against him.

He's a great Villain because you hate him. He's the Complete Monster, the one you want to beat. And that laugh too...

But he has some great <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ios6zLDR8AI>music though.
That's pretty much game there. A villain that wins is the only villain worth looking at.
 

Kiutu

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Well, having a good reason to be bad helps. I also like villains that seem very incontrol. The Chess Player type I guess would be the way to describe them. Smarter villians are better, and I also like some honor in them.
 

Rathy

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Great villains to me are the ones that can actually give a villain monologue, but at the same time can give it from a place where it doesn't feel bad. Kefka being a good example, having certain statues present when he actually goes on his maniacal rants.

The other kind are the ones that just get to people in the subtle ways. And the kind that are always there, with their own intent. Satoros and Menardi of Golden Sun come to mind here.

Debatably my favorite villain though is the one from Shadow of the Collusus, depending on how you look at it.
Where at the end, you basically find out the intents of your character, basically killing off the last of the creatures and then the guards that come to stop you just for a girl. Hes right in front of you the entire time, and the game makes the entire thing to be of a noble cause until you finally get the other side of it at the very end.
 

Kilaknux

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I find what makes a great villain is sympathetic intentions. For example, Saren from Mass Effect. He believed the Reapers could not be fought, so decided to preserve as much life as he could by working with them. He was also partially mind controlled into this view. It also helps if they're especially tragic to go with it.
 

L4hlborg

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I personally prefer lunatics, that don't even have a necessary motive. For example Joker from Batman. He is absolutely crazy, does nothing that makes any sense and is out of all control. He is actually just playing games, he doesn't care about any big picture.

Another similiar one is the Hitcher guy from the movie hitcher. He starts stalking random guys with no clear reason and just randomly decides to make someones life a living hell, before killing him. A creepy ass character.
 

S-Unleashed

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I think a good bad guy is someone who started out good but then later goes nuts. Pian from Naruto is somthing like this. He nukes people for peace.
 

oliveira8

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xmetatr0nx said:
oliveira8 said:
Hmmm...The Dark Lord Sauron. Yes he does feel cliched and silly but let me explain.

During the Lord of the Rings the characters never enter in contact with Sauron, never see him and never really "talk" to him. He just that dude that will conquer the world but doesn't bother to show up.

But even if he never shows up he is always there. Through his evil minions like the Nazgul, his Orc armies, his puppet evil overlords like Saruman and has the power to call in armies from the most remote places of Middle-Earth to his aid. He is present through out the story but never makes a physical appearence. He is the driving force behind everything and really everyone.

He literally got the Power. And that works. He is never present yet he is there. Even that his master plan is to enslave Middle-Earth he is more than just "YARGH! EVUL!", Sauron has motivation, a aim and a purpose. He knows what he is doing, and is no fool. Even if he was stupid to leave his Ring out in the open. But we have to give credit to Elendil and Gil-Galad to beat the crap out of him, so the other dude could cut his hand.

For a guy to move so much power and strike fear into everyones heart, yet doesn't need to get out of his house, really means "Badass Villain".

And I really like him as a villain. He represents everything bad and more in humanity, but he doesn't need to be there to tell US that. We learn that from others, and if his minions are that evil, how much is their Lord and Master?

Sauron is really a great villain and more complex than some people think. He started the whole "Dark Lord and conquer the world" business, but none really matches him in presence, meaning or complexity.

And he is no fucking Lighthouse no matter how much those movies tell you.
You know this is very true, it reminded me of another great villain with much the same qualities as Sauron. That man is Dr Claw from inspector Gadget...you have to admit they are pretty similar.
But Dr. Claw appears! We can see his metal hand and his evil cat! Oh and he talks to!!

"I'll get you next time GADGET!"
 

Wildrow12

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In my opinion, a great villain can take one of two routes:

1. Someone we can identify with. If we were in that situation, wouldn't we do the same? Dio from Live-A-Live, qualifies.

2. An omnipresent being or force. A powerful, higher being, whose motives are as alien to us as his/her powers. Cthulhu is an example of such an entity.

The first is compelling because it can disturb us on a personal level, like looking into a broken mirror and seeing a twisted reflection.

The second is compelling because we are both in awe of the being and are driven mad by trying to understand it.
 

G1eet

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They have to have an umbrella and a nasally voice.

And preferably a monocle to boot.