A Cane with a red button in it, and a very awesome base. (See also 'Combine Citadel', 'Evil Genius (game)')
What Makes a Great Villain?
- Thread starter DreamerM
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Ganondorf is with little doubt the best villain Nintendo ever created; he is completley insane and hides it well, after the wind waker you can almost sympathize with him, and he is insanely powerful (triforce of power and a massive pig demon inside of him).
There is no doubt in my mind that he has more personality than anyone else from Nintendo, but even then, the entire Legend of Zelda series needs to be fleshed out soon before it dies...
There is no doubt in my mind that he has more personality than anyone else from Nintendo, but even then, the entire Legend of Zelda series needs to be fleshed out soon before it dies...
A real asshole that does dick things makes for a great villain. I'm not saying someone disturbed, just an individual that is well practiced in assholery. His actions might include something along the lines of inviting your character for a meal and then serving cat poop (lmao that chef in Anchorman) or throwing puppies and kittens at your wife while your away on some important mission.
A good Villain is exactly the same as a good Hero. They need a goal, conviction, and charisma. They need to not be hackneyed tripe. They need to be able to create a connection with you somehow, be it respect or fear. They need to be clever, if not smart. Depth is not needed, but it's nice to have. They need to be the center of the story, just as much as the hero is. They need to be have compentent subordinates (Party members/henchmen) or be able to work solo.
A good villain is hard to pin down because it's a subjective concept. It's dependent on the hero and who's watching. Every villain is not suited to every hero(Joker is for Batman, and whenever he goes to Superman's town Big Blue calls the Bat. He doesn't need to, but he does because the two compliment eachother so well.) , and every person( As demonstrated above) has a different view on what makes a good villain.
A good villain is hard to pin down because it's a subjective concept. It's dependent on the hero and who's watching. Every villain is not suited to every hero(Joker is for Batman, and whenever he goes to Superman's town Big Blue calls the Bat. He doesn't need to, but he does because the two compliment eachother so well.) , and every person( As demonstrated above) has a different view on what makes a good villain.
Johan Liebert from the anime Monster
powers: none
Intelligence, charm and manipulation: like no one else
fear factor: very high
look him up
powers: none
Intelligence, charm and manipulation: like no one else
fear factor: very high
look him up
My favorite villains are the completely psychotic ones (Omni-man from Invincible and the General from Walking Dead) or the extremely clever ones such as TOA from WildC.A.T.S Sleeper, ect.)
you need a super cool name. nothing screams evil like Mr Dark from the original rayman. As much as i like these bosses that are flying out of this thread, with the possible exception of kuja from FFIX the rest of the baddies appeared manufactured these days then again whats a game without a bad guy. I mean even in casual games like bejewled the evil guy is pop cap......
Trust me this guy has nothing in common with anime villainssequio said:
What's really scary about him is if you see him in the street you won't even notice him, he's a normal dude who doesn't stand out, but , but in reality ....
The thought of people like him existing in real life is what makes him great.
He needs to be a sort of near-unstoppable entity, that doesn't sit in his lair picking his nose waiting for you to come kill him. He needs to make you FEAR him whenever he decides to show himself. And whenever he does, he should actively try to kill you
Example: Nemesis. Staaaaaaaaars.
Example: Nemesis. Staaaaaaaaars.
The Mental Villain
There's another type of villain that I haven't seen mentioned here. Possibly because this is for video game villains...But still I think the villain type I'm about to suggest is valid.
The enemy or "paranoia" (Affectionately named "Little Slugger") in the Anime (I hate that I'm using an anime villain) "Paranoia Agent".
The villain starts out as a young (I'd say 12 years old) kid in a hooded sweatshirt with a baseball cap obscuring his face in shadow, roller skates and a slightly bent metal bat. Through the story it is revealed to us (the audience) that this little kid is not "real" but in fact the manifestation of the paranoia of human beings, in essence a delusion.
However, while it is one schizophrenic that conjures him to represent her paranoia and fear, because of news reports he eventually gets spread, so that when people get pushed to the suicidal edge he comes up and kills them. (The victim finds themselves backed in an emotional wall and are desperate for a way out-- he (a delusion)comes up and beats them to death with the bat, in reality however what's happening is that person either has a breakdown and goes into a coma, or kills themselves in some fashion (for example: he chases some lady up a ten story building then, in trying to escape him she falls off.)
Well the stories of him spread, and they actually cause some people to become so afraid that the fear of being attacked by him, conjures him up and he indeed kills them.
And as any competent viewer can predict eventually everyone is afraid of this delusional being (thinking that he is real) and in doing so he becomes real. Blah blah blah.
So what we see here, villain-wise is that this villain is completely artificial
only made manifest from the central Protagonist's paranoid delusions (essentialy their "demons"). This villain spreads not through it's own sentience or actions but through the actions of the Protagonist who reported the imagined attack on her person by "Little Slugger" to the media.
The villain is then spread to each other character from each other, like a disease. Eventually he becomes an abominable massively proportioned horrible-rape monster that's sole existence to literally drive you insane and suffocate you with negativity until you give up breathing. And if that failed, he'd just use his biblical proportion to quite seriously crush you under his titan weight.
He's defeated of course through their overcoming of their inner "demons" and afterwards they live successful lives (the ones who didn't die anyway).
This is obviously reflective of the normal Villain vs Goodguy story. The good guy has to go through changes and before he can defeat the villain must change in some way....yadda yadda "Heroes Journey" you all know the story.
Anyway I just thought that would be a more obscure villain type that would be worth mentioning. I'd love to see this kind of tasteful obscurity implemented into Video Games, we need some more twists.
Twist in this being the Villain is yourself, so really you can't run or escape. If you try to get "help" you just make him more powerful. Quite the conundrum.
But yeah Andrew Ryan I think is a great example of a good villain. For reasons already listed. Along with most others listed here. But he's one of my favorites along with pyramid head and Ganon.
- Cicatriz ESP (Ectopic Shapeshifting Penance-propulsion)
There's another type of villain that I haven't seen mentioned here. Possibly because this is for video game villains...But still I think the villain type I'm about to suggest is valid.
The enemy or "paranoia" (Affectionately named "Little Slugger") in the Anime (I hate that I'm using an anime villain) "Paranoia Agent".
The villain starts out as a young (I'd say 12 years old) kid in a hooded sweatshirt with a baseball cap obscuring his face in shadow, roller skates and a slightly bent metal bat. Through the story it is revealed to us (the audience) that this little kid is not "real" but in fact the manifestation of the paranoia of human beings, in essence a delusion.
However, while it is one schizophrenic that conjures him to represent her paranoia and fear, because of news reports he eventually gets spread, so that when people get pushed to the suicidal edge he comes up and kills them. (The victim finds themselves backed in an emotional wall and are desperate for a way out-- he (a delusion)comes up and beats them to death with the bat, in reality however what's happening is that person either has a breakdown and goes into a coma, or kills themselves in some fashion (for example: he chases some lady up a ten story building then, in trying to escape him she falls off.)
Well the stories of him spread, and they actually cause some people to become so afraid that the fear of being attacked by him, conjures him up and he indeed kills them.
And as any competent viewer can predict eventually everyone is afraid of this delusional being (thinking that he is real) and in doing so he becomes real. Blah blah blah.
So what we see here, villain-wise is that this villain is completely artificial
only made manifest from the central Protagonist's paranoid delusions (essentialy their "demons"). This villain spreads not through it's own sentience or actions but through the actions of the Protagonist who reported the imagined attack on her person by "Little Slugger" to the media.
The villain is then spread to each other character from each other, like a disease. Eventually he becomes an abominable massively proportioned horrible-rape monster that's sole existence to literally drive you insane and suffocate you with negativity until you give up breathing. And if that failed, he'd just use his biblical proportion to quite seriously crush you under his titan weight.
He's defeated of course through their overcoming of their inner "demons" and afterwards they live successful lives (the ones who didn't die anyway).
This is obviously reflective of the normal Villain vs Goodguy story. The good guy has to go through changes and before he can defeat the villain must change in some way....yadda yadda "Heroes Journey" you all know the story.
Anyway I just thought that would be a more obscure villain type that would be worth mentioning. I'd love to see this kind of tasteful obscurity implemented into Video Games, we need some more twists.
Twist in this being the Villain is yourself, so really you can't run or escape. If you try to get "help" you just make him more powerful. Quite the conundrum.
But yeah Andrew Ryan I think is a great example of a good villain. For reasons already listed. Along with most others listed here. But he's one of my favorites along with pyramid head and Ganon.
- Cicatriz ESP (Ectopic Shapeshifting Penance-propulsion)
Aside from the obvious ones (Darth Vader for being awe inspiring and the Joker for being batshit insane) I've a personal fondness for Hama from the third season of Avatar.
She starts out a nice old lady helping the young adventurers on their way, but she's blatantly hiding a secret. Then she turns out to be one of the very few remaining water benders of the south pole and everyone loves her, her secret's revealedand all is well.
Then she starts training Katara in draining the water from plants and trees (which makes Katara uncomfortable), and ultimately how to bend the water in people, so you can control them like they're puppets, a technique she used to escape from a fire nation prison camp (and a technique which Katara flat out refuses to do).
She plays her hand so Katara is forced to use the skill, and then admits defeat.
I enjoyed her because she was creepy, powerful and unexpected. But mostly because she *won*. Her intention was to corrupt Katara, give her an amount of power that can only lead to further corruption and she succeeded. Just like heroes are prone to 'die for the cause', she resisted no arrest and went back to, undoubtably, a similar prison camp as she was in, but the damage she wanted to do was done.
Unexpected betrayal and corruption of a hero, no matter the cost.
So in short, the best villain is the effective villain.
She starts out a nice old lady helping the young adventurers on their way, but she's blatantly hiding a secret. Then she turns out to be one of the very few remaining water benders of the south pole and everyone loves her, her secret's revealedand all is well.
Then she starts training Katara in draining the water from plants and trees (which makes Katara uncomfortable), and ultimately how to bend the water in people, so you can control them like they're puppets, a technique she used to escape from a fire nation prison camp (and a technique which Katara flat out refuses to do).
She plays her hand so Katara is forced to use the skill, and then admits defeat.
I enjoyed her because she was creepy, powerful and unexpected. But mostly because she *won*. Her intention was to corrupt Katara, give her an amount of power that can only lead to further corruption and she succeeded. Just like heroes are prone to 'die for the cause', she resisted no arrest and went back to, undoubtably, a similar prison camp as she was in, but the damage she wanted to do was done.
Unexpected betrayal and corruption of a hero, no matter the cost.
So in short, the best villain is the effective villain.
To be honest, how you see a great villian is based on how you're basing the hero or story. The best villian I think has to;
1) Be intelligent. Nothing annoys me more than having the villian who supposes has the means to destroy/take over the world, can be tricked so easily into losing to the hero.
2) Have a reasonable motive. 'Oh so you decided to become evil because you get more money. That's great, i'm sure the final battle will be very climactic.'
1) Be intelligent. Nothing annoys me more than having the villian who supposes has the means to destroy/take over the world, can be tricked so easily into losing to the hero.
2) Have a reasonable motive. 'Oh so you decided to become evil because you get more money. That's great, i'm sure the final battle will be very climactic.'
A great villian, is something that has a good background, is easy to relate to and is very akin to the main character, they should either be entirely convinced they are right with thier actions or they should be struggling just as much as the main guy. They should be highly intelligent, arrogent, or fear inspiring.
Any voicings must match the character. Ans the apearence must match thier motives and personality.
SPOILER ALERT
One that comes to mind is MAgus from Chrono trigger. At first he is just an evil wizard trying to kill a planet for shits and giggles. Its later revealed he is a child that is torn away from his life in a magical kingdom, the thing he tries to summon takes everyone he likes to different time zones, and kills his sister. HE is trasported to a future time and is captured by a magic using monster and is trained in thier ways and ezentually takes control of the army and is only a bad guy because of the long fought battles between the people he controls and the humans. HE is summoning the beastie so he can either die fighting it, or kill it in a single act of revenge.
END Spoiler
So that to me is what a great villian is.
Any voicings must match the character. Ans the apearence must match thier motives and personality.
SPOILER ALERT
One that comes to mind is MAgus from Chrono trigger. At first he is just an evil wizard trying to kill a planet for shits and giggles. Its later revealed he is a child that is torn away from his life in a magical kingdom, the thing he tries to summon takes everyone he likes to different time zones, and kills his sister. HE is trasported to a future time and is captured by a magic using monster and is trained in thier ways and ezentually takes control of the army and is only a bad guy because of the long fought battles between the people he controls and the humans. HE is summoning the beastie so he can either die fighting it, or kill it in a single act of revenge.
END Spoiler
So that to me is what a great villian is.
Read 'The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin' by Maurice Leblanc, and you'll see a true opponent that is hard to defeat.
The Protagonist (Lupin) is a master theif and his rival, who is a clever and intelligent Detective named... oh dang, what was his name? Anyways, Lupin is always capable of avoiding capture and is a master genius, and could be considered Evil for his thefts, I suppose.
The book itself is devoid of copyright at this time, so you can actually download the entire thing for free. Link [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6133]
The Protagonist (Lupin) is a master theif and his rival, who is a clever and intelligent Detective named... oh dang, what was his name? Anyways, Lupin is always capable of avoiding capture and is a master genius, and could be considered Evil for his thefts, I suppose.
The book itself is devoid of copyright at this time, so you can actually download the entire thing for free. Link [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6133]