Your favorite type of villian?

[nuba km]

for something serious it's a villain that thinks he is doing the right thing and NEVER refers to himself as the villain or evil and never refers to the main character as a hero or good guy (in anyway).
for something cartoonish and silly the kind of villain that would use mini-nukes to win a hooky match against orphans.

 

[SonicWaffle]

...the hero just blindly doing shit and actually gets a few Pet the Dog moments. [...] I hate this White and Black Morality that everything has these days...

I see somebody likes TvTropes.

Nobody likes TvTropes. It's an addiction, not a hobby, and once you've read a certain amount it just sits there in the back of your mind like a parasite, flashing up at unexpected points - for example, reading the OP's description of the villains he likes, in my mind I said "Ah, the old Well Intentioned Extremist!"

And then I thought "Oh fuck, it's in my head! IT'S IN MY HEAD CONTROLLING MY THOUGHTS!". TvTropes is, essentially, a benevolent Yeerk, more concerned with 80's cartoons than enslaving the world.

 

[JEBWrench]

Dr. Horrible, of course.

 

[BENZOOKA]

A smart villain. The higher tier bad guys from The Wire.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

I prefer the villain that doesn't share his evil plans to rape the mayor's wife then run her over with a tractor. I like the villain that doesn't stall time, nor does he take any hostages. He doesn't stoop to an emotional level. He isn't merciful. I'd like to see that. The closest I can think of is Heath Ledger's Joker.

You mean the guy who took hostages (repeatedly, and chose them on the basis of their emotional impact), announced his plans to Batman and the cops over national TV, and pretty much did everything he did because "fuck it, why not"? He seems like almost the exact opposite of what you described

He's the closest I can think of because he never really had a motive. He just said fuck it, why not. He was batshit insane. He wasn't exactly as I wanted, but his madness is the key part of his villain role. I doubt there will be a villain that does what I want. Damn cliches.

 

[Nannernade]

The one who isn't obvious where he's so egotistical that he stops the torturing to laugh at the hero and tell him about his plan.

 

[Falseprophet]

I like the masterminds with vision, where they either think they're doing the right thing but are willing to bloody their hands a bit for the glorious utopia that will ensue, or they know they're a monster but willing to do evil to see a glorious future. The kind of guy you respect for their convictions but can't abide by their methods. Bonus points if their arguments actually have merit. (I should point out while I love this character type in fiction, in real life people like this are always bad news.)

I don't mind the occasional one-dimensional psychopath with a colourful schtick, but I prefer them as henchmen or lieutenants rather than the main threat. Yeah, I watched a lot of Bond movies in my time.

I also like the villain who isn't really evil, or at least didn't start out that way, but was screwed over in some way by society or the "good guys", and was convinced to join the villain's side. That allows for good character development, I find.

 

[Cursed Frogurt]

Whats is you favorite type of villain? The one that wants to take over the world and nothing else. Or maybe that villain that simply murders hundreds of people just because he's evil. Or something completely different. My favorite type of villain, is the type you wouldn't really call a villain. This is the type the has different views then the protagonist,. Where the villain simply has different views and what he is doing is right in their eyes. He/she believes what their doing is the right thing, and that they are helping out, but in reality the way they go about it is wrong. Their more misguided then anything else. I usually think these villains, have more depth then most of the other ones. So whats your favorite?

While those types of villains are very interesting, my favorite are the ones that are totally aware of the difference between right and wrong, and just choose to be evil. Meaning, they are capable of wearing very believable masks.

The ultimate example of this is (BIOSHOCK SPOILERS!!!!)...






Fontaine. It's so easy to trust Atlas because he seems so freaking human. He's a good man but he has flaws. Fontaine is beyond despicable.

Another example of this would be the Warden from Shawshank Redemption. He acts decent but turns into a selfish monster.

 

[Thebiggestpanda]

My favorite villan is the type that has a believable motivation. For example, Mr. Freeze. He chose his path out of a need to save his frozen wife. Kahn from Star Trek was acting on feelings of loss and revenge. The type of villan that is evil circumstantially is much more interesting than a guy trying to take over the world just because he wants to.

 

[quiet_samurai]

The over the top, cat stroking, chair slowly rotating, immaculately complex death machine loving, fiendishly impracticle plotting, multiple henchman having, always barely gets away at the end, type.

 

[Ironsouled]

Iago, of Othello is the prime example of me... I mean my favorite villian. Amoral and fine with it, he is the supreme user of diabolical language to achieve his aims. Although admittedly, I dislike morality choices between Mother Theresa and Baby Eating. For one thing, babies get stuck in your teeth, and habits are simply ridiculous.

 

[SonicWaffle]

He's the closest I can think of because he never really had a motive. He just said fuck it, why not. He was batshit insane. He wasn't exactly as I wanted, but his madness is the key part of his villain role. I doubt there will be a villain that does what I want. Damn cliches.

His motive was to drag down and break the ultimate symbol of good, Batman, and to display the seedy underbelly that exists in even the best of us. He had a clear set of goals, and was working towards them; I won't disagree that he was batshit insane, though on the subject of his madness I will paraphrase something Terry Pratchett said -

"People like to say things like "You're insane!", but the truth is that men like that aren't insane. They are, in fact, terribly sane. They looked at the world, with all it's laws and rules and the little lies we tell ourselves, and realised that the rules didn't have to apply to them if they don't want them to. They were men without a shield."

 

[Spineyguy]

I've always had a soft-spot for the truly mad villains like Joker and Hannibal Lecter.

However, I'm going to have to go with Satan from John Milton's epic poem, 'Paradise Lost', there's just no villain who's written quite as well. If you don't believe me then read the poem. I was firmly on Satan's side throughout the whole thing.

 

[Kadoodle]

I prefer an-

Okay, screw it. GLaDOS. I don't know what category of villain she falls into, but she is the best antagonist ever.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

His motive was to drag down and break the ultimate symbol of good, Batman, and to display the seedy underbelly that exists in even the best of us. He had a clear set of goals, and was working towards them; I won't disagree that he was batshit insane, though on the subject of his madness I will paraphrase something Terry Pratchett said -

"People like to say things like "You're insane!", but the truth is that men like that aren't insane. They are, in fact, terribly sane. They looked at the world, with all it's laws and rules and the little lies we tell ourselves, and realised that the rules didn't have to apply to them if they don't want them to. They were men without a shield."

Good point. I'd like to see more villains who have no motives whatsoever other than "because it looked fun". Though that seems like I'm asking for too much, and the public wouldn't like said villain unless the hero beat him, and I can't stand for that.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Well I guess there are three types of villians that I usually enjoy. The Magnificent Bastard [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard] type who you just can't outguess what with his Xanatos Gambits [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit] and all. There are also the Well Intentioned Extremists [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WellIntentionedExtremist]. You can sympathize with them some what and in some cases I might not even consider them a villian *cough*Watchmen*cough*. And then there are the villians that you just love to hate. Its always nice to watch them get what they deserve.

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[MassiveGeek]

I don't know, I like most of them.

The ones of pure evil that aren't entirely emotionless are my favs though. The ones that usually have a romance, or a wife, in a proper relationship type way, where they love eachother - but he's still evil, and his girlfriend/wife is either too nice and loving to realise it because he hides it from her, or just as evil if not more cold than he is.

 

[freakyalex]

As Moriarty70 said, villians who act purely to test their own abilities - such as, for example, Moriarty - have the capacity to be very interesting foils for the hero, especially when the two are intellectually equal. But my personal favourite villain in probably John Simms' 'Master' from Doctor Who. He's similar to the 'mad as a hatter' category of villians, such as the Joker, but he isn't quite outright insane - instead, it's like the madness is bubbling just beneath the surface, waiting to come out.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Good point. I'd like to see more villains who have no motives whatsoever other than "because it looked fun". Though that seems like I'm asking for too much, and the public wouldn't like said villain unless the hero beat him, and I can't stand for that.

See, that sounds cool on paper, but in practice it comes off fairly weak as a plot device. Look at The Warriors for example; when the villain of the movie is asked, at the very end, why he committed the murder that caused all the events (murder, mayhem, arrests, various other chaos) his answer is "No reason. I just like doing things like that". It's very unfulfilling, to know that the reason everything you watched just happened was because someone felt like it.

A character like the Joker who is, despite being awesome, pretty one-dimensional - he's a fucking lunatic and that's about all - can pull it off better because any plot holes or details can be explained away by the nature of his madness. I don't think it could work so well for other, more mentally stable characters.

 

[Jackalb]

One's that get results!