|
|
Post by burrunjor on Apr 2, 2021 19:59:06 GMT
Villains are just as important as heroes in a good story IMO.
Out of all of fiction which villains do you think are the best?
I rank them like this.
Top Tier
These villains are the absolute best of all time.
The Joker (best example of a crazy, unpredictable villain.)
John Hurt's Caligula (best example of a crazy despot ruler)
Daleks and Davros (best alien invaders for me.)
Dracula (Stokers original. Best Vampire dark lord.)
Callisto (best tragic villain.)
Lex Luthor (one of the best mad scientists.)
Godzilla (best giant monster)
Khan (best obsessed vengeful villain.)
Frankenstein's Monster (best tragic monster.)
Peter Cushing's Victor Frankenstein (another one of the best mad scientists.)
Darth Vader (I'm not a big Star Wars fan, but I have to admit that you can't really get a better dark lord than him. The voice, the design, the music it's all perfect.)
Great tier
These guys are classic villains, but I wouldn't rank them as the absolute best examples like the ones above.
The Master (Classic Who)
King Ghidorah
Glory (Buffy)
Venom
Carnage
Green Goblin
The Mekon
The Master (Buffy)
Good tier
These guys are a great concept for a villain, but not necessarily the best character
Professor Moriarty (he was the original archenemy and supervillain, but actually Moriarty has rarely been given a proper, concrete persona.)
Blofeld (similarly he doesn't have much of a distinct personality. Even in the Bond film series he's everything from a deformed old guy, to a suave, charming handsome mastermind, to an old guy with a full head of hair etc.)
Klingons (again a great idea of a rival race that is more like us, rather than completely evil like the Daleks, but in the original series at least the Klingons were always fairly bland. They did get great stories in the films like Search for Spock, but even then the fact that was originally written for the Romulans and changed at the last minute shows they didn't have that distinct personalities. Same applies for the Romulans.)
Bottom tier
These guys are pretty crap, but at least might represent a proper threat
Simm Master
CumberKhan
Cybusmen
Joke villains
These are guys that are so stupid, they are treated and meant to be joke villains, but as they are in a serious show or story they are a waste of time.
Lady Cassandra
Slitheen
Killer Moth (Batman)
Shocker (Spider-Man)
Sub Bottom of the barrel
The worst villains in every respect. These guys aren't even proper villains. Often barely thought out threats because the writer doesn't care about the villain at all.
Missy (obvs)
That villain in Ghostbusters 2016
Just about every villain in the MCU
That Callisto/Joker knock off in Batwahman.
|
|
|
|
Post by RobFilth on Apr 2, 2021 20:24:04 GMT
My favourites are probably:
Davros and the Daleks
The Mekon
Judge Death and the Dark Judges
I can't really think of any others more iconic or better than these.
|
|
|
|
Post by mott1 on Apr 2, 2021 20:31:47 GMT
Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessop in A Few Good Men.
"You can't handle the truth!"
|
|
|
|
Post by burrunjor on Apr 2, 2021 20:35:19 GMT
Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessop in A Few Good Men. "You can't handle the truth!" That line is how you can tell that Jack is an iconic actor. That line is literally nothing. You can't handle the truth, but the way he says it, instantly makes it a classic quote. |
|
|
|
Post by burrunjor on Apr 2, 2021 20:52:52 GMT
My favourites are probably: Davros and the Daleks The Mekon Judge Death and the Dark Judges I can't really think of any others more iconic or better than these. The Mekon was excellent, but I think the Daleks and Davros who were basically the same idea, kind of overshadowed him. There are often examples like that. The Shadow was overshadowed (not pun intended) by Batman. Doctor Omega was overshadowed by Doctor Who. The Beast from 2000 Fathoms was overshadowed by Godzilla etc. In all instances these later versions were just simply a better take on the idea. |
|
|
|
Post by iank on Apr 2, 2021 21:10:15 GMT
Buffy had some terrific villains such as Angelus and The Mayor and Glory.
Cigarette Smoking Man from X Files, though he's more a sort of emblematic representation of faceless government corruption.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2021 21:48:24 GMT
Some Examples Frieza - The most iconic villain from the manga series Dragon Ball.  Zamasu - an omnicidal deity from the sequel series Dragon Ball Super  Ghidorah - The Three-Headed Monster  Saruman the White   Satan - The primary antagonist of Devilman  Emperor Muge Zorbados - The main antagonist of Super Machine Beast God Dancouga  Bizarro #1  Krulos - Dino Riders  Demona - Gargoyles  |
|
|
|
Post by iank on Apr 13, 2021 23:11:03 GMT
Jack in season 2 of Wicked Science. I like him first simply because the writers being canny enough to make a new character the primary villain of season 2 allows for Elizabeth to soften and get some character development and become more likeable, but he really proves himself to be a right little s**t. Elizabeth's villainy in season 1 was primarily motivated by anger at the way she'd been treated and conflating controlling others with having some control over her own life. But Jack justs wants to be rich, and doesn't give a toss what he has to do or who he has to trample on to do it. I think it's the last 2 episodes, and especially the finale, that really push him over into "this guy's an actual sociopath." It's bad enough the way he cons Elizabeth - who, for all her scientific genius is utterly clueless with relationships - into thinking he cares about her just to get access to her lab, but the way he doesn't even attempt to justify it and actually gloats and relishes the fact that he's hurt and humiliated her made me wanna put my fist through his face.   |
|
|
|
Post by mott1 on Apr 14, 2021 7:06:07 GMT
Arvin Sloane from the spy series Alias.
I think I preferred Fringe as a series, tho Ron Rifkin did a brilliant job of making the ruthless head of SD6 nuanced and charismatic, and was the most interesting character in it.
And what about Christopher Lee's other very successful villainous role: Count Dracula?
|
|
|
|
Post by burrunjor on Apr 14, 2021 8:47:38 GMT
Some Examples Frieza - The most iconic villain from the manga series Dragon Ball. Zamasu - an omnicidal deity from the sequel series Dragon Ball Super Ghidorah - The Three-Headed Monster Saruman the White Satan - The primary antagonist of Devilman Emperor Muge Zorbados - The main antagonist of Super Machine Beast God Dancouga Bizarro #1 Krulos - Dino Riders Demona - Gargoyles Demona is a ridiculously underrated villain. Loved Gargoyles. Us 90s babies really did live in a golden age of cartoons. Also good to see you here. (I assume you were Columbian Mammoth from ArcHive, also known as Count Dracula, Ceratopsian Hunter etc.) |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2021 13:34:25 GMT
Demona is a ridiculously underrated villain. Loved Gargoyles. Us 90s babies really did live in a golden age of cartoons. Also good to see you here. (I assume you were Columbian Mammoth from ArcHive, also known as Count Dracula, Ceratopsian Hunter etc.) Yes it’s me, I was originally going to go with straight-tusked elephant on the old forum but it didn’t allow me to use one that big and I didn’t think to just use Palaeoloxodon, so I went with southern mammoth instead. Honestly pretty much all the Gargoyles regular villain and antaganists were great. Hell even most if the one off villains were memorable. David Xanatos and Lord Oberon being other great examples |
|
billpatjontom
Certified Mob Rallying Heretic Crank
True Who will rule the Universe!
Posts: 100
|
Post by billpatjontom on Apr 14, 2021 15:18:19 GMT
I'd pick 'ole red eyes', the Prince of Drakness himself - Count Dracula, particularly in his Christopher Lee incarnation and also, in similar vein, Baron Victor Frankenstein à la Peter Cushing of course in the various Hammer horror films.
A word too for Vincent Price's Dr Anton Phibes and Edward Lionheart from the Dr Phibes films and Theatre of Blood for making villainy such fun as well as perfecting the art of creative murder by drawing inspiration from the likes of the Old Testament and Shakespeare no less.
Then there's such marvelous masters of menace as portrayed by Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff or Lionel Atwill and George Zucco, bringing to life the likes of Professor Moriarty and various high priests in everything from The Mummy to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes et al - splendid villains all.
And don't forget such seriously badass bad guys as featured in the classic gangster films. This is a long line stretching from "Rico" Bandello (Edward G. Robinson) in Little Caesar and Tom Powers (James Cagney) in Public Enemy all the way up to Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando & Robert De Niro) in The Godfather films and including Tony Montana (Al Pacino) in Scarface and the Kray Twins (Tom Hardy) in Legend.
Lastly I'd recommend a particular fave villain I recently rewatched - Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher) from the underrated Fade to Black - he's an obsessive film fan who uses his love of movie characters to take revenge against his enemies in ways that all the above mentioned would surely approve of.
|
|
|
|
Post by henshin on Apr 15, 2021 0:40:37 GMT
Vincent D'Onofrio as Kingpin, from Daredevil.
Absolutely sublime portrayal and writing.
Not only was it a watershed performance for Vincent, but i'd never seen a villain like it on camera in that we saw a man equally as dangerous as he was unresolved in his childhood trauma. You actually felt genuine empathy for the villain.
|
|
|
|
Post by burrunjor on Apr 15, 2021 20:14:44 GMT
Vincent D'Onofrio as Kingpin, from Daredevil. Absolutely sublime portrayal and writing. Not only was it a watershed performance for Vincent, but i'd never seen a villain like it on camera in that we saw a man equally as dangerous as he was unresolved in his childhood trauma. You actually felt genuine empathy for the villain. I haven't seen this show yet, but the Kingpin is a great villain. I always loved him in the 90s Spider-Man the Animated Series. This scene was pretty shocking when I was a child. Of course looking back on it now, it seems rather tame, but at the same time I think it shows you how 90s cartoons tended to treat their characters as actual characters, as here he is given a proper backstory and motivation. They got round the censors quite well in this scene. |
|
|
|
Post by Genkimonk on May 2, 2021 4:33:48 GMT
My favourite villain of all time has to be Bakura from the Yugioh series, specifically the manga as it differs greatly from the original.
The character is extremely cunning, acting as a minor threat for most of the series, before being reveals as the actual big bad who started the events of the series in the first place. I just really like the idea of a being who is so evil that he kills people in games, but bets his own life in the same process. Absolutely psychotic.
Also, his true form is a giant demon with a dragon for a penis.
|
|
