Amph Who are the best villains in fiction?

Hannibal Lecter is probably the best villain in the horror/thriller movie genre in the last 40 years. They've made sequels and even a tv show based on that character. But Anthony Hopkin's performance was disturbing yet classic.

 

Dudley in LA Confidential, and he's more monstrous in the books.

 

That was a great villain. I didn't read the novel so when the reveal happened in the film it was shocking. Great movie.

 

EnderSai: How exactly are the Gospels responsible for repression and suffering? They stand alongside the Bhagavad Gita as the most breathtaking works of wisdom literature in the world.

Their Christ essentially implored folks not to judge others, to respond to violence with grace, to give their excess to the impoverished, to welcome all into the human family, and to pursue justice even to the point of death. (Oh, and he was despised by religious conservatives and brutally executed by a hideous empire.)

How is this NOT commendable?

 

The thing that makes a great villain in my opinion is moral complexity. The character should have relateable goals and motivations; however, they are willing to take actions in pursuit of these goals which we would find morally objectionable. These types of villain becomes compelling to me because I don't know quite what to feel about them. I can both understand and sympathize with their goals however the horrific means they use to get these goals makes me feel uncomfortable for rooting for them. My four favorite examples of villains like this are The Master (Fallout), Roy Batty (Blade Runner) Caine (Heroes Die) and Kreia (KotOR 2).

 

Ric Flair or Roddy Piper. Because Pro-Wrestling in a nutshell is fiction.

 

Ha! No one's mentioned Dolores Umbridge. So, sooooo evil. Nasty piece of work. I'd also say the Warleggens and that creepy vicar from Poldark. And St. John Rivers from Jane Eyre. All of them hide behind a facade of morality which to me is more repulsive than outright evil. As a Christian who's read her Bible enough to know that free will to accept or reject God is His gift, any use of religion for coercion is disgusting to me.

 

Umbridge was a better villain than Voldemort, IMO. What a nasty piece of work.

 

Umbridge was better in the book than the movie. They really cut down on her nastiness in the movie. Yes, they had the detention scene and the threat to use the Cruciatus Curse, but they didn't have her kicking Harry, Fred and George off the Quidditch team, attacking Hedwig or Hagrid, or even taking responsibility for the dementor attack.

As for the best villain...Palpatine. Let's see this record: OT-orders construction of two planet destroying weapons, one of which is used and kills billions; PT-engineers the invasion of his own home planet, endangering his own people through starvation and other means of death; engineers a galaxy wide war once again killing billions. Voldemort and Sauron would have to enroll in Dark Lord 101 with Palpatine as the teacher.

 

Morgoth Bauglir.



Remember The Lord of the Rings movies? Remember the shadow cast by Sauron upon the whole world, the borderline cosmic evil that he represented, how he was the source of all the suffering and ill things that happened not only in The Lord of the Rings but also The Hobbit (and even in the tales of Numenor if we want to go back that far)? Remember how it took the most unlikely efforts from the most unlikely of heroes while the rest of the world had to serve as a massive diversion just to have a chance to defeat him?

That same Sauron was little more than a servant of Morgoth, the true originator of all evil in Tolkien's universe. That's right, the greatest evil being in The Lord of the Rings was just an underling, a minion, of Morgoth in the very beginning. That's what the peoples of the First Age were up against. Heck, beings known as the Valar--angelic beings so powerful they could make Gandalf the White look like a mere Hobbit--could barely subdue him... mainly because Morgoth/Melkor was in the beginning the most powerful of all the Valar. And the most evil.

(I love The Silmarillion.)

 

Dr. Victor Frankenstein.



Pretty much every scifi flick that plot revolves A.I. taking over the world or experiment gone wrong can be derived from Frankenstein.

 

Remember when I said in that other thread that it was the best thread ever? Totally taking that back now.

 

This guy.



Almost every movie he's in Stark is cleaning up after himself.

 

Funny, reminds me of another superhero...

 

Yeah, Arkham isn't a prison.

Also, Tony Stark champions the oppressed and saves people from murder. "Cleaning up after himself" aka "correcting his mistakes" is hardly villainous behavior. We should all be such villains.

 

I thought the Stark post was obviously facetious. Of course he's not a villain and neither is Batman.

 

Sometimes I take this stuff too seriously.

 

No worries. I've done more than my share of that on this board.

 

Most of my responses probably belong in "Knee-Jerk Reaction" thread.

 

My favourite comic and TV villain is Deathstroke, who's also my overall favourite villain.





My favourite movie villain is the Winter Soldier, even though he's a hero now.



Some of my other favourite villains are Magneto, Doctor Doom, Deadshot, Ra's al Ghul, General Grievous, Embo, Bossk, Cad Bane, Boba Fett and Darth Maul.

 

I'm going to put in a word for Geoffrey Hunt's no-holding back performance as Captain Barbossa from PotC. He was dangerous, untrustworthy, selfish, dishonest, and greedy, a really bad egg, but I couldn't help liking him. And all he really wanted was to eat an apple. Poor guy.