The Villain Thread

[EmoBorg]

I have been thinking of starting a thread about fictional villains from the worlds of movies, television, books and other fictional works for some time now. I am going to start off this thread with villains that i liked in recent years. Feel free to add to this thread of villains that you like.

Chiwetel Ejiofor as The Operative from the movie Serenity.

I like Chiwetel Ejiofor role as the vicious yet polite and mild mannered Alliance agent. He played a very classy villain in that movie. A man who believes in his cause and does terrible things not for himself but for the cause he believes in.

Eric Cartman From the South Park TV Series.

I know that Eric Cartman is not really a classic villain but he does play the antagonist role often in South Park. And some of the things he has done over the years, like making a boy eat chilli mixed with the boy's parents remains is pretty sick. He is not a conventional villain but he plays the antagonist role very well.

Mr. Freeze from the Batman comics.

He is not famous like the Joker or the Penguin but i like his tragic origin story of how he became a villain. He became a bad guy in order to raise the funds needed to cure his terminally ill wife, Nora. He loves his sick wife dearly but he does terrible things in order to save her. He is a morally complicated person.

 

[Holdfast]

Great topic.

I'm a BIG fan of a good villain, especially the scheming/mastermind type: Moriarty, Palpatine, Francis Urquhart, Faust's Mephistopheles, etc.

Talking of the Devil, I think Pacino's turn in The Devil's Advocate is one of my fave movie depictions of the character. Good psychopaths like these characters make for the best villains because they're so disengaged from the normal patterns of life. Patrick Bateman, Hannibal Lecter, Hans Gruber, Anton Chigurgh, Aaron from Titus Andronicus are more examples. I especially love the last's unrepetant speech at his death; though I rather like to think he has one final unwritten/unseen scheme that saves his life. Gekko's Greed speech in Wall Street is so awesome that he became an antihero to a large section of the audience and in pop culture, although DeVito's similar one in Other People's Money actually tops it for panache and persuasiveness. In a different financial vein, Alec Baldwin's iconic turn in Glengarry Glen Ross is just hilariously vile.

But the best villain's voice has to go to the great Frank Welker (I believe) as Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1j7lyRnxVE[/yt]

 

[Robert Maxwell]

My Halloween handle's namesake (Gustavo Fring) is definitely my favorite TV villain of the past few years. Two words: box cutter.

 

[Kemaiku]

My avatar is my currently favourite villain (villainess?) but there are so many to choose from.

I do love the portrayel of Moriarty in the new RD Jr. Sherlock movies, I was rewatching Game of Shadows only recently and he does an excellent villain.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Khan Noonien Singh (ST II)

Megatron

HAL 9000 from 2001

 

[doubleohfive]

My Halloween handle's namesake (Gustavo Fring) is definitely my favorite TV villain of the past few years. Two words: box cutter.

Lana Parilla as Regina, the Evil Queen on Once Upon A Time has been a delight to watch.

James Callis as Gaius Baltar. The guy just oozed "Douch chill" but was so bumbling and nefarious at the same time, while also altruistic and really just caught up in too big a situation to be able to handle on his own. In many ways, he was a lot like Matt McNamara on Nip/Tuck - any time he finds himself in a bad situation and has a way out, he always takes the dumbshit stupid move that makes the situation worse.

And how can we forget Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing?

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ HAL's not a villain. His programmers drove him crazy. In later novels, he gets to be a hero.

I suppose my favorite villain would be Doctor Doom, since he's the mirror image of my favorite hero, Reed Richards. He's the quintessential example of what happens when great potential goes wrong.

 

[Goji]

I'll go with Scorpius from Farscape as my favorite, though he did morph into more of an antihero later in the series. Television villains have a habit of doing that, for better or worse, but Scorpius came through the transition alright I think.

 

[thestrangequark]

^^ HAL's not a villain. His programmers drove him crazy.

Couldn't you say that about any villain, though (perhaps depending on your beliefs)? HAL did villainous acts...what is the difference between behaving villainously and being a villain?

I like complex villains like HAL, who demonstrate that there isn't really a line between good and evil so much as a huge grey area. I liked Gul Dukat in DS9 for that reason -- at least until the final season, and Snape in Harry Potter as well (it's especially heartening to find a complex villain in children's literature who isn't all good or bad). Even the first time I watched the first episode of TNG with Moriarty I fell in love with the character for his struggle between good and evil, and I was only 6. I was actually disappointed when I was 9 and finally read all the Sherlock Holmes stories to find that Moriarty was rather blander than the Star Trek version!

All that being said, Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham was so superbly, entirely, campily evil as to not only make that crap movie watchable, but rewatchable!

 

[MacLeod]

HAL isn't really a villian, according to 2010 it was down to a programme conflict. As for Gaius Balter at the start of nuBSG he wasn't a villian.

Other villians we have had recently are 'The Master'

 

[thestrangequark]

HAL isn't really a villian, according to 2010 it was down to a programme conflict. As for Gaius Balter at the start of nuBSG he wasn't a villian.

Other villians we have had recently are 'The Master'

Again, how does the cause of his villainy make HAL less a villain? MRI scans of violent offenders show structural malformations in the cortex that are absent in other offenders, are they not villains? You could view that as a sort of program conflict. What about men who were horribly abused as children and grow up to be abusers...that seems the definition of a program conflict, but the behavior is still villainous.

HAL is a complex villain that makes you question the nature of good and evil, which is why he is one of the great ones.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

My most compelling villain has always been Kai Winn, thanks in no small part to Louise Fletcher's excellent acting.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

HAL isn't really a villian, according to 2010 it was down to a programme conflict. As for Gaius Balter at the start of nuBSG he wasn't a villian.

Other villians we have had recently are 'The Master'

Again, how does the cause of his villainy make HAL less a villain? MRI scans of violent offenders show structural malformations in the cortex that are absent in other offenders, are they not villains? You could view that as a sort of program conflict. What about men who were horribly abused as children and grow up to be abusers...that seems the definition of a program conflict, but the behavior is still villainous.

HAL is a complex villain that makes you question the nature of good and evil, which is why he is one of the great ones.

This is one of my favorite things about Frank Herbert's books: that what makes a "hero" or "villain" depends so much on what story you are telling and how you present it, because it's completely a matter of perspective. Herbert's view was that heroes inevitably became villains. Paul Atreides in Dune is the hero of that book--and then the villain of its sequel, as he must become.

The fourth book, God Emperor of Dune, presents the central character as a seemingly ruthless, cold villain, and in many ways he is, except that his actions alone ensure the survival of humanity. What's more, he actually recognizes that what will save humanity is making himself into its ultimate villain. If heroes make people subservient and weak, then villains make them strive for strength. Basically the same theme as the first book, but narratively inverted.

This is the second thread in a week where I got to talk about Dune.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Again, how does the cause of his villainy make HAL less a villain? MRI scans of violent offenders show structural malformations in the cortex that are absent in other offenders, are they not villains? You could view that as a sort of program conflict. What about men who were horribly abused as children and grow up to be abusers...that seems the definition of a program conflict, but the behavior is still villainous.

For his part, HAL does try to drop hints to Dave about his programming conflict ("I'm wondering if you might be having some second thoughts about the mission...") before he goes cybershit crazy and kills four people and all that. Still, you are exactly right: villains with an excuse are still villains.

 

[sojourner]

Again, how does the cause of his villainy make HAL less a villain? MRI scans of violent offenders show structural malformations in the cortex that are absent in other offenders, are they not villains? You could view that as a sort of program conflict. What about men who were horribly abused as children and grow up to be abusers...that seems the definition of a program conflict, but the behavior is still villainous.

This brings up a thought I've always personally wondered about. In a "sane world" shouldn't every murderer be viewed as (at least momentarily) insane? And just to clarify that, I mean it as a reason NOT to allow the insanity defense. No one in their right mind should consider murder as a viable option (self defense not withstanding). The act itself should be viewed as an insane thing, but not the person. At least not to the degree with which it gets used in the court system.

As for villains, the best ones don't realize they're the villains. Like Michael Douglas's character in Falling Down.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

one of the best villains of recent movies was Sir Richard Burton from Riverworld. The 2010 movie with Peter Wingfield.
Another of my favourites is Valentine Pelka in both his roles as Col. Montoya in Queen of Swords and Kronos in the Highlander Series.

What I like about all 3 villains is that both actors give them a life. They present us the anti-heroes not just in black and white but manage to point out all those shades of grey that all of us know only too well. We can understand these villains to a certain point because we realize that the darkness is in us as well and the only differences between the villains and us are the circumstances and perhaps a little self control.
Also, all three villains are highly intelligent and not such stupid fools as most other villains (no wonder those get caught that easily by the dogooders). Plus: contrary to all other villains neither of these three laughs when there isn't anything really funny.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Paul Atreides in Dune is the hero of that book--and then the villain of its sequel, as he must become.

The fourth book, God Emperor of Dune, presents the central character as a seemingly ruthless, cold villain, and in many ways he is, except that his actions alone ensure the survival of humanity. What's more, he actually recognizes that what will save humanity is making himself into its ultimate villain. If heroes make people subservient and weak, then villains make them strive for strength. Basically the same theme as the first book, but narratively inverted.

This is the second thread in a week where I got to talk about Dune.

You know, I'm sorry to say I've never read Dune, or any of its sequels. I've heard many good things about the series, so I really should, but for some reason I've not yet gotten around to it.

 

[Gul Re'jal]

Pinhead from "Hellraiser". I think he's my favourite. A tragic result of curiosity of a random man.

 

[Amaris]

My most compelling villain has always been Kai Winn, thanks in no small part to Louise Fletcher's excellent acting.

The best thing about Kai Winn being a villain is that she didn't seem to think she was a villain. She thought everything she did was what was best for Bajor (and yes, Louise Fletcher was superb in the role).

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

My most compelling villain has always been Kai Winn, thanks in no small part to Louise Fletcher's excellent acting.

The best thing about Kai Winn being a villain is that she didn't seem to think she was a villain. She thought everything she did was what was best for Bajor (and yes, Louise Fletcher was superb in the role).

Yes. Though I think in the very end she owned her own self interest honestly. I'm always moved by her poring over the old documents with her disguised lover at her side (whom she dismisses in favor of her studies) truly believing she is finding a way forward for Bajor. Of course the way forward includes herself in almost messiah status but her agenda is complex because she does love Bajor as well.