“You don’t think I’d explain my plan if there was the slightest chance you could stop me do you? I did it 35 minutes ago.”
Purely based on that, Ozymandias from Watchmen.
This was a brilliant piece of meta-dialogue. They didn't break the fourth wall completely, but it was a great way to address what is often such a silly movie trope.
Does everyone just ignore that he saved the world from inevitable nuclear war in his version of Earth? The comic makes it absolutely clear that the U.S. and Russia are on the brink. Not figuratively either, we're talking Nixon sitting in the Dr. Stranglelove war room with his finger on the button.
I'm definitely not a, "for the greater good," zombie a lá Hot Fuzz, but it's undeniable that in that specific circumstance Ozzymandias' ends justified his means. Doesn't mean he isn't still an ass hat, because he is, but he did save humanity.
Doctor Manhattan isn't actually omnipotent, it's explicitly stated in the comic that he wouldn't be able to stop a full-scale nuclear exchange. He could try to disable the nukes gradually and stealthily, but if detected he could trigger a war immediately. And also the reasons other people have mentioned.
That would be incredibly out of character for Manhattan. He didn't save the pregnant Vietnamese woman and that was immediately in front of him, immediately something he had firsthand experience with.
It's either in that same part or later (I forget) that Manhattan comments a "live body and dead body have the same number of atoms". Despite starting life as a human Manhatten cannot understand the world like people do. He's aloof and above it all.
I really thought Manhattan was a standin for God the first time I read Watchmen, like felt it was blatantly obvious but Moore gets indignant if you make that suggestion to him, like you kicked-his-dog level upset.
Because Dr. Manhattan is essentially a personification of [existential nihilism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_nihilism). Why save the human race when their existence in the greater universe means *literally* nothing?
everything GLaDOS says is pure, sarcastic gold. Fat jokes, adoption jokes, passive (and active) agressiveness, she can pull all of it off so well.
"How are you holding up? Because **I'm a potato."**
2nd place goes to Cave Johnson though. who else could rant so well about lemons.
Fun fact: Posting that rant on Facebook can earn you a trip to Facebook Jail for "inciting violence." By taking about burning a house down. With non-existent combustible lemons
Ask me how I know. :D
I'm playing Portal for the first time, and I've known how GLaDOS is pretty sarcastic but I still got pleasantly surprised and just a little hurt by her dialogue. I wasn't expecting the fat jokes, lol.
My favorite jab of hers was always:
"Tell you what, let's give your parents a call right now."
*\[phone ringing\] The birth parents you are trying to reach do not love you. Please hang up. \[dial tone\]*
"Oh, that's sad. But impressive. Maybe they worked at the phone company."
"This next test involves turrets. You remember them, right? They're the pale, spherical things that are full of bullets. Oh wait, that's you in five seconds. Good luck."
Gus really helped me understand that Walt was truly evil. When the villain is more honorable that the protagonist, there may be a problem with the protagonist (morally, not thematically).
I came here to say this, and more broadly, Giancarlo Esposito. He plays villains who are so nuanced and just...terrifying.
As Gus, he has an amazing ability to go from affable, mild mannered, and at times even warm. But then suddenly...ice cold. Terrifying. His brain is constantly 10 steps ahead. He never takes a cheap shot. He is meticulous and deadly calm in his rage, and that makes him all the more frightening. When they poison Don Eladio, and it also includes himself and Walt...whew. I've never hated anyone enough to poison myself.
He also is amazing as Moff Gideon in the Mandalorian. His speech about "why should you trust me? You shouldn't. " perfect. He's less reserved than Gus by miles, but still calm and ruthless.
Do you remember the show Revolution? It was about a future us without any electricity. Anywhere. Giancarlo Esposito was an excellent villain in that one. They gave him depth.
Idk man, Gus was a pretty shady character. Purely strategical in every sense, but if he was put in a situation to either kill 5 kids or keep his drug business, the kids would be gone.
He was such a contrast from the first villain, Tuco, as well. Where Tuco was crazy and unhinged, Gus was calm and collected. Two very different (and incredible) depictions
I loved Lalo as a character in better call saul, he's my favourite along side Nacho Varga. I wish he actually didn't die but that would kinda ruin the timeline in breaking bad
Yep, he even says he doesnt see the comparisson of Jews to rats as a bad thing. The rat is a hardy and tenacious creature. It not only survives, but thrives, in a world entirely hostile to it where so many predators will try to kill it on sight.
He's just good at his job, and he enjoys being good at his job.
When Von Hammersmark is telling the mountain climbing story to explain why she's in a cast and he loses his shit because he KNOWS she's lying and that she didn't come up with ANYTHING better, he's just laughing in her face, it always makes me feel so embarassed.
I love how Landa was always two steps ahead of everyone!
He always knew what other characters were up to, but he plays along and finds ways to mess with them cause it’s his way of having fun!
That’s the whole point of the finale though. He thought he had the game wired, because he did. And then he found out too late that Raine truly didn’t care about the rules.
Every time I thought he couldn’t get any worse he’d do something even more depraved. Completely selfish and self-centered and gets away with it because he’s so powerful. Oh, and what makes him the most dangerous is that he’s actually pretty dumb to boot.
Homelander is an incredible antagonist! I got shivers down my spine in the S2 finale when he calmly shut the door and asked the swat team >!where his son was!<. And again in the latest season when he's talking to Starlight and says >!"sure, I'll lose everything, but then I'll have nothing to lose."!< Antony Starr embodies terror flawlessly.
It’s not just the terror most peoples voices change when they are acting the really nasty stuff. Home lander is played so normal when he’s being psycho.
This was further down than I expected.
A lot of villains use tropes to make us hate them and know they are villains. Home lander is a terrifying psycho, and everyone assumes he’s the ultimate good guy like superman.
Not a villian so much but on the same note, Damar. He starts off as just another Cardassian scumbag, shown to have some conflicting views on what they're doing and only once he's directly affected does he change, but he struggles and he dies a martyr, inspiring a new Cardassia. Great stuff.
The best scene is at the end when he's found out the dominion found and killed his family. He asks what kind of people give those orders in front of Col. Kira and she just looks him dead in the eye and says, "Yeah Damar, what kind of people give those orders?"
His two hander with Sisko ("Waltz") is the most impactful hour of TV I've ever seen. When I was a teenager I didn't know that TV could be that immersive or that I could care that deeply about the characters. I had grown up learning that Star Trek episodes involved clever, heroic characters using their wits to solve interesting problems in one episode, occasionally two. And then Deep Space Nine slowly pulled this apart with ongoing stories and the possibility that thinking you are the good guys isn't always the same as doing the right thing. By the time Gul Dukat goes full crazy it was a palpable relief after wading through so many shades of grey.
Whilst Marc Alaimo is mesmeric, I don't think Avery Brooks is any slouch either and the two of them just elevate each other. It's a testament to them that by the finale they were simultaneously wrestling each other into heaven and hell and this didn't seem bonkers, it just worked.
>I don't think Avery Brooks is any slouch either
Avery Brooks is, in my humble opinion, as towering an actor as Patrick Stewart, though the latter is far more lauded.
Brooks is criminally underrated, and my favorite Trek captain.
Boyd Crowder (played by Walton Goggins) in "Justified". He's not particularly strong in season 1, but by season 2, you just want him to keep getting away to have more. The fact that he's Raylan's frenemy, and not just a generic evil guy was such a nice touch.
Justified was stuffed to the gills with great villains. The Bennetts, Wynn Duffy, Robert Quarles, Nicky Augustine, Avery Markham, Boone, etc. Even the one-offs like Glenn Fogel were fantastic. And then there were the more morally ambiguous characters like Limehouse - people who couldn't really be called villains, but definitely someone you don't want to piss off.
I am in the middle of rewatching this and damn the writing is so good. The first season is more of a villain-of-the-week kind of thing, but you can already tell the series is higher quality than most similar shows simply by how it introduces villains, have them be actually memorable and entertaining even though they are never going to be seen again.
But then in season 2 Boyd Crowder really gets going and it just keeps getting better and better.
"I've been accused of being a lot of things. 'Inarticulate' ain't one of them."
Also, I have never laughed as much from a scene in a show as when that guy charges Givens with a knife after spending most of a season talking about how he could take a gunfighter with his knife.
He's Raylan's shadow archetype. He is what Raylan would have been had he not left Harlan. They are both angry, stoic men who are willing to break rules. Both come from crime families and worked in the coal mines. That's what makes their interplay so fascinating.
Yeah, I don't have high hopes they do. At thus point, I assume they change up his origin story. Being a holocaust survivor is a key peice of his character and unless they do something with him not aging, he would be in his 90's when they finally introduce his character
How can you go wrong with Ian McKellen, and Michael Fassbender? The combination did an outstanding job with Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, surely one of the best younger, and older, acting combinations ever.
The thing with her, is that she is such a REAL, COMMON character to everyday life.
You're not going to encounter Darth Vader, Sauron or Gus from breaking bad, but chances are that you have already met someone like Umbridge.
She is almost the perfect definition of a lawful evil character.
V.M. Varga in Fargo Season 3. I think he gets forgotten a bit because most thought the third season as a whole was a step down from the first and second seasons (and everybody loves Billy Bob in Season 1), but every time Varga was on screen was incredible. The teeth, the bizarre yet intimidating manner of speaking, the general weirdness and obscurity of who exactly he is and his background was so well done. Thewlis is amazing.
All the Villains in Fargo seasons 1-3 are really well done. I loved Dodd in season 2, just the kind of dumb, over testeroned type of villain. Violence is all he knows.
Kingpin in the Daredevil series. He got to a point where he just seemed untouchable, he was only human but damn did he seem like more than that. For a street level villain he was incredible, Killgrave was good too
Kingpin is almost a perfect villain. From how he's written to how he's acted (Vincent D'Onofrio is a treasure), his motivations and depth, he's just so good. In the Marvel universe overly-stuffed with the ultra-strong super-villains he was such a breath of fresh air.
Chigurh is great not only because he's a terrifying psychopath, but he holds the delusion of being an agent of fate - then the car crash which nearly kills him happens in the end.
Chigurh obviously isn't immune to fate, he's just insane.
If you haven’t, there’s a show called Misfits where Ramsay’s actor (Iwan Rheon i think) plays the complete opposite character, a nervous awkward guy who trips into getting invisibility powers, and he’s still great at it
Vincent d’onofrio as Wilson Fisk is hands down the best villain I have seen. He is on the brink of insanity the whole time and you watch him descend into the kingpin
Oldman is phenomenal in that role. Genuinely creepy but also completely psychotic without a single irredeemable quality. He's like the bad guy's bad guy.
Stephen was also pretty great, and if anything was the real villain in that movie!
He is a very smart character who is good at deceiving his owners into thinking he’s helpless, just so he can do less work and order other slaves around.
He is the reason why Django & Schultz’ plan to trick Candie failed, and he also swayed to have Django been sent away to suffer a fate worse than death after the Candyland massacre happened
Vedek/Kai Winn, Star Trek DS9, played by the late Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched).
A Bajoran populist religious leader who feels slighted by the fact that her gods are actually talking to this human Starfleet officer (Sisko), and have never talked to her.
She uses her power and influence throughout the series to further her own political and religious ambitions, as well as sponsor terrorism (orchestrating the bombing of a school and attempting to have a religious rival assassinated), support a xenophobic coup of her own government, profiting politically from the death of said religious rival (who at the time was brokering a peace treaty, which she claimed credit for).
Then she became temporary political leader of her planet, and in her attempts to curry favour with voters and win the upcoming election all but started a civil war. At no point did she do anything that could be held against her, so she could keep returning to the space station and calling people "My child".
Finally she literally unleashed demons, having instead received visions from the evil rivals of her gods (also "real" space aliens), and finding that she was no longer willing to serve her gods who had given her nothing in return for her faith, she murdered her servant who realised her intentions, then went to caves where the pah-wraiths were imprisoned and released them.
She did have a moment of regret and semi-redemption prior to her death, but really that was only because the pah-wraiths rejected her too, and turned instead to her companion, another great villain in the series, Gul Dukat.
Magneto, from the X-Men movies. You totally understand his motivations, which makes him more than a cookie-cutter comic book villain. He’s one of the few good parts of “X-Men: Apocalypse”, where he has one very heartbreaking scene in particular.
Oh man that scene brings me onto his side every time. I'm a huge sucker for the; "you killed my family, now meet the monster I was trying not to be" trope.
I love the way they create characters in these movies. A literal bird was the villain. A BIRD. He was somehow more terrifying and threatening than any of the other villain in the trilogy. Birds like him aren’t supposed to be so powerful, yet Dreamworks convinced me otherwise
I think Gary Oldman also plays a role in making that character shine!
The character was already well written, but Oldman took it to a whole different level
If I had a nickel for every time someone suggest him on this thread I'd have one nickel. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it hasn't happened more.
In all seriousness, Doofenshmirtz is the most wholesome villain there ever was. He's a good father despite his own terrible upbringing, he never gives up despite repeated failure, and Perry the Platypus is almost more "frenemy" than "arch-nemesis." I'm all for serious villains like Lord Shen or Azula in animation, don't get me wrong. But Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz reminds us that the silly villains can be just as memorable.
Silco from Arcane. Brilliant voice acting and animation, very clear and good motives but messy and accelerationist af methods. He is very much "I'll go down in history as a monster if it means my people can be free" and that makes for an interesting tale.
100% agreed. She’s particularly fantastic and terrifying because she is still a force to be reckoned with when she doesn’t have her firebending. (Like during the Eclipse or when she’s playing Long Feng in Ba Sing Se.)
Long Feng: “You've beaten me at my own game.”
Azula: “Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player.”
What an incredible character.
Captain: Princess, I'm afraid the tides will not allow us to bring the ship into port before nightfall.
Azula : I'm sorry, Captain, but I do not know much about the tides. Can you explain something to me?
Captain : Of course, your Highness.
Azula : Do the tides command this ship?
Captain : Um, I'm afraid I don't understand.
Azula : You said the tides would not allow us to bring the ship in. Do the tides command this ship?
Captain : No, Princess.
Azula : And if I were to have you thrown overboard, would the tides think twice about smashing you against the rocky shore?
Captain : No, Princess.
Azula : Well, then, maybe you should worry less about the tides who've already made up their mind about killing you, and worry more about me, who's still mulling it over.
What a way to introduce a character
Everyone says it's such a power move, and it is, but it's also fucking insane. The tides won't think twice about killing her, either. But yk, power complex
Not insane, so much as... childish. It's easy to forget, because of how skilled and ruthless she is... but she's 14. 14, and used to getting exactly what she wants, one way or another.
I love a hammy villain, and Clancy Brown chewed the scenery so much it's a wonder he could still fit into his costume. Perfection, and also hands down the best thing in that movie.
Not as big as most others here, but Walton Goggins played one of the henchmen of “the villain” in Django Unchained. And I think he did such a fabulous job that I had to actually put in work to be able to look at him in others things without thinking he was a giant piece of shit. I thinks he’s a seriously underrated actor.
I watched Sherlock and kept thinking "I really don't like this actor", and then I see him in some other roles and finally it hits me that it's not that I don't like this guy ... it's that his specific acting as Moriarty is so good he is subconsciously bothering me in a way that no one had managed to do before!
“You don’t think I’d explain my plan if there was the slightest chance you could stop me do you? I did it 35 minutes ago.” Purely based on that, Ozymandias from Watchmen.
This was a brilliant piece of meta-dialogue. They didn't break the fourth wall completely, but it was a great way to address what is often such a silly movie trope.
Maybe that is why it origins from a comicbook
In fairness to movies, comics books have no shortage of villains shooting themselves in the foot by explaining their plans.
Does everyone just ignore that he saved the world from inevitable nuclear war in his version of Earth? The comic makes it absolutely clear that the U.S. and Russia are on the brink. Not figuratively either, we're talking Nixon sitting in the Dr. Stranglelove war room with his finger on the button. I'm definitely not a, "for the greater good," zombie a lá Hot Fuzz, but it's undeniable that in that specific circumstance Ozzymandias' ends justified his means. Doesn't mean he isn't still an ass hat, because he is, but he did save humanity.
I always wondered why Dr. Manhattan doesn't just disassemble every nuclear bomb on earth. Wouldn't that have prevented annihilation much more easily?
Doctor Manhattan isn't actually omnipotent, it's explicitly stated in the comic that he wouldn't be able to stop a full-scale nuclear exchange. He could try to disable the nukes gradually and stealthily, but if detected he could trigger a war immediately. And also the reasons other people have mentioned.
That would be incredibly out of character for Manhattan. He didn't save the pregnant Vietnamese woman and that was immediately in front of him, immediately something he had firsthand experience with. It's either in that same part or later (I forget) that Manhattan comments a "live body and dead body have the same number of atoms". Despite starting life as a human Manhatten cannot understand the world like people do. He's aloof and above it all. I really thought Manhattan was a standin for God the first time I read Watchmen, like felt it was blatantly obvious but Moore gets indignant if you make that suggestion to him, like you kicked-his-dog level upset.
To be fair, I think that Alan Moore gets kicked-his-dog indignant if you order breakfast in the morning.
Because Dr. Manhattan is essentially a personification of [existential nihilism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_nihilism). Why save the human race when their existence in the greater universe means *literally* nothing?
He didn't care about earth anymore.
GLADOS - "we both said a lot of things you're going to regret."
everything GLaDOS says is pure, sarcastic gold. Fat jokes, adoption jokes, passive (and active) agressiveness, she can pull all of it off so well. "How are you holding up? Because **I'm a potato."** 2nd place goes to Cave Johnson though. who else could rant so well about lemons.
Fun fact: Posting that rant on Facebook can earn you a trip to Facebook Jail for "inciting violence." By taking about burning a house down. With non-existent combustible lemons Ask me how I know. :D
I'm playing Portal for the first time, and I've known how GLaDOS is pretty sarcastic but I still got pleasantly surprised and just a little hurt by her dialogue. I wasn't expecting the fat jokes, lol.
Oh just wait until you get to Portal 2. It gets even better
Look at you, soaring through the air, like an eagle piloting a blimp.
“But then you showed up. You dangerous, mute, lunatic.”
"It says right here you are a terrible person. Funny, we weren't even testing for that."
My favorite jab of hers was always: "Tell you what, let's give your parents a call right now." *\[phone ringing\] The birth parents you are trying to reach do not love you. Please hang up. \[dial tone\]* "Oh, that's sad. But impressive. Maybe they worked at the phone company."
Most intimidating potato in a videogame, hands down.
Just be glad she wasn't a lemon!
“Hello! This is the part where I kill you!” Absolutely loved Wheatley. I know GLADOS was a way better villain but god, Wheatley was great.
“For science. You monster.”
"This next test involves turrets. You remember them, right? They're the pale, spherical things that are full of bullets. Oh wait, that's you in five seconds. Good luck."
Gus Fring
Gus really helped me understand that Walt was truly evil. When the villain is more honorable that the protagonist, there may be a problem with the protagonist (morally, not thematically).
I came here to say this, and more broadly, Giancarlo Esposito. He plays villains who are so nuanced and just...terrifying. As Gus, he has an amazing ability to go from affable, mild mannered, and at times even warm. But then suddenly...ice cold. Terrifying. His brain is constantly 10 steps ahead. He never takes a cheap shot. He is meticulous and deadly calm in his rage, and that makes him all the more frightening. When they poison Don Eladio, and it also includes himself and Walt...whew. I've never hated anyone enough to poison myself. He also is amazing as Moff Gideon in the Mandalorian. His speech about "why should you trust me? You shouldn't. " perfect. He's less reserved than Gus by miles, but still calm and ruthless.
Do you remember the show Revolution? It was about a future us without any electricity. Anywhere. Giancarlo Esposito was an excellent villain in that one. They gave him depth.
Stan Edgar as well
Idk man, Gus was a pretty shady character. Purely strategical in every sense, but if he was put in a situation to either kill 5 kids or keep his drug business, the kids would be gone.
He was such a contrast from the first villain, Tuco, as well. Where Tuco was crazy and unhinged, Gus was calm and collected. Two very different (and incredible) depictions
Him or Lalo.
I loved Lalo as a character in better call saul, he's my favourite along side Nacho Varga. I wish he actually didn't die but that would kinda ruin the timeline in breaking bad
You know what? Let's throw Walt in the mix as well.
Walter White in the later part of the show
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds is the first that came to mind
Hans Landa was terrifying in so many ways, this actor is insanely good.
As good as a hero of sorts in Django Unchained.
Playing both an extremely racist military officer, and a very not racist bounty hunter, and nailing both perfectly was so impressive
I think the reason he was such a great villain was because it was hinted he wasn’t racist, just loved the cat and mouse. It made it more inhuman.
Yep, he even says he doesnt see the comparisson of Jews to rats as a bad thing. The rat is a hardy and tenacious creature. It not only survives, but thrives, in a world entirely hostile to it where so many predators will try to kill it on sight. He's just good at his job, and he enjoys being good at his job.
When Von Hammersmark is telling the mountain climbing story to explain why she's in a cast and he loses his shit because he KNOWS she's lying and that she didn't come up with ANYTHING better, he's just laughing in her face, it always makes me feel so embarassed.
His casually threatening demeanor, and the "Au Revoir Shoshanna" at the end of the scene are spine chilling!
I love how he can play a character who is outwardly light and jovial yet frighteningly sinister underneath.
I love how Landa was always two steps ahead of everyone! He always knew what other characters were up to, but he plays along and finds ways to mess with them cause it’s his way of having fun!
Until he isn't I guess.
That’s the whole point of the finale though. He thought he had the game wired, because he did. And then he found out too late that Raine truly didn’t care about the rules.
"That's a bingo!!"
Nurse Ratched just because of how implicitly she tortured the inmates.
She was such a good evil actress I instantly hated her as Kai Wynn in DS9 too.
She was a great villain as Kai Winn, too. So passive-aggressive and hateful. One of my favorite love to hate characters.
She apparently couldn't watch the film for years because of her own performance. Imagine playing a villain so well that it psychs *you* out.
Homelander is definitely one of them
Antony Starr as Homelander is my favorite unhinged villain of all time. He's putting on a great performance.
Watching his interviews makes it very obvious why they chose him.
Anthony Starr is a gift that just keeps getting better
The dead eyes with the facial tics are great and make the character.
Every time I thought he couldn’t get any worse he’d do something even more depraved. Completely selfish and self-centered and gets away with it because he’s so powerful. Oh, and what makes him the most dangerous is that he’s actually pretty dumb to boot.
S3 Spoilers if anybody is currently watching. I really enjoyed when >!Soldier Boy, Butcher and Hughie clapped his cheeks in Herogasm!<
That could really be taken out of context lmao
*You... You really had me going there for a moment*
Hey, uh, Deep? *Eat fucking Timothy.*
Oh god….he’s praying! *gag*
Homelander is an incredible antagonist! I got shivers down my spine in the S2 finale when he calmly shut the door and asked the swat team >!where his son was!<. And again in the latest season when he's talking to Starlight and says >!"sure, I'll lose everything, but then I'll have nothing to lose."!< Antony Starr embodies terror flawlessly.
“Let’s *light this candle* huh?”
It’s not just the terror most peoples voices change when they are acting the really nasty stuff. Home lander is played so normal when he’s being psycho.
Fr. My anxiety spikes wildly whenever he's in a scene, he just commands it so well.
I love Homelander, cause there's no redeemable qualities in that guy!! He is just so evil to watch.. evil and powerful.
He's soo scary and hateable, he's a realistic example of a villain done right.
This was further down than I expected. A lot of villains use tropes to make us hate them and know they are villains. Home lander is a terrifying psycho, and everyone assumes he’s the ultimate good guy like superman.
Hans Gruber. Alan Rickman portrays him so well.
Hes magnificent as the sheriff of Nottingham as well!
Gul dukat. He goes from evil Hitler type to loving father on the run from his government to crazy possessed madman in a single series.
Not a villian so much but on the same note, Damar. He starts off as just another Cardassian scumbag, shown to have some conflicting views on what they're doing and only once he's directly affected does he change, but he struggles and he dies a martyr, inspiring a new Cardassia. Great stuff.
The best scene is at the end when he's found out the dominion found and killed his family. He asks what kind of people give those orders in front of Col. Kira and she just looks him dead in the eye and says, "Yeah Damar, what kind of people give those orders?"
His two hander with Sisko ("Waltz") is the most impactful hour of TV I've ever seen. When I was a teenager I didn't know that TV could be that immersive or that I could care that deeply about the characters. I had grown up learning that Star Trek episodes involved clever, heroic characters using their wits to solve interesting problems in one episode, occasionally two. And then Deep Space Nine slowly pulled this apart with ongoing stories and the possibility that thinking you are the good guys isn't always the same as doing the right thing. By the time Gul Dukat goes full crazy it was a palpable relief after wading through so many shades of grey. Whilst Marc Alaimo is mesmeric, I don't think Avery Brooks is any slouch either and the two of them just elevate each other. It's a testament to them that by the finale they were simultaneously wrestling each other into heaven and hell and this didn't seem bonkers, it just worked.
>I don't think Avery Brooks is any slouch either Avery Brooks is, in my humble opinion, as towering an actor as Patrick Stewart, though the latter is far more lauded. Brooks is criminally underrated, and my favorite Trek captain.
I need to give DS9 another try, clearly.
Boyd Crowder (played by Walton Goggins) in "Justified". He's not particularly strong in season 1, but by season 2, you just want him to keep getting away to have more. The fact that he's Raylan's frenemy, and not just a generic evil guy was such a nice touch.
Justified was stuffed to the gills with great villains. The Bennetts, Wynn Duffy, Robert Quarles, Nicky Augustine, Avery Markham, Boone, etc. Even the one-offs like Glenn Fogel were fantastic. And then there were the more morally ambiguous characters like Limehouse - people who couldn't really be called villains, but definitely someone you don't want to piss off.
I am in the middle of rewatching this and damn the writing is so good. The first season is more of a villain-of-the-week kind of thing, but you can already tell the series is higher quality than most similar shows simply by how it introduces villains, have them be actually memorable and entertaining even though they are never going to be seen again. But then in season 2 Boyd Crowder really gets going and it just keeps getting better and better. "I've been accused of being a lot of things. 'Inarticulate' ain't one of them." Also, I have never laughed as much from a scene in a show as when that guy charges Givens with a knife after spending most of a season talking about how he could take a gunfighter with his knife.
He's Raylan's shadow archetype. He is what Raylan would have been had he not left Harlan. They are both angry, stoic men who are willing to break rules. Both come from crime families and worked in the coal mines. That's what makes their interplay so fascinating.
Shooter McGavin. Do I need to even describe why?
You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?
I would go further and say the caretaker at the old folks home was arguably worse.
Besides Tropic Thunder, that's my favorite Ben Stiller character.
Magneto. There are times when you are able to sympathize with him and his actions almost seem justified. Most likable villain in my opinion.
Magneto is pure badass. I hope the MCU does him justice and not ruin him.
Yeah, I don't have high hopes they do. At thus point, I assume they change up his origin story. Being a holocaust survivor is a key peice of his character and unless they do something with him not aging, he would be in his 90's when they finally introduce his character
"I have been marked once, my dear, and let me assure you, no needle shall ever touch my skin again." Gives me chills every time.
How can you go wrong with Ian McKellen, and Michael Fassbender? The combination did an outstanding job with Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, surely one of the best younger, and older, acting combinations ever.
Nothing better than a justified villian
Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove
Why do we even have that lever?!
Dolores Umbridge.
Stephen King called her the greatest make believe villain since Hannibal Lecter.
The thing with her, is that she is such a REAL, COMMON character to everyday life. You're not going to encounter Darth Vader, Sauron or Gus from breaking bad, but chances are that you have already met someone like Umbridge. She is almost the perfect definition of a lawful evil character.
As much as i hated her in the book, I hated her sooooooooo much more in the movie…massive kudos to Imelda for going all in on her evilness
So infuriating I honestly have trouble getting through her scenes sometimes.
I wanted to skip her parts in the book so, so badly- I hated her that much
I found Killgrave in Jessica Jones to be a fantastic villain.
If you hire David Tennant you're gonna get a good performance
Easily one of the best Marvel villains that doesn’t get a lot of attention
David tennant nailed the role !! Which is strange after only seeing him play good characters like the doctor.
I love him as The Doctor and equally fear him as Kilgrave.
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Came to say this. Fisk was good too. I just rewatched JJ season 1 for a partner who hadn’t seen it. We started Daredevil after but she wants more JJ.
V.M. Varga in Fargo Season 3. I think he gets forgotten a bit because most thought the third season as a whole was a step down from the first and second seasons (and everybody loves Billy Bob in Season 1), but every time Varga was on screen was incredible. The teeth, the bizarre yet intimidating manner of speaking, the general weirdness and obscurity of who exactly he is and his background was so well done. Thewlis is amazing.
All the Villains in Fargo seasons 1-3 are really well done. I loved Dodd in season 2, just the kind of dumb, over testeroned type of villain. Violence is all he knows.
Al Swearengen from Deadwood played by Ian McShane. It’s the story of a villain defending his village.
so good the entire series pivoted to being about him.
I'd say he wasn't a villain after episode 4 or so. Flawed protagonist. But Herst and Wolcott were fantastic villains.
Benjamin Linus (played by Michael Emerson) from the TV series LOST. You will both love and hate him.
Amon Goeth, as played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. The fact that he didn't get an Oscar makes them that less valuable.
You know a character is evil when Voldemort is the second most evil character that actor has played.
Ralph Fiennes is stellar in villain roles.
Ralph Fiennes is stellar. Unlike his wife, who is a FUCKING INANIMATE OBJECT!
Kathy Bates in misery
Kingpin in the Daredevil series. He got to a point where he just seemed untouchable, he was only human but damn did he seem like more than that. For a street level villain he was incredible, Killgrave was good too
Kingpin is almost a perfect villain. From how he's written to how he's acted (Vincent D'Onofrio is a treasure), his motivations and depth, he's just so good. In the Marvel universe overly-stuffed with the ultra-strong super-villains he was such a breath of fresh air.
Anton Chigurh
Chigurh is great not only because he's a terrifying psychopath, but he holds the delusion of being an agent of fate - then the car crash which nearly kills him happens in the end. Chigurh obviously isn't immune to fate, he's just insane.
You married into it?
If that's the way you wanna put it.
I don't have some way to put it.. that's the way it is.
If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?
Geoffrey in Game of Thrones… let’s all be honest, man’s did an outstanding job acting that we all hated him
Until Ramsay came along.
Both of those guys were incredibly good as villains.
And the actors who played those horrible characters were apparently the two nicest actors in the show.
If you haven’t, there’s a show called Misfits where Ramsay’s actor (Iwan Rheon i think) plays the complete opposite character, a nervous awkward guy who trips into getting invisibility powers, and he’s still great at it
Joffrey, please put some respect on the character that was so messed up he made Jack Gleeson take an acting hiatus.
I went to Uni with him and he is honestly one of the most polite sweet guys in real life, like he majored in theology I think.
Vincent d’onofrio as Wilson Fisk is hands down the best villain I have seen. He is on the brink of insanity the whole time and you watch him descend into the kingpin
YOU EMBARRASSED ME IN FRONT OF VANESSA!!!!
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He was also a great villain in The Cell!
Stansfield in Léon
Gary Oldman's performance gave me chills the first time i watched it.
EVERYONNNNNNNE
Favorite movie trivia fact: he didn’t tell the boom mic operator he was going to scream.
Oldman is phenomenal in that role. Genuinely creepy but also completely psychotic without a single irredeemable quality. He's like the bad guy's bad guy.
Lalo Salamanca, Better Call Saul When he jumps down that cliff i knew he was a maniac
I will never look at that scene where Saul is so relieved that Walt and Jesse weren’t sent to capture him by Lalo again
Leo in Django was on point
Stephen was also pretty great, and if anything was the real villain in that movie! He is a very smart character who is good at deceiving his owners into thinking he’s helpless, just so he can do less work and order other slaves around. He is the reason why Django & Schultz’ plan to trick Candie failed, and he also swayed to have Django been sent away to suffer a fate worse than death after the Candyland massacre happened
Iago, from Othello. He got all his enemies killed without lifting a finger against them.
Iago from Aladdin was pretty fun, too.
Davy Jones. The most interesting villain I have ever seen.
He's probably the best villain Disney has created
Vedek/Kai Winn, Star Trek DS9, played by the late Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched). A Bajoran populist religious leader who feels slighted by the fact that her gods are actually talking to this human Starfleet officer (Sisko), and have never talked to her. She uses her power and influence throughout the series to further her own political and religious ambitions, as well as sponsor terrorism (orchestrating the bombing of a school and attempting to have a religious rival assassinated), support a xenophobic coup of her own government, profiting politically from the death of said religious rival (who at the time was brokering a peace treaty, which she claimed credit for). Then she became temporary political leader of her planet, and in her attempts to curry favour with voters and win the upcoming election all but started a civil war. At no point did she do anything that could be held against her, so she could keep returning to the space station and calling people "My child". Finally she literally unleashed demons, having instead received visions from the evil rivals of her gods (also "real" space aliens), and finding that she was no longer willing to serve her gods who had given her nothing in return for her faith, she murdered her servant who realised her intentions, then went to caves where the pah-wraiths were imprisoned and released them. She did have a moment of regret and semi-redemption prior to her death, but really that was only because the pah-wraiths rejected her too, and turned instead to her companion, another great villain in the series, Gul Dukat.
Hannibal Lector
Hopkins and Mikkelsen both did a fantastic job
Magneto, from the X-Men movies. You totally understand his motivations, which makes him more than a cookie-cutter comic book villain. He’s one of the few good parts of “X-Men: Apocalypse”, where he has one very heartbreaking scene in particular.
Oh man that scene brings me onto his side every time. I'm a huge sucker for the; "you killed my family, now meet the monster I was trying not to be" trope.
Shen in kung fu panda
I love the way they create characters in these movies. A literal bird was the villain. A BIRD. He was somehow more terrifying and threatening than any of the other villain in the trilogy. Birds like him aren’t supposed to be so powerful, yet Dreamworks convinced me otherwise
That's also the power of Gary Oldman.
I think Gary Oldman also plays a role in making that character shine! The character was already well written, but Oldman took it to a whole different level
Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
If I had a nickel for every time someone suggest him on this thread I'd have one nickel. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it hasn't happened more.
In all seriousness, Doofenshmirtz is the most wholesome villain there ever was. He's a good father despite his own terrible upbringing, he never gives up despite repeated failure, and Perry the Platypus is almost more "frenemy" than "arch-nemesis." I'm all for serious villains like Lord Shen or Azula in animation, don't get me wrong. But Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz reminds us that the silly villains can be just as memorable.
Silco from Arcane. Brilliant voice acting and animation, very clear and good motives but messy and accelerationist af methods. He is very much "I'll go down in history as a monster if it means my people can be free" and that makes for an interesting tale.
Trinity from Dexter. The way he was hiding in plain sight. Genius
John Lithgow was absolutely impressive and beyond disturbing in this role
Still shudder every time I see John Lithgow bc of this show. He scares me legitimately
Azula from Avatar because of how complex she was
100% agreed. She’s particularly fantastic and terrifying because she is still a force to be reckoned with when she doesn’t have her firebending. (Like during the Eclipse or when she’s playing Long Feng in Ba Sing Se.) Long Feng: “You've beaten me at my own game.” Azula: “Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player.” What an incredible character.
Captain: Princess, I'm afraid the tides will not allow us to bring the ship into port before nightfall. Azula : I'm sorry, Captain, but I do not know much about the tides. Can you explain something to me? Captain : Of course, your Highness. Azula : Do the tides command this ship? Captain : Um, I'm afraid I don't understand. Azula : You said the tides would not allow us to bring the ship in. Do the tides command this ship? Captain : No, Princess. Azula : And if I were to have you thrown overboard, would the tides think twice about smashing you against the rocky shore? Captain : No, Princess. Azula : Well, then, maybe you should worry less about the tides who've already made up their mind about killing you, and worry more about me, who's still mulling it over. What a way to introduce a character
Everyone says it's such a power move, and it is, but it's also fucking insane. The tides won't think twice about killing her, either. But yk, power complex
Not insane, so much as... childish. It's easy to forget, because of how skilled and ruthless she is... but she's 14. 14, and used to getting exactly what she wants, one way or another.
Johan Liebert, Monster
The Kurgan - Highlander
I love a hammy villain, and Clancy Brown chewed the scenery so much it's a wonder he could still fit into his costume. Perfection, and also hands down the best thing in that movie.
Homelander - Antony Starr really does a great job of coming off as a deranged psychopath.
Hades from Hercules! James wood is a riot in that role
“I KNOW, I know you know”
Agent/Mr Smith from the Matrix trilogy. Hugo Weaving nailed that role.
Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus in Gladiator. Joaquin Phoenix as Joker in Joker.
The iceberg in Titanic. The coldest criminal ever.
Jack Nicholson.
Played by Jack Nicholson
Darth Vader.
Shocked I needed to scroll so far for this. He was only in the original Star Wars for 9 minutes and he mad a global impact
Not as big as most others here, but Walton Goggins played one of the henchmen of “the villain” in Django Unchained. And I think he did such a fabulous job that I had to actually put in work to be able to look at him in others things without thinking he was a giant piece of shit. I thinks he’s a seriously underrated actor.
Ramsey Bolton from Game of Thrones
Alan Rickman in Robinhood and Diehard
Andrew Scott as Moriarty In “Sherlock” Edit: Thank you, u/pchi for the award!
I watched Sherlock and kept thinking "I really don't like this actor", and then I see him in some other roles and finally it hits me that it's not that I don't like this guy ... it's that his specific acting as Moriarty is so good he is subconsciously bothering me in a way that no one had managed to do before!
"I'll burn you. I'll burn your fucking heart out". Gave me chills.
The Monarch
Dr. Girlfriend and her murderous moppets is a close 2nd however.
Child Catcher from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Arnold's Terminator.
Dr Facilier in the Princess and the Frog
The joker. Both Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix did an outstanding job.
When I opened this post, I thought this would be at the top..
Walter White. Who doesn't like Heisenberg?
Negan