Great villains in fiction

[hybridial]

I thought since we have a thread talking about villains that suck, I thought it would be good to talk about villains in a much more positive sense. Whether its simply antagonist characters we really like or ones we want to highlight for particular reasons. 

 

So here's a few characters I really enjoyed. I'll use spoiler tags because really one has to talk about these characters in detail to communicate how good they are. 

 

Satan (Devilman)

 

 

Well, one can't really go more classic villain than this, can they? And its nice to see someone who understood Satan was an Angel, and depicts them as such. I almost cannot say a damn thing about Satan however without immediately going into spoiler territory. 

Spoiler

Okay, so this was Go Nagai's absolute stroke of genius with this character. We only truly understand his motivations in the final scene of the story. But the ending also reveals that the story is really about them, moreso than it is about Akira Fudo (Devilman). Satan turns out to be Akira's friend and ally, Ryo. Ryo was the one who involved Akira in the battle with the Demons, ancient primordial creatures trapped in ethereal forms who are starting their return to Earth, and do so by possessing people, intending on taking over the Earth. Or, as we find, taking back the Earth, for they were much more ancient inhabitants, who were wiped out by God, because God considered them creatures of ugliness and chaos. Satan's fall happened because Satan rebelled against God for this act, for he believed the Demons had the right to exist. Satan's plan was to reincarnate as a human and lead the demons against humanity, what complicated things was his friendship with Akira. This is handled a bit differently in the Crybaby series, but essentially Ryo most likely loves Akira and sought to try and protect him by giving him the power he would need to survive in the world the demon's return would create. Akira chooses to defy them. tl;dr, humanity is wiped out in the battle, Satan one shots Akira who never had a chance, and only lying next to Akira's dying body does Satan realise the irony of his position and actions. He is really a much more interesting character than Akira himself who was a fairly straightforward hero. The Devilman Lady anime reversed this, where Satan's equivalent wasn't as interesting but the Devilman character was much deeper and interesting, and I'd talk in detail about her in a best heroes topic) 

 

Jon Irenicus (Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn)

 

 

This Motherfucker. He is the reason Baldur's Gate 2 is a legendary game and why it will always be extremely hard to beat in the epic fantasy stakes. At the start of Baldur's Gate 2, you wake up in a cage. Irenicus enters the scene and talks about experimenting on you, and then he tortures you. When free, you find out he killed two of the canon party members from the first game, and the opening dungeon is his lair underneath the surface of the city of Amn. This is one of the greatest opening levels in the history of videogames. It is a house of horrors that offer glimpses into Irenicus' psyche and it is horrifying. Also, his actions has clearly taken its toll on your best friend, Imoen, who I think is played incredibly well in the game as someone who's lost all innocence because of this violation perpetrated on her. To say any more needs to go more into the story - 

Spoiler

Irenicus was the court mage of the Elven capital of Suldanessellar, the location of the Ancient tree of life where elven souls are said to be born from. His desire for more power led him to violating the tree in an attempt to become a God, and as punishment he and his sister were stripped of their souls and made mortal. Irenicus, driven beyond madness to seek revenge for this, targets the protagonist (the Bhaalspawn) for reasons found later; his intent to strip their soul so he can become immortal again and take his revenge on Suldanessellar. What I love is this is a character who is the very epitome of evil, but he is played so well by David Warner that he is always an intimidating threat, until the circumstances of his motivation becomes clear, and it shows how pathetic he really is.

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by hybridial

[Boaby Kenobi]

Darth Vader

 

Spoiler

 

 

Hannibal Lecter

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Mr. Freeze]

[FractalBeast]

Excuse me, you just posted the

Spoiler

hero

of Devilman.

 

You want to post the villain of Devilman, post

Spoiler

God

instead. What an asshole. A cosmic evil asshole.

[hybridial]

38 minutes ago, FractalBeast said:

Excuse me, you just posted the

  Reveal hidden contents

hero

of Devilman.

 

You want to post the villain of Devilman, post

  Reveal hidden contents

God

instead. What an asshole. A cosmic evil asshole.

 

That's fair when talking about the franchise as a whole but I was doing it considering the original manga only, in which Satan being the major antagonist appears to be the case without considering where things go from there (and oh boy, do they go places from there) 

[BluePineapple72]

The Judge, from Blood Meridian

 

The following is an excerpt from the novel. It takes place during a nightmare the protagonist has towards the end of the novel

Spoiler

 

"In that sleep and in sleeps to follow the judge did visit. Who would come other? A great shambling mutant, silent and serene. Whatever his antecedents he was something wholly other than their sum, nor was there system by which to divide him back into his origins for he would not go. Whoever would seek out his history through what unraveling of loins and ledgerbooks must stand at last darkened and dumb at the shore of a void without terminus or origin and whatever science he might bring to bear upon the dusty primal matter blowing down out of the millennia will discover no trace of any ultimate atavistic egg by which to reckon his commencing. In the white and empty room he stood in his bespoken suit with his hat in his hand and he peered down with his small and lashless pig’s eyes wherein this child just sixteen years on earth could read whole bodies of decisions not accountable to the courts of men and he saw his own name which nowhere else could he have ciphered out at all logged into the records as a thing already accomplished, a traveler known in jurisdictions existing only in the claims of certain pensioners or on old dated maps.

In his delirium he ransacked the linens of his pallet for arms but there were none. The judge smiled. The fool was no longer there but another man and this other man he could never see in his entirety but he seemed an artisan and a worker in metal. The judge enshadowed him where he crouched at his trade but he was a coldforger who worked with hammer and die, perhaps under some indictment and an exile from men’s fires, hammering out like his own conjectural destiny all through the night of his becoming some coinage for a dawn that would not be. It is this false moneyer with his gravers and burins who seeks favor with the judge and he is at contriving from cold slag brute in the crucible a face that will pass, an image that will render this residual specie current in the markets where men barter. Of this is the judge judge and the night does not end."

 

 

[Jello]

Raskolnikov is one of my favorite characters, because really he's the villain in Crime and Punishment, but the entire story is centered around him. One of the best books I've ever read, even if it does become a bit of a slog at points. But you spend all this time hearing his story and his tribulations, and you end up feeling bad for him, and wanting him to come out better in the end. Then you remember the only reason he had to deal with all this shit is because he murdered an old woman and her sister with an ax for a pittance.

 

And Colonel Kurtz, both from Heart of Darkness, and Marlon Brando's genius portrayal of him in Apocalypse Now.

 

Only two I can think of right now, I'm sure there's more, but it's just about bed time.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Jello

[Doom_Dude]

Darth Vader ~ Like @Boaby Kenobi mentioned. I like when we didn't really know much about his past and he was shrouded in mystery especially with that black outfit and the mask and stuff and at the end of the first film there was all this speculation if he was coming back or not...

 

The Joker ~ Heath Ledger did such a great job as the Joker in The Dark Knight and Mark Hamill's Joker in the animated series

 

Dr Evil ~ Release the globe!

[Hellbent]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series)

[CyberDreams]

Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes novels/series (w/e). One of the greatest criminal masterminds (villians) of all time imo.

[Mr. Freeze]

Shang "Motherfucking" Tsung went from a great villain in MK games to a legendary villain with the release of MK11: Aftermath. 

[seed]

2 hours ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Shang "Motherfucking" Tsung went from a great villain in MK games to a legendary villain with the release of MK11: Aftermath. 

 

Seconding this, Tsung is one of my favorites as well.

 

Gonna have to watch a let's play of Aftermath soon. Pretty awesome that they actually continued the story with expansions this time around, didn't think I would see the day. Bold move if you ask me. And considering the price tag, I wonder how much content is there and how long it is (I mean dang, 30-40$? That'd better be worth it, lol)

 

That being said, I think we can now safely assume MK12 is not coming anytime soon. NDS will probably focus on other projects after support for MK11 comes to an end.

[Mr. Freeze]

Aftermath's story is about 3 hours (half the length of MK11's), and includes three new kharacters. It was definitely worth it. Fuck, I'd pay $30 just for Robocop alone.