Who's your favorite Villain?

[The Shaman]

Ozymandias.

Damn straight. Best villain ever.

I mean, c'mon, what tops this?

'"Do it?" Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my masterstroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.'

THAT'S a villain, my friends.

The Commedian is only a few steps behind him, though. Sanctioned mayhem. A vigilante on a leash, but no one bothers holding it.

Archibald Cunningham is also an excellent choice, and one of his ancestors may make an appearance in my Flashing Blades game at some point. (Let me put it this way - it runs in the family.)

The baroness of Sheffield, better known as Milady de Winter, is another great villain.

 

[Votan]

Most villians do poorly when people try too hard to make them sympathetic; but the Darth Vader of Star Wars IV and V made a classic decisive and tough villian. He loses a lot in VI, I, II and III though.

Similarly, Magneto makes a very good villian with sympathetic motives. It makes it easy to understand why he is doing what he does (and explains why he is so relentless).

Desslock, from StarBlazers, gets an honorable mention for being both mellow and very different from the classic cartoon villians of the era. He broke many of the key tropes of the time and was a pretty fun villian.

 

[Votan]

Also, Emperor Palpatine deserves a mention, as I believe he may be the most politically smeared good guy in (fictional) history.

Good guy? Palpatine? Do tell . . .

While I do see points where Palpatine was right, on the whole he seems to be the classic patient evil plotter out for power (and not all that much else).

 

[Cyronax]

Mitth'raw'nuruodo

Thrawn is a great villain. He had such amazing foresight and gravitas, as well as a cold warrior's heart.

His sense of etiquette and his taste in art were an extension of this strategy.

Badass.

Great in one of his lesserknown appearances -- Outbound Flight.

I tried based a SWSE (SAGA) campaign on elements of that novel but it never went anywhere, since that was when 4e was first coming out (summer 2008).

C.I.D.

 

[Edgewood]

The old Preacher in Poltergeist II and III was down right spooky and oozed evil.

 

[Celtavian]

re

Dr. Doom: Because if he would have won, the world would have been a better, more perfect place. He wasn't a villain interested in destroying humanity, but ruling them perfectly. He was the one villain that had he succeed in his plans to take over the world would have greatly improved every aspect of human life. That's what made him so interesting. He had none of the vices common to a world conqueror. He didn't want to enslave people, murder them, torture them, or anything of the kind. He simply wanted to rule all because he thought he deserved to. And he would have been the most perfect ruler the world had ever known.

Michael Corleone: He's a villain who is the hero in his own story. It's a very interesting character study in how a criminal might rationalize his crime. He's noble in his own fashion, while being ruthless in his pursuit of power.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Since I've just rewatched Hogfather:

Mr. Teatime.

 

[megamania]

Too many to narrow down to one so I'll list it by medium-



Comicbooks-
Apocalypse
VERY powerful guy whom has been around for thousands of years. His evil is based on the motto- "Let the strongest survive". So attacks / manipulates peoples through events that challenge them. Normally straightout combat but sometimes emotional or ethic wise also.

DnD-
Often its whomever I'm using at the time . The face of the False Moon has long range villianary in my Storyhours. He is a wannabe Chaos God in Eberron. His generals are the scarest aspects of his efforts. Mistress Muy Monstrous is constantly mutating people and creatures to further their plans. Xulo-12 is a Lord of Blades type from another plane whom is coming back soon with a warforged army.

In my kids current game it is a House vadilus member whom has harvested raw magical energy in an effort to create a smarter and easier to train dog. His compound has exploded and the raw energies has spread throughout the valley and now my kids have to go in and contain it. All the while the house member is there to collect samples to renew the project. Evil

Movies-
No one comes to mind at this point beyond a few already listed canidates. Madame DeVille maybe (what's in a name?)

Real Life-
Mili Cyrus..... she is leading a great deal of good kids down a path best not taken. At Gaga and Ke$ha are obvious to avoid idolizing.....

 

[Momeeche]

Mr. Teatime.

The audio books and the tele-movie don't quite add up. But in the tele-movie the actor makes a mincing nacy boy freaking scary.

My husband, in his D&D game, had a villain who destroyed the world, and then traveled back in time to do it again for the first time. Which is when the players met him.

 

[jbear]

Plankton from SpongeBob. Without rival!