Greatest Villian of All Time (You Decide)

[Marius Delphus]

A Few More Nominees?

Doctor Who villain Davros (the Master having already been mentioned), whose ego- and monomania drive him to forcibly mutate his entire race beyond recognition, and then get started on the really ambitious stuff.

The alien General Sarris from "Galaxy Quest," who really believes the Thermians have no civil rights... or something like that.

Gul Dukat from "Deep Space Nine," a great "weasel" villain who will try every dirty trick he finds out about if only he'll end up ahead.

Captain Ahab from "Moby Dick," who refuses to let good captaining and nautical/whaling know-how get in the way of a good bout of vengeance-seeking.

Boris Balkan (Frank Langella's character) from "The Ninth Gate," [SPOILERS for "The Ninth Gate"] who seeks nothing less than to bring Pitchfork Dude himself to the mortal world... and IIRC he thinks he can boss Pitchfork Dude around when it's all over!

Hades from "Disney's Hercules," because he makes me laugh.

 

[kenjib]

Snidely Whiplash

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Re: A Few More Nominees?

Gul Dukat from "Deep Space Nine," a great "weasel" villain who will try every dirty trick he finds out about if only he'll end up ahead.

Salutations,

Gul Dukat was very interesting until the last season- he was a great villian in that his ultimate loyalty was to his people.. and that would sometimes make him the federation's ally, but often their enemy.

After the death of his daughter, then it was kind of downhill for his ability be anyone's ally.

FD

 

[Agback]

Vance's villains

Woodiver from Tschaï (Jack Vance). Truly loathable crook, and worse.

From the books of Vance also, each of the five Demon Princes. Especially Howard Alan Treesong, the greatest of the five.

If you're citing Vance villains, don't leave out King Camir of Lyonesse. And of the Demon Princes, I find Kokor Hekkus far creepier than poor mad H.A.T., even though the plans to take over the Institute and the I.P.C.C. as well as the Overmen were pretty cool. Besides which, Kokor Hekkus's plans to raise ten billion SVUs to ransom Alusz Iphigenia Eperge-Tokay (when he could have justs rocked up as Sion Trumble and gotten her free) were almost as grandiose as anything of Treesong's.

Do you ever get the feeling that people in general don't read enough Vance?

Regards,


Agback

 

[Avatar]

Here's my list of the most bada$$ villians out there:

Literary:

Iago (Othello)
Brand (Amber)
Sauron (LotR)
Big Brother/O'Brien (1984)
Lady McBeth (McBeth)
Fistandantalus (Dragonlance)

Comic:

Joker
Lex Luthor (the greatest criminal mind of our time)

Real:

Hitler
Stalin
Columbus
Suharto (Fmr. Pres. of Indonesia)

TV:

Cigarette Smoking Man (X-files)
Megatron (Transformers)
Mumra (Thundercats)
Skelator (He-man)
Aku (Samurai Jack)

Animal:

Jaws
Kujo
The Queen Alien

Disney:

While I do like Scar (Lion King) I gotta give it to:

Cruella De Vil (she wanted to skin PUPPIES)

Movie:

Vader
Palpatine
Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
Kaizer Soze (Usual Suspects)
Hal 9000 (2001)
T-800 (Terminator)
John Doe (Seven)
Hanibal Lecter
Khan (Star Trek II)

Some repeats, some new, all bada$$

Alan

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Re: ***SPOILERS***

SPOILER INSIDE

Oh, the Lannister twins are a much better example of SoIaF villians.

FD

Oh, if you put in the twins then Tywin's got to get a vote. After all, his realpolitik is the reason the twins are the way they are. Any man who would force his son's wife into prostitution just to prove how superior his family's bloodline is, is slime of the first order!

 

[Malexin]

Another villian of note from George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire is Petyr. He's better known as "little finger", and is one vile, conniving, power hungry and treacherous villian.

 

[bloodymage]

El Seed!

 

[Gez]

Re: Vance's villains

Do you ever get the feeling that people in general don't read enough Vance?

Regards,


Agback

Yes, I often have.

Casmir is a great villain, Faude Carfilhiot is a great villain, Iucounnu is a great "villain" (hmm... antagonist, rather), etc.

I've often said that roleplayers in particular should read Vance. The imagination of this writer, his skill at creating and depicting cultures, places, creatures, and "NPCs" (frequently far better than his heroes), are shining examples of what a DM should try to emulate.





On a different topic, I personally have strayed from citing real-world people as "greatest villains", but since it has been a general practice here, I'll chime in. It seems normal that people such as Hitler or Stalin have been mentionned, and if it was expected that the names of Bill Gates and Georges Walker "Texas Ranger" Bush would spring (they did), I'm surprised noone mentionned Osama bin Laden. This guy is, from a litterary standpoint, an excellent villain: rich and charismatic, he comes from a great family friendly to his personal enemies (western countries, especially USA), he's fanatically devout and is persuaded his fight is just -- which only makes him more frightening and dangerous -- yet the vision of the world he promote is one of the worst reactionary dictature one can thought of (and only partially backed by the scripture he invoke, by the way). Furthermore his network is built to be resilient to military, judiciary, and financiary attacks. In fact, he combines several of the traits that makes him a villain you would expect to see in a James Bond movie rather than in real life (and this has led some people to believe he got James-Bond-Villainesque resources at his disposal, like those famous "ultramodern military underground complex under Torabora", reality was far from it).


However, rather than him, I would personally cite Pol Pot as most evil villain from the real world. Others "worthy" of that title have already been cited, and he did slaughter more than half the population of his own country for his revolution. Criteria for execution were as blunt as having glasses (if you weared glasses, that meant that you knew how to read, so you were an intellectual, so a potential influential opponent, so you were shot in the head by the red khmers). Maybe the bloodiest dictature of the XXth centurie, more savage even than Hitler's, Franco's, Stalin's, Pinochet's...

I would also cite Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung, who made North Korea into a country-sized goulag, or a country-sized sect. A nightmare even the worst political-fiction (like 1984) don't approach.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Re: Re: ***SPOILERS***

Oh, if you put in the twins then Tywin's got to get a vote.

No, Tywin has no ideas what the twins are like and what they have done, iirc. He would probably be very angry if he did. Especially since their actions were the cause for many of the Lannister's grief.

Tywin is evil- but his disregard for commoner life does not push him beyond his children.

FD