What is your favorite media villain?

Here are the test results: You're a horrible person. That's what it says. A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that.

Your favourite media villain

Easy answer: Rupert Murdoch

Me reading these comments:

Sorry I had to

Standartenführer Hans Landa.

"That's a Bingo!"

Prince Arthas Menethil from Warcraft.

[Quietly sweeps WoW:Shadowlands under the rug]

Dudes villian arc is perfect, his fall is entierly of his own making. Playing as him in Warcraft 3, you follow his reasoning and by the time the corruption sets in, its far too late. In the expansions, you play as him in full BBEG mode. Lastly, WoW:Wrath of the Lich King had him as the capstone boss of one of the best expansions and 15 years of buildup.

And they never expanded on his character ever again...

Sorry for such a "capeslop" answer, but:

He definitely gets a mention. I wish they actually explored what Kingpin wanting to "change the city" meant, though, because the disney+ shows make it seem like he just wants to sell weapons and be rich. They really took a crap on his character after endgame / season3 of Daredevil.

All the netflix DD villains were just golden. What a ride.

::: spoiler Primal Fear: Aaron Stampler, and his defence attorney Martin Vail.

:::

Omar Little, The Wire

“I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It’s all in the game, though, right?”

If favorite is a villain whose motivation was pure and got perverted by his obsession and still awesome:

General Woundwort

If favorite = one i hate the most, it is a tie between:

Joffrey

Ramsey

If favorite is a villain who is cool as hell it is a tie between

Voldemort

Hans Gruber

Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg. He's a monster.

I've always been fond of Magneto. He's a dick about it, but I see where he's coming from.

GLaDOS is mine, too.

(spoilers ahead, play it if you haven’t)

In my first playthrough, I didn’t see it coming, and I felt like she was my friend. That was a relationship twist I’ve never had in a game, and I really appreciated what they did there.

e: if you’re looking for other game recs that fuck with you, I’d say What Remains of Edith Finch.

Scorpius from Farscape is a fantastic villain. He was meant to be a one off villain of the week for a clip show. By the time the episode was finished it was a two parter that had only a few seconds of clips, and instead set up the plot elements that would drive the rest of the series, with Scorpius at the heart of it all.

He's one of the rare genius villains that's actually written well enough to seem smart. He's ruthless but not unreasonable. He's horrific, but also charming. He's a bottomless pit of hatred and vengeance, and yet he is cold and calculating, perpetually in control. I've heard him described as mirror universe spock turned up to 11 and I kind of agree.

Plus, we also get Harvey.

See also: David Xanatos. Imagine if Bruce Wayne put all that effort and planning into villainy, mad science and sorcery, theoretically for money but really just for the fun of it. Now give him an Iron Man suit and the voice of Jonathan Frakes. He's an evil genius that's so good at what he does that his name is literally synonymous with plans can only end in a win.

“I am burdened with glorious purpose.”

One of my favorites as an adult, and one that scared the living shit outta me as a kid. Jude Doom from who framed Roger Rabbit.

Andrew Scott as Moriarty he was so fun

There's something genuinely compelling about SHODAN.

They're malignant, objective evil, yet when they talk about their goals and ambitions, they seem almost benevolent, which makes them even more unsettling.

It's like something telling you to calm down while it's sawing off your legs to replace them with mechanical versions because it's "improving you".

You didn't ask to be improved.

Favorite Sci-Fi Villain: SHODAN from System Shock/System Shock 2

Favorite Fantasy Villain: The Nothing from Neverending Story

Favorite Bond Villain: Elliot Carver from Tomorrow Never Dies because the writers touched on something quite prescient here about media moguls wanting to control society a la Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg.

Favorite Disney-esque Villain: Raphael from Baldur's Gate III for his "Raphael's Final Act" song.

Favorite Actual Disney Villain: Lord Hater from Wander Over Yonder

Favorite Action Villain: Hans Gruber from Die Hard

It has to be this way.

Silco from Arcane.

I often struggle with media villains, finding them unrealistic or unconvincing, but Silco is just so well-rounded and well-written, he elevates the quality of every other character he interacts with. In a series full of near- and actually-superpowered people, this weak, middle-aged man is the most terrifying and influential of them all. ::: spoiler spoiler His absence from season two is one of the reasons why it flops compared to season one; Ambessa and Viktor are good characters, but weak villains. :::

Idk who my all time favorite is, but I just finished rewatching Clone Wars and man I had forgotten how much I liked Hondo Ohnaka

Maul: “Filth! You will pay for your insolence!”

Hondo: “Insolence?! We are pirates! We don’t even know what that means.”

Handsome Jack.

Best hero to villain in a game yet. Plus dude had charisma for days so even though he was a clear cut asshole you couldn't help but love his antics.

I've always liked Dr. Doom a lot. Never had a good adaptation in movies, but he's great in the comics.

Ming the Merciless

as played by Max von Sydow in the 1980 film Flash Gordon

Ming is this potentially goofy over-the-top villain, but Sydow's portrayal makes him dignified, threatening, majestic and malevolent, never laughable.

An old one, but the Emperor from Gladiator. His death is among the most satisfying in movie history. Absolutely amazing performance by Joaquin Phoenix.

The Prophet of Truth from Halo 2. Cunning bastard, one of 3 prophets at the helm of an immense alien civilization, manages to get the other two eliminated, apppropriating all the power, creating a martyr and exacerbating the passion against the human enemy in the process, observes that one caste (the Sangheili) is a little too smart to keep buying his lies so replaces them with a more brutish, loyal caste, the Jiralhanae...

I'm going to pick a slightly more obscure one: Kane from Command & Conquer.

Oh, it's you. It's been a looong time; how have you been? I've been really busy being DEAD. You know? After you murdered me? Look, we both said a lot of things you're going to regret, but I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster.

I find... we'll just say "the villain" of Undertale compelling, but it's one of my favorite games so I'm a little biased.

Killmonger from Black Panther. He had a pretty valid perspective, for the most part

Joe Morden in Babylon 5. I do not know much about the actor, but he was cast perfectly.

Genuinely the scariest movie villain

Brother Justin in Carnivàle

Are you still there?…

I really love Killgrave as portrayed by David Tennant in season 1 of Jessica Jones. A completely amoral hedonist with the power of absolute mind control over anyone he speaks to. He is absolutely terrifying.

Shigaraki Tomura, Boku no Hero Academia.

For starters, he’s this regular emo kid (about 19-20), except he’s got like a dozen disembodied hands grasping him from his torso and arms to his head and face.

The reason for the hands is pretty bizarre. Spoilers for the second half of season 5:

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler He killed his whole family, including his sister, parents, and grandparents, and was adopted by the world’s greatest villain, who preserved the hands and attached them to him to remind him where he came from. :::

Oh, his super power? “Decay.” Anything he lays all five fingers on turns to ash. It’s as awesome and terrible as it sounds. What’s worse? Final season spoilers:

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler Decay wasn’t originally his power. The greatest villain can steal and give out powers. He actually took Shigaraki’s original power and replaced it with Decay. He set him up for failure and then adopted him to turn him into a monster. :::

The author, Horikoshi Kohei, is a huge Star Wars nerd. If Shigaraki Tomura sounds like “anime Darth Vader,” that’s intentional. Except when “anime Luke Skywalker” tried to turn him back to good, final season spoilers:

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler It doesn’t work. Shigaraki tells Midoriya he’s too far gone and gives him a message to tell his best friend, another, minor, villain he played League of Legends with — I’m not kidding, they drop that name — and Midoriya delivers the message. Which is basically that right up to the end, he wanted to destroy everything. The message has the intended effect of showing the younger man that he was wrong. :::

And the kicker? Minor season 5 spoiler:

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler Shigaraki Tomura wasn’t even his name. Shigaraki was the family name of the villain who adopted him. His birth name was Shimura Tenko — he was also the grandson of Midoriya’s mentor’s mentor. :::

Note that all names use the Japanese naming convention of giving the family name before the given name (e.g. “Lincoln Abraham”), and the show is known outside of Japan as My Hero Academia.

Edit: I also like GLaDOS. YSK she’s also in Cyberpunk 2077, if only in spirit. Ellen McLain reprises her role and reuses some lines while voicing a psychotic robotaxi. I assume, with permission from Valve (who probably loved the cameo).

robby rotten

I don't have one favorite villain in particular, but...

::: spoiler The Good Place spoilers Michael is the villain for part of the series, and oh boy is he devilish. I mean, in season 2 (i think) he is literally the devil as far as the main cast is concerned. "I can't believe you figured it out!" perfect delivery. Just wow. :::

oh, and also Megamind. Megamind is my favorite. I need to rewatch that movie, and completely ignore the "sequel".

Abijah Fowler from Blue Eye Samurai, one of the only four white men in Japan who might be the father of the protagonist. He's one of the few who manage to challenge the protagonist in combat, but you're not just watching for that. The dialogue for the show is top notch, but any time he comes up you know you're in for a treat. My favorite is still "Are you--still alive? Why?", but here's a reasonably spoiler-free scene.

Blaine from iZombie. He's 100% bastard, and the show tries to humanise him by showing us origins and "how could he be any different" and so on, but he's always great on screen.

Baron Harkonnen, from the David Lynch dune film.

Judge Holden from Blood Meridian is arguably the single most evil villain in any literature.

Also one of the best written.

Galactus. Not good, not evil. Just a big, hungry boy.

Catherine Foundling, the Protagonist of A Practical Guide to Evil.

But I don't know if this counts. Catherine has only the best intentions and many Heros are kinda Dicks in PGtE. She definitely causes a lot of (what she considers) necessary suffering to end unnecessary suffering. And in-universe she undeniably is a Villain, but as the villain protagonist it's hard to argue that she's on the same page as villain antagonists.

David Robert Jones.

There's just something so classy about this guy, and he does the coolest stuff.

Final Fantasy XIV has some good ones. The most signature would be Emet Selch, from Shadowbringers. The big challenge on his part was that the "Ascians" were seen as these cringey, Kingdom Hearts-style grimdark villains for a long time, and Shadowbringers had the challenge of turning them into complex characters.

His voice actor, René Zagger, isn't even known for much more than that role and he plays it very well - achieving both jesting Kafka-esque mocking and jesting, as well as earnest, righteously-driven rage.

Another one, I'll only refer to as The Mastermind, from Ace Attorney Investigations 2. The whole game structures its 5 cases towards that pinpoint much better than you'd realize, while still telling a great story up until then. The Mastermind themselves acts in a somewhat melodramatic way before you identify them, but has some appreciable complexities to them that add to the character journey Edgeworth is getting in that game.

Ketheric Thorm from Baldurs Gate 3. He has one of the coolest character introductions ever. Honestly I felt kind of bad for him learning his story. Also JK Simmons is one of my favorite actors.

"Try again" axe drop

Forest Whitaker as Jon Kavanaugh in "The Shield"

He made me so viscerally upset. I saw it almost two decades ago but I still remember how strongly I felt

“Just because I harbor the joy of killing your family inside me, doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.” — Sid 6.7

As a super Dune nerd, Erasmus.

From DC: Larfleeze and Volthoom tied. Oh! The Anti-Monitor too.

From Supernatural (the TV series), Crowley is amazing.

BSG: Dr. Gaius Baltar.

Sadavir Errinwright from The Expanse

Loved that its not just evil for no reason

He actually has a goal I can sympathize with

I feel like in the TV Portrayal at least, its like I can feel like he actually does kinda care about Earth...

in his own fucked up way, but still...

Kilgrave in Jessica Jones

if for no other reason than to have a bit of a different answer:

Raboniel from Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

Her interaction with Navani made for some VERY good chapters

Hans Landa because Christoph Waltz is just such a good actor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coS2CdNd7Io

"What a fool you are. I'm a god. How can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating innocence. How could you be so naive? There is no escape. No Recall or Intervention can work in this place. Come. Lay down your weapons. It is not too late for my mercy." - Dagoth Ur in Morrowind

Sneaky, invasive advertising.

I love how The Boys sets you up to think that Homelander is the most irredeemably evil person in the whole show, then later on you find yourself feeling bad for him and even kinda cheering for him for a little while.

Frank Horrigan, that's who. U.S. Secret Service.

Look the number of times I've heard his voice lines has resulted in them being burned into my mind.

Thanos was a great villain because he had a vision and wouldn't compromise. Granted his vision was horrific and flawed, but he held true to it.

I don't have favorite villain. But have a favorite villain song from Disney - it is human and evil.
Savages - this og restored version is evil

Warhammer 40k has too many good options to list. The entire ork faction is great, although one of my personal favorites is Grizgutz, an ork who accidentally travelled back in time, and decided to kill himself to steal an extra copy of his favorite gun. The Necrons are also fun, for their unlimited capacity for arrogance and pettiness.

ODETTE!

Desty Nova from alita (Not the generic villain Norton played in the movie, the one from the comic).

What's so great about him is that he doesn't have any interest to rule or destroy, but he loves to set the stage for interesting happenings and watch them unravel. But he loves flan more.

Long John Silver from Treasure Island. The OG and best anti-hero and heel turn of any character.

Miss Havisham from Great Expectations . An textbook example of how to do capricious rot.

Baby Jane played by Bette Davis from 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'. God I love Bette Davis.

Traitor General from the comic Rogue Trooper. Traitor General has been a wonderful bastard over the years.

Arthur 'Cody' Jarrett played by James Cagney from 'White Heat'.

Clarence Bodicker played by Kurtwood Smith from 'Robocop'. "Can you fly, Bobby?" 'Nuff said.

Daimyo Matsudaira Naritsugu played by Goro Inagaki in Takashi Miike's '13 Assassins'. Perfect psychotic aristo upheld by corrupt flunkeys who has no real conception of the effects of his actions.

Prince Nuada played by one of the Bros twins from 'Hellboy II'. So sympathetic. Team Prince Nuada all the way.

Syd played by Peter Mullan from 'Children of Men'. Syd refers to himself in the third person (An actual sign of psychopathy) and does not care about anyone else, not even the first pregnant woman in a decade..

Begbie played by Robert Carlyle from 'Trainspotting'. "Nae cunt leaves here til we find oot what cunt glassed yon lassie." Never mind that he threw the glass.

Shepard Lambert in Would You Rather?, played by Jeffrey Combs.

The Borg. I was terrified of them as a little kid.

hard not to love DIO. He's evil and he loves it

Hex and Daemon from Reboot are both underrated. Hex has genius visual design for the limitations of the technology. And for a kids show, Daemon is very likable, which always makes a villain more compelling.

the swarm from stanisław lems "invincible" (not the invincible show, this is a completly unrelated sci fi novel) (also the swarm is not really a villian its more like defending its territory

Sir Captain Becket of the E I C

Dart Maul (from a german movie called (T)Raumschiff Suprise)

Bill Cypher

The villains of the Kings Men

probably Junko Enoshima because she's so unmatchedly fucking bonkers batshit kookoo bananas unhinged insane but keeps it together just well enough to cause an apocalypse by shitposting really hard

Tied between Handsome Jack and Javert. Both misunderstood in their own ways.

The Nameless One. From PS:T.

A very practical person!

Premier Cherdenko. That studio knew what they needed, and got exactly the right man for the job.

::: spoiler Wakfu Spoilers Ahead! Click At Your Own Risk!

I really like the season 4 villain Toross Mordal, probably more than most any other villain in media in general. Mostly for how badass he is despite how decrepit he looks. Also for how he rules over his people with basically an eternal regret that he can never fully feed them due to their infinite hunger.

I known the trope of the villain having power that is basically the opposite type as the heroes is probably overdone, but I really like how he has mastered stasis, the opposite force to the life force of wakfu. It makes for an interesting enough villain since this is a villain that actually cannot die, unlike every other villain we've seen up until season 4. He's had the time to master his skills since he never has death to worry about.

I also like how he kinda ends up making the main character Yugo temporarily skirt the idea of using stasis alongside with his wakfu in a final showdown. It makes me hope we get some more cool stasis stuff in season 5, but more of an exploratory "this is why you don't use stasis" kinda way. We'd have Toross to thank and blame for Yugo having to learn the consequences of Stasis and I would love to see that.

:::

Might be more of a monster than a villain, but I've loved the Disney version of the headless horseman since I was a kid. That laugh still gives me chills

Hannibal Lecter. Hard to miss with one of the greatest of all time.

Naraku, hes basically a troll that is also malevolent, oddly although he despises humans most of his goals dont harm them directly through out the series until the very end when hes get desperate, as he never targets humans directly unlike most other demons, or his own incarnation which he ends up killing to prevent them from interfering. or if you want to dig a little deeper, the shikon jewel is an amoral villian, sacrifices any user who made wishes to keep itself alive. hes a complex characther, he has much more contempt for demons than humans, eventhough he hates humans, but has not alright vindictiveness like he has against inuyash and his gang going on unless they gets in his way.

Good choice

Donald Trump?

/j