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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
For me, it would be GLaDOS.
Portal 2 spoiler
She deleted the one remaining human part of herself because it was just too much to deal with. She releases you at the end of Portal 2 as a path of least resistance measure because "killing you is hard."
What about you, what is your favorite media villain?
Are you still there?…
I don't hate you
Brother Justin in Carnivàle
Great character, great show!
I wish they would have gotten one more season. I loved that show so much.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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).
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.
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.
I don't have one favorite villain in particular, but...
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".
Judge Holden from Blood Meridian is arguably the single most evil villain in any literature.
Also one of the best written.
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.
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
Hans Landa because Christoph Waltz is just such a good actor
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
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...
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
“Just because I harbor the joy of killing your family inside me, doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.” — Sid 6.7
"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
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.
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
