[rant] The United States of America. "Sticking our ever-loving noses into everyone elses' business, and trying to find the best vector in which to insert our <BA-GAWK!> to cause the most trauma."
Here's what one lucky country had to say about our foreign policy:
"Dealing with the Bush Administration is like getting [censored], then tossed out in the rain without cab fare!"
Here's what the majority of US citizens had to say about our President:
"Dealing with the Bush Administration is like getting [censored], then tossed out in the rain without cab fare!"
[/rant]
Okay, so I'm unaffiliated. That doesn't mean I'm "undecided" (what a cute euphemism). Repubelican, Demoncrat, they both make great villain organizations.
EDIT: I know this is flamebait, but it had to get out.
Full Version: Favourite Villains
There's no one forcing you to stay in Tennessee or even on the same continent.
| QUOTE (Herald of Verjigorm @ Jun 8 2006, 12:26 PM) |
| There's no one forcing you to stay in Tennessee or even on the same continent. |
No. But he has got the right to stay where he is. And he has got the right to criticize his government in any way he deems apropriate. At least that's the way how it works in most democracies...
Well, 1) The U.S. is a Republic, not a Democracy. 2) Which U.S. have you been living in for the last five years?
The United States is a democractic republic. Dumpshock, however, is a bitchslaptatorship. Thinly veiled of-topic flamebait really isn't encouraged.
How about The Man from Bambi. Sure, he had no personality but his brutality certainly made up for it.
How about The Man from Bambi. Sure, he had no personality but his brutality certainly made up for it.
But.... Bambi is made of meat...
After looking down that list Im suprised how many of them I wouldent call 'villians', so much as Id call them advisarys.
After looking down that list Im suprised how many of them I wouldent call 'villians', so much as Id call them advisarys.
A lot of these I can agree with, but one I haven't seen yet would be my top villain of the moment.
Woo-jin Lee from Old Boy.
Mad as a fish on a bicycle, intelligent, single minded. He plans his revenge for years, then spends over 15 more years carrying it out. He outmaneuvres and outthinks the protagonist throughout the film and leads him to the closest situation possible to the one that started the whole thing, before allowing it to end.
I'm being intentionally vague here to avoid spoilers, so this might not seem quite coherent.
If you can live with the usual horrible injuries and, to be frank, sick and twisted story involved in most Korean thrillers and horror movies, I'd recommend it.
Woo-jin Lee from Old Boy.
Mad as a fish on a bicycle, intelligent, single minded. He plans his revenge for years, then spends over 15 more years carrying it out. He outmaneuvres and outthinks the protagonist throughout the film and leads him to the closest situation possible to the one that started the whole thing, before allowing it to end.
I'm being intentionally vague here to avoid spoilers, so this might not seem quite coherent.
If you can live with the usual horrible injuries and, to be frank, sick and twisted story involved in most Korean thrillers and horror movies, I'd recommend it.
Why was Boba Fett considered such a bad ass by hordes of Star Wars fans/nerds? Two words:
"NO DISINTERGRATIONS"
"NO DISINTERGRATIONS"
The Count of Monte Cristo. Sure he was the hero of the piece but look at it from his victims point of view. They saw him as a villain and a damn impressive one at that.
My favourite villain would be Scorpius, from the series Farscape.
| QUOTE (Wikipedia) |
| Scorpius is a character willing to do absolutely anything to achieve his goals, which he is very honest about when it suits him. He will (and does over the course of the series) lie, kill in cold blood, order the deaths of multitudes, torture innocents, and sacrifice those close to him in order to get what he wants. He is also willing to aid his enemies or humiliate himself if it will further his goals. |
He is clever, ruthless, resourceful and practically always have an ace up his sleeve.
When you learn more about his background and his ultimate goals, you can also sympathize with him, but you can't be sure it's not an act...
Regarding RL villains (and i am sure the term 'favourite' doesn't apply in this category), I pick the austrian Amon Göth, the commandant of the concentration camp Plaszow, depicted by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List.
Of course, he is only the most prominent placeholder for all those people like him. History says, there are a lot of them.
Oh that Scorpius. I have to admit the first one that came to mind was the one Homer went to work for in that one episode of the Simpsons
Mr. Burns actually makes a pretty good Shadowrun Villain, Corporate Ruler with no scruples what so ever.
As for favorite Villains, Dennis Hoppers disgruntled cop in Speed was pretty good, too bad he had to play opposite Keanu Reeve.
As a lot of people have said, Darth Vader (from the original set of movies) is really a great bad guy.
Mr. Burns actually makes a pretty good Shadowrun Villain, Corporate Ruler with no scruples what so ever.
As for favorite Villains, Dennis Hoppers disgruntled cop in Speed was pretty good, too bad he had to play opposite Keanu Reeve.
As a lot of people have said, Darth Vader (from the original set of movies) is really a great bad guy.
My faves:
Ra's Al Ghul (from the comic, not the movie Batman)
Dr Doom
Goldfinger (No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!)
Mr Glass (from Unbreakable)
Overall, I like the villains that operate from an "I know the best way for you to live" mentality, rather than from a hunger for power or greed.
Ra's Al Ghul (from the comic, not the movie Batman)
Dr Doom
Goldfinger (No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!)
Mr Glass (from Unbreakable)
Overall, I like the villains that operate from an "I know the best way for you to live" mentality, rather than from a hunger for power or greed.
Your own father.
well i can only add a few
caesar Borgia
Cassius from "Julius Caesar"
gregory peck from "Ghostbusters"
Pope Pius IV
caesar Borgia
Cassius from "Julius Caesar"
gregory peck from "Ghostbusters"
Pope Pius IV
You know I love how people say "the majority" of Americans hate President Bush. Its funny how the "majority" of Americans elected him. Funny how that works out. Everyone hates him, yet everyone voted for him? The media was just so sure that Kerry was going to get elected. The most VOCAL does not mean the MAJORITY. Quit your whining and realize you are the minority.
I so know this is not the forum for this so I apologize, I am just sick to death of reading these liberal lies all over this forum.
Another good Villian,
Michael Ironside as Overdog in Space Hunter
I so know this is not the forum for this so I apologize, I am just sick to death of reading these liberal lies all over this forum.
Another good Villian,
Michael Ironside as Overdog in Space Hunter
Bear in mind that only concentrating on the 2004 election does not cover a lot of things. People can change their mind over two years. Also, it would take a lot of poll number manipulation to deviate the statistics away from what the majority think.
Hey, in Shadowrun, the entire story of 205x-2057 is that a bunch of scumbag presidents buy the election for the good of the company. It could be a great story to discover that this stems out of the current political climate of gross schismaticism.
Hey, in Shadowrun, the entire story of 205x-2057 is that a bunch of scumbag presidents buy the election for the good of the company. It could be a great story to discover that this stems out of the current political climate of gross schismaticism.
| QUOTE (Shadow) |
| The most VOCAL does not mean the MAJORITY. Quit your whining and realize you are the minority. |
Just a single question (and this does actually apply to SR, if you think about the number of disenfranchised, SINless people living in the UCAS)... given that voter turnout isn't 100%, isn't it actually the side that's more vocal (that is, that had more voters turn out to vote) that decides the election, rather than the opinion of the majority (since not everybody voted? Take a world where you've got a huge chunk of the population that cannot or does not vote, and another huge chunk that is spoon-fed corporate media all day, and you've got an environment that's ripe for the megacorporations to push their own candidate. Make it a part of your corporate culture that it's their duty to vote, and that the company's goal is 100% turnout, and the corporation-influenced voter base just got more vocal.
Media manipulation, gerrymandering, deliberate disenfranchisement, and creating a culture of fear and blind compliance seem like they'd be right at home in 2070.
| QUOTE (Shrike30) | ||
Just a single question (and this does actually apply to SR, if you think about the number of disenfranchised, SINless people living in the UCAS)... given that voter turnout isn't 100%, isn't it actually the side that's more vocal (that is, that had more voters turn out to vote) that decides the election, rather than the opinion of the majority (since not everybody voted? Take a world where you've got a huge chunk of the population that cannot or does not vote, and another huge chunk that is spoon-fed corporate media all day, and you've got an environment that's ripe for the megacorporations to push their own candidate. Make it a part of your corporate culture that it's their duty to vote, and that the company's goal is 100% turnout, and the corporation-influenced voter base just got more vocal. Media manipulation, gerrymandering, deliberate disenfranchisement, and creating a culture of fear and blind compliance seem like they'd be right at home in 2070. |
They would be to some extent. However Employees of a AAA mega, being corporate citizens would not be allowed to vote in a UCAS election unless they had dual citizenship, ARES/UCAS for example. The degree to which this dual citizenship is tolerated probably varies widely from location to location and from corp to corp, maybe even depending on job title in the case of Corps.
Strictly speaking Vocal and most votes are not the same. In American Politics roughly 50% of the eligible voters turn out and vote in a presidential election, it drops to about 45% in a midterm year. Of that since 1994 roughly 35% consistently vote Republican, and 32% Democrat. Thes figures would hold true whether the party put forth the best candidate ever or a crate of bricks as the candidate (Which arguably could be one in the same). The balance of the voters tend to make their minds up based on a variety of factors, ranging from what their neighbor is doing, to which candidate they find more attractive, to among roughly 8% Issues (of these more than half are "Single Issue Voters").
The vocal Minority is just the loudest most visible group on any issue, they frequently speak for less than 10% of the eligible voters, but tend to have a disproportionate impact in primary elections.
QUOTE (Calvin Hobbes @ Jun 9 2006, 01:25 PM)
Bear in mind that only concentrating on the 2004 election does not cover a lot of things. People can change their mind over two years. Also, it would take a lot of poll number manipulation to deviate the statistics away from what the majority think.
It is painfully easy to manipulate statistics. With polls it is even easier since you can limit your survey to people who can be expected to have a certain opinion and you can word your questions in such a way that the answer you want is most likely
The unfortuante fact is hat there havn't been any good Presidents since JFK. Some have come close but all have fallen short. The unfortunate fact is that there were no good Presidential canidates in the last election or the one before that.
At the moment, it seems that a good President would be a mix of Walter Emerson from Deterrance and Josiah Bartlet from The West Wing; one that can present a realtivly libertarian front at home and control Congress while kicking ass without the slightest bit of conscience whereever it needs to be kicked.
Questions over the justification of Iraq aside, the war was prosecuted in a flawed way. The complete destruction of existing infrastructure ensured the resulting geurilla conflict and years of rebuilding. It would have been preferable to simply force a surrender without attacking the government directly. And, if you are going for the complete destruction of a government then you might as well just use nuclear weapons to wipe out the whole country. There's no point in letting them go to waste. Plutonium does decay. Considering how much the things cost they might as well use them.
Voldemort could be a good villain if not for his overeliance on magic. The lack of firearms is an understandable part of the literary universe he lives in but, to be quite honest, he could have saved everyone quite a bit of trouble if he had used a boomstick instead of that silly killing curse when he tried to kill Harry the very first time. I shouldn't even begin to mention how much more damage his Death Eaters could have caused if he had the common sense to equip them with Ak-47s with magic wands for bayonets.
He is a perfect example for all magicians in Shadowrun. Use guns or you'll end up as a face on the back of a lunatic's head when your powerbolt gets reflected back on your immortal self.
Sutter Kane from In the Mouth of Madness is a good one. He serves much the same function that Mr. Darke does in Shadowrun but Kane did it much better than Darke ever could. His "death" was absolutely brilliant.
Evil Ash from Army of Darkness holds a special place in my heart. He was rather generic and he died in the end, but he had style.
The most votal perhaps? 
A new word, every day.
A new word, every day.
Oh, I like that one...
Back on the topic of villainry....
I have always been fascinated by the kind of villain who takes on a young ward in order to warp the child into his/her own image. Examples include:
I have always been fascinated by the kind of villain who takes on a young ward in order to warp the child into his/her own image. Examples include:
- Miss Havisham and Estella, Great Expectations
- Fagin and the Artful Dodger, Oliver Twist
- Emperor Palpatine and Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Jango and Boba Fett, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- Yubaba and Haku, Spirited Away
- Dr. Evil and Scott, Austin Powers
Kaiser Sose
Dr. Claw
Ever read http://darthside.blogspot.com/ Darth Vader Blog? It gives you real insight into one of the world's most famous villains.
Although as I spend a few minutes thinking, I much prefer anti-heros to villains.
Although as I spend a few minutes thinking, I much prefer anti-heros to villains.
Allen Rickman as "Sherif of Nottingham"
That mass-murdering Elf Legolas and his vertically challenged partner
Those little thiefing Hobbits
Hugo Drax from the novel Moonraker (that has almost nothing to do with the film)
Hugo Drax from the movie Moonraker
Brando as "The Godfather"
Tulsa Doom from that Movie that took some ideas from the Conan novels
The Terrorists from the book "Clear and Present Danger"
The High Priest of Set from the Conan Novels - That's the way I see mages
That mass-murdering Elf Legolas and his vertically challenged partner
Those little thiefing Hobbits
Hugo Drax from the novel Moonraker (that has almost nothing to do with the film)
Hugo Drax from the movie Moonraker
Brando as "The Godfather"
Tulsa Doom from that Movie that took some ideas from the Conan novels
The Terrorists from the book "Clear and Present Danger"
The High Priest of Set from the Conan Novels - That's the way I see mages
| QUOTE (Platinum) |
| Ever read http://darthside.blogspot.com/ Darth Vader Blog? It gives you real insight into one of the world's most famous villains. Although as I spend a few minutes thinking, I much prefer anti-heros to villains. |
The difference between anti-hereos and villains is the perspective provided by the authors of the works that feature them, nothing more and nothing less. With the correct perspective the positions are interchangable.
Megatron, martyr and savior of the universe. By killing the evil Optimus Prime he ensured that the Chaos Bringer Unicron would be defeated.
| QUOTE |
The High Priest of Set from the Conan Novels - That's the way I see mages |
I only wish my character would be as awesome as Thoth-Amon. Which he probably will be; Thoth-Amon never used fireballs, and my dude will be able to shapechange into awesome.
Real Life Villains:
George Bush
Dick Chaney
Donald Ruinsfeld
Dr. Rice
What an embarrassmentt for us Americans...
Man, do I hate union busters and corporate schlepers and Warmongers known as Republicans..I don't have a high degree of confidence in the Democrats either but seriously who are these F'ing people who want to take all my liberties away. Give me Liberty or Give me Death! I thought an American said that once. While Papa Bush is spying on all you fanboys I hope you have nothing to hide. ( oh right , If you have nothing to hide, what are you worried about? So if I have nothing to hide, I should give up all my rights to privacy, right?) (Now I know why they fought that Civil War)
I thought on a Shadowrunner sight, of all people, you guys should know what will happen if we give all the F'ing power in this (or any other country) to the suits! It already happened once in the "laisser faire" era with disastrous results for fair wages and corruption. ( Robber Barons, high workplace injury (often death), etc..) Those who don't study history are bound to repeat its' mistakes.
more Villains:
Lord Sauron
Lord Foul
The White Whale
TIME!!! We all must bow before this stealer of lives...
Blue
George Bush
Dick Chaney
Donald Ruinsfeld
Dr. Rice
What an embarrassmentt for us Americans...Man, do I hate union busters and corporate schlepers and Warmongers known as Republicans..I don't have a high degree of confidence in the Democrats either but seriously who are these F'ing people who want to take all my liberties away. Give me Liberty or Give me Death! I thought an American said that once. While Papa Bush is spying on all you fanboys I hope you have nothing to hide. ( oh right , If you have nothing to hide, what are you worried about? So if I have nothing to hide, I should give up all my rights to privacy, right?) (Now I know why they fought that Civil War)
I thought on a Shadowrunner sight, of all people, you guys should know what will happen if we give all the F'ing power in this (or any other country) to the suits! It already happened once in the "laisser faire" era with disastrous results for fair wages and corruption. ( Robber Barons, high workplace injury (often death), etc..) Those who don't study history are bound to repeat its' mistakes.
more Villains:
Lord Sauron
Lord Foul
The White Whale
TIME!!! We all must bow before this stealer of lives...
Blue
| QUOTE (Blustar) |
| TIME!!! We all must bow before this stealer of lives... |
That bastard.
I don't think that villain is a useful term in real life. But a couple of favourites from
literature and film:
Mr. Zorg in the Fifth Element. Rich: check. Murders own henchmen: check. Justifies actions with philosopical bollocks: check. Texan accent: check. Played by Gary Oldman: check... He may be the ultimate movie villain.
Quote:I don't like warriors. Too narrow-minded, no subtlety. And worse, they fight for hopeless causes. Honour? Huh! Honour's killed millions of people, it hasn't saved a single one.
Shadowrun Role: Arms dealer.
Boris Balkan from Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate. Anyone who hasn't seen this film should watch it, although sadly it doesn't have a plot. And I don't mean that as a euphemism for Hollywood simplification. It just doesn't really have a plot. Still, Balkan's urbane contempt and quiet, ultimately insane determination is utterly convincing.
Quote:"You don't like me much, do you Mr. Corso... Of course, there's no reason you should."
Shadowrun Role:Johnson / Power-hungry corp exec.
The Girl from the same film. Is she a villain? Hard to say for much of the film, but if so, she's a villain of the most subtle kind. Always there and always tweaking events in the tiniest of ways. At any moment she could walk out of the room and you'd forget she was ever there. PCs never like letting a villain do all the cool dialogue that they do in movies, but I can see the Girl's brand of casually ignoring player's demands for information working quite well.
Quote:"See you around!"
Shadowrun Role: Mysterious player in big events beyond PC knowledge. Probably a shapechanged dragon with aura masking.
I think what makes both of these great is that neither is an in-your-face villain. Balkan is cold but not hostile. He is clearly bored by most things in normal life. The girl is so unobtrusive and unwilling to explain herself that gradually you just come to accept her as some tag-along part of the scenary. Neither feels any need or inclination to demonstrate the power that they possess.
The best villain in literature I've ever read has to be Steerpike in the first two Gormenghast books. I don't think I've ever read a character as convincingly cruel as him. I don't think I could bring him into a Shadowrun game though.
The nice thing about fiction is that the villains are so often visible and active and when you punch them in the jaw you win. The truth in reality is that evil happens more by weakness and complicity than through blatant Mwah-Ha-Ha. The soldiers who murdered concentration camp inmates in the Holocaust didn't initiate it, would never initiate it, but said they had no choice, they were "following orders". Eichman murdered millions of people from an office by signing bits of paper. The Milgram psychology experiment showed how capable ordinary people are of killing based solely on obedience to authority. Whether it is soldiers murdering prisoners according to orders, or doctors in the UK collecting ethnic data on people because the government is making them, more evil is done through people's weakness and dependency on orders than is ever done by maladjusted sociopaths.
literature and film:
Mr. Zorg in the Fifth Element. Rich: check. Murders own henchmen: check. Justifies actions with philosopical bollocks: check. Texan accent: check. Played by Gary Oldman: check... He may be the ultimate movie villain.
Quote:I don't like warriors. Too narrow-minded, no subtlety. And worse, they fight for hopeless causes. Honour? Huh! Honour's killed millions of people, it hasn't saved a single one.
Shadowrun Role: Arms dealer.
Boris Balkan from Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate. Anyone who hasn't seen this film should watch it, although sadly it doesn't have a plot. And I don't mean that as a euphemism for Hollywood simplification. It just doesn't really have a plot. Still, Balkan's urbane contempt and quiet, ultimately insane determination is utterly convincing.
Quote:"You don't like me much, do you Mr. Corso... Of course, there's no reason you should."
Shadowrun Role:Johnson / Power-hungry corp exec.
The Girl from the same film. Is she a villain? Hard to say for much of the film, but if so, she's a villain of the most subtle kind. Always there and always tweaking events in the tiniest of ways. At any moment she could walk out of the room and you'd forget she was ever there. PCs never like letting a villain do all the cool dialogue that they do in movies, but I can see the Girl's brand of casually ignoring player's demands for information working quite well.
Quote:"See you around!"
Shadowrun Role: Mysterious player in big events beyond PC knowledge. Probably a shapechanged dragon with aura masking.
I think what makes both of these great is that neither is an in-your-face villain. Balkan is cold but not hostile. He is clearly bored by most things in normal life. The girl is so unobtrusive and unwilling to explain herself that gradually you just come to accept her as some tag-along part of the scenary. Neither feels any need or inclination to demonstrate the power that they possess.
The best villain in literature I've ever read has to be Steerpike in the first two Gormenghast books. I don't think I've ever read a character as convincingly cruel as him. I don't think I could bring him into a Shadowrun game though.
The nice thing about fiction is that the villains are so often visible and active and when you punch them in the jaw you win. The truth in reality is that evil happens more by weakness and complicity than through blatant Mwah-Ha-Ha. The soldiers who murdered concentration camp inmates in the Holocaust didn't initiate it, would never initiate it, but said they had no choice, they were "following orders". Eichman murdered millions of people from an office by signing bits of paper. The Milgram psychology experiment showed how capable ordinary people are of killing based solely on obedience to authority. Whether it is soldiers murdering prisoners according to orders, or doctors in the UK collecting ethnic data on people because the government is making them, more evil is done through people's weakness and dependency on orders than is ever done by maladjusted sociopaths.
Would it be too much to ask if we could refrain from personal attacks and/or slandering RL individuals?
I've voted Republican ever since I turned 18, except for the 1996 Presidential election. Back then, I voted Libertarian by way of protesting something George Bush the Elder did.
(I still consider myself at least partially Libertarian, but I'm a realist; I vote for someone who I believe has a reasonable chance of winning.)
As Voltaire said, "I disagree with *what* you say, but I will *defend unto death* your *right* to say it."
(Note: some sources have it as "...but I will defend to the death...", but the meaning isn't changed much, if at all.)
Personal opinions are okay, but *please* keep RL politics out of it.
Just my
0.02.
End rant.
--Foreigner
I've voted Republican ever since I turned 18, except for the 1996 Presidential election. Back then, I voted Libertarian by way of protesting something George Bush the Elder did.
(I still consider myself at least partially Libertarian, but I'm a realist; I vote for someone who I believe has a reasonable chance of winning.)
As Voltaire said, "I disagree with *what* you say, but I will *defend unto death* your *right* to say it."
(Note: some sources have it as "...but I will defend to the death...", but the meaning isn't changed much, if at all.)
Personal opinions are okay, but *please* keep RL politics out of it.
Just my
0.02.End rant.
--Foreigner
| QUOTE (Foreigner) |
| Would it be too much to ask if we could refrain from personal attacks and/or slandering RL individuals? |
This is teh intarwebs. Of course it would be.
the answer to the villain question is solved with one simple name....
KAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Except spelled correctly.
Hmm, favourite villains?
General Chang from ST6 was pretty damn badass. Obviously evil and completely unapologetically manipulative. He wanted war, and he went for it, and quoted random shakespeare passages throughout. plus, he had his eyepatch nailed to his head, that counts for a lot.
Treize Kushrenada from Gundam Wing. Absolutely brilliant, he played the good guys and the bad guys like fine-tuned instruments until he had everyone right where he wanted them. Could talk absolute utter nonsense (I mean it, near gibberish-level) and still get a roomful of applause, and was perfectly willing to give up his own life (and the lives of anyone else) to see his goal realized.
Satan from the first few books of Paradise Lost. His story changes every few pages, but he still manages to make himself seem a noble hero, and not a subversive root-of-all-evil bastard.
The Joker from the Batman comics. Not always a great villain, especially when the writers have him as more silly than psychotic, but when he's done right the Joker's one of the worst villains ever.
Akio from Revolutionary Girl Utena. If you can stand to watch this series (it's hard, I know) Akio is a great villain. The vile things he does to, well, everybody with a smile on his face and full knowledge that they will eventually discover what he's been doing can give you chills.
Diva from Blood+ (I'm an anime fan, can you tell?). What would happen if you took a sociopathic hedonist with no concept of consequences for her actions and gave her the powers of a super-Vampire? Not the best series, but fully worth watching just for when she shows up and starts wreaking havoc (think the good guys can't die? Think again, no one is safe).
Magneto from X-Men (comics and movie). Sure he wears a silly helmet, and sure his comic incarnation has gone through some really, really stupid phases, but Magneto still has a power to him that has nothing to do with some mutant x-gene. A hero in his own mind, he dedicates himself so fully to his cause that he's lost the point where anything is ever wrong in the name mutant supremacy.
Uwe Boll, because I still have nightmares about Alone in the Dark.
Megatron from Beast Wars. Maybe it was the way he kept at it even as scheme after scheme failed. Maybe it was the way it became more and more apparant how crazy he really was as the series went on. Heck maybe it was the way he kept saying 'Yeeesss' all the time, but I just liked him as a bad guy.
As a race, my favourite villains of all time are the Daleks from Doctor Who. They may seem silly now, but watch the original episodes with them, and some of the better ones as the series progressed. Hyper-intelligent man-sized tanks that suffered from delusions of perfection and extreme xenophobia. The time lords, arguably the most powerful race in existance, had to send the Doctor back in time to stop the Daleks from being created because they were terrified of them. As inhuman villains go, they are up there with the best.
The Master from Buffy. Modelled after Count Orlock, he looked suitably demonic, and he had a twisted sense of humor. He's the only villian to ever actually kill Buffy at all, and he manages it twice (albeit temporarily the first time, and in an alternate universe the second).
Jeeze, the list goes on.
Of the villians I've created as GM for my SR games, a few stand out.
Raven: One of my favourites, he began as a character of mine that got turned into an NPC when I took over gming full time. Used an extremely powerful ritual spell that would probably sink north america on the off-chance that it would give him the power of a god. Got his head chopped off, then reappeared as the controlling mind behind a massive linked brains-in-jars computing system, and nearly launched seattle into space. Got squished. Then my new players have been repeatedly encountering the things he left behind, including his Thesis (which is on par with the Al Azif for things not meant to be seen) his force 12 weapon focus katana (which also held a unique ally spirit of his that actually thought it was him), several sites that he had created to test out powerful and extremely dangerous spells, and one of the characters has now made a contract with his ghost to bring him back to life. Everyone in the game is terrified of him, but no one knows how to permanently get rid of him.
No-One: A hook from one character's back story morphed into one of the most interesting villains of the campaign. An ancient and malevolent Spirit trapped in a human body and looking for a way out, while at the same time manipulating everyone around her. As more and more details of her past were revealed, No-One progressively made every character's life a living hell. One PC got a force 15 control actions spell slapped on her, then quickened and masked so that she was basically a puppet for this evil spirit, another was continuously manipulated into doing what she wanted. Every one of them had at least one encounter with her pet awakened cat, the Sheilsaar. In their last encounter with her, she nearly killed them all, and it turned out the entire encounter was a plot by her to steal their magical power to fuel her own transformation into a Horror. She's still at large, too. Fun stuff.
General Chang from ST6 was pretty damn badass. Obviously evil and completely unapologetically manipulative. He wanted war, and he went for it, and quoted random shakespeare passages throughout. plus, he had his eyepatch nailed to his head, that counts for a lot.
Treize Kushrenada from Gundam Wing. Absolutely brilliant, he played the good guys and the bad guys like fine-tuned instruments until he had everyone right where he wanted them. Could talk absolute utter nonsense (I mean it, near gibberish-level) and still get a roomful of applause, and was perfectly willing to give up his own life (and the lives of anyone else) to see his goal realized.
Satan from the first few books of Paradise Lost. His story changes every few pages, but he still manages to make himself seem a noble hero, and not a subversive root-of-all-evil bastard.
The Joker from the Batman comics. Not always a great villain, especially when the writers have him as more silly than psychotic, but when he's done right the Joker's one of the worst villains ever.
Akio from Revolutionary Girl Utena. If you can stand to watch this series (it's hard, I know) Akio is a great villain. The vile things he does to, well, everybody with a smile on his face and full knowledge that they will eventually discover what he's been doing can give you chills.
Diva from Blood+ (I'm an anime fan, can you tell?). What would happen if you took a sociopathic hedonist with no concept of consequences for her actions and gave her the powers of a super-Vampire? Not the best series, but fully worth watching just for when she shows up and starts wreaking havoc (think the good guys can't die? Think again, no one is safe).
Magneto from X-Men (comics and movie). Sure he wears a silly helmet, and sure his comic incarnation has gone through some really, really stupid phases, but Magneto still has a power to him that has nothing to do with some mutant x-gene. A hero in his own mind, he dedicates himself so fully to his cause that he's lost the point where anything is ever wrong in the name mutant supremacy.
Uwe Boll, because I still have nightmares about Alone in the Dark.
Megatron from Beast Wars. Maybe it was the way he kept at it even as scheme after scheme failed. Maybe it was the way it became more and more apparant how crazy he really was as the series went on. Heck maybe it was the way he kept saying 'Yeeesss' all the time, but I just liked him as a bad guy.
As a race, my favourite villains of all time are the Daleks from Doctor Who. They may seem silly now, but watch the original episodes with them, and some of the better ones as the series progressed. Hyper-intelligent man-sized tanks that suffered from delusions of perfection and extreme xenophobia. The time lords, arguably the most powerful race in existance, had to send the Doctor back in time to stop the Daleks from being created because they were terrified of them. As inhuman villains go, they are up there with the best.
The Master from Buffy. Modelled after Count Orlock, he looked suitably demonic, and he had a twisted sense of humor. He's the only villian to ever actually kill Buffy at all, and he manages it twice (albeit temporarily the first time, and in an alternate universe the second).
Jeeze, the list goes on.
Of the villians I've created as GM for my SR games, a few stand out.
Raven: One of my favourites, he began as a character of mine that got turned into an NPC when I took over gming full time. Used an extremely powerful ritual spell that would probably sink north america on the off-chance that it would give him the power of a god. Got his head chopped off, then reappeared as the controlling mind behind a massive linked brains-in-jars computing system, and nearly launched seattle into space. Got squished. Then my new players have been repeatedly encountering the things he left behind, including his Thesis (which is on par with the Al Azif for things not meant to be seen) his force 12 weapon focus katana (which also held a unique ally spirit of his that actually thought it was him), several sites that he had created to test out powerful and extremely dangerous spells, and one of the characters has now made a contract with his ghost to bring him back to life. Everyone in the game is terrified of him, but no one knows how to permanently get rid of him.
No-One: A hook from one character's back story morphed into one of the most interesting villains of the campaign. An ancient and malevolent Spirit trapped in a human body and looking for a way out, while at the same time manipulating everyone around her. As more and more details of her past were revealed, No-One progressively made every character's life a living hell. One PC got a force 15 control actions spell slapped on her, then quickened and masked so that she was basically a puppet for this evil spirit, another was continuously manipulated into doing what she wanted. Every one of them had at least one encounter with her pet awakened cat, the Sheilsaar. In their last encounter with her, she nearly killed them all, and it turned out the entire encounter was a plot by her to steal their magical power to fuel her own transformation into a Horror. She's still at large, too. Fun stuff.
Long as we're talking about intelligent villains (along the lines of Colonel Trieze), here's another one:
Grand Admiral Thrawn, from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Tactical genius, knew how to lead by charisma (rather than by fear like Darth Vader did), and an all-around great schemer and tactical planner.
Grand Admiral Thrawn, from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Tactical genius, knew how to lead by charisma (rather than by fear like Darth Vader did), and an all-around great schemer and tactical planner.
Yeah, Thrawn is cool, but I just never got the feeling that he was all that evil. This idea is reinforced in Zahn's newest book "Outbound Flight" wherein Thrawn is actually the good guy...
[/end Star Wars fanbabble...]
[/end Star Wars fanbabble...]
Well, when I think of truly evil villains, the one that immediately comes to mind is Darken Rahl, from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. The man is utterly evil - deceiving children into siding with him so that they will be willing sacrifices for his magic, divining the future using living human entrails, torturing anyone who he considers opposition (and he has a very broad definition of opposition), womanizing to an incredible degree and torturing to death any woman who so much as slightly recoils from his scars, and more that I don't remember offhand.
My top ten favorites/adversaries:
Iago, Othello
Arvin Sloane, Alias
Scorpius, Farscape
Antwon Mitchell, The Shield
Number Two, The Prisoner
Miss Parker, The Pretender
Gauis Baltar, Battlestar galactica
John Doe, Se7en
Shooter McGavin, Happy Gilmore (pound for pound,a great bad guy!)
The Elusive LoPan, Big Trouble in Little China
Iago, Othello
Arvin Sloane, Alias
Scorpius, Farscape
Antwon Mitchell, The Shield
Number Two, The Prisoner
Miss Parker, The Pretender
Gauis Baltar, Battlestar galactica
John Doe, Se7en
Shooter McGavin, Happy Gilmore (pound for pound,a great bad guy!)
The Elusive LoPan, Big Trouble in Little China
QUOTE (TeOdio @ Feb 27 2005, 01:12 AM) 
Fave Villains!
10. EL Mapache from The Wild Bunch ("Mucho Dinero, Muchas Bonitas")
9. Gul Dukat from DS9 (The only good Star Trek show, friggin Klingon Heaven!)
8. Edward Long Shanks from Braveheart ("Will hit some of thier men as well")
7. Base Commander Jack D. Ripper from Dr. Strangeglove("Preserve our precious bodily fluids")
6. Dr Evil
5. The Orc commander from LOTR ROTK Extended cut.
4. Marcelus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, even though he got sodomized.
3. Mr. Glass from Unbreakable
2. The Liberal Left
1. Darth Jar Jar (Dat's right Beetches!, you heard it here first!)
10. EL Mapache from The Wild Bunch ("Mucho Dinero, Muchas Bonitas")
9. Gul Dukat from DS9 (The only good Star Trek show, friggin Klingon Heaven!)
8. Edward Long Shanks from Braveheart ("Will hit some of thier men as well")
7. Base Commander Jack D. Ripper from Dr. Strangeglove("Preserve our precious bodily fluids")
6. Dr Evil
5. The Orc commander from LOTR ROTK Extended cut.
4. Marcelus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, even though he got sodomized.
3. Mr. Glass from Unbreakable
2. The Liberal Left
1. Darth Jar Jar (Dat's right Beetches!, you heard it here first!)
El Mapache only ratred 10th? Really?
Gotta Agree with Darth Jar Jar though...
Great list everyone. Here are some that make the BS list.
1. Biff from the Back to the Future Series.
2. Johnny from Karate Kid the movie.
3. Clubber Lang
4. Ivan Drago
5. Lumburg from Office Space
6. Mr. Burns
7. Newman
8. The Rock when he went Hollywood
1. Biff from the Back to the Future Series.
2. Johnny from Karate Kid the movie.
3. Clubber Lang
4. Ivan Drago
5. Lumburg from Office Space
6. Mr. Burns
7. Newman
8. The Rock when he went Hollywood
QUOTE (Clyde @ Feb 27 2005, 04:53 AM)
Three words: Cigarette Smoking Man.
'nuff said.
'nuff said.
Seconded.
- J.
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