We had a thread a while back about favourite characters, and a lot of them were heroes. But what about villains? I find a good villain really makes a story - be it on the telly or in a game - really come alive.

So, for the benefit of building a better bastard, who are your favourite villains, and what is it about them that wins them that accolade?

My first entry is Arvin Sloane, from the television series Alias. Sloane is a great bad guy. He is highly intelligent, utterly ruthless, a top-class manipulator of everyone around him and yet willing to get his own hands dirty when the need arises.

But what raises Sloane above the typical slick villain is that he is not a two-dimensional character. There are other sides to him; he loved his wife and intended to share the secret of.... okay, spoiler there, forget that , and he genuinely cares about our heroine, risking himself more than once to protect her. Sloane is a very human villain in spite of his plans for world domination.

The best villians are the ones that only have the best of intentions.

Stalin was a great villian!

I was thinking about this, and I'd have to say my favorite villians are the ones from real life.

There's a lot about Stalin below the surface that nobody really knows about until they study the guy.

Perhaps. I'll go have a look-see.

Storm Shadow!

Is no one mentioning Vader 'cause it's too obvious?
Okay, how about any of Shakespear's?
Reverend Paris from the Crucible?
Destro?
Or do you mean Shadowrun villains? The best thing is that not many of them are clearly villains. Lofwyr isn't really malicious, just like you don't think you're a bad person if you step on an ant.
My latest pop-culture fave villain is that dude from the Incredibles. Only a villain because he was shunned by his hero as a kid. Celebrities take note.

To Drop some names Ramierize, Raven, Kay, Knight, Cross, World Wood, New Touble.

Boba Fett, can't leave him out.

Oh, and Dr. Doom.

Ah, wel, if you're thinking about Star Wars and hardons at the same time, you can go ahead and keep that to yourself. Sounds like a personal problem to me.

Grifter: LOL!
AIM: What? Were you born this morning as clean as God's fingers? (I was Proctor a couple of years ago.)

Bruce Willis's character in 'the Seige'.
Stockwell Day?
Oh, here's one. My high school French Teacher, Ms. Tomalin.

"True villainy lies not in the commission of evil, but in the denial of it." True of Paris, I think.

Mr. Glass from "Unbreakable".

Three words: Cigarette Smoking Man.

'nuff said.

You want a villain? Two words:

John. Kerry.

Gabriel Shear (Travolta's character) from Swordfish.

Hell, I'd LOVE to work for that mofo.

Hmm. I've tried, but I can't think of any good villians. All the possible contenders don't IMO deserve to be labled as such.

Greatest Villians

Green Goblin
Magneto
Doctor Doom
Lex Luthor
Darth Vader
Grand Moff Tarkin
Jabba the Hut
Darth Sidious
Lord Soth
Tyranthraxus
King Kalak
Art Dankwalther
John Kerry
John Edwards (the senator)
Scorpius
Commandant Grayza
The Nebari
The Yuzhan Vong
R.A. Salvatore
Sauron
Saruman

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!)

In addition to the ones already mentioned, I'll toss in Tyler Durden. Just seems like it could be too much fun to pull on a character.

Oh yeah, and Scratch we could always have the Red Akuma show up for an encore.

Well, I'm utterly unsurprised by Republicans, especially at the idea of throwing in a couple of worthless Democrats as villians. The word "strawman" comes to mind.

Of course, the words "unoriginal losers" also come to mind.

My favorite is Agent Smith, because I empathise with him more than I do with any of the heroes. In fact, SMith is the real hero of those movies, since he's the only one who strufggles against his own weaknesses.

Heady "That's Hedley!!!" Lamar.

Big Brother. (As in the concept from 1984, not the craptacular tv show)

Now THERE's a group who understood crowd control

Jubal Early - Firefly "Objects in Space"

This man DEFINES villainy. But does have depth and some good points.
If you have not seen the Firefly series and think its a waste to see it cuase it's ended, do yourself a favor and go rent the discs...it is WORTH it. An excellent series and the source of the above villain though he only appears in the one and final Episode, but he's worth watching.
For those of you who refuse, Jubal Early is a Bounty Hunter the quickly and efficiently seizes control of "Serenity" and proceeds to terrorize her crew while hunting for hsi real target. His ability to deliver a threat in a thoroughly innocous manner really slams home the concept that you're pretty well pooched if he's in control.

Sample Lines:
"Now I could rape you and am fully capable of doing such. It means nothing to me, just an act, just business. If you stay here and don't interfere in my busines I won't have to come back here and violate you in painful and humiliating ways."
- This to Kaylee, the perky female mechanic.

"Do you know why you'll help me? Because you harbor deep within you the hope that I'll slip, and that your moment will come when you have the chance to over come me.."
- To the Doctor
"This is not your moment Doctor..."
- Later to the Doctor

"Physciatrist have to be pyschoanalyzed before they can be certified, but surgeons don't have to get cut on before they are, does that sound right to you?"

Yeah THAT is the kind of villain to fear...course he came to a bad end, but still...was a VERY good example of a remorseless villain. And one who got off on his own power. Another fine example of Joss Wheedon's genius.

Sociopathic villians are boring.

Actually, within the context of the game, I find it bost awesome and scary when a character with good and honorable goals and methods changes in just the slightest ways to become a villian.

For instance, there was an adept who's goal in life was protection of the weak and defensless. After a mental breakdown resulting from a failure to protect a particular child in peril, he decided, in true Asimov fashion, that in order to fully protect something, he would have to keep it apart from anything that could concievibly harm it. So, he started collecting children, the elderly, the handicapped, and, eventually, anyone weaker than himself, in his basement, strapped to hospital beds.

Not the best example, but a damned good one.

There was another adept that was captured inside an aztech teocalli that was twisted through psychotropic programming and then fed combat drugs when needed and setatives when not. They essentially turned him into a killing animal under their control. He eventually regained control of himself, escaped, kicked his various habits and rejoined that party, but he was a quite the bad guy (or villians tool, depending on how you look at it) for some time.

Joubert (Max von Sydow) from THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR.

(Incidentally, unless you want to read it for comparison purposes (as I did), don't bother with the novel, SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR, by James Grady. The film is MUCH better, IMNSHO.)

Sample quotes:

(after Joubert unexpectedly kills someone)

Joe "Condor" Turner: "Why?"
Joubert: "I don't interest myself in 'why?'. I think more often in terms of 'when?'. Sometimes 'where?'. Always 'How much?'."

Joubert (to Turner): "Well, the fact is, what I do is not a bad profession. Someone is always willing to pay."
Joe Turner: "I would find it...tiring."
Joubert: "Oh, no--it's quite restful. It's almost peaceful. No need to believe in either side, or any side. There is no cause. There is only yourself. The belief is in your own precision."

Joe Turner: "I'd like to go back to New York."
Joubert:"You have not much future there. It will happen this way. You may be walking. Maybe the first sunny day of the spring. And a car will slow beside you, and a door will open, and someone you know, maybe even trust, will get out of the car. And he will smile, a becoming smile. But he will leave open the door of the car and offer to give you a lift."
(Joubert then returns Turner's .45 automatic, which he had taken away from him earlier--just before the "why?" scene above.)
Joubert (smiling): "For that day."

TOTALLY unrepentant about his choice of profession, and yet, in his own way, an honorable man.

And now you know where part of my .sig comes from.

--Foreigner

<flamebait removed>

<flamebait removed>

Samara.

I have a soft spot for incomprehensible, utterly nihilistic evil.

not so much TV but it has to be ether Livia Augusta ( she kicked arse)

or Lacresha DeBorsha (distant relative, and totaly ruthless)

I was so pleased when we traced our family history and found that one out!

torz x

I'd have to agree on Jubal Early. That was a fantastic villian with some great dialog, and in my eyes beats Boba Fett as the coolest bounty hunter ever.

I don't know if this guy would be considered a villain, but given that he was such a traitor to the various nations he helped I wouldn't exactly call him a hero. The man I talking about is Alcibiades (circa 450-404 B.C.), the Athenian statesman and general who had an odd career. He started out in politics by helping to unite the Athenians against Sparta, and took command of some of the Athenian forces. When he and his fellow commanders began losing to Sparta he was summoned home to stand trial for defacing a statue of Hermes, which most think he was innocent of. He was convicted and sentenced to death, but he fled Athens and went to Sparta and became an advisor to them. The Spartans had great success with his advice, but when he seduced the King's wife he had to hotfoot it again, this time to Persians. He didn't fit in and eventually ended up going back to Athens, where they made him a general and he had quite a bit of success on the seas until a new Spartan commander, Lysander, defeated the Athenian fleet and Alcibiades was once again exiled. His tale ends there, though, because he was assassinated in 404 by the Persian ruler Pharnabazus at the request of Lysander. Alcibiades was quite the unique character, obviously very charming, very bold, and traitorous when it suited him. I still don't know if I'd call him a villain, but I don't think I'd call him a hero, either. Just a wacky, likable guy, I guess.

Amazed no one has mentioned...

Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
Vic Deakins (Broken Arrow)
Marsellus Wallace (Pulp Fiction)
Khan (Star Trek 2)
Bill (Kill Bill)
Hannibal Lector (Silence of the Lambs)
Carter Burke (Aliens) *
Antonio Salieri (Amadeus)
Prince Humperdink (The Princess Bride)
Rene Belloq (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Al Capone (The Untouchables)

*probably the closest to a Shadowrun-esque villain in the list.

I'm surprised no one thought of Jorge, the blind Monk from Name of the Rose, or even Bernardo Gui, the papal inquisitor envoy. One standing for the monolithyc control and suppression of wisdom, the other a master speaker and politician twisting word and deed, under a noble facade, in the service of his autocratic masters.

Moving off the movie media for a bit, I absolutely LOVE the villain of the Metal Gear Series. There's Liquid Snake, the puppet trying to cut his strings and secure a future for his breed of warriors...through a revolution. Solidus, a puppetmaster who sees himself reduced to plaything, and violently striking back to bring the world he knows closer to the ideals it pretends to portray.

And there's The Boss...but since that episode is stil ltoo recent, no spoiling it through exposition.

And when it comes to books...how about the near-heroes of the Dune Saga? Paul Atreides, the savior of Dune, later thinks aloud, when someone brings up Hitler. "By conservative estimates, I have killed sicty one billion people, sterilized fninety planets, completely demoralized another five hundred. I completely wiped out the followers of forty religions...." and so on and so forth.

Of course, three books later his son, Leto II, would blow tha tcompletely out of the water by doing to the whole universe what Mao Zedong did to China, with far greater severity and success (and completely different purposes).

Anime wise, I really like Makoto Shishio, from Rouruni Kenshin. Not only does he look illegally cool, but his brand of unapologetic ambition is refreshing. And all the foul play he engages in, weakening his adversaries, are all to level the playing field...since he himself is far from being in top shape. Unlike Himura, who can get hit 74 times in a row and lose 300 gallons of blood from his endless reserves, he has to play it smart.

Real Life? Hambali, the fanatic who makes Osama look like a playground bully; Henry Kissinger, for his saturation secret bombings of neutral countries and civilian populations and thumbs up to death squads in Chile and Indonesia; Rev. Sun Myung Moon, our friendly, government-approved brain-washer, happily buying his way into western society despite his loud and cheerful proclamations about making us envy the freedom of cattle; Nicolae Ceaucescu, for making the surivors of his dirty totalitarian rule envy the dead; Orlando Bosch, planter of bombs on anything that drive son wheels, sails on water, flies on air or is built on land, killer of Cuba's olympic fencing team in 1973, responsible for dozens of other deaths, pardoned by George W. Bush prior to the attacks of 9/11 (because I guess there's good terror and bad terror); Che Guevara, foolishly trying to spread a model that he had to flee from.

But worse than all of the above -combined- there is Michael Bay. And whomever cast Keanu Reeves to play John Constantine. *seethes*

Trido Snoop Micheal Thompson - The players stole a piece of his gear so he made their lives miserable by tracking them everywhere and placing surveillence devices where ever he could. Then he created Deadman Insurance and made sure he had enough on the Shadowrunners ruin their lives.

Ocassionally he shows up and threats them into doing jobs for him. He's very careful and very anoying. As a GM I love him. As a Hunted they despise him.

They really hated it when they had to rescue him from the Mafia. That just rocked.

He only shows up once in a while, but when he does... oh boy

Cheers

QM

Kane Louis. A mage with a grudge and a bound force 4 free spirit that knows the astral gateway power. He would make the free spirit force someone astral then defeat them astrally and take over their body with the Posession metamagical technique. He do this to say, the busboy or chef, then attempt to harm or kill the players. He had masking and was nigh impossible to track down. He was a truly messed up counter to the players. The PC's hads killed his family as a distraction in a run early on in their career.

He could screw them over at any time, at any place. He didn't want to kill them as much as make their lives difficult.

When he did this he was projecting from another city (or continent) entirely. He was never even within arms reach.