Best Baddies

[Dancer]

I did a search for this thread but couldn't find it, so wondering who's your favorite villain and why, and what do you think makes a good one to read about.

 

[Rodders]

I really liked the emporor in the Player of Games. He wasn't a baddie as such, but he was playing for the Empire against the Culture. The way of life that he was fighting for was corrupt and amoral. He was scared of the culture and fought with everything.

Randall Flagg from Stephen King's the Stand.

My favourite though was Patrick Dolahyde in Red Dragon. Whilst i was reading that, i found that i actually felt sorry for the guy. At one point i was actually rooting for the guy.

As for what makes a good villain. I think to a certain extent a good villain has to be more believable than the hero and i think that you have to see the humananity that is being ignored or quashed.

 

[Dimentio]

Trashcanman from the Stand.

 

[Gandalf]

Glaurung in the Silmarillion is a bit of a bad 'un, especially what he does to Hurin's kids (sob)

 

[paranoid marvin]

Obadiah Hakeswill

Partly because of his most excellent name , partly due to Cornwell's creative writing, but mostly thanks to Pete Postlethwaite's excellent acting. How such a seemingly weak,feeble and suppliant (to his superiors that is) character can be so devious , cunning and deadly - and a constant and deadly nemesis to a man (Sharpe) who tends to get the better of virtually everyone else.

 

[Professor 0110]

I'd have to say Gollum because of his sad predicament and his ability, for a time at least, to fight back the pull of the ring to reveal a rather gentle side to him. I'd also say Lord Voldemort, because in the end it was his own arrogance that lead to his downfall.

 

[biodroid]

George Stark from the Dark Half. He was a nasty SOB

 

[Vladd67]

Moriarty - He was only in one Holmes story but had a major impact. He has since gone on to his own set of books. (Although 'his' version of what happened at the Reichenbach Falls is a little hard to swallow for any fans of Holmes)

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Kennit from the Liveship trilogy by Hobb. It was only towards the end that I realised he was truly evil, up until then I couldn't decide.

Having just seen Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I'll also say Draco and Snape, but maybe that's cheating because I think each redeemed themselves.

 

[K. Riehl]

I thought the Ur-Viles from the Thomas Covenant books were quite nasty.

 

[digs]

The slake-moths from Mieville's Perdido Street Station and the Lovers/Uther Dhoul (if they can be considered baddies) from The Scar, Desire from Gaiman's Sandman comics and Stephen King's Pennywise and Randall Flagg.

 

[Dancer]

Books- Randall Flagg in The Stand, not so much in The Dark Tower series, he just didn't seem to have the same presence in that book. I'm not sure what I like about him in The Stand, his form of chaotic evil is somewhat cool. I loved his temper tantrums and in the end we find out how truly impotent he is.

- Dracula, in the first bit of the book, the idea of being trapped in the house with a madman like that is frightening. The books goes down hill after that, but the first bit is terrifying.

- Blaine the monno from The Dark Tower series, the oddness of a train obsessed with riddles is awesome, and it led to one of the most intense bits in the series.

In movies

- Doc Ock from Spider-Man 2, tragically awesome.

- Mr Smith from the Matrix, he;s just so easy to dislike and scarily powerful.

-The Terminator.

 

[elvet]

I really prefer a 'baddie' that is more than just the usual evil megalomaniac. I think that it's harder to portray a bad guy that is well balanced and multi-layered.
Off the top of my head, I'd vote for Isladar, from Michelle West's Sun Sword books. He is the son of evil, yet he has another agenda than just world chaos and destruction. Actually, the way his character is written almost makes me feel sorry for him. It's much more interesting when the line between good and evil is grey.

 

[Dancer]

I really prefer a 'baddie' that is more than just the usual evil megalomaniac. I think that it's harder to portray a bad guy that is well balanced and multi-layered.
Off the top of my head, I'd vote for Isladar, from Michelle West's Sun Sword books. He is the son of evil, yet he has another agenda than just world chaos and destruction. Actually, the way his character is written almost makes me feel sorry for him. It's much more interesting when the line between good and evil is grey.

Sometimes I'm similar, I do enjoy a well written and complex villains, and I do like to be able to sympathize with them. However sometimes I do think there's something alluring about nasty evil monsters, just vicious bastards who cut through everything in their path. Having said that I always think they should interesting. Buffy villains for instance, were never really redeemable, or a lot of them weren't, excluding Spike and Faith, but they still had personalty quirks and layers, despite being evil. They were never sympathetic, but they did sometimes become likeable and in depth.

 

[Montero]

Bester from Babylon 5.

Quiet, evil smiling menace, hate the sight of the creep, then grow sympathetic over his girl friend that they can never decouple from all those alien implants. But he is still a dangerous creep.

 

[Rodders]

Servelan from Blakes 7 was very menacing. A great baddie. Knew exactly what she was doing and had not a care in the world.

Davros was another great one.

 

[reiver33]

Mr Morden from B5; even though he didn't actually do anything himself, I found his smiling menace really effective.

 

[Jev]

O'Brien, '1984.' "A boot, stamping on a human face, forever." It doesn't get more twisted than that.

In a less serious vein, The Grey King and the Falconer, 'The Lies of Locke Lamora,' is a villain pairing that's quite fun and genuinely effective at being villainous without being overkill, Hammer Horror-style cliche.

 

[Urlik]

one of my favourite villains is Prince Gaynor the Damned from the Moorcock's Books of Corum
there are some quite complex things going on with him that don't become apparent on an initial reading