Your Favorite Villain

I'm thinking the Joker from The Dark Knight.

He's a total psycho; doesn't care about anything, doesn't have an agenda. It's just chaos wherever he goes, and to me, that's really fun.

 

Darth Vader.

 

Darth Vader, of course.

Honorable mentions are The Joker (from The Killing Joke), The Sherrif of Nottingham (Alan Rickman from Prince of Thieves), and Magus (from the game Chrono Trigger).

 

Oooh, loads of them. Saruman (both book and film), Joker (Mark Hamill's), Dutch Van der Linde, maybe that puppet from Gardens of the Moon, its a long list.

 

Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender and The White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia (books and movie). Female villains can be most interesting!

 

I agree with Jessquoi with Azula from Avatar.
Also Pride, Wrath, and Father from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (so many good villains in that. Too many, it was hard to choose even my top 3.)
Vicious from Cowboy Bebop.
Kuja from FF9.

I have too many favorites don't I? This was the trimmed list.

 

Amon from the Legend of Korra. I loved how awesomely manipulative he was.

 

Not necessarily my favorite, but Jim Moriarty, especially from BBC's Sherlock, is definitely up there on the list. He's cold, cunning, ruthless, and a match for Holmes himself as far as intelligence goes -- no easy feat! And he's just so stinking casual about everything, even cold blooded murder.

 

I have to add another.
The Master from David Tennant's era of Doctor Who. He was just so brilliant.

 

El Patron from The House of the Scorpion.

 

Mordred, the bastard son of King Arthur.

Blind Guardian - Mordred's Song (with lyrics) - YouTube

 

Frollo from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I like how his evilness stems from his religious and social views rather than mere greed or power-lust as is usually the case with Disney villains. Plus "Hellfire" is an awesome song.

 

To continue the Victor Hugo theme above, Javert from Les Miserables is my all-time favorite villain. As opposed to the too-oft used "just plain evil" characters that are more or less interchangeable, Javert is almost good. His problem is an obsession with a good thing (law and justice) to the exclusion of another good thing (grace and mercy). This makes him a far more believable and dangerous character than, say, Darth Vader. It's very easy for us to say, "Oh, I'd never be like Sauron or Emperor Palpatine;" it's much harder to honestly say, "I'd never be Javert."

For me, it has really made me think about what I believe and why. In addition, it made Javert's downfall at the end of the book incredibly riveting - because it's so easy to put yourself in his mindset.

 

Another atypical Disney villain, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. For a lot of kids in the audience, that might be the first time they ever saw a comic-relief "of course you want to marry me" clown turn into something not so silly, or a villain come out of someone who might have been at home on their own street.

 

You, my good Sir MFreako, have made my day. I mean, why so serious?

 

I've heard it argued that Gaston is Disney's best villain, because you see how he becomes a Disney villain. At the beginning, he's arguably closer to the kind of antiheroes that populate Grimm's Fairy Tales. It's only when he faces rejection that he sinks into a more bestial state (ironically paralleling the Beast's redemption.)

Just amongst Disney's baddies, Frollo's the other popular choice. I've also heard mention of Mother Gothel (who really hits home if you've experienced abuse), Facilier (who has three separate motivations, one of which is only hinted at), and even Chernabog (because you just can't top someone who's practically the Devil.)

 

Another Disney villain who deserves mention is Ursula. Sure, she has the stereotypical motivation to dominate the undersea world, but the way she gets Ariel to surrender her voice is just evil awesome. There's no tricks, no lies -- she flat-out tells Ariel what she intends to do, and what Ariel can expect, and the girl goes running (metaphorically) right at the bait. (Of course, it could be said that Ariel was a stupid teenager, so naturally she did that, but still.)

Also, come to think of it, Hades is pretty cool too. He's hilariously voiced and acted, and comes off like a used car salesman or something of the sort a lot of the time. Sure, he's a (literal) hothead out for murder, but he does have a redeeming quality or two that even the hero can't match. For one thing, when he makes a bargain, he keeps it. Unlike Hercules, who punches Hades in the face and walks away once he has what he wants.