My Top Villains

Good stories have good villains. Great villains make good stories great. 

While randomly browsing the internet, I somehow got on the history of R.L. Stine (author of Goosebumps). In one article, Jack Black, the actor who plays R.L. Stine in the Goosebumps movie, talked about how he enjoys playing villains in movies. 

My internet-fu came up with a similar quote. "Let’s face it, many times a movie is only as good as its evil villain. Like, what would ‘Star Wars’ be without Darth Vader?  ... It's a necessary and powerful ingredient in the soup—it's the spice." - Jack Black

That laid the seed for this next list: My top villains!

Warning - I'm working to avoid spoilers, but there may be some minor ones along the way.

Magneto

I've always loved Magneto's backstory. As a Jewish Holocaust survivor, he's been persecuted, seen horrible evil, and survived. As a mutant, he doesn't want humanity to put mutants through a second Holocaust. 

So he goes on the offensive.

Magneto is extremely powerful, scary, and his agenda makes sense. He doesn't trust humanity based on what he's already lived through. And yet, he's still friends with Charles Xavier. Magneto gets to be scary and tragic! Their philosophies are incompatible, but they respect each other...most of the time. There can be personal attacks and their insight into how the other thinks can help drive the plot on.

Because Magneto is driven by his desire to protect mutants from humanity (no matter how warped you argue it is), he can venture into anti-hero territory depending on the stakes. And for him, it can make sense! Comics are notorious (especially to me) for changing characters wildly based on who's writing and what they think will sell more, so Magneto may even become a hero every now and then.

I don't remember Magneto ever going full hero, but I do remember him ripping the metal off a character's bones.

HM - Anytime the villain and the hero have mutually exclusive philosophies or goals. The Gundam series in particular likes to twist the knife with "We could have been friends if we had the same loyalties." 

Gul Dukat

Speaking about flipping sides, there's this Cardassian from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Sometimes, he's the main villain. Sometimes, he's working with Sisko. But Gul Dukat is always about Gul Dukat. Even when it seems like Dukat is flipping sides or doing the "right thing", what's he's really doing is what's right for him. He'll find a way to rationalize it so. 

And what's really scary about him as a character is he doesn't realize he's doing it. He's the hero of his own story and rewrites the narrative to keep it that way. Anyone who opposes him is the villain...and if they were once an ally, oh! The pain of their betrayal! He works well narratively with other villains. He can join up for a time, but you're always wondering "for how long?" Will there be a fallout between the villains leading to them fighting each other? Will Dukat find a reason to help out the heroes? You don't know with him, but he'll find a way to look good in his own eyes regardless! 

Dukat is a narcissist. His ability to justify whatever he does makes him an incredibly effective villain for a narrative and a real life warning to believing you're the center of the universe. 

HM: Kai Wynn (Who only loses out to Dukat in my mind, because he manipulates her), All-For-One (Definitely a narcissist!), Azula! From Avatar the Last Airbender. I could've done this write-up on her if I hadn't already wrote it up for Dukat!

Jinx

Jinx has a tragic backstory, but it broke her. She's crazy. She is both a sympathetic and a scary character in Arcane season 1. The insanity makes her a narrative wildcard and she is awesome at it. The tension that pulls her back and forth as she wrestles internally is fascinating. I hope they'll be able to do her character justice if they ever make a season 2. I'm not sure how they'll do it. Jinx could go so many ways.

Jinx is a great example that predictably unpredictable can be a lot of fun. Yet, she still has human connections that that spin around in the soup of her psychosis that bob up at interesting moments. Can she commit horrendous crimes? Yes. Can she do something heroic because the mood fit her? Yes. She's dangerous to everyone and even herself. 

I like stories best that have an overall goal, but Jinx could pull off the temporary alliance and anit-hero territory that comic books love...at least temporarily. It'd be based on her mood and internal struggle, but I see her reverting to chaos and mayhem in the end.

Joker

Speaking of crazy character, the Joker is another villain at the top of my list. You could argue his insanity is his superpower. He's evil. You know there's going to be trouble when he comes around. He does have some rules to what he does, but they're mostly tied to what he considers fun (and his definition is NOT the world's definition)! He makes a wonderful foil to Batman. The conflicts Joker brings to the table are physical, mental, and personal. How Batman reacts to the Joker is a story in itself. Batman's no kill policy allows Joker to be a recurring villain that comes back to haunt him and present him with cases ranging from cerebral to explosive.

Joker's been represented well in a variety of ways. Mark Hamill's Joker from Batman the Animated Series is dangerous, but more madcap and "fun" loving. Heath Ledger's "Some people just like to watch the world burn" Joker was a more sinister take. Some comic authors take him too far from 'fun' and into gruesome for my liking.  I am not a fan of the recent movie that tried to make Joker into a protagonist fighting against society. In general, I don't like the hero-ification of villains or their actions. Joker is an awesome villain because he's bad and loving it.

Honorable Mentions: These two would put my list over 10, but I'm including them anyway while I'm on the comic book kick, because they illustrate two great points: David Tennant as Mr. Purple from Jessica Jones and Vincent D'onofrio as Kingpin in Daredevil. 

Mr. Purple has direct power. If he says it, people have to obey. Because of this (and his history), he doesn't really look at people as people. They're just things for him to manipulate. Tennant plays him chillingly well. He's the kind of villain it's difficult to face directly, because even heroes aren't immune to his powers. And if you do have some sort of immunity, are you willing to pay the cost? What if Mr. Purple told 100 people to kill themselves if he doesn't check in to tell them not to? The Punisher might not mind, but what about a different hero? Could they make that choice? Mr. Purple has direct power and forces characters to make difficult choices and think creatively. I don't know if Mr. Purple does that in the comics, but I love how the writing in Jessica Jones made that happen.

Then there's Kingpin. He has direct power. He has no fancy powers. He is all muscle and the willingness to use it. He's also ruthless and rich. While he could fight face to face, he's content to be in the background manipulating everything. Everyone has their weakness and their price and the Kingpin will find it to use someone against the hero. He functions as a corrupt government or empire of one (which also make great villains if slightly less personal). King is a master planner and often has schemes running within schemes (though maybe not a Xanatos Gambit levels! Honestly, I probably should have included Xanatos in this list. I would have put him in instead of Kingpin if I wasn't doing the Marvel and Netflix connection) 

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Thrawn is the best Star Wars villain, hands down. When the new movies (Ep 7-9) skipped over the Heir to the Empire Trilogy and Thrawn I was bummed out. 

Thrawn is one of the best mastermind villains. He always has a plan. He's always breaking down the heroes, their motivations, and predicting their moves. He often knows them better than they know themselves. He recreates the feeling of being a mouse trapped in a maze. Wherever the hero goes, it's part of his plan and the walls are closing in...When Thrawn is surprised, it's an epic moment. 

Thrawn serves the triple purpose of creating the oppressive/dangerous atmosphere, presents challenges to heroes without necessarily being in danger himself (allowing for recurring plotlines), and his explanations can serve as a reasonable in-world reason for some exposition (and, in my opinion, exposition done through dialogue is normally better). However, Thrawn always holds something back, so even as he explains there's a mystery and you have to wonder why...

Thrawn is awesome. Star Wars should have brought him into the movies. 

Shou Tucker

Some villains aren't the star of the show. Some look normal and then do something heinous. Shou falls into this category. He's incredibly memorable for anyone who's seen Full Metal Alchemist. He shows what can happen with a few terrible decisions. Those decisions cause so much angst for the heroes and bring up moral questions to dig into. I don't like Shou, but I like how he opened up all sorts of discussions and questions for characters in the story as well as those consuming it. 

Personally, there's a fine line to walk with this kind of character. I don't want too much gore/details/trauma. That's not the point. I want the question. It should be presented in a way powerful enough to cause the discussion and character development, but not gross or creep me out of continuing. I don't want to revel in the the evil. I want to see the reactions and fallout.

Nazgul / The Black Riders

Back to my personal list of great villains, though. The Nazgul / Black Riders rank near the top. They are corrupted, evil, mysterious, and oh so spooky. Their backstory is tragic and haunting, but they are not sympathetic characters. They are monsters. Powerful, elite foes that will do whatever it takes. To overcome them you have to use a weakness or risk a desperate gamble. They're not thinking villains per se. That allows the heroes to be clever and that's something I love to see in a hero. Their nature is evil, so they're fun to root against, too. The Nazgul and their powers are never fully explained, so that mystery is part of their pizzazz as villains.  

HM - The Shadow /  Dark One from The Wheel of Time - The Shadow is bad. There's no arguing it or wondering if it's going to suddenly become good.  It has it's Trollocs and Myrddraal's for hideous minions and a direct threat. Then there's the indirect threat: Anyone, anywhere could be a Darkfriend. Who can you trust? That gives it a feeling of omnipresence and makes it a brilliant villain. 

Sendo Takeshi (or Takeshi Sendo to Americanize it)

Rivals make excellent antagonists. Sendo is Ippo's rival in Hajime no Ippo, a boxing anime. 

Sendo and Ippo are friends. They respect and like each other. Both want to get stronger. But put them in the ring and neither one is going to step down. They both have something to prove to themselves, each other, and everyone watching. Sendo, in particular, loves a good brawl. They may hug it out after they've recovered and come to terms with the outcome, but that won't happen in the heat of the match.

Takeshi isn't really a villain. He's a good guy and a fun character. So much so, that I would probably be happy with him OR Ippo winning when they face off. I put him in here partly to throw off expectations. 

Hermit

I stated earlier I don't like "the hero-ification of villains." That's true (especially when it's supposed to be an evil-evil villain!).

However, I do love good character redemption arcs. Knowing someone will be redeemed is a spoiler, so I wanted to think of someone a little more esoteric here. I went with Hermit from Kenichi.

Hermit starts off as a villain. Kenichi meats him out of 'uniform,' and doesn't realize it's Hermit (even though it's obvious). Hermit has his reasons for what he's doing. They make sense based on his personality and his backstory. That puts him at odds with Kenichi and they fight.

However, Hermit has his own code of conduct and there are lines that he won't cross. Without those, he could have been too far gone for redemption. With them and the right circumstances that magically appeared (oh, you authors!), Hermit starts on an arc that leads him from villain to friend/rival.

I could do a whole different list of awesome characters with redemptive arcs. I love that kind of chracter. The problem would be avoiding spoilers.

HM: Saito from Kenshin. He manages to go from enemy to definitely not friend. They'll work together if the cause is right, but they have incompatible philosophies ("No killing" vs "Sin = Swift Slay"). They respect each other's prowess and Kenshin would be happy with being friends, but Saito isn't having it (unless things change further on down the line than I know!). 

The Borg

The Borg are great boogeymen. They're like futuristic zombies. They're scary, but they come at you in numbers. You don't normally feel bad about fighting them, but then you happen to recognize someone who was turned. 

One of the Borg's strengths as characters as they get to be completely alien, but seem familiar. Their thinking, priorities, morality is NOT human. And yet there are some Borg characters with great redemptive arcs rediscovering their humanity and other times when the Borg can be communicated with. That makes them rate far higher than zombies in my villain rankings.

The Tyranids/Zerg

Alien aliens make great villains, too. The Borg represent aliens with completely different values, but the Tyranids/Zerg represent the type of aliens that look at people as nothing more than food/biomatter. There are types that can swarm (like zombies) and there are monstrously huge/powerful types that require major feats to beat. 

Bottom line: They're scary and dangerous. They adapt (unlike zombies) and can think, but there's no communication or befriending. Somebody's going to die and the characters who survive are going to have to be awesome and probably scarred from the encounter.

Note: The Tyranids came first and the Zerg are definitely inspired by them (but changed enough to avoid a lawsuit!) You could argue the Tyranids were inspired by the Xenomorphs from Aliens, as well.

The Upcoming Disaster

WOrld or spaceship go kaboom

There is one last villain trope/type that I want to address: The traitor.

I HATE when this is done ham-handedly and out of nowhere. "Hey! The season/book/arc./movie is ending and we want to make more money. We tied things up too neatly, though. I guess we'll have someone act completely against their nature and do something heinous to launch the follow-up!"

I loathe that. It's awful, awful, awful.

I can accept a well written traitor that is foreshadowed. 

Decision at Thunder Rift started a chapter from a viewpoint of a character called "The Traitor." They don't give you his name, but you know there is a traitor running around. As long as the reveal doesn't completely alter the established nature of a good character, it's a fine and direct way to foreshadow. A more nuanced writer may lay hints throughout the book about a character's nature being off (like a certain Aes Sedai). As long as I can look back and go "Wow...it all makes sense!' I'm okay with it. Usually. I may have emotional damage from the betrayal and hate the situation, but I can salute the skill it took to write. 

The other acceptable way to write a betrayal is when it's clearly in the nature of the character. Is the character's sole motivation the health of their parents? I can see them turning traitor for the cure. Maybe they come back later and help or maybe not. I may not like it, but I can accept it. I prefer when the angst level isn't too high (I will put down a book to recover). It can be permanent, but I do like when the person who betrayed 'the heroes' follows up with a betrayal of the villain through some sort of  loophole. 

I didn't name any examples of this here, because that would be mad spoilers for many a story! I won't even say which stories have them.

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For me, good villains tend to fall into three categories: 

1. Tragic or somehow sympathetic (maybe even for a redemptive arc!)
2. Bad and loving it (the kind you can love to hate)
3. Environmental (They're there, it's not personal, and someone's got to deal with it, because stakes are high!)

I started to talk to Carrie and more and more names kept coming up. What about _____? Or ______? If I hadn't written so much I could've revamped much of this list. Villains are such an integral part to stories and there are so many great ones out there. Is it sad that humans are so natural at designing villains?

Conclusion: I spent way longer writing this than I meant to, but it was fun.