Your favorite main antagonists from anything fiction

[Darth Ultor]

I'm gonna take a page out of the Nostalgia Critic's book and do a top eleven list.

11. Bowser from Super Mario Bros. Classic baddie; a monster who kidnaps a princess and the hero has to go on a big adventure to save her. In most games, Bowser seems to go into a blind rage, and Mario outsmarts him, resulting in his defeat.

10. Voldemort from Harry Potter. I'd place him pretty low on the list, mainly because of how he turned out in the last book. In the first six books, he was one mean mother, so in control and very intimidating. In the last book, he became such an annoying wimp. He was a whiny prima donna and the final battle was epic fail.

9. Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda games. I only played Ocarina of Time, but Ganon was a great villain there. He takes over Hyrule, cleverly anticipates every move Link and Zelda make, and uses this knowledge to his advantage. But, he just couldn't hold against the Hero of Time.

8. Ultimecia from Final Fantasy VIII. An evil sorceress with a simple agenda. Instead of destroying or taking over the world, her ambition was to compress time and rule over it. You don't actually see her until the final battle, but she possesses a good sorceress, manipulates a war, nearly kills Rinoa and distorts the world. The battle against her is an epic one. Starts out with her in human form, she then summons a monster to atomize the heroes, she then possess the monster to make it even harder, and then you see her in a godly form.

7. Secretary of State Vincent Hadden from the first three Syphon Filter games. A corrupt politician who wants nothing but power and will even resort to terrorism and war to achieve it. A real nasty baddie.

6. Kuja from Final Fantasy IX. A melodramatic, cross-dressing villain who has everything planned out. He manipulates the most powerful country in the world to wage a war in the first two discs. Three cities are destroyed in that war. In the third disc, Kuja himself destroys the city of Alexandria. His goal is to rule over the planets of Gaia and Terra, but we learn that he, along the main protagonist are creations of a man named Garland in Terra. Zidane, the protagonist, was meant to be the permanent "Angel of Death" and Kuja was only temporary. There was a limit placed on his life. We find out after he kills Garland, who comes back as...something. A spiritual presence? So, after learning that he would soon die, Kuja decides to destroy the world After all, why should the world exist without him?

5. Sauron from Lord of the Rings. You never see him, he doesn't speak a single line, but you know that he is the most evil thing in existence. Even the all-powerful Gandalf fears him. If he wishes it, his presence can be felt throughout Middle-earth. Forget all the atrocities his armies caused, it's the fear factor that really stands out for me.

4. Azula from Avatar. Yes, I know Ozai is the main villain, but let's face it, Azula is much more interesting. Ozai is just a power hungry dictator. She is so evil and manipulative that you just love her. The blue fire adds more points to her. Whether she commits an act of evil out of duty or just for the lulz, it's epic.

3. Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. This guy is badass incarnate. His ambition is to summon a meteor to destroy the world, so he can meld with the lifestream, the world's spiritual energy, and become a god. On the way, he murders a good few thousand innocent people, including Aeris.

2. Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars. Here is a guy you just love to hate. He is a mix of several forms of villains; the corrupt politician, the evil genius, the manipulative bastard, and the Dark Lord. He started the problems in the galaxy by taxing the trade routes, pissing off the Federation. That led to the whole Naboo crisis, and step one was complete. Palpatine was elected Chancellor. To the Republic, he was Palpatine, to the Separatists, he was Darth Sidious. Once he manipulated he Separatists into attacking the Republic, the senate voted him emergency powers. Step two was complete. Now he had the authority to create an Army of the Republic and wage a war against the Separatists. After losing two apprentices, he cleverly turned Anakin over to the Dark Side. That was step three. After that he used Anakin, now Darth Vader, and the clone troopers to eliminate the Jedi and the Separatist leaders. Everything had gone according to plan for him, and Palpy declared himself the Emperor. For over twenty years, he held absolute power over the galaxy, but he didn't bank on the success of Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance. Ultimately, it never even crossed his mind that Anakin would come back into the Light Side of the Force and destroy him to save Luke.

1. Krelian from Xenogears. This is a tragic character with a very complex goal. At first, he was on the good side, serving as the top general in the resistance movement against the onslaught of the Empire of Solaris. After Mother Sophia, to whom he had an unrequited love for sacrificed herself to allow the rebels a self retreat, he snapped. He concluded that if God existed, he would never have allowed this to happen, and if god doesn't exist, he would create a God with his own hands. The mean he takes to achieve this are deplorable. During that time, he became the leader of Solaris in order to help the Ministry achieve their goal of "Becoming one with God". He experimented on countless innocent people, forcing them to go through painful mutations, manipulating a war with Aveh and Kislev, resurrection Deus, a "god" machine which subsequently resulted in Deus absorbing the souls of 90% of the world's population. His ultimate goal was to have the -Contact-, out main protagonist Fei Fong Wong destroy Deus so the Wave Existence, or the true "God" could be free and return to his dimension. That way, Krelian and the world's population could be one with God, and never have to suffer again. I am not doing this beautiful masterpiece of a game any justice with this review. Krelian is more of an antihero than a true villain.

[smurphy]

In no particular order:
:Kakihara from Ichi the Killer
:Kiriyama from Battle Royale:
:Kefka
:Liquid Snake
:Sephiroth
:Hans Gruber from Die Hard
:Simon Gruber from Die hard :With a vengeance
:Lady Kaeda from Ran
:The T-1000
:Heath Ledgers Joker
:Roy Batty from Bladerunner

[loaf]

What a horrible top 11 list from that book.

Also shouldn't this be in General Gaming?

[Darth Ultor]

Nope, because it goes beyond video games.

[loaf]

Nope, because it goes beyond video games.

Those 11 still are in Video games.

[Che]

Those 11 still are in Video games.

You're correct, but the topic states it can be from any fiction.

I'm gonna go with:

Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable, Agent Smith from the Matrix, Vincent from Collateral, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, The Joker from Batman(1989), and The Joker from Batman: Arkham Asylum (Mark Hamill).

I can't think of any others at the moment, perhaps I shall edit this later.

[rJ floW]

Lonestar from Spaceballs....for the following reasons:

1) His name, cliche, he is the "lonestar" of the bounty hunters.

2) Greatest satire movie ever made. If you doubt that comment, you don't get have the jokes.

3) Not part of any high priced video game. Though this is a video game forum, life doesn't hinge on video games.

HOLLA....Bitches!

[Taco-Calamitous]

Actually, four of the OP's choices were from other media (Harry Potter=Book, Lord of the Rings=Book, Star Wars=Movie, Avatar=Movie...) but eh. Um... I could go with the obvious, but I don't think I will. Instead I will go with:

-Honest John Worthington Foulfellow from Pinocchio: so smooth and cunning, yet so stupid at once.
-The Monarch from the Venture Brothers: this show is hilarious, and he is a big reason why it is. Frequently, he acts more as a protagonist for the show than antagonist (although he his more often antagonist.) His over the top manner is amazing, and his having no reason for wanting to kill Dr. Venture is just as awesome.
-Croco from Super Mario RPG: He wants to be a gangster. I guess he is in his universe. He has such awesome lines as "You mugs'll never catch me!" and "Funga! Foiled again!" I think he should be in more games, personally. (Booster was also pretty awesome.)


Can't think of anyone else right now. Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Pete]

Chigurh from No Country For Old Men

done in one.

[Chaos_Weapon]

:Sephiroth
:Joker
:Shou Khan
:Kira (Deathnote)
:Grimmjaw (Bleach)
rochimaru
:Megatron
:Cell
:Aizen (Bleach)
:The Prophet of Truth (Halo)
:Vergil (DMC)

[Meier Link]

Gwaaah a list thread! Ok so this might take me a few seeing there are so many to choose from. Keep in mind these are in no particular order, I am just throwing them out there as I think about them.

Hannibal Lecter- Argumentaly he could be considered a protagonist from Silence of the Lambs but his over all character concept was directed as an antagonist for the rest of the trilogy. Honestly he would be one of my favorite baddies because he has his select tastes for every thing, not limited to humans haha, and supirior intelect.

Gregory Belkin, Servent to the Bones - Come on this guy has to make the list somewhere, his whole story revolves around twisted acts of despair and the 7 deadly sins. His over all goal is a destruction of the world as the humans know it and almost succeeds in doing so. This guy cares about no one and even has his step-daughter offed to move his plans forwards. A truely evil douche bag. I personlly loved to hate this guy.

Kefka Palazzo, FFVI - Anyone that knows me should know that this guy would make my list and rank highly on it. As if clowns weren't scary enough just add in the end of the world as everyone knows it, mass geniside and a laugh that can peirce the ears of the deaf and you get one hell of a datardly bastard.

Lestat de Lioncourt, Interview with a Vampire - Given in the later books his dark side is revealed to be that of a good guy; his role in book one of the Vampire Chronicles leaves him standing as the main antgonists. His motives were rather on the secrative side for this installment which really make him come across as very interesting.

Doctor William Weir, Event Horizon - Dude this guy just rocked. His delusional misinteritation of the ships manifestation turns him into a demigod. If that doesn't make you awesome then I don't know what does!

Eugene Belford, Hackers - Come on this one had to be put on the list for ****s and giggles. His dialog was horrible and cheezy, his over plans where obscure and hoaky and for being a super hacker he over all came across as being an internet noob. Then again if he can't stop all the hackers of the world, who can?

The Andromeda Strain, The Andromeda Strain - Ok this is on here because of the lack of limitations. Seriously who wants to mess with a deadly microorganism to rapidly grows in anything with the Ph level of7.39–7.43, ironicly the same Ph level of mosts humans blood, and kills by disseminated intravascular coagulation?? I don't, do you?

Well that is all I time for now, I will have to think some more and come back to this thread in the near future.

[Jin]

My favourite main antagonist is myself from all of your lives.

If you're unaware that I am the main antagonist in your life, it's because your life will pull a Modern Warfare 2 and unexpectedly change the main antagonist from whoever it was before to me, rendering the original main antagonist irrelevant and more or less forgotten.

I look forward to working with all of you.

[Taco-Calamitous]

My favourite main antagonist is myself from all of your lives.

Are you a fictional character? No? Then you did it wrong, stupid! Your smart-assery doesn't work here Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Jin]

Are you a fictional character?

Aren't you?

[loaf]

Jin has always been my antagonist since 2004.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Aren't you?

Well, I guess you have me there. I forgot; there are no real people on the internet, right?

And just to keep this on topic: Of course I like Kefka and the Joker. But that would be obvious. EDIT: Oh yeah, and The Juggernaut, Magneto, Mr. Sinister, etc. are pretty awesome, too. And what about Dr. DOOM?!!

[Darth Ultor]

"Don'cha know 'oo I am? I'm da mother****in' Juggernaut, bitch!"

[chrono]

Luca Blight from suikoden 2.

"crawl around like a pig and i will let you live"

"oink oink"

*slash slash*

And this is after he burned the entire town down then killed any survivors. I wanted a go at his azz right then.

Edit: Video for those who have not played suikoden 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLVDD5W8ltE.

[Polk]

Aren't you?

I'm confused. Has my mind just been blown?

Chigurh from No Country For Old Men

done in one.

Also this.

[Maridia]

Pete is right Anton Chigurh is utterly creepy. Movies with big monsters or over the top guys. Yeah it's not very surprising since it's all you see in movies for the most part. His disconnected persona is just freaky to watch. You see there's something not right up there. But with a haircut and silenced shotgun like that who's gonna tell him no?

And I think everyone is forgetting the one and only Hans Gruber from Die Hard. He's polar opposite of John McClaine, which is why the movies so great. He's a brilliant strategist, well refined with a slick beard and suit, and knows what he wants overall. You rarely see a man with no physical abilities who plays such a center piece with being so sinister. Love it.

Heath's Joker has to be up there too. The Joker normally is whatever, he's the staple for Batmans nemesis but is always a little over the top. His spin with being a pure psycho but having a grand scheme is why he's better than most. Living to **** with people is something that makes you rethink things. Not to mention his "Video" with the faux batman in the meat locker, his load of knives, and a Glock 18.

Good stuff..oh wait...

[T.G. Oskar]

Eugene Belford, Hackers - Come on this one had to be put on the list for ****s and giggles. His dialog was horrible and cheezy, his over plans where obscure and hoaky and for being a super hacker he over all came across as being an internet noob. Then again if he can't stop all the hackers of the world, who can?

My deepest congratulations. A character that systematically destroys the good doctor from Short Circuit is a must in my books. And someone who utters the epic lines:

"We are like samurai, rounding up the cattle...YEEHAW!!"

"Wake up, Nintendo generation!"

Is a must on my list. Meier...


Now, as for other people in the list:

Luca Blight, Suikoden II: much to my dismay, I never played this game. I wish I could, since it is the most epic of all Suikoden games. However, Luca Blight trascends frontiers. Here is a man, a mundane warrior, who is so epic an army of battle-hardened warriors can't kill him. You heard me right: can't kill him. AND HE HAS NO TRUE RUNE THAT GIVES IMMORTALITY!

But, that's not why he's so epic. He's epic because he represents the end result of a being corrupted by revenge. He wishes to avenge the deaths of his family and the brutal events to his sister, and he does so in such a way, it is horrifying. He is irredemably evil, and he loves it.

Erik Magnus Lensherr, alias Magneto, X-Men: I have always presented Magneto as a character design to follow. He began as a minor villain, using powers of magnetism. He trascended his limitations, acquiring a degree of knowledge about his skill, and he has such a burning desire to fulfill his goal of mutant supremacy, he has trascended into a legend. For, if you have a power that may seem weak, or at least gimmicky, and you can do epic uses of it, you certainly deserve something.

Mix that with the right traits of solid background, charisma, a method of being sympathetic with the character while utterly despising his goal, and how he manages to trascend that in times of danger and understand that, sometimes, it is important to protect those humans you so despise, that makes him such an excellent villain.

Romeo Guildenstern, Vagrant Story: here is a cold and calculating villain, who pulls off a masterful gambit to succeed. First, you see him as undesirable; someone who's poking where he shouldn't, while you're worring about the real and present threat of Sydney Losstarot. Too stern, perhaps a bit sinister, but mostly an annoyance...

Then, the reveal. Right at the end, you hear every bit of his plan, and how he managed to remain on the sidelines and draw little to no attention from anyone while planning that. He manages to acquire his goal...and he sacrifices someone who practically saw him as a god, like nothing. Right there, he crosses the Moral Event Horizon and becomes utterly despisable. Fortunately, he also gets to be handed his buttock in a silver platter, courtesy of the unlikely hero.

The fact that he's a character that at first seems unassuming, but slowly develops into a menace, and finally shows a shocking reveal that only the wary could expect (and even then), makes him a wonderful villain.

David Xanatos, Gargoyles: speaking of masterminds... The tactic known as the Xanatos Gambit, used by many such villains like Naraku from Inuyasha, was pretty much patented by this singular, unassuming mortal. The idea that you may, unassumingly, be a pawn in the great plans of a villain by doing what you usually do shows a great deal of skill. The fact that, while there were villains before and villains after that practice this wonderful tradition, Xanatos is the one that holds it within his reins and trademarks it. It is one of the many reasons why, if they give people like the guys who created Gargoyles some support, they may actually manage to rescue American animation.

Gongora, Lost Odyssey: I am slowly growing to despise this guy. Which is excellent, because that means he has the proper "heat", so to speak, that makes him an excellent villain. Gongora, for the uninitated, is immortal; that alone makes him a challenge unlike any other. Second, he's the kind of people that plays speed chess with Xanatos, shifting his plans on the fly. He's capable of making all nations enter war, standing on one side. He mindraeps seals the memories of the heroes, which they hold dear or which they actually need, for an ulterior purpose. And he grows more and more despisable by the minute.

Plus, someone that has such funky eyebrows and such a dissonant choice of hair color and beard color deserves to be smacked. "Lord Eyebrows", indeed.

Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, Star Wars: I recently had the chance to observe the full development of this singular individual once again, specifically through observing his Wiki profile. And by gosh, this guy is a brutal villain! If Xanatos is the master chessplayer, Palpatine is the guy who taught him: how he managed to revive the Sith order and create a massive Empire with diplomacy and political action, along a massive dose of lies and Dark Side Force powers, deserves a frickin' applause. He overshadows Anakin "Darth Vader" Skywalker in utter evil, if only because even after death, he still holds a legacy. He's one of those few people that actually requires to be sealed for eternity because he just, won't, die. Something along the lines of Superman Prime, except that Palpatine kicks it up a notch (or rather, cranks it up to eleven. Your choice)

Exdeath, Final Fantasy V: alright, so you've seen that most of my choices are masterminds. How about we do something different? Exdeath holds a special place in villainy for being the DIY big bad evil guy. Want to defeat the villains? No problem, just wait until they're weak and actually teleport to beat their sorry asses (and if Galuf didn't make a sacrifice, Exdeath would have succeeded just like that). Exdeath isn't the kind of person who makes a long plan and lets someone else deal with it: he's the kind that makes a plan and personally sees so that it gets complete. His main flaw is at the end, when he makes the same kind of error that most villains do, and allows the heroes to get to the center of the N-Zone, where the Void is located. Aside from that? Some villains have to learn from Exdeath.

Dark Queen Takhisis, Dragonlance series: yeah, I know. I'm cheating. The Dark Queen of Chromatic Dragons in Krynn is a goddess, and a goddess of evil too. But, from those few gods of evil, she stands out because of her sheer planning capability.

First? She goes and does the usual: instigating wars, splitting countries, doing what evil does best. Then, the First Cataclysm emerges, and the gods withdraw a while: clerics go powerless, things go haywire. Nothing out of the ordinary, it seems.

But then, something else happens. She formulates a plan to distract ALL gods in such a way, that when the plan is executed, she literally steals the world from under the noses of the most vigilant of deities. It has to deal with sealing Chaos, IIRC, or something along those lines; the thing is, without gods, the world enters into a state of chaos.

Then, she works her master plan. Innocent, at first: a hero is risen, a girl has a revelation of a monotheistic deity that survived and that is willing to guide the world. The faith-deprived flock to her, with her powers of divinity, in a time where even the Wizards of the Towers of High Sorcery had troubles. Then, the master play, the trump card: she reveals herself, in all of her glory, uncontested by the other gods. It takes several things, including the redemption of another classic villain (Raistlin Majere), a frickin' hobbit-like creature that travels through time (Tasslehoff frickin' Burrfoot), the discovery of mysticism through the former cleric Goldmoon and the Blue Crystal Staff, and the sacrifice of one of the greatest good gods ever (Paladine) to fix that.

She dies, at the end, being a goddess and all but because of Paladine's sacrifice, for all eternity. Some say she will return eventually. But, the fact that she did all that deserves a medal forged from the utter darkness of the collective evil of humanity, and then some: she girl she chose? Was a deity of Good on her own, but she didn't know it. Talk about having frickin' luck.

So yeah, cheating. Doesn't mean she doesn't deserve it.

Kefka Palazzo, Final Fantasy VI: so yeah, people here know I have a special kind of love for Kefka, if only because I abhor him for being so utterly evil. In my opinion, and sorry for the Joker fans, but he's probably better than him; that doesn't mean the Joker isn't awesome. That doesn't mean I believe Kefka is the greatest villain of them all: he's one of the top, but not the absolute top. Just for those who think I oogle for Kefka. Can't forgive him about manipulating Terra, nor what he did to the Doma guys. Though, in genocide, Gongora topped that off.

But, why so? Well, he redefines nihilism, for once. Starts as a (military and to a degree scientific) genius, descends into madness, ruins a world and redecorates it to his image (to a certain degree), and eventually wishes to end it all. And when that happens, he does it with a grin and a laugh. Classy, even: his quotes are legendary. His growth, however, is notable: he grows more and more powerful, more and more insane, and yet he manages to manipulate nearly all sides to the expected conclusion: acquiring the power of the Statues and claiming himself the God of Magic.

If I...were to recall someone along this league, I'll be sure to add it up. As a final addition, these aren't in any particular order, neither ascending nor descending and by no means in order of importance. Redundant, I know, but to make that sure.