Best non-video-game villain (expect spoilers)

[Torkell]

First Iam Canadian started it with the coolest video game boss (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=17057) thread, then Black Ninja continued with his best video game villain (http://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?t=18447) thread. But what about other things, like books and films?

I think one of my favourite book villains is Thrawn, from Timothy Zahn's Hand of Thrawn trilogy, although he only really gets the villain label due to being on the baddies side. He has an incredibly good knack for working out just what the other side will do ("That sentry ship attack a few minutes ago... you were able to tell from that that those were Elomin ships?"), and utterly countering it ("What in the Empire are they doing?"). To the New Republic certainly, he must have felt like an ultimate villain.

Another one is the Dark, from Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series. It's all the little things they do, which all add up over the course of the books, along with a handful of enormously villainous actions (getting Will to break the circle early on, using Barny to scry, shooting Bran's dog, and then the truth of Blodwen Rownlands right near the end.

Moving onto another media, Gouda from the Ghost in the Shell: 2nd Gig anime series. He plays a long-running Xantos Roulette with whole countries, with the aim of apparently creating a civil war. That, plus he all but admits it to one of Section 9, knowing full well that there's nothing officially they can do about it.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. Your turn to go forth and word-procreate upon this ‘forum’ upon which men from the ‘internet’ may ‘talk’ to one another!

[Stijn]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/jinspec/img_16_1095411864.jpg

[Torkell]

At the risk of vast amounts of ridicule, who's he?

[Stijn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KACgT-ZD0

Not a movie to watch while sober, though.

Related:

:robo:

[The SlaYeR]

Norman Bates from the Hitchcock movie Psycho.
Very well portrayed by Anthony Perkins and probably one of the first cases of MPS in motions pictures. He just portrayed the sick and twisted mommies boy so incredibly.

And Annie Wilkes from the Stephen King novel Misery (I actually read that for the third time not too long ago.) The fan of a novelist who takes him into her home to recover after a car accident. She forces him to write a sequel to one of her favorit novels, but if he takes the main character in a wrong direction, she gets rather upset. You should all read it some time.

[cooba]

The villain, and also THE Joker:
<img src="http://www.overthinkingit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/heath-ledger-joker1.jpg" />

<span style="color: #000; background-color: #000;">TDK's Two-Face</span> was also done excellently - taking the "from zero to hero" progression and promptly turning it upside down.

The <span style="color: #000; background-color: #000;">camerlengo from Angels and Demons</span> was great because it was completely unexpected (for me at least, maybe I just suck) for them to be a turncoat. And I get the chills when I think of how detailed the scheme was.

Linoge (from Stephen King's Storm of the Century) was a walking atmosphere setter. Completely insane and unexplicable. Though what happened at the end sucked a bit.

[Radium]

Sometimes when talking about villains I use the phrase "post-Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker". Example:

"Voldemort was a decent antagonist, but I don't know if he can remain such in this post-Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker world"

[Stijn]

Radium, I'm happy for you, and imma let you finish, but Jack Nicholson was one of the best Jokers ever

[Torkell]

Sometimes when talking about villains I use the phrase "post-Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker". Example:

"Voldemort was a decent antagonist, but I don't know if he can remain such in this post-Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker world"
...yes, that incarnation of the Joker is pretty much the ultimate villain. Someone who has absolutely no rules at all, and is just out to break the city. He's not even after power or outright destruction!

[Black Ninja]

Heath Ledger's Joker is the best. I remember feeling genuine terror in my heart when he was onscreen, especially with the whole "know how I got these scars?" thing. Even the greats like the classic Vader can't compare.

[The SlaYeR]

That's probably because you've never seen any vintange classics. And if you have, you just didn't see the good ones. Seriously, villains HAD to be so much better in the old days to come across as realistic.
Also, Stijn is right, even though Heath Ledger was a great Joker, Jack Nicholson was FAR more like the Joker from the comics.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_27xZRVcQIsU/Rh95mxfhycI/AAAAAAAAA08/71XWerNfzHI/s400/NormanBates.gif

I'll just leave that here.

[Unhit]

I agree with Mister Scusi!

Though, on a more serious note: Heath Ledger was good, very good and certainly worth an Oscar, but can he match some of the "classics", as Stjn (and Slayo, referring to other movies as well) have pointed out? I'm not quite sure.

Anyway, best recent one for the last (and quite possibly upcoming) couple of years, I think:
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/5291/mv5bmty1nzqymdq2nv5bml5.jpg

[cooba]

Heath Ledger was good, very good and certainly worth an Oscar, but can he match some of the "classics"Ledger's interpretation of the Joker >> original Joker from like 1950 or whenever

[Unhit]

With "classics" I didn't mean old Batman interpretations mostly.

[Torkell]

Daleks.

[The SlaYeR]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_412wLjv_kzg/SdzgG-7kjEI/AAAAAAAAADg/9_sbVUSuaBE/s400/Limitations+Dalek.png

[Torkell]

"Elevate" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdgKJMRwwjI#t=4m5s)

[cooba]

Anyway, best recent one for the last (and quite possibly upcoming) couple of years, I think:
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/5291/mv5bmty1nzqymdq2nv5bml5.jpgHell yes.

[hellknowsme]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/jinspec/img_16_1095411864.jpg

i plead the fifth

[Torkell]

Another one from Doctor Who: the Master.

[DoubleGJ]

For me, the mechanical / indifferent part of the main character in Nine Inch Nails' concept album "The Downward Spiral" is the winner. It's most personal, it's sinister, so familiar, so possible and so thrilling. I'm not actually sure if it counts as a villain, being the main character himself, but if it does, I'm sure I haven't come by anything better so far.

[Gus]

Those of the job office!
They give me no job and make me go up and down the city continually, and they assign me to courses with mad people. LITERALLY mad.

[Torkell]

<small>Thread necromancy!</small>

I've been reading through The Wheel of Time lately, and one character seems to stand out as being a complete villian and yet believing that she's on the good side:

Elaida (http://encyclopaedia-wot.org/characters/e/elaida.html).

Elaida's an Aes Sedai, is not a darkfriend, and is trying to prevent the escape of the dark one (which would basically result in the destruction of reality itself). These things would for anyone else in the series mark them as being Good. Yet she does such a wonderful job of screwing up everything that it's basically only the author's word that she's not Evil:

Spoilers for book 4 onwards:
She organises a secret sitting of the Sitters with the minimum necessary present to depose Siuan Sanche, the previous leader of the Aes Sedai, who was very much on the Good side. This results in civil war in Tar Valon.
She kicks out the Blue Ajah, apparently because Siuan was a Blue.
She issues arrest warrants for the other Aes Sedai who are helping Rand.
She captures Rand, with the intention of keeping him secure until he's needed at the Last Battle. Fortuantly, this was a spectacular failure.
She sends sisters to the Black Tower with the aim of wiping it out.
While she does allow negotiation with the rebel Aes Sedai, she refuses to allow the Blue Ajah back and demands that the rebels basically return as if they'd just joined the Tower.
She (eventually) demands Egwene's execution, despite Egwene doing everything possible to try to reunite the rebels and the Tower (starting with novice training, reapplying for membership of their Ajahs, and so on... she'd demand they retake the tests if she could).
This last one's not directly due to her actions... but she ends up being captured by the Seanchan and eventually being forced to teach them Travelling, which they will use as a weapon.

The striking thing here is that all of this was done with the best of intentions. Eladia genuinely believes that Siuan was comitting treason in how she was secretly aiding Rand and that the Blue Ajah were in on it, believes that Rand has to be kept caged to prevent him destroying the world, and believes that the Black Tower must be destroyed for similar reasons. Basically, everything she does, she does because she believes she's right. And yet she could not have helped the Forsaken better if she'd tried.

[Lithium]

THE WHEEL OF TIME FTW!

[KRSplat]

The matrix was one of the best villains, but predictable..

[cooba]

Disregard my previous post entirely. Gus Fring from Breaking Bad is the best villain ever:

<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tz7BKlCDXQ0/TmT5iIECDYI/AAAAAAAAI6Y/LJydV8wFTBc/s1600/vlcsnap-2011-09-05-14h13m03s62.png"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tz7BKlCDXQ0/TmT5iIECDYI/AAAAAAAAI6Y/LJydV8wFTBc/s1600/vlcsnap-2011-09-05-14h13m03s62.png" width="800px" height="450px"/></a>

[Blackraptor]

what cooba said


oh, and
http://www.songsouponsea.com/Promenade/Crimson_King_Dark%20Tower.jpg



All Hail the Crimson King.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktp2pjUuD11qzlxm1o1_400.jpg
(i sometimes put that insignia in my levels)

[Obi1mcd]

Doc Scratch from Homestuck. His personality matches his role as the cue ball perfectly.

[Sean]

Doc Scratch from Homestuck. His personality matches his role as the cue ball perfectly.

Agreed. It's creepy when your enemy is omniscient. Quite literally. <span style="background:#000">And when his goal is pretty much the annihilation of the universe.</span>