I adore villains, I find them to be more interesting and strangely
enough more honest than heroes. Heroes are beings who dislike
responsibility but have a conscience, villains are more true to
themselves, they do what they want, when, with and whoever they want
which is the way to live. I don't remember when I started to
dislike heroes but I realized how faulty they were when I re-watched the
1992 animated series of X-Men. In one of the episodes, Wolverine was
fighting Juggernaut and threw him into an apartment building, ultimately
damaging that section of apartments and my first thought was, "Wolverine,
you just ruined someone's home. Is Xavier going to pay for the
damages? What if someone had a pet or baby in that room who is possibly
dead now." Then I thought, "if Wolverine did kill someone by
throwing Juggernaut into that building, would he admit that it was his
fault or would he use the 'I was fighting a villain to save all of you'
excuse?" In this respect, I feel that villains actually own up to
what really is their fault. You see the same thing in Power Rangers,
every episode the Power Rangers destroy countless buildings but do they
take responsibility for the people they are hurting and property they
are destroying? No.
So who's your favorite created villain? Could be from a movie/comic/novel, etc
Mine are:
10.) Lord Voldemort/Tom Marvolo Riddle (Harry
Potter) - It's very rare that a villain succeeds for any extended amount
of time and Voldemort did win between the end of The Half Blood Prince
and the end of The Deathly Hallows, in story book time, that was several
months where he was in control. There's a streak of nobility and
punctuality in Voldemort that goes under appreciated and who doesn't
like a polite villain as when he suggested to Harry to bow during their
duel in The Goblet of Fire. It wasn't his appearance that was scary as
much as his influence and how his followers even feared him, he had
power and was not afraid to demonstrate it.
9.) Scar
(Disney: The Lion King) - The Lion King is one of my all time favorite
Disney movies and it's not until recently that I discovered what an evil,
brilliant asshole Scar was. Scar had a trunk of sarcastic comments and
embodies the arrogance and intelligence I look for in a villain. He
plotted and carried out his plan of murdering his brother Mufasa, when
you reflect on it, that's pretty damn dark for a kid's movie, especially
since he succeeded.
8.) Sephiroth Valentino (Final
Fantasy VII) - Breaking molds and creating new ones back in the day when
Square Enix was Square Soft. Sephiroth ranked number one for Most
Surprising Video Game Deaths when he killed Aerith by IGN. He was also
the first game character to kill the NPC's which paved the way for every
game after. Someone would have killed the NPC's eventually but
Sephiroth was the first. He isn't insane, he's not a crazed scientist
like his father, Professor Hojo, for the most part Sephiroth was normal
and I believe that's all he wanted was to be treated normally rather
than as a hero or anything else. There's an insecure factor in
Sephiroth I find interesting, there's something (we don't know what)
that he doesn't like about himself and he seeks to erase it by obtaining
perfection, this spurs his God complex he develops when he believes
that his mother is Jenova. Now there is a giant plot hole that could
have turned Sephiroth around and prevented a lot of things he did but it
was never done in the games.
7.) Tobi Uchiha (Naruto) - I will never call
him Obito. Tobi in his first appearance was no big deal nor threat,
he, like Deidara, were the comic relief in the Akatsuki more
than anything but he was later revealed to be the shadow leader of the
organization itself, highlighting his superior intellect and shinobi
skills, he always managed to hide in plain sight, bright ass orange mask
and all. The methods he used to recruit Kisame and convince Nagato
were deity like, he didn't threaten them, he promised to give them what
they wanted, he understood what they needed even if it was a lie,
manipulation yes but it meant everything to Kisame, Akatsuki gave him a
home and reason to be so Tobi can't be that heartless. He's so integral
to the plot that I can't see him dying, his conversion to being "good"
would be the only way to defeat him. He single handed moved this story
along by kidnapping Kushina and attacking Konoha with Kurama which was
the beginning of the manga, indirectly causing the death of his own
sensei Minato. Without him neither Naruto or Sasuke would have the
power they now possess. He was calm and collected for the most part, he
hid his secrets well without going on long annoying rants like Sasuke
and Kabuto and moved an entire world to war with him when they had no
conclusive evidence of his identity, if that isn't genius then I don't
know what is.
My problem with him being Obito is this: the mask came
off, the emo came out and a relatively great villain who neither
complained about his own life and had a rather good philosophical and
relatable reasoning for his deeds suddenly became a petty stereotypical
anime character who was hurt about a girl not loving him back then
dying. Obito himself was such a useless character who's only purpose
was to shape Kakashi into the person he became, that I can't help to
feel the reason Kishimoto-sensei made him Obito in the first place was
to give the fans what they wanted. Tobi as a villain doesn't get half
the credit he deserves and to see his character ruined, disappoints me
deeply but Konan also doesn't get any credit and she did a hell of a
better job fighting him than what Naruto is doing now.
6.) Xemnas (Kingdom
Hearts) - A villain who rarely speaks himself, who seemingly has no
type of personality despite being a "Nobody", he was never a fool. I
began to see his hidden potential in 365/2 Days when he sent Axel to
assassinate Marluxia, a man of few words but never blind. He had more
of a role in Dream Drop Distance, his time traveling is indeed confusing
but proves the point that he cannot be destroyed and that everything
Sora has being doing has been his (Ansem's) design, when one person
configures your entire life and experience, no matter how bland Xemnas
(Ansem) seems to be, that makes him bad ass.
5.) Malik (Marik) Ishtar & Yami Bakura
(Yu-Gi-Oh!) - Who doesn't love the two of them partnered up together,
with or without yaoi intentions? Yami Bakura the sadistic thief who
stopped at nothing to get what he wanted and always waited for his
opportunity to act and Malik the abused youth with psychopathic
tendencies who used real violence in the manga, such as stabbing his
father. They are a duo to be reckoned with for their affinity for
violence and blood no doubt but unfortunately 4Kids watered them way way
down, still their true purpose is not lost on me. I appreciate their
partnership.
4.) Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender) - The
completely misunderstood Princess to END ALL PRINCESSES, Disney stop
making movies now, Nickelodeon has you beat, none of your princesses are
on par with Azula. A child prodigy with some of the most severe
insecurity issues I ever seen, like Sephiroth, there's something (we
don't know what) that Azula doesn't like about herself so she strives
for perfection 100% of the time. Her talent for fire bending,
manipulation and cunning has not been outmatched by any other female
villain (to my opinion) and only in one episode do we see her humanity,
in the Ember Island episode where she admits that her mother was right
about her being a monster. Her self-awareness of her cruelty leads me
to believe that prior the end of the series, she wasn't actually
"crazy". Like her mother said, she has used fear and intimidation to
control others, possibly from fear of actually losing them which leads
me to believe that Azula may have felt a great lost in a metaphorical
sense such as she always "losing" to Zuko for their mother's affection
and attention which pushed her towards her father who began to favor her
after the information revealed in The Search comics. She knew what she
wanted and got it on her own, she is to be feared and respected, she
did accomplish a lot more than Zuko.
3.) Magneto
(X-Men, Marvel Universe) - The Jewish boy who survived the Holocaust who
learned a valuable real world life lesson that is most denied:
humankind do not change, give them the power to destroy someone else and
they will use it (I believe Nagato said the same thing). Witnessing
these evils firsthand gives him invaluable experience and resolve. Magneto, with or without his friendship with Professor X, always stuck
to his guns. He did things his way to prevent the horrors he had seen,
it's quite a noble cause no matter how you look at it or if you agree
with him or not. I like his friendship with Charles and that no matter
how much tensioned filled their relationship, there were times where
they both could look past it and work together, there's a deep respect
in it rather than rivalry. Plus who doesn't love the one sided love
story with Mystique? Love conquerors all? I think not.
2.) The Joker
(Batman, DC Universe) - Who doesn't love the Joker? No matter the
rendition, a truly insane individual who was one day pushed too far. Probably one of the most creative and absolutely cruel villains to ever
exist but if you pay attention to the things he said in The Dark Knight,
and better if you understand his point of view, you begin to wonder who
are the truly crazy ones in this world. What is Batman without The
Joker and who is The Joker without Batman? Voldemort and Harry Potter
emulate their relationship: one can't exist without the other. So
respect to you Joker! Keep on smiling.
1.) Victor Von Doom aka Dr. Doom
(Fantastic Four, Marvel Universe) - The inspiration for Darth Vader!
(which is why DV isn't on this list but I love evil daddy Anakin
Skywalker too) What isn't there to like about him? His egotism, his
superiority in science and magic, the fact he is a king and conqueror,
his gypsy background? His insatiable goals and desires. He sacrificed
his love Valeria for magical might but knew he would miss her, he's not
completely inhuman. He embodies everything I like in villains plus he's
the original masked and hooded antagonist. He has a rather screwed up
sense of honor when it comes to his country but he is king so what can
be done about it? He has a thing for Storm which I like, Storm needs
more love (I find she has a much better back story than Wolverine, give
her a solo movie, revive Haille Berry's career). European man, African
woman, let's do this! Dr. Doom deserves his credit when it is due.
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