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Berserker's avatar

Who's your favourite antagonist?

Asked by Berserker (33548points) April 7th, 2011

Or villain, if you will. So, out of movies, books, comics, video games, whatever other form of entertainment you enjoy, who’s your all time favourite bad guy?

Here’s mine.

The Shape, the Boogeyman, whatever you call him, sealed is your fate, should you happen to encounter him, he who reaps the lives of men
Black are his eyes, shining is his blade, hear their cries, those who died, a horrible price to be paid
For asking anyone there? or for going hello? you stepped into the Devil’s lair, hi there, nice halo
He moves so silently, stalks so dreadfully, strikes so violently, even should you live to tell the tale, you’ve gone completely bonkity and off your rail!
His theme song shall haunt you, or make you dance like a foo if it’s some techno remix, but anyhoo
He slashes throats and carves off chunks, your story ends with a bloody croak and your life has sunk
Into the wake of massacre he leaves behind, your gutted husk for the next fool to find!
Although some fight and victorious they stand, he shall return, for damnation does not die like a normal man!
From the seventies to the eighties right into your nightmares, watch your head mateys, for Michael Myers can never die, and uh…he’ll chase you up the stairs.

Wow that was lame. But Michael Myers is totally my favourite bad guy ever, so I had to write a poem about him. I was going to say a bunch of stuff about why I love him so much. Like how he moves so robot like, unlike many other slashers who show too much emotion in their physical demeanor…but Mikey HAS no emotion. And the few times his humanity attempts to resurface through his famous head tilt, you feel totally hopeless when he raises his knife again and starts going for you…he scared the crap out of me when I was 12, when I watched Halloween II. Except I think I’ve given these details here so many times already lol.

So, your turn. Who’s your favourite bad guy ever? And why? (I could have sworn this was asked here before though…but eh, times change, right?) Also, what kind of bad guys do you like the best? Really evil badguys, misunderstood villains, or delusional antagonists? (and whatever else there is)

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47 Answers

KateTheGreat's avatar

Darth Vader…the best of them all.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

Gene Hackman in Unforgiven is one of my favorites.:)

yankeetooter's avatar

Well, I think he’s more of anti-hero (?), but Severus Snape…

Neizvestnaya's avatar

Apocalypse from the old X-Men comic books.

Berserker's avatar

@yankeetooter Anti heroes are just as welcome, as long as they’ve done some dastardly things. :) (for example, I’m pretty sure tony Stark doesn’t count, but Snape sure does) And good choice.

Joker94's avatar

Thank God someone asked this!

Andrew Ryan of BioShock is one of my favorite antagonists of all time. .

Darth Vader, obviously!

Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds, for being the only Nazi I liked in a movie.

jonsblond's avatar

Col. Hans Landa

haha, jinx @joker

Dr_Dredd's avatar

@KatetheGreat I agree with Darth Vader, but only the version from episodes IV, V, and VI. Young Anakin was just a whiny brat.

I kinda liked Mr. Sinister from the X-Men, too.

ddude1116's avatar

Norman Bates, for introducing psychopaths into the mainstream
And Vincenzo Coccotti, Travis Bickle, and Tony Montana, to name a few others…

MaekoPoisoning's avatar

Stansfield played by Gary Oldman in “The Professional”

Raven_Rising's avatar

Perhaps not my favorite but Dr. Hannbal Lector from Silence of the Lambs is definitely in my top ten.
Also Javert from Les Miserables

yankeetooter's avatar

Yes, love Hannibal Lector @Raven_Rising !

Berserker's avatar

@MaekoPoisoning He was also fantastic as Dracula. :) ’‘checks out your username’’ Do you like Sephiroth, too?

@ddude1116 Hell yeah. Great movie, and I’m glad it gave birth to the slasher genre. (we can also thank the real life Edward Gein)

@Joker94 and @jonsblond Ha yeah, nice choice. Liking a Nazi can be pretty difficult. Hosenfeld from The Pianist is a pretty cool Nazi, too.

@Raven_Rising Yeah he rocks too. I wonder if they did it on purpose to make his name rhyme with cannibal lol. I loved him a lot in Silence of the Lambs. I liked the actor who played him in that last movie telling the story of his younger days, too. He uses a katana!

KateTheGreat's avatar

@Raven_Rising YES. Hannibal Lecter is definitely one of my favorites as well!

MaekoPoisoning's avatar

@Symbeline You guessed right! Sephiroth is my number 2 villian! :D

basstrom188's avatar

For their sheer persistence the Daleks

Berserker's avatar

@MaekoPoisoning Fuckin A. You got good taste, man.

mrmijunte's avatar

Julia from the Hellraiser movies, because she did horrible things just so she could quench her thirst for sex with Uncle Frank.

MyNewtBoobs's avatar

For today? Richard the Lionhearted.

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

Candyman freaked me the hell out.

Raven_Rising's avatar

@basstrom188 Definitely agree with the daleks although I must admit I’m completely unimpressed with the brightly colored versions that popped up this season. I’ve been referring to them as the Mighty Morphin Power Daleks

Raven_Rising's avatar

@WasCy I laughed so hard, I almost fell off my chair. Fantastic answer!

Winters's avatar

Captain Hans Gunsche, and the Major come in second.

My first and foremost favorite is me, a durrrrr

WasCy's avatar

@Raven_Rising it was said with love… and because I see he’s still crafting that crafty devil.

jerv's avatar

Magneto needs a mention here since he is a villain who will sacrifice pawns and kill innocents, yet he has a certain nobility to him as well, albeit an oddly twisted one.He isn’t a villain due to any sort of homicidal psychosis or anything along those lines. He truly wants what is best for his species (Homo Superior) and everything he does is for their benefit. He knows that one has to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Overall, I respect and admire him as a villain… though I am glad he is fictional since I am a Homo Sapien. At least I don’t think I am a mutant…
Dr. Doom also gets a nod for nearly the same reasons, only he fights for the people of Latveria and, IMO, isn’t quite at the same level as Magneto. Still a badass with a noble heart, but a mere “also-ran” by comparison

Professor Moriarty is a classical antagonist who is quite intelligent and a great match for Sherlock Holmes, but there is one character I can think of that makes Professor Moriarty look like a bumbling idiot. That would be a charavter from Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age; a Confucian technology hacker know only as Dr. X. He gets his name in part since most Westerners cannot pronounce his Mandarin name so he goes by just the first letter of it.
The interplay between him and Judge Fang is interesting to watch as it unfolds on many levels and ends in probably one of the most thorough victories I have ever seen or read, made all the more badass since Dr. X is an antagonist. The way he operates makes me put him high on my list of Favorite Antagonists.

Joker94's avatar

I almost forgot Kakihara, the ultra-sadomasochistic Yakuza enforcer from Ichi the Killer. I may have just finished that thing last night, but he is already at my top.

And as far as generally bad characters go, Johnny C. from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is pretty much my hero.

Berserker's avatar

@jerv Don’t know much about comics or X Men, but this Magneto guy sounds pretty cool. I like this kind of villain.

jerv's avatar

@WasCy Thanks for the compliment. Nice to know that @Raven_Rising isn’t the only one who puts me on their “Favorites” list.

filmfann's avatar

I love Hannibal Lector, even though I never like the bad guy.
That said, I think my favorite bad guy is Mr. Blonde, from Reservoir Dogs.

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

The Phantom of the Opera is a good one too.

And the Sherriff of Nottingham.

ddude1116's avatar

@filmfann yes. hell, yes. he was such an asshole, but he was slick. the use of Stuck In the Middle With You during “his” scene was just ingenious, too

MRSHINYSHOES's avatar

Darth Vader is one of the, if not the best villain, ever. And he’s not really that evil of a guy either.

I also like the relatively unknown villain in the Spiderman comic books, the Electro character “Maxwell Dillon”.
http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/images/spiderman_electro.jpg

Coloma's avatar

Dexter.

Otherwise, my favorite villians have been real life people that have carved chunks out of me. lol

Where’s Dexter?
I could set him up with a few gigs.haha

Berserker's avatar

@Coloma You lost chunks?

Dr_Dredd's avatar

Talking about Nazis made me think of the Nazi from the Stephen King short story “Apt Pupil.” Very chilling, and Sir Ian McKellen did a good job in the movie.

jerv's avatar

@Dr_Dredd Sir Ian McKellan is good at being bad. He did a ba… great job as Magneto as well; good casting call.

KateTheGreat's avatar

@Coloma I totally forgot about Dexter. Dexter is probably my number one!

mattbrowne's avatar

The US marshal hunting the Fugitive.

basstrom188's avatar

A couple more Blofeld and Dr Moriarty

filmfann's avatar

Q: Who’s your favourite antagonist?

A: Augustlan?

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