Top 5 Villains of Fiction (Best, not Favorite)

[Quasimod0]

Emperor Palpatine
Dr. Doom
Red Skull
Sauron
Darth Vader

 

[DA_Champion]

I like the general in doctor strangelove.

The xenomorphs in alien.

The Terminator.

The Joker.

Marlo Stanfield.

 

[DeGenerate10]

In no order:

Darth Vader
The Joker
The Terminator
Dracula
Lord Voldemort

 

[DACrowe]

I will do 10 (only film based as this is the movie forum). Why Because I can!

1. Darth Vader
2. Hannibal Lecter
3. Michael Corleone
4. The shark in Jaws
5. Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List)
6. The Joker (Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight)
7. Norman Bates
8. Uncle Charlie (Jospeh Cotton in Shadow of a Doubt)
9. Hans Landa
10. Dracula (Bela Lugosi)

11. The Wicked Witch of the West
12. Bill the Butcher
13. Harry Lime
14. Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci in Goodfellas)
15. Goldfinger

And I added five more, because I can!

 

[childeroland]

-Humbert Humbert, Lolita. An erudite monster who essentially ruins a young girl's life, told in excruciating detail.
-Judge Holden, Blood Meridian. Also erudite, a virtual god of war, seemingly invincible, and perhaps immortal, if he's even human. I imagine what he does to the kid at the end of the book is something like what Oberyn Martell got. But worse.
-AM, "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream." Keeps his victims mutated and twisted and never lets them die. When he loses most of his victims thanks to the hero... Oh lord.
-The townspeople of Omelas, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas". All the scarier because these are ordinary people perfectly willing to keep a child in misery to benefit their utopian lives.
-Ruth in The Girl Next Door, an adult who leads the neighborhood children in sexually abusing two girls -- one of them her little cousin.

 

[Golgo-13]

Vader seems to be on everyones list. I've never really thought about it, but in all my years i have never heard anyone really express dislike for his character...

 

[Gort Baringa]

Count Dracula - why? Because he is a vampire and takes the life-blood from his victims!
Hans Gruber - deliciously conceived evil.
Max Cady - DeNiro or Mitchum, take your pick.
Amon Goeth - this evil is REAL! (he is NOT fiction)

 

[Lord]

Vader seems to be on everyones list. I've never really thought about it, but in all my years i have never heard anyone really express dislike for his character...

I like him, but i honestly don't think he's good enough for me to put him in the top 5 of fictional characters

 

[childeroland]

Amon Goeth - this evil is REAL! (he is NOT fiction)

He was actually worse in real life. Spielberg toned him down for the film to make him more believable on screen.

 

[DACrowe]

Good point. I just kind of went off listing great film villains, but yes, he was sadly all too real.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

1. Michael Corleone (The AFI listed him as a villain when they did their list and who am I to argue?)
2. Darth Vader
3. Norman Bates
4. Dr. Hannibal Lecter
5. Mr. Potter

 

[Tanin]

Moriarty -- As brilliant as Sherlock... I'm surprised no one has mentioned him yet.

Walter White/Heisenberg -- He may be the protagonist of the TV show but he is evil to the core and the best villain of the entire show.

SPECTRE -- Best fictional terrorist organization ever in both the books and films

The Terminator -- What needs to be said? The perfect villain in a perfect film

Dr. Hannibal Lecter -- I don't feel I need to explain this choice.

 

[The Endless]

Just films:

Michael Corleone - Godfather Trilogy
Nurse Ratchet - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Hannibal Lector - Silence of the Lambs
Darth Vader - Star Wars Original Trilogy
Frank Boothe - Blue Velvet

Literature:

Moriarty - Sherlock Holmes
Iago - Othello
Judge Holden - Blood Meridian
Satan - Paradise Lost
Sauron - Lord of the Rings

 

[Rocketman]

The Joker
Hannibal Lecter
Darth Vader
Michael Myers
Dracula
The Terminator (Honorable Mention)

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I'm not sure how to measure this.

But this list is so dependent on pop culture rather than actual substance, it's hard to come up with a list with true validity.

But the character has to be popular in order for most people to be familiar with him or her. So taking that into account, which popular villains have the most substance? Well, not many of them do but the only current character to stand out is the Joker.

The Joker has not only proven to be iconic and timeless but also provocative and challenging. Like many popular villains the Joker strikes a cord but, unlike the others, he sticks with us regardless of generation.

My guess it's because all of us wish, to some degree, we could throw all our cares to the wind and become an insane genius who no element of order or disorder can control or comprehend.

We all see how society is hypocritical and unfair, morally, socially, biologically. The Joker can expose all of these flaws gleefully without attachment or obligation. He is unhinged in every way but all his words are dipped in undeniable truths about ourselves and the nature of good, order, and sanity.

The truth is those are lies we tell ourselves to sleep better at night. But the Joker's laugh is haunting because we know the dark truth is always around the corner and no amount of illusion will give us the control/stability/order/power we endlessly chase.

When we look at the Joker we see the one who escaped the asylum the rest of us are trapped in and while we laugh at his whimsical ways we quietly realize we envy, respect and fear this so-called jester for he is the only one truly free. HAHAHA indeed.

 

[Lord]

El Indio for best forgoten villains:

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[CGHulk]

Professor James Moriarty

 

[Etienne]

Hal 9000

 

[Zantera]

I would say: (In no particular order)

1. Darth Vader
2. The Joker
3. Freddy Krueger
4. Hans Gruber
5. Dracula

 

[godisawesome]

No ranking:

El Indio- Murdering a child and mother immediately after breaking out of jail pretty much sums up this guys character. And the fact that he still carries around the locket implies that his rape of the Major's sister and killing of her husband is a fond memory. Then he toys with the lives of his own men and sets them and the hunters against each other at least partially for amusement. He's such an irredeemable villain that the Man With No Name takes notice and seeks to ensure his death in a righteous manner, putting aside his mercenary ambitions to allow the Major some revenge.

Queen Jadis, the White Witch- She's probably the most downright despicable villain who most kids will encounter early into their reading life, she was played perfectly by Tilda. Swindon in the movies, and she freaking murders Aslan while personally seeking to destroy any hope and pride he has. But what really seals it for me is her past in the world of giants, where she is portrayed rather frighteningly similar to regular human fanatic, and you realize she really doesn't change by the time we see her again.

Emperor Palaptine- Ian Mcdiarmid gave us a bad guy we knew was worse than Vader or Tarkin within seconds of his introduction and remains the most consistently watchable part of the entire saga thus far. And the story and action embrace the transparency of his Clone Wars scheme and make you believe "This...could actually work." And his manipulative nature crawls at you from the screen; after the opera house scene, you know Anakin's doomed because damn, that was a great story. And you love to hate him so much that Mcdiarmid can flip to devouring the entire scenery and you won't care. The man has "POWER! UNLIMITED POWER!!!"

Harry Lime- Orson Welles smacks you upside the face with his acting wang. Ten minutes of screen time and we have a love-able but desperate petty crook turned major racketeer who puts selfishness and greed into six clear, human sentences. "Victims? Don't be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare?"

The Joker- He is now the archetypal Evil Clown, and in spite of the varying censorship rules across the multiple media he has appeared in, he remains the most injurious villain to be opposed by a hero. Crippled Barbara Gordon, killed Jason Todd, brainwashed Tim Drake, kills Lois Lane and Baby Kent, killed Sara Essen Gordon, killed Rachael Dawes, created Two -Face. If a writer for superheroes needs someone to maim the hero's loved ones, he's the man to call. And though he does lose every single time, he's the only villain for whom winning or losing doesn't matter. Kill him, imprison him, break his bones and bury him. He's coming back, and you will scream.