# Name the most evil character you've ever read/watched! [possible spoilers]



## devilish (Dec 14, 2004)

Teflon Billy's comment in this thread got me thinking -
who is the most evil character you've read about/saw in a movie.

Forget Sauron and his in-the-background glowing eye!  Saruman and his
charm-ing voice!  

A character you read that was truly despicable, made you sick, got you angry, etc.
A character whose deeds were spelled out, not just "the Evil One" behind the
scenes.   Villains who flayed the heroes' loved ones and made him watch.

Zorachus, from Mark E Rogers, for instance, was the answer my friend gave
to the most evil portrayal.

Without spoilers, I would say the antagonist from the Peter Hamilton Neutronium Alchemist
series would be a good candidate.

Or the stumped-antagonist in the Guy Gavriel Kay's Fioanvar tapestry.

Anyone who read/played the module "The Apocalypse Stone" -- there were encounters in
there that put warnings on ---  "Only play if your characters are mature enough."

I'm looking for villains that would laugh at the spells in the Book of Vile Darkness.

Books that you had to put down for a second and collect your breath/psyche.

Any takers?


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## Klaus (Dec 14, 2004)

Kevin Spacey's character in Se7en.

Shan Yu, the villain in Disney's Mulan. And here's a couple of examples:

Shan Yu is riding with his hun army, when his scouts bring forward two chinese scouts. Shan Yu lets them go, because he wants the Emperor to know he is coming. He then turns to his master archer:
Shan Yu: How many messengers are needed to deliver a message?
Archer (drawing bowstring): One...

Later on, Shan Yu's hawk brings a child's doll to him. From clues on the doll (horse hair, pine scent) the huns learn that the chinese army is waiting in ambush in a village on the mountains.
Hun: We can avoid them easily.
Shan Yu: No. That's the shortest route to the capital. Plus, a little girl is missing her doll... (grin) We must return it to her... (evil grin)


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## Wombat (Dec 14, 2004)

Let me see...

Several versions of the Arthurian tales give me Mordred, the vile worm in the apple.  OTOH, Bernard Cornwell's vision of Lancelot in his Warlord Chronicles is amazingly loathsome.

Lord Voldemort of the Harry Potter books is truly evil, especially given these are children's books.  Along the same line IT from _A Wrinkle In Time _ with it's horrid power of conformity terrified me as a child.  

Those are a good start, at least


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## Hand of Evil (Dec 14, 2004)

Caligula - insane


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## howandwhy99 (Dec 14, 2004)

Hannibal Lector is highly intelligent, refined, and thoroughly evil.  (Hannibal from the Silence of the Lambs film, not from the books or other films)

The possessed girl from the Exorcist.
J.R. Ewing
Thomas Covenant (if you prefer)

No one from real life right?


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## ddvmor (Dec 14, 2004)

Mary Poppins.

Truly dispikabubble.


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## mattcolville (Dec 14, 2004)

Jimmy Porter - Look Back In Anger


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## devilish (Dec 14, 2004)

Great list so far!  To be more specific, I'm looking for cruel villains.

As far as real life ones, please keep them before 1900 -- don't want
to step on anyones nerves/hearts with recent atrocities.

Kevin Spacey in Se7en : Good when you take the character in total : His
portrayal was mild mannered and innocent, but when you thought back to 
all he did throughout the movie and at the end, man, was he twisted.

Hannibal Lecter: after he broke out -- was sinister before, but cruel afterward.

Voldemort : Before Goblet of Fire, I would've said "not" -- now, he fits the 
bill perfectly.

Caligula : I took a Roman History course in college and the professor said that
the Penthouse X-rated Caligula movie with McDowell would've been a rated G
movie in the actual Roman times....then he gave examples: ick!

Exorcist: Hmm....maybe I'm de-sensitized but Pazuzu seemed mean-spirited, not
cruel ... except for the mother reference --- although maybe I'm forgetting parts...

JR Ewing : Didn't watch Dallas much -- seems more of a selfish capitalist than a 
cruel person -- do you have examples?

Covenant:  Aside from the "incident", he seemed more weak and pathetic than
cruel and evil throughout the entire series.

Mary Poppins? :  "Now, Jan, Michael ... run upstairs and get ready for tea, or else
I'll cast Eternal-Torment-of-Intestinal-Rupture on you both.  Tut Tut!"

Angelus :  Only knew him as Angel, but will put those episodes on the rental list

On the to-read list: Look Back in Anger,  Warlord Chronicles, Wrinkle  in Time
On the rental list: Mulan (and can get away with it on "family" night too, sweet!!),
Buffy episdoes

Others?  Bring your nasties on!


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## Darkness (Dec 14, 2004)

Angelus (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is a good one.


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## Hand of Evil (Dec 14, 2004)

Ming the Merciless from Flash Gorden    Cruel, dangerous, powerful, and calculating.  Would use one group against another just to keep them weak.


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## Dark Jezter (Dec 14, 2004)

John Doe from Se7en
Kaiser Soze from the Usual Suspects.
Hannibal Lecter.
Lucifer from the Passion of the Christ.
Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian.

Those are just a few I could think of right now. More later.


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## Klaus (Dec 14, 2004)

The Joker.

Specifically in Batman: The Killing Joke, A Death in the Familiy, No Man's Land and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.



Spoiler



In these he shot Barbara Gordon, crippled her and took pictures of her naked body in an attempt to drive Commissioner Gordon insane (TKJ); He applied a crowbar forcefully to 15-year-old Jason Todd, aka Robin II, and left him for dead with a bomb and the boy's mother nearby (DitF); He kidnapped all babies born during the time Gotham was declared No Man's Land, in an attempt to "kill hope"... Gordon's wife, Sarah Essen, found him, but the Joker threw a baby at her, distracting Sarah, and shot her on the head... He then surrendered (NML); He tortured 13-year-old Tim Drake (Robin) until he broke the boy's resistance and learned Batman's secret... He then proceeded into turning the boy into a twisted copy of himself.


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## WayneLigon (Dec 14, 2004)

Shapeshifter, from the first run of Elementals.

The Elementals were people given superpowers by first dying, then being exposed to the energies of the Shadowspear. There was always something ... off... about them, so that no normal person would ever form close attachments to them. All they had were others of their kind. 

The Elementals, one of whom is Morningstar (power of Fire), fight this group of villains. One is Shapeshifter, who seems to have elasticity powers. She likes to smother people to death. Real psychotic. The villains are beaten and save for one re-appearance, forgotten. 

Meanwhile, Morningstar finds a cute superpowered guy and they become friends. This blossoms into love over several issues and years. They are profoundly happy. The other teammates are even a little jealous over her alone having found someone to share her life with. They live with each other for a time, then Morningstar thinks he's ready to finally ask her to marry him. 

'He' turns into Shapeshifter. No, Shapeshifter hasn't kidnapped Cute Boy and taken his place. 'He's' _always been_ Shapeshifter. She makes some hideous appropriate and cutting comments (I know every little secret of your heart, etc), and flows away, leaving Morningstar completely devestated.


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## MarauderX (Dec 14, 2004)

Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina) in _The Audition_.  Hands down more thoughtfully vicious, cruel and sadistic than any evil character I have seen or read about in a while.  

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...9/glance/ref=pm_dp_ln_d_7/103-6679088-5211008

"Kidee kidee kidee kidee..."

<shiver>

"Audition is by no means an easy movie to watch--even hardcore horror fans may have trouble--but it will stay with you for a long, long time." --Ali Davis 

<shudder>


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## Umbran (Dec 15, 2004)

Another Disney villain - Maleficent, from _Sleeping Beauty_.  Really and honestly, there is not a redeeming bone in her body.  

Yet Another Disney villain - Judge Claude Frollo from _Hunchback of Notre Dame_.  Bigoted, jealous, posessive, and willing to twist and torment an innocent and disadvantaged human being for his own purposes.


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## Filby (Dec 15, 2004)

Princess Chalchiunenetzin from Gary Jennings's novel _Aztec_.

The fifteen-year-old bride of King Nezahualpili of Texcoco, the daughter of the Aztecs' King Ahuizotl. Convincing her husband that she was merely an innocent young girl, she seduced young palace servants and coerced them into coming back again and again against their will -- if she told her husband that they had raped her, say, they'd die. When she tired of them, she tossed them aside and had them murdered. She went through several men like this -- and all the while, out of a perverse desire to have someone watch her while she did it, forced the novel's protagonist, Tlilectic-Mixtli, to witness it against his will _and take notes_ for her to peruse at her leisure. After getting tired of men, she decides to "sample" a young woman just to see what it's like, whom she forces into bed against her will with the threat that she'll have the woman's husband killed if she doesn't; the woman commits suicide out of shame and self-loathing shortly after.

She has a disturbing desire to flaunt all of this under her husband's nose, so she orders her servants to take the bodies, boil them down to the bones, and put the skulls into statues, which she then has placed in her quarters. She tells her husbands that the statues are sacred representations of Aztec gods she brought with her to remind her of home.

In the end, when her vile deeds are uncovered, she is sentenced to die in a truly horrible way. Locked in a huge maze of thorns, she runs desperately along the passageways, her skin torn all over, until she comes to the center, where she finds the corpse of her last lover, now being devoured by flies and maggots, and loses her mind. Chalchiunenetzin dies from starvation and exposure.

And even so her evil lives on as her unwilling accomplices are punished. Since Mixtli had been a friend of Nezahualpili, he is merely banished from Texcoco. The other servants, on the other hand, are not so lucky. All of them -- her messengers, those who disposed of the bodies, each one -- is sentenced to die by the garrotte, which is even worse than sacrifice because it means their souls cannot enter paradise after a bloodless death. Mixtli's closest friends Tlachtli and Chimali -- who were lovers -- were the ones who made her statues, but Tlachtli takes the fall for Chimali and dies. Chimali swears eternal revenge against Mixtli for getting them mixed up in this (he got them the job at the palace), which results in the castration of Mixtli's boyservant immediately after the trial, and ultimately ends with the death of Mixtli's wife years later.

King Ahuizotl is outraged that his daughter has been executed and looks to punish Nezahualpili. So he declares war against the nation of Texcalla and, using his seniority among the tribal chiefs of Mexico, orders Nezahualpili to send his best warriors against the enemy while he sends only a few old and infirm soldiers. In the end, Texcoco is decimated while Ahuzotl's Tenochtitlan suffers minimal casualities.

Now _that's_ evil.


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## Enforcer (Dec 15, 2004)

Gregor Clegane, "The Mountain that Rides" from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Cirsei Lannister too.


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## R-Hero (Dec 15, 2004)

devilish said:
			
		

> Teflon Billy's comment got me thinking -
> who is the most evil character you've read about/saw in a movie.
> 
> 
> ...


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## Brakkart (Dec 15, 2004)

*Emperor Palpatine*. This guy ruled a galaxy wide empire for 20 years using a military beyond imagining, He ordered the construction and use of weapons capable of destroying entire planets, wiped out the Jedi, enslaved countless millions and is responsible for the deaths of billions. Plus he didn't speak words, so much as spit them. And he was hideous!

I cannot think of another character in any medium who was as evil as this one.


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## David Howery (Dec 15, 2004)

Magua from Last of the Mohicans

the preacher guy (Caleb?) from the last few episodes of the last season of Buffy....


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## Tonguez (Dec 15, 2004)

Retsudo Yagyu the nemisis of The Lone Wolf and Cub


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## Silver Moon (Dec 15, 2004)

My vote goes to Iago from Shakespeare's Othello.


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## Teflon Billy (Dec 15, 2004)

Enforcer said:
			
		

> Gregor Clegane, "The Mountain that Rides" from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.




You beat me to it.


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## wolfheart (Dec 15, 2004)

The sword Stormbringer from Moorcock's Elric series.  Forces hero(?) to destroy the world and then destroys the hero.  Brilliant!


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## Ibram (Dec 15, 2004)

Grand Senator Bronson from the Falkenberg Legion stories.  He manipulated a collapsing intersteller empire to set himself up as the leader what was to come after, in the process he devistated numerous worlds and sponsered a brutal insurection on a peaceful democratic planet.

The rogue inquisitor from the first two books in the Eisenhorn trilogy.  he instigated a titanic massacre just to free a few psykers, caused an entire squadron of Imperial warships to mutiny in an attempt to sieze a daemonic artifact, and corrupted hundreds of loyal imperalists to his goals.

and we cannot forget Grey Seer Thanquol from the Felix and Gotrek saga, one of the greatest and most brilliant villians ever (if only his henchmen would stop messing up)


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## stevelabny (Dec 15, 2004)

Batman. 
The psychotic madman who has never dealt with his parents death who feels the need to be a law-breaking vigilante, encouraging more villians to themselves become colorful freaks with even more murderous schemes that endanger the entire city much more than regular crimes.
To help his cause, he endangers troubled teenagers by giving them money, cool training and gadgets and a fancy costume so they can also be law-breaking vigilantes and he doesnt feel so alone.
But the absolute worst sin of this EVIL character is that when he finally catches all of his villians he simply turns them over to the local mental facility with the worst security known to man, allowing them to  escape and run free again so he can feel useful, rather than just killing them and be done with it.
It is quite possible that Batman has more blood on his hands than any other fictional character ever written.

Jon Snow:
I decided to edit this with a spoiler, even though the thread title has spoilers and if you dont recognize the name you should know better. But the series is that good. 



Spoiler



This sorry sack of pathetic just goes along with what he's told, occasionally thinking that maybe he shouldn't but does anyway winds up causing the deaths of a few people. But after meeting a girl, lying to her to continue doing HIS right thing, and "falling in love", he turns his back on her and leaves her to die.
This guy does indeed "know nothing"
Easily, the cruelest thing I've read.



The schmuck who delayed the Serenity movie.
Evil incarnate.


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## Geoff Watson (Dec 15, 2004)

Naraku, from the Inu-Yasha manga/anime.

Spoiler that's revealed in the first few episodes 



Spoiler



He tricks Inu-yasha and Kikyo into thinking the other has betrayed them, causing them to kill each other. (Well, Inuyasha was merely magically trapped for fifty years, not much of a story if the title character is dead).
He does many other horrible things.



Geoff.


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Dec 15, 2004)

I a not baby-killing or physical torturer manner: 
Sarah Michelles Character in "Cruel Intentions". What she is doing is certainly evil and can not be justified by any means, except a perverted, self-centered mind...

I just noted that there are few startrek villains that are truely evil, but to me, it seems as if Gul Dukat finally was exactly that. He had several possiblities for redemption, and sometimes seemed to work for the good side. But eventually, he was only interested in himself, and didn´t care for anyone else. He never even attempted to avenge the death (murder) of his daughter, he betrayed the Alpha Quadrant to the Dominion in hope of power, he betrayed the Bajoron followers of his Pah-spirit sect, he even tried to betray the Pah-Spirits or at least one of her chosen ones (Kai Winn) when he had the chance to it...



> the preacher guy (Caleb?) from the last few episodes of the last season of Buffy....



Hearing the name of Caleb - how was the main "villain" in American Gothic called? (Caleb was his son´s name) He was definitely evil, I remeber the episode where three (or four?) gangsters (brothers?) try to mix up the city, and he kills them all four. 
The last of them ends up with manacles with one wrist to a car that is soon to explode, getting a knife (or something like that) to free himself...


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## Wulf Ratbane (Dec 15, 2004)

Tim Roth in _Rob Roy_.

I won't describe it-- if you haven't seen it, rent it tonite.


Wulf


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## devilish (Dec 15, 2004)

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
			
		

> Hearing the name of Caleb - how was the main "villain" in American Gothic called? (Caleb was his son´s name) He was definitely evil, I remeber the episode where three (or four?) gangsters (brothers?) try to mix up the city, and he kills them all four.
> The last of them ends up with manacles with one wrist to a car that is soon to explode, getting a knife (or something like that) to free himself...




Sheriff Lucas Buck and his son Caleb Temple (always thought it was weird that the
actor who played Caleb was Lucas Black ).

http://www.tvtome.com/AmericanGothic/


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## The Grumpy Celt (Dec 15, 2004)

Well, Ranger Wickett and Pirate Cat are clearly the most evil people in the EN World forums. Does that count?

Oh, and when I was eight my nine-year old cousin pushed me into a gully and I landed on my head. He did it out of spite. Does that count?

From _Babylon 5_, Emperor Cartagia was attempting to coax the Vorlons into incinerating his home world of Centari Prime in homes of this propelling him to godhood. So her was attempting to perpetrate the genocide of his own people for mad dreams of glory.

In a similar “kill my own people” motif, in the movie _Who Framed Roger Rabbit_ judge Doom is a ‘toon, but it attempting to kill all the other ‘toons for what is ultimately just a land-grab scheme. He’s actively trying to kill all of his own people for money.

American politicians, conservative or liberal tendencies aside, are quite evil. Every few years they deliberately inflict the most horrific act of prolonged sadism known to mankind on Americans – they are known as “election years.”


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## Staffan (Dec 15, 2004)

On a smaller scale than the others... lord Farquaad from Shrek impressed me with his evil during one of the first scenes in the movie. He tortures the Gingerbread Man by dipping him into milk.


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## orbitalfreak (Dec 15, 2004)

I'd say the villian in "Saw" was pretty bad.  The movie was atrociously bad, but the villian had great potential.  Setting people up to kill themselves while he watches in sadistic pleasure.

 One man had to crawl his way out of a maze of razor wire, gutting himself in the process.  A woman had a device on her head that was described as a "reverse bear-trap" which would open and split her skull in half at the jaw.  She had to remove a key from the stomach of a body in the cell she was in.  The body was not a "dead" body.  They had two people handcuffed to plumbing in an old bathroom, and they eventually come across a hacksaw... which will not cut through the pipes, or the handcuffs.  But hacksaws do cut through flesh.


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## Jhamin (Dec 16, 2004)

Geoff Watson said:
			
		

> Naraku, from the Inu-Yasha manga/anime.
> 
> Spoiler that's revealed in the first few episodes
> 
> ...





Somehow I don't want a anime/manga by Rumiko Takahashi to contribute to this list.

But I have to admit that Naraku does in fact rate high on the "find out what you love and destroy it just to spite you" scale.

I mean he arranged for a main character's 11 year old brother to kill their entire family (on screen), then killed the brother(on screen), then reanimated him with just enough personality that you can't write him off as a zombie.

Just to mess with the heros.
Not defeat them, not to "win", just to mess with them.

And all this was just to kill time while he worked on his other plots.


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## Tetsubo (Dec 16, 2004)

devilish said:
			
		

> Teflon Billy's comment in this thread got me thinking -
> who is the most evil character you've read about/saw in a movie.
> 
> Forget Sauron and his in-the-background glowing eye!  Saruman and his
> ...




Freaky. I read the subject line and the first thing that popped into my head was Zorachus.


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## Geoff Watson (Dec 16, 2004)

Jhamin said:
			
		

> Somehow I don't want a anime/manga by Rumiko Takahashi to contribute to this list.




Not all of Rumiko Takahashi's works are goofy comedies like _Ranma 1/2_ and _Urusei Yatsura_.

The immortal kid in _Mermaid's Scar_ is also very nasty, finding adoptive mothers, then killing them when he gets bored.

Geoff.


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## Sado (Dec 16, 2004)

Laish Tenedos from _The Seer King_ trilogy by Chris Bunch. There was no limit to what he would do or how many lives he would throw away to fulfill his mad schemes.  Much of his magic was powered by blood, and he sacrificed men by the thousands to do so.


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## Frostmarrow (Dec 16, 2004)

devilish said:
			
		

> Sheriff Lucas Buck and his son Caleb Temple (always thought it was weird that the
> actor who played Caleb was Lucas Black ).
> 
> http://www.tvtome.com/AmericanGothic/




Gary Cole makes for a terrific bad guy.


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## shilsen (Dec 16, 2004)

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> My vote goes to Iago from Shakespeare's Othello.



 Probably the best literary villain ever. I was teaching "Othello" in my undergrad Shakespeare class a couple weeks ago and the students were simultaneously fascinated and repelled by him.


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## Thornir Alekeg (Dec 16, 2004)

I think I've read a lot of nasty villains, but for me the one that truly made me cringe - to the point where I had difficulty getting by a certain part of the book where I knew he was going to do something I didn't want to read, was the High Prince Roelstra from Melanie Rawn's  Dragon Prince.   I think the fact that he was portrayed as so _ human _ made it much worse.  I have fewer problems with magic or "otherworldly" villains.


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## Chimera (Dec 16, 2004)

Jhamin said:
			
		

> I mean he arranged for a main character's 11 year old brother to kill their entire family (on screen), then killed the brother(on screen), then reanimated him with just enough personality that you can't write him off as a zombie.
> 
> Just to mess with the heros.
> Not defeat them, not to "win", just to mess with them.
> ...




How do you hurt a man who has lost everything?

You give him something back.

_Broken_


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## Captain Howdy (Dec 16, 2004)

I agree with John Doe from "Seven" as being a good choice for an evil villain.

I would also add Frank Booth from the movie "Blue Velvet" (Dennis Hopper's character). He is really twisted and creepy. And that is coming from a person who finds almost nothing creepy. Between the fact that he kidnapped a woman's husband and son so that he could coerce her into letting him rape her; and the fact that he takes big hits of nitrous oxide before doing anything nasty/evil/creepy... He just really got under my skin. 
(SPOILER) The scene where he discovers Jeffrey Beaumont in Dorothy's apartment and takes him for a "joy ride" made me really nervous... Probably the most nervous any movie ever made me.

Frank Booth = Grade A 100% Pure Villain


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## Darthjaye (Dec 16, 2004)

The guys that run Fox network tv for all those times they've ruined perfectly good series for reality tv and bad comedies.  

     But really, how about the Vorlons from B5?  They spend all this time acting like the hand of good and when the going gets rough they decide to incinerate every world that had anything to do with the Shadows?  Cause they disagreed on how to have the younger races evolve?  Wow talk about evil and misguided.  At least with the Shadows you knew it was about the strongest survives.  

     Maybe anybody who had anything to do with the Batman And Robin movie?


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## FCWesel (Dec 16, 2004)

MASTER BETTY (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist) is the most diabolical evil of any time or place. 

He is just badong.

He plays that song about big butts while he kills you.

Your clothes are black!


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## FCWesel (Dec 16, 2004)

Actually SCORPIOUS is a great villain, probably one of my fav's of all time. 

I love Iago, so good call whoever mentioned him. 

Hans Gruber from Die Hard is a fun villain. 

And of course there is always the Joker and Harliquin.


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## Pants (Dec 17, 2004)

Gregor Clegane, The Mountain that Rides, from _A Song of Ice and Fire_.  Simply a ruthless, uncaring killing machine.

John Doe from _Seven_.

Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar from _Neverwhere_.

Hairlock from _Gardens of the Moon_.  Probably the only character with more black than grey in the series (so far...).


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## Pielorinho (Dec 17, 2004)

Okay, a couple of oldschool villains:

Danglars, from The Count of Monte Cristo, heads up a team of total bad guys in an utterly fiendish scheme.

Captain Quinlan from Touch of Evil leaves me feeling literally sick to my stomach, he's so awful.

Daniel


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## The Grumpy Celt (Dec 17, 2004)

How about Mr. Burns?

Or Dr. Ziaus?

Or Lady McBeth?

Lex Luther every where besides Smallville

Or my sixth grade math teacher?

Or Azreal and Bartleby from "Dogma"?

Don’t forget in “Lord of the Flies,” those horrific villains…

Simon and Piggy!

After all, at the end of the story they have been punished and died while Jack Merridew and Roger have prospered, grown and survived. 

And Bad Guys are punished and die while Good Guys prosper, grow and survive at the end of the story. Right?


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## Lord Pendragon (Dec 18, 2004)

Angelus from _Buffy_ is a good one if you ignore all the episodes with him in them, except for one story arc.

Spoiler:



Spoiler



The arc which ends with him killing Ms. Calendar is truly horrifying.  I actually held my breath as Giles walked up the stairs, rose petals strewn on the steps.



The villain from _Rob Roy_ is also a really good one.  That whole movie is just incredible.

Another one that nobody has mentioned so far, The Terrible Child, from Tad Williams' _The Flower War_.  I don't think I've ever felt revulsion engendered by reading as powerful as when I read a particular one of his scenes.


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## shilsen (Dec 18, 2004)

Lord Pendragon said:
			
		

> Angelus from _Buffy_ is a good one if you ignore all the episodes with him in them, except for one story arc.
> 
> Spoiler:
> 
> ...




I agree. That was a great scene.



> The villain from _Rob Roy_ is also a really good one.  That whole movie is just incredible.




Archibald Cunningham, the  who crowed atop the dunghill that is life


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## Particle_Man (Dec 18, 2004)

Bester, the Psi-Corp agent from Babylon 5, has that "charismatic evil/villain you love to hate" thing going.

Historically, Elizabeth Bathory (has hundreds of young peasant women kidnapped and tortured, and bathed in their blood in the belief that it would keep her young).

Whoever invented email Spam.


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## Blue Sky (Dec 18, 2004)

Vince McMahon!  He subjected millions of viewers to long winded speeches that ultimately end up being "The match tonight is..."  Then he goes and ruins the great sport of wrestling even further by destroying all his competitors.


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## [NO MA'AM]Jefferson (Dec 18, 2004)

Alot of really good villians mentioned so far I see, Scorpius, Keven Spacey in They Usual Suspects, Tim Roth in Rob Roy and Gregor Clegaine are all very good.

My particular favorites however are probably Tywin Lannister and Little Finger from the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Truly evil and sadistic men.

Spoilers: If you haven't read through A storm of swords yet and don't want anything spoiled best if you stop reading now.

Lord Tywin once upon finding out that his son Tyrion had secretly wed an orphaned Crofter's daughter forced his elder son Jaime to lie to tyrion and tell him that Tyrion's meeting with her had been all a ruse, that she was a prostitute who Jaime had hired for him. If that wasn't bad enough Tywin then had his many of his soldiers rape her giving them each a silver coin to pay her with. To top all that off he made his son Tyrion watch while it happened then made him take her as well and give her a gold coin since he was a lannister and worth more. This is just one of the many evil things lord Tywin is guilty of, ranging from betrayal to murder of children. Most of these crimes committed simply for the sake of his pride.

As for Littlefinger a never ending littany of betrayals. Several acts of murder, though only very rarely will he do the deed himself. He shamelessly used then murdered a woman only to gain control of her lands. Not only did he kill her, but when he did do the deed he told her that "There has only ever been one woman that I truly loved" then he said her sisters name and pushed her off a cliff. I could name many more vile deeds, but it would take too long and several volumes.


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## TheBadElf (Dec 18, 2004)

Wulf Ratbane said:
			
		

> Tim Roth in _Rob Roy_.
> 
> I won't describe it-- if you haven't seen it, rent it tonite.
> 
> ...




Roth is absolutely brilliant in RR; evil through and through.  And it has the best "weapon finesse vs power attack" fight I've seen on film.

My favorite "most evil" would be the Red Skull in the comics (he's a supervillain AND a Nazi!) and another vote for Gregor Clegane in books.

EDIT: Don't know how I missed this before, but forget the Red Skull...he's fun, but as far as evil goes Kid Miracleman beats him by a very long shot.  I'm not sure of how to do the "black out spoilers" thing, so I won't post any, but there's a reason that particular story arc is legendary...


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## Klaus (Dec 18, 2004)

For spoilers, type ["SPOILER"] enter spoiler here ["/SPOILER"] , but without the "".

And yes, Kid Miracleman qualifies. A lot.


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## Tarrasque Wrangler (Dec 19, 2004)

Frostmarrow said:
			
		

> Gary Cole makes for a terrific bad guy.



 Oh I know.  The way he made that one guy work on Saturday in Office Space ... chilling.  And it wasn't like it was a half-day either!

 Motley from Perdido Street Station was pretty awful.  



Spoiler



Not only was he partially responsible for the breeding of the slake-moths, but he tortured poor Lin so she'd finish the sculpture of himself out of sheer ego.


 
 Who else?  Vicious from Cowboy Bebop.  How about Darth Vader, who made his daughter watch while he and his buddies blew up her planet?  Or Ozymandias from Watchmen?  Or Apocalypse in the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse retroverse?


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## Tom Cashel (Dec 19, 2004)

Mr. and Mrs. Twit, from _The Twits_, by Roald Dahl. Man, those are some evil, nasty, repulsive people.

This is them with their heads stuck in glue:






The story of how a family of trained monkeys gets them to that point is worth a read or three.


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## Wereserpent (Dec 19, 2004)

The pants from the book by Sr. Suess.


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## Tom Cashel (Dec 19, 2004)

The pale green pants with no one inside them?


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## Squire James (Dec 21, 2004)

Enforcer said:
			
		

> Gregor Clegane, "The Mountain that Rides" from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Cirsei Lannister too.




Until Mr. Martin changes his mind and reveals them to be misunderstood saints.  Or kill them off.  Probably both.


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## Pants (Dec 21, 2004)

Squire James said:
			
		

> Until Mr. Martin changes his mind and reveals them to be misunderstood saints.  Or kill them off.  Probably both.



Nah, Gregor will become Un-Gregor the Wight... and get smarter in the process.


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## Richards (Dec 21, 2004)

I've got one that nobody's mentioned yet...

..._South Park_'s Eric Cartman.    This is the kid who once won a million dollars and spent it buying an amusement park for the express purpose of _not_ letting any of his friends in (or anyone else for that matter).  He even had TV commercials made to rub it in their faces.

This is the kid who not only killed the parents of an older kid who was bothering him, but had their flesh cooked into a stew and then fed to the older kid.  And then he explained exactly what he had done once the older kid had finished eating the stew.

This is the kid who had his friend Butters hidden away in a bomb shelter, convinced that World War III had happened and that everyone he loved was dead, just so he could go in Butters' place to a birthday party at a fancy Mexican restaurant.

I'm sure there are plenty of other evil things Cartman has done over the years; these are just a few that sprung immediately to mind.

Johnathan


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## Dragonmarked DM (Dec 21, 2004)

The wamphri lord Shaitan from the necroscope book series. As a matter of fact the whole wamphri race made me shiver. The describtion of them using a living human who's been morphed into a large sort of biological pump to bring water up from the bowels of their castles is just one example. I recall the poor soul had his heart enlarged to act as the pump and his veins reached out into the walls and acted as plumbing. Or their large winged mounts made by molding the flesh of several humans together. I can recall some other vile describtions from the books but it would require a R rating on this post. Lets just say it had to do with their sexual habits.


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## Boddha (Dec 21, 2004)

Baron Harkonnen from Dune.

King Edward the first in Braveheart: "signal the archers" "But we'll hit our own men!" "Yes but we'll hit theirs as well."

Fellow from the second book of Thieves World, can't remember his name offhand but his passion was strapping slaves to a table and then dissecting them to find out how they work.  Had the annoying habit of pointing out that his activities were legal as slaves were property and had no rights.

Count Rogen from the Princess Bride.

Adebisi from Oz, sadistic and manipulative.  Them again maybe that goes for the majority of the inmates.  O'Reilly's manipulation of his simple brother for his own gain is quite nasty.  And Vern Schillinger is downright chilling.


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## threshel (Dec 21, 2004)

Richards said:
			
		

> I've got one that nobody's mentioned yet...
> 
> ..._South Park_'s Eric Cartman.
> ...
> ...




Good one.  This is seriously one of the most evil acts I've ever seen on a TV show.  I think the worst part was that Parker and Stone made it so funny at the same time.

Genius.  Sick, twisted genius.


Evil, however, has another name among the many it holds:

_Randall Flagg_

Several of Steven King's books feature him, but none so well as _The Stand_.  The longer version of the book is the best, but either will do for a really good portreyal.  Also: _Eyes of the Dragon_ and _The Dark Tower_.  There may be more.


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## The_Universe (Dec 21, 2004)

Easily the most evil character to appear on stage, film, or the printed page:  

Shooter McGavin, from _Happy Gilmore_.  He may not be physically threatening, but he's got even less moral fiber than Emperor Palpatine.


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## Asmo (Dec 31, 2004)

I was just watching 24. 
Nina Meyers is pretty evil.

Asmo


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## frankthedm (Jan 1, 2005)

8-bit theater's Black Mage


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## Presto2112 (Jan 1, 2005)

Wulf Ratbane said:
			
		

> Tim Roth in _Rob Roy_.




SO right!  I simply reviled this character throughout the whole film!


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## Richards (Jan 1, 2005)

As I've been going through my new DVD boxed set of "I, Claudius," I'd like to nominate Livia, who poisoned just about everyone who stood in the way of her son Tiberius attaining the title of Emperor.  And I'll definitely add Caligula to the list as well: he thought he was Zeus reborn, had sex with his own sister, got her pregnant, and then, fearing that the "child of Zeus" growing in her belly might one day become more powerful than him, cut it out of her and apparently tried to eat it.

Johnathan


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## Lucky Number (Jan 1, 2005)

Lucifer in the Vertigo comics, especially the Lucifer series. He defines "arrogant prick", and manages to suceed, since he's the second most powerful being in existence. He's also a great example of a villain with high intelligence, as he's nearly always in control of the situation. He is a master at humiliating his opponents before dispensing with them.

Desire, also from Vertigo (the Sandman series, this time), just because he/she commits the most atrocious acts within her/his sphere of influence, and then completely forgets that he/she did them. This includes leading one her/his brother Dream's numerous loves to end up cheating on him with the anthropomorphic representation of her own planet's sun.

For real people, there was a mortician or something in the old west (in San Francisco, i think) who took the corpse of a criminal, sent it to a cobbler,  and told him to use it to make a pair of fancy leather shoes- and sew a nipple onto the tipe of each one. The cobbler did make the shoes (sans nipples, i guess that was too much for him), and the mortician wore them on a regular basis. He later ran for a local political office, saying that, by wearing shoes made from this one criminal, he was literally putting his foot down on crime (or something equally cringe-worthy). While not so villainous, he's still a creepy bastard.




			
				Klaus said:
			
		

> Shan Yu, the villain in Disney's Mulan. And here's a couple of examples:
> 
> Shan Yu is riding with his hun army, when his scouts bring forward two chinese scouts. Shan Yu lets them go, because he wants the Emperor to know he is coming. He then turns to his master archer:
> Shan Yu: How many messengers are needed to deliver a message?
> ...




I spoke about this with a friend, after having asked if chinese people were as offended by Mulan as some American Indians were by Pocahontas:

ME: "They portrayed the Huns as being sub-human monsters..."

FRIEND: "They were! Wound-f***ing, remember?"


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## Hopping Vampire (Jan 1, 2005)

Kakihara from Ichi the Killer. this guy is a COMPLETELY evil sadomasochist that is only motivate by causing pain to others.And sometimes himself.


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