Who's Your Favorite Villain?

I am a huge fan of sympathetic and redemptive villains. So my favorite villain of all time is . . .

FIRE PRINCE ZUKO

Honestly, he had me at Agni-Kai.

Runner-up villains include:
  • Darth Vader
  • The Operative
  • Lord Ruler 
  • And climbing the charts for me is Jaime Lannister, but it remains to be seen how sympathetic he will become (before George Martin kills him).

So who's your favorite villain?

20 comments:

Juliana Haygert said...

ZUKO!!
I love him.
Last year, I wrote a long blog post about him.

*SPOILER ALERT* (to those who did't watch the series) And I love that in the end, he is one of the good guys too ...

Btw, love that you're always posting about them ... I didn't begin to watch Legend of Korra yet, but, oh, I will ;)

Matthew MacNish said...

You've already named most of the best, but I would add: Severus Snape, Sandor Clegane, and Gollum/Smeagol.

Kelly Barnes said...

Anne Rice's LeStat de Lioncourt. He was so -- human.

I have to second Severus Snape and Smeagol.

Cap'n Heine said...

For comedic effect: The water ninjas that keep losing to Naruto, specifically Oboro who always says "Lucky". They're like the Team Rocket of Naruto.

Because he's a dragon: Smaug.

Redemptive villains not named yet that I love: Piccolo and Vegeta

My personal favorite villain: Venom. I honestly have no idea why, he's just always been my favorite. He also becomes an anti-hero, so that's probably part of it...

Lori M. Lee said...

I couldn't agree with you more. Zuko is definitely one of the best things about the entire series. I also liked Loki from the Thor movie as well as Prince Nuada from Hellboy: The Golden Army.

A.L. Sonnichsen said...

Hands down, Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Charles Eubanks said...

Madame Mim from Disney's Sword in the Stone!

S.P. Bowers said...

I'm a HUGE Zuko fan. Great post.

MattyDub said...

So you don't think Tyrion is a villain? Interesting...

Because you couldn't possibly think that Jaime is a more interesting character than Tyrion, could you? COULD YOU?!

Adam Heine said...

Oh, man, how could I forget about Venom! For me, I like him because his only goal is destroying Spider-Man. He doesn't want to steal money or rule the world or anything else. The storylines where Spider-Man is forced to team up with him are the best.

Adam Heine said...

These are all really great villains (including a few I wouldn't have thought of -- Madame Mim is pretty great).

Matty, the only reason I chose Jaime over Tyrion is cuz Tyrion is just so...creepy. But yeah, I stood up and cheered at the end of Storm of Swords, for sure.

Jay Noel said...

Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight. It was insanely perfect!

Sarah Ahiers said...

i love Zuko so much that i can't even consider him a villain. I never thought he was a bad guy, even in the earlier episodes.
GOD I LOVE THAT SHOW!!!

Anonymous said...

I would have to go with Snape also.
And Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He always had great redemptive potential and proved it in the end :)

Hepius said...

The fight between Zuko and Azula in the second to last episode is one of my all-time favorite TV moments ever.

Iroh is my favorite character. Love that guy!

Avatar kills other animated shows because it had true character development. And a story. Sort of important. Maybe makers of other animated programs should take note.

Steve MC said...

When you mentioned redemptive villains, Jaime came to mind. Not sure who else, but Schwartzenegger in T2 was good.

And yet another Mistborn rave. Patrick Rothfuss just mentioned Alloy of Law on his blog.

Emmet said...

Hans Gruber... all others can be silent now.

TL Conway said...

I agree 110% with Zuko as a BRILLIANT villain. And I also agree with the commenter Matt: the final confrontation between Zuko and Azula absolutely blew my mind.

Anonymous said...

AAAAHHHH, Jaime died??!1

Anonymous said...

The Butcher in
The Killer - Jack Elgos
Wow, what a character he is, just finished the book.
The Butcher rules

Tony Florida