TOP TEN Lists - This Week: Arnold Schwarzenegger movies

Good topic. Obviously, my picks are probably less about the "best" villain and ones that I like based on the movies I like. There are lots of great villains in movies that I haven't seen, or have seen but I just don't gravitate to as much as adventure/sci-fi/fantasy/action

MOVIES
Darth Vader (ESB) - THE Iconic image of the villain to me. Although Vader is imposing in Star Wars, he is probably at his most intimidating in Empire. That dude delivers so many ultimatums and force-chokes so many Imperials to get to the Rebels. And that was just so he could draw Luke to Cloud City in an attempt to turn him to the Dark Side.
Classic Disney Villains - A bit of cheat, like always. Disney is (was?) a staple for great villains. Maybe I'm just a sucker for classic story-book villains, but my favorites are Maleficent, Jafar, Scar, Ursula, Cruella DeVille, Hades, and the Evil Queen from Snow White.
The Joker (The Dark Knight) - I know this role might seem over-hyped, but there's a reason. Heather Ledger's performance was excellent (dare I say captivating) as the twisted and maniacal "agent of Chaos" Joker. He helped make this arguably THE best Batman movie, in my opinion.
Loki (Avengers) - Loki is the classic scheming, overconfident and petulant villain "burdened with glorious purpose." Hiddleston hams it up wonderfully and chews the scenery from Thor all the way through Avengers and after. I kind of hate Marvel turned him into a good-guy.
Thanos (Infinity War) - I can't believe I'm picking 2 Marvel villains for this list, but I like them both. Thanos is the true over-arching villain of Avengers. By contrast to Loki, he is intimidating, powerful, calculating and driven by his goal. His intentions are understandable enough to make him sympathetic, but his methods are horrible. A very well-done villain. I like the story/performance better in Infinity War as opposed to End Game.
Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs) - Creepy and manipulative. Anthony Hopkins absolutely kills it in this role (pun intended).
Agent Smith (The Matrix) - A great villain; deadpan, dark-suited, manipulative, overconfident, powerful and determined.
The Terminator/T-800 (The Terminator) - The T-1000 could/should easily be in my list instead. But I have a soft spot for the original Terminator. Arnold as the menacing and unstoppable Terminator is classic to me. Plus, seeing this robot skeleton keep chasing the heroes after getting blown up (twice) just adds to the menace.
Emperor Palpatine (Return of the Jedi) - I CAN believe I'm picking 2 Star Wars villains. Arguably Emperor Palpatine is the real villain of Star Wars. The Emperor is the classic powerful, old, overconfident, manipulator who think he's in total control of the machinations he's put in motion. That is until the heroes take action. The Emperor's comeuppance, at the hands of a redeemed Vader, is *chef's kiss*. Love it!
Xenomorph (Alien)/The Predator (Predator)/The Shark (Jaws) - I'm cheating again. I lump these three together because they are all connected as the classic "jump scare" monster villain. These villains are mindless killing machines that are out to get you, and there's nothing you can do about it. To me this is their wheelhouse, and each is a great classic memorable monster villain; although later movies have changed the lore of the Predator a bit. "Mr. Vaughn, what we are dealing with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. It's really a miracle of evolution. All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks, and that's all."

(Very) Honorable movie mentions:
T-1000 (Terminator 2) - Seriously, the sly and shifting T-1000 is such a great counterpoint to Arnold's unstoppable T-800 tank. A fun movie and great shape-shifting villain.
Voldemort (Order of the Phoenix/Deathly Hallows 1&2) - He's sort of Harry Potter's Emperor Palpatine in that's he's put all of the wheels in motion to be the ultimate power in the world. Ralph Fiennes plays him up with terrific whispering malice from Goblet of Fire to the end. My favorite scene with Voldemort is probably his battle with Dumbledore in Order of the Phoenix. But, he gets more screen time in the last 2 movies and doesn't disappoint.
Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men) - A cold and calculating killer. Period. Apparently, lack of emotion is a big requirement for my villain picks.
John Doe (Se7en) - Just a disturbing serial-killer villain. I know Kevin Spacey is persona non grata these days, but his performance is subtle and creepy.
Hans Gruber - Die Hard is a great action movie and Alan Rickman just steals the movie as the bad guy. Some great dialogue and Rickman delivers it in his classic tone of dripping, witty sarcasm.
Khan (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan) - A well done early Trek movie. It was a great idea to pull a character from the original series. Ricardo Montalban hams it up as Khan, and I love it. A pretty serious Trek movie, with dramatic outcomes (which would later be undone).
Jabba the Hutt (RotJ) - Jabba is a big, fat mob boss who's selfish, overconfident and cruel. He's only a minor villain in the scope of the individual movie, but a memorable one for the SW fanbase.
Michael Myers (Halloween) - My favorite "faceless/emotionless" horror villain.
Freddy Kruger (Nightmare on Elm Street) - My favorite over-the-top/charismatic horror villain.

TV
The Joker (Batman the Animated Series) - It's well established that the Joker is one of the greatest villains. Batman the Animated Series is probably my favorite version of Batman, despite how much I enjoy the movies. Mark Hamill is an instant classic as the voice of the Joker, as much as Kevin Conroy is forever the voice of Batman. Like many voice actors with the right character, Hamill plays this role to the hilt.
Zuko/Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender) - Zuko is the reluctant villain through much of the series, but has such a great redemption arc. Azula is more the sociopathic villain of the show and she is a terrific intimidating and merciless bad girl. We eventually see her fall apart at the very end and her comeuppance is a mix of satisfaction and pity.
Aku, the Shape-shifting Master of Evil (Samurai Jack) - Genndy Tartakovsky had a knack for unique cartoons back in the day and Samurai Jack might be his masterpiece. Aku is bold, overconfident, blatantly bad, and manipulative. As a shape-shifter, Aku might show up anywhere to harass Jack... and often did. Aku, played perfectly by Mako, is an awesome cartoon villain!
Skeletor (MotU) - Okay, I watch too many cartoons. I know the 80s He-Man cartoon might have been cheesy, but I loved it. Skeletor is such an iconic bad guy with his hooded skull head and high-pitched cackle. He is a great cartoon villain similar to Loki; scheming, overconfident and petulant. "Curse you, He-Man!
Joffery Baratheon/Cersei Lannister/Tywin Lannister (GoT) - All of the Lannisters are jerks, seemingly, but these three are just the worst. I've used the word "petulant" before, but Joffery embodies that idea. He is a spoiled and sadistic son of you-know-what. He gets it honest. Cersei is an overconfident and conniving character, who only looks out for her family. She's pretty cold and petty in her own way, especially as the story goes on. Tywin is probably the most charismatic, clever and manipulative, but also the most cold and ruthless. They're all villains you love to hate.
Gus Fring (Breaking Bad) - A very good show. Few, in any, of the characters in Breaking Bad are clean, but I think Fring is the best "bad guy" in the series. @Killer Angel described Fring well; smart, ruthlessness and impeccably elegant.
Black Jack Randall (Outlander) - Sort of a guilty pleasure show that my sister-in-law got us into watching. The first two seasons are the strongest, in my opinion, and Black Jack Randall is big part of that. He's a cruel, sadistic and closeted British officer with a fixation for one of the main characters, Jamie. He often turns up like the proverbial "bad penny." Randall eventually captures, tortures and rapes Jamie in some pretty rough scenes. He uses that to torment Jamie later on as well.
Boyd Crowder (Justified) - A show my wife enjoyed, because she likes Timothy Olyphant, that I watched occasionally. Crowder, played by Walton Goggins, is sort of "the Joker" to Olyphant's "Batman" Marshall Givens. Boyd Crowder is a former Kentucky coalminer and revival preacher, turned southern gangster, drug-dealer, and killer. Goggins plays him with a great southern charm.
J.R. Ewing (Dallas) - My first intro to "soap opera" villains as a kid. My family loved this show. JR was one of those characters you loved to hate. Larry Hagman played him so well as a smooth and slick oil baron. Who shot JR? Who wouldn't?

 

That is a exactly what we are going for... your personal subjective favourites.

Great list, with solid justifications!

The original terminator is the T-800 (also goes by the designation Cyberdyne Systems Model 101)

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I've edited my post to change that and correct a few typos I noticed.

 

Two more honorable mentions.
Lord of Darkness (Legend) - Tim Curry is great in this role! The make up is fantastic and he is so over-the-top that he steals every scene.
Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada) - Meryl Streep is so cold, condescending and intimidating in this movie. You love to hate her character. Again, she makes the movie.

 

1. Q [Star Trek]
2. Apocalypse [X-men: The Animated Series]
3. Darth Vader [Star Wars]
4. Aku [Samurai Jack]
5. Borg [Star Trek]
6. Hannibal Lector [Silence of the Lambs]
7. Joker [The Dark Knight]
8. Negan [The Walking Dead]
9. Azula [Avatar: The Last Airbender]
10. T-1000 [Terminator 2: Judgment Day]

Honorable mentions: Thanos [Avengers: Infinity War], Darth Sidious / Palpatine [Star Wars], Hades [Hercules], Tywin Lannister [Game of Thrones]

 

To be honest, I don't even really like the show all that much. I just watched it because I loved his character. I had given up watching it before his arrival, but gave it a second chance after hearing so many good things about the character. Like you said, charisma.

He goes through quite the transformation throughout the series (TNG). Towards the end, he is admittedly more of a playful pest and a guide than a villain. Overall, I think it is evident that he has a net positive effect on Picard. However, at the onset of TNG he is definitely a villain. He is a brutally cruel character in the Encounter at Farpoint episodes. In the episode "Q Who" (where he introduces the crew to the Borg) several crew members are killed due to his interference. Additionally, I believe he would have let them all die if Picard had not relented and admitted that he needed Q's help. While the borg encounter (on a species level) was a net positive, Q's actions were villainous. Even Picard admitted as much when he said that perhaps Q did the right thing for the wrong reasons.

I'd say that he qualifies as a villain for several reasons, including:

• serves as an antagonist
• unjustly harms others to achieve his own means
• toys and tortures races for nothing more than his own pleasure (which is why the Calamarains came to kill him in "Deja Q")

Q is a villain in a similar vein as Loki is. Both are playful and tricksters and both are redeemed by the end. The fact that he goes through such a story arc only makes me like him more.

It's definitely a different choice and one could argue that it is a bit of a stretch. However, I included them because although they are made up of many beings, they operate under a single hive mind. They are separate in body only, but operate as a collective in every other way. One thought, one drive, one ambition.

Analogous to any other individual villain who is made up of trillions of living cells but still only has a singular consciousness.

The only "individual" of the group is the borg queen, with the rest being an extension of her. So if it helps, you could consider my entry as "The Borg Queen".

 

A solid and concise list. I don't know why I feel the need to wax on about my choices? I see we have a few similar picks.

Q and the Borg are good picks and I can't believe I left them out (especially since I including everything and the kitchen sink). Apocalypse is another good pick from the animated series.

 

I do too sometimes. This time around I was holding up the show (as @Killer Angel rightly pointed out) , so I posted a quick concise list. I might give it a try for a while... until we get to a list that really needs elaboration or I just feel like it.

 

Topic #11 - Top Ten Movie/TV Heroes

While I have lots of unique topic ideas ready to go, I figured you guys might riot if I didn't drop this one. Turn about is fair play I suppose. The villains had their chance to shine, so why not the heroes.

Rules:
The title says it all. Your top ten favourite heroes from Movies and/or TV shows. Simply write down the hero's name and what movie/tv show they are from. If a hero has multiple iterations (across multiple movies/shows) you can choose to identify your favourite iteration or simply state the character in general.


For the sake of change, I'll lead the dance this time around...

1. Uncle Iroh [Avatar: The Last Airbender]
2. Yoda [Star Wars]
3. Picard [Star Trek]
4. Samurai Jack [Samurai Jack ]
5. T-800 [Terminator 2: Judgment Day]
6. William Wallace [Braveheart]
7. Wolverine [X-men, various movies and shows]
8. Batman [DC, various movies and shows]
9. Leonidas [300]
10. Goliath [Gargoyles]

Honorable mentions: Maximus [Gladiator], Han Solo [Star Wars]

 

I'll be very interested to see everyone's response to Heroes and the (belated) Villains.

There's definitely some recency bias, but I'm putting in heroes that jump to my mind currently (with some influence from earlier lists). Plus, I think I'm prone to take "hero" too literally; meaning "superhero" or "action hero" when the idea could be more broad. But that's just me.

Luke Skywalker (OT Star Wars)
Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade)
Batman (Various movies & shows, but the Animated Series especially)
Yoda (Various SW movies & shows, but specifically Empire Strikes Back)
Wolverine (Various X-Men/Wolverine movies & shows)
Captain America (Various, but especially Winter Solder or Civil War)
Iron Man (Various, but especially original Iron Man or Civil War)
Aang (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Aragorn (LotR, but FotR & TTT are favs)
Picard (Various Star Trek movies & shows, but pretty much any TNG episodes & First Contact)

Honorable mentions or just other heroes I like: Han Solo (OT Star Wars), Superman (Christopher Reeve in Superman 1 & 2), Obi-wan Kenobi (various Star Wars movies & shows), T-800 (Terminator 2), Optimus Prime (Transformers cartoons), Data (Star Trek), Neo (The Matrix), Uncle Iroh (Last Airbender), Samurai Jack (Samurai Jack), William Wallace (Braveheart), Maximus (Gladiator), Gandalf (LotR) Harry Potter (Harry Potter series), Ripley (Aliens), Sarah Conner (T2), Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop), Princess Leia (OT Star Wars)

 

Interesting. You have Aang in your actual list while Uncle Iroh only made your honorable mentions. That's the first time I've seen Iroh not positioned as the top Avatar character.

 

A tad late perhaps to post my Villains list, but given my current record, not bad

1. Lord Shen (Kung Fu Panda 2) - Comes at no surprise given how much I've talked about him on here, Lord Shen is easily my favourite villain of all time, principally because I identify a lot of my own dark traits (and some of my non-dark traits) within him. He is sophisticated and refined, clever, witty and manipulative, while also being a highly skilled and capable fighter. I've mentioned before that if, as the Critical Drinker put it once, Captain Picard is the thinking man's hero, Shen is the thinking man's villain. His outward appearance belies physical weakness, but his ability to anticipate and prepare to counter his enemies' actions, his deadly skill with his swordstaff and throwing knives, and his capability of using his foes' insecurities and fears against them more than make up for his lack of outright brawn. And that's before you take into account his wolf army and his arsenal of proto-cannons. Gary Oldman was superb as his voice actor, and really emphasises both the menacing evil of the character and also the tragic backstory which he has to live with every day. Shen is the sort of villain I myself would likely become if I were somehow drawn onto a dark path – I connected with him instantly upon my first viewing of Kung Fu Panda 2, and it would have to be an extraordinarily good villain to knock him off the #1 spot of my list.
2. Senator/Supreme Chancellor/Emperor Sheev Palpatine (Star Wars Episodes I-VI and IX) – Though many on here see Darth Vader as the best Star Wars villain, for me it’s got to be the grand architect of the Galactic Empire, despoiler of the Republic and Sith Lord Darth Sidious, AKA Sheev Palpatine, that takes that title. He is the true, ultimate villain of the saga, whereas, being a Prequels fan, I’ve always seen Anakin/Vader as the fallen hero who ultimately redeems himself by destroying him. I suppose being a cerebral person I have the most respect for cerebral villains, and Palpatine is certainly one such villain, as he plays the long game in pitting the squabbling factions in the Republic and, later, in the Confederacy against one another and making use of people and tools to eradicate them, one by one, until the path is clear for him to become dictator for life over his beloved new Galactic Empire. In a way you can sympathise with his aim, for it is clear to see that the Republic was failing and breaking up, and by wanting to unify the galaxy under his rule one could almost see a kernel of goodness in him. But absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this seemingly benign act of bringing an end to the chaos is simply a means for Palpatine to empower himself and crush any and all freedom of thought that would challenge his rule. Ian McDiarmid did an excellent job in veering the character away from the cobbled-together original Emperor design in Episode V (a female makeup assistant with superimposed chimp eyes voiced by a male actor) into first the creepy final boss in Episode VI, then the master manipulator and meme icon that arose in Episodes I-III, and most recently the one thing that gave people some excitement for Episode IX amidst a failing Sequel Trilogy. The reception that arose for Ian’s appearance at the end of the first showing of Episode IX’s trailer, and his command to ‘roll it again’, speaks volumes about how great and popular a villain Palpatine is.
3. Hades (Hercules) – Hades is probably my favourite Disney character of all time, let alone villain, and absolutely steals the show in Disney’s Hercules. Though not fully accurate to his persona in Greek myth, that doesn’t stop his snarky manner, (literally) explosive temper and love of deals that hide the small print from bringing a good deal of life (ironic for a god of the dead) and humour to the film and making you want to root for him half the time. James Woods nailed the voice acting for him, and I think it’s great that he liked the character so much that he always stepped in to voice him in any other Disney media in which he appeared.
4. Smaug (The Hobbit Trilogy) – One of the many reasons why I like the Hobbit films much more than many others do is because of how it beefed up the main villain of the book. In the novel Smaug is fearsome enough, a mighty dragon who was able to take the Lonely Mountain by himself and spent his days terrorising the local area. In the films they really pulled out all the stops to make him as insurmountably fearsome as possible – his frakhuge size and power turns him into a force of natural destruction, something more akin to a tsunami or a volcanic eruption than yet another creature of Middle-Earth. Beyond his weak spot plot device he is virtually indestructible, his scales able to withstand the heat of molten gold. He is without a doubt the most powerful individual to exist short of the Maiar and above, making the Trolls, Ents and even the Balrog look like Goblins in comparison, and also has some brains to accompany that power, for he could foresee how the Arkenstone would corrupt Thorin as it had corrupted his grandfather. Not only that, but the expanded storyline of the Hobbit films illustrates how, if Smaug’s arrogance was suitably piqued, he could potentially have chosen to ally with Sauron, which would have made a truly unstoppable combination and turns the story into much more than just having Smaug removed simply to get Erebor back.
5. EDIT: Kahmunrah (Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian) - The Night at the Museum series of films has become a bit of a classic among my generation (regardless of the critics' views on it... arselings), and I was scandalised to find that I hadn't included its one serious villain in my Villains list, which I have now amended. Played superbly in the second film by Hank Azaria (who also voices two vastly different CGI characters in the same film), Kahmunrah is the older brother of Akmenrah, the benign Pharaoh of Egypt seen principally in the first and third films, who could very much be likened to Warhammer's own Nagash - denied the throne, which is given to the younger brother instead, yet, being the elder son, he is full of belief that the throne is rightfully his and has the younger brother murdered to claim the position for himself. The main difference from Nagash, though (apart from not learning dark magic from captive Dark Elves and using it to become the greatest Necromancer the world has ever seen) is that Kahmunrah can effortlessly flip between being comically funny (whether he is verbally roasting Darth Vader, trying on Muhammad Ali's boxing robe or getting wound up by the protagonist Larry Daley's wisecracking) and being deadly serious in the same scene. Indeed for me Kahmunrah pretty much steals the show in that film for me, and he without a doubt deserves a place in my Top 5, let alone my Top 10. Plus, who else wonders what he'd be like as a Tomb King?
6. Claude Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) – I never saw The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a child, though it was one of the Disney films I was more curious about. Having only watched it in more recent years I certainly see it as one that’s better appreciated by those old enough to understand its maturity, and that’s mainly down to this lad. The Disney version does generally try to be less dark than Victor Hugo’s original novel, with Captain Phoebus being changed from a serial womaniser to a brave knight and references to rape and other darker aspects of life quite rightly removed, but its portrayal of Frollo somehow was the one aspect that turned this on its head. Frollo’s incarnation in the novel is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral, who takes in Quasimodo, abandoned as a baby on the Cathedral’s foundlings bed, out of genuine charity and does his best to raise him as his son, and only turns to evil when he experiences love (and lust) toward a woman for the first time and fails to resolve his conflicted feelings in the right way. Judge Frollo in the Disney film, on the other hand, is evil right from the beginning, being ultimately responsible for Quasimodo becoming an orphan and originally planning to drown him in a well, only changing his mind and taking him in because of the Archdeacon threatening him with divine retribution if he did not do so. During Quasimodo’s upbringing , Frollo treats him not as a son but as a servant, right down to giving him a crude wooden cup and plate to use with his meals while using master-crafted silver equivalents himself. Not only that, but he is also defined by the same conflict between lust and abstinence as in the novel, especially in his deliciously dark song ‘Hellfire’. He is utterly pitiless, ruthless and cruel… and that’s why he is often hailed as the darkest Disney villain ever – where the other nastiest Disney villains are generally supernatural or unnatural beings (like the Horned King and Chernabog), Frollo is a human, quite an ordinary human at that, yet his soul is equally as monstrous. This was the role that really made Tony Jay’s name as a voice actor, and was confirmed by the great man himself to be his favourite.
7. Saruman the White (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) – I just had to include a Christopher Lee villain in this list, and at the time of writing, his most significant role that I’ve seen is that of Saruman – not only as a villain in The Lord of the Rings, but also as a hero in the Hobbit films (another reason why I like the latter so much, though because he was a hero in those films his performance there is not incorporated into this list). Though Sauron is the ultimate big bad of the six Middle Earth films, Saruman is the one main active villain of the original trilogy, the personification of evil that needs to be defeated (as opposed to the Dark Lord whose essence is trapped in the Tower of Barad-Dur and can only manage to manifest a single great eye), taking over the role that was held by Azog in The Hobbit as Sauron’s chief pawn and representative in the physical world. Christopher Lee plays this role admirably, his cold, grim voice and persona acting as the perfect foil to Ian McKellen’s warm and wise Gandalf, in particular during the Wizards’ Duel in The Fellowship of the Ring, and his fall from grace from being the premier Wizard of the Istari and defender of Men to little more than a shade, resulting from his arrogance in the idea that he could take down Sauron by himself and his greed for Sauron’s power, almost acts as a twisted reflection of Yoda’s development arc in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, as Yoda similarly believed he could defeat the ascendant Darth Sidious prior to their duel (though where Saruman chooses to join his enemy after realising he couldn’t defeat him, Yoda ‘takes the L’ and exiles himself). Though I must admit that it was a shame that Saruman’s final act in the novels, his cruel and cowardly attack on the Shire in one last attempted act of vengeance and the last challenge Frodo has to overcome, was removed from the films and reduced to a portent of a potential future in Galadriel’s Mirror. It would have been good to see what Mr. Lee’s performance would have been like as the hooded and raggedy ‘Sharkey’.
8. Gul Dukat (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) – One could debate as to whether Dukat could be considered a villain in Star Trek, for certainly his appearances in the earlier series belied a much more neutral character that sometimes helped and sometimes hindered the Federation, but the writers of DS9 were so eager for everyone to view him as the main villain of the series that they made him progressively more ruthless as it went on, until he ultimately allies with aliens that are considered to be the Bajorans’ devils, as a mirror to Sisko being controlled by the Prophets, thus Dukat is I feel a worthy character to add to my list. Certainly of all the villains of Trek to me he has the most personality down to Marc Alaimo’s great acting (there’s also Q, but he essentially is the reverse of Dukat, he starts off as being malevolent at the beginning of TNG, but as the series goes on and through DS9 and Voyager, he becomes more of a nuisance than anything else, and even when he is at his least pleasant, he is still more of a trickster than an outright villain), plus he also has a big element of tragedy in his story arc, specifically after the death of Ziyal takes away the last of his sanity. Dukat is a particularly complex villain, because while there are certain things he does that are undeniably of an evil nature (killing Jadzia, overseeing the Bajoran occupation, joining forces with the Dominion for a while, creating the Pah-Wraith Cult), a lot of those things were forced on him or were done not entirely out of his free will (it was the Pah-Wraith controlling him that murdered Jadzia, he was put in charge of the Bajoran occupation because he was ordered to by Cardassian Central Command, he was maddened with grief by the time he got involved with the Pah-Wraith Cult and that seriously affected his judgement). Additionally, parts of his decline could be said to have been caused by some of the heroes of the series – Sisko takes an intense dislike to him from their very first meeting and in some places actually makes his problems worse, and Kira goes into full bitch mode whenever any Cardassian (but in particular Dukat) steps within a 10-mile radius of her because she always needs a Cardassian to blame for her living her life as a terrorist. Dukat also does some outright good stuff in during the series, such as cutting as much slack on the Bajoran workers during his time on Terok Nor as he could and fully adopting Ziyal into his care. All of this results in Dukat being a particularly (ironically) human character whose decline into evil is caused by loads of different factors all working simultaneously, which is very often how real people turn onto a dark path, and it’s so rare to see character development so deep, not just in Trek but in any TV series or even any film.
9. The Horned King (The Black Cauldron) – The Black Cauldron, one of the most divisive Disney productions prior to the current era. Some despise it as the creation that almost drove Disney to its destruction. Others see it merely as the catalyst for the House of Mouse to change its style to that which would become the lauded (but overrated in my personal opinion) Renaissance Era. Yet more respect it as a cult classic that was ahead of its time, mainly down to its villain taking Disney to new levels of grimdarkness that it has never touched again. The Horned King is one of the more significant inspirations for the now-popular Lich character archetype, a malevolent, cunning and intelligent undead being skilled in sorcery and more than capable of bringing the world to its knees with the help of his monstrous army of the Cauldron-Born, undead soldiers with the appearance of skeletons and the infectious lethality of zombies. Unlike pretty much any other Disney Villain, he sings no song, and has no funny lines beyond the occasional wry put-down or throttling of his chief minion/punchbag, Creeper. This, coupled with his realistically horrifying appearance, John Hurt’s perfectly sinister voice acting and the equally terrifying nature of the Cauldron-Born, made sure that his film scared the kiddies in the test audiences shitless, and was the reason why it was beaten at the box office by such classics as The Care Bears Movie. Yet in recent times it is the character’s darkness that has earned him cult icon status, and had The Black Cauldron been released a couple of decades later, when the bar of darkness in animated films had been gradually raised by the likes of The Prince of Egypt and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, it is certainly possible that it, and in particular the villain that gives it much of its edginess, could have been much more of a success.
10. General Grievous (Star Wars Episode III) – Grievous is not the most powerful of the Star Wars villains or the most prolific one, but he is honestly one of the most unique and visually-captivating characters of the franchise - a skeletal cyborg that can turn his two arms into four and skitter along on all fours like an insect, and wield lightsabers like a pro, is awesome, no bones about it. He’s the inspiration for my custom Necron Phaeron, Mithihotep the Indomitable. Matthew Wood did a good job of making his voice suitably sinister, though I still wonder what he would have sounded like had they gone with their original casting choice of Gary Oldman. It’s just a shame that they didn’t make some firmer decisions on Grievous’ background and nature, particularly regarding his Force sensitivity – notice how I didn’t include Grievous’ Tartatovsky incarnation? Though that version without a doubt appears the most capable and threatening, he is greatly boosted by cartoon lack-of-physics and the creators at the time not bothering to delineate whether he was Force-sensitive or not, so his outright power in that series needs to be taken with a pile of salt. By the time of Revenge of the Sith, however, it seems they had decided to make him non-Force-Sensitive, as his Episode III appearance fits well with the capabilities and vulnerabilities of a non-Force-Sensitive individual that has learned the art of lightsaber combat but still has no capability of fighting Force-users on the Midichlorian-level. I think they really made a big mistake in not having Grievous fight Clone Troopers often enough, as with his four lightsabers capable of deflecting anything thrown at him short of a tank-level shot, he would be the absolute scourge of Clones. He could have been portrayed as the bogeyman of Clone Trooper regiments, with veterans recounting tales of Grievous’ brutality and invulnerability to terrified ‘Shinies’. And dare I mention Dave Filoni and his incessant desire to reduce Grievous to the level of Saturday-morning cartoon baddie so he could spend more time fanboying over his beloved Ahsoka? I mean the CGI Clone Wars series certainly has some good story arcs and plots, but generally they do not have either Ahsoka or weak Grievous in them. Notice a pattern Dave? Alas, though Grievous’ outright coolness gives him a place on this list, the fact that his potential was largely wasted means his place on my list has to sadly be a low one.

Honourable Mentions: Azog the Defiler (The Hobbit trilogy), Hector Barbossa (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl), Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End), Count Dooku (Star Wars Episodes II-III), Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter), Professor Ratigan (Basil the Great Mouse Detective), Tai Lung (Kung Fu Panda), Matthew Hopkins (Witchfinder General), Biff Tannen (Back to the Future), The Verminator (Over the Hedge), First T-800 (The Terminator), T-1000 (Terminator 2: Judgement Day), T-X (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), Darth Maul (Star Wars Episode I), Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin (Star Wars Episode IV and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Director Orson Krennic (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Star Wars Episodes I-VI and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Skade (The Last Kingdom), Morgana (Merlin), Mordred (Merlin), Sgt. Obadiah Hakeswill (Sharpe), Tywin Lannister (Game of Thrones), Mirror Kira Nerys (Star Trek DS9), Mirror Elim Garak (Star Trek DS9), General Kai (Kung Fu Panda 3), Quintus Batiatus (Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Gods of the Arena), Imhotep (The Mummy and The Mummy Returns)

Why don't you include the rest as honourable mentions as I've done with mine?


Anyway, onto my heroes list!

 

Yes, I can see that. Like I hinted at, I'm often a bit of a sucker for the main hero. I really like Aang's storyline and progression as Avatar. But Iroh is one of my favorite characters in the show and his scenes with Zuko have some of the best character development.

 

Some really good picks! Sauruman especially. Christopher Lee gives a great performance as Sauruman and I'm embarrassed I didn't include him.

 

More good hero selections.

 

As a bit of a playful retort... no love for Luke? I know you're at least as big a fan of OT Star Wars as me, but Luke doesn't even make your honorable list?