Memorable Villains

The kind of Villian that sticks out in my mind, are the ones that as much as you want to, you can't force yourself to hate.

yeah ditto. The villains (like smeagol, w/v) that I actually like and feel sorry for. Also the ones that are funny and/or cute. What can I say?

Human monsters. Ex: Hannibal Lector

I like villians that are evil for evil's sake. No real reason. And no real explaination either. A villian who is enigmatic, cruel, and unpredictable--the kind you want to see die slowly and painfully by the end.

The most memorable one I can remember is from the movie The Patriot. The guy who killed Mel Gibson's kid in the movie and then joked about it to him later, then locked all those people in the church and torched it. Now THAT guy really ticked me off.

My favorite villains are fallen heroes who ultimatley find redemption.

catch22 said:

My favorite villains are fallen heroes who ultimatley find redemption.

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Mine too. Like Anakin Skywalker.

I like villians that have a reason to be a villian...and also those who you don'tnow why they are villians....

I like the ones that by the end of the movie you wanna hug

I like stories where you aren't entirely sure who the villain is and who the hero is. Like Achilles and Hector from Homer's Iliad, or Jasmine from the 4th season of Angel.

I like intelligent villains with a good sense of humor. If they are capable of repentance and change, that's a big plus.

I like villains who are completely devoted to their cause. It's why I still use Zio from Phantasy Star IV as my personal photo. He was completly devoted to an evil god, to the point of welcoming even his own destruction because it was Dark Force's will. I'm a sucker for that kind of villain, though by the very nature of the villain they are most often an underling, thought it is possible that they would be devoted to a cause (such as revenge or the strength of their nation or something similar) rather than a to a person.

I like just about any villain that is well developed. (Really, I just like everybody else's ideas and don't know what else to say.) The character needs to be complex, so that you never feel like you completely know the character--like there are things in the character's past that you can't even guess at.

Hannibal Lecter

Jack Torrance in The Shining

My Hyde in Jekyll and Hyde.

Hannibal Lecter

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That one scares me.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that Dracula is the quintessential villain. He is not immoral so much as he is amoral, his power is so strong that he no longer evens sees the existence of right and wrong. He creates thought-out plans which makes him all the more deadly. He is fearsome and powerful, but ultimately weak in certain ways. I'm not referring to his weakness to the sun, garlic, the host, etc. so much as his arrogance and inability to see the present moment (he always assumes that since he's immoral, he'll win in the long run no matter what happens in the short run.) Highly sophisticated, yet strangely menacing from the start. And when he is desperate he is nothing short of monstrous. Yes I think most of what I like in villains can ultimately be traced back to Dracula.

I like villians could have been just like the hero, if not for one very important life event that changed everything. That always make for great face to face confrontation climaxes.

Hm. Sometimes I enjoy villains that are sympathetic, but once I come to sympathize them they don't seem as much like villains anymore.
The best villains are the cunning ones that actually provide a valid threat to the main characters. I can't stand incompetent villains. I like the heroes to be in danger; I want to know the villain is capable of really hurting them.
I prefer having villains that you love to hate, and who don't irritate you when you read about them.
G.R.R. Martin has some good villains. Cersei, Peter, Melisandre(?)

Ones who are complex and have many layers of motivation. I like to analyze them!

i like villains that you can relate to. Ones that you understand what is driving them, why they are doing what they do.