Who's your all-time favorite fictional villain, oh ye dorky GTIers? And why?

I had a really long discussion with a friend today on the vagaries and pitfalls of writing villains. It's easy to create a cliche villain; it's also fairly easy to create a compelling sympathetic villain. What seems to be difficult is making up a villain who is interesting and yet NOT sympathetic, and towards whom the audience can feel real animosity that will make them personally invest in the battles with the hero, and in anticipating his downfall.

So I thought I'd ask for what type of fictional villains you enjoy, and why you enjoy them.

And whhyyyyyyyy?

john doe from seven. because he was industrious, one step ahead, and super creepy. and young lecter was awesome. i think hannibal rising should have been batman's back story. or batman should have lecter at home in a cage as a crime fighting resource. something. batmanibal lecter.

Hmmm, now, but did you think these villains were "awesome" or did you hate them and were sitting there impatiently hoping that they'd get their due? I am curious if anyone has villains like that, too.

@emm Oh wow, I totally forgot about that Hannibal Rising movie...I didn't even see it!

Sal, I think a REALLY hard villain to create would a funny one, a ham, like The Monarch in The Venture Bro's.

Yeah, the movie was actually BETTER than the book, in my opinion... the book Hannibal Rising just felt like Thomas Harris trying to like, make hamburger meat out of his favorite cash cow :'(

One really good villain was The Bartender/The King of Ward Three in Blindness. He was fascinating in his childish evil; i was definately biting my nails to see if he'd get his in the end.

captain vidal from "pan's labyrinth. couldn't wait to see him punished.

Cruella DeVille. Most Disney villains, to be honest. They come up with people you want to lose.

@Previous Toast Hmmm, true... but they're usually a little one-dimensional. A lot of them tend to fall intothe "they're villains because they're evil and they're evil because they're villains" category. :-)

@catcrap Oh, good one!

The rest of ya: you make me realize how many classic villain movies I've never seen.

i second John Doe.

SEVEN is a masterpiece, as far as i'm concerned. and the final scenes with Spacey as John Doe are intense, dynamically scripted and wonderfully acted.

Captain Hook and Prince Humperdink. I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing of these villains getting their comeuppance.

The Joker is #1 on my villains list. Dark and twisted, brutal and clever, and with a nihilism so developed and honed that he becomes funny for it--where you can't help but like him and loathe him all at once. Delicious.

Hans Gruber is definitely an awesome villain, as well. Smooth, refined, businesslike, and surgical--but human enough to finally lose his shit completely by the time Jon McClane wrecks his shit up. He seems very human, and I think it makes him that much more menacing.

Holden Caufield single-handedly ruined several generations of kids by generating the thought that perpetual apathy, laziness, and projection are positive traits. The wolf in sheep's clothing of American fiction, constantly misunderstood by people reading Catcher in the Rye, totally wrecked the work ethic and positive self-image of American youth for decades, and this derangement and villainy still ripples through youth culture to this day.

Fuck you, Holden Caufield, and I'm ever-so-sorry, Mr. Salinger, for the monster you've created. I'd go into hiding, too.

I'll say the Crimson King, from The Dark Tower, but only before we actually meet him.

The others have been covered pretty extensively in the thread.

i would just like to pop my head in again and say,

"ILU Hans Gruber, 4ever."

aw crap, i forgot about the tall man. "booooooooooyyy!"

and H55 is right. the crimson king is a great villain, until we meet him.

@0thoughtcrimespree0 You might have actually liked it, I think