Comments on: MIND MELD: Who Are Your Favorite Villains In Fantasy And Science Fiction?

By: Dan Brown

Dan Brown — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 05:49:05 +0000

No love for Khan? I’m disappointed.

By: ken

ken — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:46:51 +0000

As a side note: outside of the genre there is only one true villain: Kaiser Soze (the usual suspects). This was alot like the Gunslinger only in cinema as opposed to novel. One look at the beginning of this movie and i could not turn away. The ending was the best ending of any movie I have seen before or since and the villain was as Machiavelli as they come.

By: ken

ken — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:22:45 +0000

After reading the articles I find myself amazed and appalled that the one villain of my childhood did not make the cut. Rastlin the Mage from the Dragonlance series by Margarat Weiss and Tracy Hickman has to be up there with the others. Here is a man who grew up weak and sickly totally dependent upon a twin brother for protection and support. A twin that outshone him in every physical way. His mother died using magic to try and make him better having sold her soul to do so. He used his mind to excel and learned magic. He walked the neutral path until true power was offered to him and then he took it. Why? not because he was evil at heart but because he realized the one undiscoverable truth to reality, only those with power, true power, can change the world and make it better. He watched a tribe of dirty, downtrodden, simpleton dwarves give their lives in a war that was not their own and no one else noticed or cared. He refused to live in that kind of a world. He was the first character I ever read that started out as a mortal and was determined to destroy the gods and replace them in order to fix the world they created. He succeeded. The only thing that was ironic about it was that in his haste to do so he lost sight that evil corrupts and destroys it does not create and by taking that path he was setting himself up for success and failure. Ultimately he sacrificed himself rather than see the world destroyed. In the end he was both the ultimate villain and the ultimate hero. When I think of a true anti-hero/villain it is Rastlin I think about.

By: Nina Phunstapolis

Nina Phunstapolis — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:14:09 +0000

I’m torn. I grew up with Darth Vader in the 1970s-80s and he was superb. My affection for (and horror of) him declined thanks to the recent movies and fiddlings by George Lucas. I too respect Raven in Snow Crash. But recently I read Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, and the true horror of a corporate fiend like Wolram Deaps matches a little closely what’s happening in the world today. He’s immoral, sinister and dangerous – but in reality a weak old man.

By: Nekussa

Nekussa — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:46:18 +0000

I very much enjoyed the story arc of Londo Mollari on “Babylon 5″, who went from good guy to villain and back again, because we got to see every step he took along that path, every bad decision he made, every time he was manipulated by others. Knowing how he got to be the villain, rather than him starting out as the villain in the first place, made the story fascinating.

By: tam

tam — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:20:24 +0000

How about the guy in No Country for Old Men? I’ve only seen the movie.

By: Ryan Viergutz

Ryan Viergutz — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:57:07 +0000

I think my favorite villain in ages is probably Scorpius from Farscape, he goes absolutely as far as he has to go to demolish the Scarran Empire. He’s one of the kinkiest villains I’ve ever seen, too. On top of his leather suit, he has fun getting tortured, plays with peoples’s minds, never plays the predictable move, and has evil sadistic women assistants.

I want to mention Walternate from Fringe and Walter, the Bad Good Guy. Though Walternate wants to destroy an entire universe, Walter did some seriously bizarre things when he experimented on children in the Cortexiphan trials.

Going pretty far back, there’s Kefka from FF6. You have to love a villain who is totally set on pure destruction, and wants to “build a monument to nonexistence!”

I nominate Wolfram and Hart, pretty much anyone, from Angel Investigations. They take the concept of a demon representing evil law firm really bloody far, and the villains just get meaner the higher you see into its functioning. Lilah’s hot, but I particularly like Eve.

I can’t remember which Cylon she was right now, but Lucy Lawless made a really good fanatical messiah complex robot. Sneaky, devilish, and completely devoted to her goals. In a haunting series she probably had the most haunting ending of the lot. I won’t spoil it, but it stayed with me.

By: TW

TW — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:17:41 +0000

My favorite villain in SF…would be a duo. One is a whiny-emo twit, and the other is a manipulative alien.

Obi-wan/Yoda.

By: John DeNardo

John DeNardo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:19:09 +0000

Kids rock.

By: Kevin Maher

Kevin Maher — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:46:11 +0000

Excellent list. I fully agree with what LB Gale was saying about having the right sounding-name for a villain. And some authors are better at this skill than others. I wonder if that reflects their ability to understand bad guys.

I have to chime in, not with my favorite villain, but my 6-year-old son’s latest obsession.

Last week we caught a screening of TIME BANDITS and he became fascinated with David Warner’s characterization of EVIL. (The character’s name is Evil.) For days he’s been lurking around our apartment in a cape (made from a Thomas the Tank Engine fleece blanket, held together with a “chip clip”) and a Batman cowl from two Halloweens ago. He blows up family members, the way Evil destroys people with the wave of his hand. While not wearing the costume, my son lists off previous bad guys he liked — Lex Luthor, Green Goblin, the Grand High Witch (from The Witches) — and he offers “Pfffft!” saying they are nothing compared to Evil.

I hope this is just a phase.

By: Bastard

Bastard — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:48:53 +0000

I have my roots in anime/manga and my favorite villain has to be Griffith from the Berserk series. In a vacuum he’s great, but his relationship with the main character just catapults him above any I’ve read/watched to this point.

And then there’s Johan from Monster, simply a master manipulator of people and events.

By: Ahimsa

Ahimsa — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:30:29 +0000

I’m still of the opinion that Raven from Snow Crash is the greatest villain ever created.

By: The Ragi

The Ragi — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:45:03 +0000

Judge Holden, from Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy.