Complete beast. When I saw it in theaters, I legit thought there was no way he could be stopped. Hell, even when he got captured at the end, he still won by forcing Batman to take the blame for Harvey's murders

I don't even like the joker as a character but that heath ledger joker was undeniably cool and engaging. Anyone could find themselves suffering at his whim.

​@@WriterBrandonMcNultywell said

@@WriterBrandonMcNulty That's just a small part of why the Joker is my favorite villain. The whole "agent-of-chaos, just-a-dog-chasing-cars" thing was (mostly) a head-fake. The character DEFINITELY has motivating desires & plans. As an example I give you what IMHO is one of the best character-studies of him: Harley Quinn's origin story, "MAD LOVE". Recommend reading the comic AND watching the animated Batman Adventure. You leave with a new understanding of just how evil the character is.

I think there are a lot of better villains, like Darth Vader. A good villain should not be vindictive or needlessly torture or mutilate. That puts the terminator ahead too in my opinion.

Absolutely.

Doom Patrol has an interesting take on this where two villains are initially both hateable and vicious [SPOILERS:], but over time one softens toward the mission as decades pass by without being called upon to destroy the heroes. Unfortunately, his underling is a worker instead of a boss, and he identifies greatly with the mission and insists on carrying it out. We are a little shocked to confirm that the boss had genuinely softened and really cared about the heroes escaping from his insane officer.

And his reasoning is so basic and understandable. That we're all human and curruptable.

@@Why_Knott_Me I agree. The Joker tends to see us as we really are, not an idealized version of what we should be.

Yeah, and the way he remains unmatched at the end of the show, voluntarily giving himself in

He also only kills rude people, which helps

Anthony Hopkin's is the best Hannibal, yes. While Hannibal Rising sucked, its late actor did the character justice. Even acting like Anthony at one point. Mads is the best modern Hannibal.

@@arcanecrimenot true. The two cops he killed when he was in the makeshift cell in SotL were very pleasant to him, treated him respectfully, and even moved his drawings when he asked them to, yet he killed them extremely brutally.

​@@joelmbaumgartnerall cops are bastards

Absolutly. -I only started to watcht the "Thor-Movies" because of Loki. I don't care much for Thor (or chris Hamsworth) but Loki is cool and interesting.

​@@sawanna508i understand the Interesting part, but about cool - was that cool when he invaded Earth? If you lived in the Avengers world, would you like to be one of victims of his invasion?

@@volodymyrostrovskyi533being cool and being good aren’t the same thing. You saw that portal right? You saw those aliens right? THAT WAS COOL!

Loki is one of Marvel's best shows and my personal favorite.

Right. And I felt totally guilty for liking him as he is a murderer.

Yep, love those two as well. And Goblin's return in No Way Home was top-notch

The most competent monarch in Westeros by far. Even his motives were understandable, a man in his position doesn't get to relinquish power without someone coming for his and most of his family's heads.

The Red Wedding cut so deep. I loathed Tywin for that, and for how he treated his sons. But the Boltons were something else.

The man is in charge of one of the most prominent houses in the realm, you heard his name a few times, and yet his opening scene he is seen skinning an animal himself while barely looking at Jaime as he talks to him. For all his despicable traits, I like a villain who has some actual aura, authority and skills in what they do, many times you understand just why the man was given responsibilities beyond his own house. Maybe that's because of how both positive and negative traits are different from me :P

Which is why it's so fucking satisfying when Tyrion, his Achilles heel, kills him after catching him in hypocrisy. George RR Martin should have stopped writing books after the end of that book as he was never going to top that moment and it's been a straight plunge downhill ever since.

@@glentz716 I somewhat agree as A Storm of Swords is by far my favourite, and A Feast for Crows by far my least favourite, however I’m hoping IF we ever get Winds it’ll answer so many questions! It’s still leagues above the show aha

Yep, and "hoping they lose" is why you need to pair them with a well-written hero

The Joker and Anton Chigurh are good examples of villains I love who ultimately 'win'. If we're talking likeable villains though, Anton's the least likeable out of anyone in this video. He's definitely enjoyable to watch though, in a morbid kind of way.

At the same time there is a potential pitfall here as in Infinity War where some of the time spent hyping up Thanos as impossibly sexy-evil could have been spent instead on demonstrating the real life historical chaos of Malthusianism, and so now he's thought of as a guy who might almost be right, rather than a guy whose ideas simply have a malodorous and sickening lure in brutal times.

​@@rifkamiriam7721 Something makes me think that most people (potentially including some of the writers involved in that particular movie) _are_ Malthusians themselves on some level. It's kind of like the situation in Watchmen where you can't tell for sure if Alan Moore himself thinks of Ozzy as the villain in the story (and he seems to express more personal disaffection with Rorschach compared to Ozzy). Writers often leave open questions in situations where you can't really tell if they themselves are agreeing with some of the ideas espoused by a less than savory character they wrote. I don't really wanna assert that stuff with any kind of certainty, since assuming things like this would be a kind of baseless character assassination of the writers that could also needlessly restrict their creative freedom. In the case of the Malthusianism thing, though, many normal people seem to intuitively accept a lot of its premises and conclusions without knowing about it explicitly. So it wouldn't be a stretch for some of the writers of Infinity War to fall into that bucket. In fact, I haven't even seen many people aside from some academics like Julian Simon actually make good counterpoints against these ideas, instead of (in most cases rightly) dismissing them. Hell... Some of the big names from 20th century 'Green' movements (including a certain deranged painter from Vienna) had some seriously messed up ideas about 'overpopulation' and how to 'deal' with it. Even before that, the Malthus-inspired attitudes of other big figures from history created self-fulfilling prophecies.

Yeah it's a huge problem @@DefinitelyNotAMachineCultist

Underrated Cruise role for sure.

Underrated movie for sure. With the way KZfaq is reviving lesser appreciated movies by turning attention towards them, I’m surprised that Collateral hasn’t received this attention

@@squeekydog8468 yeah, really disappointing... the movie is one of the best I've ever seen, it deserves more attention

He's like the lovechild of Hans Gruber and the T-800.

@@Pleurotus haha omg yes

That wolf had great style too! And his threat level was physical AND psychological at the same time. A great animated villain.

@@modestfirerpu indeed, since he is literal death and ultimately cannot be defeated, only delayed.

The movie is good to study of villains. All of them are of them are examples of different types of them.

Yes I love Magneto too!

@@noodlegod2797 Agreed. Magneto is so good because his motivations are SO relatable. He's been through horrors brought about by the hatred of humanity aimed at his people, and he sees it happening again and is willing to go to any means to stop it. It's hard not to agree with his goals, even if one disagrees with his methods

You mean Tywin?

Magneto is my all time fav. To the point where I actually consider him a hero because I’ve been reading him for so long!

YES. For all of TWD's flaws, Negan was goddamn perfect. Absolutely phenomenal character.

What movie is that? The one from 2017 and 2019?

@@BadassRandomness Vinland Saga. First season aired in 2019 and the second just ended.

@@xanthippus9079 Oh ok, I haven't seen that. I'm Norwegian so I know Askeladden from all the old fairy tales haha

i loved him. He was a horrible person but my fav character besides Thorfin that first season. They made him likeable while also reminding us he’s not a good person but has a set of ideals that aren’t bad. idk how else to describe he’s a 10/10 character

100% agree. One of my favorite villains of all time

I loved Khan, he was such a perfect foil to Kirk. He was smarter, stronger, more charismatic. But Kirk, unlike Khan, realized he fucked up by not listening to Savik. From that point on it wasn't Khan vs Kirk, it was Khan vs the Enterprise. And Khan's intelligence was no match for the skill and experience of the Enterprise bridge crew working as a team.

"He took the planet with it's defenses intact? That's impossible!" "Grand Admirals have a reputation for accomplishing the impossible" Two Rebels discussing Thrawn's capture of a new republic world.

Thank you so much.

I was genuinely rooting for him after the halfway point(like episode 5 or 6)

Fantastic example, Despite never acting like a victim, Silcos actions are clearly the result of how Piltover has treated his people. Also how he essentially comforts Jinx as he is dying after she kills him absolutely breaks my heart. He truly loves her as a daughter.

Great example of a likeable villain. Especially his scenes with Arya when he becomes a bit more sensitive compared to the scenes with his actual children where he is as ruthless as can be.

Great point. Personal moral codes are always a plus.

I agree with you. Sticking to their own moral code and following it consequentally is the very perfection.

Gustavo Fring is the choice for me

Perhaps this is cheating a bit on my part because they are also the main character/"hero" of the film, but Lou Bloom from Nightcrawler.

Freddy Krueger! When he stopped being scary he became hilarious

Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2.

Gustavo Fring ofc

Possibly because the characters are displayed and explored in a very different way in the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy. I'd say in the original trilogy, he is a hateable pure evil villain to contrast Vader, who is the likeable villain with the interesting dynamic with the hero and the smart badass lines. Palpatine is just that menacing tyrant in the background who is responsible for everything, until the throne room scene, in which he mostly gloats about the good guys suffering and dying and tortures Luke with force lightning. In the prequel trilogy we see a more nuanced version of him, showing him as a ruthless but genius politician who masterfully plays and manipulates both sides of the conflict.

Exactly! I love all of the character building in the Clone Wars they did with him as well. Showing instances where he was manipulating behind the scenes and even beating down Maul, which is one of the principlesfrom the video: harass unlikable characters

He carried that show, absolutely awesome perfomance. John Glover too.

I'll add it to my list. Thanks!

Absolutely. Only reason I left him out is because I've talked about him in a bunch of other videos

Negan was outstanding. He was so charasmatic and smart but he did something He had to die for. But even I want to blame the writers for letting Him live, I have to admit, He is the only real interesting person left

I considered covering Negan in this video, but I primarily read the comics, so it would've been hard for me to find the right footage from the TV show. But, yes, Negan is amazing.

Haven't watched Lost in Space, but I'll take your word for it

Great choice! He is not a strong person, but out of his weakness and selfishness he does present as a villain. Never thought of it like that. Thanks.

"Hi mom!" 🤣🤣

Better to burn out, than fade away

“HAPPY HALLOWEEN, LADIES!” Good freakin’ choice, man.

How is the joker one dimensional? I feel like he is the character in TDK who defies the black/white logic and shows it's about the grey tones

Thrilled to hear you're enjoying these videos!

Thrilled to hear it! Best of luck with your story

W comment

That was a weird frikkin movie dude. What was the whole thing about them dancing together and her being infatuated with him? Or vice versa

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed this one

Thank you!

It's brilliant because it doesn't matter which one Batman wanted to save.

I understood 100% when every girl in the world got a crush him

@@johnbearjunkyard 🤭

Loki is likeable because of Tom Hiddleston. And sadly it seems that Tom hiddleston is typecast as specifically and only Loki coz he’s since disappeared

The way the show had set him up was fantastic with how they set him up to be a plot twist villain! He even got past Sherlock because he knew how to work around him without getting suspected! One of the foreshadowing clues to Jim's reveal is he used "Jim" is makes sense b/c Jim is a nickname for James, hence James Moriarty.

No problem! Thanks for watching

I've heard many great things about FF14's story, but the time-commitment and monthly fees always scare me away. It's a shame because I love FF and haven't played a great one in about 20 years.

I reconciled the monthly cost for myself by canceling Netflix- same price. And I get so much enjoyment out of FFXIV when I do play, that even sometimes when I don't touch it for 3 weeks, I hardly mind. Cus then I can have an entire day off where I just sit in my Pj's to play and make up for it. Ahem- shilling for the awesome game aside, I was scrolling the comments specifically wondering if anyone would mention Emet! I genuinely think he's my favorite villain of all time. He's put up against impossible circumstances, and I find that.. if you were in his shoes you might do the same thing. However, he's still irredeemable because he wants to kill entire worlds of people in the process and will not budge on his conviction. So you have to oppose him. He has a moral code and sticks to it. He's charismatic, and maybe in a different life you could have been friends. So he's a villain that the player can just fully appreciate.

Best of luck!

Londo is such a complex character it feels like pidgeonholing him to call him a villain, even though at the end he would admit he deserves that title.

Londo had a great character arc. He was self-serving, and used underhanded means to achieve his goals, but I wouldn't call him a villain. He was what Christopher Lee would have called a "malignant hero." Londo made a lot of bad, selfish choices, but he did have a conscience, and he earned redemption in the end. But Daniel Plainview? No way. That guy embraced the sin of Greed. I like to think of him as an American Scrooge -- but while Scrooge regained his humanity, Daniel didn't. The Three Ghosts of Christmas came to visit Daniel one night, but he just told them to go fuck off. Imagine the chains hanging from him, after he becomes a ghost himself!

My favorite character from Breaking Bad.

I'll add this to my list. Just to clarify... Do you mean something like 1984 or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where the hero feels trapped within a hostile society?

Hard to get the audience to connect with the society as a villaim, but there are plenty of stories focusing on how their world is cruel and messed up. Either they play it up to moral ambiguity where, if the shoe was on the other foot, they would've done the same things for the ones they loved/ the bad guys weren't as bad as they thought, just people trying to protect something. Examples of that side can be seen in the manga for Attack on Titan or Tokyo Ghoul, though there are some war movied with similar themes as both sides are filled with men just trying to protect their country, while being pushed to kill others by politicians unwilling to do the work thenselves. On the other hand, shows like One Piece and Psycho Pass do a good job setting up through an episodic structure. The protagonists do their part to help people but by bit, but it's clear there's a larger underlying issue that needs to be taken care of, and there's someone behind that issue that wants to keep the power dynamic as it is. In the end, it works well to have smaller antagonists work to oppress the protagonist as representatives of the structure of the messed up world. These antagonists can work well as a duo: First, the staunch loyalist that believes in the rightness of their cause, but slowly sees the issues with the current state of affairs. This makes the character more compelling as you want to see them put the pieces together and come to understand the protagonist. The second of the duo is typically a mentor that has already been through the troubles of the system and i) has learned from it and become wiser, and tries to steer the loyalist in the right direction. Or ii) has become too damaged by the systems injustice and simply wants to retaliate - a cautionary tale. These 2 follow after the protagonist and, as they encounter the good the protagonist does, it challenges their own worldview (specifically the loyalist.) Again, this helps to make the antagonist more compelling (practically making them the dueteragonist) and allows the reader a different perspective on the world and why it functions the way it does/ a different side to the people working against the protagonist as people, not just obstacles. Again, some great examples of this structure, or a variant of it, can be found in: One Piece with Luffy and Smoker in the Grand Line beginning; Psycho Pass with Inspector Ginoza and Enforcer Masaoka (as well as Kogami and Akane to an extent); Attack on Titan (season 4 specifically delves into this structure of fleshing out the opposing force and showing how the world is messed up); Tokyo Ghoul with a great Dueteragonist in Amon Koutarou in pt 1, and Kuki Urie in TG:re. Hell, even Avatar the Last Airbender does this with Zuko and his Uncle Iroh acting as the duo. Hopefully some of those examples are helpful to ya!

Psycho-Pass?

Glad you liked it!

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it

Hannibal Lecter does this a lot I feel :)

Glad you enjoyed it!

Awesome, best of luck with making them as charismatic as possible!

Yep, he was the star of Infinity War

I agree with agent smith. The guy from avatar is way too dull and generic for me. Also for me not a likable villain.

Good call on "no apparent weakness." This adds to the tension and makes the hero's eventual victory all the more impressive

My most hated villains are usually those that the hero could beat up in an instant if left alone in a room with them, but they always have some sort of leverage on the hero preventing them from doing so (a piece of information, blackmail, a kidnapped loved one, etc.). Makes sense that to make a likeable villain you would go for the opposite angle.

Thanks!

@Kandaalmaw oh I totally agree. It's just, in the context of good story telling, I like how the writers showed him keep pushing further and further until it became hard to justify (like when he killed that blonde who I can't remember the name of). I think the BIGGEST issue in the story was Jamie Fox's character. He was supposed to have a positive arc, but it never really felt that way. I didn't care for him in the end just as in the beginning, which is why I think so many people hated the ending, because they still (rightly) hated Fox and thus rooted for Clyde.

Ya they blew the ending. Can't follow through with calling out the justice system as being corrupt and needing a pruning... No no no