Recently I was ranking a large number of villains in the three categories that I enjoy villains on, and I noticed that in each of the three categories, there was a collection of 7 villains I gave the maximum. So I wanted to make a quick series of three blogs, with each one showing the villains I considered the best in that regard showing what I would value in a villain. These aren't necessarily my favorite villains as it's possible they have a low score in the other two, but it demonstrates the qualities I would consider commendable.
The first of the three metrics I use is how threatening they are. Threatening refers to how large of a presence the character has on the narrative and how much strain they put the other characters under with their actions. A villain who's not threatening is a villain who doesn't cause the heroes to really sacrifice much to fight and who you are relatively confident won't cause that much damage. Not all good villains need to be threatening. Joke villains by definition are not and they can still be funny or endearing or more. Most villains that are for children naturally aren't that threatening with a few exceptions yet there are some excellently written villains in series aimed at children. However, being threatening can make a villain memorable and enjoyable purely from the way they force the Heroes to rise to a new level or show a different side to them.
A villain that is extremely threatening is a seemingly inescapable presence, one who feels unstoppable and who both has goals that are malevolent towards the protagonist and regularly achieves them. They make both the character and the reader worry when they appear. So with that said, here are the seven villains I gave the maximum threatening score to, not in any particular order.
Lord Dominator (Wander over Yonder): While definitely the character on this list that's played for comedy the most, for the entire section of the story Dominator is the primary villain in she is presented as an unstoppable force and danger to the galaxy and treated as vastly more evil and competent, regularly wiping out the galaxy's greatest heroes and villains. What's particularly good about Dominator is how season 1 sets up the status quo of the galaxy and season 2 demonstrates Dominator as someone who destroys the current conventions. The characters of WoY are relatively archetype and Dominator is a force that breaks them making Wander rethink his pacifist beliefs and breaking Hater from his egotistical hatred. Despite being a primarily comedic series, Dominator is regularly treated with menace and gravitas, with her showing up signaling in most episodes the cessation of the humor and the beginning of sheer panic.
Bonesaw (Worm): Bonesaw is a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, a group of psychopathic serial killer supervillains that in the Worm universe are treated as the scariest threat outside the literal cosmic horrors. While both Jack Slash and Bonesaw were the two most threatening villains in the series for me I think Bonesaw is just a head above due to the gruesome-ness of her displays. Bonesaw is a child tinker who was traumatized by the Nine killing her parents and given a warped understanding of morality. Her powers allow her to control the biology of people, with her ghastly torture of them being one of the most frightening scenes in a relatively dark series. Her persona of acting like a cutesy innocent child while it could across as detracting from her threatening-ness is written well enough to enhance it.
Isabeau de Baviere (Puella Magi): Puella Magi has three species usually; Humans, Witches, and Incubators and Isabeau is a combination of the worst parts of all three mixed with a terrifying power making her a terrifying humanoid abomination. She has this constant barely contained insanity around her, and her presence drives people insane or kills them outright. She has a huge presence on the plot that is somehow both subtle yet extremely graphic and overt. The manga does a really good job making her seem freaky and cementing how terrified everyone is of her.
Darth Vader (Star Wars): The classic modern dark knight, Darth Vader combines extreme gravitas with a terrifying amount of power and a machinelike efficiency. He's such a presence that even his famous breathing is considered iconic and disturbing and he has arguably the single biggest influence on the entire Star Wars series. Despite being relatively quiet and subdued his presence is felt not just in every scene he's in but across the entire original trilogy and in the few times he becomes directly involved in a fight he becomes a terrifying unstoppable force killing Luke's mentor, cutting off his arm, and representing the spiritual threat to Luke's morality.
Sailor Galaxia (Sailor Moon): I have an entire blog series going through each SM act with a lot of Stars devoted to talking about Galaxia. Plus she's SPOILERS going to come up in the next two blogs as well so I won't try and explain everything here. However, Galaxia represents a metafictional destruction of Usagi's worldview and ideals starting with killing off the second most important character in the series in the first arc she's in and regularly attacking Usagi in new unexpected ways to break her emotionally and torment her.
Darkseid (DC Comics): Darkseid like any long-running comic character has some notable discrepancies in terms of depiction but for the most part Darkseid is arguably the closest thing the DCU has to a central overarching antagonist. Darkseid is not just a character but a representation of evil itself, especially in Final Crisis and represents a threat on all levels, physically, mentally, spiritually, and narratively. His personal power is both overwhelming and theatrical yet his plans are far-reaching and he acts generally with such composure and clarity that it's hard not to believe he's always in control. Darkseid is the archetype of the "Supervillain", a villain of archetypal power and malevolence, a threat that requires a "Superhero" to fight, a representation of pure calm, composed, focused malice.
Cthulhu (The Cthulhu Mythos): Quite possibly the single most threatening villain on this list held back only by his relative lack of canonical appearances, Cthulhu is the expression of pure cosmic dread, an expression of the vague and inexpressible anxiety at the infinity of Being and our own awareness of our limitations in comprehending it. Cthulhu is a cosmic horror, he is THE cosmic horror, and while nowhere near the most powerful of them, that's almost the point of the terror of Cthulhu, that he is the gateway to understanding the impossible horrors humanity is unable to grasp, the end of human awareness. His presence in the story is infinite with the one about him being the doomed venture to stop him with the humans being seemingly unnoticed by him, dying or going mad purely from his presence. The entire story is focused around him alone and the entire world of the story is his domain.
I think of the 3 Main Villain Categories, I think Threatening is the most distinctly Villainous overall. Any character can be compelling and entertaining regardless of morality, Threatening, or making others scared of you, is almost always villain, and if not, usually morally Gray. Its possible to write a heroic character to be threatening, but normally they just lose it when the audience gets to know them better. Threatening I also think is a very important category as it is the thing that offers Challenge to the protagonists to face. Them being extremely powerful and dangerous is threatening, them being inteligent and competent in their goals is threatening, and Heck them in general being Scary is threatening, making it used Most by the Horror genre in particular.I guess while the other two categories are in service of the audience, Threatening does the most legwork for the story itself. I Really think you had some good picks for this list, As most off these characters especially the ones I know are the characters I would instantly worry for the safety of the main characters if they showed up on scene. As all but pretty end game main characters likely would not be able to bring them down.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. I’m not sure which of the 3 categories would be my favorite type of villain, but I feel like many of the villains I am a big fan of would fall under the category of threatening. There is something interesting about a villain being such a massive, existential threat that all the other characters in a story constantly have to work around the villain’s actions. I also liked you pointing out that it isn’t always a physical threat, but could also be a mental threat, spiritual threat, etc. I’d imagine the biggest struggle here in writing these characters is not to make them too overpowered to make the story uninteresting (though I guess it works in the case of Cthulhu). Of your villain choices, I immediately understand and agree with Darth Vader, Galaxia, Cthulhu, and Darkseid. I am not familiar with Bonesaw and Isabeau, but yeah, they do sound like terrifying villains from how you describe them. I am surprised how relatively hardcore a villain Wander Over Yonder has, but I guess that is to be expected from the creator of the PowerPuff Girls who had a hand in creating characters like HIM.
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