Ever preferred the villain over the hero?

[Spirit]

Have you ever read, watched or played a piece of media where you've preferred the villain to the hero?

This could be because of the (voice) actor, the character design or motivations or anything else about said villain.

If you have preferred the villain which villains were they and why?

 

[Fraxinus]

I... usually tend to favor villains over heroes. I'm not sure if it's just that I happen to pick badly-written media, but I find a lot of villainous characters to be more flawed and complex, whereas the cliche hero type tends to be perfect all around the board, to emphasize their perfect morals. Or the hero just sucks so I'm rooting for anyone give them a little hardship. Hero characters that I do tend to favor are more the anti-hero type, or at least they're more in the grey area for their morality because their development is a bit more interesting in that regard. Inversely, I find villains with good intentions to be especially interesting.

As for specifics, it'd be a long and embarrassing list, and I doubt I could recall them all. umu

 

[TheGreatCthulhu]

It depends on the character really and how well they're written. There's heroes that are complex, and villains that are cheesy.

It really depends on the story for me.

I dunno if I'd agree with Satan on heroic characters being flat and undynamic. Anti-heroes can be also be written to be very boring. It really depends on how good the writing is.

As far as my favorite villains or antagonists, I like:

• The Witch King of Angmar.
• Professor Moriarty.
• Randall Flagg/Man in Black.
• Ishmael from Wheel of Time.
• Griffith from Berserk.
• Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from Dune.
• And even though he's not a villain at all, Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld is a great character.

 

[Dio]

I have always favoured villains. Particularly in cases where the heroes have special powers I always found it odd they don't often abuse those powers at least a bit. I just don't like those that are too goody goody that is why I hate characters like Captain America. I much prefer more grey protagonists or outright villains.

My favourite villains are:

Ganondorf (The Legend of Zelda)- I like everything about this villain. He has a great and distinctive look about him which lets you and everyone else in the game know that he is a villainous man. He's powerful, he's big, he's intimidating, has a great evil laugh and an air of extreme confidence about him. He has brains as well as braun, manipulating events behind the scenes to get what he wants. There is never the thought he could lose in his mind and it's this which is the only thing that causes him to be taken down. I also like that this guy is unkillable and that defeating him only delays his inevitable return.

Gaunter O'Dimm (The Witcher) - This guy doesn't have a cool villain outfit, in fact he dresses like a vagrant and doesn't look and talk like your typical villain. He is friendly and charming, appearing first as a merchant and later helping save your life. In reality he is the most powerful villain in the Witcher series, moreso than the main antagonist. He is in fact the ultimate evil similar to the devil. He grants wishes in exchange for the souls of his victims. I like him as a villain because of how scary he is. He seems nice yet delights in torturing people and killed someone by putting a spoon through their eye for interrupting him. He can freeze time and kill anyone he wants and can't be defeated physically, only through losing his own bets can he be made to dissapear, though this is not permanent.

The Homelander (The Boys) - He is the antidote to the goodie goodie superman and captain america. This is how someone with laser eyes, super strength and flight would probably end up like. Outwardly portraying an image of a noble hero and beloved by all. Behind the scenes he is arrogant and believes he can do anything he wants. Lasering down the airplane of his political enemies and creating supervillains in order to force the military to accept him being the only one to be able to take them down. I like the heroic look of this character, the blond hair the tight muscle suit and the Cape because they contrast so much with what the man is really like.

Darth Sidious (Star Wars) - He is just a cackling old emperor with electricity powers in the original trilogy. The laugh and voice are iconic but still there isn't that much to him until the prequels. There you see Ian McDiarmid really shine in portraying the slick and kindly politician who is behind the scenes orchestratimg a whole war over the three films in order to achieve ultimate power whilst manipulating the main protagonist Anakin, into becoming Darth Vader.

Other mentions:
Gruntilda (Banjo Kazooie)
The Joker (The Dark Knight)
The Prophet of Regret (Halo)
Albert Wesker (Resident Evil)
Saruman (The Lord of The Rings)
Ardyn Izunia (FF15)

 

[Dizzi]

sometimes the hero is really bland and too goody two shoes like, deus said, that's why I couldn't deal with Captain America, but off the top of my head I cant think of any bad guys I prefer over the good guys!!

 

[Castle]

Without a villain there is no conflict. Without conflict there is no story. Without conflict there is no hero. A hero is only as good as the villain is bad.

The best villains are the ones who - even if you might disagree with their methods - maybe have a point, or at least you can understand where they're coming from.

The best case of a villain outshining the hero in my recent memory is Sam Neil's Inspector Chester Campbell, who in Netflix series Peaky Blinders is sent into Birmingham to deal with the rampant criminal and gang activity in the seedy post industrial town. While it is easy to root for Cillian Murphy's gang of blood thirsty crooks because their only alternative of playing by the rules of society means living in abject squalor, they are hardly good guys even if they legitimately look after and protect the community they lord over. Inspector Campbell, meanwhile, is no saint. He is a hypocritical debaucherer who doesn't hesitate to resort to slimy tactics to meet his ends.

By the end of the season, I was more than ready to see one of my all time favorite actors character get what's coming to him. But his character (and performance) was the strongest thing about the show. I lost interest in Peaky Blinders after that. It was as if Neil's Campbell was tying the show together. The protagonists (because they're certainly not "good guys") lost their force of opposition and the show lost a good source of compelling conflict.

 

[Vanessa28]

I always like the baddies more. They're more interesting and have (when well written) a more interesting background.
Villains I definitely root for are Loki, Palpatine/Sidious, The Witch King of Angmar, Sauron, Azazel (Supernatural)