Ultimately that Beast article ate up the entirety of yesterday evening (I even had to miss Stargate: Atlantis, and you can imagine how upset that makes me), so I'm taking the day off from analysing hope or searching for despondent invertebrates or whatever.
Instead I have a task for you, my glorious readers. Big G and I are slapping together a new series of articles for Our Front Room, based on an idea we batted around for a while during the halcyon days of the Creative Writing Society and the Church of Squid.
The specifics, at least for now, are top-secret. What I'd like you guys to do is list some of your favourite fictional villains. It doesn't really matter where they come from, the more eclectic the resulting collection the better, probably. Just bear in mind that if they're too obscure for anyone else to have heard of them, we're probably going to have a hard time writing their dialogue.
Right, over to you.
8 comments:
Ok ones that leap to mind (and I’ve drawn from a fairly wide range here)
Evil the Cat from Earthworm Jim (plus also Henchrat as you know they are a team). He was AWESOME!
SHODAN from System Shock and System Shock 2. – Was a truly great enemy in number 2 with her general malevolence and deviousness taunting you, plus you know the whole twist thing (which they repeated in Bioshock but not as well)
Bane from the Batman comics. His legacy was a bit upset with his rather rubbish depiction in the film version but as a comic villain he was great. The one man to defeat Batman and break his back, he was educated, intelligent and driven. Knightfall is one of my favourite runs so got to give it to Bane for that one.
Edward Hyde – From strange tail of Dr Jeckle and Mr Hyde. Always liked the hero is also the villain angle
Professor Moriarty – Sherlock Holmes.
I note I haven’t done film villains yet so a handful for you that spring to mind:
Freddy Krueger – Robert Englund was great
Whatever Daniel Day Lewis’s character was actually called in Gangs of New York
Roy Batty from Blade Runner
Hannibal Lector – Is Awesome
Oh and we’ll throw in Heath Ledger’s Joker just for kicks
I’m pretty sure I could real off a bunch more film ones if you require…
Consider Evil the Cat well and truly seconded. Also, Bob the Killer Goldfish (and Number Four).
You need some camp, so Skeletor. Or one of his lackeys of your choice, I suppose.
Dr Claw, because a perpetually unseen villain and/or white cat should always be considered. There's not really much to him, but his universe is pretty colourful - he's always had a nice line in mixing old castles and fancy technology - and you could consider him a blank slate for your whims.
Sigh as you will, I'd be shirking my duties if I didn't suggest a Decepticon. There's an obvious trinity to pick from, but I'd rather see Shockwave or especially Soundwave, who never seems to get the limelight he deserves. Evil insanity gets done to death but cold logic with a tinge of humour is far more fun. And if you need evil goons, add Runabout and Runamuck. You know the bit I mean.
Snowball the Hamster. 'Nuff said.
Lastly, for a wildcard I suggest Dr Horrible, because I'd like to see you try something with verse. Because it's Evil.
Villains, eh? As regards 80s cartoons, Skeletor and Shockwave are musts, so I second those motions with big clanging bells on.
Dr Horrible, maybe, but I'd love to see a bit of Bad Horse as well; can't beat 'The Thoroughbred of Sin'...
I always seem to like the slightly more ambiguous 'villains', so I'd be keen to see Gul Dukat, Weyoun, Gaius Baltar and The Operative in there. Topping this list would be Al Swearengen and Cy Tolliver from Deadwood, although I'm aware neither you nor Gooder have probably seen enough of it to replicate. For shame ! (and yes, I will watch The Wire soon...)
The Mayor from Buffy season 3 would also be deeply awesome. Also, Scorpius from Farscape, Keyser Soze, Captain Barbossa, Tywin Lannister and Quinn Dexter.
That enough? :-)
Oh oh oh, and the Zombie Abraham Lincoln from Deadlands. There's got to be a member of the undead in there somewhere, so let's make it a decent one.
Ahhh, Evil Abe; I enjoyed GMing that immensely. In fact, if we're going for RPG villains, we might as well go for (Slightly More) Malevolent Ric as well...
I would find him easy to write for...
As for RPG villains, I'm thinking Cthulhu.
Cheers for the suggestions thus far, peeps. Keep 'em coming!
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Giaus Baltar
Al Swearengen (although Cy Tolliver is nastier)
Bane is cool but Joker is just more evil
Behemoth from the Master and the Margherita
Vigo the Carpathian
The Candyman ( coz it scared me when I was 13)
Louis Mazzini
The husbands of the Stepford wives
Scar from the Lion King
John Doe
Sheriff of Nottingham
Shakespeare's Richard the Third
Iago
Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca
Eclectic enough for you?
I assume that's John Doe from Se7en? Good choice, he was *not* a nice man...
Yeah, Cy Tolliver is nastier (one of things I loved about Deadwood was how they set up Tolliver to appear as the civilised, sophisticated foil to Swearengen's grimy little criminal enterprises, and then undermined our expectations so thoroughly), but Swearengen is such a goddamn wonderful character that I couldn't miss him out, even if he's not a straight down-the-line villain.
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