What Keeps Everyone "Watch"ing...
“'You don’t think I’d explain my plan if there was the slightest chance you could stop me do you? I did it 35 minutes ago'.”
"Purely based on that, Ozymandias from Watchmen."- Reddit
What keeps everyone going down the "Portal"...
"GLADOS" .
"'We both said a lot of things you're going to regret'."- nitol91509
Breaking Bad GIF by MauditThe Nurse No One Wants On Call...
"Nurse Ratched, just because of how implicitly she tortured the inmates."- soladi6766
You Never Know What You'll Get From Him...
"Gul dukat."
"He goes from evil Hitler type to loving father on the run from his government to crazy possessed madman in a single series."- soladi6766
His Smile Makes You Quake In Your Boots
"Christoph Waltz in 'Inglorious Bastards' is the first that came to mind."- jwps28
inglourious basterds eating GIF by The Good FilmsGiphyDefinitely Not One Of The Boys
"Homelander is definitely one of them."- PrettyMuchDeceased
Perhaps The Greatest Of All
"Hans Gruber."
"Alan Rickman portrays him so well."- rirop27057
Even If His Behavior Is Anything But Justified
"Boyd Crowder (played by Walton Goggins) in 'Justified'."
"He's not particularly strong in season 1, but by season 2, you just want him to keep getting away to have more."
"The fact that he's Raylan's frenemy, and not just a generic evil guy was such a nice touch."- dvoecks
Timothy Olyphant GIFGiphyFOUR!
"Shooter McGavin."
"Do I need to even describe why?"- xacayeg163
Effortlessly Creepy
"V.M. Varga in Fargo Season 3."
"I think he gets forgotten a bit because most thought the third season as a whole was a step down from the first and second seasons (and everybody loves Billy Bob in Season 1), but every time Varga was on screen was incredible."
"The teeth, the bizarre yet intimidating manner of speaking, the general weirdness and obscurity of who exactly he is and his background was so well done."
"Thewlis is amazing."- TJTrapJesus
Tragic And Horrifying
"Magneto."
"There are times when you are able to sympathize with him and his actions almost seem justified."
"Most likable villain in my opinion."- rirop27057
x-men apocalypse GIF by 20th Century FoxGiphy"Wrong LEVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Yzma from 'The Emperor’s New Groove'."- phantom_avenger
That Quill Though!
"Dolores Umbridge."- soladi6766
In His Defense, He Was Defending His Home...
'Al Swearengen from 'Deadwood' played by Ian McShane."
'It’s the story of a villain defending his village."- fallonyourswordkaren
ian mcshane deadwood GIFGiphySometimes a smile can be even more terrifying than a scream or a yell.
Honestly, who's been able to get any sleep after seeing Pennywise smile through the sewer?
And while the outcome is what a good majority of causal readers expect and enjoy, a story in which the antagonist comes out as the ultimate conqueror can be a refreshing take on a plot twist.
In real life, however, a scenario in which evil trumps good is not a favored narrative.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor ActualWater1994 asked:
"When was there a time where the villain defeated the hero in real life?"
There are villains among us.
Stealing Credit
"Anytime someone stole someone else’s work/invention and the original creator never received fame or recognition for it. It unfortunately happens all the time."
– audreymarilynvivien
Arrogant Prodigy
"That one youtube comment for that piano tutorial video that said his piano playing sucks and he could play better. Tons of people tried to call him out of just being an a** in YouTube comments but he finally made a video of him playing the same song on piano and it was a masterpiece."
"I think Charlie did a video on it."
– ammonite89
Crafty Boss
"Me in my early career. Boss took credit for a bug that I found in IBM software that was derping our system. Lost that job shortly thereafter."
– siliconsmiley
History is rife with real-life villains.
Offing The Presidents
"When JFK and Abraham Lincoln got assassinated."
– FreneticAtol778
A Contradicting Historic Portrayal
"Thomas Edison basically man stole a lot."
– D-C-A
"Seriously, what was his deal? Like was it common practice in the past for people to steal patents like that? I can comprehend corporate espionage or sabotage, but the dude straight up sent goon squads to hurt people."
– DaemonDrayke
Consequences For Exposing Shady Business Dealings
"Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia. The journalist who broke the Panama Papers and got carbombed for it."
"Edit: As u/newbootgoofin99 pointed out, I misremembered the details here. The reporter who broke the Papers was actually named Bastian Obermayer; Galizia was killed instead for drawing connections between local corrupt government and the papers."
"The message is still clear, of course: speaking out against the rich and corrupt rarely leads to the justice you see in comic books. Far more often, those who seek justice get silenced."
– PsychicSPider95
"In a nutshell, they're a collection of documents--about 2 terabytes worth, iirc--that contain financial information regarding the world's richest people. They're proof that the elite of the world are hoarding their wealth in offshore accounts and being shady about their business dealings."
"The only thing that happened as a result of their publishing was that the journalist who did it was killed."
– PsychicSPider95
Resistance Leader
"Jean Moulin is a French man who was one of the head of the 'resistance' during WWII. He and his couterparts were denouced by a friend and caught by the Nazis. He was questioned and tortured daily by head of Gestapo Klaus Barbie. He tried to commit suicide multiple times until he died while being deported to Berlin. He never gave them a single information. He is our hero."
– Calodyn
Gruesome Discovery
"In the somewhat early 1800s a wealthy woman named Delphine LaLaurie (a slave owner) had her mansion burnt down. When firefighters arrived to the scene, they made a disturbing discovery. In her house where dozens of slaves who had undergone various grueling surgeries and mutilations. Some had their mouths sewn shut, others had undergone partially complete gender changes. All of them had suffered some form of abuse. When the public found out, many were outraged. However, Delphine fled to France and was never brought to justice."
– Hitman_2025
The Absolute Ruler Of The Congo Free State
"King Leopold getting away with brutalizing Congo."
– DubiousPeoplePleaser
"Yes its awful. I live in Belgium, and I disgust Leopold the second. Right now, statues of him are getting taken down/broken or vandalized by fellow Belgians. Im proud that some people have the balls to stand up against the royal family from back in the day."
– AdFront1172
The Movie Director
"When back in 2007 many celebrities signed to free Roman Polanski, who is proven to drug and rape a 13 yo girl."
"Polanski is still free and no one does nothing."
"You can wtach the list of evrryone who signed. You won't want to watch movies again. Most of the greatest actors, actresses, film makers, etc. are in the list, even those that we all thought where the less evil."
"People like Natlie Portman is there."
– STJ41
British Intervention
"The English burnt Joan of Arc at the stake, who was fighting for French Independence."
"The English also killed and mutilated William Wallace, who was fighting for Scottish Independence."
"The English basically were the villians in many countries' fight for independence and often times the English won."
– WorkLemming
Conceptually, Redditors talked about what makes a villain.
Observing Perspective
"Perspective is the key, we don’t often have black and white hero vs villain situations, typically you only get one side where the people controlling the message create the hero side."
"Not to mention that your idea of a villain might be someone else’s hero and vice versa."
– Destron5683
Ambiguity In Classification
"In real life, it's relatively rare that heroes are unambiguously heroes and villains are unambiguously villains: the heroes are the ones that you happen to be rooting for."
– wwplkyih
The Reputation Of A Corporation
"Nestle sent thousands of shipments of formula to Africa that had to be mixed with milk when they could have sent one that used water and were responsible for the deaths of approximately 66,000 infants. I have seen basically 0 major news outlets actually cover this because they know nestle will royally f**k them over and they’ll never be heard from again if they do, or nestle has them in their back pocket. No matter what restrictions or regulations we have in place, major corporations will always find a way to exploit citizens and violate human rights illegally and get away with it Scott free every time."
"If you’d like to read more about the atrocities nestle has committed against countless people head on over to r/f'cknestle, they have a lot more information on why you should stop supporting nestle if you want their human rights violations to finally end."
– Necessary_Rich_1477
Turning A Blind Eye On Indiscretions
"Winston Churchill was a noted racist, misogynist, and imperialist. He was also an alcoholic and an a-hole. He made some fairly unconscionable choices (such as Coventry) in the pursuit of defeating the Nazis. But because he did defeat the Nazis, a lot of his less laudable traits get conveniently ignored."
– IrascibleOcelot
Propogandistic
"History is written by the winners..."
"Edit:all these people using the confederacy as proof I'm wrong may need to rethink what the real reason is..."
– DickieGreenleaf84
As a few Redditors pointed out in the thread, the distinction of who is the villain is not exactly black and white.
This is why it's such a fascinating conflict in literature.
Everyone is flawed. But it's a fine line as to whether or not the choices a character makes–as a result of being wronged by society–determine if they are worthy of praise or condemnation.
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We discovered some of the insufferable deviants Redditors wanted to come out on top when Redditor UnwantedJason asked:
"What villain deserved to win?"
Yo-Ho Yo-Ho, This Villain's It For Me
"Captain Barbossa. He was vilified for being a better pirate than anyone else, and he only wanted to escape eternal damnation and a hell on earth. I'd be pretty ruthless in that situation too."
"Yes, he mutinied Jack, but he's a pirate! And even then, he has much more class and honor than most of the other pirates."
Remember Captain Frye?
"I dunno, the villain from 'The Rock' just wanted to get veterans their disability and veteran wages."
These are villains from familiar folklore and fairytales.
Bested By The Boy Who Never Wanted To Grow Up
"The older I get the more I sympathize with Captain Hook."
"You either die a Peter Pan, or live long enough to see yourself become a Captain Hook."
Giant In The Sky
"The giant from Jack and the bean stalk even thou he's not the villain."
"Yeah jack just intruded on his home, then f*cking killed him when he tried to shoo him away. Like, what the hell man? What is this story trying to teach? Breaking and entering is ok?"
Creature Of The Deep
"Moby Dick."
"He's just trying to be a f'king whale and people keep trying to harpoon him."
Remember these "evil doers" from cartoons?
Cereal Trixter
"The Rabbit from the Trix commercials. My man literally spent his OWN MONEY to get this own Trix cereal, and then those damn kids stole his property, saying 'lol Trix are for kids!' F'k those kids."
Those Wretched Charm Kleptos
"And what about Lucky? Those bastard children kept stealing his Lucky Charms. Who's raising these monsters?"
– FG88_NR
Squidward
"Imagine having loud and annoying neighbors on both sides of you, making it difficult to get any peace and quiet in your own home. At the very least, you can have some solitude in your job at this restaurant that no one ever really visits anyway."
."..And then your neighbor applies for the job, passes with flying colors, and attracts loads of new customers, not only making your job busier and livelier than what you signed up for, but absolutely decimating that home/work balance you once had."
A Familiar Suggestion
"You either die a spongebob, or live long enough to see yourself become a squidward."
– Fenpunx
While I don't have a specific pick for a villain I want to win, I can appreciate people's preference for many antagonists they want to see winning.
I always thought traditional stories about heroes were one-sided. So when contemporary literature like Wicked—which later inspired the worldwide musical phenomenon, entered our pop culture—I thought it was refreshing.
My favorite take on a misunderstood villain was the Maleficent movies, featuring Angelina Jolie.
I thought Disney's interpretation of Sleeping Beauty from the nefarious fairy's perspective, who was the victim of a heart-wrenching betrayal of love, was pretty compelling.
More like this, please.
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And in my personal writings, my more shady characters are just helplessly intriguing, and their development comes easier. Which tends to make my challenge great and my work better because I have to make sure the villain doesn't outshine the hero.
In the end though, villains are far more complex.
Now don't get me wrong I adore a good hero, and we need our heroes. But a strong villain always makes the good guy that much more compelling.
Evil is just so seductive.
Redditor sodibit wanted to compare notes on the battle of good vs evil.
They asked:
"What villain is 10x more interesting than the hero?"
I love all the villains.
Even the weekly ones on shows like Criminal Minds.
Figuring out the bad guy keeps me invested.
How could they not?
Forget Clarice
"Hannibal Lecter is onscreen for 15 minutes of a 2 hour Silence of the Lambs. But he's the character that haunts everyone for life." ~ onajurni
GiphyDeceit is Fun
"All of the Decepticons. Psychologists were deeply concerned that the kids watching the original cartoons liked the bad guys."
"Turns out they were more interesting and more realistic. They failed and tried again."
"Unlike the autobots that were always winning." ~ GunnerForeman
Bad Instructions
"HAL 9000. He was basically given conflicting instructions." ~ FinestTreesInDa7Seas
"It's important to remember that when you're fighting a machine, you're really fighting the person who designed and controls that machine."
"HAL is the cold, clinical manifestation of an anonymous committee who decided that the mission objective was more important than human life." ~ L1P0D
The God Complex
"Dr Doom." ~ OldHolly
"The thing that makes him most interesting these days is that time travelers (more than one) have visited Doom and said 'I just wanted to meet the man who saved the planet and brought peace to earth when no one else could'."
"So if he's got a big head about being in charge, at least there's fairly competent reasoning behind that. People come from the future to say thanks and ask to meet you, it's kind of hard NOT to develop a God complex."
"And he already had one BEFORE the visits." ~ LochNessMansterLives
Javier Bardem in that movie haunts people's dreams.
And Anthony Hopkins?
There are really no words for that performance. It was flawless.
It's like Clarice who?
Scream
"90% of all horror movie antagonists, seriously why would I want to know about some entitled kid who serves no purpose other than to scream."
"I wanna see how the killer came to be." ~ BaconLover500
GiphyHe has Reasons
"Pagan Min, from "Far Cry 4". Not only was he more interesting, but he gave you the option for the best ending." ~ SilverSpotter
"Seriously Pegan Min sometimes felt to me like the least worst option between the 3. Sabal wants a religious and traditional region but also a not progressive one and Amita wants a progressive place but without care for the people and she relies on drugs to progress." ~ nave1235
you're a total witch...
"Handsome Jack." ~ AstroZombie29
"City's burning, people are dying left and right, yada yada yada. This jackhole rushes me with a spoon."
"A FRICKIN' SPOON! And I'm dying laughing, right?"
"So I scoop his stupid little eyeballs out with it and his kids are all like WAAHHHH! And he's runnin' into stuff and... hahaha!"
"And, oh... I don't know, maybe you had to be there. Anyway, the moral is you're a total witch." ~ Puzzleheaded_Rate_73
Oh Lord
"Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2." ~ Stitch_03
"I know that it's been done to death, but I still found his prophecy motivation compelling. He was already a jerk, but when he overheard the prophecy, he was driven to desperation to save his own life, leading a genocide that ultimately engineered his own defeat."
"And then he just knew he was going to die and accepted it in the final scene. Just way too good." ~ botbattler30
Oh Alan...
"Hans Gruber."
"John McClane was probably my favorite action movie hero when I was a kid, but honestly Gruber is actually a much more interesting character." ~ spatialflow
GiphyAlan Rickman!
How he didn't earn an Oscar for his villains alone, is a travesty and miscarriage of justice.
And as far as horror goes...
there is only one...
Michael Myers!!
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Can you imagine "The Wizard of Oz" without the witch? Or Toto? I always felt bonded with them first. I'm back and forth with Dorothy Gale.
Work Woes
This Too Shall Pass Advice GIFGiphy"Benson from Regular Show. Poor dude was just trying to do his job."
Sunk
"That one guy from Titanic. You know, propeller guy."
"I watched titanic as a kid when it came out on VHS with my cousins, we were all teary eyed until that moment and I laughed my butt off and my whole family looked at me like I was a psychopath."
Creature Discomfort
"The Creature from Frankenstein. All he needed was a little guidance and a little caring, but all Frankenstein ever did for him was turn him away (the coward). Well that and Guts. Geeze, did the dude lead a hard life."
"Yeah that book was awesome but Victor made no sense. Like, how ya gonna freak out at the sight of your creation when you are the one who made it look like that? He's always sh*tting on the creature for being so hideous and acts surprised about it. Didn't you spend months staring at the damn thing as you cobbled it together from dead body parts? What were you expecting, George Clooney?"
Poor kid...
"Barb from Stranger Things. They just moved her car to a bus stop and told everyone she ran away, and everyone just accepted it no questions asked (except for Nancy, but even she didn't seem too upset). Poor kid."
"Nancy was devastated, though. The second season revolves around her PTSD surrounding the fallout of death she blamed herself for."
Chewy Pain
star wars GIFGiphy"Obviously, Chewbacca. His best friend, road dog, partner in crime and in battle, Han Solo was murdered by his tormented flesh and blood right before Chewies eyes. I cried. Chewie cried. Kylo cried. Han didn't cry. He died."
I think about horror movies in this light sometimes. Many of the victims who get offed along the way can be remembered. I'm still traumatized by some.
Blue
walt disney GIFGiphy"Eeyore from Winnie Pooh. He tries so hard being a part of the others while at the other side he doesn't believe in his self."
Classics
"Zelda and Link from breath of the wild those guys just lost everything close to them."
"I feel bad for Mipha too. Poor girl was in love with Link since they were children, but she's too nervous to confess. Right when she builds up the courage to admit it, Ganon shows up and kills everyone. And her ghost had to hang out inside that giant robot elephant for a century not knowing what happened to him."
Be our guest...
"All the servers and butlers in Beauty and the Beast. THE HECK DID THEY DO WRONG YOU WEIRD OLD HOT CURSE LADY?"
The Prince who wouldn't let her in could hardly be blamed either. He was a child and was probably taught about "stranger danger" and probably thought he was doing the right thing by not letting in a complete stranger. It's unclear why he would personally answer the door himself anyway given the impressive number of servants and staff he has."
Oh Cappy
"Probably Captain Rex. He spent three years fighting for the wrong side without even knowing until it was too late, then all his brothers turned on him, and his one friend through it all was Ahsoka, who he had to say goodbye to, not knowing Anakin or Obi-Wan's fate, but knowing that all of his clone friends had turned evil, or died."
'one who got away'
Season 9 Fighting GIF by FriendsGiphy"David (Hank Azaria) from friends. Built up as phoebes 'one who got away' for almost all of the show, only to get awkwardly dumped while proposing to her. After which he kind of just walks away."
"There's a lot of things in the last season I don't like. It's like they tried to wrap everything up so fast they didn't stop to think if they were good ideas or not."
Poor Kid
"Helga from Hey Arnold. The episode focusing on her mother really hit hard for me back then."
"Helga's therapy episode made me cry when I was a little kid. Being so neglected as a five-year-old that you walk yourself to preschool in a dark ghetto, getting attacked by dogs and covered in rain, is such a traumatic thing for anyone to go through. Meanwhile, your narcissistic father and alcoholic mother are at your house, drowning the other child in love and attention while they can't even be f*cked to remember your name. Her parents should have been in jail tbh. Poor Helga."
That's quite a list. Poor Eeyore. And how lucky was Pheobe? Too have Hank Azaria AND Paul Rudd fighting over you? Check please!
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