@@TheGoldenPlatoon757 Yep. That was from _Superman: The Animated Series._ The man's name was Dan Turpin, and he basically badmouthed Darkseid as he was leaving Earth, and Darkseid responded by firing an Omega Beam at him, killing the poor guy. And this really ticked Supes off.
That version of Darkseid really messed up Superman, killed his best friend and worse brainwashed him to do evil and attack the people he wanted to protect making him lose humility's trust.
Well in Thanos’s defence the comic book version of him is pure evil because all he wanted to use the infinity stones for was to get death to love him. He is literally the most selfish villain in all of marvel.
Mainly did it tho because he considered death the only person he was close too and when she left and ignored him he tried to kill half of the universe to get her attention. Darksied killed his entire family so he could be the only immortal ruler of his planet. Killed every god to steal their powers and become the only god left and main goal is too find the anti life equation so he can rule over every living being as their tyrannical king. Thanos is cool but Darksied is HIM.
Same. Imo, it helps focus on the hero's flaws, conflict, and virtues when you have a villain that's just evil. And it kinda lets us see that not every bad person has a good reason, even in real life. There were some messed up criminals or dictators in the past that do just choose to be sadists, and a lot of them can't articulate their motivation simply, (evil world leaders specifically hide behind philosophical nonsense).
As another commenter said; villains always have a point. The most common motivation for most villains is power, which is arguably the greatest motivator throughout human history. Yet for some reason, modern literature has decided that the most common motivation ever is not "complex enough", so now we get traumatized crybabies as villains for the sake of sympathy.
@Nykandros Yeah. Or straight up war criminals, abusers, and murderers that they defend with "From their perspective they are doing the right thing". Yes, the evil dictators in our history and abusers are all right in their own sick minds. When there is no line they won't cross, and say their killing, abusing, etcetera for justice/ the victims good, that is evil. (Sorry for ranting). Imo, Thanos doesn't get a pass for torturing one adopted daughter to get information from his other daughter, than kills her to grow in power, and killing HALF the population of countless systems (maybe more than that in the snap) just because he was"had a point". To both have feelings for someone AND willing to hurt them in so many ways for her good or the greater good is textbook delusional and a contradiction only a narcissist insists is logical.
Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls is another pure evil villain with no sympathetic traits. He too is just an a$$hole, but a really funny and entertaining a$$hole. He'll even go out of his way to murder two children just "for the heck of it"
Darth Sidius is such a smart psychopath I think he almost could become Emperor without the Force. The movies don't portrait this but Palpatine was a really powerful individual but in he didn't conquered the galaxy being a powerful sith, he conquered the galaxy being a really intelligent politician!
Oddly enough, I actually (sort of) sympathized with him and Vader while watching REVENGE OF THE SITH. Not because I thought they were good, but partly out of a gnawing disgust with and (at best) indifference toward the Jedi. They were fanatically religious vigilantes, and were going to lynch Sidious because they believed the courts would not work. Who the hell were they to try to overthrow a government, no matter how corrupt it was? I also found the Jedi weird, nihilistic, and hypocritical. They were willing to let a woman die just so she could become a "happy" blob of pantheistic light, and had the nerve to tell Anakin to be happy about her death. And finally, their attitude toward sexuality was pure bunk. Apparently, if Anakin had consorted with prostitutes they wouldn't have batted an eye, but because he dared to pursue marriage and a family he was practically a Sith Lord already. And so, my moral relativism kicked in HARD. A part of me wanted to punch that odious Mace Windu right in his self-righteously scowling face. The deepest part of my id practically grinned when he was sent falling to his death.
@@frogz8317 I'm one of those people that swear up and down that he threw his fight against Palpatine when he felt Anakin's presence. It makes far more sense than for him to risk all of his decades of work on a single fight like that. I know even George Lucas would disagree with me, but that's one thing I'm gonna ignore him on.
@@russianoverkill3715 Palpatine rose to power in similar ways to dictators like Stalin and Hitler. Create a problem, offer a solution, gain public favour, they give you more and more power until they can't take it away. Also in the OT, he was relatively smart with his actions. The rebels pretty much only beat him due to his cockiness and a HUGE amount of luck. Hitler himself was incredibly smart and seemed to have all of Europe at it's knees, but then he suddenly decided he could take on Russia and failed miserably which took down everything. Power hungry tyrants always fall because they get too arrogant.
Finally someone mentions Morgoth from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. He's just basically Satan of Middle-earth, it literally took an entire group of angelic beings (Valar and Maiar) to finally beat Morgoth and cast him outside of reality.
@@ADAJ342and that's the thing about purely evil villains, they only lend toward one dimensional stories. Which can be fun, but it's easier to have too much of that than the alternative.
@@elharvey5032Yea and Venom being his hater like reverse flash, and also shows if Peter Parker was to be more violent in crime fighting and even kill, that would be toxic like venom
I think he'd like King Ghidorah from the monsterverse Dude is from a completly different planet, comes challenging the alpha titan in the planet, gets frozen, comes back, almost kills the alpha, kills his gf, almost kills him again, gets fucking violated by the end Why? No reason, he just wanted to rule the world.
King Ghidorah honestly was one of the few times in apocalypse scenario movies where I legit saw the potential for him to actually destroy the world as it was. With Godzilla out of the picture at the time, there was really absolutely no way for Ghidorah to go down otherwise especially since he was controlling the other Titans. It really and truly felt hopeless when he was awakening the Titans and that was my favorite version of Ghidorah put to screen.
Not just evil villains. Bring back the true heroes. Bring back the good altruistic heroes. The ones who do the right thing because they genuinely care about people. The ones who risk their lives, not just for redemption, but because they want to ensure innocent people live. The ones who have flaws that, while realistic, do not detain them from being good people we can look up to. I want those heroes back..😢
I disagree with you on ONE point. Darkseid being able to take on the entire Justice League isn't what makes him cool. It's the absolute confidence, authority, and fear he radiates that makes him cool. It all comes down to execution.
Same as homelander being evil doesnt make anyone boring .its ur character .all the great evil villains have well written character and dialogue and deeds
What also makes Palpatine a great villain is his opposition to one of Star Wars’ Themes, love. It was Luke’s selfless actions that saves Anakin and the love Anakin had for his son is what saved him
I’m tired of writers trying to force people to be sympathetic toward pure evil villains. I also hate when writers make pure evil villains into these morally gray anti-heroes. Anti-Villains exist for a reason.
"Bring back evil villains" Bring back the righteous protagonist! (Samurai Jack, Arnold Shortman, Early seasons SpongeBob SquarePants, The DC superheroes from the Animated Series etc.)
Lord Shen was just such an amazing villain. Not only did he commit terrible acts, embarrass multiple kung fu masters at once, and develop superweapons of mass destruction, but he becomes even MORE engaging through his connections to the main character Po and the trauma Po faces. He wants to take over the entirety of China, and there's no line he won't cross.
If Star was had come out in the modern day, we would’ve gotten a Palpatine origin tv series/movie about how he was a neglected child orphan who got his heart broken or something and it turned him evil
Commander Rourke from Disney's Atlantis is a great example since he has a strong argument for his actions, just those actions themselves and the measures he'll go through for his goals are what make him a villain.
I dunno why the line "Palpatine took no Ls" hits so hard for me, but it does. You, sir, are speaking facts. Never in my life have I heard more truthful sentence. Love it.
I think Homelander fits well into this category too. He has no real tragic backstory or anything, he’s just a evil narcissist who feels he can do whatever he wants because he has the power to do whatever he wants Edit: okay I’ll admit he has somewhat of a tragic backstory but he’s still purely and unapologetically evil
If you’re talking about comic HL then you’re right. But in the show, they gave him a backstory on why he was like that that some audience may feel bad for him but still hate him on what he does and who he is.
Raised in a lab, experimented on daily going through some of the most brutal shit to see what can harm or kill him, beaten badly by Supe mercenaries daily for training, had no real emotional attachments to anyone and every time he tried they died in front of him. I’d say he has decently sad bad story.
I think the thing everyone is missing here is that you can give a villain depth, and a few sympathetic qualities while still being a giant pos with a simple motive
The idea of making villains sympathetic is honestly getting quite boring. The number of times they've tried to make the joker relatable or kinda sympathetic. Getting outta hand really
My problem is that we put, comical Menacing and exciting villains in One box and accountable, debatable and depthful villains on another Why not both, why not try make a better villain backed up from the story itself
Jack Nicholson's Joker is my favorite. Completely evil and with absolutely no justification for his atrocities. I don't have to feel any anguish when Batman kills him. This goes for all his henchmen, too.
Joffrey comes to mind. Everyone hated him and wanted him to die a painful death but when he died it felt like the show got emptier. He had zero motivation to be a d**k to .
Why. A villain born to be pure evil means they're just a hallow plot device ment to move the story forward. It's pretty boring. Don't take this wrong. This is not shaming, it's interest. I wanna know why you think that
@@fedjamrndic4017You’re wrong there, those are one-dimensional villains. There’s a lots of villains who are just evil for the sake of being evil or being irredeemable and are actually nicely written. Take Judge Holden, Fang Yuan, AM, The Qu, Judge Claude Frollo and Michael Myers as examples.
Im tired of redeemable villains with a good cause but a flawed method it was fun for the last decade but now i want a genuinely evil dude with no heart and no soul
I understand your point but for me those kinds of villains are just kind of...boring. so they're evil just because they are. Wow what an interesting character(sarcasm)
@@fedjamrndic4017right ? Lol all these people are basically saying “ I don’t want good or interesting writing or character development in my villain, just make them evil” lol It’s like they want writers to be lazy
palpatine's the best movie villian of the 21st century fr. not only because he is absolutely irredeemable but the fact that he won, which is not something that most villians achieved.
I do agree that we need villains who just hate good and want to do evil, but for someone like Commodus in Gladiator, he wasn’t doing what we wanted bc he wanted to, it was because he felt inferior to Maximus and wanted power to make himself stronger. It was a reason and not a good one. He is my most hated villain bc he was willing to do horrible things to his family, including hurt his sister and kill his father in order to get what he wanted. Commodus is easily my most hated villain. Solid video man, well analyzed!
I think its good to have evil villain just for the sake of being evil , just to show sympathetic villains like Thanos , how great they are, like if James gunn wanted the High evolutionary to be a sympathetic villain and have a reason to be evil , then he can say the high evolutionary is doing this to stop Celestials from destroying planets
Evil villains aren't evil for the sake of being evil unless they're someone like the joker. Most villains such as Palpatine, Darkseid, Lex Luthor etc. are evil because they desire POWER. "Evil for the sake of evil" is almost always "Evil for the sake of power", I don't see why this is so hard to realize; especially considering how common of a motivator power is throughout history.
@@Nykandros it's mostly the same thing , the whole plot of villains who want to rule the universe is now just bland , unless you make it unique in some way
@@youssefmesrati340 Just bland? Power is the greatest & most impactful motivator throughout all of history, how is it bland? The only reason you're even speaking English right now is because of some power-hungry Roman general. Many of the Greek arts, sciences & philosophies that form the bedrock of modern thought only spread across the world thanks to the conquests of Alexander. Likely, the sole reason you live in a democratic country is because of The Napoleonic Code. The desire for power is the greatest motivator. Let me guess, your secret trick to making it "unique" is by making the character a traumatized, sympathetic crybaby? Only THEN would they considered "well-written & complex", right? Lmao
@@Nykandros first of all you don't know which country I live in so how would you know if the influence of the Roman empire created a democratic party for the the world second im not saying all villains need to be sympathetic but sympathetic villains just automatically make great antagonist, but what I say unique I mean the way they make the villain achieve their goal like you don't see Palpatine start fighting all the jedi do you, no instead he manipulates the heros and an entire Gouverment and started a war to win like that's unique instead of OH I'm gonna fight the heros myself and an entire army , that's what I mean by unique
I agree completely. I like sympathetic villains, but I'm sick of making every villain tragic, sympathetic, or misunderstood. It's ironic that the idea of sympathetic villains is to break the cliche of pure evil villains, but sympathetic villains are starting to become a cliche in their own right. It's called "Good vs. Evil", not "Good vs I'm tragically misunderstood, society made me the way I am, I have a sad backstory so please feel sorry for me".
one of my favorite villains is Reverse Flash. he erased his own brother and parents from the timeline, killed and then erased the fiance of a girl he liked and all the other things he did in the future. at some point honestly it doesnt even matter why he's doing all this. now he's doing it cause he wants to make Flash's life as miserable as possible. he's just so petty and i love it
Bro is so petty he’s willing to wipe himself out just to get back at Barry? I have an idea, why not do just that? Why can’t he just wipe himself from existence and prevent everything he ever did from ever occurring because he’s no longer part of the timeline? That would be a sweet thing for him to be the cause of his own downfall, and the best part is, Barry doesn’t even need to kill him, he’ll just be enjoying his life forgetting Eobard even exists once he kills himself..
I think Sauron is a great villain he literally has like the least amount of screen time for any major villain in cinema that I’ve seen so far and that spans throughout 6 movies yet he instills a sense of dread whenever he’s shown
I have to agree and you really don’t get more black and white evil than Sauron lmao 😂 He’s the textbook example of an amazing villain who is not morally ambiguous in the slightest 😂
Another perfect example of an Evil villain not to be sympathetic to is Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat! Him we don’t need to delve into who he was and how he came to be. Just let him be the Brutal Brilliant Narcissistic Conquering Emperor laughing as he cheaply fatalities the good (and bad) guys.
The whole writing advice of “your villain absolutely needs to be sympathetic, they have to have a reason to do all their evil things” is honest to god some of the worst advice ever given in media. There’s nothing wrong with sympathetic villains but mandating that every villain needs to be one is patently absurd.
I think the best way to go about is to have both, either you could have the pure evil villain being a minion who works for the big bad but then kills antagonists and becomes the new one. (Kefka from Final Fantasy) Or you have the pure evil villain being the overlord while the sympathetic villain works for them. (Palpatine)
Sidious is Neutral Evil as Chaotic Evil characters wouldn't want to form an authoritarian empire while Lawful Evil don't love destruction for destruction's sake.
@@VaderTheWhite there are different levels of choatic evil form can see on spectrum you have I am selfish person that enjoys being evil and do what ever I feel like .their the Anarchist type that loves pure chaos such as the Joker and only real thing keeping form creating chaos is often stronger being .
That’s why I like DC so much more. The villains are just top tier. Scarecrow is just crazy and wants to scare tf out of people. Sinestro wanted peace by force. Deathstroke is just great at killing people so he kicks ass whenever he needs to. It’s just great
I once read a book, in which I found the most despicable women I've ever read about in all of fiction. The book is called The Rockmine, and it's a scandinavian crime story. This character is such an awful person, she compares to some of the mfrs. If you want to read it, it's written by Camilla Läckberg.
One of Nintendo’s best villains and my personal favorite villain is Ridley. He has ZERO back story OR reason to be evil, he doesn’t die out of pure spite, and he is awful to Samus for no reason. In the whole prologue to the series it explains he eats things to regenerate his body. When he invaded Samus’s home world. He eats her mom. Later he finds out that it was her mom he ate so he just pointed around his body saying “She could be here or here” like bro is just insane and evil and I love it 👍🏻.
@2u29wjiowk2iswj Those guys are all Evil for Power. Good reasons. Ridley is Evil for actually no reason. He just wants to make Samus’ life harder. Similar to Sigma from the Megaman X series or Reverse flash.
darth sidious is the absolute goat. His background in the expanded universe also plays into the his backstory which was also pure evil. He was born rich and just enjoyed being evil
The Joker obviously, and in my opinion that dishonor should be given to Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2, Madame Gasket from Robots, and Mrs Tweedy from Chicken Run. And while Sheldon J Plankton is the best evil villain out there, you know who I believe is the best cartoon villain to present pure evil? Dr Robotnik from The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog. He is just pure evil genius wrapped in a comedic overweight man who is simply tyrannical and is unapologetically wicked. He never feels remorse for the amount of times he’s tried to destroy towns, out of hate for Sonic outlaws music, threatens to flood towns full of innocent people, threatened a trio of mischievous/smart beaver babies as bait for Sonic, imprisoned an innocent man for 30 years just to marry his high school unrequited crush, enslaved a whole population of sheep to build a statue of himself, is physically and verbally abusive towards his robot minions several times, tried to brainwash the planet into worshipping as their leader, and so many things I forgot about while writing this. Dude is so purely evil it’s almost pathetic that he loses all the time. Sure there are some things about him to sympathize with, like his love for his teddy bear Fuzzy Wuzzy, and the fact that he’s afraid of his own mother who is probably just as bad as if not more evil than him, but overall he’s a far too evil villain. Thank goodness he’s a hilarious cartoon evil villain, cause a serious one would be too scary to think about..
My favorite villain is the Major from Hellsing, and for good reason. 1. He may be a high ranking Nazi officer, but he doesn’t need to be a Nazi to be evil. He’s already evil on his own. 2. He has no tragic backstory that justifies anything he’s done. In the manga, he had a bad childhood, but in the OVA (Original Video Adaptation, not Anime), he has no tragic backstory. 3. He’s evil and he’s proud of it. He loves every form of war that can occur on planet Earth. 4. He has no redeeming qualities in the slightest. He doesn’t love anyone or care for anyone. 5. He’s amazing at giving speeches. Just look up the “I Love War” speech he gave.
2:15 bro I have never seen Maul like this, seeing Darth Maul begging and sobbing for mercy is CRAZY. You know something is extremely wrong when DARTH MAUL is the one to be begging and crying. Palpatine must’ve messed him up real bad. To me, this is like seeing Doom Guy from Doom start sobbing and crying for mercy after loosing, like I didn’t even know he COULD do that.
And Obi-Wan put Darth Maul to rest after stabbing him to death. You know things are serious when Obi-Wan is the one who comforts his nemesis after killing him. Palpatine is the ultimate evil, and I am proud to hate him..
This new channel rocks And yes, sometimes evil just exists.. it’s more of a choice than "tragic background".if you think of it this way, you’ll live much better/happier.
@@charleskimball7058 I looked it up, while it wasn’t what I meant, yet it has it own meaning"Batman vs Owlman". In case of Owlman, he found of life as in Existence to be meaningless, to his conclusion is to end existence. Also called Nihilism, which itself is another type of Evil.
My favorite villains are the ones who are irredeemably evil, with no tragic backstory, that are still somehow sympathetic through just being who they are. Yoshikage Kira is my favorite of all time.
Truth. I think the whole *"SyMpAtHeTiC"* villain has been done so many times and I just want villains purely for the sake of being villains and taking glory and passion in their cruelty and maliciousness. So say what you want about Skar King, but at least he was just pure evil for the sake of it and wanted nothing more than conquest and domination. Bring back pure evil villains. 😈
If they are a tragic villain with a sad backstory. You still need to make them an evil and hated character for your story. General Grievous is a good example such a tragic backstory but lead him down the path of committing genocide on multiple planets that had nothing to do with the Jedi like Dathomir. You understand why he does this but this revenge and justice was corrupted by the sith and was made to be a weapon for a fixed war were both sides are fighting to ultimately put the Sith as rules of the galaxy.
Yes!!!! I hate the sympathetic villain trope! You're supposed to root for the hero, for good to triumph over evil, not the villain. "So and so had such a tragic backstory, his/her family was brutally killed, or their history is full of tragedies, or society didn't want them, feel sorry for them! Oh, he/she also committed horrific acts of genocide, torture, and chaos and brought untold suffering to millions....but OMG tragic backstory!" No. I don't care if someone has the saddest backstory ever (real or fictional) that is not justification for their evil actions and it doesn't elicit sympathy from me. "Thanos cried when he killed Gamora! He's so nuanced!" No, he's a genocidal maniac who wiped out half of all the life in the universe. He deserved what Thor did to him. Just give me Darkseid, he has no redeeming qualities, he's literally pure, unadulterated evil.....and still a fun character to read.
I like Sauron, he doesn't have a sad backstory, he thinks he's better and smarter than everyone else, and everything would be better if he was in charge, so he tries to takeover the world. Thats the point, Sauron is evil, no sad "my father hurt me or liked my brother more" he just feels superior than other being abd wants his perfect world where everything is ordered, his obsession drove him there
Frieza is one of my favorite villains ever for this exact reason. His backstory is obscured, he delights in tormenting others and will do anything to secure his power. He's ruthless. He's evil just to be evil. And for the most part his character has endured that way for 30 plus years, even in Super. He is a consistent villain.
One of the greatest villains is the gravemind/the flood from Halo. A pure and terrifying parasite that only wants to feed, however, as it gains intelligence, it gains its own wicked philosophy. While the flood doesnt change the fate of the modern halo universe, they are the reason the forerunners were mostly extinct and leaving their artifacts abandoned to the newer factions. They’re amazing and really well written.
I was so freaking happy we got the High Evolutionary the way he did. I felt so happy seeing a truly evil and despicable man again. Because I felt like he was someone I WANTED to see get beat up by the heroes for how vile he is. The problem with everyone being sympathetic is that it gets hard to care about seeing them be tossed around by the heroes. The other issue is it hardly makes them a foil to the hero, just a guy they battle. I don't mind a villain having a sympathetic element or two (like in Puss in Boots 2 with Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, they're definitely evil people, but they're still a good family to each other. That kind of thing can work). But yeah, more outright evil villains are needed, like Frieza from Dragon Ball Z/Super, Jack Horner in Puss and Boots 2, and the High Evolutionary.
"The problem with everyone being sympathetic is that it gets hard to care about seeing them be tossed around by the heroes" I dunno I just never had that problem and I just switch from enjoying seeing the villain tossed around to enjoy seeing the heroes get tossed around. I know you're suppose to root for the hero but I usually root for the villain if I just like them enough especially if I like them more than the heroes(i.e. Thanos, Ultron, Winter Soldier, Darth Vader, etc). As long as there's pretty decent fight at the end I'll be satisfied. I'm a simple unga bunga enjoyer I guess. Haha.
The way I see it, there are two main reasons to give a villain a backstory: to make them sympathetic, or to explain their actions. I feel like we have too much of the former and not enough of the latter. Manta from Aquaman is a good example of the latter. He’s a pretty bad(ass) dude.
I have been saying this for almost a decade. Some people are just bad. There are serial killers who grew up in a loving household and had everything they could have ever wanted.
no matter what anybody says Doflamingo from one piece is top tier villan writing, he had a reason but not enough to justify to absolute despicable stuff he did
Bruh Doffy just had a temper tantrum that Daddy took him away from his slaves to make him live like the common folk who were 100% justified in how they treated him. He was only treated as he treated his slaves
"Why are you so weak? You're so weak, yet you cling to life. Continuing on your path means destruction, yet you wish to be happy for as long as possible. *You should spend your lives stifling your misery* " - Sukuna, The King of Curses
Funny thing is that the most evil people we know in history were simply evil for NO DAMN REASON. They just wanted power and they liked doing it. Sympathetic villains are ironically unrealistic.
I liked it when villains had a reason to be villains. But what I liked more was when they were villains, NOT BECAUSE OF SOME TRAGEDY. BECAUSE OF THEIR IDEALS. When it was their beliefs against the MC's beliefs. Not something stupid like "A firebender killed my wife, so Imma gonna destroy all benders". More like Grindlewalt believing in Wizard superiority.
Jeez, since I watched GOTG part 3 I just can't get out of my head just how amazing the High Evolutionary was as a villain. Greatest written MCU villain in my opinion, and the movie was easily the most depressing one as well.
I saw that film so many times this year and he's my absolute favorite villain of the shrek franchise. Sure, he's small and not strong, but he's very smart and manipulative and rose to power in a way a regular person would want to do the same thing.
I actually found the Snyderverse Darkseid refreshing because he was pure evil. Yeah, he wasn't on the level of DC's animated versions and the comics, but we finally got a selfish, power-hungry villain that we hadn't seen Marvel or Dc put out in the live action movies since the first Ironman and Captain America movies.
It's not just comic books, in all of entertainment it's become the standard now that every character has to be grey. I write, and so many youtubers who give writing advice always give advice to write complex villains, and to make them morally grey. Even George R.R Martin criticised Tolkien's LoTR because Sauron and Morgoth are evil incarnate as if it's a bad thing. The most ancient and long lasting stories from history and mythology all include a bad guy who is just simply evil, it's such a modern idea that the villain needs to have a tragic backstory. Also if the recent beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake has taught me anything, the world loves nothing more than someone who has dedicated themselves to being a pure hater, it's one of the reasons I love reverse flash, he's just a dedicated hater of Barry Allen, nothing is too low, too far, or too difficult, so long as it even has the chance to affect Barry negatively, reverse flash is all about it
I think the reason that villains have to have a sad and conflicted backstory is because these days, people need to see reason in every character. However, there is ways of giving reasons that still constitute as pure evil I always think of Hans from Inglorious Basterds as a great example. He explains why he hates people who are Jewish, but you realise that his reason comes from pure malice Therefore, writers can get the best of both worlds
My favorite villains are Darth Vader and Dr. Doom. Both had motivations that made their actions understandable. Vader waa mainly undying grief and Doom wanted to rule the earth because he believes he's the best for the job. He is actually. Remember his speech to Namor, My people pray to their God thanking him for me. Nuff said.
In my opinion, Michael Myers, and I mean the newest timeline of Halloween (Essentially Halloween 1974 - Halloween 2018, kills, and ends), is one of the greatest villains of all time. Besides just how iconic Michael is, the way the new timeline handles him is near perfect. They dont do the whole “curse” thing or “abused child” or “bullied kid” thing. Here he’s just evil. Plain and simple. He doesnt kill for any specific reason. He doesnt target anybody in particular. He’s just the epitome of evil. The embodiment of darkness. Does he have a conscience? Maybe. Does he feel satisfaction when he kills? Nobody knows, nor will ever know. What made him start killing? Nobody knows. He just does it. Like a tornado or a hurricane just *does* it. There is no rhyme or reason to him. He doesnt talk, doesnt show any emotion, anger, sadness, happiness, or anything of that sort. There is no selfishness in the sense of someone like Palpatine or insanity like we’d attribute to somebody like Joker. Its just evil, and if he’s free, he’ll kill.
I think the non-evil (complex) villain was something that just was too rare for too long. So now that its become almost the standard it does kinda feel like its gotten a bit too common. Really, though, it doesn't matter which type of villain you have as long as its well-written.
I think back to old cartoons. You have the moustache twirling villain trying the lady to the railroad tracks. What's he going to do next time? Probably exactly the same thing, because they're emotionally flat. That's why I think pure evil villains have never quite been as common as people think. They just didn't give much room for interesting writing. But I think there's a difference between a villain you're supposed to feel bad for who is justified in all of their actions, and one where you just understand why they did what they did. Saving all of the villains is for someone with way too much time, knowledge and power on their hands.
Now villains are mostly misunderstood and it is getting annoying because its becoming a recurring thing i want someones whos genuinely pure evil who doesnt have a sad backstory and is just doing evil things because he or she finds it fun entertaining amusing etc etc
All those "humanizing " and sympathy baiting writing style made a lot of villains who had so much potential to entertain the audience turned lame very quickly :
Honestly I don't mind motivated villains, like villains who have good motivations or intentions but go about it the wrong way. I also enjoy some villains who straight up are on demon timing for some the craziest reasons or just because you can. That or something like Toji from JJK where it isn't personal, he's just here for a check. While I don't mind sympathetic villains and love villains like Pain from Naruto, the quote "Cool motive, still murder," is my main thought process.
@@georgevelis4651 that was after he was fed up with the Avengers and realized humans can't move on. At first, he sat back and retired. He doesn't want to be a God he wants balance
Never forgive MCU for the amount of edgy teenage boys saying they would snap their fingers and kill everyone in the world too and that thanos was just misunderstood 🤦♀️
@@IronDeficiencyMan I'm sorry but in my opinion that is a big misreading of his character. He sees himself as a savior. The moment he realizes he won't be considered one by the people of this universe, he immediately goes "ok then I'll kill you all and make a new one". He sees himself as a god, a savior. Balance was his excuse. Literally his first scene of IW was Loki going "you'll never be a God". Why would the writers write that line if not to foreshadow his true intentions
I’d say at least palpatine has some level of ‘reason’ which is his sith religion but darkseid comes in and everyone’s shitting themselves because he’s just out for blood
"Had I known one human's death would pained you so, I would have killed more. And kill more I shall." - Darkseid
Damn, he really said that to Superman? Lmao.
@@TheGoldenPlatoon757 Yep. That was from _Superman: The Animated Series._ The man's name was Dan Turpin, and he basically badmouthed Darkseid as he was leaving Earth, and Darkseid responded by firing an Omega Beam at him, killing the poor guy. And this really ticked Supes off.
What also really ticked Superman off was being brainwashed into becoming Darkseid’s attack dog. Darkseid was a nasty piece of work lmao
Lex is his most famous villain but Dakrseid is his most hated villain
That version of Darkseid really messed up Superman, killed his best friend and worse brainwashed him to do evil and attack the people he wanted to protect making him lose humility's trust.
Well in Thanos’s defence the comic book version of him is pure evil because all he wanted to use the infinity stones for was to get death to love him. He is literally the most selfish villain in all of marvel.
The most hyper destructive version of a Schoolboy Crush
And he got rejected by the grim reaper in the end…
They should've used the 2014 Thanos for both Infinity War films and just went off of wiping out the whole universe and starting fresh thing.
Mainly did it tho because he considered death the only person he was close too and when she left and ignored him he tried to kill half of the universe to get her attention. Darksied killed his entire family so he could be the only immortal ruler of his planet. Killed every god to steal their powers and become the only god left and main goal is too find the anti life equation so he can rule over every living being as their tyrannical king. Thanos is cool but Darksied is HIM.
@@daderowley4514 She choosed the merc with the mouth instead
Me too I like when villains have a point but I want some evil diabolical mad men. Like Alfred said " some men just want to watch the world burn"
Same.
Imo, it helps focus on the hero's flaws, conflict, and virtues when you have a villain that's just evil. And it kinda lets us see that not every bad person has a good reason, even in real life. There were some messed up criminals or dictators in the past that do just choose to be sadists, and a lot of them can't articulate their motivation simply, (evil world leaders specifically hide behind philosophical nonsense).
Villains always have a point. The most natural one is: Because I will
As another commenter said; villains always have a point. The most common motivation for most villains is power, which is arguably the greatest motivator throughout human history. Yet for some reason, modern literature has decided that the most common motivation ever is not "complex enough", so now we get traumatized crybabies as villains for the sake of sympathy.
@Nykandros Yeah. Or straight up war criminals, abusers, and murderers that they defend with "From their perspective they are doing the right thing". Yes, the evil dictators in our history and abusers are all right in their own sick minds. When there is no line they won't cross, and say their killing, abusing, etcetera for justice/ the victims good, that is evil. (Sorry for ranting).
Imo, Thanos doesn't get a pass for torturing one adopted daughter to get information from his other daughter, than kills her to grow in power, and killing HALF the population of countless systems (maybe more than that in the snap) just because he was"had a point". To both have feelings for someone AND willing to hurt them in so many ways for her good or the greater good is textbook delusional and a contradiction only a narcissist insists is logical.
@@ThreadBareHope1234 Facts.
Jack Horner is an example he’s just evil to be evil and he’s great
Puss in Boots 2 was unexpected Peak Fiction
You're not gonna shoot a puppy are ya Jack?
@@bread5384 in the face yeah
@@bread5384yeah in the face, why?
Jack Horner was a breath of fresh air every villain before hand they did was so bad.
Just a reminder: Thanos was, originally, just a dude trying to impress his crush.
His crush was Death.
He was a simp. Before the word “simp” was even invented.
No bones about it.
Simp
I like villians whi do the wrong thing for the right reason. Doom to me is the GOAT.
The inverse of this is also just as good
My dumbass thought you were talking about doomslayer 💀
@@Lp-army1how do you know he's not
Doom is no mere goat he’s DOOM!
@user-pm6nx1fs2w I assumed that than realise doctor doom was more likely
Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls is another pure evil villain with no sympathetic traits. He too is just an a$$hole, but a really funny and entertaining a$$hole. He'll even go out of his way to murder two children just "for the heck of it"
Well he might have a tragic background as the axolotl said that he misses his home and might regret destroying it.
@@Errorvirus404 Source?
That’s true it said that he is possibly regretting the destruction of his home.
Rick prime
Mrs Robinson from gumball
Darth Sidius is such a smart psychopath I think he almost could become Emperor without the Force. The movies don't portrait this but Palpatine was a really powerful individual but in he didn't conquered the galaxy being a powerful sith, he conquered the galaxy being a really intelligent politician!
Only time his powers really came in clutch was his duel with Yoda
Palpatine's plan succeeds just because plot demands it, in reality anyone would unravel it, and he suddenly becomes not genius during OT.
Oddly enough, I actually (sort of) sympathized with him and Vader while watching REVENGE OF THE SITH. Not because I thought they were good, but partly out of a gnawing disgust with and (at best) indifference toward the Jedi. They were fanatically religious vigilantes, and were going to lynch Sidious because they believed the courts would not work. Who the hell were they to try to overthrow a government, no matter how corrupt it was? I also found the Jedi weird, nihilistic, and hypocritical. They were willing to let a woman die just so she could become a "happy" blob of pantheistic light, and had the nerve to tell Anakin to be happy about her death. And finally, their attitude toward sexuality was pure bunk. Apparently, if Anakin had consorted with prostitutes they wouldn't have batted an eye, but because he dared to pursue marriage and a family he was practically a Sith Lord already. And so, my moral relativism kicked in HARD. A part of me wanted to punch that odious Mace Windu right in his self-righteously scowling face. The deepest part of my id practically grinned when he was sent falling to his death.
@@frogz8317 I'm one of those people that swear up and down that he threw his fight against Palpatine when he felt Anakin's presence. It makes far more sense than for him to risk all of his decades of work on a single fight like that. I know even George Lucas would disagree with me, but that's one thing I'm gonna ignore him on.
@@russianoverkill3715 Palpatine rose to power in similar ways to dictators like Stalin and Hitler. Create a problem, offer a solution, gain public favour, they give you more and more power until they can't take it away. Also in the OT, he was relatively smart with his actions. The rebels pretty much only beat him due to his cockiness and a HUGE amount of luck. Hitler himself was incredibly smart and seemed to have all of Europe at it's knees, but then he suddenly decided he could take on Russia and failed miserably which took down everything. Power hungry tyrants always fall because they get too arrogant.
Palpatine, Joker, Darkseid, Morgoth, so many truly evil villains we need back. Sometimes pure evil is so good to have.
Finally someone mentions Morgoth from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. He's just basically Satan of Middle-earth, it literally took an entire group of angelic beings (Valar and Maiar) to finally beat Morgoth and cast him outside of reality.
Carnage is the perfect example of this. He is nothing short of a pure evil monster who does what he does just because he can.
And he basically represents the evil that Peter Parker wants to protect people from, he has the potential to become Spider-Man's nemesis
Well yeah, but Frankly, he's one note and gets old pretty quickly.
@@ADAJ342and that's the thing about purely evil villains, they only lend toward one dimensional stories.
Which can be fun, but it's easier to have too much of that than the alternative.
@@elharvey5032Yea and Venom being his hater like reverse flash, and also shows if Peter Parker was to be more violent in crime fighting and even kill, that would be toxic like venom
He sucked ass in the movie though. None of the manic energy
I think he'd like King Ghidorah from the monsterverse
Dude is from a completly different planet, comes challenging the alpha titan in the planet, gets frozen, comes back, almost kills the alpha, kills his gf, almost kills him again, gets fucking violated by the end
Why? No reason, he just wanted to rule the world.
True! But what else would you expect from a 521 foot tall, dragon nicknamed "the devil with three heads."
Skar King at least shows self awareness of his actions and shows it well with his emotions.
King Ghidorah honestly was one of the few times in apocalypse scenario movies where I legit saw the potential for him to actually destroy the world as it was. With Godzilla out of the picture at the time, there was really absolutely no way for Ghidorah to go down otherwise especially since he was controlling the other Titans. It really and truly felt hopeless when he was awakening the Titans and that was my favorite version of Ghidorah put to screen.
@@flashcraft7412 521 foot*
@@MikolajNieswiety Thank you! For some reason I was too lazy to look it up and just guessed.
Not just evil villains. Bring back the true heroes. Bring back the good altruistic heroes. The ones who do the right thing because they genuinely care about people. The ones who risk their lives, not just for redemption, but because they want to ensure innocent people live. The ones who have flaws that, while realistic, do not detain them from being good people we can look up to. I want those heroes back..😢
Basically wally west from the dcau justice league and justice league unlimited
Frieza to me is def up there when it comes to certified assholes.
Frieza is awesome!
Was looking for this comment
Freeza is also a racist too so he gets bonus for that 💀
Filthy Monkae
@@TheMasterQuestshow can he be racist towards a race that doesn’t exist anymore?
-Team four star
I disagree with you on ONE point. Darkseid being able to take on the entire Justice League isn't what makes him cool. It's the absolute confidence, authority, and fear he radiates that makes him cool. It all comes down to execution.
Same as homelander being evil doesnt make anyone boring .its ur character .all the great evil villains have well written character and dialogue and deeds
Mr. Sinister from X-men ‘97 is a good recent example of pure evil villains done right.
Mr Sinister is too underrated
Couldn't agree more
Definitely. And of course Willem DeFoe's return as Green Goblin in No Way Home was top class!
Sinister got that evil charisma make u want to see more of him
What also makes Palpatine a great villain is his opposition to one of Star Wars’ Themes, love. It was Luke’s selfless actions that saves Anakin and the love Anakin had for his son is what saved him
Even in Dark Empire, he realizes that Anakin’s love for his son is what defeated him but his pride wouldn’t allow to see past his mistake
Totally agree dude I'm tired of villiains being tragically misunderstood all the time
Agreed.
I’m tired of writers trying to force people to be sympathetic toward pure evil villains. I also hate when writers make pure evil villains into these morally gray anti-heroes. Anti-Villains exist for a reason.
@@assassinwolf2719Harley Quinn... I think she became an icon for female empowerment. The frigging murderer.
I don't think you understand how these things actually work.
"Bring back evil villains"
Bring back the righteous protagonist! (Samurai Jack, Arnold Shortman, Early seasons SpongeBob SquarePants, The DC superheroes from the Animated Series etc.)
TSMT
High evolutionary is basically a sim player who got a God complex and i love it
Lord Shen was just such an amazing villain. Not only did he commit terrible acts, embarrass multiple kung fu masters at once, and develop superweapons of mass destruction, but he becomes even MORE engaging through his connections to the main character Po and the trauma Po faces. He wants to take over the entirety of China, and there's no line he won't cross.
Kung Fu Panda 2 is such a great film
Isn't he a sympathetic villain though
If Star was had come out in the modern day, we would’ve gotten a Palpatine origin tv series/movie about how he was a neglected child orphan who got his heart broken or something and it turned him evil
i lowkey still wanna see a palpatine movie (but without trying to "redeem" him)
@@sadakopilledno it would bomb star wars needs to rebuild itself
The only good quality Palpatine can have without losing his pure evil „form” can be his love for Anakin or more or less love of Anakin’s power. 😎🙂
Commander Rourke from Disney's Atlantis is a great example since he has a strong argument for his actions, just those actions themselves and the measures he'll go through for his goals are what make him a villain.
I dunno why the line "Palpatine took no Ls" hits so hard for me, but it does. You, sir, are speaking facts. Never in my life have I heard more truthful sentence. Love it.
I think Homelander fits well into this category too. He has no real tragic backstory or anything, he’s just a evil narcissist who feels he can do whatever he wants because he has the power to do whatever he wants
Edit: okay I’ll admit he has somewhat of a tragic backstory but he’s still purely and unapologetically evil
If you’re talking about comic HL then you’re right. But in the show, they gave him a backstory on why he was like that that some audience may feel bad for him but still hate him on what he does and who he is.
Raised in a lab, experimented on daily going through some of the most brutal shit to see what can harm or kill him, beaten badly by Supe mercenaries daily for training, had no real emotional attachments to anyone and every time he tried they died in front of him.
I’d say he has decently sad bad story.
Dogshit take. He's explicitly shown to have a fucked up childhood.
@@carltasticdrew9633the comics have the additional element of his even more psychotic clone framing him
I think the thing everyone is missing here is that you can give a villain depth, and a few sympathetic qualities while still being a giant pos with a simple motive
The idea of making villains sympathetic is honestly getting quite boring.
The number of times they've tried to make the joker relatable or kinda sympathetic. Getting outta hand really
My problem is that we put, comical
Menacing and exciting villains in
One box and accountable, debatable and depthful villains on another
Why not both, why not try make a better villain backed up from the story itself
Harley too. Both the suicide squad game and movie try make them seem relatable or not all bad when they're all murderers
Jack Nicholson's Joker is my favorite. Completely evil and with absolutely no justification for his atrocities. I don't have to feel any anguish when Batman kills him. This goes for all his henchmen, too.
Depends entirely on the iteration
@@_nutcracker I think we really need good and fresh writers now.
Many concepts and characters are just feeling less original or even washed up
Joffrey comes to mind. Everyone hated him and wanted him to die a painful death but when he died it felt like the show got emptier. He had zero motivation to be a d**k to .
Yeah, him and Tywin carried the show on that aspect... GoT wasn't the same after season 4 at all
@@XxElCapxXBecause after season 4 writers started to write their own story.
I love it when villains are just born to be pure evil.
Why. A villain born to be pure evil means they're just a hallow plot device ment to move the story forward. It's pretty boring.
Don't take this wrong. This is not shaming, it's interest. I wanna know why you think that
@@fedjamrndic4017You’re wrong there, those are one-dimensional villains. There’s a lots of villains who are just evil for the sake of being evil or being irredeemable and are actually nicely written. Take Judge Holden, Fang Yuan, AM, The Qu, Judge Claude Frollo and Michael Myers as examples.
@@datravelingmemeist1956 I...forgot about frollo. I guess you make a good point. It can be done well.
Reverse flash is honestly my favorite. That boys hole purpose is to fuck wit the flash. Love the vidssss keep up the amazing content 🔥🔥🔥
Im tired of redeemable villains with a good cause but a flawed method it was fun for the last decade but now i want a genuinely evil dude with no heart and no soul
true, Star Wars has already done the same thing like 20 times.
just let bad guys be bad
You should watch JoJo's
Yep you'll love Jojo
I understand your point but for me those kinds of villains are just kind of...boring. so they're evil just because they are. Wow what an interesting character(sarcasm)
@@fedjamrndic4017right ? Lol all these people are basically saying “ I don’t want good or interesting writing or character development in my villain, just make them evil” lol
It’s like they want writers to be lazy
palpatine's the best movie villian of the 21st century fr. not only because he is absolutely irredeemable but the fact that he won, which is not something that most villians achieved.
I do agree that we need villains who just hate good and want to do evil, but for someone like Commodus in Gladiator, he wasn’t doing what we wanted bc he wanted to, it was because he felt inferior to Maximus and wanted power to make himself stronger. It was a reason and not a good one. He is my most hated villain bc he was willing to do horrible things to his family, including hurt his sister and kill his father in order to get what he wanted. Commodus is easily my most hated villain.
Solid video man, well analyzed!
Doom, cooler and Megatron are some of my top villains and I agree with some villains need to be just pure evil
Megatron is tied with Palpatine for my favorite villain!
@@TopHatJack4970discordWhich version of Megatron 🤔?
@@bryanferratt6598 I guess my favorite version is Animated or Prime. It's a tossup of the two.
@@bryanferratt6598 prime and animated Megatron
Megatron definitly a sympatic villian
3:04 Palpatine had Homelander vibes before Homelander even existed💀.
I think its good to have evil villain just for the sake of being evil , just to show sympathetic villains like Thanos , how great they are, like if James gunn wanted the High evolutionary to be a sympathetic villain and have a reason to be evil , then he can say the high evolutionary is doing this to stop Celestials from destroying planets
You forgot to put the MCU before the characters because the versions you are talking about are specifically only existing in the MCU
Evil villains aren't evil for the sake of being evil unless they're someone like the joker. Most villains such as Palpatine, Darkseid, Lex Luthor etc. are evil because they desire POWER. "Evil for the sake of evil" is almost always "Evil for the sake of power", I don't see why this is so hard to realize; especially considering how common of a motivator power is throughout history.
@@Nykandros it's mostly the same thing , the whole plot of villains who want to rule the universe is now just bland , unless you make it unique in some way
@@youssefmesrati340 Just bland? Power is the greatest & most impactful motivator throughout all of history, how is it bland? The only reason you're even speaking English right now is because of some power-hungry Roman general. Many of the Greek arts, sciences & philosophies that form the bedrock of modern thought only spread across the world thanks to the conquests of Alexander. Likely, the sole reason you live in a democratic country is because of The Napoleonic Code. The desire for power is the greatest motivator.
Let me guess, your secret trick to making it "unique" is by making the character a traumatized, sympathetic crybaby? Only THEN would they considered "well-written & complex", right? Lmao
@@Nykandros first of all you don't know which country I live in so how would you know if the influence of the Roman empire created a democratic party for the the world second im not saying all villains need to be sympathetic but sympathetic villains just automatically make great antagonist, but what I say unique I mean the way they make the villain achieve their goal like you don't see Palpatine start fighting all the jedi do you, no instead he manipulates the heros and an entire Gouverment and started a war to win like that's unique instead of OH I'm gonna fight the heros myself and an entire army , that's what I mean by unique
I agree completely. I like sympathetic villains, but I'm sick of making every villain tragic, sympathetic, or misunderstood. It's ironic that the idea of sympathetic villains is to break the cliche of pure evil villains, but sympathetic villains are starting to become a cliche in their own right. It's called "Good vs. Evil", not "Good vs I'm tragically misunderstood, society made me the way I am, I have a sad backstory so please feel sorry for me".
one of my favorite villains is Reverse Flash. he erased his own brother and parents from the timeline, killed and then erased the fiance of a girl he liked and all the other things he did in the future. at some point honestly it doesnt even matter why he's doing all this. now he's doing it cause he wants to make Flash's life as miserable as possible. he's just so petty and i love it
Bro is so petty he’s willing to wipe himself out just to get back at Barry? I have an idea, why not do just that? Why can’t he just wipe himself from existence and prevent everything he ever did from ever occurring because he’s no longer part of the timeline? That would be a sweet thing for him to be the cause of his own downfall, and the best part is, Barry doesn’t even need to kill him, he’ll just be enjoying his life forgetting Eobard even exists once he kills himself..
The thing with villains who have a reason to be evil is the novelty is starting to wear off
thanos in mcu: balance
thanos in the comics: notice me death-san
I think Sauron is a great villain he literally has like the least amount of screen time for any major villain in cinema that I’ve seen so far and that spans throughout 6 movies yet he instills a sense of dread whenever he’s shown
I have to agree and you really don’t get more black and white evil than Sauron lmao 😂 He’s the textbook example of an amazing villain who is not morally ambiguous in the slightest 😂
Another perfect example of an Evil villain not to be sympathetic to is Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat!
Him we don’t need to delve into who he was and how he came to be.
Just let him be the Brutal Brilliant Narcissistic Conquering Emperor laughing as he cheaply fatalities the good (and bad) guys.
MK 1 General Shao- allow me to introduce myself!
Even Lui Kang couldn’t changed his personality.
@@burakardaaksoy6339 Oh he did. This version of Shao actually cares about something beyond himself and power for power's sake. Dude's a patriot.
The whole writing advice of “your villain absolutely needs to be sympathetic, they have to have a reason to do all their evil things” is honest to god some of the worst advice ever given in media. There’s nothing wrong with sympathetic villains but mandating that every villain needs to be one is patently absurd.
I think the best way to go about is to have both, either you could have the pure evil villain being a minion who works for the big bad but then kills antagonists and becomes the new one. (Kefka from Final Fantasy) Or you have the pure evil villain being the overlord while the sympathetic villain works for them. (Palpatine)
That’s exactly what I wish we’d have thought up, cause then we get a 2 for 1 deal package. I want the power of writing in my hands..
Darkseid is Lawful Evil and Sidious is Chaotic Evil
Sidious is Neutral Evil as Chaotic Evil characters wouldn't want to form an authoritarian empire while Lawful Evil don't love destruction for destruction's sake.
@@VaderTheWhite there are different levels of choatic evil form can see on spectrum you have I am selfish person that enjoys being evil and do what ever I feel like .their the Anarchist type that loves pure chaos such as the Joker and only real thing keeping form creating chaos is often stronger being .
Which is insane because Darkseid is supposed to be the literal EMBODIMENT OF EVIL and yet Palpy still outdoes him
@@fro7e891 One is God that has conquered entire realms ,number of planets wiping out entire species or converting them into Parademons for his army.
Sidious is closer to Neutral Evil since the Empire is ultimately just a tool to assert his power over the galaxy, ultimately he doesn't care about it.
That’s why I like DC so much more. The villains are just top tier. Scarecrow is just crazy and wants to scare tf out of people. Sinestro wanted peace by force. Deathstroke is just great at killing people so he kicks ass whenever he needs to. It’s just great
You can add in the like of Reverse Flash (Eobard Thawne is the king of petty) and Starfire’s sister Blackfire. Girl pimped out her sister.
Friendly reminder: Jack Kirby based Darkseid’s personality on Adolf Hitler. He designed Darkseid to be irredeemable.
Along with Palpatine they are also based on Nixon too
I once read a book, in which I found the most despicable women I've ever read about in all of fiction. The book is called The Rockmine, and it's a scandinavian crime story. This character is such an awful person, she compares to some of the mfrs. If you want to read it, it's written by Camilla Läckberg.
Cool. I'll check it out.
One of Nintendo’s best villains and my personal favorite villain is Ridley. He has ZERO back story OR reason to be evil, he doesn’t die out of pure spite, and he is awful to Samus for no reason. In the whole prologue to the series it explains he eats things to regenerate his body. When he invaded Samus’s home world. He eats her mom. Later he finds out that it was her mom he ate so he just pointed around his body saying “She could be here or here” like bro is just insane and evil and I love it 👍🏻.
@2u29wjiowk2iswj Those guys are all Evil for Power. Good reasons. Ridley is Evil for actually no reason. He just wants to make Samus’ life harder. Similar to Sigma from the Megaman X series or Reverse flash.
@2u29wjiowk2iswj No problem have a blessed day 🙏
darth sidious is the absolute goat. His background in the expanded universe also plays into the his backstory which was also pure evil. He was born rich and just enjoyed being evil
I think we need a part 2 to this one, there is still more villains being villains for the sake of being a villain to speak about
The Joker obviously, and in my opinion that dishonor should be given to Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2, Madame Gasket from Robots, and Mrs Tweedy from Chicken Run. And while Sheldon J Plankton is the best evil villain out there, you know who I believe is the best cartoon villain to present pure evil? Dr Robotnik from The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog. He is just pure evil genius wrapped in a comedic overweight man who is simply tyrannical and is unapologetically wicked. He never feels remorse for the amount of times he’s tried to destroy towns, out of hate for Sonic outlaws music, threatens to flood towns full of innocent people, threatened a trio of mischievous/smart beaver babies as bait for Sonic, imprisoned an innocent man for 30 years just to marry his high school unrequited crush, enslaved a whole population of sheep to build a statue of himself, is physically and verbally abusive towards his robot minions several times, tried to brainwash the planet into worshipping as their leader, and so many things I forgot about while writing this. Dude is so purely evil it’s almost pathetic that he loses all the time. Sure there are some things about him to sympathize with, like his love for his teddy bear Fuzzy Wuzzy, and the fact that he’s afraid of his own mother who is probably just as bad as if not more evil than him, but overall he’s a far too evil villain. Thank goodness he’s a hilarious cartoon evil villain, cause a serious one would be too scary to think about..
My favorite villain is the Major from Hellsing, and for good reason.
1. He may be a high ranking Nazi officer, but he doesn’t need to be a Nazi to be evil. He’s already evil on his own.
2. He has no tragic backstory that justifies anything he’s done. In the manga, he had a bad childhood, but in the OVA (Original Video Adaptation, not Anime), he has no tragic backstory.
3. He’s evil and he’s proud of it. He loves every form of war that can occur on planet Earth.
4. He has no redeeming qualities in the slightest. He doesn’t love anyone or care for anyone.
5. He’s amazing at giving speeches. Just look up the “I Love War” speech he gave.
2:15 bro I have never seen Maul like this, seeing Darth Maul begging and sobbing for mercy is CRAZY. You know something is extremely wrong when DARTH MAUL is the one to be begging and crying. Palpatine must’ve messed him up real bad.
To me, this is like seeing Doom Guy from Doom start sobbing and crying for mercy after loosing, like I didn’t even know he COULD do that.
And Obi-Wan put Darth Maul to rest after stabbing him to death. You know things are serious when Obi-Wan is the one who comforts his nemesis after killing him. Palpatine is the ultimate evil, and I am proud to hate him..
Some of my favorite pure evil villains:
-bill cipher
-jack horner
-the high evolutionary
I would also add the 2014 Thanos/Endgame version.
@@KingdomofRohan903 oh yeah forgot him
Morgoth (Sauron’s just a slave of that boi)
This new channel rocks
And yes, sometimes evil just exists.. it’s more of a choice than "tragic background".if you think of it this way, you’ll live much better/happier.
Exactly. Look up “Batman vs Owlman.” It emphasizes that point almost perfectly
@@charleskimball7058 I looked it up, while it wasn’t what I meant, yet it has it own meaning"Batman vs Owlman".
In case of Owlman, he found of life as in Existence to be meaningless, to his conclusion is to end existence. Also called Nihilism, which itself is another type of Evil.
My favorite villains are the ones who are irredeemably evil, with no tragic backstory, that are still somehow sympathetic through just being who they are. Yoshikage Kira is my favorite of all time.
Truth. I think the whole *"SyMpAtHeTiC"* villain has been done so many times and I just want villains purely for the sake of being villains and taking glory and passion in their cruelty and maliciousness. So say what you want about Skar King, but at least he was just pure evil for the sake of it and wanted nothing more than conquest and domination.
Bring back pure evil villains. 😈
If they are a tragic villain with a sad backstory. You still need to make them an evil and hated character for your story. General Grievous is a good example such a tragic backstory but lead him down the path of committing genocide on multiple planets that had nothing to do with the Jedi like Dathomir. You understand why he does this but this revenge and justice was corrupted by the sith and was made to be a weapon for a fixed war were both sides are fighting to ultimately put the Sith as rules of the galaxy.
I think a lot of the appeal has to do with most IRL villains being of the "tragic backstory" type.
Agreed, the sob stories being given to villains is getting real boring, the best don't have a reason and that is why they are scary.
Yes!!!! I hate the sympathetic villain trope! You're supposed to root for the hero, for good to triumph over evil, not the villain.
"So and so had such a tragic backstory, his/her family was brutally killed, or their history is full of tragedies, or society didn't want them, feel sorry for them!
Oh, he/she also committed horrific acts of genocide, torture, and chaos and brought untold suffering to millions....but OMG tragic backstory!"
No. I don't care if someone has the saddest backstory ever (real or fictional) that is not justification for their evil actions and it doesn't elicit sympathy from me.
"Thanos cried when he killed Gamora! He's so nuanced!"
No, he's a genocidal maniac who wiped out half of all the life in the universe. He deserved what Thor did to him.
Just give me Darkseid, he has no redeeming qualities, he's literally pure, unadulterated evil.....and still a fun character to read.
Sympathetic villains can be good it usually helps you understand them not justify what they did.
I too miss villains in my childhood, like the Lich and vilgax
I like Sauron, he doesn't have a sad backstory, he thinks he's better and smarter than everyone else, and everything would be better if he was in charge, so he tries to takeover the world. Thats the point, Sauron is evil, no sad "my father hurt me or liked my brother more" he just feels superior than other being abd wants his perfect world where everything is ordered, his obsession drove him there
Frieza is one of my favorite villains ever for this exact reason. His backstory is obscured, he delights in tormenting others and will do anything to secure his power. He's ruthless. He's evil just to be evil. And for the most part his character has endured that way for 30 plus years, even in Super. He is a consistent villain.
One of the greatest villains is the gravemind/the flood from Halo. A pure and terrifying parasite that only wants to feed, however, as it gains intelligence, it gains its own wicked philosophy. While the flood doesnt change the fate of the modern halo universe, they are the reason the forerunners were mostly extinct and leaving their artifacts abandoned to the newer factions. They’re amazing and really well written.
At least imo
The way high evolutionary just said "kill them" with the most "obviously" look on his face when asked about what to do with rocket
I was so freaking happy we got the High Evolutionary the way he did. I felt so happy seeing a truly evil and despicable man again. Because I felt like he was someone I WANTED to see get beat up by the heroes for how vile he is. The problem with everyone being sympathetic is that it gets hard to care about seeing them be tossed around by the heroes. The other issue is it hardly makes them a foil to the hero, just a guy they battle. I don't mind a villain having a sympathetic element or two (like in Puss in Boots 2 with Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, they're definitely evil people, but they're still a good family to each other. That kind of thing can work). But yeah, more outright evil villains are needed, like Frieza from Dragon Ball Z/Super, Jack Horner in Puss and Boots 2, and the High Evolutionary.
Finally a comment about him.
"The problem with everyone being sympathetic is that it gets hard to care about seeing them be tossed around by the heroes" I dunno I just never had that problem and I just switch from enjoying seeing the villain tossed around to enjoy seeing the heroes get tossed around. I know you're suppose to root for the hero but I usually root for the villain if I just like them enough especially if I like them more than the heroes(i.e. Thanos, Ultron, Winter Soldier, Darth Vader, etc). As long as there's pretty decent fight at the end I'll be satisfied. I'm a simple unga bunga enjoyer I guess. Haha.
The way I see it, there are two main reasons to give a villain a backstory: to make them sympathetic, or to explain their actions. I feel like we have too much of the former and not enough of the latter. Manta from Aquaman is a good example of the latter. He’s a pretty bad(ass) dude.
Sometimes a flat antagonist is just better than a "layered" one.
I have been saying this for almost a decade. Some people are just bad. There are serial killers who grew up in a loving household and had everything they could have ever wanted.
no matter what anybody says Doflamingo from one piece is top tier villan writing, he had a reason but not enough to justify to absolute despicable stuff he did
Bruh Doffy just had a temper tantrum that Daddy took him away from his slaves to make him live like the common folk who were 100% justified in how they treated him. He was only treated as he treated his slaves
"Why are you so weak?
You're so weak, yet you cling to life.
Continuing on your path means destruction, yet you wish to be happy for as long as possible.
*You should spend your lives stifling your misery* " - Sukuna, The King of Curses
I like it when villains know damn well they are evil and are proud to be evil.
Forgot Sauron the pure looming Shadow of destruction and power personified.
Funny thing is that the most evil people we know in history were simply evil for NO DAMN REASON. They just wanted power and they liked doing it. Sympathetic villains are ironically unrealistic.
Well technically speaking the reason was “they felt the need for power”, but yeah, not the traditional “reason” you might find for a nuanced villain.
‘No reason’ - I.e. all the reason in the world: power.
Your not alone. Albert Wesker and Arkham of dmc 3 were great.
I liked it when villains had a reason to be villains. But what I liked more was when they were villains, NOT BECAUSE OF SOME TRAGEDY. BECAUSE OF THEIR IDEALS. When it was their beliefs against the MC's beliefs. Not something stupid like "A firebender killed my wife, so Imma gonna destroy all benders". More like Grindlewalt believing in Wizard superiority.
I would also add comic thanos . Besides the whole lady death thing , bro was just doing whatever for the gun of it
1:19
Loves Papa Palpatine and hates the sequels?
"At first you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention."
Jeez, since I watched GOTG part 3 I just can't get out of my head just how amazing the High Evolutionary was as a villain. Greatest written MCU villain in my opinion, and the movie was easily the most depressing one as well.
Rumpelstiltskin from Shrek Forever After is such a good example of this!
I saw that film so many times this year and he's my absolute favorite villain of the shrek franchise. Sure, he's small and not strong, but he's very smart and manipulative and rose to power in a way a regular person would want to do the same thing.
@@TheGoldenPlatoon757 well, a villain being very short is a given for Shrek. The only one who broke that tradition was prince Charming.
I actually found the Snyderverse Darkseid refreshing because he was pure evil. Yeah, he wasn't on the level of DC's animated versions and the comics, but we finally got a selfish, power-hungry villain that we hadn't seen Marvel or Dc put out in the live action movies since the first Ironman and Captain America movies.
It's not just comic books, in all of entertainment it's become the standard now that every character has to be grey.
I write, and so many youtubers who give writing advice always give advice to write complex villains, and to make them morally grey. Even George R.R Martin criticised Tolkien's LoTR because Sauron and Morgoth are evil incarnate as if it's a bad thing.
The most ancient and long lasting stories from history and mythology all include a bad guy who is just simply evil, it's such a modern idea that the villain needs to have a tragic backstory.
Also if the recent beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake has taught me anything, the world loves nothing more than someone who has dedicated themselves to being a pure hater, it's one of the reasons I love reverse flash, he's just a dedicated hater of Barry Allen, nothing is too low, too far, or too difficult, so long as it even has the chance to affect Barry negatively, reverse flash is all about it
I think the reason that villains have to have a sad and conflicted backstory is because these days, people need to see reason in every character. However, there is ways of giving reasons that still constitute as pure evil
I always think of Hans from Inglorious Basterds as a great example. He explains why he hates people who are Jewish, but you realise that his reason comes from pure malice
Therefore, writers can get the best of both worlds
Bring back morally unambiguous characters.
My favorite villains are Darth Vader and Dr. Doom. Both had motivations that made their actions understandable. Vader waa mainly undying grief and Doom wanted to rule the earth because he believes he's the best for the job. He is actually. Remember his speech to Namor, My people pray to their God thanking him for me. Nuff said.
Judge Holden if you know you know. If you don't get ready for the most evil character in fiction.
You came from tik tok didn’t you?🤦🏾♂️
Agreed every villain now got bullied as a kid or their parents died or they got abused its always those three. We need more villains like frieza.
Palpatine may be the greatest Star Wars villain, but there's an even BIGGER Star Wars villain, Disney
I have been saying this for so long. Im so sick of the sympathetic villain, especially with a community that simps for them saying they were right.
I miss evil villains who are just evil
I have NO regrets making all my villains just pure evil irredeemable psychopaths in my writing
Adachi is a prime example of an evil villain just for the sake of being evil.
I didn't play persona 4 myself but...
POTENTIAL SPOILERS TO PERSONA 4 ARENA ULTIMAX
Didn't Adachi redeem himself?
@@michaelzjwanko3680 Kinda
In my opinion, Michael Myers, and I mean the newest timeline of Halloween (Essentially Halloween 1974 - Halloween 2018, kills, and ends), is one of the greatest villains of all time. Besides just how iconic Michael is, the way the new timeline handles him is near perfect. They dont do the whole “curse” thing or “abused child” or “bullied kid” thing. Here he’s just evil. Plain and simple. He doesnt kill for any specific reason. He doesnt target anybody in particular. He’s just the epitome of evil. The embodiment of darkness. Does he have a conscience? Maybe. Does he feel satisfaction when he kills? Nobody knows, nor will ever know. What made him start killing? Nobody knows. He just does it. Like a tornado or a hurricane just *does* it. There is no rhyme or reason to him. He doesnt talk, doesnt show any emotion, anger, sadness, happiness, or anything of that sort. There is no selfishness in the sense of someone like Palpatine or insanity like we’d attribute to somebody like Joker. Its just evil, and if he’s free, he’ll kill.
Sukuna is the embodiment of evil for the sake of being evil
Let’s not forget about the pie guy from Puss in Boots. Top tier villainy👌
I think the non-evil (complex) villain was something that just was too rare for too long.
So now that its become almost the standard it does kinda feel like its gotten a bit too common.
Really, though, it doesn't matter which type of villain you have as long as its well-written.
I think back to old cartoons.
You have the moustache twirling villain trying the lady to the railroad tracks.
What's he going to do next time?
Probably exactly the same thing, because they're emotionally flat.
That's why I think pure evil villains have never quite been as common as people think.
They just didn't give much room for interesting writing.
But I think there's a difference between a villain you're supposed to feel bad for who is justified in all of their actions, and one where you just understand why they did what they did.
Saving all of the villains is for someone with way too much time, knowledge and power on their hands.
Now villains are mostly misunderstood and it is getting annoying because its becoming a recurring thing
i want someones whos genuinely pure evil who doesnt have a sad backstory and is just doing evil things because he or she finds it fun entertaining amusing etc etc
All those "humanizing " and sympathy baiting writing style made a lot of villains who had so much potential to entertain the audience turned lame very quickly :
Honestly I don't mind motivated villains, like villains who have good motivations or intentions but go about it the wrong way. I also enjoy some villains who straight up are on demon timing for some the craziest reasons or just because you can. That or something like Toji from JJK where it isn't personal, he's just here for a check. While I don't mind sympathetic villains and love villains like Pain from Naruto, the quote "Cool motive, still murder," is my main thought process.
The thing is when you make a villian pure evil the things they would do would make it a horror film.
While I do love palpatine, you gotta remember he wasn’t strong enough to kill plaugeis directly, he had to kill him in his sleep like a little bitch
I like the MCU Thanos, but at the same time, THAT IS NOT THANOS he is not supposed to be justifiable
endgame shows that he doesn't really care about balance, he just wants to be a God
@@georgevelis4651 that was after he was fed up with the Avengers and realized humans can't move on. At first, he sat back and retired. He doesn't want to be a God he wants balance
Never forgive MCU for the amount of edgy teenage boys saying they would snap their fingers and kill everyone in the world too and that thanos was just misunderstood 🤦♀️
@@IronDeficiencyMan I'm sorry but in my opinion that is a big misreading of his character. He sees himself as a savior. The moment he realizes he won't be considered one by the people of this universe, he immediately goes "ok then I'll kill you all and make a new one". He sees himself as a god, a savior. Balance was his excuse. Literally his first scene of IW was Loki going "you'll never be a God". Why would the writers write that line if not to foreshadow his true intentions
@@georgevelis4651 Oh yeah, I forgot about that line
I’d say at least palpatine has some level of ‘reason’ which is his sith religion but darkseid comes in and everyone’s shitting themselves because he’s just out for blood