For me, it would be GLaDOS.

Portal 2 spoiler

She deleted the one remaining human part of herself because it was just too much to deal with. She releases you at the end of Portal 2 as a path of least resistance measure because “killing you is hard.”

What about you, what is your favorite media villain?

  • Quazatron@lemmy.world
    169·
    5 months ago

    Here are the test results: You’re a horrible person. That’s what it says. A horrible person. We weren’t even testing for that.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      4·
      5 months ago

      It’s actually why I listed the James Bond villain Elliot Carver from Tomorrow Never Dies because he was an analogue for Murdoch, a media magnate who wanted to control the world through disinformation. It was a prescient character, because that was still during 1997, long before FOX News had become the danger it actually is. Yet Carver is pretty on-the-nose for what actually ended up happening and we didn’t have a James Bond to save us.

      • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
        13·
        5 months ago

        My vote as well.

        He constantly finds the piece of humanity within whoever hes talking to and then tries to manipulate it.

        Its hard to top Gul Dukat.

        • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          5 months ago

          The great thing about Dukat is that he frequently finds his own humanity. You keep thinking that this time he’ll do the right thing and start his path to redemption, but he never does. He always chooses to do the wrong thing even though there’s clearly good in him and you’re always disappointed and even surprised when it happens. He’s like the anti-Zuko.

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
          4·
          5 months ago

          They’re both excellent at being different kinds of evil.

          Winn is prideful and ambitious above all else. She sides with good and evil both at different times in service to her own goals. She deludes herself into believing anything that pursuit of personal power is also what serves Bajor.

          Winn commits evil in service to her ambitions.

          Dukat has the same vices, but with added elements of narcissism and wrath. He briefly tries being good, and almost reaches it when he finds genuine love for and from his daughter, but when his actions lead to her death he lashes out at the universe and becomes entirely consumed by wrath and megalomania.

          Dukat’s ambition in the end is to commit evil.

          • okwhateverdude@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            5 months ago

            I am looking for the like and subscribe buttons for this long-form video essay dissecting Star Trek antagonists, but I don’t see any. 😉

        • Lupus108@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          5 months ago

          It’s been ages I saw a ytp and I never was quite the fan, but this right there is a fucking masterpiece.

          I was about to just check it and ended up watching the whole thing.

          “Attention bajoran workers! My wife left me” had me wheezing.

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      5 months ago

      I think the counter to that is that:

      Tap for spoiler

      they completely dropped the ball with her toward the end of the show. She went from, I think, a great allegory for a religious radical right wing capitalizing off her people’s suffering but in a way she could genuinely warp her beliefs into thinking was for the greater good…

      … to, I mean, come on… Having her go totally crazed with power and disavowing the Prophets wasn’t the problem; it’s that it was stupid, egregiously paced, totally unearned MacGuffin power without grounded stakes that only served to make an already-rushed resolution to the show feel even more rushed.

  • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
    53·
    5 months ago

    Prince Arthas Menethil from Warcraft.

    [Quietly sweeps WoW:Shadowlands under the rug]

    Dudes villian arc is perfect, his fall is entierly of his own making. Playing as him in Warcraft 3, you follow his reasoning and by the time the corruption sets in, its far too late. In the expansions, you play as him in full BBEG mode. Lastly, WoW:Wrath of the Lich King had him as the capstone boss of one of the best expansions and 15 years of buildup.

    And they never expanded on his character ever again…

  • Zonefive@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    351·
    5 months ago

    Omar Little, The Wire

    “I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It’s all in the game, though, right?”

  • IWW4@lemmy.zip
    302·
    5 months ago

    If favorite is a villain whose motivation was pure and got perverted by his obsession and still awesome:

    General Woundwort

    If favorite = one i hate the most, it is a tie between:

    Joffrey

    Ramsey

    If favorite is a villain who is cool as hell it is a tie between

    Voldemort

    Hans Gruber

  • LillyPip@lemmy.caEnglish
    25·
    5 months ago

    GLaDOS is mine, too.

    (spoilers ahead, play it if you haven’t)

    In my first playthrough, I didn’t see it coming, and I felt like she was my friend. That was a relationship twist I’ve never had in a game, and I really appreciated what they did there.

    e: if you’re looking for other game recs that fuck with you, I’d say What Remains of Edith Finch.