Science Fiction and Fantasy's Top Ten Villains

Here I go, Getting Myself Flamed Again

I love reading heroic fiction. I want to see the main character sweat, bleed and cry on their way to defeating a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad villain in epic fashion. I don’t particularly care what the villain did that’s so terrible as long as it is, indeed, terrible. Seriously, the only thing as good ad an awesome hero to root for is an awful villain to root against.

Think about it. Go back in time in your mind. Who can forget the time that Honor Harrington killed the man who killed her boyfriend in a paid for duel and then shot the man who hired the duelist down like the dog he was? How much fun was it to watch Cobra Commander or Mumm-ra freak out? Remember Data outfoxing Professor Moriarty on Star Trek: The Next Generation or Captain Picard’s defeat of the Borg queen? Well, none of those villains made the top ten, but those were great moments in the life of one Jimbo, goofball blogger extraordinaire.

Below are ten of the deadliest, dastardliest, evilest bad peoples that ever bad peopled. Like, seriously, nobody likes these folks. Oh, and before I get started: HAL 9000 is not on here because I couldn’t make it through the intro of 2001 and have since avoided 2010 because of its association with 2001. Yeah, it’s that bad for me. I expect excoriation for admitting that, but some things just suck and that movie is one of them.

*AHEM*

Wondering who’s on the list? Wonder no more, because here it is

10.) Darken Rahl -The Sword of Truth Serie

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Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours .

Never in the history of ever has there been a bigger just flat out jerk than Darken Rahl. Never mind his psychotic tendencies. Never mind his hiding of the Boxes of Orden, the one thing that our heroes really need. Never mind the fact that he used a group of evil dominatrixes to control, humiliate and torture his enemies. That much I could forgive.

No, none of those are why Darken Rahl makes the list. He makes the list because his evil, despotic hide forced his people to swear a super creepy oath to him, acting like he’s a benevolent force that helps his people when he’s a crazy despot. Seriously, you can keep the Box of Orden. Somebody need to scope Rahl’s colon with a spear. I hated this guy on sight and it got worse right up until the moment when he accidentally offed himself. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

9.) Lord Baltar - The Original Battlestar Galactica

Count Baltar: And what is the standing order, for humans, from your Imperious Leader?

Cylon Centurion: Extermination.

Count Baltar: Then carry out your orders. If they exist, they're doomed.

Gaius Baltar of the Battlestar Galactica reboot was, for the most part, not much of a villain. He was either forced into doing what he did or duped into doing it. He wasn’t all that bright but he didn’t have the pure evil required to make this list.

Lord Baltar, from the 70s edition of Battlestar Galactica is a completely different animal. He was straight up malevolent. Imagine knowing that someone was going to wipe out your entire species and thinking “Ya know what? Cool. I’ll work for that guy. At least I’ll die last.” Balrat was really a person who condoned the genocide of the entire human race. He worked to represent the Cylons.

Very rarely would I call anyone irredeemable, but Baltar is that guy. Once you’ve betrayed the entire human race for basically nothing there is no coming back. It’s not even like Baltar went in trying to double cross the Cylons. He knew what he was doing and he did it deliberately. How much worse does it get?

8.) Magneto - Marvel’s X-Men

The Age of Humanity ends now.

I’m a little uncomfortable putting Magneto on this list, but I feel like I have to. Magneto was a Holocaust survivor. He went through things that no human being should have to. I reviewed the story of his journey through hell here. I want to like this guy. He’s got guts. If the only story about Magneto had been Testament, he probably would have made my Ten Most Badass Men in Science Fiction and Fantasy list. But Magneto didn’t just cross the line: He flew over it at Mach 10 and flipped it off on the way by.

Magneto became what he hated. Magneto went from being the victim in a genocide to wanting to conduct one. I get the fact that he was scared. Lots of people are scared. That doesn’t equate to the mass genocide of the entire human race, or at least those of us who aren’t mutants. Magneto is a lot like Baltar, only Baltar can at least claim that he didn’t understand the horror of what he was complicit in. Magneto did. He had seen it firsthand.

Magneto watched his people slaughtered and set out on a mission to do the same thing to someone else. He didn’t just turn a blind eye. It wasn’t even a moment of condoning what someone else had done. Given half a chance, Magneto would have produced the gas and lit the fires himself. Fear is a powerful motivator, but Magneto let it push him too far.

7.) Delores Umbridge - Harry Potter

The Cruciatous Curse ought to loosen your tongue.

There is nothing in the world that I hate more than a person with just a little power who wants to lord it over those who are powerless to stop them. Tin pot tyrants are the worst that humanity has to offer. Delores Jane Umbridge was definitely one of those.

Umbridge spent an entire school year torturing students who had no way to fight back. She ran interference for Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge and kept much of the Wizarding World from preparing for and/or fighting the war against Voldemort, leading to the deaths of only God knows how many innocent people. That was before she went to work back at the Ministry and started holding sham trials of Muggle Born wizards in service to the Dark Lord himself.

In many ways, Umbridge is a bigger villain than Voldy not because of her goals or even her actions but because she is the type of person who creates real-world horrors. Umbridge is the person who turns her neighbor in for thoughtcrimes or who works with a corrupt regime as long as it benefits her. Let’s face it: I know that no magic wielding despot is coming to kill me because I can’t cast Wingardium Leviosa. There have been Umbridges throughout history though. They represent murderous regimes for their own benefit and they get off on doing it. Umbridge is pure evil.

6.) Agent Smith - The Matrix

Human beings are a disease...And we are the cure”

I’ll give Agent Smith this much: He wasn’t in the genocide business. He was, however, in the slavery business. Keeping humanity tethered to pods in order to harness their bio-electric energy was just flat out wrong. Eliminating the people who were trying to defend their right to determine anything about their own physical existence was just twisted. Smith started off evil.

But then he got worse. Smith slipped off the leash and went rogue. After that he was trying to accomplish…

Uhh…

Well…

Sumfin’. Maybe.

It’s weird, because he seems to have gone from killer with a purpose to a guy who just wanted to kill Neo because he could. Or he thought he could, anyway.

That’s it for the first half. I hope you’re ready for the Top Five Villains!

5.)Khan Noonien Singh - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

“I mean to avenge myself upon you, admiral. I deprived your ship of power, and, when I wwing around, I mean to deprive you of your life, but I wanted you to know first who it was who had beaten you!”

I swear by all I hold holy that the only thing I find more annoying than a murderous genetically engineered terrorist hell-bent on killing everyone is an ARROGANT murderous genetically engineered terrorist hell-bent on killing everyone. Khan didn’t like Kirk. He was upset because he had been exiled. I get it. That, however, leaves aside the context that he was exiled because he was an ARROGANT murderous genetically engineered terrorist hell-bent on killing everyone.

I’m not usually okay with people who call non-rape actions “rape” but this dude stuck a bug in the ears of two people and then controlled their mind. That’s a form of domination that is, basically, rape. Then Khan tries to steal the Genesis device because he craves the power it would give him.

And listen, if you’ve been paying attention to what I’ve written so far you’re well aware of what I think of power mad individuals,

And then manages to kill Spock. What Spock did was heroic as all get out, but Khan caused it. The man murdered a legend. The fact that Spock was back next film doesn’t change that, especially for those of us who saw The Wrath of Khan before The Search for Spock debuted.

4.) Coriolanus Snow - The Hunger Games

“We Both Know I'm Not Above Killing Children, But I'm Not Wasteful.”

Coriolanus Snow started his climb to power by participating in the murder of children. Then once he got into power, he kept hold of it by killing children. Then, he killed some more children. And he used mutated animals to kill children. Then, for an encore he killed the families of the children who had the guts to not surrender to what he was doing.

But why did Snow kill children? Because he could cow adults by killing kids. He used the deaths of children who, for the most part, wanted no part of the competition that they were forced to enter because it would rob their parents of hope and keep them from rebelling. The murder of juveniles was a tool in his toolbox. He wanted those kids dead. Their deaths not only fed his sense of power and importance, they were leverage.

And it’s not like killing kids was the only thing Snow did wrong. He starved people because it made them weak and dependent. He outlawed the possession of the weaponry that would have made the people able to stand up for themselves against their government. He terrorized twelve Districts for the power of the Capitol. Snow was scum. And perhaps most damning of all, he could kill children and not see the loss of their potential as wasteful. He was disgusting.

Trying to rank the Top 3 in order is making me crazy. Wish me luck and buckle up!

3.) Thanos - The Marvel Cinematic Universe

“The hardest choices require the strongest wills.”

I fought hard over whether Thanos comes in second or third, but I’m going with third because reasons. Regardless of second or third though, Thanos belongs here. Thanos does one of my least favorite things: He kills for simple convenience. He can claim positive motives all day long, but the bottom line is that he wipes out half the population of the entire universe simply because it’s easier to do so than to find a way to deal with overconsumption.

Thanos isn’t just treating a headache by chopping off the head. Thanos is treating one headache by chopping off trillions of heads. Sometimes problems are hard to solve. That’s unfortunate. Difficulty doesn’t mean license to slaughter. But, in some ways it gets worse.

Thanos needed a sacrifice to gain power. He sacrificed Gamora. Gamora was his adopted daughter. He killed his own child for power. Think about that for minute. This wasn’t some random kid from nowhere. Thanos had raised Gamora and he didn’t even bother trying to find someone else to sacrifice. He killed her because she was there.

2.) Kai Wynn Adami- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I'm a patient woman; but I have run out of patience. I will no longer serve gods who give me nothing in return. I'm ready to walk the path the Pah-wraiths have laid out for me.

Imagine this: You’re a religious leader on the planet Bajor. It only has one religion. Bajor has been occupied until recently by aliens (Cardassians) who enslaved and slaughtered your people so that they could loot your planet of its natural resources. Millions have been murdered. Nearly every native of the planet has been enslaved. Some have been raped. The Resistance has fought hard and many of them didn’t survive the Occupation. Another foreign power (the Federation) has come in - whether to help or to “help” is an open question. So how do you react?

Well, first you start a terrorist organization bent on repelling the Federation without really finding out what their intentions are. Then you take out one of your rivals for the overall leadership of the native religion. Once you receive the power you crave you use it to oppress pretty much everybody and remove even more threats to your power. In and of itself, that would probably earn you a spot on the list, but then it gets worse.

Kai Winn went on to fall in love with the Cardassian, Gul Dukat, who had led the Occupation of her planet. Then she turned her back on her religion, turned to the Pah Wraiths and began a literal Armageddon that could have ended her people once and for all. Think about that. This is like the Pope summoning all the demons of hell and setting them loose on Earth.

Many people would tell you that Kai Winn is so hated because she is a woman. I am here to tell you that they are wrong. Winn is hated because she is a traitor to her planet, her people, her gods and herself. She turned her back on everything she claimed to love and every person she claimed to serve for her own aggrandizement. Kai Winn was everything that is wrong with humanity, rolled up into one alien body.

1.) Satan - the St. Tommy NYPD series

“But don’t you understand? I murdered your wife!”

Yes, it was that Satan, aka Lucifer, the Lightbringer.

Satan, in the St. Tommy NYPD novels is, as should probably be expected, the ultimate evil. He killed Tommy’s wife Mariel with a brain tumor. He sends his servants (demons, mortals, whatever) into battle against our heroes and he even takes a punch or two from Tommy at Mariels funeral. For Satan, in this series as in the Bible, it is better to reign in Hell than it is to serve in Heaven.

Satan strikes at whoever he can because he can. It is Satan’s goal to rule both heaven and Earth. He does that by trying his best to corrupt Tommy with wealth, with sex, with whatever. It’s what he does. He’s Satan.

It’s crazy too, because Satan comes across as the guy whose only reason for not topping the latest affront with something worse is because he hasn’t thought of how to do so. And when he murders a man’s wife simply to get to the man, we know the truth of what he is: Evil incarnate. That much alone make him the Biggest Villain in Science Fiction and Fantasy.