The Power Of A Sympathetic Villain (#IWSG)

REALLY REALLY BUSY this week, between the Not-So-Evil Day Job, preparing to travel to California next week, and trying to catch up on my drafting and revisions. Also, I’ve had recurring knee problems recently that has slowed me down a bit (literally), which has caused me to hobble around like Quasimoto. So I seem to be falling behind at EVERYTHING lately. *sigh*

I did finally get around to watching Netflix’s Daredevil. I liked it well enough, but the thing I was most impressed with was the writing for Fisk/Kingpin. He was a true antagonist for Daredevil, because the two of them actually want the same thing–they’re just both coming at their mutual goals from opposite sides of the alignment spectrum. (Also, Holy Wow to Vincent d’Onofrio’s portrayal of the character.)

In honor of my appreciation of the sympathetic or redeemable villain–what I call a True Antagonist, because Villain tends to be a bit of a misnomer in a lot of scenarios–here’s a list of other favorite Bad Guys and other antagonists with an arc as defined as the hero’s (and, sometimes, more interesting):

The Agent, Serenity
The Warlord The Dragon Star trilogy (Melanie Rawn)
Darth Vader, Star Wars
Loghain, Dragon Age: Origins 
Lucien, Underworld
Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter
Warner, Shatter Me Series (Tahereh Mafi)

I know there’s loads more, most of which I’m certain will smack me between the eyes at 3:00am, but that’s all I could squeeze from my Gray Matters for the mo’

Your turn! Who are your favorite antagonists?