Who is the BEST Villian from Sci-fi and Fantasy

[Chris]

Big Brother (1984)
Alex De Large (A Clockwork Orange)

....They count as Dystopian sci-fi

[Greg]

C.T. wrote: "Darkseid is one of my favorite comic book villains, even though I know him primarily from the animated shows. He's powerful and completely tyrannical, but he's also extremely smart.

I've got a so..."

Darkseid definitely had the whole red eyes surrounded by darkness down real well. I wonder if Skeletor copied him.

[C.T.]

@Greg: It's certainly possible lol. I don't know the history, but I do know that there are a lot of character copies/parodies that exist between Marvel and DC. Now that DC is publishing He-man comics, I don't know where they've gone with Skeletor (haven't been able to keep up with those comics). But it would be interesting to see him team up with Darkseid.

[Shawn]

Chris wrote: "Big Brother (1984)
Alex De Large (A Clockwork Orange)

....They count as Dystopian sci-fi"

Gotta agree with Big Brother.

[Pat]

Any of the Prador from Neal Asher's books... those dudes are nasty. Vrell probably being one of the nastiest

[Leland]

Terez wrote: "My vote goes to Cersei Lannister from A Song Of Ice And Fire. She is such a hateful woman."

I agree that Cersei has done some pretty hateful vindictive, despicable and even sinister things, but with the last book I found myself having quite a lot of sympathy for her. I'm especially hoping that she'll feature in the next book.

[Ken]

I rather like Abaia from Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.

It's a Cthulu-esque being from another star system, come to dominate Earth with 16 of its fellow wanderers.

[Don]

Baron Harkonnen (dune)was a pretty creepy guy. Bayaz (the first law trilogy), The first of the Magi, turned out to be quite the bad guy.

[John]

I'm not sure if he's been mentioned yet, but Steerpike from Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast is about as wonderful a villain as you could hope for. Brilliant and charming and obsessed with tearing the world down brick by brick :)

[Chris]

John wrote: "I'm not sure if he's been mentioned yet, but Steerpike from Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast is about as wonderful a villain as you could hope for. Brilliant and charming and obsessed with tearing the wo..."

You win the thread. Its been AGES since I read Gormenghast, but the second you mentioned Steerpike, all the memories came crashing back.

*runs off to re-read this awesome trilogy*

[Becca]

Magneto. Hard to dislike him when he is trying to help his own kind.

[Stan]

It's hard to think of Magneto as villain when you're rooting for him the whole time.

[Nick]

Grand Admiral Thrawn

[William]

The Illustrated Man from Something Wicked this way Comes scared the crap out of me in the book. I think Johnathan Price played him in the movie from Disney.

[Dan]

Lanfear from A Wheel of Time, not my favourite series ever but she was a highlight. A more recent one would be Queen Rhin from The Faithful and the Fallen series. For some reason the female villains stand out.

[Paul]

I would have to go with the Echthroi from the works of Madeleine L'Engle.

I doesn't get much more evil than things that will torture stars to death. Look out everyone smaller.

[J.F.]

Quinn Dexter from Peter F Hamilton reality dysfunction. He proper bad guy.

[Balkron]

The most obvious answer is the one villain that all people know by name, by look, and by voice. Darth Vader.

Now for my personal favorite, the 7 Chandrian from The King Killer Chronicles. Also the student Ambrose Jakis.

[L.G.]

Micah wrote: "Killian wrote: "Anyone else notice how many ASOIAF characters have been mentioned?..."

I attribute that to the "recently popular book & TV show" effect. It's the "big thing" now so it's on people'..."

At the rate it's going ASOIAF may still be going then ^_^.

[Stevie]

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned the villain that, to me, is the scariest creature imaginable in any universe: the Cthaeh from Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles. It's only a tree, but it's a tree that can see the future in 100% perfect detail, and it is perfectly evil. All it has to do is say one word to you, because it knows exactly how you will react to that word, and how everyone else will react to how you react, ad infinitim.

[Raymond]

My vote goes to Sauron in Middle Earth. He's evil incarnate, capable of far more harm than any mortal. Harry Potter's Lord Voldemort is no slouch either.

[J.F.]

I previously mentioned Quinn dexter from peter f gamilyons reality dysfunction. Hes proper bad guy. But to add to that, how about skade the conjoiner from Alistair Reynolds revelation space series'. She is a nasty piece of work and her final play against claivin ( the best hero guy) would bring a tear to a glass eye.

[Edward]

Def have to agree with Vader (and with the lackluster treatment he got in the prequels).

The joker from batman gets a nod. If a guy in a bat mask fighting a crazy clown isn't fantasy I guess nothing is :)