Best TV Show Villains | Teen Ink

Best TV Show Villains

May 5, 2016
By wolvesandwilderness GOLD, Lakeland, Florida
wolvesandwilderness GOLD, Lakeland, Florida
10 articles 47 photos 39 comments

Favorite Quote:
“Funny how a single word can change everything in your life."
"It is not funny at all. Steel is power. Money is power. But of all the things in all the worlds, words are power.”

Darrow au Andromedus and Nero au Augustus in Red Rising.


Rules: They have to be a single entity, not an organization. They cannot be evil for no reason. They have to originally be from a TV show, so no movie-to-TV-show or book-to-TV-show adaptations, although comic adaptations are, given the sheer difference between them and a TV show. And yes, there will be spoilers.


Alright. In no particular order, let’s begin.

The Master- Unfortunately, I can’t add the Weeping Angels or the Vashta Nerada to this list because they aren’t single entities. But Doctor Who also has the Master, a devilishly creepy Time Lord who’s a tiny bit insane. I can feel sorry for him, though, considering the elder Time Lords practically caused his insanity by forcefully implanting a drumming noise in his head- one that never stopped. He’s old friends/enemies/frenemies (I hate that word) with the Doctor, and constantly uses the Doctor’s hesitation to kill him to his advantage.
My favorite part with the Master was when, in The Sound of Drums, one of the people he’s murdering with toxic gas shouts out, ‘You’re insane!’ and he grins and gives the man a thumbs up. Seriously, best way to confirm insanity ever.

Best Quote: "The drumming. Can't you hear it? I thought it would stop, but it never does. Never, ever stops. Inside my head. The drumming, Doctor. The constant drumming."

 

Dottie Underwood- Russian sleeper agent and next door neighbor, if you’re looking for that evil party girl, this is it. She comes off as the sweetest neighbor ever: always nice, unfailingly charming… or so you think. No, she’s actually a super hard-core spy who isn’t afraid of feeling or causing pain.
She mentioned in the second season that she has pulled out her own nails, hair, and teeth; that she’s burned herself with a blowtorch. She even sleeps handcuffed to her bed at night- masochistic for sure. Even Agent Carter can’t see through her guise, though- no, she’s just the sweet girl next door. Until she tries to kill you with a baseball bat or murders a man for getting a little too forward. Even when she’s been outed as the completely sadistic person she is, she still talks like the sweet neighbor, too, which makes her a fun villain to watch.

Best Quote: "I used to be so jealous of girls like you. I would have done anything to walk like you, to talk like you. But now... I can be anybody I want."


Slade Wilson- Or Deathstroke, whatever you want to call him. Although his plot to wreck Starling was a bit of a recycled one, you can’t help but love this villain. He starts off as a sarcastic ASIS agent abandoned on the same island as the protagonist, Oliver Queen, and the two become allies. But after an incident with a syringe full of crazy-person drugs (as I call it), he starts to go a bit nuts.
He then sets his sights on revenge against the protagonist, who was partially responsible for the death of someone he loved. Since he’s practically insane, he fixates his entire existence on getting revenge. So after a long stint of waiting and building up power, he goes to Starling to get it. He starts by murdering the protagonist’s mother, then making his sister hate him, then threatening to wreck the city, then threatening his love interest. Obviously, he doesn’t succeed in wrecking the city or murdering the love interest, but it’s still fun to watch him try.

Best Quote: "Wherever I am... it's time you joined me. They say a coward dies a thousands deaths. But even that wouldn't be enough for you."


Oswald Cobblepot (Penguin)- You can hardly blame this guy for being crazy. That name would drive anyone to insanity. Next, add that his job includes one nefarious mafia boss and one really bad job at a club owned by a murderer, and yeah… you’d probably be crazy, too. Everyone looked down on this guy at first- just a skinny kid holding an umbrella for a club owner as his full-time job. They even stuck him with the much-hated nickname of Penguin. See? Adults call each other stupid names, too. Nobody expected much out of him.
But since he’s on my villains list, you can be sure that he went far beyond those expectations. Let’s look at little Penguin’s list of kills, shall we? Here we go: a man on the side of a river (Penguin wanted his sandwich), two men in a truck (for telling him he waddled like a penguin- he has a limp), another man (for sandwich money), a group of thugs (with poisoned cannoli, of all things), some- well, a lot- of a local crime lord’s henchmen, and his former boss (the club owner). And these are just the ones on screen, of his own free will, in the first season. Yeah… expectations exceeded?
Throughout it all, though, he’s a little mama’s boy. He is absolutely devoted to his mother and will murder anyone who even does so much as say one bad thing about her. Aww. That’s sweet. No other villain I’ve ever seen has that sort of devotion to a loved one- the Joker never cared about his mother. Voldemort never mourned his. See, parents? Role model.

Best Quote: "I'm the King of Gotham!"


Kilgrave- Wow, this guy is creepy. Jessica Jones may not be well-known, but it has an amazing villain. Okay, so maybe calling himself 'Kilgrave' is basically putting up a large neon sign that says, "Attention, world! I'm evil!", but it's not like you could do anything about it anyway. Why, you ask? Because he can control you merely by speaking to you. Oh, yeah. He literally robs you of free will.
At first, Kilgrave is sort of in the shadows: Who is this mysterious man that Jessica Jones, who also has powers (and pretty scary ones), is terrified of? You see his actions- PTSD flashbacks from Jessica, another girl he assaults, her parents who he makes her kill. Then you meet the man. He doesn't seem scary at first; just a man who demands that someone share their house with him. Then he meets the guy's kids. And then you find out just how depraved this man is. He makes them stay in a closet with no food, no water, and no bathroom until he leaves. That's some seriously messed-up man right there.
And that's not even everything. All of his actions have one purpose: Get to Jessica Jones. Initially, he's angry because she tried to kill him after she broke free of his control ("You literally threw me under the bus!"), so he indirectly causes the Shlottmans' deaths. He also causes her friend to become a heroin addict (just to get him to spy on her for the drugs), sends someone to kill her best friend/adoptive sister, and drops hints that he's been watching her. It's not until we get to the seventh episode that they meet face-to-face. Jessica, who is about to be arrested as a plot to lure Kilgrave out, finds that he's already there. He then admits to still being in love with her. Creepy? Totally.

As part of her plan to capture Kilgrave, she goes with him when he offers it. It's there that you start gaining some sympathy for the man- his childhood (or lack of it) is completely awful. His parents literally used him as a lab rat, then ditched him when he was ten years old. (Also love the Doctor Who reference in that scene- 'You're not Ten anymore.' Sorry, Tennant.) Not that his life excuses his actions, but no one ever taught him right from wrong, and after a childhood like that, it's clear why he hates other people so much. In addition to that, he tells her that he never knows if people genuinely want to do anything he tells them to do. After Jessica betrays him (again), though, he immediately stops the love act and moves on to trying to defeat her.

Yes, he dies, I won't get into that. I will talk about the one reason why he is such an amazing bad guy. Here it is: How many of us would do something different? If you could make people do whatever you wanted them to do, make anyone love you, wouldn't you? How many people would really be any different, even without the awful childhood? You might want to believe you'd be better, but if you really think about it, would you be?

Best Quote: "Feels good, doesn't it, being in control."

 

Moriarty- Of course he’s on this list. He rivals Kilgrave for creepiness and beats pretty much every other villain at sheer deviousness. He even manages to confuse Sherlock- seriously, if you watch BBC’s Sherlock, you’ll see just how hard it is to get anything past him, and Moriarty practically drives him nuts because he just doesn’t understand him. But the best part is Moriarty’s motivation for his actions. Here it is- brace yourselves- he was bored.
I know, right? Hi, I’m Moriarty. I will kill people and steal things and set operations designed to kill people and generally try to make life miserable for a certain Mr. Holmes because… I am bored. His whole purpose in life was to drag Sherlock down with him, the only worthy opponent he had, so when he thought that he had won, he shot himself. Now whether he’s dead depends entirely on the next season, which I can’t watch yet because it’s not on Netflix. But wow, this guy… one of the best TV show villains ever.

Best Quote: "In a world of locked rooms, the man with the key is king. And honey, you should see me in a crown."

 

Wilson Fisk- Fisk takes the crown for Most Violent, even beating Penguin, who as previously mentioned, murdered two people because he wanted a sandwich. To start off, Fisk murdered his dad. With a hammer. By hitting him repeatedly in the head. Then, his lovely mother chopped up the body and threw it in the river. So with a childhood like that, this man must be the epitome of good citizenship, right? Well, let’s just say he gained some serious anger management issues.
Take, for instance, the man’s first date with the woman who ended up as his evil little soulmate. Fisk is basically a mafia boss, so naturally, problems will occur. When the problem did occur, he apparently did not get the ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ memo, because the messenger ended up having his head removed… with a car door. Why? For interrupting his date. That’ll teach them not to intrude on his romantic moments.
Despite his homicidal tendencies, he does genuinely care for his evil soulmate, his psycho mom, and his crime-infested city. He makes a formidable antagonist and a pretty fun villain to watch, too.

Best Quote: "I want to make this city, something better than it is, something beautiful. You took that away from me! You took everything! I'm gonna kill you!"

 

Malcolm Merlyn- Okay, I have no idea if this guy’s good or bad or both anymore. I’m inclined to think both, but Merlyn’s kind of unpredictable. He loves his wife, yet thinks destroying a city in her name is a good idea. He loves his son, but ends up indirectly killing him via his city-destroying plan. He loves his daughter, but has no issue with duping her into killing someone. Dictionary definition of ‘love’: an intense feeling of deep affection. I think he found a different dictionary than I did.
Despite his sort of unintended filicide and attempt to slaughter a city full of people, he still shows bits of goodness. He definitely has a fondness for his daughter, and even seemed to care for his enemy (The Arrow), if only because he was his son’s best friend. All the same, he wouldn’t give up his aims for anyone- and he’s not afraid to give them up, either, which makes for an interesting time.
Now that he’s the head of the League of Assassins, who knows what deviousness he can get up to…

Best Quote: "That is remarkably ruthless and coldblooded. I approve."

 

Hive- I’m not quite sure what to make of him. It? Them? Hive is a group of parasites that hijacks a dead body and walks around, carrying the memory of every dead body it has inhabited. As a result, the thing is smart, knows a variety of things, and can predict people with ease. It’s also very, very focused on its goal. Hive is an Inhuman, which is basically similar to a mutant, but they can’t include the X-Men in mainstream Marvel stuff, so they’re Inhumans. Like in the case of mutants, the world isn’t exactly fond of all the little fire-breathers and teleporters running around, and Hive isn’t fond of all the little powerless humans running around.

And so, it dreams of ridding the world of humans, either by killing them or converting them to Inhumans, and it is already amassing power in the form of its own Inhuman army. In addition to taking over the bodies, Hive can ‘infect’ Inhumans, which puts them under his control. So imagine the damage that Hive, a person with earthquake powers, a person who can control fire, and a person who can clone herself can do, and then add all the potential Inhumans that could be infected. Hive could cause serious chaos, and with a villain like it, it’d be fairly entertaining, too.

Best Quote: "The world fears our kind of power because not everyone has it."

 

Paul Spector- He’s right up there with Moriarty and Kilgrave in terms of creepiness. Spector’s a serial killer, who spends hours strangling dark-haired women to death, then leaving their posed bodies for the police to find. He’s a meticulous planner, intelligent, crafty, and cautious, which makes it hard for the police to find him, even as the pile of bodies begins to build up.
But not many people would suspect him- he’s a family man, after all. He has a wife, a son, and a daughter, all of whom he cares about, none of whom know that he runs around killing women as a hobby. He keeps drawings, pictures, and hair clippings from the women he’s killed, all in his house, and periodically brings them out to relive the kill, all unnoticed by his family.
Seriously, the guy has two little kids and finds time to sneak off and murder people. I guess it doesn’t creep him out to come straight home from killing someone to hang out with his family, which is more than a little disturbing.

Best Quote: "I live at a level of intensity unknown to you and others of your type. You will never know the almost God-like power that I feel when that last bit of breath leaves a body. That feeling of complete possession."

 

Ward- This is going to be a long review, because this one is probably in my Top Three for villains. I've got to give it to Ward: He's unpredictable, violent, ruthless, and full-out awesome. I honestly did not see his betrayal coming- and with most stories/plots, I can. It's difficult to tell what he will or will not do, and his motives are shrouded in mystery. He goes from loyal, dedicated S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to manipulative, twisted HYDRA leader, a story line that fascinates me. So I have to congratulate the writers, because his character is amazing.

Let's start with the character evolution: Ward starts off as this cold, distant guy who hates people, hates working with them, and seems to only exist to get the job done- the stereotypical single-minded secret agent. Then as the first season goes on, we learn his distance from people was caused by an abuse-filled childhood in which he was tormented by both his parents and his older brother. Not only that, but his demented older brother also forced him to hurt his younger brother. Congratulations, Ward, you may have beaten Kilgrave for worst childhood. But that's debatable. He ends up by the middle of season one as a protective, dedicated agent- one with a personality, unlike his earlier character.

Then he turns evil, and the audience is like, "What?" It was completely sudden; out of nowhere he just murdered S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to free Garrett (evil, evil little Garrett). Nicely done, authors, that was an unexpected move. The thing is, he played his double-agent role so well, not even May or Coulson saw him coming. Even when they do find out, he's kidnapped one of their agents and has all of the resources of HYDRA on his side. The guy has the advantage and knows it.

 

He ends up being captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., and then you see the grey side of this character. You've seen the light; the dedicated agent. You've seen the dark; the murderer and traitor. Now you see a warped, twisted man trying to make amends after he realizes how much Garrett used him. And even more credit to the authors here- it seems completely legit. Despite this, he has his own endgame. After he breaks free, he hunts down his brother, the tormentor of his childhood.

 

Something a lot of fans were confused about: Did his brother force him to do anything, or was he just covering up the fact that he tortured his younger brother? Well, we got to find out. After a violent confrontation with Christian, the brother, it's revealed that Ward is the victim, which makes us sympathize with him even more. He then murders his brother and parents, but despite that, genuinely seems to try to make up for what he's done by reconnecting Skye with her long-lost parents. But then Skye (with good reason) turns on him, too, leading him back into the darkness...

 

I'm not going to bother with his sort-of girlfriend in Season 2. She was transient, designed only as a tipping point for Ward. But after her death, he truly turns evil. Back as the head of a shattered HYDRA, Ward is weeding out the weaker parts of the remaining agents. He slaughters most of the ones he comes across, while simultaneously preparing to bring the battle to S.H.I.E.L.D. It's during this time that we see him do the worst of his actions: He (seemingly) kills Andrew right in front of May, makes alliances with Malick, the twisted elder HYDRA member, tortures Andrew (whom he captured again), assassinates a woman for revenge against Coulson, and the worst sin in the eyes of many viewers- he tortures Fitzsimmons.

But let's not forget: Just his personality in general is great, because between the dry humor, the unexpectedness of his actions, and the all-out violence, Ward is a truly entertaining villain to watch and sympathize with.

Best Quote: "Do you - do you think this has been easy on me? Do you have any idea how hard it was? The sacrifices, the decisions I had to make? But I made them. Because that's what I do. I'm a survivor."

 

Villians Who Did Not Live Up To The Hype
Skaro- Seriously, it’s just an old guy hanging out in a Dalek suit. Not to mention that he was beaten by only a Time Lord and a human when he had a full army at his back.
Most of the Burn Notice villains- I like the show, but after multiple seasons of No, this is the person who burned Michael, it gets a little old.
Ra’s al Ghul- Again, I like Arrow, but after multiple seasons of Let’s trash Starling to get back at Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, it gets old, too.
Whitney Frost- While Agent Carter’s first season villain was pretty good, this lady lost me. She’s supposed to be a super-genius with some serious butt-kicking powers, but she goes down way too easily.
The Trickster- I’m not sure what this guy is, but he should really stick to being Luke Skywalker. Seriously, DC, stop trying to make all of your villains destroy cities! I get it, okay, come up with something else now.
Grodd- Speaking of bad DC villains, this is as low as you can go. A telepathic gorilla? That lives in the sewers? Save the gorilla villains for King Kong and Planet of the Apes; this one just doesn’t cut it.
Most of the Blacklist Villains- I liked Season One’s bad guys, but the show is unfortunately getting worse. They really lost me with that one crazy lady who kills children with carnivorous butterflies.



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This article has 2 comments.


on Oct. 6 2016 at 12:24 pm
wolvesandwilderness GOLD, Lakeland, Florida
10 articles 47 photos 39 comments

Favorite Quote:
“Funny how a single word can change everything in your life."
"It is not funny at all. Steel is power. Money is power. But of all the things in all the worlds, words are power.”

Darrow au Andromedus and Nero au Augustus in Red Rising.

Thank you.

on Sep. 29 2016 at 7:09 pm
the-mormon-introvert GOLD, Alpine, Utah
11 articles 0 photos 22 comments

Favorite Quote:
Even when the dark comes crashing through, When you need a friend to carry you, And when you're broken on the ground, You will be found
--Evan Hansen, Dear Evan Hansen

Yes, yes, and yes. Moriarty and Ward definitely make the list.