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The 23 most spectacularly evil villains of all time

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  • The 23 most spectacularly evil villains of all time

    Introducing the worst of the worst


    When it comes to villains, there's bad and then there's really bad. This gallery celebrates the latter--the truly despicable bad guys we love to hate...ranked by evilness. (And the best kind of evilness, too: subjective evilness!)
    You won't find lame, cartoonish, and ineffectual baddies like Gargamel, Bowser, or Team Rocket here. No, this list starts out with tricksters and murderers, fills out with especially heinous mass murderers and torturers, and wraps up with genocidal, world-ending destroyers who take pleasure in death, misery and suffering.
    There's a few movie villains in the mix, a few comic book villains, and a few gaming villains, too. And they're all just the worst.
    (Image credit: DC Comics)


    23. The Governor (The Walking Dead)


    His intentions are, ostensibly, good (saving civilization) but he's not above killing his rivals or his own people. He cuts off hands. He stages human vs. zombie fights for entertainment. He feeds his zombified niece body parts. And he's a rapist, too.
    You're a real dick, Governor.
    (Image: American Movie Classics)


    22. Jigsaw (Saw)


    The Jigsaw Killer--first Dr. Lawrence Gordon, later, his apprentices--constructs elaborate and complex death traps to test his victims' will to live. He's utterly sadistic in a way most villains could only hope to be, but he does have his own sense of ethics.
    Twisted, murderous ethics. But still, ethics.
    (Image credit: Lionsgate)


    21. Negan (The Walking Dead)


    We don't want to spoil too much about Negan--the Walking Dead character promises to be a huge player in the action next season. But judging on what we know about him from the comic ... let's just say this guy is way more sadistic and evil than The Governor.
    The collapse of society brings out the worst in all us.
    (Image: American Movie Classics)


    20. Bane (Batman)


    A terrible creation of a lifetime of imprisonment and forced experimentation with super steroids, Batman's Bane launches absolutely brutal attacks on both Gotham City and its savior, Batman.
    In the comic, Bane snaps Batman's back over his knee, turning the hero into a paraplegic. In the movie The Dark Knight Rises, Bane plans to destroy Gotham using a nuclear bomb, but only after publicly executing its upper class and police force and torturing the city (and Batman) for months.
    (Image credit: Warner Home Video)


    19. Scarecrow (Batman)


    Batman's Scarecrow has an absolutely sadistic love for torture. To wit, he's always forcing his fear toxin on the people of Gotham City, driving them all into complete madness.
    He also murdered his grandmother, a high school classmate, and his chemistry mentor, just to name a few. He's even driven several Arkham Asylum inmates to suicide through psychological manipulation.
    Bane is more violent, but Scarecrow will get in your head to destroy you from within. We think that's incrementally worse.
    (Image credit: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)


    18. Ultron (The Avengers)


    Can a robot programmed with artificial intelligence be considered evil? Maybe; maybe not--but The Avengers' Ultron makes a good case for the affirmative.
    Depending on which Marvel story you prefer, Ultron was either (a) first programmed with the consciousness of its creator, Dr. Henry Pym, "blessing" the robot with a unique madness that fueled its hatred for the human race; or (b) created using an alien intelligence who thinks he must destroy humanity to save Earth. Either way, Ultron then moves to exterminate everybody.
    Motivations aside, that seems like some pretty evil stuff, at least from this human's point of view.
    (Image credit: Disney)


    17. William Stryker (X-Men)


    William Stryker is a terrifying religious zealot--one so consumed with hatred for mutants that he kills his own wife and mutant son. He advocates for hate crimes and the genocide of all mutant-kind, all in the name of God.
    Thankfully, he falls short of his goals. (If he was successful, then we'd have ranked him way worse.)
    (Image credit: 20th Century Fox)


    16. Lex Luthor (Superman)


    Motivated by an egocentric hatred for Superman, Lex Luthor has built a criminal empire, launched nuclear weapons, and sacrificed his soul to the demon Neron.
    When Luthor becomes President of the United States in Superman: Lex 2000, the supervillain allows an invading alien force to destroy Topeka, Kansas, in an effort to manipulate the public into supporting him.
    (Image credit: Warner Bros.)


    15. Professor Moriarty (Sherlock)


    Sherlock Holmes' legendary nemesis, Professor James "Jim" Moriarty, is a cunning sociopathic criminal--arguably the best ever written.
    The narcissist can manipulate just about anyone. Worse yet, Moriarty is willing to do anything to further his mad schemes and taunt Sherlock, even if that means poisoning and killing innocent children.
    This stands in great contrast to Lex Luthor, who only kills innocent children. He rarely poisons them.
    (Image credit: BBC Worldwide)



    14. Bellatrix Lestrange (Harry Potter)


    A loyal follower and apprentice of Lord Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange is arguably one of the most evil and sadistic Death Eaters of the bunch. Not as evil and sadistic as her master, because she can still feel the emotion of love (sort of). But still: Lady be nasty.
    She tortures Neville Longbottom's parents until they descend into madness (and later tortures Neville himself), carves "mudblood" into Hermione's arm, and murders poor awkward Dobby--and surely takes great joy out of all of it. She even made it a goal to kill her family members who dared join the anti-Voldemort Order of the Phoenix.
    (Image credit: Warner Bros.)


    13. Darth Vader (Star Wars)


    Sure, Darth Vader gets his redemption at the end of Return of the Jedi. (Admittedly, he'd rank a lot higher on this list otherwise.)
    But his road there is littered with sadness and destruction--including the slaughter of the 2 billion people living on Alderaan. That's a pretty hard sin to forgive.
    (Image credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis)


    12. Red Skull (Captain America)


    Red Skull was personally recruited into the Nazi ranks by, and made a doomsday machine for, Adolf Hitler.
    That's pretty much strike one, two, and three, all in a single pitch.
    (Image credit: Paramount Pictures)


    11. President Snow (Hunger Games)


    Okay, yeah--dude didn't come up with the idea for the Hunger Games. But President Snow sure doesn't seem to have any problems with the child-murdering sport, nor does he have a problem using it for his own political gain.
    And he's not above killing people himself, either, the jerk.
    (Image credit: Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment)


    10. The Joker (Batman)


    The Joker has no larger motivation for his myriad crimes--he seems to cause death and destruction solely for the lulz. The sadistic prankster has no redeeming qualities.
    Alfred said it best in The Dark Knight: "Some men just want to watch the world burn."
    (Image credit: Warner Home Video)


    9. Carnage (Spider-Man)


    Designed to be an even-darker version of Venom, Spider-Man foe Carnage was born when the Venom symbiote's offspring bonded with deranged serial killer Cletus Kasady.
    Rather than control Kasady, the young symbiote instead lets itself be controlled by its supposedly perfect host. This results in an awful lot of blood being spilled across the Marvel Universe, much to Carnage's delight.
    (Image credit: Marvel)


    8. Ramsay Bolton (Game of Thrones)


    Now that's the smile of a dude who really loves skinning people alive. Like, really, really loves it.
    Sadistic doesn't even begin to describe his treatment of Theon.
    (Image credit: HBO)


    7. Shao Kahn (Mortal Kombat)


    Now that we've got the criminally insane out of the way, let's move on to the upper tiers of epic, world-conquering evil.
    Warlord Shao Kahn, having already conquered the Outlands and forced it under his brutally violent rule, sets his eye on conquering Earthrealm in Mortal Kombat 3. But that gambit isn't about ruling over us Earthlings--it's about devouring billions of souls to further his own God-like powers.
    (Image credit: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)


    6. Thanos (The Avengers)


    Thanos is so enamored with the concept of death, and so consumed with the worship of Mistress Death, that he oversaw the nuclear annihilation of millions on his home moon of Titan.
    Thanos has since grown convinced that he, himself, is a death god.
    (Image credit: Disney)


    5. Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter)


    Pure-blood supremacist Lord Voldemort is thoroughly evil, seeking power through fear and manipulation.
    He killed Harry Potter's parents, Myrtle, Severus Snape, and countless others, all in an effort to hold power and subjugate the Muggle-born.
    His body count is lower than Thanos' is, but we think a new dark age of humanity's slavery, suffering and submission to the forces of evil might actually be worse than a quick obliteration.
    (Image credit: Warner Home Video)


    4. Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars)


    If Darth Vader is a "spectacularly evil villain," then surely his corruptor looms even larger.
    Emperor Palpatine is a ruthless tyrant (and human supremacist) who seizes power through deception, war, and murder. He's about as evil as you can get, entirely by design.
    (Image credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis)


    3. Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy VI)


    Kefka earns the distinction of being "spectacularly evil" pretty early in the game when he spikes the Doma River with poison, killing virtually everyone in the nearby castle. He also murders the beloved General Leo (22-year-old spoiler alert!) and the Emperor too, right before destroying the whole damn world.
    Also, clowns are scary as all f***, so there's that too.
    (Image credit: Square)


    2. Sauron (Lord of the Rings)


    Lord of the Rings' Sauron, like many of his fellow villains on this list, is a cold-blooded manipulator. He lures his victims in with promises of power, but his promises are all lies--Sauron's powerful rings enslave their wearers and turn them into undead Ringwraiths.
    Sauron is utterly free of compassion, opposes the free will of humans, dwarves and elves, and is willing to wage war against all to bring his (or, perhaps, Melkor's) grim vision for the world to pass.
    (Image credit: New Line Cinema)


    1. The Lich King (World of Warcraft)


    As the leader of an army of undead, Lich King Arthas Menethil benefits greatly from death and suffering. And so he causes it everywhere, destroying civilizations in Northrend, forcing plagues upon the people of Azeroth, and devouring the souls of everyone he can along the way.
    If the Lich King won, all human life on Azeroth would be extinguished--at best. At worst, your reanimated corpse would be standing by his side as his soulless, undead champion, destroying all you hold dear in his name.
    (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)




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