this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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For me, it would be GLaDOS.

Portal 2 spoilerShe deleted the one remaining human part of herself because it was just too much to deal with. She releases you at the end of Portal 2 as a path of least resistance measure because "killing you is hard."

What about you, what is your favorite media villain?

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 minutes ago

Sneaky, invasive advertising.

[–] regdog@lemmy.world 17 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Your favourite media villain

Easy answer: Rupert Murdoch

[–] FistingEnthusiast@lemmy.world 1 points 39 minutes ago

Australia's most embarrassing export

Followed by Ken Hamm

And Nicole Kidman is awful, she's friends with Murdoch

[–] dragontology@retrofed.com 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Shigaraki Tomura, Boku no Hero Academia.

For starters, he’s this regular emo kid (about 19-20), except he’s got like a dozen disembodied hands grasping him from his torso and arms to his head and face.

The reason for the hands is pretty bizarre. Spoilers for the second half of season 5:

Tap for spoilerHe killed his whole family, including his sister, parents, and grandparents, and was adopted by the world’s greatest villain, who preserved the hands and attached them to him to remind him where he came from.

Oh, his super power? “Decay.” Anything he lays all five fingers on turns to ash. It’s as awesome and terrible as it sounds. What’s worse? Final season spoilers:

Tap for spoilerDecay wasn’t originally his power. The greatest villain can steal and give out powers. He actually took Shigaraki’s original power and replaced it with Decay. He set him up for failure and then adopted him to turn him into a monster.

The author, Horikoshi Kohei, is a huge Star Wars nerd. If Shigaraki Tomura sounds like “anime Darth Vader,” that’s intentional. Except when “anime Luke Skywalker” tried to turn him back to good, final season spoilers:

Tap for spoilerIt doesn’t work. Shigaraki tells Midoriya he’s too far gone and gives him a message to tell his best friend, another, minor, villain he played League of Legends with — I’m not kidding, they drop that name — and Midoriya delivers the message. Which is basically that right up to the end, he wanted to destroy everything. The message has the intended effect of showing the younger man that he was wrong.

And the kicker? Minor season 5 spoiler:

Tap for spoilerShigaraki Tomura wasn’t even his name. Shigaraki was the family name of the villain who adopted him. His birth name was Shimura Tenko — he was also the grandson of Midoriya’s mentor’s mentor.

Note that all names use the Japanese naming convention of giving the family name before the given name (e.g. “Lincoln Abraham”), and the show is known outside of Japan as My Hero Academia.

Edit: I also like GLaDOS. YSK she’s also in Cyberpunk 2077, if only in spirit. Ellen McLain reprises her role and reuses some lines while voicing a psychotic robotaxi. I assume, with permission from Valve (who probably loved the cameo).

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Genuinely the scariest movie villain

[–] Kushan@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I'm going to pick a slightly more obscure one: Kane from Command & Conquer.

[–] Enkrod@feddit.org 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Obscure? I think every gamer in my age group (Xennials) knows the leader of NOD.

[–] TheDarkQuark@lemmy.world 9 points 4 hours ago (2 children)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Time to watch that Videogame Dunkey explainer again

[–] mrvictory1@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago

The dlc variant of him is insanely difficult

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 1 hour ago

Donald Trump?

/j

[–] Enkrod@feddit.org 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Catherine Foundling, the Protagonist of A Practical Guide to Evil.

But I don't know if this counts. Catherine has only the best intentions and many Heros are kinda Dicks in PGtE. She definitely causes a lot of (what she considers) necessary suffering to end unnecessary suffering. And in-universe she undeniably is a Villain, but as the villain protagonist it's hard to argue that she's on the same page as villain antagonists.

[–] Djehngo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

I like the black knight from the same work.

None of it is earned. It is handed to them, and this offends me.”

“You asked me what I want,” Black said. “This once, just this once, I want us to win.”

The smile across his face was a cutting, vicious thing.

“To spit in the eyes of the Hashmallim. To trample the pride of all those glorious, righteous princes. To scatter their wizards and make their oracles liars. Just to prove that it can be done.”

There was something his eyes burning like coals and embers.

“So that five hundred years from now, a band of heroes shiver in the dark of night. Because they know that no matter how powerful their sword or righteous their cause, there was once a time it wasn’t enough. That even victories ordained by the Heavens can broken by the will of men.”

[–] InterestingUsername@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 hours ago
[–] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 hours ago
[–] Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I've always been fond of Magneto. He's a dick about it, but I see where he's coming from.

[–] Notyou@sopuli.xyz 1 points 40 minutes ago
[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 hours ago
[–] Blubber28@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

An old one, but the Emperor from Gladiator. His death is among the most satisfying in movie history. Absolutely amazing performance by Joaquin Phoenix.

[–] Kovukono@pawb.social 4 points 5 hours ago

Abijah Fowler from Blue Eye Samurai, one of the only four white men in Japan who might be the father of the protagonist. He's one of the few who manage to challenge the protagonist in combat, but you're not just watching for that. The dialogue for the show is top notch, but any time he comes up you know you're in for a treat. My favorite is still "Are you--still alive? Why?", but here's a reasonably spoiler-free scene.

[–] LORDSMEGMA@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 hours ago

Ketheric Thorm from Baldurs Gate 3. He has one of the coolest character introductions ever. Honestly I felt kind of bad for him learning his story. Also JK Simmons is one of my favorite actors.

"Try again" axe drop

[–] kubok@fedia.io 5 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Joe Morden in Babylon 5. I do not know much about the actor, but he was cast perfectly.

Or Bester. Koenig did a great job of making that character hateable.

[–] GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

Truthfully, while i thought he was a great villain, i think Bester was even better. Walter Koenig played him perfectly. But, the main thing that made him better was his complexity. He believed he was doing the right thing even when hunting down his fellow telepaths, and on some occasions, he was right, and rogue telepaths were a threat. So, sometimes Bester was in the wrong, and sometimes he was right, which in my opinion made him a better villain than one who is always evil.

[–] radiofreebc@lemmy.world 13 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Biff Tannen, because we should have seen the signs.

[–] BennyInc@feddit.org 1 points 2 hours ago

OP asked for media villain, not real life…

[–] Murse@slrpnk.net 9 points 8 hours ago (4 children)
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[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Hex and Daemon from Reboot are both underrated. Hex has genius visual design for the limitations of the technology. And for a kids show, Daemon is very likable, which always makes a villain more compelling.

[–] Quazatron@lemmy.world 96 points 13 hours ago

Here are the test results: You're a horrible person. That's what it says. A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that.

[–] CorvusCornix@piefed.social 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Oh, it's you. It's been a looong time; how have you been? I've been really busy being DEAD. You know? After you murdered me? Look, we both said a lot of things you're going to regret, but I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster.

I find... we'll just say "the villain" of Undertale compelling, but it's one of my favorite games so I'm a little biased.

[–] Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc 2 points 4 hours ago

emm, actually, that's from half life 2!

[–] Hux@lemmy.ml 32 points 12 hours ago (3 children)
[–] habitualcynic@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

Honestly, he was such an amazing boss

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