Top five villains

For st_aurafina

This is not definitive, but on any given day several of these are likely to make the list:

1 - The White Witch

There's something about her. A certain powerful evil that makes it always winter but never Christmas. And that's just such a clever way to get across how powerful she is to children, because lots of fantasy goes on about worlds and gods and some such, but that's an idea that's easy to understand, because she's powerful enough to stop the seasons, and chooses to keep it stuck and cold without giving people something that they look forward to in the middle of the cold and dark.

And then there's the way she tempts Edmund, not with power or glory, but with Turkish Delight. It's just so perfect.

She's so horrible too, to everyone, both random bystanders and fauns and nymphs and dryads that never harmed anyone.

She's clever and wicked and mean.

2 - The Kurgan

An evil from before recorded time, so old that he can't even remember his name (because the Kurgan are a people not a person). He's that rare thing, a cool villain who remains a villain. He has awesome armour, he's got sword skills, he gets to insult nuns.

And yet, at no point do we cheer for him, because he's utterly horrible.

And scary. We shouldn't forget scary. Part of it is Clancy Brown's physical presence. He's huge. Part of it is the voice, the armour, the sense of an ancient evil. And of course, it's what he does.

3 - Servelan

Because our lady of evil is out for one person, and that is herself. Not the Federation, not any other organisation, nor any belief system, but the rise and maintenance of Commander Servelan. And there's nothing that she'd not do to stay on top.

Normally when there's one picture villain for an otherwise faceless group of bad guys, they get humanised. And Servelan gets character bits but the show never forgets that she is looking out for number one. Other programmes would have been tempted to make her fondness for Avon a weak point, but the show doesn't, she'd shoot him in the back without the slightest hesitation.

If she was unarmed in a room full of armed guards, she'd still be the most dangerous person in the room.

(There's a wonderful scene in 'Deliverance', I think, where Servelan tells her chief sidekick Travis that she's killed, or at least put in grave danger, the doctor who saved his life. He's horrified [he still goes along with her plans because he wants Blake dead come what may], and it's just so interesting that Travis, who is not a nice person, has these limits and Servelan doesn't, she's utterly ruthless.)

4 - The Villain in 'The Sixth Day' Not giving his name to avoid spoilers but he's so competent. He's defeated not by his own stupidity but by the good guys being smart. And his plan makes sense.

(Actually, The Sixth Day is a much better film than history would have it all-round and just got caught up in the anti-Arnie backlash.)

5 - Cardinal Richelieu, except, of course, he's not. Having the Cardinal be out and out evil is a good way of getting me to dislike your version of the Three Musketeers. Sinister, out for himself, working against the King, fine. Evil and plotting to overthrow the King. Not so much. Because the Cardinal doesn't want to be King, that would be too much hassle. He just wants everything run the way he wants it to be run, for the greater glory of France. And there's every chance he'd be better at leading that the King is. The only reason he's an antagonist is because our heroes have promised to stop him.

The Cardinal was very much a formative villain for me, because a lot of the stuff I watched as kid either had no villain (Postman Pat can't deliver letters because of a flood, Thomas can't do something because either he or someone else is being stubborn, or not sharing, or there's a flood) or it was very much black and white, and into this comes the Cardinal, who is charming, has rules and isn't so much bad as he's not on the good guys side.