Villains

[erudito]

At about the 41st minute of this Con panel Jeff Davis, creator of Teen Wolf, observes that:

We like to create bad guys who are fully dimensional; bad guys who actually believe that they are the heroes of their own story.Villains are crucial to the success of tv and film dramas, especially the superhero-based ones, whether derived from comics or

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[spark_au]

Film: Grand Moff Tarkin - Star Wars, played by Peter Cushing.

Peter Cushing got to play the bad guy for once, and what a remarkable performance. Urbane and menacing, he managed to make it clear to viewers that not only was he able to rein in Darth Vader with little more than a gesture, he would casually destroy a planet to achieve his objectives.

Series: Scorpius - Farscape, played by Wayne Pygram

Wayne Pygram played the bad guy in this Australian sci fi series beautifully, with the right mixture of menace, precise physical acting and a dash of ham. The degree of complex background provided a feasible motivation for the character, and with his personality implanted in the hero's head, also was able to do an element of comic relief. A complex and ruthnless character, with the right shades of grey to make the viewer occasionally sympathetic to his goals.

The youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qlyqizEdlw

And a sample of the comic version (the hero refers to him as Harvey after the James Stewart film) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srHJBueSx40

-note: Wayne Pygram was tapped to play Grand Moff Tarkin in the first trilogy of Star Wars, but most of his scenes were never filmed.

Novel: I can't pin it down to one, but the character who stands out is Uther Doul, from China Mieville's The Scar. Not necessarily a bad guy, but at the denouement, the reader is left wondering as to how much of what went on was due to his plans. Less bad guy, more machiavellian.