For me, it would be GLaDOS.
Portal 2 spoiler
She 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?
There’s something genuinely compelling about SHODAN.
They’re malignant, objective evil, yet when they talk about their goals and ambitions, they seem almost benevolent, which makes them even more unsettling.
It’s like something telling you to calm down while it’s sawing off your legs to replace them with mechanical versions because it’s “improving you”.
You didn’t ask to be improved.
“Look at you hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors.”
Has a similar feeling to Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger
SHODAN introduced my prepubescent brain to the concept of being “scaroused”.
“What a fool you are. I’m a god. How can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating innocence. How could you be so naive? There is no escape. No Recall or Intervention can work in this place. Come. Lay down your weapons. It is not too late for my mercy.” - Dagoth Ur in Morrowind
Hmm, a rather difficult question, I have quite a lot of them and I could not get attached to any of them, well, maybe him:
and him:
I don’t have one favorite villain in particular, but…
The Good Place spoilers
Michael is the villain for part of the series, and oh boy is he devilish. I mean, in season 2 (i think) he is literally the devil as far as the main cast is concerned. “I can’t believe you figured it out!” perfect delivery. Just wow.
oh, and also Megamind. Megamind is my favorite. I need to rewatch that movie, and completely ignore the “sequel”.
The Borg. I was terrified of them as a little kid.
Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg. He’s a monster.
One of my favorites as an adult, and one that scared the living shit outta me as a kid. Jude Doom from who framed Roger Rabbit.
Silco from Arcane.
I often struggle with media villains, finding them unrealistic or unconvincing, but Silco is just so well-rounded and well-written, he elevates the quality of every other character he interacts with. In a series full of near- and actually-superpowered people, this weak, middle-aged man is the most terrifying and influential of them all.
spoiler
His absence from season two is one of the reasons why it flops compared to season one; Ambessa and Viktor are good characters, but weak villains.
Forest Whitaker as Jon Kavanaugh in “The Shield”
He made me so viscerally upset. I saw it almost two decades ago but I still remember how strongly I felt
Handsome Jack.
Best hero to villain in a game yet. Plus dude had charisma for days so even though he was a clear cut asshole you couldn’t help but love his antics.
Butt Stallion is an amazing throwaway joke, just so much thought put into even the stupid stuff.
robby rotten
Baron Harkonnen, from the David Lynch dune film.
Sir Captain Becket of the E I C
Dart Maul (from a german movie called (T)Raumschiff Suprise)
Bill Cypher
The villains of the Kings Men
Your favourite media villain
Easy answer: Rupert Murdoch
It’s actually why I listed the James Bond villain Elliot Carver from Tomorrow Never Dies because he was an analogue for Murdoch, a media magnate who wanted to control the world through disinformation. It was a prescient character, because that was still during 1997, long before FOX News had become the danger it actually is. Yet Carver is pretty on-the-nose for what actually ended up happening and we didn’t have a James Bond to save us.
Australia’s most embarrassing export
Followed by Ken Hamm
And Nicole Kidman is awful, she’s friends with Murdoch
