Best Villains for Every Tier

Yes, yes, I'm on the bandwagon now too...

Similar to just about every other "for Every Tier" list that we have. Pick a villain for each tier who is, in your opinion, the best villain for their tier.

Preferably to avoid "my villain is better because I say so", judge your choices based on the following.

• Motivations: What are their motivations, and how well are they handled?
• Presence: How much is their presence felt within their story and setting?
• Threat Level: How much of a threat are they to the main character(s) of their story? Or, in the case of wider-spanning verses like Marvel and DC, how well are they portrayed as being a threat to the major players of the setting?
• Personality: How complex is the character?
• Entertainment Factor: At the end of the day, how entertaining is this villain to see on-screen/on-panel?

Also, villain protagonists are allowed, although a clear distinction should be made between "villain protagonists" and "anti-heroes". (Light Yagami and Lucifer Morningstar would be the former, Alucard and Riddick would be the latter.)

Without further ado:

Tier 0: (drawing a blank)

1-A: Nyarlathotep (Cthulhu Mythos), Lucifer Morningstar (DC Comics)

High 1-B:

1-B:

High 1-C:

1-C:

Low 1-C:

High 2-A: Darkseid

2-A: Thanos (Marvel Comics)

2-B:

2-C: Vecna, Oersted

Low 2-C: Dagoth Ur

High 3-A:

3-A: Frieza

3-B:

3-C:

4-A: Galactus (Marvel Comics)

4-B:

High 4-C: Bowser

4-C:

Low 4-C:

High 5-A: Ahzek Ahrima

5-A: Thanos (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

5-B: Doctor Doom

Low 5-B: Yüki Terumi

5-C: Oryx, the Taken King

High 6-A:

6-A:

High 6-B:

6-B: Sauro

Low 6-B: Shao Kah

High 6-C:

6-C:

High 7-A:

7-A: Donquixote Doflamingo, Mab

7-B:

Low 7-B: Strahd von Zarovich

High 7-C: Darth Vader

7-C:

Low 7-C: Viktor (League of Legends)

8-A:

8-B: Griffith

High 8-C:

8-C: Dio Brando

9-A: The Joker (DCAU)

9-B:

9-C:

10-A: Yoshikage Kira, Light Yagami

10-B: Samuel T. Owe, Johan Liebert

10-C: Thrax

11-A:

11-B:

11-C:

Unknown: GLaDOS

Varies:

There are three spots available for each tier. Additionally, to avoid redundancy, multiple characters from the same verse aren't allowed to occupy the same tier. (I've taken the liberty of filling a few spots myself, although obviously everything is subject to change.)

Kars 8-A and DIO for 8-C.

Viktor (League of Legends)

I still stand by hi being a good "villain" when you can see how his motivation to help humanity is genuinely well-intentioned and you cant tell who is meant to be the actual 'villain' in his dynamic with Jayce after reading things from his perspective.

Likely not gonna last but

Samuel T. Owe or Sato for 10-B.

Thanos (Marvel Cinematic Universe) for 5-A

Dagoth Ur for Low 2-C.

Donquixote Doflamingo for 7-A

He Hits pretty much all the major factors to being a good villain. His extremely sadistic statist personality is very fun to watch. He's a major threat/player to the main characters and the world at large via his identity as Joker where he essentially rules the underground sending several countries at war with each other, threats the whole world government via knowing some of there deepest secrets and even has a trading relationship with one of the four emperors Kaido.

Add that to his backstory of being a former World Nobel who essentially wants to throw the whole world into chaos as revenge to those who casted him out and after enduring horrible torture as a child ( which leads him to killing his own father for bringing them down to the world) and you got a damn good villain.

Ogbunabali said:

Kars 8-A and DIO for 8-C.

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While I definitely liked Kars as a villain, I'm sure that there are far better ones in 8-A, especially when it comes to complexity.

Same with Dio. Kira or Valentine are probably better picks.

Galactus for 4-A just to keep someone from saying Reinhard

WeeklyBattles said:

Viktor (League of Legends)
I still stand by hi being a good "villain" when you can see how his motivation to help humanity is genuinely well-intentioned and you cant tell who is meant to be the actual 'villain' in his dynamic with Jayce after reading things from his perspective.

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Which tier?

The real cal howard said:

Galactus for 4-A just to keep someone from saying Reinhard

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Low 7-C

Rein is a better villain than both the 5-B and 4-A picks change my mind

Gilgamesh (Fate Series) Shirou Kotomine and Souren Araya are pretty good for their tiers too

Dio for 8-C, unless someone already said that.

Sera EX said:

Dio for 8-C, unless someone already said that.

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Someone did, although someone else mentioned that other villains in JoJo probably fit the criteria better, so I'm holding off for the moment.

DMB 1 said:

While I definitely liked Kars as a villain, I'm sure that there are far better ones in 8-A, especially when it comes to complexity.

Same with Dio. Kira or Valentine are probably better picks.

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Like who? Kars was a phenomenal villain, he did the "overpowered" antagonist right while staying complex and multidimensional. Definitely my favorite Jojo villain.

Also Misogi Kumagawa is good for 8-B

Ajimu Najimi for unknown

Ganon for whatever his singe TF piece key is

Also add Esdeath for idk what tier she is

Would Ahzek Ahrima count? He's definitely a villain by the perspectives of many like the Imperium, and even when he's portayed as a protagonist you can see as time and his books go on his descent into more extreme and unhinged methods, culminating in him doing things like incinerating planets and replacing a sun with a portal to the Warp.

Other villains I like are the Chaos Gods, Bolas, and Oryx (Best Destiny villain and probably the only one I'll suggest). I can explain those in a little bit, just gonna go see if I can't find explanations I've already typed.

Meruem Low 7-B

Sephiroth for High 5-A/4-B.

So I think I found most of the stuff I've typed for Oryx, the Taken King. I'll suggest him for 5-C and 4-B.

Now Oryx I quite like for several reasons.

Firstly, his motivations are eerily similar to those of the PC. One reason he came to the Solar System is that you sorta murdered his son Crota, then also ruined his funeral. Even from a human perspective, being mad that someone murdered your son is perfectly understandable, and many people could justify violence in such a situation. However, it also interestingly parallels what happens later in Forsaken, when Cayde-6 dies. Just like Oryx, the PC goes on a tear throughout the Solar System, killing anything in their way to get a shot at the perpetrator. Only difference there is that Oryx didn't succeed in avenging his son. Oryx is actually a quite good father in general. Read about his parenting here.

The second reason for Oryx's behavior in general is at its most basic level, the desire to grow stronger. Per Oryx's morality (which will warp reality), if something is killed, it did not deserve to live in the first place, as it is weak. Existence is a constant struggle for the right to exist, and as such one must constantly accrue power and assert that they have the right to exist. This is why Oryx has been on a tear through the universe for billions of years, annihilating species and systems. He simply thinks its the only moral thing to do to make sure that only stuff that deserves to exist does, and in doing so constantly makes sure that he is still deserving of this privilege. When you kill him, his final thoughts are anguish at not being able to avenge his son, but also understanding that he died because he was weak, and as such the PC deserved to win. In killing him, they assert their existence, and that is good. Now, he did expect you to take up his mantle so he could live on forever, constantly correcting his killer as they constantly correct him, which you didn't do, but this is similar to just the general mindset of a player of this type of game. You go out and kill things to get stronger and stronger gear to drop, then kill other players in PVP to prove that you're better and deserving of not being killed by them. While Hive morality may seem abhorrent, upon closer inspection, does the guardian not tread that closer than human morality? Not even gonna get into how the PC starves children rn that is for another comment

Oryx also has a huge impact on the universe of Destiny. Him destroying the Cabal in the Solar System caused the entire empire to invade and take the Traveller from the Guardians, him nearly destroying the Vex caused them to work even harder at perfecting their science so such a close call could never happen again resulting in Curse of Osiris, his arrival resulted in the reawakening of warmind Rasputin, and his death made his sister, Savathun, spring into action herself, causing basically all of the Forsaken DLC.

I also love how huge a jump in power he is from most of the verse, and how that's made very clear in verse. I mean, just look at his profile, but everyone in verse has similar reactions. Crota considers his dad as extremely powerful and a good model to aspire to, the Vex in all their nigh omniscience couldn't forsee any way where they would defeat Oryx, Oryx caused the Cabal, a race with no word for failure, to send a distress beaco, Rasputin thought he was The Darkness itself, The Nine went into a frenzy when he Took an Ahamkara (Godlike wish granting dragon-worms), hell even in his own race he breaks the rules. He killed a god supposedly unfathomably above him, and for it The Darkness was impressed to the extent that it lets Oryx channel its strength directly.

Oryx is also a good father, at least by the standards of his own race. Anyways, as for specific kids: Oryx has 4 main ones, then a few he sorta adopted.

Crota:
Oryx's son who was notorious for killing thousands of Guardians on the moon of the earth. Oryx took him to a bunch of planets when he was younger so he could learn how to kill and conquer. They've fought and killed one another before, but as I've already explained, that is friendly behavior for Hive. There was one time where Oryx basically threw Crota through a rift in time and told him not to come back until he conquered enough to etch his legacy into history, because Crota was messing around and caused a Vex infestation that Oryx had to clean up. At first Crota's pissy about it, but then he later understands and starts building shrines to Oryx. It's sorta like Hive God time out, I guess. (The grimoire cards detailing this read as if it's like some episode of a sitcom where the kids break something and try to hide it from their parents, lol)

Anyways, Crota grows up and goes out to conquer on his own, spreading Oryx's influence farther than what he could get to alone. It is due to this that he shows up at our solar system, and terrorizes it for a while before the Player Character manages to invade his throne world and actually permanently kill Crota. This makes Oryx mad and he shows up 2 DLCs later to avenge Crota. The first thing he says to you is something like "You took my son, Crota, so now I will Take you!" The PC is pretty bad to Crota, all things considered. On top of killing him for good, you also break into his funeral to steal a chunk of his soul, so you can enter the throne world of Oryx. He's got quite a bit of reason to hate you. As Oryx dies, he's less upset about his own death (If he died, he didn't deserve to exist in the first place, also he thinks his type 6 will allow him to live on anyways) and more that he was unable to avenge Crota. This video isn't really too far off. He misses Crota enough that he lets a Crota fanboy onto his court, if only to make him feel slightly better even though he knows that it's dumb.

Ir Anuk and Ir Halak
The Deathsinger twins came about when Oryx was messing around with cutting larvae with his sword. He cut one in half, but both survived, and became these two. Oryx already found that impressive, and would value their other achievements like figuring out how to make Oversouls and Deathsongs as well. He praised them for their cunning and ambition, once saying this in response to Ir Anuk saying that she was gonna figure out how to kill truth and become a god just like him:

Remember that killing your loved ones is normal to the Hive, and that Oryx can only really afford to get personally involved with things with a big payout, meaning the strongest enemies. By threatening to kill her if she does this, he's actually giving her quite high praise. To warrant the personal attention of the God-King of the hive isn't a small feat. The Deathsingers orchestrate Crota's funeral, but once the PC is discovered, Oryx teleports everyone, including them, away and instead spawns Taken. He probably didn't want to risk losing more kids to the PC, even if they would later fight and be killed by the Guardian during King's Fall.

The Daughters are probably still alive, btw. You didn't kill them in their own throne worlds, and as the ones who discovered the Oversoul they should be able to make use of it. Wouldn't be surprised if they came back with Savathun, and they'd now be mad at you for killing their brother, their dad, and them.

Nokris
There was one child who didn't really mesh well with the others, and that is Nokris. Nokris ended up being disowned and banished by Oryx, due to practicing true resurrection. This sounds bad, but remember that Hive abide by hive morality. What Nokris was doing would be equivalent to if you were the parent of a murderer. From the hive perspective, such an act promotes weakness and would doom the species to not surviving the end of the universe. Nokris also didn't really care about Oryx. He's less constrained off on his own with Xol, as Oryx is too strong to really challenge (This also drove his sisters away from him). However, while Oryx basically expunged him from history, he still kept a statue of Nokris deep in the dreadnaught along with statues of his other kids and himself, implying that he still sorta misses him.

Malok
I mean, his title being "Pride of Oryx" should give it away. Malok is technically his nephew but ended up sorta adopted by Oryx. He was spawned by Savathun to steal tithes from Oryx and give them to her, but ended up stealing from both of them and just keeping the tithes to himself. He was able to evade both of them long enough to become a Hive Price, when Oryx finally noticed and Took him. Oryx was impressed with him being able to hide from both of them so long, and let him keep his power and made him one of the few Taken with actual independent thought. Malok was considered a candidate to replace Oryx, should Oryx fall.


Alak-Hul
I don't think Alak Hul has any direct relation to Oryx, but he did end up sorta adopting him as a foster son. Alak-Hul was one of Crota's affiliates, and was there during the first raid to try and kill Crota that went horribly wrong for humanity. After that, he tried to rebel against Oryx for two reasons: He felt neglected by Oryx, and to impress his Hive GF. Needless to say Oryx beat him, but Oryx then stuck him in the Sunless Cell, to "never see the light again". The Sunless Cell was right next to his own throne, as Oryx considered Alak-Hul fit to assume the Osmium Throne in an emergency due to how far he got with his rebellion. While Alak-Hul was in jail for rebelling, he was also effectively being guarded for his own protection. Remember that the Light also refers to the mysterious force empowering Guardians. Eris was worried that he would actually follow through on claiming Oryx's throne so she has the PC break into his cell and kill him. Alak-Hul was seemingly influential enough to inspire an entire Hive Lineage in D2, being the Darkblades.

Also sticking him in his own personal cell so close to Oryx's own domain certainly constitutes giving the guy some attention, lol.

I can probably find more stuff if anyone feels like arguing but people already aren't gonna read that so yeah

@Wok:

Going by that, Ahriman probably counts as a villain protagonist, yes. I'll look at the massive wall of text later.

@Others:

I'd like at least some form of explanation for some of these, and how they fit the criteria in the OP. Just saying the names isn't giving me much of a reason to include them.

That was a great read. Nice Wok.

Pretty sure HIM and Frieza are the only villains in Low 4-C and although I've not seen much of Dragon Ball, I know Frieza is almost universally considered the best villain so probably him (not HIM, but him).

Dagoth Ur for Low 2-C easily. One of the most complex characters in all of videogaming.

Mankar Camoran for High 4-C

Dark Samus is in Low 4-C.

Matthew Schroeder said:

Dagoth Ur for Low 2-C easily. One of the most complex characters in all of videogaming.
Mankar Camoran for High 4-C

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First one's already there.

Got an explanation for the second?

Paulo.junior.969 said:

Robbie Rotte

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He is the Villain Number One.

For Mankar Camoran you need like a whole book to dedicated to the complexity of his character. If you have the time reading the Mythic Dawn Commentaries will give you insight of his character.

Enerjak for 2-A.

Too bad GLaDOS doesn't have a profile.

Personally I don't think of Ahriman as a villain although it is arguable.

Horus Lupercal for 4-B.

Frieza for 3-A (if not High 5-A or Low 4-C). Frieza has to be on the list somewhere.

Matthew Schroeder said:

Dagoth Ur for Low 2-C easily. One of the most complex characters in all of videogaming.

Mankar Camoran for High 4-C

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Who even are these people lol

EmperorRorepme said:

Personally I don't think of Ahriman as a villain although it is arguable.

Horus Lupercal for 4-B.

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Horus is the s shittiest villain among the heretics. Fulgrim and Magnus are far more interesting, he'll even Angron is

I would argue only Lorgar to be more interesting.

Ahriman wall of text coming up soon

I prefer Magnus myself but I wouldn't say Horus is bad. His tragedy gets pretty interesting in some of the later books.