Category: Star Trek

Saruman — While Sauron remains this powerful demonic force (giant eye or not), Saruman displays the corruptibility of power and knowledge (also played on by Tolkien in Gollum and Denethor).  Saruman's pride simply gets the better of him, and for a time it works, before he gets his come-uppance.  He's the force of modernity (destroying landscape in both Isengard and the Shire), trying to "improve" what doesn't improving (the Uruk-hai), and he even thinks he can play Sauron and get the Ring for himself.  The irony is that, in his role as the head of the Istari, he was more powerful and influential than than anything he had the prospect of becoming, and his entire arc is a downward one.

Thanos — While usually dismissed as a Darkseid rip-off, Thanos brings his own value to the table. A nihilist who worships Death and seeks her love, Thanos can play the long game, and even act as an ally of "good" (as against the Magus) when it serves his purpose. There was a great meta-arc crafted for him some years back about his how his own mortal foibles and fundamental sense of unworthiness always sabotaged his plans, at which point of epiphany, he settled down and became a farmer.  Alas, like Magneto and Galactus, he's been battered and revised and replayed with so often than it's difficult to see anything coherent about him any more.

Loki — In the myths he was Coyote, the mischief-bringer who could be a great ally or a bitter foe.  In the comics, he started off as the standard Lee/Kirby arch-fiend, but in the last decade or so has become much more of a — well, occasionally sympathetic character, whether in the glorious Rob Rodi / Esad Ribic Loki miniseries, or in Tom Hiddleston's splendid portrayal on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Khan Noonian Singh — And here I'm talking Montalban, not Cumberbatch (though the latter's pretty keen).  An amazing case where a movie potrayal actually matches or surpasses the TV original a decade and a half later, Montalban's Khan starts as a smug, smooth, highly charismatic leader of men, ruthless in the desire for power but almost sympathetic as a giant among mortals (and, as Kirk notes, just as prone to fatal human flaws as lesser beings). In the movie, bitter madness has taken him over, corrupting even his desire for power into a desire for revenge. Montalban succeeds in doing something no other Kirk villain has done — out-chew Shatner viz the scenery, and he does it with Melvillean perfection.

"Q" — A brilliant character created with the return of Star Trek in "Next Generation," Q epitomizes and satirizes the nigh-omniscient asshats that Kirk kept running into in TOS. He's the opposite of deus ex machina, a way for the writers to get the crew into trouble with the snap of a finger. More importantly, he's the perfect foil for politically correct, stick-up-his-ass, genteel Jean-Luc Picard, challenging his (and the Federation's) assumptions, challenging his successes, and clarifying his character.  Triffic stuff, only abetted by the novels Peter David wrote later using the character.

Severus Snape — It's difficult to disengage the character in the book from the character in the movies, so I won't even try.  Snape starts off the Harry Potter series as the sneering professorial bully, but ultimately turns out to be a hero (and, well, yeah, still a bully), a tragic one at that. His hatred of Harry and his fierce (if sometimes twisted) protection of him stem from childhood pain, redeemed (and trusted) by Dumbledore in a terrible long game against Voldemort.  He remains a villain, but one with a weeping heart of gold.

Reshared post from +Isaac Sher

Threat Or Menace returns from its thanksgiving break with a new installment of "Fav Five Fridays" — this time, we each give a list of our favorite villains from genre media!  Is your favorite on any of our lists?  Which five would YOU have picked?  Come take a look, and tell us about your own list!

And on a side note, Happy Birthday to +Topher Gerkey!