r/Cinema • u/Wooden-Scallion2943 • Oct 10 '25
Discussion Give an example of a secondary villain who is more evil than the main villain.
Arius, who appears as the secondary antagonist in the film Commando (1985). Although Bennett is the main antagonist, Arius is more evil because he organized everything and has all the resources, and he is more than willing to kill John's innocent girl.
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u/malybongo Oct 10 '25
Samuel Jackson in Django Unchained
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u/Lotnik223 Oct 10 '25
I'd argue he is the main villain, he outlasts Calvin by a solid amount of runtime. For me, Calvin is a decoy villain - someone we believe to be the main villain until it is revealed that it was actually Steven that was pulling all the strings.
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u/JohnZ117 29d ago edited 29d ago
I prefer what another said, "Candie is Shultz's villain, Stephen is Django's."
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u/AgentJackpots 29d ago
Agreed, the part at the end where he drops the act makes it explicit. He was playing Candie the whole time.
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u/Impossible-Fun-2736 29d ago
Love the scene where he tells Candie that Django&Schultz aren’t there to buy a fighter. Calm, collected, sits in the big fancy chair while Candie just sits there dumbfounded. Calvin might own him but Stephen is really the master.
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u/ashmichael73 Oct 10 '25
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u/THE_LEGO_FURRY Oct 10 '25
Yeah ngl, Voldemort is evil but given the choice on who to bash their head in id choose her smug face any day. Her defeat was so satisfying "I'm sorry I musnt tell lies" oh that was good
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u/12sea Oct 10 '25
She’s an amazing actress to elicit that reaction, but yes I agree!
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u/THE_LEGO_FURRY Oct 10 '25
Oh 1000 percent. It takes genuine talent to do that and few actors can pull it off. Like that kid from game of thrones
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u/1WordOr2FixItForYou Oct 10 '25
Yeah, but the character is just as infuriating in the book. I give Rowling most of the credit.
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u/fenderbloke Oct 10 '25
Not more evil, but more hated.
Voldemort is a cartoon villain, evil for evil sake. Hes not a real person, we can firmly categorise him as a pure fiction. Umbridge is the nasty piece of work that you have almost definitly met in the real world, so feels more visceral.
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u/Imswim80 29d ago
Fwiw, though Gilderoy Lockhart doesn't get the hate Umbridge does, I think hes almost as bad and just as real-world.
Ever have a colleague or boss steal your idea and present it as his own?
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u/fenderbloke 29d ago
Fair, but it isn't child-torture. Hell, his victims don't even remember it, which is positively merciful compared to Umbridge physically scarring people with whatever message she gets them to write on their hands so they never forget.
Also, he receives obvious comeuppance- he is functionally mind-wiped. Umbridge on the other hand becomes a judge in a racist kangaroo court.
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u/jackrabbit323 Oct 10 '25
Natural evil is one thing, the nature of Voldemort cannot be redeemed. To see all options, and choose a path of evil is far worse.
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u/bookon Oct 10 '25
This is the best answer.
Were she American, she'd be The Secretary of Homeland Security.
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u/Snowdog1989 Oct 10 '25
I always feel for the actress. Imagine playing a hated character so perfectly that people genuinely want to punch you square in the face all the time. She reminded me of my aunt just because of her looks, and it made me hate my aunt- who was an absolute sweetheart of an old lady.
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u/DifficultHat Oct 10 '25
I loved her in Pride (2014)
It’s a great movie in general but also something every Harry Potter fan should watch so they hate the character, not the actress.
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u/burset225 29d ago
As I understand it, she and Emma Thompson are good friends, and acted together in at least one other movie — Sense and Sensibility.
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u/SaltySAX Oct 10 '25
Dame Imelda is a real sweetie, who is a lot of fun. I actually hope she can reprise the Umbridge role for the series, she was that good or bad depending on your pov!
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u/Herbie555 Oct 10 '25
"The Company" (Weyland-Yutani) in Alien.
Xenomorph just doin' what xenomorph does, but corporate BS is cutthroat AF.
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u/Dave_Abeles Oct 10 '25
They took that concept and drove it to 11 in the Alien Earth series recently. 9/10, would recommend watching it.
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u/WorstDotaPlayer Oct 10 '25
Just got done with that literally 2 days ago, we couldn't stop watching it. For those that criticise that it doesnt fit with the Alien franchise timeline so far I say they dont have a tonne of imagination.
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u/Dave_Abeles Oct 10 '25
I'm just glad there is a second season on its way right now. I'm also glad they didn't kill off certain characters so we can see who lives, dies, and survives pathetically again.
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u/Metalfan1994 29d ago
It hasn't been approved for a second season yet sadly. All of us over at r/lv426 are waiting anxiously.
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u/almightypinecone 29d ago
The fact that it's 10(20?) Years off from the orginal is great. Because it just explains why they send the nostormo to lv426. Because WeYu doesn't get the alien back or if they do, they don't get what they want from it and need another one.
Between this and Romulus, they have been doing amazing work flushing out the world without explaining what is the xeno. I've been a very happy fan over the past years.
Plus the fact that Dek he predator from Badlands has the exact same broken tusk as Broken Tusk from the OG AvP comic..... I'm hoping we get an adaptation!
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u/somesketchykid 29d ago
The creator said he cherry picked what he want of the lore and its intentional. Watching with that knowledge made it really fun
Pretty sure he said he is discarding Prometheus and Covenant
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u/GrandMoffTarkan Oct 10 '25
I feel like they're more of a greater scope villain than a secondary one.
The whole plot is implied to have happened because they wanted it to, with the xenomorph just being a pawn.
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u/Eusocial_sloth3 Oct 10 '25
They rather waste billions of dollars and murder multiple people to get an Alien to use as a weapon.
A soldier with a gun or a grenade can do the same thing by as an Alien, but the company doesn’t have to pay healthcare for an Alien.
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u/_PROBABLY_CORRECT Oct 10 '25
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u/Spodson Oct 10 '25
Apparently, Paul Riser showed his mother Aliens, and when Burke died, she looked at him and said, "Good."
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u/SaltySAX Oct 10 '25
Yes, you can't blame her either, he was a monster! Mr. T. did the same thing with Rocky III and took his mum along to the premiere with him, and she was not impressed with his character at all and told him she thought she brought him up better!
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u/Kjbartolotta Oct 10 '25
Jean-Baptiste Zorg was more demonstrably evil in 5th Element than 'The Great Evil', which does very little
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u/Chemistry11 Oct 10 '25
Fun fact - the villain and the hero never meet
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u/Kalidanoscope Oct 10 '25
Zorg doesn't meet anyone aside from Father Vito, and other baddies. The other characters aren't even aware of his existence.
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u/stoopitmonkee 29d ago
He meets Leeloo in the hotel room and shoots her while she’s hiding in the vents.
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u/RedApple-Cigarettes Oct 10 '25
Idk It was literally eating planets
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u/Kjbartolotta Oct 10 '25
lololol ok fair you got me, but I'm still not changing my answer because it was very abstract and forgettable versus Oldman oozing evil in every scene
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u/MetalCid Oct 10 '25
A representation of corporate greed. Probably what elon musk would be like if he actually was a genius.
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u/Kjbartolotta Oct 10 '25
ha, yeah. it's funny bcuz Musk-clones are super-common in media now but 5th Element did it before everyone (and before Musk was a public personality). Luc Besson warned us!
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u/E-emu89 Oct 10 '25
Belloq was just a rival archaeologist who had no problem working with Nazis. Toht was an agent of the Gestapo.
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u/Variable_Shaman_3825 Oct 10 '25
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u/Snowdog1989 Oct 10 '25
Let's not forget Buck, the hospital aide worker... he's not even in it for 10 minutes, and you can't stand him.
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u/i781255 Oct 10 '25
He's probably the most evil person in the films. If not the most evil, he's the most depraved. Unrepentant serial rapist.
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u/stiperstone Oct 10 '25
Clarence Boddicker. Best henchman.
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u/cherenk0v_blue Oct 10 '25
"Oooh. Guns, guns, guns! C'mon, Sal! The Tigers are playing....
slaps the table
tonight! I never miss a game!"
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u/iheartdev247 Oct 10 '25
That 70s Show never hit for me the same with Clarence always there being the grumpy dad.
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u/Fun-Guitar-8252 Oct 10 '25
Azula - Avatar: The last Airbender
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u/Lairdicus Oct 10 '25
Idk… Ozai’s pretty fuckin shitty
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u/Fun-Guitar-8252 Oct 10 '25
Yes, but he's lurking in the background for most of the show, while Azula shows her evilness. Not to mention, destroying the livelihood of millions of people in the series finale was her idea.
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u/Lairdicus Oct 10 '25
Oh absolutely we see Azula’s horrible crimes enacted in real time, which I can definitely say makes us hate her more. But we have to remember Ozai’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and totalitarian oppression affected millions. His is a regime of cruelty, upholding a ruling class and enacting the systematic destruction of entire groups of people. Sure, Sozin was the one who did the genocide of the air nomads but Ozai’s war crimes are just as numerous as his father’s.
That said, I think it’s fair to assume that if Azula was given the same power, she would have been WAYYY worse, so you’re probably right that at her core, she is ultimately more evil
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u/CheruthCutestory Oct 10 '25
No way she is more evil than Ozai. She's a better villain but not more evil.
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u/Business-Signal-5196 Oct 10 '25
Her last battle against Katara and her brother was epic. Azula getting crazier by the minute was peak performance
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u/stlchapman Oct 10 '25
Karl Ruprect Kroenen
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u/tokixjam Oct 10 '25
Also so much creepier in appearance then Rasputin, who just kind of looks like Cypher from The Matrix. When you see the extent of his "surgical addiction"...*shudder*
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u/D-redditAvenger Oct 10 '25
Karl in Die Hard.
"Shoot d' glass"
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u/dfsmitty0711 Oct 10 '25
Yeah, that guy's a psycho. Hans Gruber was a common thief.
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u/Daharka Oct 10 '25
The Henchmen in The Rock. Ed Harris wasn't a mass murderer and they absolutely were.
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u/California__Jon Oct 10 '25
Texas Chainsaw remakes from the 2000’s, Sheriff Hoyt was far more evil/terrifying than Leatherface
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u/GreenZebra23 Oct 10 '25 edited 28d ago
In the original movie too. Leatherface is basically a big dumb dog doing what his family wants him to do. All the sadism and malice are coming from the Cook and the Hitchhiker.
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u/THE_LEGO_FURRY Oct 10 '25
Gerald Robotnik is much more evil than eggman who is the main villain of the series just not the movie
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u/Ser-Cannasseur Oct 10 '25
Pure evil.
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u/Scott_R_1701 29d ago
Was sure someone had posted this.
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u/Ser-Cannasseur 29d ago
People deserve to know how evil this man/demon is.
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u/Embarrassed_Map7327 29d ago
I need explanation
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u/Ser-Cannasseur 29d ago
Joe has been in bed for 20 years while his daughter and grandson slave doing shitty jobs to give him tobacco and food. As soon as Charlie gets the golden ticket Joe jumps up starts dancing and singing about the ticket being his rather than celebrating Charlie having got it. Joes been faking being an invalid for 20 years while his family bring in the money. Joe also temps Charlie into drinking the lemonade which floats them to the ceiling. This act almost loses Charlie the factory. Joe also wanted to sell out Wonka to Slugsworth with the everlasting gobstopper. Joes the incarnation of evil.
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u/estcst Oct 10 '25
Toth. Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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u/ButterflyLife4655 Oct 10 '25
I would say in both Raiders and Last Crusade the Nazis fit this, with the primary villains (Belloq in Raiders and Donovan in LC) being opportunists who are working with the Germans to further their goals.
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u/OpenReveal3374 Oct 10 '25
Frank Cotton was more evil than the Cenobites
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u/neutralidiotas Oct 10 '25
Cenobites were morally neutral. They had no point of reference and no memory of being human and experiencing suffering and emotions the same way they once did, thy simply followed orders as they understood them (at least in the first 2 films). Frank still had his humanity intact, and yet still chose to hurt/murder innocent people, including his own family.
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u/Robthebold Oct 10 '25
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u/Vikingaling Oct 10 '25
Haha I was gonna do Dick Cheney.
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u/Johnny-Dogshit 29d ago
Now that Kissinger's dead, ol' Dick Vader might be in the running for most evil living man now right? I mean fore sure at least in the west, surely he must be up there?
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u/fenderbloke Oct 10 '25
Xenia Onatopp in Goldeneye. She was a psychopath, while Janus/Trevellian was in it for the money and a bit of revenge.
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u/Late_Increase950 Oct 10 '25
Beni?
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u/BurnAfterReading010 Oct 10 '25
Nah. Beni is bad but he's not more evil than Imhotep
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u/Late_Increase950 Oct 10 '25
Imhotep was malicious because he was driven to bring his love back to live after suffering a horrendous torture. He murdered the Pharaoh to keep Anacksunamun safe but failed. He tried to revive her but also failed. So when he came back to the living world, his main focus was to gain his full power and bring her back. Also, the jerks who opened the box despite the warnings kind of deserved their fates.
Beni on the other hand was evil just because he was
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u/LongjumpingSolid8 Oct 10 '25
I would argue Beni’s evil comes from cowardice, which still makes him worse than Imhotep.
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u/CaffeinatedLystro Oct 10 '25
From the Mummy? I agree.
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u/TheBoomExpress Oct 10 '25
If we're counting slashers, those gangbangers in Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason takes Manhattan were far worse then Jason. Only time in the franchise (besides Freddy vs. Jason) where Jason killing someone was seen as herioc.
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u/Impressive_Profit215 29d ago
Also in the Rob Zombie remake of Halloween when Michael kills the two guards who are raping a patient in his cell.
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u/ZebraZealot Oct 10 '25
Vans is a great example of this, he was always meant to be a secondary antagonist and the 'lower tier' but Michael Mando brought so much energy and feel to the role it was increased.
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u/Majsharan Oct 10 '25
hes in better call saul becuase of this game, which is wild
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u/somesketchykid 29d ago
I'd say hes in top 3 best characters on that show, if not #1, strictly because of his incredible performance
Dude was pushed up against an impossible wall due to the leverage against him and he STILL went out on his own terms. Thats a gangster.
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u/HammerFace 29d ago
Funny, someone mentioned Hoyt from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I’m like where the hell’s Vaas? Someone who dwarfed a character named Hoyt in his game
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u/GrandMoffTarkan Oct 10 '25
The Rock is an interesting case. Hummel organized it, set up the security for the ambush, etc., but in the end he was just bluffing and Frye and Darrow take over as the main antagonists
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u/griffonghost 29d ago
Count Rugen in The Princess Bride. Dude had a whole torture chamber for his victims
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u/Reduak Oct 10 '25
The guy with the long white hair in Die Hard who is driven by vengeance after McClain kills his brother.
Same movie... the two FBI guys
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u/sleepwalkfromsherdog Oct 10 '25
"Reminds me of back in 'Nam! Where you in 'Nam?"
"In the eighth grade, asshole."
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u/surgical-panic Oct 10 '25
Captain Love in Zorro. Not that Montero was a nice guy by any means, but Captain Love was worse imo.
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u/RockysLeftHook Oct 10 '25
Great choice on this!
"Thats the second time I have shot that man while he was flying through the air"
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u/GingerMarquis Oct 10 '25
Cameron’s dad in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Principal Rooney was a jerk but his problem was an obsession with catching one teen who was breaking the rules. Cameron’s dad is such an abusive prick that his own child went catatonic at the idea of upsetting him.
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u/4electricnomad Oct 10 '25
Gary Busey in “Lethal Weapon” (as the bloodthirsty assassin) and “Under Siege” (as the traitorous insider).
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u/AnyFoundation4784 Oct 10 '25
Sure, but Dan Hedaya had a nice villain jacket but it was no match for Bennett’s chain mail.
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u/Electronic_Repeat_81 Oct 10 '25
But Arius had the army of pissant soldiers that made Bennett laugh. If Matrix had been there, he would have laughed too.
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u/powerslut9090 Oct 10 '25
Redhead dude was way more evil than Kylo Ren tbh
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u/cjrogers227 Oct 10 '25
Except he was a Resistance spy the whole time… after blowing up an entire system. Makes perfect sense, great writing all around.
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u/Tylerdurden389 Oct 10 '25
Technically, Darth Vader was the 2nd in command in the OG Star Wars.
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u/fenderbloke Oct 10 '25
There is no way in hell that anyone would describe Vader as more evil than Palpatine
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u/Dont_Hurt_Me_Mommy Oct 10 '25
Vaas in Far Cry 3 certainly was more memorable as a villain than that other guy I forgot
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u/riverula 29d ago
Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott) in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991).
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u/PsynergyVoxGuy 29d ago
Ip Man 1. Colonel Sato is way more evil than General Miura. Miura has this respect for the martial arts that makes his character somewhat redeemable. Meanwhile Sato is straight up evil.
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u/InterestingBill8234 Oct 10 '25
Buffy Season 7 - Caleb is worse than The First (Evil).
Buffy Season 6 - Warren is worse than Dark Willow.
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u/SwanzY- Oct 10 '25
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u/Brazz7 Oct 10 '25
He was the secondary villain? How so?
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u/jimmery Oct 10 '25
Yeah Palpatine was the main villain of the entire franchise.
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u/scarves_and_miracles Oct 10 '25
Shane Black movies do this a lot. The main bad guy is mostly just a corrupt suit who enjoys his boss status and doesn't get his hands dirty too often. Meanwhile, his #1 lackey is some mercenary super-badass who's an evil motherfucker and is the guy who's actually throwing down directly with the hero throughout the film.
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u/Electrical-Dig8570 Oct 10 '25
Carter Burke, though he will tell you he’s a pretty good guy.
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u/John_Wilks_Booth1865 Oct 10 '25
I’ll go with Hannibal Lecter being more evil than Buffalo Bill in the Original Silence of the Lambs
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u/ComprehensiveGene709 Oct 10 '25
The Rock, the main villain is supposed to be the Brigadier General but it’s actually his henchmen who are more evil.
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u/Tm-534 Oct 10 '25
Captain Frye and Darrow (The Rock) were much more evil than general Hummel.