Screw Nuance, Give Me A Memorable Villain | Semi-Ramblomatic

This week on Semi-Ramblomatic, Yahtzee discusses the lack of memorable villains in recent times.
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[@Achiwa]

I feel like Megamind said it best, the difference between a villain and a supervillain is presentation. The best villains are the ones who OWN their shtick.

[@ThatWolfArrow]

There's a reason people loved Big Jack Horner in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

[@15oClock]

Be deep, be shallow, be nuanced, be simple, but for god sake, don't be boring. That's writing advice you don't need to go to college for.

[@JacobDragyn]

Perhaps the issue is more that nuanced villains are now the norm, and so having clear villains feels refreshing? Which is the opposite from how it was 10-15 years ago.

[@MrCoolinschool]

I absolutely love how Hi-Fi Rush’s villain Kale Vandelay’s whole plan, with mind control programs in the robotic implants that Vandelay produces, came about not because of any world-conquering ambitions but because he doesn’t want to waste money and energy on a marketing department

[@nicklager1666]

Having a memorable antagonist makes all the difference. Say what you want about the comedy of the 2 first borderlands games, but the banter and back and forth with Handsome Jack really made it great. It doesnt come down to the lines either its all about the delivery of the great voice actors we have.

[@patricklippert8345]

I think it's one of those trends that writers seesaw back and forth between. We get a bunch of cartoony villains until people find them too one-note and then someone writes a more nuanced villain and everyone likes that until every villain has a tragic childhood and a grey morality.

[@CosmicShadowMari0]

As far as "The Batman" goes, while the contents of the movie strove to be extremely realistic, the framing, tone, and cinematography of everything made it feel like the most fantastical Batman movie we've had in a long time. It truly did feel more like a Batman comic than any other live action one I've seen. Sure, the Riddler is structurally more grounded than ever, but that discounts Paul Dano's goofy-ass but still disturbing performance. It made the movie have a very memorable villain, not just with him, but with the Penguin. I still see those two pop up all the time, they've had more staying power than many comic book movies, and i think that's definitely points in the memorability basket.

[@eaglepursuit]

My dude. Rapheal in BG3 is operatic as shit. He even has a god damned showtune he sings in the boss fight. The voice actor who portrays Rapheal won a damned BAFTA for the role. He chews scenery like a chainsaw fueled by bath salts.

[@Flanagax]

Just to add to your point, but the cage-headed boss in Bloodborne you mentioned has one of my absolute favorite "death screams" in gaming. Dude's hamming it up, even while he's dying

[@Rycluse]

Kale from Hi-Fi Rush really deserves additional praise in this regard. The dude's a corporate man child who's never worked a day in his life. His evil plan is to mind control people into buying his products rather than making his products actually good. His dying words are "this is too much work". He's perfect.

[@SuperSmashDolls]

Why not compromise: have two villains. One's a morally complicated nuanced figure. Halfway through the game one of your teammates stabs you in the back and becomes the memorable, uncomplicated villain, and then you have to team up with the first villain, and then you and them part ways and agree to stop fucking with each other.

[@tracesosebee5485]

I like villains with nuance when they are presenting me with something new and deeply philosophical. Not the tragic backstory of "Oh my family was killed and I had to do all this villain shit to take control of the world to prevent stuff like that."

[@JDactal]

5:55

[@gglegenday]

Ganondorf from Wind Waker gets the sweet spot.

[@ShiniesAreCool]

I think there's something to be said for a particular mix of "nuanced" but also "batshit evil".

[@fiertlaen8724]

Entirely understandable. I still remember Scar and I haven't watched The Lion King in years.

[@puokki6225]

Kane from Command & Conquer is an absolute legend of a villain just hamming it up to the point of being incredibly engaging. Especially in the first one where his whole schtick is still largely unexplained and Joseph Kucan being pretty much the only person in the FMV cutscenes who had even the slightest bit of acting experience, he absolutely elevates the whole experience with his mere presence.

[@nicapp984]

I think one of the biggest problems with trying to write a realistic villain is that no matter how hard you try to drive home that they’re evil and what they’re doing is still wrong, if they feel like a real person, there will be a real person out there who thinks they are correct.