Whether you've been following my blog for awhile or just take a first glance at it, it's painfully obvious that I have very heavy focus on DC and Marvel in all forms of media. If you dig deep though, you'll find the rare music review (which I haven't really done one since 2014's "Dream Walker" review) or the occasional look at other shows like SpongeBob or Dragon Ball GT (and on a related note, be on the lookout for my upcoming "Top 10 Episodes of Futurama" post). Also taking into account that all I've really done this year is reviews, I figured I kill two birds with one stone in a top five list.
It's easy to love the hero of a story, but when there's a villain you just love to hate, that's what makes them memorable. With that said, let me share my top five villains from outside DC and Marvel comics.
5. Destroyah
Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995)
As the Godzilla series was going on hiatus once again in the mid 90's, they wanted to give a proper conclusion with the death of the title character. So what better opponent for the King of the Monster's last stand than a creature born from the Oxygen Destroyer that apparently killed him in his very first movie in 1954. Enter: Destroyah, a colony of Precambrian organisms mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer. Destroyah starts off as multiple man sized crab creatures, combining into larger crab creatures and soon enough into the giant satanic looking figure pictured above. All of Destroyah's forms are pretty scary, but his final form really takes the cake. His personality is one to match his namesake, as he only lives to kill. This leads to one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the Godzilla franchise. Once Destroyah evolves into his final form, he attacks Godzilla Junior, who bested him in battle earlier, taking him high into the air and dropping him onto sports arena. And if that wasn't bad enough, Destroyah continues to blast Junior with his energy beam, leading to Junior's death.
Destroyah may have likely killed the senior Godzilla as well, had it not been for the over abundance of radiation in Godzilla's body at that point, giving him enough power to take down his son's killer. So while it wasn't Destroyah himself that killed Godzilla, it was a driving factor; between the anger of losing his son and the battle pushing his power to dangerous levels, Godzilla's meltdown was all but assured. I won't go into what happens at the end of the movie to avoid spoilers for those who haven't seen it, but I will say that "Godzilla vs. Destroyah" is one of my favorite Godzilla movies along with 1991's "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah".
On that note, while King Ghidorah is without a doubt Godzilla's biggest and most well known adversary, I partly chalk that up to overexposure. Don't get me wrong, I love Ghidorah, but Destroyah has a little more edge over him, dealing the most devastating blows to Godzilla.
4. The Psycho Rangers
Power Rangers in Space, (1998), Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (1999)
I knew I had to pick someone from Power Rangers for this list, but after nearly 25 years, I asked myself who stood out the most and had a major impact? While many villains from the Zordon era are iconic, I think the Psycho Rangers are probably the best. I already talked about the Psychos way back in my Power Rangers retrospective, but it's worth going into again.
While beforehand there were evil copies or attempts to make evil versions of Power Rangers, the Psycho Rangers stood out by having a unique design. Created by Astronema using energy from an unknowing Dark Specter, the Psychos had a never ending drive to defeat their respective Ranger. In fact, in their first appearance, the Psychos nearly did destroy the Space Rangers, only to be teleported away by Astronema, as she want to use them as long as she could so they could steal all of Dark Specter's energy so she could usurp him as the monarch of the United Alliance of Evil.
While the Psychos were created as a team, they only worked well when it served their interests, that being to destroy their own Ranger. They would even attack each other if they got in the way of their goal. Despite their lack of teamwork, they were still a formidable force against the Rangers, only able to take down one at a time with Pink and Blue before destroying Red, Black, and Yellow with combined might of the Megazords.
But they couldn't keep the Psychos down for long, as a year later in "Lost Galaxy", Deviot revived the Psychos to destroy the Galaxy Rangers, and it took the combined might of the Space and Galaxy Rangers to defeat them again. However, Psycho Pink survived and while she was finally defeated, her actions resulted in the death of Kendrix, the Pink Galaxy Ranger, this being the first death of a Ranger in the franchise at this point.
The Psycho Ranger story arc is one of the best parts of "Power Rangers in Space" and they were involved in one of the franchise's greatest team-ups. While there have been attempts at more evil Rangers afterwards, none of them match the impact the Psychos did. It's probably unlikely, but I would love if the Psycho Rangers were to come back in another anniversary special.
3. The Master/Harold Saxon
Doctor Who (2007, 2009-10, 2017)
Doctor Who has a lot of iconic villains. Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Sontarans, the Silence, I can go on. And then you have the Master. Admittedly, I've only really watched the modern era of Doctor Who, and while I know there have been past Masters, John Simm was my first Master.
For those who don't know, the Master is a Time-Lord like the Doctor, who seeks both power and to see the Doctor suffer. In the arc that introduced me to the Master, he fabricated the identity of Harold Saxon and was able to hypnotize the populace of the United Kingdom into electing him Prime Minister. His personality is very unprofessional for a politician (boy, isn't that relevant?), which annoys some of his colleagues, who eventually wind up dead at his hand. But really, it's his personality that makes him stand out to me. He has fun in the evil things he does, and it's when he gets serious when you should be scared of him. One of the fascinating aspects of this version of the Master is that he's driven mad by a constant drumbeat in his head, placed there from when he looked into the Untempered Schism, a gap in the fabric of space and time, during his initiation as a Time-Lord. It's this sound of drums that makes for one of my favorite scores; it's a catchy beat I find myself thinking about from time to time.
In his first arc, the Master's endgame was to take over Earth by bringing from the future the Toclafane, the cybernetic remains of humanity from the future. In addition to this, he puts the wife he had taken through psychological hell and made servants out of the family of the Doctor's then current companion, Martha Jones. This really speaks to how demented the Master is. His plan ultimately fails though, leading to him being shot by his own wife. As the Doctor cradles him in his arms claiming he can regenerate, the Master chooses death as it would be a loss for the Doctor. Years later in "The End of Time", the Master is revived by his disciples, leading to his new plan to turn all of humanity into clones of himself. This involved John Simm wearing all kinds of different clothes, and you just know he had to have fun filming these scenes.
After his defeat there, this was believed to be the last of this version of the Master, as a new female regeneration of the character appeared, going by the name "Missy". Missy would start off again as the Doctor's enemy, but as time went on, she would become an unlikely ally. A wrench is thrown in the gears though as the Harold Saxon version of the Master returned once again in all his crazy glory, playing a hand in the creation of the Mondasian Cybermen, even turning the Doctor's then current companion Bill Potts into one. The interaction between the two Masters was fun to see, especially with Missy's conflicting loyalties to the Doctor and her old self. This would actually be the last we see of both versions of the Master though, as they end up fatally wounding the other. But while Saxon would regenerate into Missy, Saxon's blow to Missy was meant to disable her regeneration abilities, most likely leading to her death. His reasoning is he can't bear to see himself becoming an ally of the Doctor. While we may never see Missy again, I very much doubt that's the end of the Master. (And for those who wonder why Missy doesn't remember meeting her future self, the time travel rules of Doctor Who include characters being unable to retain memories of meeting with their future selves, so as not to disrupt the timeline of events.)
All in all, John Simm was great as the Master, bringing a gleeful psychopathy that's entertaining to watch. He's a truly dedicated villain in that even if he can't win, he'll make sure the Doctor doesn't have a full victory.
2. Bill Cipher
Gravity Falls (2012-16)
"Gravity Falls" is definitely one of the best cartoons in modern history. It's full of comedy, drama, mystery, action and horror; there's pretty much something for everyone, keeping you hooked all the way until the finale. One of the big parts of the series is its main villain, Bill Cipher, an interdimensional demon from the Nightmare Realm bent on taking over the real world. He's very conniving and manipulative, tricking others, even possessing them, in order to further his own goals. In a way, he's kind of a shifty salesman, and this can really be heard in his speech pattern. He talks fast and has very upbeat personality, despite the demented things he says and does. Hell, in his first appearance, he rips all the teeth out of a deer and offers them as a gift. And during the final arc of the series, he shuffles the functions of a man's face.
(There's your nightmare fuel for tonight.)
But it's when he gets angry that you should really be scared as his voice deepens to a demonic level and he'll sometimes shapeshift into a form to match.
Whenever Bill's on screen, he's always entertaining to watch since he's so different from other villains and unpredictable in his actions. He very well would have won had he not underestimated the main characters of the show.
I highly recommend checking out "Gravity Falls", and Bill Cipher is just one of the many reasons to watch.
And my number one non-DC/Marvel villain is...
Frieza
Dragon Ball (1990-present)
Frieza may very well be the most feared villain in all of anime, and his reputation preceded him before he even made his first appearance in Dragon Ball Z. Even when he did appear, there was so much build up of just how much of threat he was all the way to the point where he actually decided to take matters in his own hands. And that threat just kept building after three transformations that increased his power and gave him a new terrifying form. Of all the villains of Dragon Ball, Frieza has to be the most pure evil of the bunch. King Piccolo was Kami's expunged evil half, we had villains created from science or magic (Cell, Buu, Baby), and even Zamasu believed his evil acts were for the good of the universe. Frieza was just straight up born evil, seeking nothing but absolute rule of the universe. He brought out an immense feeling of terror from not just his opponents or intended victims, but from his own soldiers, who he would kill for something as small as bringing him bad news. This is a character who destroyed the home planet of Goku and Vegeta, and wiped out all the Namekians (including the children) in his quest for their Dragon Balls. Despite most of the Namekians being revived with Earth's Dragon Balls, that's essentially two acts of genocide (that we know about). And you just know he did it partly for his own enjoyment; he's just that sadistic. For a show that is marketed to kids, that's some pretty heavy stuff. Not only that, but Frieza built up a galactic empire that even over a decade after his death, his loyalists still remained to the point where they revived him with Earth's Dragon Balls. And even years after his initial defeat, the thought of Frieza returned from the dead still brought fear to the Z Fighters.
For the longest time, I considered Cell to be the best Dragon Ball villain. I mean, he was made up of the DNA of Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Frieza, and many others. He was essentially the ultimate enemy, and much like Frieza, Cell was meant to be the final villain of the series until creator Akira Toriyama decided to continue with the Buu saga. But I've had a revelation recently: Cell only works within the context of his own saga. Cell may still be powerful, but after increasing threats like Buu and Beerus (a literal god), Cell kind of seems insignificant. Even with his appearance in GT, he didn't seem like much of a threat to Goku, who had reached Super Saiyan 4 at that point. Cell's flaw is that he's limited by the characters he's made up of, not really having any unique techniques of his own.
With Frieza though, after he was resurrected, he learned from his past mistakes and decided to train and increase his power, eventually reaching his golden form, becoming strong enough to fight Goku's Super Saiyan Blue form. If Cell were to return, I feel his personality would keep him from bettering himself, as he believes himself to already be perfect.
In a way, Cell is still my favorite DBZ villain for what he represents, but in terms of character, Frieza really has him beat as the undisputed best villain of Dragon Ball as well as my favorite non-DC/Marvel villain.
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