CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

A while back, I asked you folks to name your favorite anti-heroes. Well, now let's look at the "sympathetic villain" or anti-villain. Who do you like best?
Here's some of my favorites:
-Lelouch, depending on your feelings.
-Mr. Freeze (oh come on, how can you not feel sorry for him?)
-Gaara
-Parry (he's Satan's stand-in in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality. He actually tries to bring some honor to the position. It doesn't always work, though)
-Tyrion in A Song of Ice and Fire
-The Phantom of the Opera
-Captain Nemo
-Ben Linus on Lost
-Noah Bennet on Heroes
-Two Face
-Macbeth in Gargoyles

Magus from Chrono Trigger.

Link from Link's Awakening.

I'd second Ben Linus, certainly, as well as Captain Nemo.

Hans Beckert (played by Peter Lorre) from the 1931 German movie M is a very despicable character; child murderer and molester. He's certainly not an sympathetic villain, but rather an empathetic one. You don't sympathise with him, but you feel sorry for him because he knows what he is, is honest but not cynical or nihilstic about it, hates himself for what he is, but is unable to stop. All this comes through in a long, shocking monologue at the end of the movie where the character confesses his crimes, and you get the feeling that if it had not been for his mental condition he might have been a decent person.

Can't think of others that stand out. I tend to focus on villains I dislike.

Darth Vader? Anyone? Anyone? I'm talking from Return of the Jedi. So awesome. But the new movies, not so much. They just make him look like a whiny idiot who causes all of his own problem and never gets over anything.

Also,
Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender
Greed from FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Spike from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer
Vaako from The Chronicles of Riddick
Gul Dukat (and by slight extension Gul Damar) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Yuki-Anne (post: 1424777) wrote:Darth Vader? Anyone? Anyone? I'm talking from Return of the Jedi. So awesome.
Also,
Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Yes. Yes, so much.

Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad

Holtz from Angel

10 from Batman Beyond

Inspector Javert from Les Miserables

V from V for Vendetta.

Scar from Full Metal Alchemist

Snape from Harry Potter

Gollum from Lord of the Rings

...um, that's all I can think of right now. I don't often find villains sympathetic so much, I just like knowing how they got to where they are now.

Atria35 (post: 1424791) wrote:Yes. Yes, so much.

Atria, I'm starting to get this feeling like we could be entertainment twins or something. We're even the same age.

Also, can't believe I didn't think of Gollum.

Two-face from The Dark Knight.

I forgot Gollum too, so don't feel so bad.

Satan.

Raoh, King of the Fist from Hokuto no Ken.

rocklobster (post: 1424689) wrote:"sympathetic villain"

rocklobster (post: 1424689) wrote:Lelouch, depending on your feelings.

Nope.

TheSubtleDoctor (post: 1424995) wrote:Raoh, King of the Fist from Hokuto no Ken.

If you had said Souther I don't know what I'd say here.

Dr. Horrible

Yuki-Anne (post: 1424777) wrote:Greed from FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Friends...of the soul.

Also, some people have some interesting idea of what a villain is. Greed is a villain?[spoiler]Snape?[/spoiler]