Your favorite villain pre-Shadowbringers?

[LauraAdalena]

I think Gaius is the best. Hands down. Not because of what he stood for or what he did, but WHY. He did it because he believes that man should carve his own path.

Why is that so compelling? Well, it means he doesn’t care how his actions are seen, as long as the end results in what he believes is right. Something we can all relate to. It paints him as more of a grey than a black or a white. We haven’t gotten any major villains since that are anything like that. A person who, if he wasn’t so stubborn in his plan because of loyalty to his country, because of his core concept and belief he has would totally sit down in the local pub and have a beer with you since both of you care your own paths. Something he respects and even pretty much says in the Praetorium CS.

That being said, in terms of minor villains, Ysayle (before HW) strikes a chord similar. She wants to uncover the corruption of Ishguard. At the time you see her as evil since you don’t know of the corruption and lies. And in retrospect, had you known you would never have fought Shiva.

Now, in terms of minor villains for camp and cheese? Grynewat. ITS LIKE ALL MY NAMEDAYS HAVE COME AT ONCE!!!

[Alleo]

I do like Thordan.

He might be a bit cliche with the evil pope trope but I could also understand why he was doing what he was doing. He, like a lot of people in Ishgard, had to pay for the sins of his anchestors and he knew that he needed to keep the past a secret and to lie about this. Its not right but at the same time understandable since the enemy is not some mortal person that might die or can be defeated but a elder dragon that is filled with unending rage and thus cant be reasoned with. Had he told the people the truth without us there they might have lost all hope and will to fight thus would have been razed to the ground. Of course he needed to be stopped after not only trying to silence people but also after turning himself into a primal that wanted to temper everyone.

I truly loved how he outplayed the Ascians and killed Lahabrea and I do like his fight and music. And the ending when he so shocked about us surviving his ultimate attack and swinging his sword around was perfect.

[MuseTraveller]

I loved Teledji Adeledji most. That lala really knew how to push my buttons.



I also liked Zenos through SB and Asahi as well. I enjoy villains who provoke me.

[Jib]

Krile and Rowena. Trying to make me do Eureka. Ahh!! Pure evil right there...

[DracotheDragon]

i actually liked Lahabrea, i kinda thought lahabrea and elidibus had a good two sides of the same coin motif to them at first, plus i love hammy villains

[Balipu]

Solus, Karasu, Thordan, Diabolos

[Vespar]

Teledji Adeledji. Spoiler tags for those who may not be past this point.

This is what talking out yer arse gets you... His demise was epic and finally an alliance leader DID SOMETHING. I want to see the other leaders do something just as epic (just maybe with less loss of limb...)!
Could you imagine what Kan-E-Senna's wrath would look like? Its always the quiet ones I tell you >_>

[Lufir]

Yotsuyu. I think villains born of tragedy are the most interesting, developed characters.

[BillyKaplan]

There's a lot of villains that are very good, but I don't like for whatever reason. Those I did like include Yotsuyu for reasons already brought before in this thread. I'll also note most of the Knights of the Round, they weren't too high in importance but they got us where it hurts most, because we got to see them so much, we got to see them abuse the people of the Brume, and they were the ones who took Haurchefant from us.

I'd also like to throw an honorary mention to Hraesvelger. I do consider him a villain if only due to what his few actions and more importantly his lack of actions brought forth. Without him, there would not have been a Dragonsong War. Nidhogg would've died when they took away both his eyes and the world could've gone down a different direction. But he knew full well what Nidhogg was going to do, Nidhogg never tried to hide it, yet still Hraes gave him his eye, allowing him to live on to enact his revenge - their revenge. And all the while Hraes hid behind his excuse of his promise to Shiva, that he would not be the one to wage war, acting like this technicality really absolved him of responsibility.
I get his grief after Ratatoskr. I do. And lord knows what the humans, high on their triumph, would've done if the dragons hadn't struck back. But we saw where that story went, and Hraes is just as guilty for any of it as Nidhogg. Thankfully us showing up managed to smack some sense into him.

[Renato]

I liked Yotsuyu as a villain because she did her job as far as getting you to hate her very well. But as a character, I just didn't connect with her. The whole scorned woman driven insane who is later put into a position of power just wasn't believeable to me. Like...really? Someone as unstable as this woman is a viceroy for the Garleans? The Garleans are portrayed as the bad guys but don't necessarily seem evil. I don't know, it was just odd for me.

If anything, I really enjoyed Thordan and his Knights. I'm a sucker for the "behind the scenes" kind of villain that comes to light at some point after their plans fall into place.

Frodola is growing on me as well especially after seeing more of her backstory shown through the cutscenes. It really sucks that she also has to suffer from seeing all the pain she has caused because of her new found powers as well.