Alright, we are a step closer to starting our brand new bracket battle called Ultimate Bad Guy, the second one we’ve done here, with Ultimate Bad Ass being the first.
I’ve gone through ALL your nominations and pulled out the 32 names I think are the best, and put them in a numbered list.
The rankings here are not final and are in no particular order.
- Darth Vader
- Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
- Hannibal Lector
- Norman Bates
- Lex Luthor
- Hal 9000
- Michael Corleone
- Benjamin Linus
- Saruman (Lord of the Rings)
- Keyzer Soze (The Usual Suspects)
- Jack (The Shining)
- Dr. Evil
- Leatherface
- Jigsaw (Saw films)
- Bill - Kill Bill
- Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men)
- Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)
- The Six Fingered Man (Princess Bride)
- Michael Myers (Halloween)
- Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th)
- Arvin Sloane (Alias)
- Q (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
- Annie Wilkes (Misery)
- Cigarette Smoking Man (X-Files)
- Sylar (Heroes)
- Banya (Seinfeld)
- Bill Lumberg (Office Space)
- The Alien
- The Predator
- Khan (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan)
- Agent Smith
- Magneto
My goal here is to make sure we have the best 32 bad guys we can possibly get before we move into the first rounds of the contest.
Here are some of the other names that didn’t make my list, all nominated by you:
Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction), Freddy Kruger, The Joker, Tony Camonte (Scarface), Salieri (Amadeus), Roy Batty (Blade Runner), Mr. Blonde (Reservoir Dogs) and a lot more.
You can go back and read the comments if you want to see if I left off anyone you think is VITAL to this contest.
So discuss away. Is the list good enough? Who do you absolutely WANT to see on it?
I will make the decision on the final 32 and post the list with the seedings I think all the bad guys deserve. For Ultimate Bad Ass, the rankings seemed pretty close to the end result, but this time around, I really have no clue what these bad guys are going to do.
(ohh, before I go to bed…just thought of one that might work, from literature: Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes - who would he replace? Should he be on the list?)
Only thing I'll mention is the prereq for the good guy list was it had to be guys who had no powers…(which might have eliminated a good chunk of other heros and Jedi and such), so will this same rule not apply and its bring what you got and see who wades through the maylay (sp?) I say its a great list, and let the baddies bring what they got , as its what makes them bad!!!
Not sure about the Dr. Evil nomination
He is more of a clown than a badguy…
While I think Banya is a hysterical choice… if I were to pick a Seinfeld character who was a real bad guy, it would have to be Newman. He was Jerry's true nemesis. Case in point, the mail fraud debacle.
Who the hell is Normal Bates?
(that was quick!)
I'd agree with Newman over Banya any day. The way Jerry would just say his name with that disgust layered on was classic.
Interesting point on Newman, but was he truly bad, or just anti-Jerry? Does that automatically make him a bad guy?
Corrected to Norman Bates - from Psycho
Okay, time for me to put my two cents in. I think most of the list is pretty good, but there are a few I don't think qualify or aren't deserving of a spot (or we can do better).
Hal 9000 - It's hard for me to justify a computer being the Ultimate Bad GUY when it's not even a person. It might be evil, but I don't think it qualifies.
Dr. Evil - Not really evil or much of a bad guy. He was played for laughs which is exactly what we'll get when he goes down the first round.
Bill from Kill Bill - As Mike pointed out before, Bill didn't really do that much. I don't think he's deserving of a spot on the list.
The Six Fingered Man - I love the Princess Bride, but this guy is no ultimate bad guy. He ran away from Inigo when Inigo introduced himself.
Cigarette Smoking Man - He's menacing and mysterious, but I'm not sure that's enough to really get him on the list with the likes of Darth Vader and Hannibal Lector.
Banya - Really?
I think we should think about making a few changes or setting up a vote or something to decide on a few of these or the first round is going to be over quickly for some of them.
I'm still not sure about Ben. He says he's one of the good guys and in some weird Lost way, I think he actually is! Also, I would think Whidmore would be the bad guy from Lost. Just my two cents though!
Norman's twin brother!
Damn typos
That's a great point. We don't know if Ben is a bad guy for sure yet. It seemed that way for a while, but now…maybe not.
I've always been of the opinion that Ben is the good guy on LOST. However, I nominated as a bad guy since nearly everyone I talk to (32 random people I polled) think he is bad.
I would rather see a Mr. Blonde or Roy Batty (Blade Runner) get a spot over a Mr. Evil or Lumberg or Banya. I think that would make for more interesting match ups.
I disagree with your take on HAL 9000. That was one bad computer - geez, he actually killed people. That's nuts.
But a machine with bad programming is hardly the same thing as a truly bad bad guy.
But that is the catch - HAL does not have bad programming. Bad programming would cause it to malfunction and not work as intended. HAL became sentient and aware and therefore had volition. HAL chose to kill, it wasn't the fault of the programmer or bad code - HAL developed consciousness and willed chose to do those things.
Well, I'm aware of the movie. I just think it's highly debatable whether or not a computer can be considered a bad guy. One could argue, as I would, that a computer can only run on programming and that if the computer is able to “develop” a consciousness it's only a result of programming that allowed that loophole, allowed the computer to develop it's own programming - which I would argue was bad programming.
Well - I personally don't believe that material things can obtain consciousness (but that's another topic for a different blog), however, given the context of the movie it appears possible for HAL to obtain self-awareness - but then, the point of view of the director is a specific one and he is trying to communicate something through that to the audience, but I digress…
I still do not think that one could even call it bad programming, even if that loophole was allowed. The question is, was the loophole intentional or not, was the point of the programmer/s to have a computer that would obtain consciousness. If it was their intent, then that would not be bad. The badness came from HAL choosing to kill, not that it became self-aware. Now, if it was a mistake on the part of the programmer/s, then the fault still lies with HAL because he still achieved his desired result through conscious effort and the programmer/s could not be blamed for than anymore than the CPU manufacturer could be.
Anyway - probably not an appropriate discussion for this forum or this “game.”
Now back to our originally scheduled broadcast.
But Jerry wore rainbow suspenders and bombed just to get Banya off his coat tails.
well he did kill a the dharma people
But were Dharma good or bad?
Being relatively new to this forum I think there should be a separation between those with superhuman powers from those who are just bad guys. Mr. Blonde although a good bad guy would get his ass handed to him by Banya, uh I mean Darth Vader or Jason and Michael Myers since they apparently can't be killed. And although I would like to see Magneto and Darth duke it out, would the Force kill Magneto b4 Magneto could crush Vader's skull. Hmm
I think the superhumans should be eliminated from the equation. After all Batman only kicked Supermans butt because he is cooler and Frank Miller wrote the story, real world I'd take Supes. Still bitter McLain beat Bourne!!!
Then that seems like Jerry would be Banya's Ultimate Bad Guy.
I think we had the discussion about superpowers and everyone decided that they were cool with it for the Ultimate Bad Guy. I'm not sure if anyone would want to reconsider that. You have a good point.
I'm still convinced Bauer should have won the other contest…
If by “won” you mean he should have “won” second place, then I whole-heartedly agree!
he also arranged the murder of the dude who said who worked for the peace corps who was having an affair with Julia?
He kidnapped Walt and subjected viewers to Michaels wailing.
Shot Locke
Kept Julia against her will on the island
I am sure there are other things as well.
Both Ben and Whittmore can be bad guys it isn't mutually exclusive.
I still contend that Ben is a good guy. Mainly because he said, “I'm one of the good guys John.”
I stand corrected, he is just practicing population control so the Island
isn't deforrested or something.
I think Newman is a better pick too, but Banya was just friggin' hilarious
I think Hal has to stay in just because if it caused this much debate now, wait until his matchup
ROTFL!!!! 32 random people! Only the serious die-hards on Pop Critics would get that joke, so point to you!
While I agree with your assessment, I highly doubt superpowers will have much bearing on this competition.
Like you said, Batman kicked Superman's butt, yet he did it without superpowers and used his superior intellect.
Benjamin Linus versus Magneto…somehow, I think Ben would win because he “always has a plan…”
[...] posted a tentative Top 32 Bad Guys yesterday just to get the ball rolling here in our latest bracket tournament, [...]
BENJAMIN LINUS FTW!!