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Indeed I can. I already mentioned one: David Xanatos in
Gargoyles, which wasn't a BAD plot but definitely had the taint of Saturday Morning Cartoon holding back a very devious, cunning individual. This is probably the most common reason for a great villain in a bad plot: target audience. The writers know they have to adhere to certain rules but then they pit the Heroes against a much more superior Villain who HAS TO LOSE IN SOME REALLY DUMB WAYS. You'll see this over and again in not just cartoons but also comics and lower-end TV shows like the CW comic adaptations. And perhaps it's more noticeable there because so much of it is plot-driven rather than more nuanced things like dialogue and theme.
Those are examples (and reasoning) I didn't know. Makes sense, and EGAD gives me an idea.
XD
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On the flip side, you can get away with fairly standard villainy if the rest of the work is great. Again, I feel that's because there are other things going on and you don't really need a great antagonist to keep things interesting. Note that I switched from 'villain' to 'antagonist'. Once you pierce the skin of the hero/villain dichotomy you naturally arrive at the meat and bones of narrative: all villains are antagonists, but not all antagonists are villains. I think, in fact, that 'interesting villain' is almost a contradiction in terms. Once they become interesting, I start to see them less as a simple 'villain' and more as other terms we've mentioned here, such a anti-hero or antagonist. Even when that character is as blatantly evil as Satan. Again: who is ever the villain of their own story?
Villain is a little theatrical isn't it?
The only villain in their own story might be a figure born from a dissociative split, like Tyler Durdan if he was a villain. That might be bending things and I can't think of a story where it's done.
The Dark Half?
Side note: the absorbed twin stuff in that seared itself on my youthful mind. Wild stuff with the nostril, teeth and the eye.
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Which brings us back to that ripsnorter by Bearky (...I am really struggling to come up with a good diminutive of BearCares).
I laughed my half arse off when I saw him call erd a Jedi, because I too remember that rant and was like '...this guy is either brilliant or doesn't read'
Brekky.
I know right, too funny.
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but then I also remembered I'd somehow missed mention of Shakespeare in the same rant (in my defence it was a single line under a rant about Lucas' Prequel-era Jedi, which is a bit like hiding a piece of lobster under instant mac n cheese; if you'd referenced Filoni's work, things have been different).
Haha! But you found it with that seagull eye.
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Total left-field villain: the man who called his boy 'Sue'.
Lol, but nope. He did it for a damn good reason, and it worked. Boy got tough and lived to prove dad right. I am glad it's just a dumb ol' funny country song.
