Villains of Competence

[camk4evr]

I always have problems thinking of Jinnai as competent (even though he's a very good general).
Galus was also very competent as he very nearly succeeded in destroying El Hazard even after being found out. Nearly every setback he had was because of something truly unpredictable occurring (Makoto appearing and looking just like Fatora, Nanami appearing and accidentally seeing through his disguise etc.)

[Cyber_Skaarj]

I'd personally like to nominate Sephiroth from FFVII for this category of Villain. Not only was he almost always several steps ahead of Cloud and co, he also manipulated Cloud into helping him. And he actually succeeded in his goal of summoning Meteor, even if it was subsequently destroyed by the lifestream after his "death".

[GenocideHeart]

I'd personally like to nominate Sephiroth from FFVII for this category of Villain. Not only was he almost always several steps ahead of Cloud and co, he also manipulated Cloud into helping him. And he actually succeeded in his goal of summoning Meteor, even if it was subsequently destroyed by the lifestream after his "death".

Sorry, but no. Seph's ultimate goal wasn't to summon Meteor per se, it was to become a godly being by merging with the Lifestream as it rushed in to fill the 'wound' Meteor caused.
Since Cloud killed him before he could achieve that, he failed.
Furthermore, the manipulation was JENOVA'S work, not Sephiroth. I really hate it when people assume that he was the one controlling the clones. He wasn't. Jenova was outright stated to be the one controlling them through them having her own cells.
Also, Sephiroth fails for being owned by a LEVEL 1 FAILED SOLDIER Cloud. At Level 50.
For shame.

[FriendlyEL]

I know this is an extremely ancient topic, but I just felt the need to add my thoughts:

Ghaleon (Lunar Silver Star Story) - He has somehow managed to cause massive amounts of damage to the world, nearly succeeded in destroying (Or as he would put it, leading it to a better direction) it, which in itself is not that impressive. What is, in my opinion, is that he oftentimes does not do so by lifting a finger. He has not killed anyone in reality (at least in the Playstation remake) but has had a deranged cult led by a sorceress who was infatuated with him, an insane black dragon, and a dark godess to do the dirty work. He is able to keep people's eyes off him until it is too late using many distractions, such as the fake dragonmaster thief and the supposed great evil (well, they really are a great evil, just that people are unaware he's an even greater one) of the Vile Tribe to make everyone foolishly take his lead as Alex and Luna naively did as they led him directly to Quark.

Although, considering the fact that his bitter personality showed alot even before and you could tell he was the real villain before his betrayal.

Aizen (Bleach) - Think Ghaleon except that I didn't predict he was the main villain. Like Ghaleon, he has a cohort that he uses to put everyones focus on, Gin, to keep eyes off of himself. He was able to do a complete Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on everyone for years, and made best sure that all of the worst actions done were not from him, but from the narrow minded ways of the soul reaper society he's eventually planning on destroying in the long run.

Naraku (Inuyasha) - Do I really need to explain this? While it was a loathsome act he did, he managed to have a demon spider kill all in a demon slaying squad except two, then convince random demons to destroy their entire town, then make one of the remaining survivors mentioned before think it was a random demon he had a grudge with before, and when she makes up with the demon rather than getting killed attacks them with a clone to give them false hope they defeated him.

And that, my friends, was in just one story arc, not to mention the way he used Kohaku to put Sango in a moral dellima. He may be dark and twisted, but one thing I will never call him is dense.

Griffith (Berserk) - Isn't it amusing how it's the seemingly friendly one who ends up being the evil bastard.

Kefka (Final Fantasy VI) - Not so much for the manipulation this time as the success. He's one of the very few villains that actually really does succeed in destroying the world, at least temporarily.

[Drawde]

Naraku (Inuyasha) - Do I really need to explain this? While it was a loathsome act he did, he managed to have a demon spider kill all in a demon slaying squad except two, then convince random demons to destroy their entire town, then make one of the remaining survivors mentioned before think it was a random demon he had a grudge with before, and when she makes up with the demon rather than getting killed attacks them with a clone to give them false hope they defeated him.

And that, my friends, was in just one story arc, not to mention the way he used Kohaku to put Sango in a moral dellima. He may be dark and twisted, but one thing I will never call him is dense.

Naraku is one of the smarter villians I've seen. Not that he doesn't have his stupid moments, especially due to his ego, but he at least thinks things through with the info he has. Some of his failures were due purely to the unexpected. Plus, he's one of the few villians with no redeming features, that doesn't look like the author is ramming that knowledge down your throat.

That, and he's not only willing to flee if things aren't going his way, but he'll also AVOID a direct confrontation if it's not to his advantage.

Kefka (Final Fantasy VI) - Not so much for the manipulation this time as the success. He's one of the very few villains that actually really does succeed in destroying the world, at least temporarily.

Kefka was one of the few villians that's outright and completely insane. From what I've read, the Japanese version had him switching the way he spoke (such as speaking in a masculine or feminine manner) in the middle of talking. The Mad Clown (yes, he looks like a clown) suceeds BECAUSE of his insanity, not the usual failure because of it.

[Atlan]

Mmmmmm...... Delecious necromancy....

I'd like to nominate Gundam Seed's Rau Le Creuset

Spoilers for Gundam Seed follow!

While his modivation is fairly retarded (he was aging too fast, as he was a clone, so he wanted to destroy all life in the universe), he came so close to succeding. His plan was for hatred to consume the human race, so they would destroy each other, and each step of his plan worked. First he handed over the true plan for Operation Spitbreak, killing 80% of his own millatary just so the remainder would be angryer, then he leaked the n-jammer (allowing nucklear bombs to work again) to earth. When each side had civilization-destroying weapone pointing at each other, they were more than happy to use them.

Even after watching the episode again, I'm sure the only reason the war stopped was because the leader of each faction had died, and noone was sure what to do.

[Yrael]

Kefka was one of the few villians that's outright and completely insane. From what I've read, the Japanese version had him switching the way he spoke (such as speaking in a masculine or feminine manner) in the middle of talking. The Mad Clown (yes, he looks like a clown) suceeds BECAUSE of his insanity, not the usual failure because of it.

This is very true. Though I certainly can't speak for everyone, I severely, severely underestimated that guy when I was playing the game the first time, thinking him nothing more than comedic relief that I'd get to bag about halfway through the game once his usefulness had worn out. It was very much a "What the @#*&!?" moment when his insanity comes to fruition and he actually managed to succeed at what so few, few villains set out to do.

One of the only times I've ever been completely blindsided in a game like that. It was awesome.

[Queensarrow]

Assuming that you've watched the anime, I nominate Precia Testarossa of
'Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha', she had her dead daughters clone gather
items of great magical power to use for a world destroying effect.
Destroying the world was not the intent of her plans, she just didn't
care. She wanted to create a path to a mythical city, where she believed
that she could bring her daughter back to life. Even though she didn't get
all the items she wanted she got enough for her path and took it. All the
heroes managed to do was save the clone and prevent the destruction of the
world. If she made it to the city is never known, though the heroes think
it may have been possible.

[Sunshine Temple]

Assuming that you've watched the anime, I nominate Precia Testarossa of
'Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha',

To continue I think Jail Scarlatti of Nanoha StrikerS counts as well.

He did succeed in showcasing the power of his creations and had enough backup plans and flexibility that it was only though brute force of effort that he was stopped.

He was able to delegate successfully and have subordinates skilled enough to complete their tasks.

[Vilkath]

I would like to add Kain from Legacy of Kain, especialy the Blood Omen series of it. True he might sort of be an anti hero, a bad guy killing off the worse bad guys but still. He is a killer and he does succeed pretty much through out the entire series in the end he even gets one over every one who ever slighted him. He got his revenge, he rulled the world for a time what more could an evil over lord want?

Then I would like to add Harry MacDowell from Gungrave. He rises from the lowest of the low to the top of the criminal under world. Is rich, powerful and gets to enjoy his winnings for a full 13 years or so before his long dead partner rises from the grave to confront him and take him down. Sure he died in the end but it's a lot like Kelfka from ff6, he already won and got to enjoy it for a while so it's not a total loss.

And it maybe off the anime or game area people have done so far but I have to say Harry Potter has some competent or just plain lucky villians. It maybe more the fact the author seemed to hate the main character and wanted to make his life hell but I would say Dumbledoor got a way with a lot of his smaller plots through the years and in the end got what he wanted Harry killing Voldemort. Any one who wants to say Dumbledoor was not a Villian really needs to look over one those many rants people have pointing out the facts, beyond perhaps the second book/movie no one can really say Dumbledoor cared about what happend to the little people. And what is a person but a villian that doesn't care if their troops die on sucidal missions with no training or intel of the situation at hand?

[bissek]

Dumbledore as a villain I can see. In my eyes he was the single great threat to magical Britain. The Ministry's corruption and incompetence was number 2, the media's printing the party line to a public that believed whatever was in the paper without thinking about it was number 3, and Voldemort was a rather unimpressive number 4.

But competent? Bumble-more created all of the other threats by being incompetent at what was supposed to be his job. He was ideally placed to shape the mentality and skill sets of the entire country, and had years of warning to prepare in each war, and all he did was allow the people to turn into brainless sheep who couldn't fight even if the notion occurred to them, and let the DE sympathizers train up new recruits unhindered.

When faced with the choice between what was Right and what was Easy, he chose what was convoluted and would inflict the greatest amount of collateral damage. He isn't a Villain of Competence, he's a Well-Meaning Moron Who Did More Damage Than The Threat He Stood Against.

[Vilkath]

I suppose with Dumbledoor it really comes down to how you feel about his actions, most seem to think he was ment well but just failed horribly. On the other hand you be hard pressed to find a decision he did make that wasn't the wrong one, and did not cause the forces of light severe pain and anguish.

When put in that context it really makes him pretty evil in my opinion. He could not simply always choose the wrong choice if Dumbles was simply senile or delusional. Like many a fan fic author has pointed out it really is not much of stretch to bleive his actions were both intentional and malicious. Ofcourse if Dumbledoor did plan that sort of thing, he failed in the sense he died while his life work seemed to be either to maintain his power as the leader of the light or simply keep the wizarding world stupid and weak enough to not oppose him.

Still if one does not conisder Dumbles a true vilian then you have to consider Voldemort. True he is an idiot, and a lot of his earlier plans that were way to complex failed but in the end he did get revived and kill a bunch of people that he did not like. Successful as he was though I think it was just plain sheer incompetence on the part of his enemies then any real skill Tom possed. I mean seriously his major enemies were children, badly trained children with some the worst magical education you can think of backed up by a worthless group of adults and a corrupt goverment. In that light Voldemort was an idiot, his enemies were not even as good as a group of magic girls and he still failed to achieve complete victory.

[Shadell]

Desty Nova from Battle Angel Alita- Not only does he carry on dangerous and blatantly inhumane experimentation for several years, while eluding the single most powerful group on the planet, but he manages to get a pardon, and then successfully eliminate the only person who would have been capable of stopping him. Having a contingency plan for getting your head chopped off is pretty impressive no matter how you look at it.

[mondu_the_fat]

Azazel from the movie Fallen -- a serial killing demon who basically pwns every human and gets away with it. Creepy as hell while doing so, as well.

[Sunshine Temple]

Azazel from the movie Fallen -- a serial killing demon who basically pwns every human and gets away with it. Creepy as hell while doing so, as well.

Very good point.

And to go with things off the anime-manga.

The villain in Watchmen.

Very competent villain there.