Post by Owen K.

Who is the most hated villain in motion film? Which character has the best (or worst) written script that infuriates audiences? It could be anyone from Bellatrix Lestrange to Bob Ewell. I’m not talking about Simple murderers, I’m talking about the truly evil villains. Here we take a look into some of the most hated villains of modern times.

The world of motion pictures is filled with villains of all types. Some are silent and dangerous, some are smart-and-cunning, and some are just downright crazy, but one thing is similar across all villains: They are the bad guy.

First, we’ll start with one of, if not the most hated villains there is (also the inspiration for this blog post), Joffrey Baratheon.
Joffrey is a character from the HBO series Game of Thrones. When he is first encountered at the start of the series, he seems okay and princely, but viewers quickly discover that Joffrey is as close to the definition of ‘rich, snobbish, tattletale’ as you can get.

As the story progresses more, his behavior only worsens. When he becomes king, his attitude only gets worse, and worse, and worse, and worse. He kills people he doesn’t like, tortures people he doesn’t care about (directly and indirectly), hurts people for no reason other than personal enjoyment, and even defies his mother!

He is the most hateable character in that series, and several media outlets agree that he is one of the most hated characters in television history. IMDb has him ranked second, behind Col. William tavington from The Patriot. TVGuide has a picture of him first on a photo album named “The Most Loathed TV Characters.” InsiderMonkey has him ranked in third behind Skylar White of Breaking Bad (who’s just annoying…) and Dana Brody of Homeland.

“This character is so hated among Game of Thrones fans that it’s irrelevant to explain why. He is the son of the nearly-equally reviled Queen Cersei, and enjoys killing and torturing innocent people from peasants to his own betrothed Sansa Stark; all to protect his pride, and get his medieval jollies.”

–InsiderMonkey.com

Now as much as I and so many others hate Joffrey, he is not the main subject of this article. Using a digital survey, I received responses from ~60 students stating which villain they hate the most.

1. Umbridge from Harry Potter.

In the Harry Potter movies, Umbridge is the most hateable character in my opinion. She doesn’t have as much interesting backstory or reason as the other villains, she’s also supposedly on the “good side” so Harry & Co. cannot do anything to get rid of her.

One reason she’s so hated is that she is the replacement to the ever-loved Dumbledore when he gets sent away from Hogwarts. People like Dumbledore, he is one of the coolest characters in the whole Harry Potter series.

The best Umbridge moment, in my opinion, is when they are taking the O.W.L. tests and the Weasley twins interrupt it with a plethora of obnoxious things, completely crashing the test and infuriating that witch. This scene surely pleases people who hate Umbridge.

2. Scar from The Lion King.

The second place villain, with 9 votes, was Scar from The Lion King. I haven’t seen this movie in years and honestly do not remember Scar very well. I do know that he is pretty evil and murdered Simba’s father and basically took tyrant control. I did not expect a bunch of 10th graders to end up voting for him as the one they hate the most, and I’m not sure why. If you voted for Scar, say why in the comments!

The third place was a three-way tie, 5 votes each, between the Governor, President Snow, and Joffrey Baratheon. Since I’ve already explained Joffrey a good amount, I’ll move on with the other two third place winners.

3. President Snow

Most of us know the Hunger Games by now, and we know President Snow is the leader of the Capitol and the main antagonist of the stories. In the movies he is remarkably well-done, the acting reflects his personality from the books very well, making him the evil, hateable leader he is.

3. The Governor

A lot of people in the 10th grade watch The Walking Dead, so it only makes sense this character was voted as one of the most hated villains.

The governor got his name from his ‘citizens’ of his town, whom he is the leader of. He seems okay at first, but turns out to be a pretty mad leader, the zombie outbreak seems to have left his mind deteriorating and madness growing, along with a sadistic rage inside him.

He ends up turning out to be bad and tries to kill some of the main characters, who are forced to kill him.

There are many villains in movies and on TV, and the ones we hate are the ones that give viewers the most chance to sympathize with each other.