Villains will be judged based off of:
1: Ambitions. What they were trying to achieve.
2: Achievements. How close they got to their goal.
3: Plan. How solid their plan was, i.e. could it have worked, was it even realistic.
4: Entertainment Value. How entertaining they are to the player. Funny and memorable is better, boring, mostly silent, or cliched are not (sorry Bowser).
There is also no rule in any of my Top 5s that bans multiple entries from one franchise, this is the first time that will show up.
With that out of the way, let's begin!
5. General Knoxx (Borderlands)
In 5th place is the General of the Crimson Lance in the 3rd DLC of the game. He is sent to Pandora to regain control of the planet and kill the Vault Hunters. He succeeds in regaining control over a small amount, and whether or not he could have gotten more is unpredictable (but he's probably already beat Commandant Steele). His strongest point is entertainment value, as he contacts the player often, remarking on recent events in a very calm and friendly manner (calling the player "Mate" and being hostile toward most other Crimson Lance), and when he's found, he is about to kill himself with a comically large number of weapons. His constant conflicts with the Admiral of the Crimson Lance (who's five years old) continuously point out that he doesn't want to even be on Pandora, and his success in spite of that just furthers him as a great villain.
4. Dr. Nefarious (Ratchet and Clank Series)
4th place is the mad scientist and main villain of the Ratchet and Clank series: Dr. Nefarious. His original main goal was to turn everything living in the galaxy into robots and rule over them, although since then he has degraded into mostly exacting revenge. But, he failed at both (so far), and made himself look like a complete fool while doing it. However, despite usually being ridiculous, his plans to accomplish these goals could have actually worked, had Ratchet and Clank not been there (since everyone else is completely incompetent, just look at your team of allies in the third game). This is especially true considering that Dr. Nefarious' actual archenemy is Captain Qwark, the idiot from the first two games who can't do anything helpful, but somehow manages to not die in the process. Nefarious can be an unintentionally funny villain, with his brain often breaking down and playing soap opera. The player also sees him quite a lot, as the game shows what he and his allies are doing in cutscenes, usually while Ratchet and Clank are in-between planets (levels).
3. GLaDOS (Portal and Portal 2)
Here is the power-mad AI running Aperture Science while all of the humans supposed to be running it are dead (not that she's going to tell you that). GLaDOS' goal is to kill all free humans in her facility (aka you), and she failed. Twice. She tries to achieve that goal by putting you through a gauntlet of increasingly difficult puzzles while offering you cake, although a better plan would be to have you go through the gauntlet expecting you to survive and then poison the cake. However, she mocks and/or lies to you the entire time in a somewhat monotone voice, often being very sarcastic and insulting you in creative ways, such as "Don't let that 'horrible person' thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birth mother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep."
2. Handsome Jack (Borderlands Series)
Meet Handsome Jack, also known as "the god****ed HERO of Pandora" and "a mass-murdering megalomaniac". He is the president of the Hyperion corporation and the self-proclaimed dictator of the planet Pandora, with a simple goal: kill everyone. He tries to kill everyone on Pandora that doesn't work for him so he can become even richer in various way, and since it's assumed that he has already killed a lot of people by the time the game starts, we can assume his plan would have worked had the godlike Vault Hunter(s) the player controls not arrived. However, his best point is in entertainment, as he calls you throughout the game to taunt and insult you, and in the process, shows that he is emotionally unstable and generally insane, such as when you murder his __________ and his ________, as well as when he has his ___________ killed (spoilers). Regardless of whether his choices are right or wrong (the Pre-Sequel shows that his actions might have been justified), he is a great villain who is only surpassed by the #1 spot on this list.
1. The Joker (Batman: Arkham Series)
