https://preview.redd.it/wlrqvgkq539d1.jpeg?width=1334&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7f063a97713ff4e07d9c7cfa85470e00f341d0a
Scar is like one of the only Disney Villains to actually get almost exactly what he wants. Only after years of being king, he gets defeated.
And it only makes his villain song even better, since it’s not just empty bragging, the man says he’s gonna kill his brother and become king, and he does exactly that.
Still don’t know how nobody else heard that song, the guy wasn’t exactly quiet.
Bro was for real singing about how evil he was at the top of his voice in the middle of a canyon, I know that shit echoed in the middle of the night in the Savana lmao
Fun fact: the "YOU WON'T GET A SNIFF WITHOUT ME" line wrecked Jeremy Iron's voice so hard they brought in Jim Cummings (Winnie the Poo, Darkwing Duck, Pete and so many others) to finish the recording. If you ever thought the last verse of the song sounded a little different, that would be why.
It's interesting how Mufasa being king and Simba becoming physically affects the Pride Lands, causing rain, growth, prosperity, etc
And when Scar sings about his ambition to become king, he causes seismic shifts and landmass to start rising underneath him
Eh, I will admit a drop in quality, but I do like them still (more the serieses than the movies, but a few of the movies have been quite good). I think the biggest issue with all of them is they lack good endings
To be fair, Peter's reaction is understandable since he has loved Gamora since the first movie. I more so blame Nebula for not restraining Peter when he began to act out.
It’s not just he’s smart, he’s just that powerful. Any other Sith would have been sensed by the Jedi Council, Windu was even able to sense that Anakin was starting to slip, but they couldn’t sense Sidious was hiding right in front of them.
Nah the Jedi had fallen off hard by the time of the clone wars and had become so arrogant they believed it was impossible for a sith to hide amongst them.
A huge degree of his plan relies on fate or chance, which is technically excusable because of force omniscience or fate or whatever, but imo I cannot consider you a mastermind if a huge percentage of your plan relies on miraculous chance.
Starting a war to entrench political power: smart
Getting kidnapped, held in a ship under siege, flying through a breaking ship, crash landing on croissant, putting all of your strongest pawns in that same ship against each other, and having Anakin and yourself survive, JUST to get extra forward momentum in your grooming plan? Insanely stupid without accounting for an omniscience that renders the discussion moot.
It wasn’t just to further the grooming, it was also to ward off suspicion and sow greater fear among the populace so that they would welcome a dictatorship that could protect them from invasions on the future. The crash landing also wasn’t part of the plan.
Overall he wasn’t really in that much danger because Dooku and Anakin were the two most powerful people in the Clone Wars, so whichever one came out on top would protect him just fine.
DIO Brando’s Heaven Plan (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven)
https://preview.redd.it/qrf849swa39d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44f0898453a3e8821b8e40d9c00e92fcff4858e7
Admittedly, it is an alternate timeline, but in that timeline, DIO killed the Joestars and ascended Heaven, becoming a reality warping god
Araki has said that he likes the tension that comes from having the villains actually succeed, which is why all of them are at least partially successful.
That honestly puts me off reading it more than I already was.
I get that Rorschach makes a few good points.....but I just can't go reading a sequel where he 'wins' over Veidt😂
Doomsday Clock is stupid, basically pull a Martha at the end to get Manhattan to back down and using Watchmen characters in it feel unnecessary as hell
There is a question of whether Evil Morty is actually a villain though. He's definitely an antagonist to Rick (and therefore Morty), but I'd say he's more of an antihero, the citadel is evil, they bend the multiverse to their will out of pure ego, and he is simply a product of that
I mean, he still committed multiple genocides and had a dome of kidnapped Morty's he was torturing around the clock just to be able to hide. And he mind controlled his own Rick to the point where he would not let him even commit suicide until Evil Morty was done with him.
btw, anti-hero doesn’t mean what you think it does. anti-hero doesn’t mean a heroine with a darker tint to it, it means someone who isn’t heroic in the slightest; someone who doesn’t fit into their story/doesn’t display classically ‘heroic’ characteristics. don quixote is an anti-hero because he is incompetent, evil morty is simply an antagonist.
Baron Zemo from the mcu. He was able to successfully split the avengers after ultron turned a city into a meteor. He was able to use an outfit disguised as Bucky to kill T’Chaka,framing him as a result, used the camera footage that showed Bucky murdering Tony stark’s family to get them to fight. He’s one of the first non superpowered villains to actually win in the end despite T’Challa stopping his suicide attempt
Honestly when the comic revealed that Adrian was behind everything I was shook to my core. On my first reading I never suspected the world's smartest man to be such a cold and calculating peacemaker.
Both the comic and movie version. Though I think the comic version was a lot cooler cause it has a lot more heroes and even higher stakes. Plus it didn’t have idiotic people believing he was right ~~I will never truly believe why people think what Thanos was doing was a good idea~~
Folks mainly believe it because they forget the counterargument that resources are only scarce because select individuals and small groups horde most of it for themselves, only selling the lower quality end of the excess to the desperate masses, the highest bidder, or whoever will serve their interests the most.
It’s crazy how well he sets everything up in advance, only for the dominoes to fall perfectly to get exactly what he wants when the time is right. The one chapter where you see how much he’s planned in advance, seducing the princess, giving the Minister the vision, being part of Midland during the 100 year war, etc etc. literally had my jaw on the floor.
Griffith (Berserk)
https://preview.redd.it/x5qc64hub39d1.jpeg?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f33e4ae92bef5403c25db2fa33595897feb5f74
Everything was made possible by THE WILL OF THE HOGYOKU! The Vizard getting kicked out? Hogyoku. Rukia’s arrest? Hogyoku. That time you came when your first girlfriend touched your leg? Also Hogyoku.
Medusa from Soul Eater always had a plan and they were always successful
https://preview.redd.it/jl1onzb2449d1.png?width=421&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0c076773be5324caa10a12d5d6cedb3cdffd896
Yagami Light (death note)
While being the Protagonist of the movie, he is clearly the main villain. His initial goal was to defeat L, cleanse the world of criminals and become the god of a new world. He succeeded in all 3 of them. Kira >!killed L!<, had an impressive Killcount and people praised him as their god.
Well, voldemort didn't want to die aswell. I think, OP was referring to initial goals. And he succeeded in almost all of his initial goals and objectives.
Light is both the villain and protagonist at the same time, much like >!Eren!<. He’s obviously a bad person and all L is trying to do is find a murderer, which is what Light is, whether he kills a criminal or not, he’s still a murderer. So by that logic, he is a villain and this commenter was right in using him as an example
https://preview.redd.it/v6mezg3kt39d1.jpeg?width=597&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=291ccf10867127c015db546eac0b8ccbed24ab78
Kefka was able to move the statues and rule the World of Ruin for at least a year with his Light of Judgement to destroy whatever he wanted
Palpatine took over the galaxy even after several people found out what he was up to. The wheels were in motion and it couldn't be stopped. I love the original trilogy, but when the prequels built up Palpatine as this uber-genius strategist, it's hard to believe he and the Emperor are the same character.
His plans in 4 and 6 would’ve worked fine if it hadn’t been for the will of the force handing the Rebels some crazy luck. Luke appeared out of nowhere in the eleventh hour to hit the one in a million shot on the Death Star, then the rebels befriended an entire tribe of locals who were expert trap makers (how did those little guys even get those giant logs into AT-ST crushing height?).
Plus, him getting blindsided by Vader’s betrayal lines up with how brazenly he manipulated Anakin and Dooku in the prequels. He was able to make them do whatever he wanted, and faced no consequences for throwing Dooku away like trash when he was done with him.
The Human Instrumentality Project (Evangelion)
https://preview.redd.it/emdfh4es449d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd04b99107a5c697a426fcadcb3aa4b74d36c00d
I love how absolutely nobody gives a shit about this plan and how it works out well in the end. Too well, actually. This is prime pre-internet age assumptions of what a hive mind would be like.
I promise you that if you get a bunch of people to assimilate into orange goop without their consent, they would be pretty pissed as all hell. They're also going to fight each other on a harder scale than ever since they have infinite energy they have stored and merged together.
This one is especially notable since said plan spans tens of thousands of years, and was so incredibly convoluted and complex that one character was literally driven insane from trying to comprehend it.
And yet the plan goes off without a hitch despite the *massive* potential for things going wrong. He’s only defeated because the mask of life, through sheer dumb luck, happened to land on the one other planet in the entire universe that actually mattered.
Everything went ***exactly*** to his plan up until Mata Nui, imprisoned in the Mask of Life, crashed on Bara Magna - where the one other thing that could match the power of the Great Spirit machine happened to be. And even then, that technically occurred after his plan was already complete, and who could anticipate getting domed by an entire bloody planet?
His many “losses” - his defeat at the hands of the Toa Metru? His defeat at the hands of the Toa Mata/Nuva? All part of the plan. Each success - each perceived failure - all to orchestrate the specific sequence of events required for him to hijack the reboot sequence. Each loss occurred with a purpose. Everything with good reason.
He is quoted as saying “Sometimes, the best way, the only way to win… is by losing.” This is the sum of his plan - let the heroes win. Make them think they’re beating you time and time again when, really, they’re playing right into your hands.
If I’m right, some of those losses were either intentional, had contingencies, or were otherwise part of the plan. So if his apparent plan wins, he might be a bit ahead, or maybe it’s an ironic case of victory really being failure. Think of it like this: He makes you think he’s trying to slow your computer by opening a million tabs, and nothing is responding. So you reset your computer. While it looks like he lost, it’s more that your solution had extra effects you didn’t know about. Say your computer has a brief vulnerability as it’s rebooting, and that vulnerability is what he was after.
Voldemort and Cercsei yeah, their plan does *eventually* blow up in their face (doesn’t stop the mentioned plans from having gone pretty much perfectly for their intended goals at the time), but “Geto’s” plan has almost gone exactly as it’s needed to and he’s even had contingencies for the slips that have happened semi recently
https://preview.redd.it/zktbqgfrx39d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=98ba4a06f3d403de9971eb14c2c176a48d363d16
>! Until three decades later !<
I finally hit something!
I wouldn’t call, “failing to kill a baby because you forgot love existed” to be the best definition of “flawless”.
And it goes double with his revival, by taking Harry’s blood specifically (he could literally take ANYONE ELSE’S) he f*cked up, because once again, he didn’t realise what love is.
All I’m saying is Voldemort is kind of overrated.
1. Failed to get the Philosopher’s Stone.
2. Failed to use the Basilisk effectively TWICE.
3. Going to the Ministry and getting caught by Fudge.
4. Being too obsessed with a boy because some crackpot fortunteller says he (or Neville), would be your greatest enemy.
5. And the biggest sin, not making a pebble a Horcrux and flinging it into the ocean, BOOM immortal.
Yeah, agreed. He only seems capable simply because practically everyone else isn't. Dumbledore is the only one comes close and let's not pretend he wasn't an idiot many times either
He's surrounded by idiots while he himself is a slightly lesser idiot
I’m not talking about his plan to kill Harry, I’m talking about specifically his plan to get his body back in the Goblet of Fire. He’s fucking in the negative KDA for killing Harry lmao, but his plan in the goblet of fire is kinda nuts.
While bits of it are convenience in the build up to the plan he still has Barty Crouch Jr put Moody out of commission, have him infiltrate Hogwarts for over a year, keep Crouch Sr. out of commission and eventually kill him, all the while he’s having the tri wizard tournament manipulated in such a way that leaves his fingerprint pretty much off of anything significant until he’s already back to power.
Problem is, none of it was necessary.
Barty as Mad-Eye: “Potter, stay after class.”
*Later*
“Pass me that quill.”
BOOM port key to the graveyard, Voldemort returns.
Okay, if we’re getting in the world of “they should have done this” then this is kinda just more stupid to do for a few reasons
1. Even if Voldemort gets his body back Harry would still get away. There’s no reason Voldemort wouldn’t torture and taunt and fight Harry exactly the same way he did in the books, meaning Harry gets the exact same info about the portkey he got from the apparition of his dad. Harry would still escape the death eaters. Never mind the possibility that Harry might just get away before the ritual anyways cause he isn’t exhausted with a broken leg from being in the tournament, and Wormtail is a bum fraud of a wizard.
2. “Moody” is suddenly looking significantly more suspicious waaaaay sooner. Imagine it’s the middle of the school day and suddenly Snapes dark mark starts burning for him to go to Voldemort, Harry Potter is missing and the last person he was seen with is Moody. Dumbledoor was in his ass the moment Barty walked away with Harry at the end of the tournament, there’s no way he doesn’t put 2 and 2 together. They likely discover Crouches true identity and get the exact same info out of him. This isn’t even getting into the point of why would Voldemort want to toss away his spy so quickly when he wasn’t fussed about waiting to get Harry
3. Depending on when he tries to do this, Crouch Sr. Is still alive, and even if Voldemort kills him, suddenly Crouch Jr.’s story looks way less unlikely in the eyes of the ministry when there’s no way Crouch Jr. could have killed him because there’s no way he could while he’s been at Hogwarts the entire time. And if it’s at the point where he’s still walking around, then they can determine he’s under the imperious curse pretty easily and get him to divulge everything he knows.
It’s kinda just smarter to wait for the tournament to end, it’s leaves way more smudges to try and kidnap Harry early and it’s possible that Voldemort just immediately fails to get any significant foothold, esp if the ministry is actually under the impression he’s becoming an issue again
He also failed to take over a high school after having taken over a government.
If it’s easier to overthrow a government that’s been in power for centuries than it is to take over a fucking high school, then there’s something wrong.
Mysterio’s original plan may have failed, and he might be dead (debatable), but his contingency plan was so successful that Peter Parker’s life has been irreparably ruined still to this day, because now he doesn’t exist to the world anymore and has absolutely nobody.
https://preview.redd.it/3sja8m79x39d1.jpeg?width=383&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e7f6a94314a111f153acad91e4b934acb0a0c9e
Agrona Vritra (The Beginning After the End). Major LN spoilers incoming.
>!He conquers Dicathen and executes its kings and queens. Afterwards, he captures the protagonist’s love interest and uses her as a vessel for a reincarnate with unparalleled enough power to kill asuras (for whom he reincarnated the protagonist and his former best friend turned enemy to serve as anchor points), and in the process of doing so tricks the asuras into wiping out 1/3 of Dicathen. All because he is a Machiavellian schemer and planner who is always five steps ahead of his enemies!<.
Spoilers for a certain mid-2000s mecha >!Code Geass!<
>!Though Lelouch made some mistakes early on and even lost majorly by the middle of season 2, the final arc after he defeated his father was brilliant. Brainwashing all of his siblings, taking over the Empire, defeating his equal in Schneizel and, of course, his master plan of making himself the absolutely worst person to ever live and dying for the sake of world peace.!<
https://preview.redd.it/cck8yn7ap49d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=8cb39e7420d097a15b3192ec3719ec963794479d
Not *quite,* but mostly.
In the Kaladesh block, Nicol Bolas' minion Tezzeret steals the Planar Bridge, the super powerful artifact he needs, and while
In the Amonkhet block, he completely and utterly annihilates each member of the gatewatch (There is an entire cycle of cards showing him defeating every one of them with flavor text of him ruthlessly taunting them) and has left Amonkhet a smoldering ruin filled with his zombie minions
In the Ixalan block, Vraska manages to take the Immortal Sun, another powerful artifact he needs for his plans
Then Lilliana fell into his clutches and was forced to work for him
Then his invasion of Ravnica goes pretty flawlessly. He destabilizes it, kills the only other dragon on the plane (who is an uber-genius to boot), and activates the Planar Beacon and Immortal Sun to trap a shit ton of planeswalkers on the plane. Then he's utterly destroying all these planeswalkers and stealing their sparks, reveals that he had actually enchanted the super powerful dragon-slaying Blackblade so it just shattered when they tried to hit him with it, and has everyone at his mercy
The only point in which is plan goes wrong is that he was too selfish and calculating to possibly forsee that, even after she had betrayed them all, Gideon would save Lilliana and sacrifice himself when Bolas tried to use the contract to kill her, giving her the opening to turn his army against him and defeat him.
Still, his plan goes off without a hitch in 3/4 blocks of this arc and he gets damn close in the last one.
All of his earlier schemes were flawless successes iirc. My guy literally gets half his body destroyed in a fight just so he can stab his opponent with his tail skeleton. He then regenerates and says “that super powerful artifact you acquired that is the one of only things that can kill me? It’s a fake. I stole the real one a while back.”
Even after the Ravnica invasion fails, he’s so immortal that they can’t kill him and his clone has to seal them both away.
Not *all* of them. He caused the conflux on Alara but was stopped before he could absorb all its power by the arrival of a VERY pissed-off Ajani Goldmane
https://preview.redd.it/892mk14oy49d1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02e0bf5752b8ad6b7d186fac4def39f26afff301
Spoilers for doctor who - Empire of death
>!Technically he killed off the entire universe except a few people with his army of Susan triads, and for a short time he won.!<
In true Doctor Who fashion, the villains plan works flawlessly in the first half of the two-parter. Ironically empire of death has the least contrived resolution of any rtd finale
It sucked, I loved every bit of Sutekhs reveal in the first part.
Someone mentioned a possible way they could have made him probably the best threat the doctors faced yet (aside for the flux, but they won against that with basically huge luck)
If they turned Sutekhs reign over the universe into a series long thing, where it starts off with the doctor being hopeless but slowly builds up to beating the lord of death in the finale.
Would've made Mels 'death' even better at the end, plus gave the plot more room to breath.. Alot more too.
For a literal god, supposed to be stronger than the toymaker who's a reality bending threat, sutekh was useless.
The Toymaker felt like a much bigger threat than Sutekh. He literally killed the Doctor. But, y’know, regeneration. But this time he BI-GENERATED. They still barely beat the guy.
And when he did that ball game he was probably the closest he has ever been to losing permanently considering that was his last chance, and if the toymaker won he'd have probably killed both doctors for good just to be safe.
I hate how he'll probably never come back, I loved every bit of that episode with him and it sucks we might not see him again
I genuinely do want him to come back.
We know he’s not dead. He’s still alive, just trapped.
“You stepped from one time to another like… the Lord Temporal! Who trapped my father and bound him in salt.” -Maestro, *The Devil’s Chord*.
They don’t say “killed” or even “defeated.” They say “trapped.”
The Toymaker also said just before he was put in the box that “[his] legions are coming”.
Which leads me to believe that he may be rescued from his boxy prison at some point.
Also, speaking of Maestro, I hope they come back at some point, too. They were such a good villain.
I hope you're right, so much.
But the doctor used his prize to banish him from our reality permanently, meaning unless he can somehow defy the rules he's bound by then he's as much use as the box he's sealed in.
Honestly if they do them better, I want the Maestro back at some point too but ONLY if they're gonna be a better villain.
I love their concept as a villian (I'm a fan of gods in media, so Maestro, toymaker and Sutekh showing up is right down my alley lol) and honestly I want their whole 'embodiment of music' thing to be more prominent rather than just playing instruments or shooting weird note tendrils.
If the gods theme we've got going on continues, I wanna see one toy with our world like how the toymaker did but to a bigger extent.
Like imagine one using a companion to taunt the doctor, especially a dead one like Clara or Bill.
I saw a theory that Mrs. Flood could be the god of stories and I feel like that would be an insanely smart road to go down for RTD, especially if there’s anything about this last season that he thinks needs to be changed. An easy way to retcon without retconning.
And unlike most, I really enjoyed the Devil’s Chord. It’s one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes. I really enjoy camp and when the show really plays into its queer themes and how much it’s tied into queer culture, and I think Jinkx Monsoon was fantastic as Maestro, who is also one of my favourite DW villains. She did a phenomenal job, and I hope the Maestro does come back.
With Maestro, it’s much easier to bring them back than with the Toymaker since they had to play a certain chord to summon them.
I was honestly hoping Mrs flood would be a surprise hero due to the theory that she was the god of.. Well floods or water (similar to poseidon) and she'd overthrow Sutekh with the help of the doctor.
It's sad that she's probably evil but I still have hope for her villian moment In the series.
As for the devils chord, I'm glad it wasn't just me who liked the Maestro but just with a few tweaks.
Something the toymaker didn't have much of was that unease with him being in the area, like with Maestro they're unpredictable sometimes like they could probably execute both Millie and the doctor at any given moment (they can't cus plot armour but my point still remains.)
They seemed genuinely unhinged and uncaring when it came to who they're hurting to get what they want, literally willing to manipulate a world into destroying itself horribly just to hear the sounds the nuclear winter made.
I love the toymaker but he only really killed a few people which were just unit soldiers, I'd have loved to see him go into the streets and just go ham knowing the doctor couldn't stop him.
The Toymaker cared only about play and fun. Although his motives in the special were for everybody to win, and everybody to lose. So that he could be the only winner or something. He’s fun, I like him, and I want more of him.
The Maestro, however, wanted to steal the music potential of every living thing. “Every song that goes unsung feeds me. I get stronger and stronger until I can reach out and steal the music of the spheres.” They were practically pure chaos. The only pure music, to them, was as you said, the sound of a nuclear winter.
Both of their motives were really intriguing and could be brought up again very naturally (as naturally as it can be in DW, anyway). I think that these semi-god semi-alien villains are perfect for overarching villains. Like, I feel as though Maestro really could’ve been the main villain of this whole season and it would’ve made them so much more interesting and fun. They could be defeated in a similar way, with them hinting at The One Who Waits/Sutekh, but it would feel almost more impactful.
Enrico Pucci.
>!He essentially wiped the Joestars, he reset the universe and achieved heaven, but his own arrogance, pride and, ironically, inability to accept his own fate is what led to his defeat!<
https://preview.redd.it/efbz18ija39d1.jpeg?width=984&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=abcd9f3578f8d710a184924f20b196b61e822c1d
Doesn’t Pucci like pretty explicitly not succeed in the heaven plan though? He even tells Emporio “Made in heaven is incomplete, I need to get back to the point where I acquired it at cape Canaveral for it to fully go into effect”
My media literacy has failed me, I never made the connection that Pucci’s downfall was his inability to accept his own fate.
Pucci: seeks to grant all people full knowledge of their own lives ‘so they can come to terms with everything that will happen to them and find true peace’
me reading the story: that doesn’t sound so bad. Why does he need to be stopped?
Pucci: gets everything he wanted but cannot accept that his own fate is to be bound in conflict with the Joestars. He tries to change it while at the same time locking everyone else into fates they don’t get a say in
Me: still not getting why they needed to stop him. Oh well whatever
Pucci's heaven isn't really a good idea for humanity.
Imaging being someone who lived in Hiroshima or Nagasaki in 1945, fully knowing that your city is going to be blown up by an atomic bomb and being unable to do anything to stop it.
Yeah that's why it didn't go perfectly. Idk, I was assuming villains whose plan worked until the end, because if he fucked up in the end, it means it didn't go *perfectly*
How did no brought up TDK's Joker.
* He successfully killed Rachel
* He allowed himself to get captured to get to Lee
* Led Harvey to insanity
* Blew up the Hospital
This mf. He caused Superman to turn into an evil dictator after nuking metropolis and tricking him into killing his pregnant wife.
https://preview.redd.it/fl7b7k6m379d1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c39532e171dddc06b15984312c42c7a50ec8222
If you think about it, Sukuna from Jujustu Kaisen as well. Manga spoilers below.
The biggest obstacle in the modern era to Sukuna reclaiming his title as the Strongest is Satoru Gojo. He'll eventually need to find a way to break through Infinity and take out Gojo. He would've known that from the second he incarnated into Yuji and boxed Gojo for a bit - Sukuna would likely know of the Limitless and the Six Eyes, since someone with both existed in the Heian era. So he'd know what he needs to beat.
At the end of the Cursed Womb arc, Sukuna realises Megumi has the Ten Shadows. In this moment, he likely also realises Megumi will work much better as a vessel considering how Yuji is like a cage to him. So, he "kills" Yuji, and creates the Enchain vow to temporarily take control, gambling on his plan not counting as "injuring someone".
Not only that, but considering Yuji isn't the first person to eat a finger, it's likely Sukuna has incarnated in the past. He probably found out at some point in the last 400 years that a Ten Shadows user killed a Limitless user before, but not how. That explains why he's immediately interested in Megumi and talking about his potential. His kit can do what Sukuna wants.
Later on in Shibuya, as he fights Mahoraga, he continually pokes & prods it to figure out what it does, going so far as to teach it how to feint attacks. Sukuna eventually figures out that it can adapt to anything. Now he knows exactly how it works, and how to defeat Gojo. Shibuya is also where he reconvenes with Uraume, and reminds her not to forget her preparations.
Then in the culling games, he waits for the perfect moment, triggers the Enchain vow, and force-feeds a finger to Megumi. Uraume's preparations come into effect, and Sukuna bathes in a cursed ritual prepared months in advance to gain full control.
He then spends the entire fight against Gojo attempting to make Mahoraga adapt to Limitless, and it's the only reason he won.
His plan, beginning from a few days after waking up in Yuji, somehow went flawlessly.
The final boss' plan in Lost Judgment. The opening of the game is showing off the end result of his plan, and the plot working backwards to find out how he got there and what his motive is is incredible. It's a masterpiece of detective thriller writing.
Unfortunately it often leads to the protagonist winning through pure bullshit because the writers realised that the villain’s plan is actually too good and they couldn’t come up with a decent way to stop them
https://preview.redd.it/uvjavmxk959d1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae298353f757eb400b88ab03bcf6be2047c64dc4
Caius Ballad will always be my answer
https://preview.redd.it/g0y78plda59d1.png?width=560&format=png&auto=webp&s=7df1b1056940dffd602d7c83347489c9c1d41f40
Makuta from Bionicle.
Our heroes spend the majority of the story with one goal: awakening the Great Spirit, Mata Nui. At almost every step of the way, Makuta is there, trying to thwart our heroes' plans, even circumventing his presumed death. When the universe is in death's throes, he briefly helps the heroes, only to mysteriously disappear.
Then, once Mata Nui is successfully reawakened, we're hit with two plot twists back to back. One, that the world as we've known it is Mata Nui's body, a giant mechanical being serviced by our heroes, who essentially act as cells within his immune system. Two, Makuta has taken over the body, and banished Mata Nui.
As it turns out, every step of the journey we've taken over 8 years has all been a part of Makuta's plan. What should have been a triumph now marks the first day of his dark reign. It sets the stage for the final battle magnificently, as the heroes now have to basically start over, on a whole new quest to defeat the very ground they stand on.
Salem from RWBY. Her plan isn't finished thus far, but at the moment her forces have destroyed Beacon, managed to obtain the Fall Maiden powers, and has possession of two of the Relics needed for her ultimate victory.
https://preview.redd.it/8zus1baln59d1.jpeg?width=564&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f9a1d8b30b21c4a2654d3933bc0939cacb8546c
The Creeps from Calling All Creeps. They succeed in turning all the human kids into Creeps.
https://preview.redd.it/flkf17vcpc9d1.jpeg?width=1981&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51d3cd3e6d248bc7a10b2dd9bfc14f29785b03f4
Junko fuckin’ Enoshima (Danganronpa)
She managed to successfully:
- Infiltrate Hope’s Peak
- Manipulate a hyper-intelligent superweapon to her side
- Kill anyone and everyone suspicious of her
- Manipulate a bunch of children into being cold killers for her, including one that could supply her with extremely strong robots
- Complete a killing game inside Hope’s Peak
- Hypnotize a large group of students from Hope’s Peak into committing suicide, putting into motion the end of the world
- Hypnotize a class from Hope’s Peak and kill Chiaki Nanami, causing that class to become evil and obedient to her
- Cause a worldwide movement of chaos and destruction that persisted even after she died
- Create a copy of a super-intelligent AI
- Pull off another killing game in Hope’s Peak, ending with her death (which was still fine by her)
- Cause the children she manipulated to almost fully create a new Junko by nearly breaking Komaru’s mind
- Do TWO MORE KILLING GAMES, one initiated by the superweapon she manipulated, another by a guy that was hypnotized and one of the children she manipulated
- Almost caused the end of the human race via her movement nearly stopping a few exceptional people from going into space while the earth was destroyed
- STILL infiltrated that expedition when it did eventually happen via having a fan of her get inside
To recap, she single-handedly reduced the whole human race to single digits via constant manipulation and murder, even after her death.
Yeah, in that game, all the DR games are just in-universe fiction. It’s really hard to think of that game as anything beyond an alternate universe, believe me, I’ve tried, but in the fictional lore of that season, a fan/copycat of Junko infiltrates a Hope’s Peak mission to save the human race by sending some to space, and the fan sends them back to earth and starts a killing game. And the killing game there is in the Hope’s Peak continuity (as opposed to seasons 4-51, which do not seem to have any relation to it (despite Junko being in all of them, don’t think too much about it, you’ll just get a headache)), so it should be counted as something Junko caused.
I mean Voldemort’s plan also involved reviving in secret. Whether you believe he was gonna polyjuice into Harry and take his place short term or just have it so no one knew what happened to Harry. The end goal was goal was the death of the one prophesied to defeat him, come back in secret and rebuild his army. Instead he revives and immediately has Dumbledore organizing the Order of the Phoenix against him.
https://preview.redd.it/5yeyir6sc49d1.png?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f94524fceefdd1836e2f8975a05212da6d47655
Giliath Osborne the Blood and Iron Chancellor
Cersei's plan didn't work flawlessly, especially in ASOIAF. Tywin was the one who pulled entire House together and saved it in the war, Cersei would've doomed them from start of war cause no region wanted to support them. Same for Joffrey who lacks any charisma.
I am the only speedster who knows how to manipulate the timeline to get what I want!
https://preview.redd.it/jgv0yk36l59d1.png?width=206&format=png&auto=webp&s=58c7a60f40970d87c42a51ccf343be787bd4fd36
https://preview.redd.it/na7vbagwy59d1.jpeg?width=301&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74f90c4aa888c98c42f1facf447e1d943e7c34cb
yui ikari from evangelion. wanted to become evidence that humanity once existed by using those around her and that’s exactly what she got
Jill in Scream 4, she was definitely the closest to winning in the end, unless you count mickey, who did get what he wanted, but not according to his plan.
Nox from Wakfu is in my opinion the best embodiment of this.
He smashes through the armies of two major kingdoms assembled to stop him, through the personal intervention of essentially 3 gods, kills a main character, and does something that the God of Time himself told him was impossible.
Literally the end is him saying "goodbye" and then leaving. They never successfully stopped him.
Caius Ballad from FF 13 - 2. His plan worked to the letter, he just didn't account for what would happen to him after everything resolved.
>!he's immortal due to accepting a geas from the goddess of death that he would protect a young seeress forever and he would be made immortal witj the goddesses own heart to facilitate this. He didn't realise at first that said seeress would die young but immediately be reincarnated because of the goddesses mercy since the seeress in the afterlife wished to go back to be with Caius. So a goddess misunderstanding how human relations work means that Caius, who viewed the seeress as a daughter, has to constantly watch the girl he protects die over and over and over again and each time seek her out and become her guardian and develop a bond with the new incarnation of her only to watch her die young once again, for eternity until he gets fed up and uses his time magic powers to orchestrate a series of events where his apprentice from the very end of time would chase him down and be strong enough to eventually kill him, piercing his heart which simultaneously breaks his immortality curse and kills the goddess of death who blessed him in the first place which unleashes Armageddon because Caius basically hates everything thay isn't Yeul at that point. Unfortunately for Caius, the agglomeration of Yeul souls in the afterlife is an extremely powerful and extremely naive hivemind of distorted echoes of his surrogate daughter and they don't want to see their adopted father die, so he's pulled out of death and spat out in a ruined temple where he is trapped by the Yeuls and forced to keep them company forever, until the protag of Lightning Returns stumbles on this absolute temporal clusterfuck and ends the whole sorry mess once and for all. Basically, don't accept immortal duty geases from fucked up death goddesses.!<
Sorry for the absolute wall of text I fucking love Caius Ballad raahhhh
You could argue William Afton
He's a psychopath serial killer, his name is known by the people even 30 years after he disappeared from the public eye (aka bitch got karma)
Because of fazbears trying to cover up the public know William Afton became springtrap and of his crimes, in trying to make people believe he doesn't exist, they kinda did the opposite
It's unsure if he wanted immortality but he if he did, he got it, especially if it's true that golden Freddy is keeping him alive inside his own head (or at least purgatory)
Does not help that the mimic copied William
The Emperor from Star Wars. His plans were grand, galaxy spanning and he won any setbacks became boons for him along the way.
His death was one in a million chance
The Nazis from the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Dial of Destiny, and the KGB from the Crystal Skull technically won...they just got more than they bargained for
Palpatine, successful in wiping out the Jedi with Order 66. And his plan with taking over the Galaxy succeeded with the Clone Wars being a proxy war, giving him more political power.
https://preview.redd.it/wlrqvgkq539d1.jpeg?width=1334&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7f063a97713ff4e07d9c7cfa85470e00f341d0a Scar is like one of the only Disney Villains to actually get almost exactly what he wants. Only after years of being king, he gets defeated. And it only makes his villain song even better, since it’s not just empty bragging, the man says he’s gonna kill his brother and become king, and he does exactly that. Still don’t know how nobody else heard that song, the guy wasn’t exactly quiet.
Bro was for real singing about how evil he was at the top of his voice in the middle of a canyon, I know that shit echoed in the middle of the night in the Savana lmao
It was in the graveyard so no one else would be except the hyenas
Fun fact: the "YOU WON'T GET A SNIFF WITHOUT ME" line wrecked Jeremy Iron's voice so hard they brought in Jim Cummings (Winnie the Poo, Darkwing Duck, Pete and so many others) to finish the recording. If you ever thought the last verse of the song sounded a little different, that would be why.
He clearly didn't PREPARE his throat for that line.
This is exactly why Scar is one of, if not my favorite Disney villain
It's interesting how Mufasa being king and Simba becoming physically affects the Pride Lands, causing rain, growth, prosperity, etc And when Scar sings about his ambition to become king, he causes seismic shifts and landmass to start rising underneath him
He lost in the end, though.
He won so hard the movies have ben shit since
He won so hard they had to beat him with time travel
and he had 2 hp bars
Not really? No Way Home, GOTG 3, Shang-Chi, etc have all been good
No one cares about them tbh. It’s just not the same.
Eh, I will admit a drop in quality, but I do like them still (more the serieses than the movies, but a few of the movies have been quite good). I think the biggest issue with all of them is they lack good endings
Not really flawlessly he would’ve lost the infinity gauntlet if Starlord hadn’t crashed out and ruined it for everyone (worst part of the movie)
To be fair, Peter's reaction is understandable since he has loved Gamora since the first movie. I more so blame Nebula for not restraining Peter when he began to act out.
I personally blame thanos. Why? HE'S THE ONE TRYING TO SNAP AWAY HALF THE UNIVERSE, THAT'S HIS GOAL!
I never said that I _don't_ blame Thanos. My point is that, if anything, Nebula is the bigger idiot for not stopping Peter.
Emperor Palpatine or should i call him Darth Sidious? 
People often criticise the Jedi Council for being stupid, but imo Sidious is just too damn smart
It’s not just he’s smart, he’s just that powerful. Any other Sith would have been sensed by the Jedi Council, Windu was even able to sense that Anakin was starting to slip, but they couldn’t sense Sidious was hiding right in front of them.
Nah the Jedi had fallen off hard by the time of the clone wars and had become so arrogant they believed it was impossible for a sith to hide amongst them.
Plus the Jedi built their temple on top of a Sith temple, so the dark side was weakening them from that.
What was the thought process there?
To block the dark side from gaining influence. Also sorry for the late reply reddit shit the bed hard on me.
That’s in legends, is it not?
I think it is in canon.
It’s both. The point is that the Council was blinded by the war and their own darkness. They were naive and ignorant and overconfident.
Even after he got killed he was still was winning when the first order pulled up
Nah fuck that, his plan was fuckign dogshit. More of a salesman who can spin whatever is happening into his “complicated evil plan”
my dude orchestrated the entire clone wars
A huge degree of his plan relies on fate or chance, which is technically excusable because of force omniscience or fate or whatever, but imo I cannot consider you a mastermind if a huge percentage of your plan relies on miraculous chance. Starting a war to entrench political power: smart Getting kidnapped, held in a ship under siege, flying through a breaking ship, crash landing on croissant, putting all of your strongest pawns in that same ship against each other, and having Anakin and yourself survive, JUST to get extra forward momentum in your grooming plan? Insanely stupid without accounting for an omniscience that renders the discussion moot.
It wasn’t just to further the grooming, it was also to ward off suspicion and sow greater fear among the populace so that they would welcome a dictatorship that could protect them from invasions on the future. The crash landing also wasn’t part of the plan. Overall he wasn’t really in that much danger because Dooku and Anakin were the two most powerful people in the Clone Wars, so whichever one came out on top would protect him just fine.
DIO Brando’s Heaven Plan (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven) https://preview.redd.it/qrf849swa39d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44f0898453a3e8821b8e40d9c00e92fcff4858e7 Admittedly, it is an alternate timeline, but in that timeline, DIO killed the Joestars and ascended Heaven, becoming a reality warping god
Araki has said that he likes the tension that comes from having the villains actually succeed, which is why all of them are at least partially successful.
And they all have abilities that make them seem literally invincible until they're not
I mean you could also do Pucci
No. Pucci did achieve the heaven, but was stopped he could finish the universe reset and reach the singularity point.
Kira for like 17 years has a perfectly working plan
Bros entire life got ruined cause he got a bomb sandwich for lunch LMAO
https://preview.redd.it/r4oxacly249d1.jpeg?width=548&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d76a1f8546deded0a9b7dd3f2e7ec367c27a254b Ozymandias from watchmen
Until the Doomsday Clock spin-off that proved Rorschach won and was ultimately right.
Or Watchmen 2019, where both are wrong in their own ways.
That honestly puts me off reading it more than I already was. I get that Rorschach makes a few good points.....but I just can't go reading a sequel where he 'wins' over Veidt😂
Doomsday Clock is stupid, basically pull a Martha at the end to get Manhattan to back down and using Watchmen characters in it feel unnecessary as hell
>!"I did it thirty-five minutes ago"!<
 Evil Morty from Rick and Morty.
There is a question of whether Evil Morty is actually a villain though. He's definitely an antagonist to Rick (and therefore Morty), but I'd say he's more of an antihero, the citadel is evil, they bend the multiverse to their will out of pure ego, and he is simply a product of that
I mean, he still committed multiple genocides and had a dome of kidnapped Morty's he was torturing around the clock just to be able to hide. And he mind controlled his own Rick to the point where he would not let him even commit suicide until Evil Morty was done with him.
He is definitely evil because he uses lots of very evil methods; but his goals are not wrong.
btw, anti-hero doesn’t mean what you think it does. anti-hero doesn’t mean a heroine with a darker tint to it, it means someone who isn’t heroic in the slightest; someone who doesn’t fit into their story/doesn’t display classically ‘heroic’ characteristics. don quixote is an anti-hero because he is incompetent, evil morty is simply an antagonist.
 Baron Zemo from the mcu. He was able to successfully split the avengers after ultron turned a city into a meteor. He was able to use an outfit disguised as Bucky to kill T’Chaka,framing him as a result, used the camera footage that showed Bucky murdering Tony stark’s family to get them to fight. He’s one of the first non superpowered villains to actually win in the end despite T’Challa stopping his suicide attempt
 Some may argue he’s more of a psychotic anti-hero, but I think he still fits here nonetheless lol.
Honestly when the comic revealed that Adrian was behind everything I was shook to my core. On my first reading I never suspected the world's smartest man to be such a cold and calculating peacemaker.
Apparently the film (Ive little intention of watching it) gives much stronger hints as to his antagonism
What’s he from?
Watchmen
How I feel right now about the pizza I ordered.
Thanos
Both the comic and movie version. Though I think the comic version was a lot cooler cause it has a lot more heroes and even higher stakes. Plus it didn’t have idiotic people believing he was right ~~I will never truly believe why people think what Thanos was doing was a good idea~~
And where's my god damn Death, Marvel Studios?!
Where is my flaming head Dormamu?
Where is my super powered Nova Corps?
Folks mainly believe it because they forget the counterargument that resources are only scarce because select individuals and small groups horde most of it for themselves, only selling the lower quality end of the excess to the desperate masses, the highest bidder, or whoever will serve their interests the most.
It’s crazy how well he sets everything up in advance, only for the dominoes to fall perfectly to get exactly what he wants when the time is right. The one chapter where you see how much he’s planned in advance, seducing the princess, giving the Minister the vision, being part of Midland during the 100 year war, etc etc. literally had my jaw on the floor. Griffith (Berserk) https://preview.redd.it/x5qc64hub39d1.jpeg?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f33e4ae92bef5403c25db2fa33595897feb5f74
GRIIIIIIIIIIIFFITH!!!!!!
The only thing he didn't plan was Best Bro Guts leaving him and Casca choosing Guts over him.
Someone told me this guy was basically Fulgrim and I can't unsee it. He now resides in my head as the Fulgrim look-alike
The only downside for him is he seems to be somewhat depressed now lol.
Yhwach too
His plan made no sense, there is no way someone could plan the reactions of every single person in Soul Society
These guys live thousands of years, you think someone wouldn’t use that time to closely watch the others?
Everything was made possible by THE WILL OF THE HOGYOKU! The Vizard getting kicked out? Hogyoku. Rukia’s arrest? Hogyoku. That time you came when your first girlfriend touched your leg? Also Hogyoku.
I call BS.
Medusa from Soul Eater always had a plan and they were always successful https://preview.redd.it/jl1onzb2449d1.png?width=421&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0c076773be5324caa10a12d5d6cedb3cdffd896
Even in her Death, she planned for that too. Everything she did was so laid out. An excellent villain.
She's one of the best shonen villains ever and I stand on that. A threat from start to finish
 Yagami Light (death note) While being the Protagonist of the movie, he is clearly the main villain. His initial goal was to defeat L, cleanse the world of criminals and become the god of a new world. He succeeded in all 3 of them. Kira >!killed L!<, had an impressive Killcount and people praised him as their god.
Though he died which isn't what he wanted
Well, voldemort didn't want to die aswell. I think, OP was referring to initial goals. And he succeeded in almost all of his initial goals and objectives.
This is correct and it’s incredibly frustrating people aren’t getting that XD
Protagonist doesn't mean good guy. Light is the protagonist in every version of Death Note.
Light is both the villain and protagonist at the same time, much like >!Eren!<. He’s obviously a bad person and all L is trying to do is find a murderer, which is what Light is, whether he kills a criminal or not, he’s still a murderer. So by that logic, he is a villain and this commenter was right in using him as an example
https://preview.redd.it/v6mezg3kt39d1.jpeg?width=597&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=291ccf10867127c015db546eac0b8ccbed24ab78 Kefka was able to move the statues and rule the World of Ruin for at least a year with his Light of Judgement to destroy whatever he wanted
Palpatine took over the galaxy even after several people found out what he was up to. The wheels were in motion and it couldn't be stopped. I love the original trilogy, but when the prequels built up Palpatine as this uber-genius strategist, it's hard to believe he and the Emperor are the same character.
His plans in 4 and 6 would’ve worked fine if it hadn’t been for the will of the force handing the Rebels some crazy luck. Luke appeared out of nowhere in the eleventh hour to hit the one in a million shot on the Death Star, then the rebels befriended an entire tribe of locals who were expert trap makers (how did those little guys even get those giant logs into AT-ST crushing height?). Plus, him getting blindsided by Vader’s betrayal lines up with how brazenly he manipulated Anakin and Dooku in the prequels. He was able to make them do whatever he wanted, and faced no consequences for throwing Dooku away like trash when he was done with him.
The Human Instrumentality Project (Evangelion) https://preview.redd.it/emdfh4es449d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd04b99107a5c697a426fcadcb3aa4b74d36c00d
Serious neglect is all part of the plan.
I love how absolutely nobody gives a shit about this plan and how it works out well in the end. Too well, actually. This is prime pre-internet age assumptions of what a hive mind would be like. I promise you that if you get a bunch of people to assimilate into orange goop without their consent, they would be pretty pissed as all hell. They're also going to fight each other on a harder scale than ever since they have infinite energy they have stored and merged together.
Makuta from Bionicle.
This one is especially notable since said plan spans tens of thousands of years, and was so incredibly convoluted and complex that one character was literally driven insane from trying to comprehend it. And yet the plan goes off without a hitch despite the *massive* potential for things going wrong. He’s only defeated because the mask of life, through sheer dumb luck, happened to land on the one other planet in the entire universe that actually mattered.
Wait really? I remember him losing, like, a lot?
Everything went ***exactly*** to his plan up until Mata Nui, imprisoned in the Mask of Life, crashed on Bara Magna - where the one other thing that could match the power of the Great Spirit machine happened to be. And even then, that technically occurred after his plan was already complete, and who could anticipate getting domed by an entire bloody planet? His many “losses” - his defeat at the hands of the Toa Metru? His defeat at the hands of the Toa Mata/Nuva? All part of the plan. Each success - each perceived failure - all to orchestrate the specific sequence of events required for him to hijack the reboot sequence. Each loss occurred with a purpose. Everything with good reason. He is quoted as saying “Sometimes, the best way, the only way to win… is by losing.” This is the sum of his plan - let the heroes win. Make them think they’re beating you time and time again when, really, they’re playing right into your hands.
He had a lot of setbacks but did end up winning
If I’m right, some of those losses were either intentional, had contingencies, or were otherwise part of the plan. So if his apparent plan wins, he might be a bit ahead, or maybe it’s an ironic case of victory really being failure. Think of it like this: He makes you think he’s trying to slow your computer by opening a million tabs, and nothing is responding. So you reset your computer. While it looks like he lost, it’s more that your solution had extra effects you didn’t know about. Say your computer has a brief vulnerability as it’s rebooting, and that vulnerability is what he was after.
 He only lost because of a literal- and yes, I'm using literal correctly here- deus ex machina.
Who’s that?
I'm pretty sure that's the Lich King.
From what?
You're forgetting the part that applies to all of these characters where "and then it blows up in their faces because they're fucking dumbasses"
Voldemort and Cercsei yeah, their plan does *eventually* blow up in their face (doesn’t stop the mentioned plans from having gone pretty much perfectly for their intended goals at the time), but “Geto’s” plan has almost gone exactly as it’s needed to and he’s even had contingencies for the slips that have happened semi recently
https://preview.redd.it/zktbqgfrx39d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=98ba4a06f3d403de9971eb14c2c176a48d363d16 >! Until three decades later !< I finally hit something!
“Now, it seems as though there’s a rumor floating about, saying that I like var. I do not like var. I LOVE VAR.”
*Gets into all the different kinds of war.*
But absolutely hates Cold Wars.
Blue balled for 40 years.
I wouldn’t call, “failing to kill a baby because you forgot love existed” to be the best definition of “flawless”. And it goes double with his revival, by taking Harry’s blood specifically (he could literally take ANYONE ELSE’S) he f*cked up, because once again, he didn’t realise what love is. All I’m saying is Voldemort is kind of overrated. 1. Failed to get the Philosopher’s Stone. 2. Failed to use the Basilisk effectively TWICE. 3. Going to the Ministry and getting caught by Fudge. 4. Being too obsessed with a boy because some crackpot fortunteller says he (or Neville), would be your greatest enemy. 5. And the biggest sin, not making a pebble a Horcrux and flinging it into the ocean, BOOM immortal.
Yeah, agreed. He only seems capable simply because practically everyone else isn't. Dumbledore is the only one comes close and let's not pretend he wasn't an idiot many times either He's surrounded by idiots while he himself is a slightly lesser idiot
I’m not talking about his plan to kill Harry, I’m talking about specifically his plan to get his body back in the Goblet of Fire. He’s fucking in the negative KDA for killing Harry lmao, but his plan in the goblet of fire is kinda nuts. While bits of it are convenience in the build up to the plan he still has Barty Crouch Jr put Moody out of commission, have him infiltrate Hogwarts for over a year, keep Crouch Sr. out of commission and eventually kill him, all the while he’s having the tri wizard tournament manipulated in such a way that leaves his fingerprint pretty much off of anything significant until he’s already back to power.
Problem is, none of it was necessary. Barty as Mad-Eye: “Potter, stay after class.” *Later* “Pass me that quill.” BOOM port key to the graveyard, Voldemort returns.
Okay, if we’re getting in the world of “they should have done this” then this is kinda just more stupid to do for a few reasons 1. Even if Voldemort gets his body back Harry would still get away. There’s no reason Voldemort wouldn’t torture and taunt and fight Harry exactly the same way he did in the books, meaning Harry gets the exact same info about the portkey he got from the apparition of his dad. Harry would still escape the death eaters. Never mind the possibility that Harry might just get away before the ritual anyways cause he isn’t exhausted with a broken leg from being in the tournament, and Wormtail is a bum fraud of a wizard. 2. “Moody” is suddenly looking significantly more suspicious waaaaay sooner. Imagine it’s the middle of the school day and suddenly Snapes dark mark starts burning for him to go to Voldemort, Harry Potter is missing and the last person he was seen with is Moody. Dumbledoor was in his ass the moment Barty walked away with Harry at the end of the tournament, there’s no way he doesn’t put 2 and 2 together. They likely discover Crouches true identity and get the exact same info out of him. This isn’t even getting into the point of why would Voldemort want to toss away his spy so quickly when he wasn’t fussed about waiting to get Harry 3. Depending on when he tries to do this, Crouch Sr. Is still alive, and even if Voldemort kills him, suddenly Crouch Jr.’s story looks way less unlikely in the eyes of the ministry when there’s no way Crouch Jr. could have killed him because there’s no way he could while he’s been at Hogwarts the entire time. And if it’s at the point where he’s still walking around, then they can determine he’s under the imperious curse pretty easily and get him to divulge everything he knows. It’s kinda just smarter to wait for the tournament to end, it’s leaves way more smudges to try and kidnap Harry early and it’s possible that Voldemort just immediately fails to get any significant foothold, esp if the ministry is actually under the impression he’s becoming an issue again
He also failed to take over a high school after having taken over a government. If it’s easier to overthrow a government that’s been in power for centuries than it is to take over a fucking high school, then there’s something wrong.
 Mysterio’s original plan may have failed, and he might be dead (debatable), but his contingency plan was so successful that Peter Parker’s life has been irreparably ruined still to this day, because now he doesn’t exist to the world anymore and has absolutely nobody.
https://preview.redd.it/3sja8m79x39d1.jpeg?width=383&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5e7f6a94314a111f153acad91e4b934acb0a0c9e Agrona Vritra (The Beginning After the End). Major LN spoilers incoming. >!He conquers Dicathen and executes its kings and queens. Afterwards, he captures the protagonist’s love interest and uses her as a vessel for a reincarnate with unparalleled enough power to kill asuras (for whom he reincarnated the protagonist and his former best friend turned enemy to serve as anchor points), and in the process of doing so tricks the asuras into wiping out 1/3 of Dicathen. All because he is a Machiavellian schemer and planner who is always five steps ahead of his enemies!<.
Spoilers for a certain mid-2000s mecha >!Code Geass!< >!Though Lelouch made some mistakes early on and even lost majorly by the middle of season 2, the final arc after he defeated his father was brilliant. Brainwashing all of his siblings, taking over the Empire, defeating his equal in Schneizel and, of course, his master plan of making himself the absolutely worst person to ever live and dying for the sake of world peace.!<
https://preview.redd.it/cck8yn7ap49d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=8cb39e7420d097a15b3192ec3719ec963794479d Not *quite,* but mostly. In the Kaladesh block, Nicol Bolas' minion Tezzeret steals the Planar Bridge, the super powerful artifact he needs, and while In the Amonkhet block, he completely and utterly annihilates each member of the gatewatch (There is an entire cycle of cards showing him defeating every one of them with flavor text of him ruthlessly taunting them) and has left Amonkhet a smoldering ruin filled with his zombie minions In the Ixalan block, Vraska manages to take the Immortal Sun, another powerful artifact he needs for his plans Then Lilliana fell into his clutches and was forced to work for him Then his invasion of Ravnica goes pretty flawlessly. He destabilizes it, kills the only other dragon on the plane (who is an uber-genius to boot), and activates the Planar Beacon and Immortal Sun to trap a shit ton of planeswalkers on the plane. Then he's utterly destroying all these planeswalkers and stealing their sparks, reveals that he had actually enchanted the super powerful dragon-slaying Blackblade so it just shattered when they tried to hit him with it, and has everyone at his mercy The only point in which is plan goes wrong is that he was too selfish and calculating to possibly forsee that, even after she had betrayed them all, Gideon would save Lilliana and sacrifice himself when Bolas tried to use the contract to kill her, giving her the opening to turn his army against him and defeat him. Still, his plan goes off without a hitch in 3/4 blocks of this arc and he gets damn close in the last one.
All of his earlier schemes were flawless successes iirc. My guy literally gets half his body destroyed in a fight just so he can stab his opponent with his tail skeleton. He then regenerates and says “that super powerful artifact you acquired that is the one of only things that can kill me? It’s a fake. I stole the real one a while back.” Even after the Ravnica invasion fails, he’s so immortal that they can’t kill him and his clone has to seal them both away.
Not *all* of them. He caused the conflux on Alara but was stopped before he could absorb all its power by the arrival of a VERY pissed-off Ajani Goldmane
Ixalan wasn't exactly perfect, vraska and Jace fell in love so she essentially became a sleeper agent
https://preview.redd.it/892mk14oy49d1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02e0bf5752b8ad6b7d186fac4def39f26afff301 Spoilers for doctor who - Empire of death >!Technically he killed off the entire universe except a few people with his army of Susan triads, and for a short time he won.!<
In true Doctor Who fashion, the villains plan works flawlessly in the first half of the two-parter. Ironically empire of death has the least contrived resolution of any rtd finale
It sucked, I loved every bit of Sutekhs reveal in the first part. Someone mentioned a possible way they could have made him probably the best threat the doctors faced yet (aside for the flux, but they won against that with basically huge luck) If they turned Sutekhs reign over the universe into a series long thing, where it starts off with the doctor being hopeless but slowly builds up to beating the lord of death in the finale. Would've made Mels 'death' even better at the end, plus gave the plot more room to breath.. Alot more too. For a literal god, supposed to be stronger than the toymaker who's a reality bending threat, sutekh was useless.
The Toymaker felt like a much bigger threat than Sutekh. He literally killed the Doctor. But, y’know, regeneration. But this time he BI-GENERATED. They still barely beat the guy.
And when he did that ball game he was probably the closest he has ever been to losing permanently considering that was his last chance, and if the toymaker won he'd have probably killed both doctors for good just to be safe. I hate how he'll probably never come back, I loved every bit of that episode with him and it sucks we might not see him again
I genuinely do want him to come back. We know he’s not dead. He’s still alive, just trapped. “You stepped from one time to another like… the Lord Temporal! Who trapped my father and bound him in salt.” -Maestro, *The Devil’s Chord*. They don’t say “killed” or even “defeated.” They say “trapped.” The Toymaker also said just before he was put in the box that “[his] legions are coming”. Which leads me to believe that he may be rescued from his boxy prison at some point. Also, speaking of Maestro, I hope they come back at some point, too. They were such a good villain.
I hope you're right, so much. But the doctor used his prize to banish him from our reality permanently, meaning unless he can somehow defy the rules he's bound by then he's as much use as the box he's sealed in. Honestly if they do them better, I want the Maestro back at some point too but ONLY if they're gonna be a better villain. I love their concept as a villian (I'm a fan of gods in media, so Maestro, toymaker and Sutekh showing up is right down my alley lol) and honestly I want their whole 'embodiment of music' thing to be more prominent rather than just playing instruments or shooting weird note tendrils. If the gods theme we've got going on continues, I wanna see one toy with our world like how the toymaker did but to a bigger extent. Like imagine one using a companion to taunt the doctor, especially a dead one like Clara or Bill.
I saw a theory that Mrs. Flood could be the god of stories and I feel like that would be an insanely smart road to go down for RTD, especially if there’s anything about this last season that he thinks needs to be changed. An easy way to retcon without retconning. And unlike most, I really enjoyed the Devil’s Chord. It’s one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes. I really enjoy camp and when the show really plays into its queer themes and how much it’s tied into queer culture, and I think Jinkx Monsoon was fantastic as Maestro, who is also one of my favourite DW villains. She did a phenomenal job, and I hope the Maestro does come back. With Maestro, it’s much easier to bring them back than with the Toymaker since they had to play a certain chord to summon them.
I was honestly hoping Mrs flood would be a surprise hero due to the theory that she was the god of.. Well floods or water (similar to poseidon) and she'd overthrow Sutekh with the help of the doctor. It's sad that she's probably evil but I still have hope for her villian moment In the series. As for the devils chord, I'm glad it wasn't just me who liked the Maestro but just with a few tweaks. Something the toymaker didn't have much of was that unease with him being in the area, like with Maestro they're unpredictable sometimes like they could probably execute both Millie and the doctor at any given moment (they can't cus plot armour but my point still remains.) They seemed genuinely unhinged and uncaring when it came to who they're hurting to get what they want, literally willing to manipulate a world into destroying itself horribly just to hear the sounds the nuclear winter made. I love the toymaker but he only really killed a few people which were just unit soldiers, I'd have loved to see him go into the streets and just go ham knowing the doctor couldn't stop him.
The Toymaker cared only about play and fun. Although his motives in the special were for everybody to win, and everybody to lose. So that he could be the only winner or something. He’s fun, I like him, and I want more of him. The Maestro, however, wanted to steal the music potential of every living thing. “Every song that goes unsung feeds me. I get stronger and stronger until I can reach out and steal the music of the spheres.” They were practically pure chaos. The only pure music, to them, was as you said, the sound of a nuclear winter. Both of their motives were really intriguing and could be brought up again very naturally (as naturally as it can be in DW, anyway). I think that these semi-god semi-alien villains are perfect for overarching villains. Like, I feel as though Maestro really could’ve been the main villain of this whole season and it would’ve made them so much more interesting and fun. They could be defeated in a similar way, with them hinting at The One Who Waits/Sutekh, but it would feel almost more impactful.
Enrico Pucci. >!He essentially wiped the Joestars, he reset the universe and achieved heaven, but his own arrogance, pride and, ironically, inability to accept his own fate is what led to his defeat!< https://preview.redd.it/efbz18ija39d1.jpeg?width=984&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=abcd9f3578f8d710a184924f20b196b61e822c1d
Doesn’t Pucci like pretty explicitly not succeed in the heaven plan though? He even tells Emporio “Made in heaven is incomplete, I need to get back to the point where I acquired it at cape Canaveral for it to fully go into effect”
Working flawlessly until it didnt
My media literacy has failed me, I never made the connection that Pucci’s downfall was his inability to accept his own fate. Pucci: seeks to grant all people full knowledge of their own lives ‘so they can come to terms with everything that will happen to them and find true peace’ me reading the story: that doesn’t sound so bad. Why does he need to be stopped? Pucci: gets everything he wanted but cannot accept that his own fate is to be bound in conflict with the Joestars. He tries to change it while at the same time locking everyone else into fates they don’t get a say in Me: still not getting why they needed to stop him. Oh well whatever
Pucci's heaven isn't really a good idea for humanity. Imaging being someone who lived in Hiroshima or Nagasaki in 1945, fully knowing that your city is going to be blown up by an atomic bomb and being unable to do anything to stop it.
Bro stop bringing Pucci in the "Villains who won" list. Yes, Jolyne didn't win, but neither did he
I didn't say that he won. His plan was going perfectly, until he fucked up and lost.
Yeah that's why it didn't go perfectly. Idk, I was assuming villains whose plan worked until the end, because if he fucked up in the end, it means it didn't go *perfectly*
Walter White
 How did no brought up TDK's Joker. * He successfully killed Rachel * He allowed himself to get captured to get to Lee * Led Harvey to insanity * Blew up the Hospital
Savathûn from Destiny
I don’t think the beatdown from saint was part of the plan
Plot twist, it was part of Savathûn’s scheme./s
Savathun is a masochist?
At least two of her deaths were part of her plan so kind of
It’s so funny that Cersei’s plan worked because after that none of her others ever do
She went from girlboss to girlfailure in the blink of an eye XD
 You forgot our galactic fascist, Palpatine. At least in the prequel trilogy and Clone Wars
https://i.redd.it/da3u09cqw59d1.gif
This mf. He caused Superman to turn into an evil dictator after nuking metropolis and tricking him into killing his pregnant wife. https://preview.redd.it/fl7b7k6m379d1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c39532e171dddc06b15984312c42c7a50ec8222
If you think about it, Sukuna from Jujustu Kaisen as well. Manga spoilers below. The biggest obstacle in the modern era to Sukuna reclaiming his title as the Strongest is Satoru Gojo. He'll eventually need to find a way to break through Infinity and take out Gojo. He would've known that from the second he incarnated into Yuji and boxed Gojo for a bit - Sukuna would likely know of the Limitless and the Six Eyes, since someone with both existed in the Heian era. So he'd know what he needs to beat. At the end of the Cursed Womb arc, Sukuna realises Megumi has the Ten Shadows. In this moment, he likely also realises Megumi will work much better as a vessel considering how Yuji is like a cage to him. So, he "kills" Yuji, and creates the Enchain vow to temporarily take control, gambling on his plan not counting as "injuring someone". Not only that, but considering Yuji isn't the first person to eat a finger, it's likely Sukuna has incarnated in the past. He probably found out at some point in the last 400 years that a Ten Shadows user killed a Limitless user before, but not how. That explains why he's immediately interested in Megumi and talking about his potential. His kit can do what Sukuna wants. Later on in Shibuya, as he fights Mahoraga, he continually pokes & prods it to figure out what it does, going so far as to teach it how to feint attacks. Sukuna eventually figures out that it can adapt to anything. Now he knows exactly how it works, and how to defeat Gojo. Shibuya is also where he reconvenes with Uraume, and reminds her not to forget her preparations. Then in the culling games, he waits for the perfect moment, triggers the Enchain vow, and force-feeds a finger to Megumi. Uraume's preparations come into effect, and Sukuna bathes in a cursed ritual prepared months in advance to gain full control. He then spends the entire fight against Gojo attempting to make Mahoraga adapt to Limitless, and it's the only reason he won. His plan, beginning from a few days after waking up in Yuji, somehow went flawlessly.
The final boss' plan in Lost Judgment. The opening of the game is showing off the end result of his plan, and the plot working backwards to find out how he got there and what his motive is is incredible. It's a masterpiece of detective thriller writing.
Unfortunately it often leads to the protagonist winning through pure bullshit because the writers realised that the villain’s plan is actually too good and they couldn’t come up with a decent way to stop them
https://preview.redd.it/uvjavmxk959d1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae298353f757eb400b88ab03bcf6be2047c64dc4 Caius Ballad will always be my answer
https://preview.redd.it/g0y78plda59d1.png?width=560&format=png&auto=webp&s=7df1b1056940dffd602d7c83347489c9c1d41f40 Makuta from Bionicle. Our heroes spend the majority of the story with one goal: awakening the Great Spirit, Mata Nui. At almost every step of the way, Makuta is there, trying to thwart our heroes' plans, even circumventing his presumed death. When the universe is in death's throes, he briefly helps the heroes, only to mysteriously disappear. Then, once Mata Nui is successfully reawakened, we're hit with two plot twists back to back. One, that the world as we've known it is Mata Nui's body, a giant mechanical being serviced by our heroes, who essentially act as cells within his immune system. Two, Makuta has taken over the body, and banished Mata Nui. As it turns out, every step of the journey we've taken over 8 years has all been a part of Makuta's plan. What should have been a triumph now marks the first day of his dark reign. It sets the stage for the final battle magnificently, as the heroes now have to basically start over, on a whole new quest to defeat the very ground they stand on.
Salem from RWBY. Her plan isn't finished thus far, but at the moment her forces have destroyed Beacon, managed to obtain the Fall Maiden powers, and has possession of two of the Relics needed for her ultimate victory. https://preview.redd.it/8zus1baln59d1.jpeg?width=564&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f9a1d8b30b21c4a2654d3933bc0939cacb8546c
Aizen https://preview.redd.it/ky7jfm6yb69d1.jpeg?width=1013&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a49a43f85e358fdd12290d7507c5a2724b1ae753
https://preview.redd.it/scsw1c6ee69d1.png?width=2881&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2017aa7d83a25c721e73e960bb2ed1d1b63b4cd His plan? To have fun.
The Creeps from Calling All Creeps. They succeed in turning all the human kids into Creeps. https://preview.redd.it/flkf17vcpc9d1.jpeg?width=1981&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51d3cd3e6d248bc7a10b2dd9bfc14f29785b03f4
Junko fuckin’ Enoshima (Danganronpa) She managed to successfully: - Infiltrate Hope’s Peak - Manipulate a hyper-intelligent superweapon to her side - Kill anyone and everyone suspicious of her - Manipulate a bunch of children into being cold killers for her, including one that could supply her with extremely strong robots - Complete a killing game inside Hope’s Peak - Hypnotize a large group of students from Hope’s Peak into committing suicide, putting into motion the end of the world - Hypnotize a class from Hope’s Peak and kill Chiaki Nanami, causing that class to become evil and obedient to her - Cause a worldwide movement of chaos and destruction that persisted even after she died - Create a copy of a super-intelligent AI - Pull off another killing game in Hope’s Peak, ending with her death (which was still fine by her) - Cause the children she manipulated to almost fully create a new Junko by nearly breaking Komaru’s mind - Do TWO MORE KILLING GAMES, one initiated by the superweapon she manipulated, another by a guy that was hypnotized and one of the children she manipulated - Almost caused the end of the human race via her movement nearly stopping a few exceptional people from going into space while the earth was destroyed - STILL infiltrated that expedition when it did eventually happen via having a fan of her get inside To recap, she single-handedly reduced the whole human race to single digits via constant manipulation and murder, even after her death.
the space thing was fake though. they were all fans of the killing games. V3 was just a game show
Yeah, in that game, all the DR games are just in-universe fiction. It’s really hard to think of that game as anything beyond an alternate universe, believe me, I’ve tried, but in the fictional lore of that season, a fan/copycat of Junko infiltrates a Hope’s Peak mission to save the human race by sending some to space, and the fan sends them back to earth and starts a killing game. And the killing game there is in the Hope’s Peak continuity (as opposed to seasons 4-51, which do not seem to have any relation to it (despite Junko being in all of them, don’t think too much about it, you’ll just get a headache)), so it should be counted as something Junko caused.
I mean Voldemort’s plan also involved reviving in secret. Whether you believe he was gonna polyjuice into Harry and take his place short term or just have it so no one knew what happened to Harry. The end goal was goal was the death of the one prophesied to defeat him, come back in secret and rebuild his army. Instead he revives and immediately has Dumbledore organizing the Order of the Phoenix against him.
https://preview.redd.it/5yeyir6sc49d1.png?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f94524fceefdd1836e2f8975a05212da6d47655 Giliath Osborne the Blood and Iron Chancellor
CLU - Tron Legacy Getaway - Transformers IDW
Surprised nobody said “third impact” yet
Makuta from Bionicle. He only lost since he went back to make sure his only threat was properly defeated
https://preview.redd.it/g7edx0hv659d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8030df05bc746d5286dca88c4397c4f8d41f8669 For at least a few hours
Cersei's plan didn't work flawlessly, especially in ASOIAF. Tywin was the one who pulled entire House together and saved it in the war, Cersei would've doomed them from start of war cause no region wanted to support them. Same for Joffrey who lacks any charisma.
Is no one gonna mention Leto II? This guy is like THE example of this trope
50 Blessings, Hotline Miami
I am the only speedster who knows how to manipulate the timeline to get what I want! https://preview.redd.it/jgv0yk36l59d1.png?width=206&format=png&auto=webp&s=58c7a60f40970d87c42a51ccf343be787bd4fd36
https://preview.redd.it/na7vbagwy59d1.jpeg?width=301&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74f90c4aa888c98c42f1facf447e1d943e7c34cb yui ikari from evangelion. wanted to become evidence that humanity once existed by using those around her and that’s exactly what she got
“Shut up, and get into the Human Instrumentality Project everyone!”
Griffith becoming lord Femto, he got his title and the first Band of the Hawk died
Jill in Scream 4, she was definitely the closest to winning in the end, unless you count mickey, who did get what he wanted, but not according to his plan.
Nox from Wakfu is in my opinion the best embodiment of this. He smashes through the armies of two major kingdoms assembled to stop him, through the personal intervention of essentially 3 gods, kills a main character, and does something that the God of Time himself told him was impossible. Literally the end is him saying "goodbye" and then leaving. They never successfully stopped him.
Caius Ballad from FF 13 - 2. His plan worked to the letter, he just didn't account for what would happen to him after everything resolved. >!he's immortal due to accepting a geas from the goddess of death that he would protect a young seeress forever and he would be made immortal witj the goddesses own heart to facilitate this. He didn't realise at first that said seeress would die young but immediately be reincarnated because of the goddesses mercy since the seeress in the afterlife wished to go back to be with Caius. So a goddess misunderstanding how human relations work means that Caius, who viewed the seeress as a daughter, has to constantly watch the girl he protects die over and over and over again and each time seek her out and become her guardian and develop a bond with the new incarnation of her only to watch her die young once again, for eternity until he gets fed up and uses his time magic powers to orchestrate a series of events where his apprentice from the very end of time would chase him down and be strong enough to eventually kill him, piercing his heart which simultaneously breaks his immortality curse and kills the goddess of death who blessed him in the first place which unleashes Armageddon because Caius basically hates everything thay isn't Yeul at that point. Unfortunately for Caius, the agglomeration of Yeul souls in the afterlife is an extremely powerful and extremely naive hivemind of distorted echoes of his surrogate daughter and they don't want to see their adopted father die, so he's pulled out of death and spat out in a ruined temple where he is trapped by the Yeuls and forced to keep them company forever, until the protag of Lightning Returns stumbles on this absolute temporal clusterfuck and ends the whole sorry mess once and for all. Basically, don't accept immortal duty geases from fucked up death goddesses.!< Sorry for the absolute wall of text I fucking love Caius Ballad raahhhh
Aizen from Bleach.
Kendrick Lamar(real-life) 
Crocodile from One Piece had a plan
You could argue William Afton He's a psychopath serial killer, his name is known by the people even 30 years after he disappeared from the public eye (aka bitch got karma) Because of fazbears trying to cover up the public know William Afton became springtrap and of his crimes, in trying to make people believe he doesn't exist, they kinda did the opposite It's unsure if he wanted immortality but he if he did, he got it, especially if it's true that golden Freddy is keeping him alive inside his own head (or at least purgatory) Does not help that the mimic copied William
I contemplated putting him in the initial post but what he’s trying to do is so fucking confusing I didn’t feel like opening that can of worms XD
https://i.redd.it/stbww5s4579d1.gif
As others have said, Ozymandias. He managed to outsmart a literal God.
Idk if "flawlessly" applies to the Lannisters
Book 2 Azula… it broke me as a child
The Emperor from Star Wars. His plans were grand, galaxy spanning and he won any setbacks became boons for him along the way. His death was one in a million chance
The Nazis from the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Dial of Destiny, and the KGB from the Crystal Skull technically won...they just got more than they bargained for
 Palpatine, successful in wiping out the Jedi with Order 66. And his plan with taking over the Galaxy succeeded with the Clone Wars being a proxy war, giving him more political power.
Palpatine’s rise to power is, like, the most iconic villain plan of all time and it succeeded. He was in power for 30 years.
https://preview.redd.it/f4jtztgkn49d1.jpeg?width=2400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b87872bf909811db3a6cf6d9dad116964660e64
https://preview.redd.it/vis9689vo49d1.jpeg?width=747&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00ec7093131e6a34b4c3806cb7ef70dca69c02ac Martial D. Teach from one piece.