Ash is a manipulative asshole. He’s selfish and uses people to further his own causes. That’s what a villain does. But then again he may not completely evil.
As for his appearance they intended for him to be someone you would “feel bad” rooting for. No way you would ever think he’s one of the strongest fighters in KOF would you? That’s the point. Ash’s appearance is for trolling.
And as for Ash stealing moves from Guile… well at least Ash has more than two moves. In MIRA he gained at least 2 new moves and a new DM and he also gained a new move in XII.
Hazama/Terumi is perhaps the best (worst?) bad guy in the most recent batch of fighting games. His troll-fu is Galactus tier. And he’s like if a time traveling Michael Jackson was an FG character with butterfly knives and control over chains that turn into snakes.
The best Demitri was SVC’s. Nigga was bad-ass, cuz snk generally doesn’t let goofy crap infest their games. Even their “joke” characters, if you can call them that, are badasses. Capcom just seems to be trying to make their franchises more goofy they progress. They’ll find a way to kiddy-fy RE someday. They’ll have to sign an agreement with Nerf, but trust me: they’ll do it.
Oh yeah, Viper is a villain because she works for Seth. But if you watch the SFIV movie, “Ties That Bind”, she helps Seth but then you later on find out that she’s actually an undercover CIA agent. So she’s not really a bad guy because she’s just trying to get close to Seth (the main villain) to find out his plans. So…I don’t know. I think Viper is sort of an asshole though 'cause she shocks Cammy’s titties in the movie. Unforgivable!
What about Justice and Testament from GG? Justice looks like she could fuck you up (and you only know she is a she cause the game tells you) and Testament just looks evil and is. Speaking anime, what about Chaos, Roa, and Wallachia from MB? Chaos is a fricken madman who (in the storyline) slaughters an entire hotel full of people. Roa and Wallachia are both evil ass vampires trying to gain power and be badass.
Justice just wants to kill humanity because they treated Gears poorly. Justice is only evil in the sense that people thinking anyone killing people is “evil”. Testament hated humans as well and sided with Justice(wants people to die as well) so that makes him “evil”.
Hakumen’s definately not an evil character imo. V-13 is more of a tragic ‘tortured soul’ villain than a really evil one.
You want really evil villain characters, then play Melty Blood and use Nero Chaos/Walachia/Warcureid/Nanaya shiki/Red Akiha…hell, half the cast in Melty has an evil version that’s playable and they’re all suitably bad ass (except maybe Neko Arc Chaos and Mech Hisui…)
Villains don’t need pathos. They need an evil grin, an immoral merciless temperament, and an army of underage girls named after months of the year.
There will NEVER be a fighting game villain as awesome as M. Motherfuckin’ Bison, a.k.a. Lord Motherfuckin’ Vega, a.k.a. Dick Motherfuckin’ Tater in the history of anything. Fuck all your anime antiheroes, Bison will stomp on all their heads and smear his boots with their brains and brightly colored hair dye.
To be fair, Heihachi comes pretty damn close to that unassailable position. Throws his son off a high precipice twice (the second time into a volcano), survives a gigantic Russian robot gangbang, and if you beat Tekken 5 with him he shoots three generations of his family into space. Heihachi Mishima, like Wu-Tang Clan, ain’t nothin’ to fuck with.
Bottom line, you want pathos in your antagonists, read a goddamn book. I’m not here to marvel at how hard life is for the Gears or the sad destiny, boo motherfucking hoo, of Ragna and Jin and Noel and those other canned anime cliches. I’m here to have Eddie turn his upper body into a giant cow skull and make stupid cackling noises while sodomizing people with gigantic black drills. In HELL. (awesome stage, by the way) Now THAT’S villainy.
Dictator’s boring and cheesy. I never respected him as a villain from day one.
Just because it’s an evil character, doesn’t mean the character designers can slack off and make a one-dimensional character in terms of depth. Villains are always, ALWAYS more interesting if you can sympathise with them in some way, even if it’s just that their sociopathic goals and beliefs somewhat mirror your own, or that they occasionally show a softer side when presented with the right stimulus.
People say that because batman is iconic and the joker’s the main villain of batman. He also has a fairly interesting persona for fans who have read into the series deep enough, so I don’t think it’s fair to compare such a developed character to someone like Dictator, who pretty much just fills a role.
Also, @ Ben Reed. Ragna Jin and Noel are not villains and Bison is lame. But then again, I don’t find street fighter characters in general to be interesting.