Revenge of the Fifth! Who are your favorite Villains?

In Star Wars, most of the characters that would fall into the villain category are not really villains. They represent the established government, or their own interests. The Emperor is the leader of the legitimate galactic government. Darth Vader is the Emperor's right hand man enforcing his policies on an individual level. Grand Moff Tarkin is the regional governor for the outer rim territories, again the legitimate galactic government. From the perspective of a regular person in the Star Wars universe, the rebels would be the villains. They are the ones who are oppossing the legitimate government. All that being said, here is my list of favorite Star Wars Antagonists.

Darth Vader is in my opinion the big pappi of Star Wars antagonists. He is ruthless, he is violent, he is the first Asthmatic to be depicted as a bad ass. He tortures just for the pleasure it gives him. He kills underlings for their incompetence. He orders the torture and interrogation of his daughter before he holds herr in place and forces her to watch the destruction of her adopted planet. He does also understands that good leaders are hard to find so he does not kill them on a whim. He does not kill Admiral Piett after the Falcon escapes Bespin because he realizes that he is a good leader, and sound admiral.

I love the Mandalorians, their culture from the expanded Star Wars Universe is beautiful in its simplicity. They are a race of warriors. They test themselves through martial prowess. In the movies both Boba Fett and his "father" Jango are paid employees. Boba Fett is a bounty hunter which is a perfectly legitimate profession. He works both for Jabba the Hutt and Darth Vader. He uses his intelligence and tactical prowess to find his merchandise (Han Solo). He has the fortune of being paid to find the Millenium Falcon and crew for an Imperial Bounty, and Han Solo for a bounty from Jabba the Hutt. Double the money for one effort. Jango is a mercenary pure and simple he does what he is paid to do. He was paid to be the template for the clones, so he became the template for the clones. He was paid to kill Padme Amidala, so he subcontracted the job to his associate. When she failed he executed her for her incompetence. He was paid to protect the Trade Federation leaders from the Jedi, so he protected the Trade Federation leaders from the Jedi (at a personal cost of his head). So while in the films they are oppossing forces to the protagonists, they are self serving rather than villainous.

Jabba the Hutt is a greedy, powerful, self serving, arrogant, gangster. He does everything to increase his power, prestige, or reputation. He sends Boba Fett after Han Solo because Solo cost him money, and ran out on the debt owed due to the loss of cargo. He has people killed because they cost him in one of the afore mentioned categories. For a being that craves power, costing him reputation can be just as bad as costing him money. In the case of Han Solo, it cost him reputation and money so he just had to be dealt with.

I just realized we are all thinking of just straight villains, why are we not also thinking of the anti heroes?

I am pretty sure if we all thought of these characters as well there would be at least one person on everyone's list......

DEADPOOL!!

I have started to gain a new appreciation for all of the Batman villains, but most specifically, the Riddler. He had a part in the corrupt Gotham PD, and was trying to clean it up. Sure his methods were illegal, however, so are Batmans...