Top 10 Villains of ALL TIME

10. Miss Trunchbull, Matilda. Ok, I will admit personal bias for this one. Anyone who chooses a career in education because she HATES children and is looking for an opportunity to terrorize and abuse them is a monster!
9. Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter (series). Absolutely heartless. Voldemort (whoops, sorry, "He-who-blah-blah-blah") always seemed like a caricature of EEEEVIL to me, even though Rowling did her best to play up his former humanity.
8. The Operative, Serenity. He kind of reminds me of an Inquisitor, but the peacefulness of his fanaticism is what really creeps me out.
7. Bill Sykes, Oliver Twist. An amazing character - thoroughly dark, and yet somehow he never struck me as cartoonish, even though most of the other characters in the book did (at least from time to time).
6. Annie Wilkes, Misery. You only hurt the ones you love... *shudder*
5. Lex Luthor, Superman (series). You almost have to sympathize with a man who honest-to-goodness thinks he's trying to save the world from an alien invader. (Almost.) Plus he's brilliant, handsome, and SO charismatic. If only he weren't so ruthless!
4. Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs. He eats people. Do we really need more justification than that? HE EATS PEOPLE! (aside: Anthony Hopkins is horrifically amazing in Titus, too, but not quite a villain there.)
3. Medea, from the tragedy of the same name by Euripedes. If revenge is a dish best served cold, no one could prepare it better. Her husband ditched her for another woman, so she starts off by murdering the new bride. She then murders the children she bore her husband as a final payback.
2. Darth Vader, Star Wars (series). Not creepy, but commanding. Completely in control at all times. No sense of humor - though he understands what it is, and doesn't like it. So far beyond cold that he's willfully stepping into inhumanity. He's NOT robotic - he would be a less memorable character if he were. He is abominable because he is choosing to leave his humanity behind.
(Also? His cape is just GORGEOUS!)

And finally...

1. Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty. I mean, just the NAME! It brings to mind "malefic," "malevolent," possibly "malicious" ... and "magnificent." And she is. She reminds me of Yevaud, who is commanded by his name to show his true form... and it happens to be that of a dragon. Her smooth, sharp features, slender, feminine figure, her heavy-lidded eyes and wide, expressive mouth with such deliciously red lips - she is delicate, yet sultry at the same time. And stylin' - a drapey black cloak, lined in lush purple, with a high collar... hm. I may have to do that as a costume sometime. However, there is a slight greenish tinge to her complexion (although Disney later claimed that was an accident; I maintain it was FATE!), and her eyes at times seem yellow. Fairy, shmairy. You're lookin' at one powerful eldritch dragon who's havin' a blast. Those who annoy her, die. This one, I kill with my magic. This one, I kill with my teefs. This one, I kill with a WHUSSSCH! Wheee! This rules!

Bad. Ass.

*grin* It's your turn, now: Tell me where I'm wrong! ;)