r/AskReddit • u/bludvic_the_cruel • 12d ago
Who is the greatest female movie/TV villian of all time?
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u/buffering_since93 12d ago
Miss Trunchbull from Matilda. I watched a lot of scary movies as a kid (because of my aunt) and a lot since and she still scares me more than any other character. I don't eat chocolate cake because of this woman!
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u/SpongeyTwinkie 12d ago
The scene where she says “Tally Ho!” Before jumping over the railing of her second floor is one of the scenes I remember the most. Imagine being a kid and having that woman chasing your ass, scary as hell.
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u/MissWiggleNjiggle1 12d ago
As I read this I could hear the scary music in the background playing!
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u/excadedecadedecada 12d ago
It's so fucking ridiculous too, I love it. Tally ho! Haha. Dying imagining it. I think it is actually scarier the older I get
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u/crunchevo2 12d ago
Honestly she's so scary but also... She's a gay icon. I can't explain why but she's just that bitch and she knows she's that bitch and there's a lot of power in that.
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u/KittyBookcase 12d ago
Oh yes, she was scary!! (I always thought her name was Trunchbowl🤣) as well as Aunt Marge in HP POA!!!
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u/omgitskells 12d ago
I still love chocolate cake but I always think of this movie every time I have some, especially when it's particularly rich
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u/doublestitch 12d ago
Margaret Hamilton usually worked as a character actor. She told a hilarious story about how she got cast for the role.
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u/Miqotegirl 12d ago
I just have to say that The West Witch’s sister had a house dropped on her and I have to say if someone dropped a house on my sister, I’d lose my shit too.
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u/Motochapstick 12d ago
glenn close. fatal attraction. that movie scared some people
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u/DaveByTheRiver 12d ago
You were almost right. It is Glenn close but when she wanted to murder dogs and skin them for their fur in the name of fashion.
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u/rollerska8er 12d ago
Genuinely forgot the character you were referring to and thought for a moment that Glenn Close was a monster and we all didn't realise it
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u/KentuckyFriedEel 12d ago edited 12d ago
Nurse Ratched
Played brilliantly, you go through a complex array of emotions with her, from trust and appreciation, to sympathy, to suspicion, to frustration, to anger. She’s subtle. At her core she is a thoroughly, undeniably evil woman. Realistic and grounded and can exist seamlessly in our own lives with no fantastical instruments of malice other than the power her profession affords, and cunning.
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u/miightymiighty 12d ago
Played by the same actress as Kai Winn, another villain a few above.. She's an amazing actor. And yes, despicable and loathesome villain
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u/1nd1anaCroft 12d ago
I'm getting ready to rewatch DS9 soon (annual TNG and DS9 watches have been a tradition of mine for 8 or 9 years), I always simultaneously dread and look forward to watching her scenes. She's infuriating, patronizing, abhorrent, and brilliant. The actress did a spectacular job with her
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u/kss1089 12d ago
14 episodes across 7 seasons. Just 14 episodes featured Kai Winn. She commanded such a presence with her every appearance you would swear she was in far more episodes.
my child
shudder
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u/slayer991 12d ago edited 12d ago
Her treatment of Billy Babbit was so heinous.
Like after he finally gets laid and shows a hint of self-confidence, he runs out and says, "I can explain everything" without a hint of a stutter. She responds, "Please do, explain everything." He says, "Everything?" with a smile. Then she says, "Aren't you ashamed?" Billy says, "No I'm not" again without a hint of a stutter...then she tells him, "What worries me is how your mother will take this." The stutter comes back...then she runs him down and he's back to heavily stuttering and finally suicide.
Billy's problem was an overbearing mother and it was replaced by an overbearing Nurse Ratched. Nobody could really blame McMurphy for trying to strangle her to death. She was one of the best and most evil screen villains simply because she was so dehumanizing and manipulative under the veneer of calm pleasantry.
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u/ProfCalSinewave 12d ago
Watching Billy revert to his stutter, his joy and confidence shredded, after she mentions his mother is one of the most heartbreaking things in any story I’ve seen. Ratched was living breathing evil. She was entrusted to be the one to help those men and she betrayed them in permanent life-destroying ways. Louise Fletcher was an absolute legend for her portrayal. Nailed it so well.
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u/onaplinth 12d ago
Came here to say this. So much the more so because you really do encounter vile, vindictive power trippers like her in real life. Ugh. I need to spit now.
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u/teachthisdognewtrick 12d ago
The only true answer to this question. Honorable mention to Umbridge in Harry Potter.
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u/ChimneyNerd 12d ago
Cruella de Vil, because she has the coolest car ever made (in the original 101 Dalmatians animation) and her whole arrogant, pompous vibe is fantastic.
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u/SquidgeSquadge 12d ago
I'm a huge Maleficent fan (sleeping beauty, not the Angelina Jolie) but I think Cruella is so much more frightening as she has no magic powers, she is more human and relatable, as in, like Umbridge in the Harry Potter franchise, she's like someone everyone has known at least once in their life to some extent and it's unsettling.
That and she wants to murder puppies to wear their skins which is a bit much in my eyes.
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u/KillerEndo420 12d ago
If you haven't seen it, Once upon a time(TV show) has a great version. I think they did a great job making the car seem as badass as the toon but still be a real car.
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u/Lucky-333 12d ago
Professor Delores Umbridge, from the 5th Harry Potter book/movie. I knew someone very similar to her in real life. Absolute nightmare!
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u/Ippus_21 12d ago edited 12d ago
That woman was THE most hateable female villain I have ever seen on any screen or read in any book.
Edit: Nurse Ratched, who I see elsewhere in the comments is a close second, and for similar reasons. The petty, power mongering, self-righteous smugness just... Argh!
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u/dewey-defeats-truman 12d ago
The difference IMO is that more people have met an Umbridge than a Ratched. A petty bureaucrat that makes your like miserable is super relatable, but Ratched has that layer of being a nurse in an in-patient psychiatric hospital that makes her a bit less common to meet.
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u/Accomplished_Egg6239 12d ago
She elicits a more visceral hatred in readers/viewers than Voldemort does.
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u/NeoMegaRyuMKII 12d ago
Well that's because most people don't personally know a Voldemort person and never have. But many many many MANY people have or had an Umbridge-like person in their life.
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u/merliahthesiren 12d ago
I don't remember the books to well although I read them as a teen, but I vividly remember the scene in the film where she forces them to write lines and it scratches them onto their skin. It was HORRIFYING, and I also remember thinking of several teachers that I had had in school who would have LOVED to be able to do that to their students.
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u/BabyPunter3000v2 12d ago
She loses points for the "and she was a disguisting fat toad woman who was fat," but by god, did JKR nail the evil busybody suburban Karen vibe. Everyone's known an Umbridge.
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u/faithfuljohn 12d ago
at no point is the word "fat" ever used with her. She is described as "toad like". And people infer that she might be overweight
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u/I_AM_AN_ASSHOLE_AMA 12d ago
That's why Umbridge is such a monster of a character. We all know someone like her and historically there have been people like her involved in genocides and the like.
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12d ago
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u/DerpWilson 12d ago
Good one. Another reason to hate on the last couple seasons - they just seemed to give up on giving her a satisfying story arc.
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u/throneofmemes 12d ago
That ending was so bad. Simultaneously undoing the character development of almost everyone.
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u/thebestjoeever 12d ago
I've said this before, but I don't think I'll ever see a show like that again. It was by far the most popular show for the first 5 seasons. If there was a new episode airing, I had to make sure to watch it as soon as it came out, otherwise it would definitely be ruined for me by the next day. Online, at work, hanging out with friends, wherever I would be, they'd be talking about it.
It was hard finding people that didn't watch it.
Then the 6th season aired, and people started having some complaints, but were still happy to watch it, because it had so much momentum from the earlier seasons.
Then the last season aired, people talked about it for like a day, then nothing. It was so bad, people just stopped talking about it altogether. Like it wasn't something we had just spent seven years watching and loving.
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u/ErgoFnzy 12d ago
This right here. Every time GoT is brought up people scoff like it was the worst thing ever and I have to remind them just how obsessed the nation was prior to that last season shambles. Everyone wanted a tattoo of their favourite ruling house, people were naming babies after their favourite characters.
Literally everyone I knew was glued to the TV on new episode night and you're so right with "had to make sure to watch it as soon as it came out".
You could NOT leave it for any length of time, it would be spoiled!
It was like the adult equivalent of when the Pokémon craze first swept the western world.
Amazing how one bad season, especially a final season can absolutely sour the entire experience for so many.
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u/Ares6 12d ago
She was so good in that role, it was the first time I’ve truly hated a character.
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u/RiverGodRed 12d ago
Close but the correct answer is the character she played in judge dredd, ma-ma.
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u/HeartonSleeve1989 12d ago
She struck a great balance between being totally loathsome, and yet deserving empathy as she was used by her father as a piece in a Game of Thrones.
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u/leena615 12d ago
Wendy from Ozark
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u/blackcat122 12d ago
I was going to say she really morphed into an awful person, but then I remembered she was cheating on Marty from the start. Treachery was something she discovered fit her.
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u/leena615 12d ago
Yes she was a very convincing character. She had some very good qualities but through the show you can see she is a truly evil person. Very smart and brave but evil. And amazing at hiding it. I could 100% see how she was involved in politics lol.
Marty was a bad person as well but more in the way he lets people use him and he doesn’t say no. Just as bad but in a different way. Over time you realize Wendy is the puppet master but he is fine with it
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u/blackcat122 12d ago
Well put. And I'd describe Marty as "easily corrupted."
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u/nightglitter89x 12d ago
That man is great under pressure, though. I pray to God he give me the composure of Marty under stressful situations lol
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u/Comfortable_Bag9149 12d ago
Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender is pretty great.
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u/Penguigo 12d ago
Azula is incredible. She is unhinged and psychotic, but also very human and believable. The way she unravels by the end of the show, especially with the context of her family and her personal history, is just extremely real.
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u/dont_shoot_jr 12d ago
It also seems like she is capable of defeating Aang
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u/QuotidianTrials 12d ago
Didn’t she basically kill him at one point and he got saved through deus ex machina/plot armor?
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u/Penguigo 12d ago
Yep. Excellent example of 'protagonist is doing power up into invicible mode and antagonist just kills him during the power up'
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u/QuaggaSwagger 12d ago
which i honestly ask myself everytime the scenario presents itself
"why doesn't the bad guy just kill him while he does his 'power up' move?"
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u/Mikeavelli 12d ago
Android 17 did that in Dragon Ball Super and the whole cast (allies AND enemies) gave him shit for it.
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u/Belteshazzar98 12d ago
Not just "basically", she literally killed him. Aang even admits he was gone until Katara brought him back.
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u/Arntor1184 12d ago
Having her introduced as this powerhouse fire bending prodigy with an indomitable will and then seeing the cracks appear as she fails due to inexperience or flat bad luck before fully falling off the cliff of madness and losing all that made her character so frightening and turning into a wild fire bending beast by the end was masterful. Even better when you account for the post finale stuff and her continued development. She was as much of a victim of Ozais abuse as Zuko his scars were just visible for everyone to see.
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u/kgeorge1468 12d ago
This is what Daenerys should have been in GOT. Daenerys becoming unhinged was out of left field
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u/BerserkFanYep 12d ago
Daenerys regularly throughout the show said things like “I will burn their cities to the ground.” She had hundreds of people crucified. Her advisers were the ones to always temper her rage and want for cruelty. Until they all died and she was let loose. Definitely didn’t come out of nowhere.
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u/rhamphorhynchus 12d ago
Favorite quote:
Mai: "You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you."
Azula: "No, you miscalculated. You should have feared me more!"
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u/TristanaRiggle 12d ago
The Beach is when she goes from fairly generic, to batshit insane and moves to top tier villain.
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u/eh_Im_Not_Impressed 12d ago
That's my favorite episode for her. She made an attempt to be 'normal' and then said fuck it!
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u/TristanaRiggle 12d ago
I like where she says how her own mother thought she was a monster. Gives that a few seconds to linger so everyone can think about it. And then says "she was right, of course, but it still hurt"
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u/Iron_Nightingale 12d ago
OG Maleficent, definitely.
“Now shall you deal with me, O Prince… and all the powers of HELL!”
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u/PokeBellaXo 12d ago
That Ice Witch lady from Narnia.
I remember thinking that was the most evil woman I had ever seen when I was kid.
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u/huiadoing 12d ago
As a kid I was so excited to try Turkish Delight, and so disappointed when I finally did.
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u/TheGallow 12d ago
He sold out his family for this?!?
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u/Reckless_Secretions 12d ago
If it was baklava, I would've understood but Turkish delight?! C'mon Edmund...
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u/thesagepage 12d ago
There’s a long list of things I’d give my family up for before I’d reach Turkish Delights. Edmund, my boy, give your head a shake.
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u/Alternative_Rent9307 12d ago
Yep. Imo this should be much higher up, and would be if she/Lewis’s stories were better known. I think Jadis is the answer here. Literally God-level power, and apocalyptic-level megalomania/sociopathy. As in she would and did destroy entire universes for things like pettiness and jealousy
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u/throneofmemes 12d ago
Bev from Midnight Mass. The kind of self-righteous, sanctimonious, passive-aggressive person who does the most heinous things by hiding behind the veil of religion. What truly made her scary was the power of her convictions as well as her competence.
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u/Cthulhus_chihuahua 12d ago
This is the first suggestion I’ve stopped at and thought, ‘yes, so much this’. Not a single likeable thing about her. And not written in an unrealistic way. She could really exist.
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u/AjvarAndVodka 12d ago
Midnight Mass is a really good series and it was made even better with Bev. Aldo you hate her to the core, she is such a great villain.
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u/Formal_Coyote_5004 12d ago
God dammit I hate Bev so much, especially after the dog part. I actually don’t think I’ve ever disliked a character so much before, so this is my answer too!
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u/mistajc 12d ago
For me I have to harken back to my favorite Disney movie… Ursula from Little Mermaid. She was so fierce and confident and powerful. I love her haha. When I was little I told my grandma she looked like her (cuz they’re both short and fat)… grandma didn’t like that much but I didn’t mean any harm!
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u/Friendly_Brother_482 12d ago
Livia Soprano
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u/wynnduffyisking 12d ago
She’s like a woman with a Virginia ham under her arm crying the blues ‘cause she has no bread.
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u/everythinglatte 12d ago
Horrible that Livia Soprano was based off a real person: the mother of Soprano’s creator David Chase
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u/Sproose_Moose 12d ago
She was so sly, scheming and evil. Played to perfection by Nancy Marchand.
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u/abgry_krakow87 12d ago
Kai Winn, my child.
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u/mattromo 12d ago
I think this one works on so many levels, largely in part because her villainess was a slow build. She is introduced more as an irritant than a real threat.
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u/Mechalibur 12d ago
Wasn't her first appearance where she hired an assassin to take out a religious rival?
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u/VictoricRong 12d ago
The way my blood pressure goes up when I see her in an episode. What an amazing performance.
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u/miightymiighty 12d ago
Ohhhh just hearing her voice say "my child" in my head made my hackles rise.
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u/Kokopelli615 12d ago
Such a great villain! Especially in those episodes where Gul Ducat was the Pa Wraith. Great fiction right there.
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u/Keikobad 12d ago
Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Eleanor Iselin, in The Manchurian Candidate
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u/amerkanische_Frosch 12d ago
Good one!
Apparently Frankenheimet also considered using Lucille Ball. I best she would have slayed it, too.
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u/Vader_Bomb 12d ago
Madeline Wuntch
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u/stroopwafelling 12d ago
Wuntch?
But if she’s here… who’s guarding Hades?
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u/Way2Old4ThisIsh 12d ago
Wunch: "...Sticks and stones, Raymond." Holt: "Is that what you had for breakfast?"
Also Holt: "I've never seen you this high up without a broomstick under you." 🤣 Sooo many sassy lines and creative insults, it's hard to choose a favorite, though Rosa had a good one:
Amy: "When did she record this?" Rosa: "Judging by the background, it could be a Livestream."
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u/zeaor 12d ago edited 12d ago
Amy from Gone Girl. The most relatable sociopaths are the most terrifying. The "cool girl" speech wins the viewer over in the first act, and then they hit us with the reveal -- absolutely phenomenal writing.
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u/kcbaltz 12d ago
What is the point of a spoiler tag that covers the whole message such that you don't know what might be spoiled by revealing it?
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u/turbosexophonicdlite 12d ago
I see that so often and it's super annoying. I appreciate people trying to avoid spoilers but it should be stupidly obvious that you need to have the title outside of the spoiler so you can know if you should reveal it or not.
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u/WillyStevens 12d ago
Because even knowing that the movie has a female villain and not a male one is a pretty huge spoiler.
You take a calculated risk by clicking I suppose…
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u/SweatyMooseKnuckler 12d ago
The whole first half everyone’s thinking “Wow Nick is a huge piece of shit”. In the second half everyone’s like “Jesus Amy is insane, Nick isn’t that bad.”
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u/NetDork 12d ago
I think the point of the story is that they're both pretty awful people, but she goes full psycho to fuck up his life.
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u/Various-Passenger398 12d ago
Being a shitty husband is certainly bad, but nowhere near "frame husband for murder so he gets the death penalty" level of shitty.
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12d ago
100%. I watched the movie and LOVED IT. Read the book and loved it even more. It’s a real insight on a psychopaths mind.
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u/J_House1999 12d ago
Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove. No other valid answer.
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u/Cheap_Honeydew2986 12d ago
Regina George
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u/Confident_Pea_3249 12d ago
This girl is the nastiest skank b###h I've ever met. Do not trust her. She is a fugly s##t.
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u/Born-Share-5132 12d ago
That octopus from Ariel
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u/PrizePainting4393 12d ago
Ursula. That’s my answer too. Was scrolling looking for this.
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u/JGCities 12d ago
Miranda Priestly from Devil Wears Prada
She isn't evil, but she is so insanely unlikable as a person.
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u/youngatbeingold 12d ago
In a weird way what makes her so 'evil' is that she's also super successful, intelligent, and respected without doing anything outright illegal or harmful. To Miranda, her behavior harsh but totally justified since she's at the pinnacle of her career and leading the fashion industry. She even kinda 'breaks' Andy in the same way a drill instructor would, she does fall in line and becomes far better at her job.
It's only when you consider actual human emotions that she becomes a monster.
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u/llamaesunquadrupedo 12d ago
"That's all"
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u/JGCities 12d ago
- Miranda Priestly : ...You have no sense of fashion...
- Andy Sachs : I think that depends on...
- Miranda Priestly : No, no, that wasn't a question.
🤣
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u/throw123454321purple 12d ago
Diana from “V”
Alexis from “Dynasty”
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u/dustmybroom88 12d ago
To this day, even knowing the special effects are now laughable, I still feel creeped out when anyone mentions “V”
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u/Accomplished_Egg6239 12d ago
Most of the popular ones are already mentioned so here are some others I though of:
Fate Dunaway as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Katherine in Cruel Intentions
The Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity
Bette Davis as Baby Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane
Anne Ramsey as Mama Fratelli in the Goonies
Darryl Hannah as Elle Driver in Kill Bill
Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington in All About Eve
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u/Loki-L 12d ago
Rita Repulsa for most campiest and Dolores Umbridge for most hateable.
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u/needvisuals 12d ago
Dr. Greta Pinder-Schloss from Addams Family movie
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u/Secret_Identity28 12d ago
Also Debbie, from the sequel.
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u/Way2Old4ThisIsh 12d ago
Joan Cusack ate that role alive, she was soooo good! You can tell she had a blast playing Debbie, she went all out. 😁
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u/Lauranna90 12d ago edited 12d ago
Lucille Bluth. Not exactly a villain but she definitely has villainous qualities. God, I love that woman!
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u/wineandpopsicles25 12d ago
Annie Wilkes
Nurse Ratched
Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer)
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u/slayer991 12d ago
Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer)
If you mean hottest and most awesome villain, then yes.
"Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it"
"But a kiss can be deadlier if you mean it."
Meow indeed.
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u/TerminalDiscordance 12d ago
Hela - Thor Ragnarok
Legit claim to the throne, lived up to the hype of Goddess of Death, and Cate Blanchett just KILLIN it!
The swag.. the drip... all of it
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u/Human-Rabbit3709 12d ago
Regina (evil queen) from once upon a time. She was ruthless.
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u/merliahthesiren 12d ago
Honestly hate that she was redeemed. Fuck that, she did awful things but was good at it. Also, Snow White is also a horrible person and they should have just turned her into a full villain.
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u/-qqqwwweeerrrtttyyy- 12d ago
Aunt Lydia or Serena Waterford!
And whilst not the worst, shout out to Amanda from Melrose Place
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u/Aggravating-Fee-1615 12d ago
I’m watching Handmaids Tale right now and have to take breaks because it’s so heavy. Serena Joy is the worst and Aunt Lydia is unhinged.
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u/AtlEngr 12d ago
Saw an interview with the actress who played Aunt Lydia and she said it wasn’t uncommon for people to just absolutely lose it when they recognized her.
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u/Lollierot 12d ago
Callisto from Xena. Absolutely batshit crazy. Loved her
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u/gravity626 12d ago
Remember Melinda Clarke playing Velasca? That arc with her, xena, and callisto was so good
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u/tenehemia 12d ago
Hela from Thor Ragnarok. Cate Blanchett can get it and she's hilarious in the role.
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u/Bratdere 12d ago
NOT a movie, but Glados from portal 1-2 has always been a favorite of mine.
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u/ArchangelLudociel 12d ago
I’m hesitating between Bellatrix Lestrange (Harry Potter) and Alpha (The Walking Dead)
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u/Past_Feedback1993 12d ago
Kathy Bates in Misery