- 6 hours ago
Some TV villains spent years terrifying audiences, only to be handed the most deflating sendoffs imaginable. Join us as we count down our picks for the TV villains whose deaths left fans feeling completely robbed! Which ending disappointed you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
Transcript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 TV villains whose death many fans
00:05found rather underwhelming.
00:07There will be spoilers.
00:08Don't let me die, Jake. Please, don't let me die.
00:12Number 10. Salvatore Moroni, The Penguin
00:15For those who only know Sal Moroni from The Penguin, he may seem like just an aged mobster who was
00:20killed off abruptly.
00:22You make it sound so simple, but it's my guys doing all the heavy lifting.
00:27Now, revenge don't come easy.
00:28But DC fans know he is one of Batman's greatest mob villains.
00:32First appearing in 1942, Moroni became infamous as the gangster who scarred Harvey Dent with acid and helped create Two
00:39-Face.
00:39In The Penguin, Clancy Brown portrayed him as the imprisoned crime boss who returns to Gotham after Oz's betrayal.
00:46Determined to reclaim his empire, he joins forces with Sophia.
00:49I am offering you an alliance.
00:52We join our families, the Moronis and the Gigantes, as a show of strength.
00:59We kill Oz.
01:01And then we take over the city.
01:06Together.
01:07Yet the series rarely makes him feel like the kingpin who once rivaled Carmine Falcone.
01:11Oz repeatedly outmaneuvered him, making Moroni seem out of his element.
01:15Then, during their final confrontation that should have been intense, Moroni suffers a heart attack and dies.
01:20Some fans appreciated the simplicity and shock of Sal's death.
01:24But for others, a crime boss of Sal's caliber deserved a more intimidating ending.
01:28I beat you, Sal.
01:30You hear me?
01:31I beat you.
01:32I win.
01:32Number 9.
01:33Silas.
01:34The Vampire Diaries.
01:36Before anyone saw Silas' real face, the show made sure you feared him anyway.
01:40Teased as the most powerful immortal being ever, it felt like he was untouchable and unkillable.
01:45Oh, and beware of the immortal Silas.
01:48If he was asleep in that cave, he's awake now.
01:50He could wear anyone's appearance, slip into minds uninvited, and bend people toward violence without ever touching them.
01:57Silas even made the formidable Klaus believe he was being physically tortured.
02:00He trapped Stefan in a safe and drowned him, repeatedly.
02:04Hello, my shadow self.
02:13Do you have any idea what it's like to starve for 2,000 years?
02:17These were carefully constructed scenes designed to establish something the show rarely attempts.
02:21A villain with no limit to what he could do.
02:24Instead, once Silas' mask came off, he became another version of Ripper Stefan.
02:29He was sarcastic, theatrical, and more interested in jokes than terror.
02:33Fans criticized how he was reduced to trolling high schoolers and acting like an egocentric prankster.
02:38Then came his death.
02:39Silas finally gets the cure, only for Stefan to stab him almost immediately.
02:44You're a mess.
02:46The safe was the easy part, wasn't it?
02:48Of being forgotten about.
02:50That's the real torture, isn't it?
02:57After centuries of surviving and scheming, this supposedly unstoppable immortal was simply human, then dead within seconds.
03:05That's a strangely deflating exit.
03:07Number 8.
03:08Michael Langdon.
03:09American Horror Story.
03:10Conceived by a human and a living ghost,
03:12Michael Langdon arrived in the world already wrong.
03:15Though his heritage hinted at something monstrous, it was his deeds that confirmed it.
03:19I've been assigned to evaluate the people here and select the ones most worthy of survival.
03:24First appearing as a baby in Season 1, Michael murdered his nanny, establishing him as a terrifying presence.
03:30Then, in Season 8, he returned as the harbinger of the end of days.
03:34As the Antichrist, Michael could use mind control to bend people to his will, or even erase their existence.
03:43Somehow, someway I am going to bring her back, and then I'm going to kill every last one of you.
03:49His greatest act was orchestrating the nuclear apocalypse itself, cementing him as a threat on a global scale.
03:56But after building his mythological status as the literal son of Satan, how does he go out?
04:01Mallory uses time travel to return to 2015, before Michael fully embraces his powers and runs him over repeatedly.
04:08A villain defined by prophecy and inevitability is undone by a suburban street and car tires.
04:13Honestly, it's not subversive.
04:15It's simply small.
04:16Michael needed an ending that matched the scale of his threat.
04:19I'm scared.
04:21The Antichrist defeated by a car? Talk about a traffic violation.
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04:29Nothing ever truly dies.
04:31We are all made of energy.
04:32And energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
04:36It can only be transferred from one form to another.
04:40The trick is to be able to go back and pick the right moment in time, and let it play
04:45out from there.
04:45Number 7. The Toymaker. Doctor Who.
04:48There's something uniquely evil about the Toymaker.
04:51He doesn't need armies or massive battles to be terrifying.
04:53He can torture people simply by turning their suffering into entertainment.
04:57It will be fun having you here.
05:00And your friends will make charming dolls.
05:04It may interest you to know that their chairs are ready and waiting for you in the doll.
05:10First appearing in the Celestial Toymaker, this immortal being trapped victims in his realm, manipulated reality, and made games of
05:17their survival.
05:18The first Doctor ultimately outwitted him, trapping him in his own domain.
05:22Decades later, the Toymaker returned after the 14th Doctor's actions with the No Things accidentally allowed him to cross into
05:29our universe.
05:29Are you not get pleased, Herr Doctor?
05:34To see me again, after so many years.
05:39Who is he?
05:46The Toymaker.
05:48With such a powerful villain finally back, expectations were high.
05:51But what did we get?
05:52He gets defeated by the 14th and 15th Doctors with a game of catch.
05:56There's an internal logic to it.
05:58The Toymaker lives and dies by his own rules.
06:00And those rules ultimately become his undoing.
06:03But logic and satisfaction aren't the same thing.
06:06Watching a reality-bending immortal who once made survival itself a game lose because he dropped a ball doesn't feel
06:12poetic.
06:13We won!
06:15We did it!
06:16Fair game.
06:17You lost.
06:18No, but I think he'll find best of three.
06:21And my prize, Toymaker, is to banish you from existence forever.
06:28It feels like the show blinked.
06:29Some villains deserve to go out swinging.
06:31The Toymaker is one of them.
06:33Number 6.
06:34Oliver Saxon slash The Brain Surgeon
06:36Dexter.
06:37Also known as The Brain Surgeon, Oliver Saxon had the potential to be one of Dexter's scariest villains.
06:42Right up there with the Trinity Killer.
06:44Dexter, this is Oliver. Oliver, Dexter.
06:46Nice to meet you.
06:47You too.
06:48But the writers seemed unsure what to do with him.
06:51Arriving in season 8, Saxon was revealed as Daniel, Dr. Evelyn Vogel's disturbed son who removed the brains of his
06:57victims.
06:58He wasn't just another killer.
06:59He was a dark mirror of what Dexter might have become without Harry's code.
07:03Saxon murdered his own mother and spent the season manipulating those around him.
07:07When you see as many people die as I have, you know when they're afraid.
07:14What are you afraid of, mother?
07:16His most devastating act was shooting Debra, leaving her brain dead after the resulting brain damage.
07:21That should have made his final reckoning deeply personal.
07:24Instead, Saxon's death felt almost comically anticlimactic for a season's main villain.
07:29Dexter initially leaves him to the police, but later confronts him in the interrogation room.
07:33Saxon attacks with a pen, and Dexter dispatches him with a quick stab.
07:37In one sharp moment, you took away this foolish dream that I could have a happy life.
07:46Is that why you're here?
07:49Tell me all this.
07:50No, I'm here to kill you with that pen.
07:53Considering how lesser threats received far more elaborate endings at Dexter's table, Saxon deserves something far more memorable.
07:59Number 5.
08:00Homelander.
08:01The Boys.
08:02Combine emotional instability and a lack of empathy with supernatural powers, and what you have is Homelander.
08:08Homelander?
08:11Your boy's okay?
08:16Can I get a selfie?
08:19Of course you can.
08:21He possesses flight, super strength, x-ray vision, super hearing, and laser eyes, making him one of the most dangerous
08:27characters in The Boys.
08:29He was essentially built as this terrifying, unhinged god, yet Homelander's death failed to capture that intensity.
08:35During the showdown in the Oval Office, Kimiko strips away his powers, before Butcher finishes him with a crowbar through
08:41the brain.
08:41For a character built around power, fear, and a desperate need to be worshipped, it could have been more fascinating
08:47to explore who Homelander was without his abilities.
08:50Instead, his final moments are spent begging Butcher for mercy, and offering to humiliate himself to survive.
08:59For many fans, watching him crumble that completely felt like the show deflating five seasons of menace in one scene.
09:06Number 4.
09:07The Flash.
09:08A well-known villain in the Flash universe, Savitar became one of Barry Allen's biggest threats in Season 3 of
09:14The Flash.
09:14I know who you are.
09:17It's about time.
09:19Yes, it is.
09:22Everything with you is about time, isn't it?
09:24The vision of Savitar killing Iris, referenced throughout the season, gave him a weight most Flash villains never had.
09:30He could match Barry's speed, knew his every move, and was eventually revealed to be a time remnant of Barry
09:35himself.
09:36As the show's most personal villain, his downfall should have been unforgettable.
09:40My ascendancy is nearing.
09:43When I have control of all of time, it will be you who is abandoned and forgotten.
09:50Instead, one Savitar's armor came up.
09:53Much of his mystique collapsed.
09:55Iris eventually ends him using a handgun.
09:57Yes, Iris killing him was meant to reclaim the fate that had haunted her all season.
10:00But for a villain who spent the season terrorizing Team Flash, the execution felt lacking.
10:06The so-called God of Speed couldn't even catch a bullet.
10:08All these months you were trying to save me from him.
10:11Look at that, I saved you.
10:13What a waste!
10:14More importantly, Savitar's identity presented an opportunity to explore what Barry might become when grief completely consumes him.
10:21Instead, the show's dark mirror of its hero ends with a gunshot that makes him feel surprisingly ordinary.
10:27Number 3.
10:28The Night King.
10:29Game of Thrones.
10:30If you're going to build a villain to be this massive a threat, at least have the decency to give
10:34him a gloriously befitting ending, too.
10:36Created by the Children of the Forest as a weapon against humanity, the Night King became the leader of the
10:41White Walkers.
10:42With every conquest, his army of the dead grew larger, turning him into Westeros' greatest fear.
10:48Then, when this ancient force finally reached Winterfell and the battle everyone had been waiting for arrived,
10:54Arya Stark jumps behind him and kills him with a Valerian steel dagger.
10:57It was a badass moment for Arya, but a humiliatingly underwhelming ending for him.
11:07His death, arriving only halfway through the final season, abruptly ended a threat that had been building since Season 1.
11:14The battle could have lasted for episodes, showing exactly why the Night King was such a terrifying foe.
11:19He deserved that much, at least.
11:21Instead, most of the heroes who faced him survived, and he fell almost as quickly as any other villain.
11:27This couldn't be the same monster we had feared for years.
11:30We may have defeated them, but we still have us to contend with.
11:34Number 2. Vecna. Stranger Things.
11:37Right from his first appearance, Vecna made a statement.
11:40He wasn't another monster from the Upside Down.
11:42Don't cry, Chrissie.
11:47It's time for your suffering to end.
11:55He was an intelligent, calculating supernatural force who could kill from a distance and manipulate minds.
12:01Then came the biggest revelation.
12:03Vecna was the architect behind much of Hawken's supernatural nightmare.
12:07He abducted Will, shaped a mind flayer, and orchestrated the opening of the gates.
12:11He even planned to tear the barrier between worlds and remake reality in his own image.
12:16Season 5 abandoned that almost entirely.
12:18So, you truly do want to die?
12:23This mastermind ended his run in a straightforward brawl, overpowered by Will long enough for Eleven to impale him, then
12:30beheaded by Joyce.
12:31Clean, physical, conventional.
12:33Where is the army of Demo Dogs and Demo Gorgons that have been swarming all season?
12:37What about Vecna's merge with the mind flayer, something that should have been a terrifying escalation?
12:42Yes, the heroes were always going to win, but how they win shouldn't belittle what the show spent years establishing.
12:47A villain defined by psychological warfare deserved a defeat that matched that register.
12:52Instead, Vecna barely put up a fight.
12:54We're not afraid of you.
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13:29Number 1, Cersei Lannister, Game of Thrones.
13:33From blowing up the Sept of Baelor to orchestrating Ned Stark's execution and eliminating anyone who stood between her and
13:39the Iron Throne, Cersei Lannister was the villain we love to hate.
13:42When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die.
13:47There is no middle ground.
13:48For eight seasons, she made cruelty an art form, destroying her enemies while rarely getting her own hands dirty.
13:54The show understood what made her compelling, and for years, used it brilliantly.
13:59Yet, when her end finally arrived, the woman who had weaponized fear, betrayal, and murder was handed the gentlest exit
14:06imaginable.
14:06Yes, death in the arms of the very man she loved as the Red Keep collapsed around them.
14:11Nothing else matters.
14:16Nothing else matters.
14:18Only us.
14:19What was the show trying to say?
14:21That after everything Daenerys did, she deserved a brutal death, while Cersei got a seemingly romantic one?
14:26For a woman who caused so much suffering, fans wanted consequences.
14:30Instead, Cersei died frightened and heartbroken.
14:33But without the reckoning, her eight-season reign of terror seemed to demand.
14:36It was painfully unfair.
14:38Which death was the most unsatisfying?
14:40Let us know in the comments.