Johnny Depp’s character Agent Sands in Once Upon A Time In Mexico MADE that movie. He was so twisted, but we were really rooting for him by the end. One of the best gunfight scenes ever!
A second for Tyrion Lannister! I only just got turned on to GRRM, but Tyrion’s possibly one of my favorite characters EVER.
I’m tempted to include Jaime as well. I got to like him a lot on his trip with Brienne. I really think she’d be better for him than that whole incestuous Cersei relationship…yeesh. That right there puts him in the running for appallingly morally depraved. At least Tyrion never slept with his sister…though the way he’s been looking at Sansa lately…
Can’t like Petyr, though. Can’t. I want him dead.
No one else voting for Withnail from Withnail & I? A drunken, lying, stealing bastard, but you totally want him to come out on top.
In the same vein, Sebastian Bullion Dangerfield from J. P. Donleavy’s The Ginger Man. In fact, pretty much every male protagonist from Donleavy.
And concerning Shakespeare, I never found Iago much fun (well, depending on who’s playing him), but I’d say one of the great archetypal lovable bastards has to be Falstaff. And by extension Norm Peterson, of course.
Yet another vote for Sir Harry Flashman
… and pretty much every role Peter Lorre ever played, especially Dr. Einstein in Arsenic and Old Lace
CEO Holt Fasner from Stephen R. Donaldsons Gap cycle.
“Only a moron wouldn’t cast his vote for Monty Burns.”
I also definitely agree with Tyrion Lannister, although I’d argue that he’s really not evil at all. He’s on the bad side, yes, but is he a bad man?
For an ambiguous, sometimes-evil-but-you-start-to-like-him character, I nominate Ser Sandor Clegane, the Hound.
Oh, and I also nominate Mandy, the sometimes-naked lesbian assassin from 24 
and Lobo and Deadpool and sigh Punisher! I loves me my anti-heroes.
What?
No Mandark or Squidward mentioned.
Sure, two completely different levels of anti-hero.
Mardark is always trying to take over the world with fiendish plots and defeating his arch enemy,**Dexter ** while wooing the fair Dee Dee and still get good grades in school. His laugh is killer.
Now, **Squidward ** isn’t your stark raving run of the mill sociopath. He openly loathes everyone: Mr. Crabbs, Spongebob, Patrick. Everyone. His weapon is not death, dismembering and bererking about with a machete, it is sarcasm.
He says with words what few could.
And he plays the clarinet like I did in 7th grade band.
Oh, and then there is the loveable **Walter Burns ** in His Girl Friday
He hires a thug to distract his exwife’s fiance, get the fiancee arrested for mashing, lie, cheat and bribe anyway he can to keep his ex-wife from leaving to marry that fiancee of hers and make her realize she’s making a big, big mistake marrying such a milque toast.
I love Walter Burns.
Oh, he’s not a bad man, but he can be despicable and morally depraved. I’d go into it, but that’d be spoily.
Oh, I agree, definitely. I’m trying to decide whether I want him dead or not. He deserves it, but the scenes with Sansa are really kind of heartbreaking.
Jacob Cullen from Maria McCann’s As Meat Loves Salt. He’s insane, violent, and heartbreakingly aware of his own evil. During the course of the book he…
… murders a boy, rapes his wife, almost rapes his boyfriend, almost beats another man to death for insulting his boyfriend, abandons his boyfriend, son and wife to beatings and degredation, and may have molested :eek: his own younger brother.
Servalan was also a great villain for not always making obvious mistakes. She was competent, ruthless, had set goals, and straightforward ways to pursue them, that didn’t tend to include issues about morality.
And she usually won.
Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo is a different type of villain - totally amoral but incompetent. I know someone who loathed the character so much she couldn’t watch William H. Macy in anything else for years afterwards.
Casanova Frankenstein. Ooooo, those eyes.
Captain Barbosssa. Yum.
And he was quite the babe in Quills, too.
Oh, yes, the Hound! He is the sh!t. Fierce and cynical and somewhat insane and violent and a drunkard, but also surprisingly gentle, intelligent, truthful, witty, and charismatic. Sandor is a big fan favorite and it’s not hard to see why. My favorite line from him is still this exchange with Sansa:
Sandor: There are no true heroes, any more than there are gods. If you can’t defend yourself, die and get out of the way of those who can. Strong arms and strong swords rule this world, don’t ever believe different.
Sansa: You’re awful.
Sandor: I’m honest. It’s the world that’s awful.
Pairing him up with Sansa was one of GRRM’s most brilliant ideas. The two really bring out fascinating facets of each other – if they’d never interacted I don’t think either would have been as interesting as they became. They’re such polar opposites that they spark off each other instinctively.
GRRM is the king of morally depraved characters. Jaime Lannister? He boffs his sister, throws a child out a window, lies to his brother, and murders the king he’s sworn to protect. Sandor Clegane? Murders a child, brains a girl on the head with his axe, murders and pillages and drinks too much. Daenerys Targaryen? Roasts a woman alive, crucifies people, and conquers cities. And yet you’ll love every one of them and root for them and get all teary at the thought of them dying.
Sandor better not die! Do you hear me GRRM? SANDOR BETTER NOT DIE!!!
Nobodys mentioned MAGNETO yet!
And Sandor’s got that soft spot for poor Sansa…I really, really want to see how that pans out. If it pans out.
Maybe he can rescue her from LF. I’m not sure what vibe I’m getting from him, whether it’s fatherly toward Sansa or…not fatherly…but I’m ready to brain him regardless.
Two pages in, and no one’s mentioned Tom Ripley yet? The Ripley of Patricia Highsmith’s novels doesn’t have even the dose of moral ambiguity of the movie version, and still it’s almost impossible not to root for him.
Another personal favorite is Hunter Rose, of Matt Wagner’s Grendel comic books. A child prodigy corrupted by an older lover during his formative years, he turns to violence in a ceaseless quest to alleviate his utter boredom and contempt for those around him. By day, he’s an elegant, successful novelist known for his romantic prose. At night, he is Grendel, an assassin-turned-organized-crime lord. The reader is never permitted to see inside his head, and we learn about him through the experiences of those he encounters. What we see is an utterly amoral, terrifying force of nature rather than a man. He is not motivated by money, or emotion, or other conventional sources, and as such he can not be bribed, persuaded, or dealt with by any ordinary mortals.
The Hunter Rose Grendel is unusual even amongst the diverse crew of morally ambiguous characters and antiheroes who populate my usual reading material. He lacks any reasonable shred of decency, and yet Matt Wagner doesn’t take the easy route of glorifying him or reveling in nihilism. He simply is, and what he is chills the heart of even the most hardened reader.
Yep, lots of examples from GRR Martin.
I would also have to say most of the Black Company from Glen Cook.
Hmm…Morden, Kefka, and Bun-Bun are all good choices, IMO.