Many villains are just as beloved as the heroes they oppose, and like any character, they can be ruined by one bad storyline. When a plot element is introduced that doesn’t do a villain justice or contrasts with how they have acted in the series so far, it is recognized as bad writing. Villains range from morally gray to completely remorseless but are always a thorn in the protagonist’s side. Storylines that turn a villain into an easily defeated obstacle can ruin a show.
TV writers have to juggle a number of logistical concerns outside the plot, like a certain actor leaving the show. Sometimes, bad writing surrounding a villain is just that they were killed in an implausible way, while other times it is more than that. In some cases, it would have been better for the story if the character had remained an irredeemable villain, rather than the writers making them sympathetic.
10 Dexter (Dexter: New Blood)
Violates the Code of Harry.
Serial killer Dexter Morgan is arrested in the series finale of Dexter: New Blood. Dexter has always had a personal code about who he kills. However, when Dexter kills Sgt. Logan in the finale so he can escape prison, he violates this code by killing an innocent person. While Dexter has killed innocent people before, it would have been more enthralling to see him cleverly escape prison another way. Logan’s murder was not about Dexter’s character as much as it was a setup for Harrison to suddenly kill his father to avenge Logan.
9 Sylvie (Loki)
Sylvie’s final trick didn’t live up to her others.
Sylvie is a rogue variant of Loki from another timeline, who cleverly evades the Time Variance Authority (TVA) for many years. In season 1, she has endless tricks up her sleeves to get what she wants. However, Sylvie kissing Loki to get past him to kill Kang, a.k.a. He Who Remains, is a bad use of their romantic subplot. Sylvie’s commitment to destroying the TVA is vital to her character, but she is smart enough to have gotten there in a more interesting way. Yet the division between Sylvie and Loki only deepens in season 2, suggesting that her manipulation of him may have been inevitable.
8 Villanelle (Killing Eve)
Villanelle should not have been so easy to kill.
Jodie Comer’s Villanelle is a skilled, ruthless assassin who has a complex relationship with Sandra Oh’s Eve. In the series finale, minutes before the screen goes dark, Villanelle is shot several times by a sniper and dies. Writer Laura Neal said (via TVLine), “We couldn’t imagine a world where Eve and Villanelle could exist in domestic bliss for very long.” While this may be true, a highly-trained assassin like Villanelle who can fight many assailants at once could have been given a more dignified death than being shot unawares.
7 Lady Featherington (Bridgerton)
Are we supposed to sympathize with Lady Featherington?
Lady Portia Featherington is an unlikable social climber, who wants to secure the most advantageous matches for her three daughters. She is also generally hostile towards the Bridgerton family. She becomes desperate when she discovers that the Featherington fortune is gone. Every time her plans to regain her wealth and status go awry, it is confusing. Are the viewers supposed to feel bad for her? Lady Featherington would have been a more effective character if she had remained the show’s resident manipulative socialite.
6 Katherine Pierce (The Vampire Diaries)
Katherine’s return could have been handled better.
Katherine Pierce is an amazing villain, more sassy and ruthless than anyone else in The Vampire Diaries. While a final appearance from her for the finale was in order, the way the show does it is awkward. Katherine has apparently endeared herself to Cade, the show’s version of the devil. Therefore she inherits hell from him after he is killed by the Salvatores and their allies. It would have made more sense for her to have quietly escaped hell and returned to scheming in the shadows. Katherine’s wit and determination have always been enough to wreak havoc before.
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The Vampire Diaries have had a variety of interestingly evil villains over its eight-season run, but who had the evilest plan of them all?
5 Gossip Girl/Dan Humphrey (Gossip Girl)
The Gossip Girl reveal didn’t make any sense.
Gossip Girl ends with the reveal that Dan Humphrey is Gossip Girl, the anonymous blogger who publishes the darkest secrets of the main cast online. Except Gossip Girl has previously revealed many of Dan’s own secrets. This can be interpreted as Dan putting himself in the line of fire to misdirect the other characters, or the writers introducing an intentional red herring to misdirect the audience. Overall, the reveal is a forced plot twist that destroys the mystery of Gossip Girl and doesn’t make sense for Dan’s character.
4 Cersei Lannister (Game Of Thrones)
A ruthless character deserves a ruthless ending.
Even if the showrunners were committed to Daenerys Targaryen destroying King’s Landing, Cersei could have been given a better death scene. It would have been more satisfying if Arya Stark had found Cersei in the Red Keep and personally killed her, completing her famous list. Instead, Cersei is given a “romantic” reunion with Jaime despite their toxic relationship, and they are both killed as the Keep is destroyed. A lot of highly anticipated endings never came to fruition in the final season of Game of Thrones.
3 Grant Ward (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D)
Who is Coulson avenging anyway?
Grant Ward’s betrayal of Phil Coulson and the rest of the team is visceral and makes the second half of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1 terrifying yet thrilling to watch. Ward should have had one dramatic death scene, likely executed by Coulson or Melinda May. However, Ward’s death is dragged out when his body is subsequently possessed by Hive and the team has to kill him again.
Additionally, when Coulson kills the “real” Ward, he is not thinking of all the harm Ward has done his team. Coulton remembers Ward’s most recent kill, Rosalind Price, with whom Coulson had a brief romantic relationship. The flashbacks to her during Ward’s death scene make it look like the writers are forgetting all of his past crimes. Despite Coulson’s feelings for her, the audience is much more familiar with characters like Daisy and Fitz and Simmons than Price, and the buildup to Ward’s death should have been about them instead of her.
2 The Night King (Game Of Thrones)
Should have been killed by Jon Snow.
It was a letdown that the war between the living and the dead that all of Game of Thrones had been building to only includes one official battle. Additionally, Arya kills the Night King instead of her brother Jon Snow. Supposedly, Beric Dondarrion was resurrected numerous times because he had to live long enough to save Arya at the Battle of Winterfell, so she could kill the Night King. Ultimately, neither element served the story. Jon should have killed the Night King and Beric should have had a greater destiny to fulfill.
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10 TV Villains That Were Redeemed Way Too Easily
Whether a villain deserves redemption or not depends on the viewer. However, the arcs of some redeemed TV villains definitely deserve a closer look.
1 Sylar (Heroes)
Not all villains should be redeemed.
Played by Zachary Quinto, Sylar is a serial killer who is able to steal the powers of other superhumans. Sylar’s character is primarily ruined by his redemption arc, which did not take enough time to convince the audience that Sylar deserved to be redeemed. While the heroes might be desperate enough to trust someone like Sylar, it does not make sense for the story to frame him as a hero when he has killed many people without remorse. One of the most common ways to ruin a villain is to make them sympathetic when the writers should have just let them do what they do best: fight the heroes.
