Film
Anton Chigurh
No Country for Old Men · 2007
Violence with a rulebook nobody else can read
Threat index 81
Slasher · TV
Ramsay Bolton
The show's answer to the question of how much worse it could get
Attribute scores
Power58
Intellect66
Menace82
Fear factor88
Cultural impact74
Charisma56
Editorial estimates on a 0–100 scale, calibrated against every other character in the index. Not official canon.
Who they are
Ramsay is a legitimized bastard who hunts people for sport and is genuinely delighted by his own creativity. Unlike most of the series' antagonists he has no political philosophy and no long game; he is a sadist who was handed soldiers. He is the villain the series clearly wanted the audience to want dead, and it made his defeat unusually satisfying.
Defining traits
Recreational crueltySkilled tactician in short engagementsHunting dogsInsecurity about legitimacyGenuine unpredictability
What makes them dangerous
He holds the North, and surrendering to him is measurably worse than fighting him.
And what undoes them
Arrogance and a total inability to imagine losing, which he does, badly.
Things you might not know
- Rheon originally auditioned for the role of Jon Snow.
- The character is significantly less prominent in the novels, where much of his cruelty happens off the page.
- Showrunners have acknowledged that several of his storylines drew the strongest negative viewer response of the series.
Why number 11 in Best on TV
Effective precisely because he has no philosophy at all. He was written to be hated and the show never asked for sympathy.
Why number 17 in Scariest
The series' answer to how much worse things could get, and it kept answering. Surrendering to him is measurably worse than fighting.
If you like this villain
Film
Norman Bates
Psycho · 1960
The nervous young man who invented the modern horror villain
Threat index 70
Film