10 TV Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won
Most stories end with the hero saving the day and vanquishing the villain - how terribly boring.
TV shows have the benefit of being able to flesh out characters in a way that no movie can hope to rival. This benefits the audience as we receive much more nuanced portrayals of both protagonists and antagonists. Basically, it's much easier to take a villain seriously when their motivation isn't something two dimensional like 'stealing all of the money' or 'firing a nuclear missile at the moon'.
A good villain will often outshine the hero and tend to have more to do with the evolution of a narrative through their actions. Our obsession with the dark side has become increasingly clear - these days it's hard to name a protagonist who doesn't have either a mysterious terrible secret or a flat out personality disorder.
However, like all forms of narrative media, television can be predictable in its storytelling. While the villain may have the majority of a season to flex their nefarious muscle/intellect, the hero must be given a chance to triumph. Or at least that's how it seems at first.
In fact, there are ways to get around this - the baddie may get their comeuppance but if written correctly the effects of their actions should linger. There are more ways to 'win' than standing over the hero's lifeless body. So let's look at villains who came out on top. It may not be evident at first glance, but whether the victory is moral, ideological or literal - the following entries celebrate examples of where evil has prevailed.
10. Joffrey Baratheon - Game Of Thrones
Who could have guessed that a sneering, meglomanic, Aryan child of incest would make for such a convincing villain? Born of Lannister lovin', Joffrey succeeds his 'father' Robert to become a king more concerned with mutilating prostitutes than ruling the Seven Kingdoms.
In the end his crazy behaviour does lead to an embarrassing incident with food at his wedding (awkward!) but not before he is able to satisfy the psycho killer's fun-time checklist. His most heinous crime, aside from being a total wang - was, by unanimous decision, ordering the execution of Eddard Stark.
Apart from fulfilling Sean Bean's cast-iron death clause, this is where - despite his supreme incompetence - Joffrey made a decision which the realm is still reeling from, especially the north (at least until The Winds Of Winter comes out). His act of heartless, cackling villainy set in motion the events that would bring us multiple Stark tragedies like the Red Wedding, Jon Snow's surprise party and Sansa acting as a damsel-shaped lightning rod for punishment.
He may have lost the Game of Thrones (let's be honest who hasn't by this point?), but it was on his orders that the Direwolf's head was removed and even now it's few remaining limbs are twitching aimlessly - with no resolution and little in the way of direction.