10 Best Video Game Villains Of The Decade

2. Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2)

Borderlands handsome jack
Gearbox Software

You knew he was gonna be here, we knew he was gonna be here, there was never any question that Handsome Jack - the original sh*tlord antagonist that would birth a whole generation of baddies who have nothing better to do than to call you at random times and talk at you - would appear on this list.

Handsome Jack is what happens when a bodysnatcher replaces Elon Musk, and then falls into the same chemicals that created the Joker. He's arrogant, sociopathic, so far up his own ass that he can count how much corn he had last night on the walls of his rectum, and loving every. Last. Second of it. All while being utterly convinced that he's the good guy of this story.

His backstory is a bit too complicated to get into here, but suffice it to say that he's got issues. To the point where he turns his daughter into the captive disembodied voice that helps you throughout Borderlands 2, but will brutally and personally murder you if you so much as mention his wife. Killing him is one of the deepest pleasures in this entire game, and yet you almost miss him when he's gone. Not by much, obviously, as that colonizing crock of sh*t can rot for all we care.

But it's hard not to love a guy who creates and then buys a horse made of diamonds...just to call it Butt Stallion.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?