Rank these legendary on-screen villains

Vader is obviously #1. The rest can be flip flopped.

Hmmm

1) Vader
2) Joker
3) Goeth
4) Anton
5) Bates
6) Lector (by default since he isn't the villain in that movie)

1. Vader
2. Lector
3. Joker
4. Bates
5. Chigurh
6. Goeth

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In the context of the film, I agree with you. But who do people remember the most from that movie? Buffalo Bill or Hannibal Lector?

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I'm not really concerned with either the inability to recognize narrative structure or the incorrect memory of random people who watched the film

Of course the answer is Lector, but it isn't a correct answer to the context of the OP's inquiry.

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I'm not really concerned with either the inability to recognize narrative structure or the incorrect memory of random people who watched the film

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That's great that you're not. But in the context of my post you are wrong as I believe the word "legendary" was used.

Webster defines the word legendary as "told about in legend" or "very famous or well-known."

So, once again, who do people remember more from The Silence of the Lambs: Buffalo Bill or Hannibal Lecter? Narratively-speaking you are 100% correct, Buffalo Bill is the main villain in The Silence of the Lambs. But he's hardly legendary...which is a stipulation in my OP.

This is probably 2 solids lists. Vader by far is the most iconic villain in this discussion

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I'd take being canibalized quickly by Hannibal than locked in Buffalo Bill's basement for a month or so and then be worn around as a jock strap any day of the week.

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Hannibal Lector cut off a dudes skull, cooked his brain and ate it in front of the dude while he was alive

Yeah but he did it humanely

Dr. Evil and Big Ernie McCracken belong atop this list.

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That's great that you're not. But in the context of my post you are wrong as I believe the word "legendary" was used.

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How am I wrong?

So you're saying that if one character is "remembered more" than the other character then the more remembered character is the villain?

Function of characters within a narrative has nothing to do with popularity or "memory." It has to do with how the story is structured.

Lector is a villain in the loosest sense of the word in that he is a character with somewhat malicious intent. THat's about it. Does that make him evil? Of course. Does it make him THE villain of the film? No.

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So, once again, who do people remember more from The Silence of the Lambs: Buffalo Bill or Hannibal Lecter? Narratively-speaking you are 100% correct, Buffalo Bill is the main villain in The Silence of the Lambs. But he's hardly legendary...which is a stipulation in my OP.

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It doesn't matter who people remember more. What matters is what the artists were trying to achieve. In that sense, it was actually to make a "villainous" person like Lector actually useful to the heroes.

If your post was

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Rank these legendary on-screen evil characters

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Then you'd need both a different list and you might have a point.

Or you can change it to

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Hannibal Lector, Manhunter

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