I'm gonna go ahead and vote "other" as my favorite is the dwarf from the KQ2 AGDI remake (he's also featured in KQ1).
Also, "Dracula", or rather Count Caldaur is in the remake not a villain. Well he is at first technically, but I wouldn't classify him as a bad guy.
I have to go with what's probably a conventional answer: Mordack.
You have to find and infiltrate his castle. You see your beloved family suffering in that glass jar ("Tears come to Graham's eyes..."). The art and music associated with him and his castle are great. Once you got to that last part of the game, the menace of Mordack was pervasive, yet I don't remember him having much screen-time until the very end. Manannan and Alhazred were more familiar as you played which gave them a different kind of villain-ness quality for me.
Mordack was probably the most archetypal 'Villain' (along with Alhazred) with the self-satisfied villainy and metaphorical mustache twirling, but I always found Manannan to be the better villain, both in KQ3 and as a cat. This is mostly because taking him down is so gratifying after he torments you, which I think is what makes a great video game villain as opposed to a literary one.
KQ5 is my favourite but I have to go with Manannan. Mordack is indeed powerful and ominous. But Manannan is pure evil in every conceivable way and has been for years, considering his look. Mordack, while intimidating, just comes off as kind of a child with power who has tantrums. The much more "emotionally unreserved little brother". Not on his own, but compared to Manannan.
KQ5 is my favourite but I have to go with Manannan. Mordack is indeed powerful and ominous. But Manannan is pure evil in every conceivable way and has been for years, considering his look. Mordack, while intimidating, just comes off as kind of a child with power who has tantrums. The much more "emotionally unreserved little brother". Not on his own, but compared to Manannan.
Actually, Mordack's motive too isn't all that evil per se. He obviously cares for his brother and wants him turned back to human form.
Whereas Manannan is just plain evil, a sadistic, human hating evil wizard who gets joy out of kidnapping, imprisoning and punishing young boys and killing them at eighteen, with no remorse, sympathy or pity. He kidnaps boys simply because he can. Simply because he hates mankind. The KQ3 manual says he looked with delight upon the dragon ravaging the world of Daventry. He's just plain evil, same with Lolotte.
Malicia is a cool villain, one of those "villains you love to hate" ala Disney--perfectly captured. No Disney villains are truly scary and you can actually kind of like their character--in a "wow, this is funnily evil Villain". She reminds me of a female version of Jafar.
Abdul is like a more sophisticated version of Manannan. Less outrightly evil, more subtle, a real snake. Intelligent, cunning, and sometimes funny. He's effete, but in a classical villain sort of way. An arrogant villain who thinks he's all that, probably in love with himself. He's kind of like a darker, more developed Disney villain. I love his comment to Shamir about knocking like everybody else when Shamir just pops in. I can relate to Abdul on that one.
Lolotte has that Disney villain quality to her, even though her persona is kind of disturbing. But she's so based on the Witch on Wizard of Oz it's not even funny. I love her though, she's great. Pure evil to the core...Although, she does seem to genuinely love Edgar.
You left out the nastiest villain of them all. Genesta! Now hear me out! I know most of you are wondering that I'm talking about. 'Genesta isn't bad!' you're all thinking. But I think she is sort of a jerk. Let's be honest here. King Graham is about to die from a heart attack. Genesta sees Rosella crying. She takes Rosella to Tamir to save her father. But wait! There are strings attached. Rosella has to save Genesta from dying. Okay, fair enough! However, after Rosella defeats Lolleta, she had better taken the fruit before seeing Genesta or her father is screwed. Oh yes, I remember the bad ending. Basically Genesta says, "thanks for saving me, but you didn't get the fruit. Sucks for you." Granted, she didn't use those same exact words, but it was close. Tell me, why couldn't have Genesta just transported Rosella to the fruit? She is magical. She was able to transport you out of Daventry and so forth. She could fly over or transport herself to the magic fruit tree? Obviously Genesta is a narcissist. One of the tendencies of a narcissist is to look helpful to others, but are really using them for their own means, their own ends. That's what Genesta is. And for that, and putting on a sickly sweet facade, acting all innocent, when in truth has ulterior motives, Genesta is one of the nastiest and evil villains of them all.
I'm going with Alhazred, and then Mordack and Mannanann tied for second. I know Mordack didn't torture a village, but I doubt he stayed at his big fortress making pies for friends. He had to be doing something evil with all those books and magic. Plus he kidnapped Cassima and made her his slave.
You left out the nastiest villain of them all. Genesta! Now hear me out! I know most of you are wondering that I'm talking about. 'Genesta isn't bad!' you're all thinking. But I think she is sort of a jerk. Let's be honest here. King Graham is about to die from a heart attack. Genesta sees Rosella crying. She takes Rosella to Tamir to save her father. But wait! There are strings attached. Rosella has to save Genesta from dying. Okay, fair enough! However, after Rosella defeats Lolleta, she had better taken the fruit before seeing Genesta or her father is screwed. Oh yes, I remember the bad ending. Basically Genesta says, "thanks for saving me, but you didn't get the fruit. Sucks for you." Granted, she didn't use those same exact words, but it was close. Tell me, why couldn't have Genesta just transported Rosella to the fruit? She is magical. She was able to transport you out of Daventry and so forth. She could fly over or transport herself to the magic fruit tree? Obviously Genesta is a narcissist. One of the tendencies of a narcissist is to look helpful to others, but are really using them for their own means, their own ends. That's what Genesta is. And for that, and putting on a sickly sweet facade, acting all innocent, when in truth has ulterior motives, Genesta is one of the nastiest and evil villains of them all.
You have to remember, she was still pretty weak at that point... She had only just regained her amulet, and was regaining her powers... Also Rosella only had minutes at that point to save her father... 24 hours had already passed... Graham like Genesta only had about 24 hours to live... So by the time you save Genesta, the time to save Graham was pretty much all up... As is explained in the game, Genesta knew he was almost dead, so she gives Rosella the chance to spend that last few moments of his life. Otherwise, in the time taken (few minutes) to get the fruit (if she was capable of doing that, assuming she had fully regained her powers enough to do that), and then return Rosella back to daventry, Graham would have already died...
My favorite villain is Alhazred.... He is the most well thought out, as far as motivations, and personality...
My second is probably Mordack... But you barely get to see him, but he has clear motivations and personality, but I like the magic duo you have with him in the end...
My third favorite is probably Lucreto... Basically the Connor is kicking 'Lucifer's' butt back into Hell... He is pure evil incarnate (a fallen angel and god-like being)... There is quite a bit of symbolism surrounding him, he's pretty well developed, and his motives are clear. Unfortunately, you don't get to see much of him throughout the game...
Fourth is probably Lolotte... She is also probably the second scariest villain. She has a pretty well developed role, and motivations... She is used extensively, pushing the story along. Her interactions with Rosella, and Edgar are well done...
My fifth is Manannan... He's probably the scariest villain, but he has a pretty limited role, even if you count his appearance in KQ5. He doesn't have much of a personality, unless you count 'zap' (as far as him trying to kill you), and evil scowl (description) as much of a personality...
Dracula, is perhaps my sixth, he doesn't have much of a character or personality, but hey you can kill him! He is connected to several other characters in the world... Who know of him, or mention him, or warn about him! That makes him somewhat more compelling than Dahlia! But he didn't get mention in written manual story...
Dahlia... About as compelling as Dracula.... Ya, they serve the same role as the token villain that can be killed... That at least makes her more compelling than Hagatha... But then again, she isn't really mentioned by anyone else in the game world... Everything you know about her in the game, is limited to the area around her Gingerbread house... She only has one motivation, to turn you into a cookie... The games don't even tie her into the motivations of stealing the magic chest... Infact, if there wasn't anything to connect the witch to being Dahlia in other sources, one might think the witch was just another generic gingerbread witch...
Hagatha... If you didn't read the manual, she is kinda of pointless... No noticeable motivation in the game... Dracula is the more compelling of the two villains... While the manual story tried to shoehorn her more directly into the plot... Roberta didn't actually use her much in the game... She is about involved as the random encounters in KQ1 (sorcerer, wolf, dwarf, etc)... She is made somewhat more compelling in official spinoff material... But not by much... On one hand, with spinoff material taken into consideration, I like her better than Dahlia and Dracula.... Without those motivations, I find Dracula and Dahlia more interesting....
Malicia.... Eh one of my least favorite... She's kinda of overly silly...and annoying... Since she's in my least favorite KQ game, that doesn't help me like her any more... Sure she probably had one of the most well developed motivations as far as being a villiain, and certainly has a developed personality... But her motivations are all kinda silly... She is the least scary of the villains... She is the only villain that you can 'redeem' in the series....
This was sort of hard.. because none of the baddies really stand out for me... none of them hold a candle to the likes of LeChuck ... but Manannan did sufficiently gave me an uneasy feeling when I first played KQ3 so he got my vote..
I think one thing that makes Alhazred unique as a villain, is he is a villain you learn about in a previous King's Quest game (aka 'The Vizier')... Then he shows up in a sequel...
It wasn't something that was done before or since in a KQ game...
Ya I know that Shadrack was mentioned in KQ6, but Roberta apparently never had the intent to bring him back in her games....
Manannan is unique from the perspective that he is the only 'reoccuring' villain, appearing in two official games.
The biggest villain(s) in the King Quest's series ar obviously the stairs WITHOUT rails.
So many accidental deaths in KQ3&4 because of no damn rails >_>
The worst stairs without rails are in the SEGA port of KQ1... You can't even get out of the Leprechaun's throne room to get to the small hole, without going up one of those dangerous stairs!
Actually stairs without rails are an indication of how klutzy and uncordinated, the people of Daventry are!
Even Connor can die from Stairs without rails! But he has the added threat of 'falling into lava' or 'spikes', or 'fire', or bottomless pits, while traversing stairs without rails! They are everywhere! Clearly another nod to King's Quest themes!
It wouldn't be a KQ game without some stairs without rails! Oh, wait were there any stairs without rails in KQ6 and KQ7?
There is only one in KQ5, and that's on Mordack's Island near the beach (unless you count some of the areas in the mountains, but they technically aren't 'stairs')...
Also technically, the only stairs without rails in KQ3, is the Door into Mountain? Unless you want to count the treacherous mountain paths (though those arguably aren't stairs)...
I hated the mountain path in KQ3! It's bad enough you gotta rush home before Mannanan, but it made it worse with annoying mountain rocks blocking the view of the path.
Also technically, the only stairs without rails in KQ3, is the Door into Mountain? Unless you want to count the treacherous mountain paths (though those arguably aren't stairs)...
I also count the stairs to Mannanan's secret basement
Oh, wait were there any stairs without rails in KQ6 and KQ7?
KQ6 does not have stairs without rails, but it does have the cliffs of logic, where if you don't click exactly on the brick you fall. And iirc, falling from anywhere above the first screen is death.
Oh we've got something even better--are you forgetting crossing the Glass Mountains?
The mountains that enjoys, drawing blood, and slicing the living to pieces (and require special gnome equipment to keep from slipping)... Could have some rather graphic and gory death scenes there!
"KQ6 does not have stairs without rails, but it does have the cliffs of logic, where if you don't click exactly on the brick you fall. And iirc, falling from anywhere above the first screen is death.
This is true, but it feels different to me than the 'navigating' one had to do with maze-like paths (Manannan's mountains/snowy mountain cliffs/beanstalk/whaletongue/poison plants (without sugar)/path to Lolotte's castle, etc) or the staircases in the earlier games. It's all point and click (no manual navigating along a connected 'path'), and its very easy to get up on your own safely... You pretty much have to go out of your way to 'misclick'.
The stairs in the earlier games and maze-like paths, often required challenging navigating, and changing direction manually (many of the stairs were 'circular' or at least made one or two turns requiring several changes in direction)... Your character would keep on walking in one direction, at a pretty fast pace, if you weren't careful you could fall off or over compensate and fall off/poison yourself, etc. Or the mazes were invisible or semi obscured (whale tongue/beanstalk)...
KQ6 does not have stairs without rails, but it does have the cliffs of logic, where if you don't click exactly on the brick you fall. And iirc, falling from anywhere above the first screen is death.
If I remember, doesn't Alexander tell you to quit it, if you make him fall three times?
You have to remember, she was still pretty weak at that point... She had only just regained her amulet, and was regaining her powers... Also Rosella only had minutes at that point to save her father... 24 hours had already passed... Graham like Genesta only had about 24 hours to live... So by the time you save Genesta, the time to save Graham was pretty much all up... As is explained in the game, Genesta knew he was almost dead, so she gives Rosella the chance to spend that last few moments of his life. Otherwise, in the time taken (few minutes) to get the fruit (if she was capable of doing that, assuming she had fully regained her powers enough to do that), and then return Rosella back to daventry, Graham would have already died...
That still doesn't make sense to me. She knows you have a few minutes to say goodbye to him, but she can't transport herself to the tree, pick a piece of fruit, and bring it to Graham for all the good work you did. Obviously she wasn't too weak to transport you back to Daventry, to the castle to be precise, but she couldn't transport to the tree and get a piece of fruit. Yes, I know I'm playing Devil's Advocate, but it's an aspect of the game that has always bothered me.
KQ6 does not have stairs without rails, but it does have the cliffs of logic, where if you don't click exactly on the brick you fall. And iirc, falling from anywhere above the first screen is death.
Mods please remove this post. It's pointing out a possible design flaw in KQ6, and any critiques of Jane Jensen cannot be tolerated.
That still doesn't make sense to me. She knows you have a few minutes to say goodbye to him, but she can't transport herself to the tree, pick a piece of fruit, and bring it to Graham for all the good work you did. Obviously she wasn't too weak to transport you back to Daventry, to the castle to be precise, but she couldn't transport to the tree and get a piece of fruit. Yes, I know I'm playing Devil's Advocate, but it's an aspect of the game that has always bothered me.
If she only had enough time, energy and power to send Rosella to one place (that is only enough 'mana' to cast the transport spell only once), then the choice would be get fruit (but father would already be dead by the time she returned), or be sent home and see her father die (without the fruit)...
In general the way 'transport' spells work in fantasy, it doesn't really matter if you were transported 5 blocks away, or 500 miles. The same spell 'cost' applies .
And this is purely tongue planted in cheek, but in many of the MMOs, it seems you have to wait 30 minutes to an hour before you can cast a teleport spell again . It's not something you can abuse over and over again in span of a few minutes ...
Comments
Also, "Dracula", or rather Count Caldaur is in the remake not a villain. Well he is at first technically, but I wouldn't classify him as a bad guy.
You have to find and infiltrate his castle. You see your beloved family suffering in that glass jar ("Tears come to Graham's eyes..."). The art and music associated with him and his castle are great. Once you got to that last part of the game, the menace of Mordack was pervasive, yet I don't remember him having much screen-time until the very end. Manannan and Alhazred were more familiar as you played which gave them a different kind of villain-ness quality for me.
Actually, Mordack's motive too isn't all that evil per se. He obviously cares for his brother and wants him turned back to human form.
Whereas Manannan is just plain evil, a sadistic, human hating evil wizard who gets joy out of kidnapping, imprisoning and punishing young boys and killing them at eighteen, with no remorse, sympathy or pity. He kidnaps boys simply because he can. Simply because he hates mankind. The KQ3 manual says he looked with delight upon the dragon ravaging the world of Daventry. He's just plain evil, same with Lolotte.
Malicia is a cool villain, one of those "villains you love to hate" ala Disney--perfectly captured. No Disney villains are truly scary and you can actually kind of like their character--in a "wow, this is funnily evil Villain". She reminds me of a female version of Jafar.
Abdul is like a more sophisticated version of Manannan. Less outrightly evil, more subtle, a real snake. Intelligent, cunning, and sometimes funny. He's effete, but in a classical villain sort of way. An arrogant villain who thinks he's all that, probably in love with himself. He's kind of like a darker, more developed Disney villain. I love his comment to Shamir about knocking like everybody else when Shamir just pops in. I can relate to Abdul on that one.
Lolotte has that Disney villain quality to her, even though her persona is kind of disturbing. But she's so based on the Witch on Wizard of Oz it's not even funny. I love her though, she's great. Pure evil to the core...Although, she does seem to genuinely love Edgar.
You have to remember, she was still pretty weak at that point... She had only just regained her amulet, and was regaining her powers... Also Rosella only had minutes at that point to save her father... 24 hours had already passed... Graham like Genesta only had about 24 hours to live... So by the time you save Genesta, the time to save Graham was pretty much all up... As is explained in the game, Genesta knew he was almost dead, so she gives Rosella the chance to spend that last few moments of his life. Otherwise, in the time taken (few minutes) to get the fruit (if she was capable of doing that, assuming she had fully regained her powers enough to do that), and then return Rosella back to daventry, Graham would have already died...
My second is probably Mordack... But you barely get to see him, but he has clear motivations and personality, but I like the magic duo you have with him in the end...
My third favorite is probably Lucreto... Basically the Connor is kicking 'Lucifer's' butt back into Hell... He is pure evil incarnate (a fallen angel and god-like being)... There is quite a bit of symbolism surrounding him, he's pretty well developed, and his motives are clear. Unfortunately, you don't get to see much of him throughout the game...
Fourth is probably Lolotte... She is also probably the second scariest villain. She has a pretty well developed role, and motivations... She is used extensively, pushing the story along. Her interactions with Rosella, and Edgar are well done...
My fifth is Manannan... He's probably the scariest villain, but he has a pretty limited role, even if you count his appearance in KQ5. He doesn't have much of a personality, unless you count 'zap' (as far as him trying to kill you), and evil scowl (description) as much of a personality...
Dracula, is perhaps my sixth, he doesn't have much of a character or personality, but hey you can kill him! He is connected to several other characters in the world... Who know of him, or mention him, or warn about him! That makes him somewhat more compelling than Dahlia! But he didn't get mention in written manual story...
Dahlia... About as compelling as Dracula.... Ya, they serve the same role as the token villain that can be killed... That at least makes her more compelling than Hagatha... But then again, she isn't really mentioned by anyone else in the game world... Everything you know about her in the game, is limited to the area around her Gingerbread house... She only has one motivation, to turn you into a cookie... The games don't even tie her into the motivations of stealing the magic chest... Infact, if there wasn't anything to connect the witch to being Dahlia in other sources, one might think the witch was just another generic gingerbread witch...
Hagatha... If you didn't read the manual, she is kinda of pointless... No noticeable motivation in the game... Dracula is the more compelling of the two villains... While the manual story tried to shoehorn her more directly into the plot... Roberta didn't actually use her much in the game... She is about involved as the random encounters in KQ1 (sorcerer, wolf, dwarf, etc)... She is made somewhat more compelling in official spinoff material... But not by much... On one hand, with spinoff material taken into consideration, I like her better than Dahlia and Dracula.... Without those motivations, I find Dracula and Dahlia more interesting....
Malicia.... Eh one of my least favorite... She's kinda of overly silly...and annoying... Since she's in my least favorite KQ game, that doesn't help me like her any more... Sure she probably had one of the most well developed motivations as far as being a villiain, and certainly has a developed personality... But her motivations are all kinda silly... She is the least scary of the villains... She is the only villain that you can 'redeem' in the series....
Bt
After seeing some of the Fan Games, I can see their point somewhat...
It wasn't something that was done before or since in a KQ game...
Ya I know that Shadrack was mentioned in KQ6, but Roberta apparently never had the intent to bring him back in her games....
Manannan is unique from the perspective that he is the only 'reoccuring' villain, appearing in two official games.
So many accidental deaths in KQ3&4 because of no damn rails >_>
Actually stairs without rails are an indication of how klutzy and uncordinated, the people of Daventry are!
Even Connor can die from Stairs without rails! But he has the added threat of 'falling into lava' or 'spikes', or 'fire', or bottomless pits, while traversing stairs without rails! They are everywhere! Clearly another nod to King's Quest themes!
It wouldn't be a KQ game without some stairs without rails! Oh, wait were there any stairs without rails in KQ6 and KQ7?
There is only one in KQ5, and that's on Mordack's Island near the beach (unless you count some of the areas in the mountains, but they technically aren't 'stairs')...
Also technically, the only stairs without rails in KQ3, is the Door into Mountain? Unless you want to count the treacherous mountain paths (though those arguably aren't stairs)...
...and the basement....
I also count the stairs to Mannanan's secret basement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX0iMI-wl0k
Bt
Oh we've got something even better--are you forgetting crossing the Glass Mountains?
KQ6 does not have stairs without rails, but it does have the cliffs of logic, where if you don't click exactly on the brick you fall. And iirc, falling from anywhere above the first screen is death.
The mountains that enjoys, drawing blood, and slicing the living to pieces (and require special gnome equipment to keep from slipping)... Could have some rather graphic and gory death scenes there!
This is true, but it feels different to me than the 'navigating' one had to do with maze-like paths (Manannan's mountains/snowy mountain cliffs/beanstalk/whaletongue/poison plants (without sugar)/path to Lolotte's castle, etc) or the staircases in the earlier games. It's all point and click (no manual navigating along a connected 'path'), and its very easy to get up on your own safely... You pretty much have to go out of your way to 'misclick'.
The stairs in the earlier games and maze-like paths, often required challenging navigating, and changing direction manually (many of the stairs were 'circular' or at least made one or two turns requiring several changes in direction)... Your character would keep on walking in one direction, at a pretty fast pace, if you weren't careful you could fall off or over compensate and fall off/poison yourself, etc. Or the mazes were invisible or semi obscured (whale tongue/beanstalk)...
If I remember, doesn't Alexander tell you to quit it, if you make him fall three times?
That still doesn't make sense to me. She knows you have a few minutes to say goodbye to him, but she can't transport herself to the tree, pick a piece of fruit, and bring it to Graham for all the good work you did. Obviously she wasn't too weak to transport you back to Daventry, to the castle to be precise, but she couldn't transport to the tree and get a piece of fruit. Yes, I know I'm playing Devil's Advocate, but it's an aspect of the game that has always bothered me.
Mods please remove this post. It's pointing out a possible design flaw in KQ6, and any critiques of Jane Jensen cannot be tolerated.
If she only had enough time, energy and power to send Rosella to one place (that is only enough 'mana' to cast the transport spell only once), then the choice would be get fruit (but father would already be dead by the time she returned), or be sent home and see her father die (without the fruit)...
In general the way 'transport' spells work in fantasy, it doesn't really matter if you were transported 5 blocks away, or 500 miles. The same spell 'cost' applies
And this is purely tongue planted in cheek, but in many of the MMOs, it seems you have to wait 30 minutes to an hour before you can cast a teleport spell again