Villains

There are several stories that could be looked at easily enough as actually the stories of the villain: Star Wars could be said to be the story of Palpatine, and his rise and fall. Lord of the Rings is named after the villain of the story, Sauron, and it his actions which cause all other characters to react. Jaws was really about the shark, man.

Ben, from Lost, is one of my favorite villains ever, perhaps the favorite. First, and most obvious, because of the discrepancy between his physical stature/appearance and the viciousness of his actions/mind. Also, the back and forth between calm/polite and evil beyond belief is jarring. I can not think of many other villains who are so unassumingly terrifying - Kayser Soze from The Usual Suspects comes to mind, and that's it. Palpatine, a bit, but he's all wizardy under the robes and quite powerful, whereas Ben has no "superpowers" other than supreme cunning. And maybe some visions of the future.

Another awesome thing about Ben: Throughout the show, he's claimed he's the good guy. And while we've seen him lie/kill/deceive/destroy/etc, it still could be true that he is the good guy, given the nature of this tale. Widmore might be worse, Dharma might be worse, Jacob or the Man in Black might be worse. Who knows - fun fact: We really don't yet know who the ultimate villain is in Lost. Which is awesome.