Who are your most sympathetic villains?

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Do you mean Frankenstein or Frankenstein's monster?

The Cat Woman .

Nagato (aka Pain), from Naruto.

Hannibal Lektor. He is so cool and intelligent.

ruveyn

The monster.

THIS so much, also when Ramin Karimloo plays Erik/Phantom

Tywin Lannister-Game Of Thrones

Gollum/Smeagol until he became more Gollum at the end of Two Towers

I´d like to add Mother Squid from The Beast, I felt bad for her when she lost her kid

The Sandman (Spider-Man 3)

Cat from Zelazny's Eye of Cat. Also Billy Singer's Chindi from the same book. As antagonists, Cat who has lost everything just wants one last chance to be himself and hunts Billy and I totally get that. He's lost everything and due to his current predicament as being a zoo exhibit, has been forced to be different than what he knows he would have been, had he been left alone. I really feel for him, right up to the end. The Chindi because well, there really are few things worse than fighting yourself, especially the part that you've run away from your whole life. As someone who figuratively has to battle with things my past self has done, I like Chindi because well, I know what it's about. Thank god I don't have to actually fight a real literal version of what I run away from though.

Fenris from Norse Mythology. Yes he'll destroy all of creation when he's set free, but perhaps if he, oh you know, would have actually had parents that disciplined him as a child, then perhaps he wouldn't bring about the apocalypse. I feel for this guy because he is a product of his environment. Everything bad he will do or has done can be tied to other people f*****g up with raising him and they act like it's not their fault. If I could, I would punch Loki, Tyr, Odin, and the dwarves, and numerous other Norse deities in the face for what they've done to Fenris to allow him to get out of hand.
I also like Fenris from A. Lee Martinez's Chasing the Moon. Especially in how he leaves our layer of reality at the end after Diana gives him a good talking to. All it took was someone to talk to him, someone who gave a damn.

Megamind. Because Presentation.

Sympathetic Villains as in "they're cast as the bad guys, but I feel sympathy for them anyway"?

The Creature (Frankenstein)
Magneto (X-Men)
Khan (Star Trek: The Original Series "Space Seed" / The Wrath of Khan / Into Darkness)
Mephistopheles (Dr Faustus)
Most of the recurring villains from Disney's Gargoyles. That show was a miracle in that way -- nearly all of the villains had multi-facetted personalities and motives that went beyond "I want to rule the woooooorld muhahaha". That was really rare in children's television at the time.
Some of the 'career' tributes from the Hunger Games

Following behind Anakin/Vader, I will say both Maul and Dooku from Star Wars. Both were only tools for the real villain, Palpatine. He used them so he could get Anakin as the apprentice he really wanted. Look at how he betrayed them. On The Clone Wars show, right after he killed Savage Oppress, he said to Maul, "Remember the reality of the Sith. There can only be two. And you are no longer my apprentice! You have been replaced!"
And Dooku? Palpatine says to Anakin, "Good, Anakin, good! Kill him. Kill him now. Do it!" Both of these guys were misled and used, that's the bottom line.

um.. heroes or villians I felt were hard done by. fiction and real life based

1. Phantom of The Opera - although not Michael Crawford. he was funnier in comedy.

2. The Terminator III - Arnold Schwarzeneger

3. The Shining and the story of James Dean

If there were any more, I would have listed them too. unless someone else defies to mention anything that might make me think twice.

Don Gallico in "The Mad Magician", played by Vincent Price. He really is the hero of the film, it's set up so that the crowd cheers as he offs someone else. It was made in 1954.

1. Roy Batty
2. Lestat de Lioncourt
3. Hannibal Lecter
4. HAL 9000
5. Catwoman

- Blackheart
- Galactus
- Neuromancer (from the SF novel of the same name)
- The Puppet Master (Ghost in the Shell)
- Desty Nova (Battle Angel Alita)
- Exdeath (FFV)
- Femto (Berserk)

A more recent example is Ian Doyle from the 2011 episodes of Criminal Minds, mostly due to his death scene.

Additionally, there is Chouji Suitengu from the Speed Grapher anime; he only covets all that money and influence just so he can destroy it all and force the global economy to start fresh from scratch, as revenge for what the corrupt elite did to his family and childhood (he succeeds, but chooses to die in the explosion in the process, but not before paying his most loyal followers with enough gold to leave them set for life (most of them choose to stay behind with him, forfeiting their shares to the few who decide to escape; however, said survivors vow to build skyscrapers in honor of their deceased colleagues and boss)).

Emperor Palpatine - Had the vision of ruling the galaxy. Sith Lords aren't evil, They want to free the Galaxy from the oppressing reign and arrogance of the Jedi, Palpatine is the good guy.

Saruman the White - Wanted to industrialise middle earth and progress it "The old world will burn in the fires of industry". Saruman was never evil, nor good. He had good intentions in mind, but carried them out in evil ways.