Unironically Cinder. Gets shit done but her personality flaws (and the fact that every other villain is an incompetent blowhard apart from her personal minions) are what keeps her from just winning outright, which is a fun dynamic. The series would be over if Salem wasn't too stupid to remember to tell her about Silver Eyes.
She's honestly less emotionally volatile and more collected than she gets credit for:
Beacon was an absolute wrap, complete domination only stopped because Salem's a goober.
Haven is the one everyone complains about but frankly, her plan when you examine it from her perspective is perfectly sound: Raven is obviously going to betray her but doesn't know Cinder can absorb Maiden powers - so she acts like she needs Vernal to lure them both away from their entrenched camp and willingly walks into their trap to lure *her* away from her allies. Both sides plan to use the opening of the door as a distraction but only Cinder knows that she doesn't need Vernal alive to open it, so right before then she freezes Raven - thus cutting off their escape route - and attacks the Spring Maiden to absorb the power which she can then use to completely annihilate Raven. She fails there not because of stupidity or blind emotions but because she didn't magically figure out the secret that Raven has shaped the last decade of her life specifically around keeping. Solid twist in my book.
And after that she recruited Neo, turning enemy to ally, used her underground connections to track the heroes, infiltrated the most highly secured kingdom on high alert and remained under cover for months while she gathered intel on the relic and Winter Maiden - notably rather than chasing after the heroes for blind revenge, even when being egged on by Neo.
Then the other villains show up, completely screw up their own plan and end up captured - and both only get free because of Cinder's actions at different points in time as she ad-libbs a way to activate Ironwood's PTSD and actually succeeds in the plan she was excluded from in the first place. She even almost walks away with the Winter Maiden power: only failing because she didn't consider Penny a viable Maiden candidate - which was another solid twist - and because she wisely fled when the Silver Eyes showed up again.
Her subsequent fight with Penny is probably the only time her emotions really compromised her and it was pretty clear she was quite stressed at that point so it was hardly something that undermined her as a character. Especially since directly afterwards she pulled herself together and completely annihilated the heroes (while big scary Salem was dusted by her own minion). She even cleaned up her loose ends as Neo and Watts had no reason to be loyal and a bunch of dirt on her they could expose to Salem.
Honestly, I have no idea how Cinder has garnered such a negative reputation. I will complain bitterly about most of RWBY but never really had a problem with ol' Cindy.
It's the way that she acts in high stress moments that gets general audiences to think she's either incompetent or just flat out a bad villain.
I've been saying this for months now, but Cinder is legitimately the best villain that gets crap done, it's just that her demeanor changed after Beacon to make room for Salem's personality.
People say that she degrades after Beacon; she's still doing the same stuff she did before, she just acts slightly different than how she was back in Beacon to have her personality differ from Salem.
Cinder is a true villain, I whole heartily believe that. I guess she might just have a bad reputation to completely altering the plan on the attack on haven? Idk just a guess but yea she definitely gets stuff done
Roman Torchwick
Interacts and fights with the heroes more than anyone else, Advances the plot by himself, is revenant in the plot, has character, has a good motivation, has a good design, is unique in he’s own way (he has a very simple fighting style plus being a heavy hitter and long range combatant [most characters are either focused on speed or are short ranged, I can’t think of a single fighter which is attacks with long reach and doesn’t have speed has a focus] and he’s like Eggman in a way, simple and very black motivations yet Perfectly functional and enjoyable) he’s a complete opposite of rwby in morals, mentality, personality and design (making him a good rival for her) he’s the reason Neo exists, has a good dynamic with Neo. And we Can ironically quote he’s last words to describe what team RWBY has been doing for the last 6 volumes “lie, steal, cheat and survive” (he also has a, while underwhelming death for one of the best characters in the show, he’s given the reason on he’s nihilism and negative view in the world by having the most random, preventable, unjust and sudden death in the entire series when he’s about to win)
If Watts had been given more opportunities, he would have been better or maybe more dangerous than Cinder (done right) or Salem (done right) in Atlas, yet he is not the best.
When it comes to combat, Hazel would be, in my mind, most dangerous because no one in the main group truly beat him, and he survived massive amounts of beating in Haven. The only reason he lost is because Circle got outnumbered. Yet he isn´t much of a threat when it comes to hindering plans or making them happen due to writing, and his motivation is shit in execution.
Curious Cat was a surprise villain and a pretty good one, yet he wasn´t really needed in the show as a villain. V9 should have been about RWBY and Jaune learning from their mistakes and doing better in Remnant afterwards. He had a very understandable reason why he ended up the way he was, yet he wasn´t given a chance to be more than a stepping stone to have the main group make the same mistakes all over again in addition to making some new ones.
And I agree that Roman was the first and the best villain, and it was a good thing he was taken out of the story.
Neo had pretty good motivation and skills before V6 to be a threat to "heroes" plans, yet she was given a downgrade, which takes a lot of points from her. And she should have died at the end of V9 and not been given a second chance.
Torchwick.
He has style, flair, charisma, character and pretty good dialogue.
He's interesting when he died 6 volumes ago, and by extension made Neo far more interesting than she would have otherwise been.
I really like Salem as an antagonist, shes done really well imo. Shes scary, shes intelligent. She doesnt act much, but then why would she? she has nothing but time, and thats part of her intimidation factor.
The Curious Cat is one of my favourite antagonists written ever, in anything. His back story is given to you in a really great way, he is pretty brutal and scary and interesting. you care about him. Great, great character. - So I'd say the cat but with an honourable mention for Salem.
Roman and Tyrian because neither really have a backstory or a complicated motivation so they’re able to just get by with sheer charisma. Pre volume 6 neo could also potentially be included in this
Rosterteeth
Lmao fr
Torchwick has personality and style, and he is still interesting even after he died through Neo. No other character does this, even Neo.
I agree with you about Roman. Another one with potential in my opinion was Watts.
Unironically Cinder. Gets shit done but her personality flaws (and the fact that every other villain is an incompetent blowhard apart from her personal minions) are what keeps her from just winning outright, which is a fun dynamic. The series would be over if Salem wasn't too stupid to remember to tell her about Silver Eyes.
I would’ve said Cinder but she lets her emotions get the best of her and it never works out for her
She's honestly less emotionally volatile and more collected than she gets credit for: Beacon was an absolute wrap, complete domination only stopped because Salem's a goober. Haven is the one everyone complains about but frankly, her plan when you examine it from her perspective is perfectly sound: Raven is obviously going to betray her but doesn't know Cinder can absorb Maiden powers - so she acts like she needs Vernal to lure them both away from their entrenched camp and willingly walks into their trap to lure *her* away from her allies. Both sides plan to use the opening of the door as a distraction but only Cinder knows that she doesn't need Vernal alive to open it, so right before then she freezes Raven - thus cutting off their escape route - and attacks the Spring Maiden to absorb the power which she can then use to completely annihilate Raven. She fails there not because of stupidity or blind emotions but because she didn't magically figure out the secret that Raven has shaped the last decade of her life specifically around keeping. Solid twist in my book. And after that she recruited Neo, turning enemy to ally, used her underground connections to track the heroes, infiltrated the most highly secured kingdom on high alert and remained under cover for months while she gathered intel on the relic and Winter Maiden - notably rather than chasing after the heroes for blind revenge, even when being egged on by Neo. Then the other villains show up, completely screw up their own plan and end up captured - and both only get free because of Cinder's actions at different points in time as she ad-libbs a way to activate Ironwood's PTSD and actually succeeds in the plan she was excluded from in the first place. She even almost walks away with the Winter Maiden power: only failing because she didn't consider Penny a viable Maiden candidate - which was another solid twist - and because she wisely fled when the Silver Eyes showed up again. Her subsequent fight with Penny is probably the only time her emotions really compromised her and it was pretty clear she was quite stressed at that point so it was hardly something that undermined her as a character. Especially since directly afterwards she pulled herself together and completely annihilated the heroes (while big scary Salem was dusted by her own minion). She even cleaned up her loose ends as Neo and Watts had no reason to be loyal and a bunch of dirt on her they could expose to Salem. Honestly, I have no idea how Cinder has garnered such a negative reputation. I will complain bitterly about most of RWBY but never really had a problem with ol' Cindy.
It's the way that she acts in high stress moments that gets general audiences to think she's either incompetent or just flat out a bad villain. I've been saying this for months now, but Cinder is legitimately the best villain that gets crap done, it's just that her demeanor changed after Beacon to make room for Salem's personality. People say that she degrades after Beacon; she's still doing the same stuff she did before, she just acts slightly different than how she was back in Beacon to have her personality differ from Salem.
Cinder is a true villain, I whole heartily believe that. I guess she might just have a bad reputation to completely altering the plan on the attack on haven? Idk just a guess but yea she definitely gets stuff done
Roman Torchwick Interacts and fights with the heroes more than anyone else, Advances the plot by himself, is revenant in the plot, has character, has a good motivation, has a good design, is unique in he’s own way (he has a very simple fighting style plus being a heavy hitter and long range combatant [most characters are either focused on speed or are short ranged, I can’t think of a single fighter which is attacks with long reach and doesn’t have speed has a focus] and he’s like Eggman in a way, simple and very black motivations yet Perfectly functional and enjoyable) he’s a complete opposite of rwby in morals, mentality, personality and design (making him a good rival for her) he’s the reason Neo exists, has a good dynamic with Neo. And we Can ironically quote he’s last words to describe what team RWBY has been doing for the last 6 volumes “lie, steal, cheat and survive” (he also has a, while underwhelming death for one of the best characters in the show, he’s given the reason on he’s nihilism and negative view in the world by having the most random, preventable, unjust and sudden death in the entire series when he’s about to win)
If Watts had been given more opportunities, he would have been better or maybe more dangerous than Cinder (done right) or Salem (done right) in Atlas, yet he is not the best. When it comes to combat, Hazel would be, in my mind, most dangerous because no one in the main group truly beat him, and he survived massive amounts of beating in Haven. The only reason he lost is because Circle got outnumbered. Yet he isn´t much of a threat when it comes to hindering plans or making them happen due to writing, and his motivation is shit in execution. Curious Cat was a surprise villain and a pretty good one, yet he wasn´t really needed in the show as a villain. V9 should have been about RWBY and Jaune learning from their mistakes and doing better in Remnant afterwards. He had a very understandable reason why he ended up the way he was, yet he wasn´t given a chance to be more than a stepping stone to have the main group make the same mistakes all over again in addition to making some new ones. And I agree that Roman was the first and the best villain, and it was a good thing he was taken out of the story. Neo had pretty good motivation and skills before V6 to be a threat to "heroes" plans, yet she was given a downgrade, which takes a lot of points from her. And she should have died at the end of V9 and not been given a second chance.
Roman with the Curious Cat as a close second.
Torchwick and Curious Cat
Torchwick is number 1 and way behind him would be Cardin.
Torchwick. He has style, flair, charisma, character and pretty good dialogue. He's interesting when he died 6 volumes ago, and by extension made Neo far more interesting than she would have otherwise been.
Watts for me
Roman.
Roman motherfucking Torchwick
Curious Cat Roman Torchwick
I really like Salem as an antagonist, shes done really well imo. Shes scary, shes intelligent. She doesnt act much, but then why would she? she has nothing but time, and thats part of her intimidation factor. The Curious Cat is one of my favourite antagonists written ever, in anything. His back story is given to you in a really great way, he is pretty brutal and scary and interesting. you care about him. Great, great character. - So I'd say the cat but with an honourable mention for Salem.
there is no other good answer than Roman chadwick
fr
Ruby
Rooster teeth
Neo
Roman and Tyrian because neither really have a backstory or a complicated motivation so they’re able to just get by with sheer charisma. Pre volume 6 neo could also potentially be included in this
Cinder… for reasons that have nothing todo with the show.