Badass epic villains that got carelessly defeated when they should have known better

Epic movies will always have epic villains. Ruthless, cunning, and powerful culprits who engage in terrible schemes. Yet sometimes, after the build-up and the hype, some of the villains have met their end… quite pathetically. Judging on how powerfully they have been portrayed from the beginning, they should all have known better.

Darth maul, Star Wars

Darth Maul was a powerful Sith Lord and Darth Sidious’ apprentice, He appeared as the main antagonist of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Darth Maul was supposed to be a formidable warrior who not only fought fiercely but was also intelligent and cunning. His weapon was an intimidating red double-bladed lightsaber and he used it with a menacing ferocity.

Many of us expected him to stick around and make trouble throughout the original trilogy…but no. he was sliced in half in the first movie by Obi-Wan Kenobi. That battle shouldn’t have ended him right there. Not when you look at the hype that surrounded his character before the movie was released.

So much hype for a villain that got defeated so quickly…By a good guy. Although he appeared later on in the clone wars animated series, the movies themselves did not do him any justice.

Dolores Umbridge, Harry Potter

Dolores Umbridge was a ruthless villain appearing in the Harry Potter series. She would take pleasure in her sadistic endeavors hurting children. For example, she ordered a dementor (a soul suking devil spirit) to kill a child, Harry Potter.

She also, through dark magic, carved his hands with the sentence “I must not tell lies” and smiled as he bled, as punishment during detention. She rose to power and became a high inquisitor, which allowed her to mistreat the witches and wizards and any other “species” that stood in her way. Go figure that she got tricked by a little girl, and followed her, alone, into the forbidden forest, straight into a pack of centaurs who snatched her away and had their way with her.

After referring to the centaurs as “filthy half breeds” and “creatures of near-human intelligence”, she deemed it perfectly safe to wander into their territory? For someone so smart cunning and evil, who knows very well of the dangers lurking in the dark forest and who knows very well that she has a list of enemies whom she has offended, hurt, imprisoned…following a little girl into a dark forest without any bodyguards at least, seems….a bit pathetic on her part.

Saruman, Lord of the rings

We are introduced to Saruman the White in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Saruman is a powerful wizard with knowledge of the deep arts, who imprisons Gandalf the gray and builds an army of Orcs, Dunlendings, and Uruk-hai, whose purpose is to destroy middle earth.

Saruman’s main power is seen through his powerful voice as he is able to focus this power on a person or a group of people and plant any thought he wants in anyone’s mind. He is a powerful crowd manipulator. His voice is so powerful that it can make mountains shake. He is also a sort of mad scientist, having knowledge of chemistry, machinery, and biology.

He has been successful in crossbreeding men and orcs, creating a race of orcs who were able to travel by daylight. In the end, Saruman is killed by his own servant Wormtongue, who stabbed him in the back after having kicked him in the face. A wizard who wielded and an army of deadly and terrifying orcs, stabbed by a mere servant.

Emperor Commodus, Gladiator

We are introduced to Lucius Aelius Commodus in the movie gladiator, who is loosely based on facts of the Roman era. He is a spoiled narcissistic young man who declares himself Caesar after killing his father, who had decided not to make him emperor after his passing. He is ruthless and hosts the gladiator games in the great Colosseum, killing soldiers, slaves, innocent civilians, and animals for sport.

He is portrayed as cunning and intimidating, sending his soldiers off to rape women and kill children, all to punish those who oppose him, and to assure his seat of glory and power as the ruler. In the last scene, we see him challenging the gladiator, but unbeknownst to the crowd, he critically injured him before the battle started. How was a critically injured man able to defeat such a powerful villain? He should have trained a little harder….

Alma Coin, Hunger Games

President Alma Coin is one of the main villains that appear in the hunger games. This is a world that is divided into districts and she is the leader of district 13. She becomes the leader of the rebellion against the capital and devises a plan to take over the capital and take president Snow’s place.

Alma Coin is known for being a flawless strategist, brilliantly executing her plans to sway the masses into following her by using propaganda. She is an expert in politics and warfare. She is a crowd manipulator and uses her cunning abilities to have the other districts fight for her so that she can eventually take the power seat.

Having all this knowledge, and also knowing full well the trauma that Katniss Everdeen, the main hero, has endured throughout the entire war, she still positions herself within the shooting range of a traumatized girl who is wielding a bow and arrow thus meeting her end. Katniss Everdeen shoots an arrow in her heart. For a brilliant strategist, this was a bit of a careless move.