Some villains are masterminds who orchestrate complicated plans to achieve some devious or world-altering goal. Other villains are brutes who can enact great feats of violence and destruction that similarly impact the world.
The reasons these villains set out on a path to achieve these goals often stems from loss, trauma, or anger. They often have a twisted worldview that, in their minds, is better than the current world, and thus bringing it about is helpful to them. There are certain anime villains who don't want to help the world. They just want to watch it burn.
10 Dracula Wanted to Destroy Humanity Because Of His Grief In Castlevania
When Dracula Tepes lost his wife, Lisa, he also lost the will to be good. The only reason he stopped his stereotypical evil-vampire tendencies was because of her, and when the church killed her, he wanted nothing but revenge on the entire human race and then die.
Eventually, his wish for death was granted by his son, who had to kill him to stop his crimes. While Dracula's goals were lofty, they had become within his reach thanks to his Foregemasters, and so he had to be stopped.
9 Acnologia Wanted To Kill All Humans Too In Fairy Tail
The goal of killing humanity is a relatively common one for extremely powerful anime villains. Acnologia was no different, though his plan involved starting with the dragons and dragon slayers. Acnologia was a name feared across the world, and all knew he was one of the most powerful beings in existence.
Stopping Acnologia took all the dragons, all the dragon slayers, and the Dark Mage named Zeref each working to thwart Acnologia over time. Even still, many were lost before any headway was made and Acnologia's defeat finally came.
8 Fairy Tail's Zeref Was In A Race With Acnologia To Kill Humans
Zeref had been through so much by the end of his time in the Fairy Tail series. He had lived too long of a life, and he had seen so much evil, most of which had come from him thanks to his Curse of Contradiction. So, it is understandable that he would just want to watch the world burn by that point.
He was in a race with the dragon, Acnologia, to kill all the humans. However, their reasons for doing so were different. In the end, all Zeref wanted was to die.
7 Eren Yeager Started Out Wanting To Kill All Titans But Switched To Killing All Humans In Attack On Titan
Eren Yeager started as a hero. He lost his mother to a Titan attack, and so he resolved to kill all Titans for their crimes. However, the Titans' presence ran deeper than anyone realized, even for Eren, and he had ties that connected him to Titans that complicated his goals.
Eventually, Eren changed. He had seen so much death and been through so many traumatizing experiences that his goal changed from killing Titans to destroying everyone in the entire world and watching it burn.
6 DIO's Goal Was Just To Be The Most Evil In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
From day one, Dio Brando's goal had always been to out evil those around him. He needed to win in every situation, and in his mind, the way to win was being evil. So, when he gained vampiric powers (and later a Stand), he finally had the means to become the evilest entity in existence.
While he was not around to face Kars and the Pillar Men, Dio would prove one of the most brutal, powerful, and hard-to-kill villains in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure franchise, his participation in the show spanning multiple parts.
5 Before Meeting Naruto, Kurama Just Wanted To Destroy In General
Kurama, also known as the Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit, was a being of chaos, destruction, and almost limitless power. The only way the shinobi world could deal with it and the other tailed beasts was by sealing them away within Jinchuriki (shinobi forced to be vessels of the spirits).
In between Jinchuriki hosts, Kurama launched an assault on the Hidden Leaf Village. Kurama hated humanity for the way they used the tailed beasts' power for their military gain, so Kurama sought the destruction of the human villages when it got the change. However, Kurama did later end up helping the village, too.
4 Stain Wanted To Destroy The Hero Society That Ran The World In My Hero Academia
Stain was a villain who killed Pro Heroes as a way to protest the inevitable corruptness of a society run by heroes. While his views were misguided and his methods were evil, he saw a world run by heroes as inherently unfair and as such he wanted to disrupt that world.
He was known as "The Hero Killer" because he was able to kill so many of the Pro Heroes, a feat few villains can claim they have achieved. However, Stain was eventually caught and thwarted. This was not before killing many heroes and maiming more, though.
3 Ryuk Dropped The Death Note To Watch Humans Squirm
Ryuk dropped the Death Note because he was bored and wanted to watch humanity descend into chaos. It was just his luck that the brilliant and strong-willed Light Yagami was the one to pick it up.
Light was a perfect candidate to cure Ryuk's boredom. He was one of the smartest people in the show, he had an overzealous moral compass, and his father was part of the police force. If anyone was going to make use of the Death Note in an interesting way, it was him. Unfortunately, the Death Note caused both Light and everyone in the city a lot of pain, and it was all for Ryuk's enjoyment.
2 Gaara Was In Pain & Just Wanted To Share That In Naruto
Gaara eventually became a hero in the Naruto series, but it was not before a stint as the series villain. During the Chunin Exam arc, he killed people without flinching, he helped destroy the Hidden Leaf Village, and he allowed the Shukaku demon to take over his body.
This was all because of Gaara's past trauma. His father tried to have him killed after destroying his life by making him an ultimate weapon. So, Gaara acted out and committed great acts of violence as a way to cope with the pain that it caused him, however maladaptive that coping strategy was.
1 Avatar: The Last Airbender's Azula Is A Fire-Wielding Sadist
Azula, the Fire Nation Princess, was one of the most needlessly sadistic characters in the entire series. She was manipulative to her friends and family, and she was relentless and brutal. Sure, she wanted to take over the throne rather than let her brother do so, but she just wanted to cause pain.
Eventually, her sadism drove her friends off and she was left alone, which sent her into a spiral that resulted in her mental breakdown, but many question how stable she was, to begin with.