Welcome to another 30 day challenge which in honor of spooky season will cover the topic of Pop Culture Villains!

Building on the opportunistic backstabbers of yesterday, we’re now gonna cover the villains who take things one step further with complex masterplans, or as true masterminds of all sorts of events- The villains who will go “just as I anticipated” or “I was the author of all your pain!!”.
Sometimes a good mastermind can feel seeded since minute 1 of a story, sometimes they can feel like a half-baked attempt to tie disparate James Bond movies together, regardless, the main prompt of today is: what are the greatest villainous masterminds? Do you enjoy this trope? Who had the most clever evil plan?

Bonus prompt: What villain took things too far, to the point where their scope of planning became ludicrous? What supposed clever mastermind had the flimsiest plan?

Maniacal prompt: Whats the most ridiculous expected event a plan ultimately hinged on, and what are the best/worst examples of Faults in the masterplan?

Machiavellian Prompt: What villains would be improved if it was acknowledged that they made stuff up on the fly, rather than meticulously planned ahead?