Who Was the Better Villain: Ben Linus From Lost, or Gus Fring from Breaking Bad?

Nate3/11/2014 6:05 PM

Note: Spoilers ahead. Obviously.

All this talk of the missing plane has brought people back to remembering how great of a show Lost was. However, when we were doing Twitter schtick about it last night (it’s not where is the plane, but when), a lot of people didn’t get the reference. And I guess it’s because Lost premiered in 2004. Half of you were still in diapers in 2004. Fuck, I was still in high school, watching it on a TV which had the same width of an asteroid, before watching it in college on a tiny 13 inch TV/VCR combo. Therefor, every so often, it’s good to remind everyone that before Gus Fring of Breaking Bad, there was Ben Linus, the manipulative bad guy from Lost.

Ben was the most cold blooded, manipulative, smart, hatable character I have ever seen. Was always one step ahead of the game. Killed his father. Committed a holocaust on an entire community of people. And to top it off, he let his own daughter be slaughtered in front of him. I can’t imagine if Lost was on a cable channel in today’s day and age of television. Where they could have gotten away with much, much more, like Breaking Bad.

And then you have Gustavo Fring. Made out of the same mold as Gus, snarky and smart. Playing chess on the highest level while everyone else is still setting up their checker board. Gus never broke. Watching him square off against Walt was a thing of beauty. Gus is without a doubt my favorite character from Breaking Bad. 1) Gus, 2) Heisenberg. I could watch Gus manipulate and scheme and carry out his calculated plans on a loop. Such a tremendous character.

I’ve been flip flopping all day about who I think was the better villain. On one hand, Gus died. He was tricked. No other way to put it. He was out-smarted. On the other hand, Ben didn’t die. He kinda just stayed on the island to live out the rest of his days I guess? All he cared about was the island to begin with. He let his daughter die in front of him for it.

I feel enough time has passed from the end of Breaking Bad that we aren’t so wrapped up in the show and can reach a non-biased conclusion on the question of who the better villain was. If you watched both shows, sound off.

1 if Ben was the ultimate bad guy, 10 if Gustavo was.