A four-armed cyborg.
A vengeful red devil.
A gangster who also happens to be a giant slug.
How do the bad guys of the "Star Wars" universe stack up to each other?
These are the most powerful villains in "Star Wars," ranked.
One of the First Order's commanding officers, General Hux, is one of the sequel trilogy's
most memorable new characters.
Originally introduced in The Force Awakens, Hux epitomizes the First Order bureaucracy
and serves as a showcase of the Star Wars franchise's ability to inject dry humor into
its plots through unexpected characters.
"You and your friends are doomed.
We will wipe your filth from the galaxy."
"Okay, I'll hold."
While Hux is a staple of the new films, he isn't a Jedi or Sith, and has limited power
within the structure of the First Order due to consistently being undercut by Kylo Ren.
However, Hux was a trusted general for Supreme Leader Snoke's First Order.
With Snoke's support, Hux commandeered the Starkiller Base.
Unfortunately for Hux, his longtime feud with Kylo Ren came back to bite him when Ren defeated
Snoke and took over as Supreme Leader.
As a result, Hux defected to the Resistance's side as a spy, but his allegiance to the Rebellion
ultimately cost him his life.
After freeing members of the resistance, it seems his cover story just wasn't as convincing
as he'd hoped.
When Snoke was first introduced in The Force Awakens as a larger-than-life monster, it
appeared like he was going to become one of the greatest Star Wars villains of all time.
Yet while Snoke was the Supreme Leader of the First Order, he never exercised much power
outside his command over Kylo Ren and General Hux.
Although Hux remained loyal to Snoke in order to gain influence, Kylo Ren was only loyal
to himself.
This contrast would ultimately lead to Snoke's unexpected downfall.
Additionally, much of Snoke's power came from the mystique and mystery surrounding his strange
humanoid appearance and seemingly strong Force sensitivity.
Though Snoke appeared to be a powerful Sith lord, his allure was diminished when The Rise
of Skywalker revealed that Snoke was nothing more than a puppet Palpatine used while trying
to rebuild the Empire.
As a notorious gangster first introduced in A New Hope, Jabba the Hutt's wealth and influence
came from a variety of illegal activities, like smuggling and slavery.
He also accrued power through the people he employed — most notably the bounty hunter
Boba Fett, which helped to make him a formidable enemy to anyone who crossed him.
As a result, Jabba gained a reputation for being a ruthless criminal with the ability
to threaten and intimidate the Republic and the Empire.
Like many villains on this list, Jabba's ego was his downfall.
In Return of the Jedi, Jabba took Princess Leia captive after she failed to rescue Han
Solo.
However, Jabba was completely unprepared for Luke Skywalker's subsequent attempt to free
his friends.
If Jabba had let Leia buy Han's freedom, he would have survived instead of being choked
by his own chain.
Introduced in Solo, Dryden Vos was the face of the notorious crime syndicate Crimson Dawn.
Vos' power largely came from his wealth and status as the apparent leader of the organization.
Vos was a charming but imposing figure with several scars on his face, always surrounded
by numerous armed bodyguards.
Vos was also known for his lavish lifestyle and collection of rare objects.
As the figurehead of Crimson Dawn, Vos enjoyed subjecting others to his rule, including Q'ira,
who he purchased from another criminal and forced to swear allegiance to him and Crimson
Dawn for the rest of her life.
While Vos was intelligent and strong, he was merely the face and spokesperson of Crimson
Dawn.
He secretly served its real leader, Darth Maul, which greatly undercut his true power.
As it turns out, he was also expendable; after Q'ira killed Vos, she took his place with
minimal fuss.
Captain Phasma gave viewers further insight into the new, insidious generation of kidnapped
stormtroopers introduced in The Force Awakens.
Phasma was a brutal First Order warrior who ruthlessly worked to rise through the ranks.
Alongside Kylo Ren and General Hux, Phasma was a fearless and brutal soldier who massacred
an entire village on Jakku and never questioned orders from the First Order.
Phasma was also a talented one-on-one fighter.
Phasma eventually took charge of training and commanding the stormtrooper's FN corps,
Finn's former battalion.
While Phasma hated all the Rebels, she loathed Finn in particular, who she considered a traitor
and deserter.
"You were always scum."
"Rebel scum."
Phasma's glowering stance, shiny silver armor, flowing cape, and brutal baton only added
to her mystique.
Ultimately, like many other First Order and Empire soldiers, Phasma's ego was her undoing,
as Finn managed to best her with his wit in battle.
Originally appearing in Revenge of the Sith, and making further appearances in The Clone
Wars, General Grievous was an alien turned cyborg who fought with four lightsabers at
once.
Grievous was a brilliant military strategist and a primary enemy of the Jedi during the
Clone Wars.
Though Grievous wasn't a Sith, Count Dooku secretly trained him to be a deadly threat
with a lightsaber.
In addition to being a fearsome soldier, Grievous' power largely came from his military skills,
including the development of battle droids.
His strategic mind also helped rally the Separatists against the Republic, and he led most of Darth
Sidious' public efforts against the Jedi Order.
Unfortunately for Grievous, he was ultimately used as Palpatine's pawn in the Clone Wars,
with Palpatine actually giving Grievous' location to Obi-Wan Kenobi to distract the Jedi from
Anakin's fall to the dark side and the execution of Order 66.
First introduced in A New Hope, the iconic Grand Moff Tarkin has also appeared in Rogue
One, as well as the various Star Wars animated series.
Unlike General Hux, Tarkin wielded a considerable amount of power in the Empire, most memorably
when he held Princess Leia captive and had her tortured for information about the Rebellion.
When torture didn't work, he resorted to blowing up her home planet of Alderaan instead.
Much like his mentor, Emperor Palpatine, Tarkin was a lifelong bureaucrat who rose to power
through the Republic government.
When Ahsoka Tano was framed for bombing the Jedi Temple in The Clone Wars, a young Admiral
Tarkin served as the chief prosecutor at her trial.
Palpatine, Vader, and Tarkin's shared history allowed the Admiral to easily rise in the
ranks of the new Empire as a trusted comrade, eventually leading Tarkin to oversee the construction
of the Death Star.
Tarkin's faith in the Death Star's ability to conquer the galaxy was misplaced, though,
and he died when Luke Skywalker blew up the station.
Count Dooku occupies a special place among the villains on this list.
Much like Anakin, Dooku was once a trusted Jedi who later fell to the dark side.
Although Dooku left the Order, the Jedi didn't know his true allegiance for years.
He quietly carried out Emperor Palpatine's mission to empower the dark side and take
over the galaxy.
As The Clone Wars revealed, Dooku was also a master strategist who employed assassins
such as Asajj Ventress as a weapon against the Jedi.
Dooku's duplicity made him Palpatine's trusted apprentice: while the Jedi searched for the
mysterious Darth Tyrannus, they didn't realize that he and Dooku were one and the same.
However, Dooku's own thirst for power got the better of him.
He worked with the Sith behind Palpatine's back, leading to his own demise at the hands
of his replacement, Anakin Skywalker.
With his double-ended lightsaber and devilish horns, Darth Maul has been one of the most
iconic Sith lords ever since he first appeared in The Phantom Menace.
As a highly skilled Force user and Palpatine's apprentice, Maul bested Qui-Gon Jinn on Naboo
and shaped Obi-Wan's origin by killing his master.
While Maul seemingly died after Obi-Wan cut him in half, The Clone Wars revealed that
Maul actually survived when he showed up to hunt down Obi-Wan with a new pair of robotic
legs.
Unique to Maul's power is his thirst for revenge and his rage at the Jedi, which brought him
back from the lowest depths of death.
"My hatred kept my spirit intact even though my body was not.
Yet I was lost and became a rabid animal."
While Maul isn't given much of a character in The Phantom Menace, The Clone Wars develop
Maul into a fully unhinged villain who plays into Anakin's fall.
He's almost like a jealous, scorned brother who warns Anakin's padawan Ahsoka Tano, about
her mentor's fate.
Though Maul fell out of favor with his master, Palpatine, he survived the chaos of Order
66 to become a powerful gangster and the leader of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn.
Introduced as part of the new generation of characters in The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren
struggled to live up to his grandfather's legacy.
Still, he was indeed a powerful villain who ended up sharing more in common with Vader
than expected.
Initially trained by the legendary Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren turned to the dark side as an adolescent.
As part of the First Order, Kylo Ren led the Knights of Ren, a Force-sensitive military
order entirely under Kylo's command.
However, Ren's greatest power and his biggest weakness was his inner battle between the
dark side and light side of the Force, which made him a chaotic and ruthless warrior.
Ren's brutality and commitment to the First Order was so intense that he killed his father
and fought against his mother, General Leia Organa.
Ultimately, Ren's power was revealed to be connected to Rey as part of a Force dyad,
and as they fought Emperor Palpatine together, he sacrificed his life to save Rey, killing
Palpatine and mirroring his grandfather's fate.
As one of the only villains to appear in nearly every Star Wars movie, it could be argued
that Palpatine should occupy the top spot on this list.
However, while Palpatine's power cannot be denied, he was still defeated twice due to
his inflated ego.
Much like Tarkin, Palpatine was a lifelong bureaucrat who used political strategy to
gain power with the public while quietly training the Sith behind the scenes.
Palpatine's rise to power began with his political career: he started off as a senator before
manipulating his way into the titles of Chancellor, Emperor, and beyond.
The Emperor's power can largely be attributed to his intelligence, as he planned the Sith's
ascendance for years while grooming Anakin as a future apprentice.
Once Vader and Palpatine assumed their roles within the new Empire, the Emperor's power
grew exponentially until he was betrayed by his former apprentice.
As a brilliant strategist, the Emperor was not gone forever; he cloned himself and returned
years later to take over the First Order before being defeated once again.
Darth Vader is widely celebrated as one of the greatest film villains of all time.
It's safe to say that without Vader, there would be no Star Wars at all.
An imposing figure who can intimidate and inspire fear by simply walking into a room,
Vader's deep, booming voice and Force choke holds are as legendary as the sound of his
breath leaving his signature black helmet.
"The circle is now complete.
When I left you I was the learner.
Now I am the master."
As a child, Anakin was naturally gifted, leading Qui-Gon Jinn to proclaim that he was the Chosen
One who would save their order.
Of course, Anakin's fear and distrust of the Jedi Order ultimately caused him to turn to
the dark side, becoming Palpatine's apprentice and the most powerful Sith Lord of all time.
With Vader's brutal force and terror, the Empire conquered the Republic one planet at
a time.
Of course, Vader later faced his own son and defeated Palpatine alongside him, giving him
a brief moment of redemption before his death.
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