Top 10 fictional characters who don’t seem to die

Sometimes filmmakers and screenwriters create characters who are so evil that audiences wished they would receive a permanent form of justice for their crimes, but are left alive to continue building the plot’s tension.

For this list, I’m focusing on characters that as of May 2017, are still alive in their respective film or TV series. This list does not include characters who have stayed dead.

#10 Malcolm Merlin (the “Arrow” series)

Malcolm Merlin is a complicated villain with a sympathetic backstory. He feel guilty and remorse about his wife getting killed, and decides to launch a terrorist attack against the city he blames for not saving her. What follows is a back and forth struggle where Malcolm has a chance to redeem himself, but then becomes a bad guy again. As a result, his actions put Oliver Queen/Green Arrow and his friends in danger multiple times again and again.

#9 – Miss Umbridge (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

This woman is the brain child of political correctness, common core, and big government. After Harry Potter is forced to use magic in order to save his snobbish cousin, Umbridge becomes the new Master of the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. There, she uses her influence in the Ministry of Magic to follow the agenda of a corrupt bureaucracy that refuses to name an evil force that has returned (Lord Voldemort) to the Wizardly world and brand Harry a liar and a fraud. After all her Big Brother antics, it’s surprising the Hogwarts kids didn’t rise up and rebel against her. Oh well, guess the Brits can’t learn a thing or two from American Patriots.

#8 – General Thaddeus Ross (the Marvel Cinematic Universe)

This U.S. Army general hunted down Bruce Banner/The Hulk like a monster just because he’s mean, green, and loves his daughter, Betty. Yet General Ross took his hatred of Banner to all the Avengers in the Marvel MCU, going into politics with an anti-superhero agenda, causing the Avengers to split apart in Captain America: Civil War over whether they should be controlled by the government or remain independent. It remains to be seen whether Ross meets his end for or against the Avengers.

#7 Loki (the Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Loki is Marvel's Scar from The Lion King. He's jealous of his older brother (Thor, Mufasa) becoming king and so plots against him. Loki's constant backstabbing and treachery should be enough to be served some superhero justice, but is apparently the only villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to avoid getting killed off.

#6 HYDRA (the Marvel Cinematic Universe)

This evil organization was born out of Nazism and seeks nothing more than world domination. Yet it's managed to lived out it's pre-conceived demise in WWII by the hands of Captain America because the filmmakers allowed HYDRA to survive to the present day.

#5 - the Xenomorphs (the "Alien" franchise)

Who said only people had to be on this list? These alien creatures always come back to terrorize any humans stupid enough to cross their path. Even when said humans manage to destroy them, it seems like there's always some idiot scientist, corporate hack, or numbskull crew member who manages to find these monsters again.

#4 Skynet ("The Terminator" franchise)

Another, more powerful evil organization, Skynet caused a nuclear Armageddon and came close to annihilating the human race. Through time-travel paradoxes, Skynet machines have managed to avoid getting wiped out by John Connor's resistance troops permanently. The flip side of the spectrum is that the human protagonists have been unable to destroy Skynet before it's conception or Judgment Day. Some technologies should be avoided at all costs, and AI robots are one of them.

#3 – Brainiac (Superman: The Animated Series)

One of Superman’s three iconic supervillains, the AI Brainiac has done plenty of evil things, depending on which version of Brainiac you’re talking about. From leaving Krypton to blow up to trying to destroy the earth and all humanity, Superman has stopped Brainiac multiple times, but the evil machine always seems to find a way to come back again—all in another attempt to (yep!) destroy the world.

#2 – Draco and Lucius Malfoy (the “Harry Potter” series)

You had to know Harry Potter was getting a bad rep on this list, and no one represents evil like the Malfoys. This entitled father-son duo has plague Harry and his friends since day one and have conspired to kill him numerous times, yet have largely avoided going to the other side of the grave.

#1 – T-Bag (the “Prison Break” series)

This white supremacist serial killer and rapist has caused nothing but trouble for Michael Scofield and his companions since they met him in Fox River Prison. He’s given them plenty of reasons to kill him, but for some reason they don’t. At all. And in the process good people got hurt and killed. T-Bag never should have left Fox River breathing, and the only reason the filmmakers kept him alive is to add conflict to the series.