Yeah, but I don't really like the Top Ten Rules for Villainy, so Ishamael/Moridin seems more like Gargamel from the Smurfs than a major threat in any form. The whole conversion plan was weak because we knew that Rand wouldn't do that, due to the type of series it was. Glen Cook could pull it off, but I was convinced by Robert Jordan early on that the good guys would ultimately be all right.

Some of the best villains I've read in fiction in the last few years would be the Lannisters from "A Song of Ice and Fire".