The biggest problem I had with the show was the lack of compelling villains. Basically the only one I liked (besides, arguably, Londo) was Bester. Bester was a great villain because he's incredibly hateable, but also still comes off like a real person with understandable and sane motives. He's a human supremacist and a TP supremacist on top of that, and it's woven into the character in a way that's compelling without being neccesarily sympathetic. It's also somewhat subtle, and we're not introduced to Bester by him talking about how much he hates aliens and normals. Him and Londo are both very well done as authoritarian, basically fascist characters, and they explore the idea in different directions. Which makes it all the more striking and disappointing that almost every other major villain is basically a cartoon. I felt this manifest the most in the minor guest star villains. Almost all of the ones I can remember were portrayed as cookie cutter racists whose mindset starts and ends at "fuck those spaceniggers." Having a few characters like this is fine, as people of this sort really exist, but it was almost every time.
Just off the top of my head there was the Minbari War vet that loved dismemberment, the blond nightwatch guy who kept telling Zack how much he loved being a jackbooted cop, Ivanova's slimy exboyfriend from early on, the racist terminator from the first season that Sinclair talks to death, like two different guys who interrogated Sinclair believing him to be compromised by the Minbari, and some of the more droll warrior caste dudes (Neroon was cool though.) They even pulled out this storebought nazi character again in the very last episode of season 4, who also gets essentially talked to death by hologram Garibaldi in a scene that felt almost like a Futurama gag. Some were worse than others but it annoyed me almost every time
The other major villains were also not very inspiring. Clark is never developed at all and we never really learn if he had any motives whatsoever besides raw desire for power. I would assume not since he had a deadman's switch that would destroy Earth. Him being a cipher is clearly intentional and supposed to show how figureheads in repressive societies are basically interchangable and it's the compliance and attitudes of the people who perpetuate it that are the problem. This is fine but he's not surrounded by or related to any compelling characters either, so the entire Earth Regime is just a cardboard cutout that eventually gets cut down to basically everyone's relief.
The buildup for the Shadows and the Shadow War is great, but the payoff left a lot to be desired. We also see the Vorlons start to become a nefarious faction, which isn't totally unexpected and kind of satisfying in an "oh shit" kind of way, but at the end both sides who intially were built up as mysterious and inscrutable powers who were beyond comprehension boil down to an EXPLICIT "I like law" and "I like chaos" conflict. Then Sheridan alongside Gandalf just tells them that they're acting like retards and they're like "yeah, you know, you're pretty much right" and fuck off. I realize that they had A LOT of ground to cover in one season with Season 4, since they thought it was the last one they were going to get, but I still felt like the whole Shadow War ended up being kind of nothing. I also didn't get a lot out of Mr. Morden. I liked his acting and he had a great "menacing and slimy car salesman" vibe to him, but again just not much motivation from him. Perhaps I misunderstood but I was under the impression that he was not subjected to the brain implant control device, and willingly followed the Shadows. That being the case, I still don't know why he was so attached to them. He ostensibly offered to serve them because there really wasn't an alternative, but he gets really into it and I'm not sure why. When Londo blows up the Shadow Ship he acts genuinely mad like it was his people being killed or something. What were the Shadows even offering him? Maybe I'm a retard, but I never understood his motives. Briefly, Kosh 2 was also an example of just a violent and evil character who is nothing more than an obstacle to overcome. An unfortunate missed opportunity to explore a different Vorlon character from Kosh.
Bester and the Psi Corps as a whole were really cool. They were far and away the best villains in the show and I would have been fine with them being behind the entire coup on Earth and basically the only main antagonists. It would have been kind of obvious and it was neat that the expectation that they were behind all of the shit on Earth was subverted, but I honestly would have preferred it just so they get expanded on even more. I liked the conflict they built up with the rich dude who was cucking Garibaldi too, he actulaly wasn't a bad villain either and you could sympathize with his actions because we know how threatening the Psi Corps really is.
