did somebody say villains

queenlua  'cause i know you'll see this soon - (aka in reply to your 'fictional villain recs that loom large despite not affecting Plot much' q) 

• Sephiroth kinda still strikes me as an OG one that holds up fairly well? Sure he stabs Aeris, but he generally has Cloud chase after him with the meat of the fucky brain trauma done in flashbacks and stuff.  For such a long game he kind of doesn't directly interact much?
• Abhorsen (#3 in the Abhorsen Trilogy) has a big bad that still lingers in my dreams sometimes, if that is worth anything; was an amazingly evocative YA book series. (Big Bad is quite literally imprisoned for the entire series minus one scene and the fear is palpable in the third book to apocalyptic levels, so I think it qualifies. really good worldbuilding. I'm a little intentionally vague with this one in particular since the mere existence of the guy is kind of a giant spoiler in itself, if that's also the vibe you're going for.) 
• okay, i have to, Hellsing actually does a damn good job of this with the Major in the back-half and then some. i kind of consider hellsing a villain connoisseur's series as there's a lot of subtle deconstruction of 'what makes one' whether in a protagonist role, serving the protagonist and the various stages of what it takes to oppose them .... except the Major is firmly the exact evil mastermind trope without outright being a caricature of himself. it's kind of like heath ledger's joker in terms of the ... not quite "acting" being too real at times, but a sense of implacable... presence. (my gf and i may or may not still quote lines of his infamous War speech at each other LMAO). Given he's in a blimp basically the entire time of the plot, seems to qualify the technicalities of your ask. It's only a 10-ep OVA, so not a terribly long investment that WAS free to watch on youtube grumble grumble i can totally find you links if needed. : P