The pronoun that started life as a courteous literary reference to one's superiors that then dropped in social esteem to become the almost clichéd "you bastard" of pop-culture has a varied history - and I thought that it'd be interesting to delve into this evolution, just to show how semantic shifts can radically change the meaning of a word over a period of time.
Going by the kanji 貴様 alone, "esteemed appearance", one would be absolutely baffled as to why on Earth this pronoun nowadays is used in pop-culture as vocal sucker-punch. Unlike the terms "bastard" and "mother-fucker", this term does not imply any mode of natal questioning nor sordid actions, rather it somewhat mirrors the similar slide in respectability of other Japanese pronouns such as omae, lit. "honoured front" - referring to the presence of a noble - which in modern times is merely an informal "you".
The kanji 貴 ("precious/esteemed") also appears in similar polite 2nd person pronouns: 貴方 (anata, "esteemed personage/direction"), 貴殿 (kiden, "esteemed hall"), 貴公 (kikou, "esteemed duke") and so on, where the last two are effectively archaic, though kiden still lingers as an extremely formal way of literary address.
Hence, it belongs to a long lineage of honorific "you", but like omae - which also uses a kanji commonly found in honorific nouns 御 ("o"), repeatedly usage over the centuries has worn away its original meaning.
During the 1680s, we see it used as a pronoun denoting light respect, it would continue like this throughout the 1940s, with its usage in the military as a standard pronoun.