emelee Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 Who are your favorite villains from literature? Villains that you actually LIKE for whatever reason. Some of mine include Shakespearean villains like Lady MacBeth, Dr Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes saga, Count Dracula, O'Brien från 1984, Marquise de Merteuil from Dangerous liaisons and Konstabel Els from Riotous assembly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 Mine is Iago from Shakespeare's Othello. He's so deliciously bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 (edited) Don't read unless you have read the Jo Nesbo books. Tom Waaler from the Jo Nesbo books, he is a fantastic villain. Edited January 17, 2013 by Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Arthur Huntingdon - the abusive, druken husband in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Oh dear - I wish I hadn't read that - I've just started that this morning! Still, I guess I've got something to look forward to! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 If Raven sees this he'll scoff, but Gerald Tarrant in The Coldfire Trilogy - an immoral, inhuman but charismatic villian. I think he's great because he's the kind of guy who manages to almost convince you that the end justifies the means (and terrible means they are, sometimes), but his ends are usually similar to those of the hero, he's just doing it for different reasons, and sometimes you just can't deny that he's right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Why will Raven scoff at this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Because Raven will scoff at anything. I will have to give this more thought, but the first one that springs to mind is Professor Snape from Harry Potter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 But, but, but... Snape isn't a villain!!! Not really. He's just misunderstood by many of the other characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Ah, but I think he counts as a villain given certain events and the fact that he is portrayed as a villain throughout most of the books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Why will Raven scoff at this? Because Raven will scoff at anything. Because he got The Coldfire Trilogy on my recommedation but I think it diminished his will to live a little haha, he really wasn't into it. I still love those books though! I think, r.e. the Snape discussion, it's fair to count him as a villian. Whether or not he is revealed to be otherwise is irrelevant - he filled the role of a villian to a substantial degree for much of the story - anything beyond that is just a depth added to his character, and one which just happens to turn everything on its head and make him deeply sympathetic in the end. Ooh I nearly forgot Heathcliff! Another favourite villian of mine, he's brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidsmum Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Ooh I nearly forgot Heathcliff! Another favourite villian of mine, he's brilliant. Aww i can't think of Heathcliff as a villain his love for Cathy is his redeeming feature IMO Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair would be my choice for a great villain also the Ratliff brothers in The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emelee Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 I would say Heathcliff is a villain. To me, it doesn't matter if a villain loves someone or not. It's the actions and the intent behind the actions. Heathcliff was just nasty to people he had no reason to be nasty towards. Like his own son and Cathy's daughter. I was totally disgusted by Heathcliff throughout his adult life. I didn't like him, so I wouldn't claim that he's favorite villain of mine. The only 2 characters I ever liked in Wuthering Heights was Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 I think of Heathcliff as a villian because he certainly wasn't an upstanding citizen, and the driving force in his life was a combination of a need to be near Cathy combining with the prevention of that by all around him, which made him resentful and bitter. He was a hateful person to all but Cathy, and even then, hateful towards her out of spite when he couldn't have her. Then again, she was similarly spiteful to him, so they were two of a kind! I love them both, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 If Raven sees this he'll scoff . . . Scoff. (Gerald Tarrant isn't a villian though, he's more of an anti-hero. He is the Anakin Skywalker of the Coldfire Trilogy). Because Raven will scoff at anything. Scoff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Scoff. (Gerald Tarrant isn't a villian though, he's more of an anti-hero. He is the Anakin Skywalker of the Coldfire Trilogy). Scoff. Hehe scoff scoff. Yes, this is true, he just seems like a villian at first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair would be my choice for a great villain... Poor Becky! She's not a villain - she's a woman who has been hard done by and tries her damnedest to better her her position. I'd say the villains of the piece are George Osborne (who is just despicable) and The Marquess of Steyne (who is a scheming b*stard if ever there was one!). I kinda like Becky - she's got more balls than most of the men in the novel (I mean, look at Dobbin with his decades-long unrequited love for Amelia - if he'd just voiced his feelings, he could have saved them both so many lost years of happiness together). Becky, on the other hand, does actually find love and happiness, but is manipulated by the Marquess (again, B*STARD, I cry!) so that she loses everything she loves and has to start again. I do believe she is much maligned, oor lass, and I always liked her feistiness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 At the moment it would have to be Richard Topcliffe, the priest hunter from the 'John Shakespeare' books by Rory Clements. He's such a brilliant, scary character in the novels, if he was the same in real life he must have been terrifying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Oh dear - I wish I hadn't read that - I've just started that this morning! Still, I guess I've got something to look forward to! Sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 It doesn't matter - I'm really enjoying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Another favourite of mine, is Daniel Quilp, from The Old Curiosity Shop. An enormously nasty piece of work with no redeeming features whatsoever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppyshake Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Voldemort, George Wickham and Willoughby (not out and out villains but cads ..) and let's not forget Willoughby nearly killed Marianne, she went out in the pouring rain to moon over him and caught a very nasty dose of costume drama cough which can be fatal but thankfully wasn't. Her looks went off as I remember Mr Murdstone, Wackford & Mrs Squeers, Uriah Heep, Mme Defarge and Bill Sikes (and probably lots of other Dickens' villains that haven't come to mind.) Cruella De Vil (she killed puppies for goodness sakes ... or wanted to), Mrs Danvers and Count Dracula. I'd put them all on an island together .. though I might give Willoughby and Wickham a chance to escape (dependent on their raft making skills and ability to get on as a team ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonnie banks Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Gollum / Smeagol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peahen Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 I never see Heathcliff as a true villian but as a victim of others destructive behaviours. He was abandoned and abused and lost the love of his life, so to me he is not truly a villian more a victim of circumstances. However he remains one of my favourite characters and it is that element of being an anti-hero. I adore villians with a sense of humour or a strong sense of intelligence such as Hannibal Lecter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devi Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 I adore villians with a sense of humour or a strong sense of intelligence such as Hannibal Lecter. I feel the same way about villains too! They leave a greater mark in your mind in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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