Who is your favorite villain and why?

[Greywater-Watch]

Jaime Lannister. Whenever I start to think the good has taken root in him, he surprises me again with his ruthlessness.

[Ser Walter of AShwood]

There are so many villains in this story. Some ruthless (Tywin, Roose, Ramsay, Euron), some stupid (Cercei, Ramsay, Joffrey), some dependent on others (Joffrey, but also Varys and LittleFinger because of the next character trade), some conspiring (Varys an Littlefinger), some higly influenced (Jaime) and then there are villains who we might not know are villains (Bran could become one, Sansa might turn into a conspiring b*****, Arya becoming a ruthless killer, who knows what Jon will do when he is returning from the dead).

From all of the confirmed 'villains', we can only see inside the minds of Jaime and Cercei. Both of them clearly show that they are trying to think of the best interests for themselves and their loved ones. Of all the other villains, we only get to see how people view these villains. I would really love to have had a couple of Tywin chapters (one during the WOT7K trying to fight Rob, Renly and Stannis, one as hand, one during Tyrions trial).

Also, a Varys or Littlefinger chapter is something I would actually not want, simply because then we can more easily figure out what their end-goal is and it would spoil a lot of the mystery surrounding them.

[Wat The Second]

On 10/27/2016 at 6:18 AM, Winter Blues said:

I'm a huge fan of Roose Bolton, if you consider him a villain. And that's only because he scares me shitless, and I'm not easily frightened. Euron is also fun to read, but he's too horrible to be my favorite.

It's hard to consider Bolton Senior a villain if you pay attention to the text. He barely cares about anything. He has 2 states of emotion: mildly amused and not amused and doesn't even care about his own sons, never mind hate anyone. He seems to try and keep his house standing though I wouldn't see him frowning if it all came crashing down in front of him. I am very very curious what Roose Bolton's end game is.

EDIT:

My own favorite villain type character is by far Bloodraven, if we take all that we know about him from all books that is. In Bran's chapters you barely learn much of him. Lord Rivers is probably the most enigmatic character in the whole series. I have no idea what he's scheming towards and to my mind he makes Varys and Littlefinger look like children playing in a sandbox. Also I love his Machiavellian ruling style. It's hard to tell if he was doing what he was doing for the realm or for his family or for his self but it was always damn effective and one thing he said about the whole Damon Blackfyre situation clings to my mind: "You would be surprised to know how many lords prefer their kings brave and stupid. Damon is young and dashing and looks good on a horse."

Bloodraven must have loved Robert...

[Equilibrium]

Favorite as a villain, not as a person, Euron by far, he is like utterly psychopathic and devious Jack Sparrow, fueled by magic, sheer madness and cynical, nihilistic schemes. He also has best ratio of awesome per spoken word, of any character.

[The Sleeper]

Strange as it may seem, Roose doesn't fit neatly in the villain mold. After all, his motivation isn't that much different from any other lord's. He looks after his own house and wants to come out on top. While his behavior and actions are in the extreme end of the spectrum it remains within the boundaries of what lords do.

Ramsay is an excellent villain. He evokes visceral terror and loathing. Euron due to lack of exposure does not quite reach him, but may surpass him with his charisma skills.

[Dofs]

While I agree that Roose's political actions and motivations are not really that villainous in the grand scheme of things, in his personal life Roose is by all means and purposes a monster.

[Sigella]

On 27 oktober 2016 at 3:09 AM, moonlightof1982 said:

I always believed that the villains make your story. Who is you favorite villain from the book?  

1 Darkstar. I like emos and I like valyrians. 

2 Euron because of

Spoiler

his valyrian steel armor 

revealed in a sample chapter.

[The Sleeper]

40 minutes ago, Dofs said:

While I agree that Roose's political actions and motivations are not really that villainous in the grand scheme of things, in his personal life Roose is by all means and purposes a monster.

No question about it. He is however unlikely to sacrifice his political agenda to satisfy his cruelty. And while he is one of the worst examples of lords we have in terms of morality, he is still a lord, unlike his son who lives for hurting people.

[Daendrew]

Daenerys.

GRRM is a genius and he is making us root for one of the biggest anti-heroes from the very beginning. She will turn to the dark side and we will learn why she did so.

What made Sauron, Sauron? It's a far cry from the traditional dark lord who wants to destroy the world for no reason.

[Foot_Of_The_King]

Euron... I've been fascinated with him since his name first appeared on page. I know he seems a little clique in comparison to some of the other villains but something about him.....    

[Ser Scott Malkinson]

On 28-10-2016 at 3:26 AM, Ethelarion said:

The best villain in my eyes is Bowen Marsh. The best villains in my eyes think they are heroes. Littlefinger and Varys are scheming, menacing. Tywin is human evil in it's purest form. But they all rationalize their actions and decisions. They do what is 'better'. Marsh thinks what he does is 'right'. 

Marsh is a valued Brother, who killed the Weeper and served as Lord Commander. He hates the Wildlings with a passion. His decisions aren't evil, they're wrong. 

He supports Slynt, clearly a man not fit to lead the Night's Watch. He is also very vocal about closing the gate in the Wall. Not only would this add thousands of Wildlings to the army of the dead, it would also require the Others to use the Horn of Joramund, meaning the destruction of the Wall and the end of the Night's Watch. 

 

After this he obviously kills Jon Snow, a mistake again. But we understand why he does it. He fears the Watch is getting weaker, he fears and hates the Wildlings. He disagrees with Satin's position. All the decisions Jon makes are wrong in his eyes. And a 'hero' acts when these wrongs occur. But again we know/suspect this is an horrible mistake. If Jon really was making mistakes, Marsh' actions were honourable, courages and for the greater good. I love that. 

'For the Watch'- it shows his motivation perfectly

I think one of the best scenes of the show sums it up well. (Allister Thorne obviously being 'show-Bowen'

'I fought, I lost. Now I rest'

Great points! While we IMO don't really know enough about Bowen to make him my favourite villain, he is definitely an interesting character (and Alliser Thorne might be my favourite villain on the show; they really did a great job adding depth to his character and Owen Teale is a perfect casting choice!).

My favourite villain is quite the opposite though... it's Roose Bolton. He acts purely out of self interest, and while the goals he's aiming for (as many here have stated) are not so different from your average lord, the way he tries to accomplish them are so downright evil he fits the villain category from my perspective. He sent thousands of men into battles they can't win, he helped orchestrate the Red Wedding, he arranged the marriage of some poor girl to his sadistic son and afterwards apparently didn't care what happened to her, he raped Ramsay's mother and would have killled Ramsay if not for his eyes and he bankrupted Walder Frey by marrying Fat Walda! If that doesn't make you a villain, I don't know what does. Plus, he has the darkest sense of humour I've ever seen:

Quote

"This miller's marriage had been performed without my leave or knowledge. The man had cheated me. So I had him hanged, and claimed my rights beneath the tree where he was swaying. If truth be told, the wench was hardly worth the rope. The fox escaped as well, and on our way back to the Dreadfort my favorite courser came up lame, so all in all it was a dismal day."

Is it wrong that I find this extremely funny?

[moonlightof1982]

1 hour ago, Ser Scott Malkinson said:

My favourite villain is quite the opposite though... it's Roose Bolton. He acts purely out of self interest, and while the goals he's aiming for (as many here have stated) are not so different from your average lord, the way he tries to accomplish them are so downright evil he fits the villain category from my perspective. He sent thousands of men into battles they can't win, he helped orchestrate the Red Wedding, he arranged the marriage of some poor girl to his sadistic son and afterwards apparently didn't care what happened to her, he raped Ramsay's mother and would have killled Ramsay if not for his eyes and he bankrupted Walder Frey by marrying Fat Walda! If that doesn't make you a villain, I don't know what does. Plus, he has the darkest sense of humour I've ever seen:

Is it wrong that I find this extremely funny?

You hate to laugh at something like this. There is nothing funny about woman being molested by the man who murdered her husband... but the way he says it, the droll way that Roy Dotice reads it in the audiobook. how glib and cavalier Roose is in describing it, and the sheer fact that he says it to Theon/Reek as if they have known each other all their lives make it that much worse. GRRM is an outstanding writer, and those Theon/Reek chapters are the best in Dance. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

Illyrio 'cause revenge is a dish best served cold. 

[Dofs]

7 hours ago, The Sleeper said:

No question about it. He is however unlikely to sacrifice his political agenda to satisfy his cruelty. And while he is one of the worst examples of lords we have in terms of morality, he is still a lord, unlike his son who lives for hurting people.

Well, it is a common a opinion that Ramsay is a much bigger monster than Roose but Roose's actions are still bad enough to make him a villain, even if not that bad that as Ramsay is.

[The Commentator]

On 10/28/2016 at 3:43 AM, Victarion Chainbreaker said:

Bran. His descent into cannibalism and mind rape has been written so smoothly that most of you don't realize he's a villain.

Damn, you make a good point!  Bran is slowly descending to the dark. 

That being said, I don't think the story has a traditional villain who wants to do ill just for the sake of evil.  I like any character who are enemies of the Starks.  My favorite "villains" are Walder Frey, Roose Bolton, and Littlefinger.  Bowen Marsh is not really a villain.  Jon Snow committed treason and Bowen is  just a loyal man doing his job, no different from Illyn Payne.

[Sigella]

17 hours ago, Ser Scott Malkinson said:

Plus, he has the darkest sense of humour I've ever seen:

Is it wrong that I find this extremely funny?

Its probably wrong - but you are not alone at least 

[Ser Scott Malkinson]

13 hours ago, Widowmaker 811 said:

Damn, you make a good point!  Bran is slowly descending to the dark. 

That being said, I don't think the story has a traditional villain who wants to do ill just for the sake of evil.  I like any character who are enemies of the Starks.  My favorite "villains" are Walder Frey, Roose Bolton, and Littlefinger.  Bowen Marsh is not really a villain.  Jon Snow committed treason and Bowen is  just a loyal man doing his job, no different from Illyn Payne.

I wouldn't call killing the LC 'doing his job'. It was an assassination, not a death sentence. Plus, Jon hadn't actually committed treason yet, just announced he was going to. He could've still changed his mind (like he did the first time he ran away). I'm also not sure if Bowen would've had the legal authority to sentence Jon to death once he had actually committed treason. I think the LC has that authority, and so does the king (and the lords in his name), but I'm not sure who else in the Night's Watch would be allowed to do that. It's definitely different from Ilyn Payne, who is ordered to carry out the sentence, but doesn't decide who to sentence to death himself.

[SeanF]

Either Roose Bolton or Cersei.  They are both, objectively speaking, terrible people, but also great fun to read about.

[Ashes Of Westeros]

I find it extremely difficult to define which characters I consider villains, because apart from clear psycopaths like Joffrey, Ramsay or the Mountain, most of them have reasons for their actions. So they aren't clasical villains for sake of being evil.

My favorite is probably Tywin Lannister. I like his Machiavellian mind and his strategy. I would like to see his POV especially about Tyrion's trial, though his motivations are pretty clear I assume he must be torn inside to some point.

Another villain I enjoy reading about is Euron. He is totally different type. Euron is enigmatic and doesn't belong to the real world. Like the Others. I found Greyjoy's chapters generally boring as Iron Islands' landscape, but Euron has changed my mind.

Spoiler

though him sexually abusing his little brothers in TWOW was too much in my opinion

 

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

2 minutes ago, Ashes Of Westeros said:

I find it extremely difficult to define which characters I consider villains, because apart from clear psycopaths like Joffrey, Ramsay or the Mountain, most of them have reasons for their actions. So they aren't clasical villains for sake of being evil.

Huh? Villains, as a general rule, do have their understandable motivations. Lord Vader, Hans Gruber, Lady Macbeth, Terminator. I don't think "evil for the sake of being evil", the Joker-style, is any more "classical" than "evil reasonable".