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The Best Villains in Literature


SeanF

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Following on from the various "What Are Your Choices....." threads, who would you consider to be the best villains in literature?  I would suggest that they should comply with CS Lewis' dictum that "to be truly and effectively wicked, a man needs some virtues", which equally applies to women, and non-humans .  Usually, those virtues are courage and resolution, often intelligence, loyalty to one's followers, even perhaps a degree of compassion (but mixed with complete cruelty to those who don't merit compassion in their eyes).  Unlike the completely despicable villains, these characters should excite some admiration among readers.  So, in no particular order, I'd rate:-

  • Milady de Winter from the Three Musketeers,
  • Harry Flashman, from the Flashman Papers,
  • Roose Bolton, from a Song of Ice and Fire,
  • Captain Kennit from the Liveships Trilogy,
  • Emhyr var Emreis, from the Witcher stories,
  • The Lady from the Black Company Stories,
  • General Woundwort from Watership Down,
  • Lord Toronaga, from Shogun,
  • Jadis, from the Magician's Nephew,
  • Macbeth
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Villains are usually the most interesting characters in novels. I would include all of my responses from the most unlikable/despicable thread, but some additional ones would be:

Javert from Les Miserables( not a villain, but an excellent antagonist)

Steerpike from the Gormenghast trilogy

Mandrake and Rune from Duncton Wood

The Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont from Les Liasons Dangereuses

Livia from I, Claudius

Dudley Smith from James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet( he was mentioned in the despicable unlikable thread, but he works for both in my opinion)

General Woundwort from Watership Down as mentioned by SeanF (still need to buy a General Woundwort t-shirt)

Iago from Othello

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sticking to fantasy (though I would agree that Graves' Livia is a truly magnificent villain):

  • General Woundwort, by Richard Adams
  • Empress Jadis, by C.S. Lewis
  • Steerpike, by Mervyn Peake
  • Lord Gro, by E.R. Eddison
  • Lord Foul, by Stephen Donaldson
  • Gollum, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Roose Bolton, by George R.R. Martin
  • Dolores Umbridge, by J.K. Rowling
  • The Auditors of Reality, by Terry Pratchett
  • The Nothing, by Michael Ende
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3 hours ago, Andrew Gilfellon said:
  1. Eragon because he doesn't even realise he's evil.
  2. Bayas from the First Law series.

Also, Richard Rahl. Guy is an absolute tyrant who is ready to kill anybody who doesn't worship him.And he legitimately thinks that he is doing good while throughout the series he kills the heroes who tries to stop him. Goodkind is a literary genius.

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On 16.8.2017 at 8:54 AM, Gronzag said:

The Consult, The Second Apocalypse

My problem with them is that they are a group of villains and I don't know much about the individual characters yet. Their motives seem quite abstract, so it's hard for me to like them the same way as the others on the list below. I'm currently in the middle of TGO, so maybe I'll learn more soon. But I think that Kellhus will become the main villain of the series, and he's definitely among my favourites.

Others:

  • Varys: I knew that he's up to something from the very beginning though it wasn't clear whether it was really him Arya watched conspiring with Illyrio, and had a careful look at his actions. The Blackfyre theory blew up my mind nevertheless - I totally love it!
  • Littlefinger: I simply love schemers, and he's probably the creepies: t and most cunning one I know.
  • Bayaz (First Law trilogy and subsequent stories): Scheming, manipulating, vain hypocrite. The very essence of a grey eminence.
  • Mephistopheles, mainly from Goethe's Faust. A demi-devil who bets with god that he can lead Faust astray. Though he is clearly the villain, he is not simply portrayed ad a "dark" seducer, but as a witty, charming and even funny person, and that's something I really loved about him.
  • (to be continued)

 

Two other villains i really admire were actually created for the Knights of the Old Republic video games (Star Wars), but they are clearly among my favourites, so I can't finish without at least mentioning them:

  • (Darth) Revan
  • Kreia a. k. a. Darth Traya, Revan's old Jedi Master

Though Revan only appears in part I, it's mainly Kreia's perspective on his actions and decisions in part II that made me love him as a character.

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I posted in the other thread but I thought of a few more...

Thirding geder palliako

The chairmaker from use of weapons...evilist fuck I've ever read.

Ramsay Bolton.

Richard rahl.  Yuck.

Pat Bateman.  Disturbed in a way that kept me from finishing the book

 

 

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On ‎8‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 1:31 AM, redeagl said:

Also, Richard Rahl. Guy is an absolute tyrant who is ready to kill anybody who doesn't worship him.And he legitimately thinks that he is doing good while throughout the series he kills the heroes who tries to stop him. Goodkind is a literary genius.

Richard Rahl (and Kahlan) are very evil people.  Neither has any qualms about slaughtering innocent people, and for good measure, Kahlan threatens to throw her sister into a pit of rapists.  Yet, I think that Goodkind thinks they are virtuous heroes.

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5 hours ago, SeanF said:

Richard Rahl (and Kahlan) are very evil people.  Neither has any qualms about slaughtering innocent people, and for good measure, Kahlan threatens to throw her sister into a pit of rapists.  Yet, I think that Goodkind thinks they are virtuous heroes.

That was the sarcasm ;)  .

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