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What Are Your Choices for the Most Despicable and Unlikable Characters in all of Literature ?


GAROVORKIN

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ON Human Bondage. Mildred  didn't posses so  much as a particle of decency  or humanity,  she was a selfish monster  who used everyone she came into contact.  She  treated  Philip Cary like absolute  garbage and yet  he stupidly kept pursuing her, hoping for some unfathomable reason that she would come to love hm. It took him while smarten up and finally see Mildred for the wretched person that she truly was.

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On ‎8‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 2:17 AM, C.T. Phipps said:

I think he's an okay dude. Gives fish, bread, and wine for free.

Fanclub?

I can take or leave some of them.

:)

I actually liked Glokta until the end of the First Law Trilogy. After all the torture, brutality, and awfulness--it was only his treatment of the queen which made me genuinely hate him.

Lots of people like Glokta, despite (or maybe even because of) his treatment of the Queen.

I thought Bayaz was even worse, though.

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On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 11:38 PM, GAROVORKIN said:

This topic covers all the major genres..  Which characters and what makes them so memorably  despicable and unlikable ? :mellow:

Screwtape.

A vain, petty, vindictive, mean-minded, middle-ranking bureaucrat.  Like Umbridge, we've all met people like him.

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16 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Just about any catholic leader/priest in any Bernard Cornwell book.

There's always a few nice ones either of the warrior priest variety or humble and genuinely faithful type but Cornwell is fond of his horribly corrupt bishops, confessors, abbots and preachers.

I think Sansum from the Warlord Chronicles is fittingly all of those and some point or another and as such is clearly the worst of the bunch.

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I'm going to say that in addition to the easy answers of Ramsey Bolton, Joffrey, Walder Frey, and the Mountain that I'm personally one of the biggest haters of Rhaegar Targaryen. I really dislike how just about everyone gives the guy a pass for all of his boneheaded mistakes while coming down on Robert. For me, honestly, I think him getting his chest smashed him by Robert was the best thing to happen to Westeros.

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9 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I'm going to say that in addition to the easy answers of Ramsey Bolton, Joffrey, Walder Frey, and the Mountain that I'm personally one of the biggest haters of Rhaegar Targaryen. I really dislike how just about everyone gives the guy a pass for all of his boneheaded mistakes while coming down on Robert. For me, honestly, I think him getting his chest smashed him by Robert was the best thing to happen to Westeros.

Is he sufficiently developed as a character for such a judgement? (That's what I doubt but it's been a long time I read the books, so I am not sure.) And if he is mainly stupid or prone to mistakes is he rather to be pitied than censored?

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On 14.8.2017 at 4:56 AM, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

In fairness to the Underground Man, I find him reassuring. No matter how messed up your life, he'll always be worse.

Does the Underground Man ever do anything bad? He hates everyone including himself but he mostly broods and does not do anything, or does he?

The worst Dostoevsky character is probably Fyodor Karamazov; an unrepetentant asshole if there ever was one whereas I think most "bad guys" in "The Demons" (who might be technically worse) or Svidrigailov can evoke some compassion. (Dostoevsky gave the old Karamazov his first name and patronymic...) Another complete bastard is the seducer/"benefactor" of Natalya Filipowna in "The Idiot" but he is comparably pale (I even forgot his name).

 

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14 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I'm going to say that in addition to the easy answers of Ramsey Bolton, Joffrey, Walder Frey, and the Mountain that I'm personally one of the biggest haters of Rhaegar Targaryen. I really dislike how just about everyone gives the guy a pass for all of his boneheaded mistakes while coming down on Robert. For me, honestly, I think him getting his chest smashed him by Robert was the best thing to happen to Westeros.

I have a crackpot theory that Rhaegar had Aspergers. 

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Agree on Umbridge. Voldemort was evil and monstrous sure, but he's almost a Macguffin. Umbridge was very real and human. That's true across a lot of books for me. For example, Sauron is just basically faceless evil but Saruman is the worst in a more specific way.

From other genres, Lady Catherine de Bourgh of course... and Ledward and Wray from POB. 

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19 hours ago, Talleyrand said:

There's always a few nice ones either of the warrior priest variety or humble and genuinely faithful type but Cornwell is fond of his horribly corrupt bishops, confessors, abbots and preachers.

I think Sansum from the Warlord Chronicles is fittingly all of those and some point or another and as such is clearly the worst of the bunch.

Traitor, paedophile, coward, thief, bigot, there really isn't much that can be said in his defence.

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