Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! This is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where a new top ten list hits the web every week!
This week our topic is …
ALL ABOUT THE VILLAINS
What great story is complete without an amazing villain. Sure, they come in many different forms, but the one thing all great villains have in common is the ability to arouse strong emotions in readers. And, like everyone else, I have my personal favorites, whom I hope you agree with me on.
10. DARTH VADER
No list would be complete without the villain who inspired more nightmares when I was a kid and who I killed in more mock lightsaber duels in my backyard. Definitely, his vileness isn’t nearly as bad as his Master the Emperor, but for me, Vader was the first villain to inspire real fear and loathing.
9. LOKI
Back in the 1980s when I was just coming out of my Star Wars fever dream, I discovered Walter Simonson’s Thor comic, and I also uncovered another villain who I have always loved to hate: Loki. And, thankfully, actor Tom Hiddleston has turned an already great character into one who demands the spotlight in every Marvel film he is in.
8. LADY
I love Lady. Always have actually. I have always liked to think that the good in her outweighs the bad, but the simple truth is she was a historically bad villain. I mean, she and her husband the Dominator were so bad yet so powerful they were buried alive in barrows and surrounded by wards to keep them there forever. I mean, how bad do you have to be for people to do that to you? Bad to the bone. So while I love her, Lady has to be included here.
7. LORD FOUL
While definitely in the Sauron (of Lord of the Rings) mold, Lord Foul is a villain whom readers interact with on more than one occasion and learn to both loath and fear. He is the cancer which is slowly destroying the world, the strife which is pitting brother against brother, the dark whisper in your mind urging you to commit heinous deeds. Foul is pure evil in its undiluted form. Nothing much to like with this guy, but he does a great job being exactly what he is: a villain.
6. ALAI ATREIDES
Paul Atreides younger sister, Alia, was a creepy child from the moment she was born. Definitely, she has her good points, but throughout her story, her downward trajectory into power hungry mad woman is fairly consistent and pronounced. Despot = villain in my eyes.
5. SAURON
No, you never really get to know this ancient villain up close and personal like more modern ones, but for the type of remote, ominous antagonist he was meant to be, Sauron is perfect in every way. Just the mere utterance of his name inspires fear in all the bravest in Middle Earth, so as a young reader, I couldn’t help but be terrified of this entity. What more can you ask of a villain except to be universally feared.
4. SA’BA TAALOR
Okay, I am tweaking the topic to fit my pick here, but with the Sa’ba Taalor I can’t pick just one character as the villain of the series. Rather, this whole group of people are some of the best villains to come along in ages. They are unique, nearly superhuman, skilled, zealots, and pure killers. What more could any sword and sorcery fan want from their villains than all those qualities? Nothing. And that is why the Sa’ba Taalor as a whole are on this list.
3. RANDALL FLAGG
Whether it is as the demonic creature in The Stand or as Roland Deschain’s nemesis in The Dark Tower series, this villain has been a major player in so many of Stephen King’s novels over the years that I have spent a great deal of my life absolutely despising this guy and wanting to see him die. But even a hater like me has to admit, Randall Flagg has been one hell of an antagonist.
2. THE DARK
These subterranean horrors begin this trilogy as ominous creatures of death who erupt from underground every night to feast upon the human population. As mysterious agents of death, they are terribly successful, but Barbara Hambly slowly reveals more and more about them until what they truly are is the biggest twist and payoff of the entire trilogy. Well, at least, they were to me, but then again, I love history and archaeology . . . and conspiracy theories.
1. CERSEI LANNISTER
No villain list would be complete without someone from Game of Thrones. The only problem is who exactly to choose. There are so many horrible villains in this series. But the one whom I never can seem to find a bit of empathy for is Cersei. She is pure evil to me.
Great list! 🙂
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Thanks!
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Good one! I’d have gone for Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones, mind you, with Joffrey as a second. Cersei would be number three. Hard to choose just one in a series with so many rotten characters, of course…
As for Sauron, his back story is exposed in Silmarillion. It’s pretty good stuff, too 🙂
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I thought of Joffrey and Ramsey, but they are so damn close to being completely insane that there evilness is almost a result of their mental health issues. Cersei, on the other hand, is not crazy at all; she is smart, subtle, and amazingly agile in the ways she spins her webs and destroys her enemies. Definitely, she is damn good at it all, but her cold blooded villainy scares the S@#t out of me, because you never see it coming.
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The woman’s got issues…
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Joffrey didn’t fall far from the tree. 🙂
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Alai Atreides freaked me out when I was a kid and found Dune on TV. Not sure what it was about her though. Which series is Lady from? Sounds and looks really interesting.
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Alai was a devil child in the Dune movie especially. Freaked me out too. Lady is from Glen Cook’s Black Company novels.
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Cool. Thanks. I’ll put them on my ‘to read’ list.
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Lady is awesome and Darth Vader is iconic!
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Great list! I also have Sauron and Cersei on mine 😀
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Great minds think alike. 🙂
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Ha ha … yeah. Cersei. Though, Ramsey? He’s pretty damn bad and twisted.
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I’m with you on Loki. I still need to read The Stand, but if the mini-series is anything to go on I completely agree with you on Randall Flagg.
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I don’t think Cersei was pure evil. She’s just desperate for power and approval. Ramsay Bolton on the other hand… Darth Vader is definitely one of the best villains. His entrance in a New Hope was just so foreboding and him nonchalant forcechoking Imperial officers just cemented his villainy. I’ve yet to read the Black Company novels yet, but Lady is definitely one of the points I’m looking forward to. There’s a lot of talk about how awesome of a villain she is.
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This is a good list and I agree that there are several in GOT. I also agree that Alai Atrieides got scary. What The Dark One from Wheel of Time? That was a villain that go all up in your business in so many ways!
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