Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Nastiest Villans!


It's top ten Tuesday again, brought to you by the Broke and the Bookish! This week we explore those nasty villains you just love to hate.

1. Jack Randall-Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. This guy is just despicable! He consistently abuses his power and will stop at nothing to not just capture his enemy, but to destroy him entirely-making his life a living hell. Death is easy compared to a fate like that.


2. Blaine the train from The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. What an amazing villain. He is super intelligent and incredibly evil. His set up and entrance into the story was wonderfully imaginative, and the rhyme associated with him is haunting.

3. William Hamleigh from Pillars of the Earth. Everything about this character I hated-as he is supposed to be. There wasn't one redeeming thing about him, and I waited the whole book to see him get his comeuppance.

4. Cathy from East of Eden. I loved Cathy because she was just so completely flawed. She is the perfect villain who shows no remorse at all when she is hurting those around her. She is not really human-something is missing from her soul.

5. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille from Perfume. A lover of beauty to such an extent that he loses touch with humanity. His path is interesting to read, but I certainly wouldn't want to meet him-creepy.

6. Faust-the original villain in my opinion. He sells his soul for youth and beauty, and never falters when he destroys the life of an innocent maiden unfortunate enough to have crossed his path. Some would say that 'the devil made him do it' but he could have refused. His weakness makes him the greater evil.

7. Simon Legree-Uncle Tom's Cabin. He takes pleasure in beating slaves. There is nothing likeable about this character. A true villain.

8. Abigail Williams from The Crucible. She convinces an entire town that she can tell who is a witch and who isn't-thereby destroying said town and turning neighbor against neighbor. A really nasty little girl.

9. Javert from Les Miserables. The villain, but a very dedicated man devoted to the point of mania. He will stop at nothing until he captures Jean Valjean. His heart is in the right place, but his obsession makes him a very dangerous person.

10. Iago from Otello. This guy is just evil to the core. He turns Otello from his wife out of petty jealousy, but he does it so cunningly that Otello doesn't even notice it. Very subtly the seed of doubt and hatred is placed between the once happily married couple.

well there's 10. I think I could have kept going really, but I'll leave it there. How does it compare to your list?

6 comments:

Red said...

Javert is a great choice for this list. You're right about his heart being in the right place. He's just so manically single-minded that he can't see how crazy he is.

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

I consider Javer for my list, too, though he wasn't so much of an evil villain as just an uncompromising rule-follower.
-Anne
http://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I have Grenouille on my list as well. It's not every day when the main character of a book is the villain, as well :)

Anonymous said...

Javert is a GREAT choice. He was so one-minded that his obsession was the driving force. He refused to see all the good Valjean was doing, especially in the light of Valjean merely being a thief for necessity's purpose.

Sugar and Snark said...

Glad you chose William Hamleigh! He is the worst!

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

These are some great bad guys from some good books!

Here's my Top Ten Baddies List.

I hope you will also stop by my blog, Readerbuzz, and enter to win A TRIP TO PARIS or a $25 AMAZON GIFT CERTIFICATE!