It's the driving force in any good story, in my opinion. Sometimes a villain becomes more akin to a force of nature which constantly works against a story's protagonist. I think such is the case with Javert of Les Miserables fame.

Hes a character who normally would be seen as quite upstanding and virtuous... until you get on the wrong side of his ideals. The man is brutal, cunning, ruthless, and completely without mercy. I'd almost go so far as to say that Javert would be the closest thing that Victor Hugo's era had to a Terminator. He can't be bargained with, he can't be reasoned with, and he will never, EVER stop... until Valjean is either dead or behind bars again. And all for something as trivial as a parole violation! :twisted:

And yet, on some level, you empathized with him. He follows his own set of noble ideals, however skewed, and one wonders about the tragic past that must have led to him becoming an iron man of the French authorities. In Javert's eyes, Valjean is symbolic of the corruption he mercilessly fights, and cannot bring himself to believe that Valjean has become the compassionate and loving character that he is. To do so would violate every truth he's spent his life trying to uphold.

Anyways, I've done a mile long rant, so I'll relent. Who is your favorite book villain and why?

Cthulhu! Ahem. Am I correct in assuming that by "literary," you're not talking about the Star Wars novels? Because Grand Admiral Thrawn's my personal favourite . . .

Come to think of it, I don't read much actual literature. O_o I love Pride and Predjudice, but Wickham's not really an actual villain. And Cthulhu's just . . . well, an Elder God, so there. Or is he just a priest of the Elder Gods? I forget.

I've never seen or read Les Miserables (though I can pronounce it correctly!); I've never really wanted to. I ought to. Someday.

I think Thrawn is interesting because you get to see his character progression backwards, as it were, because in the first trilogy he's in, he's a big, bad mo' fo' of a military super-genius (don't get me started on how he died --- screw you, Lucas!) who just happens to be the only alien in an otherwise human Empire . . . it's intruiging. Then you read the later books, and it's revealed that wait, he's doing this all for his people? Oh, but then there's Outbound Flight, where you meet Thrawn before he got exiled, and see what a total fall from grace he went through.

Very intruiging. I'm such a fangirl.

Other villains I like would be Mr. Teatime from Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather" Discworld novel. I don't suppose the Patrician counts, but he's fabulous anyway. Lost my train of thought, here.

Don't even need to read the book, just go see the musical :D

Save you a hell of a lot of time. Not to mention it's just a really awesome production.

And I don't see why Thrawn can't be mentioned here. I think his entire concept is paradoxical in an intriguing way; a high ranking alien commander in a xenophobic human empire. Of course, as far as Star Trek goes, Palpatine has always struck me as the all encompassing villain... essentially the dark side of the force physically manifested into a haggard, but dangerous old man :P

I haven't read Lovecraft yet, but I do believe Cthulu looks alot like an illithid. Or illithids look like Cthulu. Either way, things with squidlike heads are icky. :D[/b]

Favorite villain? Now, how are we defining the term? I mean, is someone who opposes the heroes automatically a villain? Mercedes Lackey has a new book out where a guy notices that the world's balance of evil is low, so he decides to add to it. Is he a villain?

Ha, a friend of mine just did a big poll earlier this year where he started off with a huge list of literary villains and asked people to vote them off one by one. In the end, I don't know who won the competition, but it all came down to Satan, Sauron, and Voldemort.

Personally, I think that my favorite villain is Iago from Shakespeare's Othello. As much as I love more modern novels, this guy provides the basic character type for every contemporary antagonist. He's a work of art more than anything.

Originally Posted by Somercy

Favorite villain? Now, how are we defining the term? I mean, is someone who opposes the heroes automatically a villain? Mercedes Lackey has a new book out where a guy notices that the world's balance of evil is low, so he decides to add to it. Is he a villain?

He might be an 'anti-villain' as the terminology defines it, but that's still technically a villain in my book. I guess the real requirement is that he has to commit an act or multiple acts of 'evil' against the protagonist or other innocents for whatever end. Whether or not he's doing it for some other perceived greater good, he then fits into the definition :D

I haven't read the book yet, so I can't call him a favorite. Let's see. I can't remember the spelling of her name, but the bureaucrat in Callahan's Con by Spider Robinson is an obstacle who becomes a real person near the end of the book. She's pretty cool.

I am! XD. And now, I'll move away from being mildly conceited...

I've always liked Inspector Javert, ever since I first heard the soundtrack from Les Miserables. I always found him to be an interesting character, as he's the reverse of what a 'standard' villain is. Most would think that the police officer is the 'good' character, but not in Les Mis. Instead, the novel's written in a way where the police are bad, and rebels are good. Aside from that, I admire his persistance. I know I'd never be able to hunt someone down for as long as he did, even if I was a cop. I think I'd eventually leave it to someone else, if it were me. Especially for such a minor crime.
I wouldn't hunt down someone like that for such a minor crime, but even so.. I find that trait very admirable.

Aside from being conceited, my second favorite villain is Tom Riddle, from the Harry Potter series. Before he turns into Lord Voldemort. I found his personality to be fascinating, as he could pretend to be a model citizen, yet could have ulterior motives at the same time without it being too obvious. He was calm, calculating, and intelligent. If he didn't turn into Lord Voldemort, he may have actually beaten Inspector Javert as my favorite literary villain. Unfortunately, he does, and with that change, his personality goes along with it. In my opinion, he just turns stupid. He no longer thinks his plans through thouroughly, no longer does his work in secrecy, and he mindlessly kills people, just because he loses his temper. Tom Riddle wouldn't have done that. :(. That's also a bad trait Tom gains as Voldemort- he starts becoming far too impatient. :(
stupid J.K. Rowling.. she ruined Tom with book 7. Before then, he acted pretty much the same. And then that comes out, and his personality's ruined.

So Tom Riddle, but NOT voldemort?

I don't know, from reading the books, I think that Rowling's intentions were to gradually expose the multiple flaws of Voldemort, and to sort of break him down from the seemingly unconquerable force of evil he was at the beginning of the book. His greatest weakness of course is that he is incapable of understanding love and companionship... he always overlooks the power of these things and exchanges them for more mundane but 'realer' seeming sources of power. Like, he believes that mastering the elder wand will make him invincible, but it ends up killing him just like every other evil master that ever owned it.

I personally find it interesting how he actually brings about his own death whilst attempting vainly to achieve immortality. I kind of find it very tragic that he mindlessly and carelessly sunders his own soul to achieve these ends, and endures an eternal afterlife in the stunted form you read about in book 7.

I guess what I'm getting at is what makes a truly great villain are his flaws and short sightedness. It makes them more human, more believable.

I'm reading Mercedes Lackey's book, The Fairy Godmother (love that authoress), and what the main character is fighting against is basically the force of fairy-tale Tradition. Makes for some interesting scenes. I don't know, is it a villain? It's certainly a bit short-sighted...

i have read a bit too many books to remember all the villans and their dastardly deeds. But if at the moment my favourite villain in literature is... ahhhh i can't think of anyone :evil: i mean i dislike a few "villains" in my books but most of the time the author gives a background to him/her/it that makes their villainy understandable. The emperor in Sarah Ash's trilogy starting with Lord of Snow and Shadows, is evil but is good beneth it all and makes up for it in the end. I can't remember any villains that i truly hated because they were evil.

Satan doesn't count he's a fallen angel and probably won a game of cards against God, who got angry and threw him out.
Sauron was a jeolous old *mouth muffled* man who got the power he wanted from the dark side.
Old Voldy just wants control and was born sour (his mother probably was addicted to lemons when pregnant with him)

She was addicted to lemons when he was born... there's an explanation I've never heard before XD

Well from what I gather, part of Voldy's inability to understand love was because of the fact that he came from a loveless union to begin with; Tom Riddle Sr. was under the influence of Merope's love potion going up to his birth. And then Merope died after Voldy was born, which means he never had any real familial ties or anything resembling that kind of love. So he becomes t3h 3vil. lol

And as far as I know, Sauron wasn't an old man, or even a maiar disguised as an old man (like Gandalf or Saruman)... one of his physical manifestations was actually that of a handsome, charming, goodly knight who proceeded to cause the downfall of the Dunedain, or something like that. I can't remember the specifics. But HIS deal is he was basically the lieutenant of the FIRST dark lord, who was Morgoth. And after Morgoth got his candy @$$ handed to him, Sauron actually surpassed him in ambition and power to become the new dark lord himself. Of course, he got his bitch @$$ slapped too. And by a hobbit!

The big wuss.

Originally Posted by Berginyon

She was addicted to lemons when he was born... there's an explanation I've never heard before XD

Well from what I gather, part of Voldy's inability to understand love was because of the fact that he came from a loveless union to begin with; Tom Riddle Sr. was under the influence of Merope's love potion going up to his birth. And then Merope died after Voldy was born, which means he never had any real familial ties or anything resembling that kind of love. So he becomes t3h 3vil. lol

And as far as I know, Sauron wasn't an old man, or even a maiar disguised as an old man (like Gandalf or Saruman)... one of his physical manifestations was actually that of a handsome, charming, goodly knight who proceeded to cause the downfall of the Dunedain, or something like that. I can't remember the specifics. But HIS deal is he was basically the lieutenant of the FIRST dark lord, who was Morgoth. And after Morgoth got his candy @$$ handed to him, Sauron actually surpassed him in ambition and power to become the new dark lord himself. Of course, he got his bitch @$$ slapped too. And by a hobbit!

The big wuss.

see that's what i mean, (with Voldy) you can see why he is the way he is, you see a lot with muggles so put a messed-up kid with big hocus-pocus magic you have major @$$ kicking to come
Sauron is a bit harder to sympathize with but a arrogant *muffled word* handsome guy will fall prey to his own pride sooner or later.
GO HOBBITS! I am one and we rock!
With lots of food afterwards.

I think the reason is that in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he's more designed to be a pure, elemental force of evil, rather than a personality. They don't really delve too much into his character, save his motivations for the conquest of middle earth.

I think they explain more about his actual personality in the Silmarillion, but I've never read it myself.

^ You really should. It's a great introduction to Middle Earth.

And it helps you gain a deeper understanding of all the characters, not just Sauron.

I have a copy of the book... but I'm pretty sure I left it in Canada ><

Oh well. There's always the library... I still have to get the last 20 things I checked out back to them though. :3

Here's a random thought:

Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in their marmite reaction but love or hate them you got to read them.

Mainly to see what the fuss is all about. :idea:

I just have to say...
Javert in Les Miserables is the best villian.
Either him or Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Ah oui, tres bien! Those Frenchies... they produce some memorable villains, don't they?

And Tony Jay voiced Frollo in the Disney movie... one of the greatest villain voices in animation. Although of course, being kiddy friendly it wasn't exactly accurate to the book... Frollo is decidedly more villainous and Esmeralda is not nearly as self-centered... oh and I believe Phoebus is actually a villain :-D

Originally Posted by Berginyon

Ah oui, tres bien! Those Frenchies... they produce some memorable villains, don't they?

And Tony Jay voiced Frollo in the Disney movie... one of the greatest villain voices in animation. Although of course, being kiddy friendly it wasn't exactly accurate to the book... Frollo is decidedly more villainous and Esmeralda is not nearly as self-centered... oh and I believe Phoebus is actually a villain :-D

I have a question, is Phoebus married in the book? I think I read it somewhere that he was. I think some literal guy on imdb.com was pointing out everything that they changed for a KIDS movie and mentioned that he was actually married.
I think I should read the book...

The best literary villain would have to be Chillingsworth from The Scarlet Letter. Only because Nathaniel Hawthorne is the best classical author I've ever read and because Chillingsworth is just filled with great symbolism.

Having read through this thread, I know realise that my reading material has left me sorely wanting in the decent villain department, I now feel greatly deprived!
With regard to Lord of the Rings, I think Saruman fits the villianous bill there, I love the little spat he and Galdalf have at Orthanc, where Saruman rants at him about purchasing a pair of boots many sizes larger than those he wears now.

Pennywise in IT is evil in a suitably jolly fashion.

Mr.Teatime in The Hogfather it is? HE was a villian of character.

I'm not sure that I want to end up liking the bad guy, but I certainly don't want them to be boring, there's so much scope for fun with character quirks that it's always disappointing if an author doesn't make their baddie a bit perculiar in some way or another.

Well, my favorite evil villain is Lord Voldemort but not for conventional reasons. I like the parallels between his youth and Harry's youth, such as both being orphaned young and being raised in a not so great environment. One cannot truly appreciate Harry's life if they do not know of Voldemort's life. Voldemort was more than just that bad guy fighting the good guy. He shows that, while in a fairly similar path, one can become bad while Harry shows that one can become good.

I feel I have to bring up another notable character whom I enjoyed reading about. Well rather two characters, because when one reads the book, you can't really be sure who's the protagonist and who's the antagonist.

There's Dorian Gray, and the Picture of Dorian Gray... and yes, I do consider the picture to be a character, because it seems to consciously undermine Dorian's perception of himself, particularly after Dorian does something really nasty.

It's pretty clear to me in the book that Dorian is not a very 'good' character. He possibly started out good, but then turned to decadence and hedonism due to the influence of Lord Henry Wotton in the first chapter, I think? But then as soon as he starts getting overly self indulgent and performing selfish acts, his picture jumps on him like an angry conscience, and begins to twist his image, until there's nothing left but a rotting, horrific mutant, mirroring the deterioration of Dorian's soul. This reaches it's apex, I think, when he deliberately murders his friend Basil, and blackmails another friend to dispose of the body.

Is Dorian a villain? He certainly has the traits of one. But maybe the Picture is the real villain, gleefully picking apart Gray's sanity as his every evil act is mirrored in Basil's painting. Almost like an overly dedicated super-ego, who's gone beyond saying, "NO! BAD DORIAN!" and instead develops loathing for him, leading to Dorian's gruesome destruction at the end of the book.

@secretdae007 - And I think you're completely right by the way. Voldemort's villainy is distinct because he isn't just some distant shadowy force who's manipulating events, or some faceless force of evil... he started out as a regular guy, just a petty bully, with flaws and fears just like everyone else. I think the main difference, and Rowling outlines this, is that Tom Riddle was born from an unloving union. Riddle Sr. was coerced into it by Merope's love potion. Plus, Merope died in childbirth, I believe? Whereas both Harry's parents were alive for at least a short while when he was a baby, looking after him and providing the love and care old Voldy never experienced, not to mention giving their lives to save his.

What I really like is how the books expose Voldemort's multiple personality flaws as they go on though ^^

@Jellysundae - Of course villains aren't exactly designed to be the most 'likeable' of characters, but I feel one can still appreciate them. What particularly works for villains is if they have some part of their character which draws at least a tiny bit of reader sympathy. So maybe he or she has a reason for committing evil, but they went about their goals the wrong way, or their sanity has been jarred by events from the past. Or maybe they're just really nasty people who you just want to see bad things happen to ^^

a good villian... hmm there are alot though i would have the say the foxes in Brian Jaques Redwall books take the cake in my opinion. Sneaky, cunning, every thing that a villian could be, and fluffy to boot ^_^

Another really good villian is the Rider from the dark is rising. he jsut has this power over the books in the series, and he generates a feeling of fear and doubt where ever he goes.

a book can't have a good hero without a good villian to back him up.