You know, those nasty characters who bring conflict to the story with
their dastardly deeds. The writer can pluck the worst and best emotions
from a reader by creating believable villains. Readers will keep turning
the pages to find out if these ne’er-do-wells get what he or she so
justly deserves.
I’ve created a list of my Top Ten Villains from
books and movies. I’m sure you have some hum-dingers of your own. Please
share them!
10.) King Edward Longshanks: In Braveheart,
how very villainous of the King to invoke Primae Noctis—the right of
the a lord to take any newly married Scottish woman to his bed. The
injustice is enough to make him despicable.
9.) Snidely Whiplash from Rocky and Bullwinkle:
Snidely holds the mortgage to Nell’s home and threatens to evict her if
the mortgage isn’t paid. I could never figure out why he tied her to
the train tracks, but we children booed anyhow. Also, Snidely has a
villainous sneer and is sneaky. More booing.
8.) The Sheriff of
Nottingham: The nemesis of Robin Hood, the Sheriff upholds the law not
because it’s the right thing to do but because he wants to curry favor
with the King. We’ve all known people like him. My favorite sheriff was
played by Alan Rickman in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. (1991) Boo. Hiss.
7.) Gordon Gecko in Wall Street:
First of all, lovely name. Second, greed isn’t good and if you
shuddered when he gave his famous iconic speech, we are of the same
generation. The oily hair helped make him a repulsive character.
6.) Fagen, from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist:
He did take in those street kids and teach them a trade. However,
anyone who hurts children is a surefire villain. Unfortunately, we read
about people like him too frequently in modern times.
5.) Boyd Crowder, the smooth-talking bad boy in Justified: (On the FX channel.) This character is taken from a book by Elmore Leonard called Fire in the Hole.
Boyd is complicated because he’s so darn likeable and has some good
traits, (and is a hunk with great hair) but the bad things he does are
really bad.
4.) The Grinch created by Dr. Seuss: We laugh at his antics but the message is clear.
3.) Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum: Again a villain who wants to harm children. Her laugh gave me the chills. Bad dreams are made of this.
2.) Inspector Javert: In Les Miserables,
by Victor Hugo, no amount of sympathetic backstory makes up for this
dude’s obsession with Jean Valjean, the man who stole a loaf of bread to
feed his nephew and went to prison for his crime. Even after Valjean
served out his prison sentence, Javert won’t give him any peace.
Number 1. Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris: The devil himself. The Master Villain. Nothing redeemable there. A villain to keep us up at night.
There are so many more villains but these are my favorites! Who are yours?
Sarah Richmond
http://www.SarahRichmond.com
Sarah Richmond is the author of A Perilous Proposal and its sequel, A Secret Engagement.
Two Edwardian mysteries/love stories with plenty of villains, and a
heroine and hero working diligently to make sure they don’t win.
Visit the author at http://www.SarahRichmond.com
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2 comments:
What a great list of memorable villains – we've read the same books/watched the same movies! I enjoy stories with villains who are well-crafted and have solid reasons for being the bad guy.
Just as long as they get their comeuppance at the end.
That's for sure! Thanks for leaving a comment.
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