Today and tomorrow I am participating in the Book Lovers Blog Hop. During this blog hop every host gets to ask a group of authors some reading related questions. Today I'll be asking six authors who they think is the most evil villain. There are links at the end of this post to the rest of the Blog Hop days as well!
It can be pretty hard to nail down just how evil a bad guy is. Most baddies have a reason for doing what they are doing, even in some twisted way. To me, the most evil bad guy is one who takes away the humanity of a person, stripping them of the right to choose, the right to be different. IT in A Wrinkle In Time comes close for me. IT does this by telepathically taking over the victim's mind and forcing them to conform. To top all this off, IT isn't so easy to defeat completely either! (I love Villains that never completely go away!)
The mind is a delicate and valuable thing. The mind is what makes you, well... you. I've seen first hand what damage to a mind can do. Stripping a once hopeful person of all their dreams, making them forget things they once knew, altering their personality so they are no longer who they once were. Villains that toy with their victims mind, manipulating and/or damaging them in any way will always win the Most Evil Victim award in my opinion.
What do you ladies think?
It can be pretty hard to nail down just how evil a bad guy is. Most baddies have a reason for doing what they are doing, even in some twisted way. To me, the most evil bad guy is one who takes away the humanity of a person, stripping them of the right to choose, the right to be different. IT in A Wrinkle In Time comes close for me. IT does this by telepathically taking over the victim's mind and forcing them to conform. To top all this off, IT isn't so easy to defeat completely either! (I love Villains that never completely go away!)
The mind is a delicate and valuable thing. The mind is what makes you, well... you. I've seen first hand what damage to a mind can do. Stripping a once hopeful person of all their dreams, making them forget things they once knew, altering their personality so they are no longer who they once were. Villains that toy with their victims mind, manipulating and/or damaging them in any way will always win the Most Evil Victim award in my opinion.
What do you ladies think?
Defining the most evil villain is hard to do. I think for me it comes down to motivation. For example Moriarty to me isn’t evil, he is just motivated by using his wits to gain what he wants. Then you have Sauron and Voldemort who are absolutely evil, but are they the MOST evil. Perhaps. Voldemort though is a “children’s” evil which fails to portray depravity. Sauron’s evil is masked by the other villains in the story who are concentrated on more. Except for maybe in the Silmarillion, but that is like reading the begats section of the bible for me, so I couldn’t choose him. So I took the road of choosing the character that made my skin crawl and found that it was none other than Jack the Ripper. In Alex Grecian’s The Devil’s Workshop he is portrayed as “Saucy Jack” another name that Scotland Yard gave to the notorious serial killer. He has rules, yes but the way his mind works is chilling… chilling. Coming in a close second is Dr. Peter Teleborian in Stig Larsen’s The Girl that shook The Hornet's Nest. To explain his evil is difficult because I could give away the ending and some would argue Nils Bjurman, Martin Vanger or even Zalachenko were more evil. All of them were chilling, but what Teleborian did to Lisbeth is appalling.
There are so many evil villains out there who would easily merit the top spot, but I’m going to go with Ackerman from the Shepherd series by Ethan Cross. Father of Fear (the third book in the series) is when we see just how evil, and twisted this man really is. As far as serial killers go he is definitely at the top of the list with how much he enjoys torturing his victims. What makes him the most evil though is the experimenting he does on his own family. Ackerman Jr really didn’t have much of a chance with a father like that… and although he holds his own ranking in the evil villain list, he’s nothing compared to his father.
I think it’s safe to say that the most evil villain in the fictional world is someone everyone can hate with a passion that’s almost holy, and that’s Professor Dolores Umbridge. I mean, how can you not hate the evil little toad of a woman. She was specifically cruel to anyone who did not go along with her exact thoughts of how things should be done. Ugh! Monster!
Belinda Bekkers www.belindabekkers.com
I think Cruella del Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmations and Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories are pretty unbeatable. Pap in the Mosquito Coast is also evil.
I think Cruella del Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmations and Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories are pretty unbeatable. Pap in the Mosquito Coast is also evil.
Villains should be complicated and three-dimensional. They can’t just be bad because they’re bad. They’ve got to have a good motivation for what they do! To me, a terrible and chilling villain is the Queen in the Hall from Elizabeth Marie Pope’s The Perilous Gard because she doesn’t believe she is evil, she’s only doing what she must to keep her and her faerie folks’ way of life secure. There’s no reasoning with an antagonist like that!
When I hear “most evil villain” my mind instantly goes to Sephiroth from Final Fantasy. (I know, they’re games, not books. Haha) In my childhood Sephiroth was the baddest bad guy out there. My brothers and I would have conversations about how cruelly evil he could be. I think in my mind he will always hold the Most Evil trophy. ;)
How about you, dear readers? Do you have a Villain that you love to hate? Leave a comment for all of us in the comments section below!
I have to go with One from Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones. He’s this head of the galactic council who has extended his lifespan with various treatments to make sure he never has to pass his rule to anyone else. And he’s ruthlessly destroyed the descendents of the true reigning house, turning them into slaves and worse. No blood is shown, of course, but it’s very implied. I think the implications are so horrible because your mind gets to fill them in. The things he did to one of the heroes … I just shudder, even now. And he does it with a smile and completely friendly logic.
How about you, dear readers? Do you have a Villain that you love to hate? Leave a comment for all of us in the comments section below!
Book Lovers Blog Hop Schedule!
(Links are likely to not go live until the date of)
What are you reading this month? TBR list for August
2nd August https://skyehegyes.com/2017/08/02/023/
What’s your favourite genre to read?
3rd August www.katherineapisana.com
Where do you get your books?
Best read of 2017 so far?
5th August http://upstreamwriter.blogspot.com/2017/08/book-lovers-blog-hop-who-is-your.html?spref=fb
Favourite author?
Favourite book cover design?
7th August http://m.brandypotterbooks.com/
Preferred book format? (ebook, print, audio)
How do you organise your bookshelves ?
10th August http://upstreamwriter.blogspot.com/2017/08/book-lovers-blog-hop-who-is-your.html?spref=fb
Favourite book to movie adaption?
11th August www.virginialorijennings.com
Most evil villain?
12th August www.virginialorijennings.com
What’s the best plot twist you’ve read?
13th August http://www.cjbrightley.com
Favourite fictional character?
14th August www.JustBJordan.com
Best fictional friendship?
15th August www.saderena.com/blog
Best book series?
16th August http://www.angelaguidolinauthor.co.uk/blog
Most thought provoking book you’ve read?
17th August www.tabithacaplinger.com
Top 3 books you think everyone should read
18th August www.skyehegyes.com
Where do you post your reviews of books you’ve read?
19th August www.landsuncharted.com
What was the last book you gave a 5 star review?
20th August kmcarrollblog.wordpress.com
Which book do you wish had a sequel?
21st August www.upstreamwriter.blogspot.com
Which author would you most want to interview and why?
22nd August www.JoLinsdell.com
How often do you go to the library?
23rd August www.belindabekkers.com
Goodreads challenge/reading goal for this year? On track so far?
24th August www.FabianSpace.com
Do your family/friends support your reading habit?
25th August http://theliteraryapothecary.blogspot.com
Do you enter book giveaways? Last prize you won?
26th August www.JustBJordan.com
Name a book that made you cry
27th August www.jebraunclifford.com
Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself being an author in the future?
28th August www.brandypotterbooks.com
When did you get into reading?
29th August www.skyehegyes.com
What do you do to get out of a reading slump?
30th August www.brandypotterbooks.com
If a genie were to grant you 3 bookish wishes, what would you ask for and why?
31st August www.landsuncharted.com
Do you take part in readathons? Why? If yes, which are your favourites?
So many awesomely evil villains. Great Answers everyone.
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