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/lit/ - Literature

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784221 No.784221 [Reply] [Original]

Best villain in literature

Discuss.

>> No.784225

davy jones

>> No.784226

personally, i think iago is a bit better as a villain. i had no sympathy for him at all.

>> No.784230

Avakadavar!

>> No.784243

The Devil.

>> No.784248

>>784230
Expeliamus!

>> No.784252

harry potter is shit.

>> No.784254

lol the wolf faggot from the twilight series is better

>> No.784255

Voldemort and all his followers couldn't kill a single god damn kid. Even with a man-eating snake set loose in a school-- still no deaths.

>> No.784260

>>784255
Not-retarded-Harry-Potter-reader-here

I agree. The Basilisk got snubbed so bad. However, the Death Eaters did manage to kill some pretty important adult characters who they saw as more of a threat. It is kind lame how no child character died, but I guess thats just how the plot had to go.

>> No.784266
File: 16 KB, 600x443, Mr_Murder-470.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
784266

I rather like Drew Oslett from Mr. Murder. Not sure why.

>> No.784270

The wolves they fought on that hill near the beginning of Fellowship

>> No.784274

Hannibal Lecter from Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris

>> No.784281

>>784260
one or two died, as well as some child-like characters
though most of the deaths seemed useless when they weren't built up
in fact, one boy who died got about a passing sentence in recognition and was never mentioned again.

>> No.784284

>>784274
from what I remember, hannibal lector is barely the villain in that book. I swear that harelip guy was, much like buffalo bill was in silence of the lambs.

>> No.784292

Popeye, from Sanctuary by William Faulkner

>> No.784301

Captain Wolf Larsen from "The Sea Wolf" by Jack London.

>> No.784306
File: 27 KB, 433x323, 27391daef29d44b480e3913a9945b92a232c1a52.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
784306

>>784221

>best antagonist in literature
>not posting Hector of Troy

What

>> No.784320
File: 243 KB, 500x770, cking.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
784320

The Crimson King from the Dark Tower series.

>> No.784345

>>784260
I figure the only reason people died in the final book was so that the Death Eaters didn't look like completely inept idiots. After seven years they finally manage to accidentally cause some collateral damage.

>> No.784346

Communism, in all of Ayn Rand's fiction.

>> No.784352

Big Brother from 1984

>> No.784355

>>784320
He was better as a plot McGuffin than a villain, really.

>> No.784362
File: 24 KB, 317x450, oscar.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
784362

Temptation

>> No.784375

The Devil from the Bible.

>> No.784384

god from the bible.

>> No.784386

Randall Flagg

>> No.784388

>>784221
A-ha, a-ha, a-ha.

>> No.784389

>>784320
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>> No.784393
File: 843 B, 203x212, 1275802590983.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
784393

John Galt from Atlas Shrugged.

>> No.784397

>>784375
see also The Devil - Paradise Lost

>> No.784403
File: 33 KB, 285x475, Fionavar Tapestry.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
784403

What about some fantasy big bads? Morgoth, Lord Foul, Rakoth Maugrim, The Dominator, etc

>> No.784416

>>784292
I just finished Sanctuary, good show.

Judge Holden from The Blood Meridian.

>> No.784426

Iago from Othello.

>> No.784427

>>784403

Morgoth was a rebellious faggot, and so was Sauron.

Carcharoth was an epic antagonist, by comparison.

>> No.784432

>>784427

I concur, Ungoliant was better yet

>> No.784448

>>784306
He's so noble and wonderful that I rooted for the Trojans more than the Achaeans. Never considered him an antagonist really.

For a villain enjoyable for his purely vile ways: Iago
For a villain with depth and a degree of tragedy: Satan in Paradise Lost

>> No.784474

>>784432

Ungoliant angered me. Her offspring didn't sit well with me either.

But that may be because I hate spiders. She was also a treacherous bitch, if you remember what she did to Melkor.

>> No.784537

Iago was definitely brilliant in Othello. He never actually did anything himself, but manipulated everyone into doing his will. A stronger, more adept villian will be hard to find.

>> No.784551

didn't read this thread, answer is lucifer in paradise lost, the classics are the best

>> No.785622
File: 188 KB, 382x478, randall-flagg-email-final-j.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
785622

Randall Flagg

>> No.785631
File: 59 KB, 368x480, ahab.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
785631

TOWARDS THEE I ROLL, THOU ALL-DESTROYING BUT UNCONQUORING WHALE!

>> No.785637

All those dudes that killed the 17 aurelianos

>> No.785648

Every single character in ASoIaF

>> No.785652

>>784474
Seems like a pretty good villain.

>> No.785657

>>784346
>>784362
I lol'd

>>785648
Agreed. They're all a bunch of assholes. What a great series.

>> No.785662

>>784306
wat???
no, i felt so much sympathy for him, much more than most of the greeks.
Hector was a beautiful character.

fuck Paris

>> No.785687

>>785662
Remember Turnus?
The Aeneid's hector?

The book ends with him getting killed Turnus begged for his life at the end. Hector got a tragic death. Hector isn't a villain at all.

Satan from paradise lost is the only best villain in literature.

>> No.785690

>>784397
Miltons satan is the kinda guy that starts baww threads on /b/

>> No.785691
File: 30 KB, 581x320, artist_serious.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
785691

in all of literature?

no. Impossible. Just let me figure out who could be worse...

>> No.785697

>>784551
Clearly didn't understand the book. Lucifer is represented as a tragic hero along side Adam. He's not exactly the villain.

>> No.785700

Why didn't Voldemort just pull out his gat and pop a cap in harry's ass?

>> No.785702

>>785700

Voldy's a busta.

>> No.785710

I would agree with the consensus regarding Iago and Satan.

If done correctly, the antagonist can be the most complex character in a story. There's a certain tendency to try and make villains that are "pure evil," but rarely are there actual people like that. Those characters are unrealistic.

The best villains havea complex system of immorality through irrational justification of their behavior, as well as a set of motivations behind their nefarious actions that go deeper than "because they're evil."

>> No.785717

>>785710
I remember reading a thread about villiains on /v/ and how the ones that were legitimately doing something good but were presented as evil were the best.

Like Crocodile from One Piece. He's a hero of his people, but he's using that reputation to start a needless war in order to position himself as dictator and obtain power.

But thats still too 'evil'. I really want a character than means well, does well, and can't be construed as being evil in any ways except for the results of what their actions were. Then you can't really hate them though. Loghain from Dragon Age:Origins was really close to this, but he did too much premeditation to qualify.

>> No.785721

Kallor

The Crippled God

Jaime Lannister

The Hound

>> No.785734
File: 27 KB, 324x278, 1275289938116.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
785734

>>785697

>> No.785740

Satan in Paradise Lost - Milton.
No question about it.

>> No.785741

I was thinking Ozymandias from Watchmen was a great 'villain.'

I'd say Thomas Sutpen, but he's also the central character of Absalom, Absalom!

>> No.785767

Erebus.

The fucker is single-handedly responsible for Horus Heresy.

>> No.785777

Fantomas

>> No.785788

Petyr Baelish. that man is an unparalled genius with strong motivation and unwavering ambition

>> No.785843
File: 96 KB, 496x634, the bateman.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
785843

Patrick Bateman.

>> No.785846

Aaron from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. Titus was his most bloody and gruesome play and Aaron was the driving force behind about half of the violence. Including tricking Titus into cutting off his right hand to save his two sons and then sending the severed hand back with the heads of the two sons.

>> No.785877

>>784226
Iago is pretty good.
what about The Party in 1984?

>> No.785878

The freakishly horrible serial killer in Thomas Harris's Red Dragon is not Hannibal Lecter, it's Francis Dolarhyde.

I think it's hard to come up with a villian quite as terrible as Gene Wolfe's Typhon. He's bad enough in The Book Of The New Sun. in which he's just a freakishly awful tyrant who's had the Andes sculpted into his likeness, achieved a kind of immortality by having his head grafted onto some hapless victim's body, etc. He's even more awful than Baldanders, and that takes some doing because Baldanders is a fucking monster.

But then if you read The Book Of The Long Sun, you get a sense of just what kind of perverse egomaniacal shit the guy was actually capable of - building an entire little world full of warring countries, populating it with a million or so people, hurling it into space for a thousand years or two, and setting himself up as their god. The Ayuntamiento are fantastically awful, and yet it is hard to conceive of droplets small enough and a bucket large enough to use in comparison with that of Pas.

Oh, spoiler alerts, I guess.

>> No.785879

madame defarge from a tale of two cities i like her

>> No.785882

Iago, hands down.

>> No.785884

>>785878

Fucking asshole, those have been sitting on my shelf for a while now just waiting for me to read them.

>> No.785885
File: 23 KB, 308x475, n30122.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
785885

Khieu Sokha

>> No.785888

>>785788

I liked him too. I'm also a big fan of The Judge.

>> No.785890
File: 231 KB, 1244x1600, Portrait_of_Niccolò_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
785890

Good 'ol Nick.

>> No.785893

>>785721
jaimie's no villain

>> No.786170

Sauron.

>> No.786178
File: 17 KB, 300x494, Lord_Vetinari_by_jdillon82.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
786178

>>785890
not really a villain tho

>> No.786190

>>785890
whats wrong with you?
he was a minor scholar who suckled the power teat of the ruling family and wrote some ruling class aggrandizing shit to get paid

>> No.786194

>>786190
try an ambasador (early version of a secret agent) and an advisor for the most powerful Italian family.
Wrote a groundbreaking book and could kick your ass as well.

>> No.786198
File: 28 KB, 312x475, 12Caesars.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
786198

Nero from the 12 Caesars? flaying crucified slaves genitals ftw!

>> No.786199

>>786194
also spied on pope

>> No.786536
File: 14 KB, 280x219, ripley.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
786536

Thomas Ripley.
Because he gets away with it every fucking time.

>> No.786542

The Hamburglar in "Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland"

>> No.786558

>>786194
He was also in charge of the militia during Soderini's regime, which at the time more or less amounted to the secret police. So he was doing that.

>> No.786561

>>784221
implying literature

>> No.786565

>>786536
fuck yeah Ripley.

>> No.786576
File: 18 KB, 312x393, machiavelli.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
786576

>>786558
>>786199
>>786194
Hot damn, my new favourite person

>> No.786599
File: 205 KB, 395x392, james-twilight.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
786599

>> No.786619

Everyone in HP just seems so impotent. The main villain who was worked up as some huge dark sorcerer who held the world in his clutches for a good many years turns out to be this nasal, scrawny twat of a man. I was SO let down when I saw the 4th movie. Even the grubbby unwashed black bedsheets he was wearing. Does he not have some kind of sense of flair, as you know, a world-conquering warlock?

>> No.786807

Im gonna have to go with Lord Voldermort in the Harry Potter series. Alex in A Clockwork Orange is also pretty evil in my opinion.

>> No.787188
File: 130 KB, 1280x960, Aromichaelsheen82484881280960.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
787188

>>786599
no he's worse

>> No.788480
File: 30 KB, 317x500, UseofWeapons.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
788480

>>784221
Chairmaker here. Everyone else is a faggot.

>> No.788501

Count Dracula
Dorian Gray

>> No.788524

>Literature board.
>People using the term villain and not antagonist.

>> No.788557
File: 68 KB, 600x750, 633777964272521445-KHORNE.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
788557

>> No.788573

>>788557
not a villain

>> No.788575

>>788524
we all understand what villain means in this context

there's no need to be pretentious

>> No.788580

>>788524
>Literature board
>Implying antagonist and villain are the same thing

>> No.788588

iago > all villains.

>> No.788598

>>788524
i am gonna defer to this guy

>> No.788635

>>788501
Why?

>> No.788646

>>788580

A villain is an antagonist, but an antagonist isn't always a villain. Some people ITT have no idea what a villain is.

For example - somone posting the white whale from Moby Dick.
>Is it an antagonist? Does it oppose Ahab? Yes.
>Is it a villain? Would you describe it as villainous? No, because it's a fucking whale.

>> No.790096
File: 22 KB, 254x390, Dt7_ck.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790096

>>784221
No. Not him. Never him. Ever.

See picture.
< Thats a fucking villain.

>> No.790100

>>784226
Sorry, but Shakespeare can't write villains. Agh. Characterization is Shakespeare's biggest failing. Motivation especially.

>> No.790110

Nurse Ratched. - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

>> No.790125
File: 81 KB, 312x276, King in Yellow.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790125

>> No.790134

Satan in Paradise Lost just wants to think for hmself, not exactly villain material.

>> No.790135

>>790096
ALL HAIL THE CRIMSON KING

>> No.790138

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov FTW!

>> No.790139
File: 77 KB, 600x899, l_85f75bea9286ceff8e4f59c704ad3355.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790139

that god guy in the old testament

>> No.790140

another vote for judge holden here

>> No.790158

>>784474
what expect him to keep his bargain?
Morgoth for what he did to Hurin and his family.

>> No.790159

>>786807
Masturbating to Beethoven isn't evil, its godly!

>> No.790162
File: 388 KB, 600x2968, 1268192411004.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790162

>>788646
WHALES ARE FUCKING VILLAINOUS!

>> No.790183

>>790139
What page does God kill Jesus on?

>> No.790192

circumcision...what kind of a SICK god would tell you to cut off the tip of your dick?

>> No.790196
File: 48 KB, 429x635, holden.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790196

>>784221
Judge Holden. You have been defeated.

>> No.790200
File: 18 KB, 468x307, iago.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790200

Iago.

>> No.790201

>>790192

The kind of God that wants you to be happy and to not be self-conscious about getting blown because women hate the unavoidable filth and stench that comes with an uncut penis.

That said, my vote goes to Patrick Bateman.

>> No.790205

>>790196
It was funny how small children went missing in every town they stopped at.

>> No.790225
File: 28 KB, 250x304, Joker Cartoon.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790225

The Joker, Hands down!

>> No.790232

>>790225

>Abloo bla bloo, my wife and son died and I fell in some chemicals so naturally imma become a killer clown, bloo bla bloohahahaha look at me laugh I'm so ironic and made to appeal to angsty teenagers

Yeeeeeah.

No.

>> No.790236 [DELETED] 

>>784220

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>> No.790237

>>790232

>implying the Joker has a canonized origin story

>> No.790244
File: 92 KB, 500x408, 1272754774966.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790244

>>784320
I agree... But also Voldemort and IT... And Pazuzu from The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.

>> No.790258
File: 3 KB, 102x150, images.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790258

Chigurh
<--------
Maybe not THE villain, but a fucking good one, I opine!

>> No.790301

If we're including bad literature, then Yahweh in the Bible.
Nobody else comes close.

>> No.790303
File: 310 KB, 698x688, ghjghjghj.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790303

>>790232

>> No.790307 [DELETED] 

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>> No.790310

People

>> No.790439

Livia from I, Claudius.

>> No.790919

>>790162
LMFAO

Mastodon is awesome.

>> No.790954

>>784270

No one ever even remembers that part, since it's not in the movie I guess.

>> No.790981
File: 54 KB, 600x750, megabyte.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
790981

/thread.

>> No.791012

>>784255
Fred Weasley

>> No.791016

in the bible, i dont like god. he thinks hes all cool and badass. who the fuck does he think he is?

>> No.791031
File: 73 KB, 201x400, moriarty.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
791031

PROFESSOR JAMES MORIARTY FUCKERS!

>> No.791038

Professor Moriarty

>> No.791040

>>790310
>people

wrong. windmills from don quixote. that blend of fantasy and reality is at the core of the problematic human condition.

>> No.791042

ahab

the judge from blood meridian

>> No.791044

Richard III

>> No.791079

>>791040

I concur.

>> No.791083

>>791044
Seriously? He was horrible. Everyone knew exactly what he was doing the entire time, and he completely failed and simply lamely died at the end.

>> No.791087

Hell yes, Iago!

>> No.791090

The MCP from Tron!

>> No.791091

The Nazis

>> No.791095

Long John Silver

>> No.791096

Nurse Ratched.

That goddamn whore.

>> No.791098

>>791087
Yes! That's what I've been saying. He's amazing.

>> No.791102

The Wayland Yutani Corperation.

>> No.791105

>>791096
god damn, I never tried to kill someone by pounding on a TV screen before I saw that movie.

>> No.791110
File: 22 KB, 346x305, megatron.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
791110

DECEPTICONS, ARISE!!!

>> No.791121
File: 167 KB, 400x600, SINESTRO1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
791121

Sinestro of Korugar!

>> No.791131
File: 13 KB, 200x230, n363741920127_3652.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
791131

David Hume!

>> No.791136
File: 304 KB, 600x640, 1259366612575.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
791136

BATS!

>> No.791147
File: 12 KB, 142x234, snidely1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
791147

With a twist of his stache, the best villain be he, Snidley Whiplash!

>> No.791149

>>791136
FUKKEN SAVED!!