Booking Through Thursday: Best moustache-twirling: 07/26/07
Booking Through Thursday Well, after last week's record-breaking number of responses (92 last time I checked — an all-time BTT record), I was tempted to use this week's question to ask what you all thought about Harry Potter 7—but since a decent proportion of you weren't going to be reading it at all, that seemed unfair. So instead...

Who's the worst fictional villain you can think of? As in, the one you hate the most, find the most evil, are happiest to see defeated? Not the cardboard, two-dimensional variety, but the most deliciously-written, most entertaining, best villain? Not necessarily the most "evil," so much as the best-conceived on the part of the author—oh, you know what I mean!

Most of the books I read don't have clear-cut villains. I mostly read books where stuff happens and characters grow from their experiences or where the lead character is an anti-hero. I think that's part of what I disliked about the Harry Potter series. I got really tired of Voldemort being the villain throughout the series; he bored me me to tears!

Below is a list of villains I've run across in my reading and some thoughts on them.

• Smaug the dragon from The Hobbit was a favorite villain of mine when I was a child.
• The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is another childhood favorite. For the record I hated Wicked the novel.
• Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith's anti-hero is fun to both hate and love at the same time.
• The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is another one from childhood. She helps to make this one book stand out from the rest of the series.

Mostly though I try to avoid books with clear-cut villains Those sorts of books usually are a cliched fight of good against evil to save the world (again!) from total destruction. Or it's an evil adult abusing a child; again a theme that I find boring and repulsive. Or it's a psychopath who wants to torture the cop who is out to bring him to justice (Hannibal Lecter being top on the list of boring villains of this ilk).

booking through thursday

Comments (2)

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Comment #1: Thursday, July, 26, 2007 at 22:12:08

Barbara H. says:
"This is the first BTT post I've read today where I was familiar with all the villains mentioned! And I agree, all these are good ones."

Comment #2: Sunday, July, 29, 2007 at 00:44:26

Michelle says:
"Good question--Some of my votes would go to Dickens. Uriah Heep, Ralph Nickleby, Miss Havisham, Mr. Tulkinghorn, Wackford Squeers, etc. They're the guys you love to hate. "