10 Villains To Love & Hate

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is all about villains.  How awesome is that?!  Villains can make or break a book, much more than a protagonist can, in some cases.  I seem to have this issue with always liking the villains of a book a little too much; or wanting to rain down Armageddon upon them with no regrets.  It’s either one extreme, or the other.  I have a hard time with in-betweens.

So I’m going to give you a taste of a few of the fictional villains that I love, and then some of the villains that I love to hate, too.

Villains To Love

• Artemis Fowl

I think it would be hard to make a list of villains without including the world’s greatest prodigal criminal mastermind.  Artemis Fowl is by far one of my favorite series, and male characters, of all time.  His wit, and his accent ( which I’m falling in love with all over again, this time for the first time on audio book, which is lovely, I can tell you ), makes him… well, I’m not sure there is an all-emcompasing adjective for Artemis Fowl, but I love it, whatever it is.

• Mr. Gray

Now don’t be upset!  I know we all love Mr. Gray almost just as much as we love The Raven Cycle as a whole, but it is fair to put him under the “villains” list.  He is/was a hitman, after all.  That being said, I think we can agree he might just be the most enduring hitman in YA.  He’s a terribly genuine person, which, for me, is his best personality trait.

• Victor

Ah,Victor.  V. E. Schwab made it hard in Vicious, a book filled with nothing but villains, to chose who’s side to be on.  There’s no doubt that Victor is blackened at the core; yet I, for one, can’t help but love his style, his blackout poetry, and how he warms by just a fraction toward the few people he cares about, even as he tries to hide it.

• Loki

After Marvel turned Tom Hiddleston into Loki, the whole world feel at his feet, despite his unending deceit and underhandedness.  But even before watching the ever popular movies, I was a Loki fan just from the original mythology itself.  How can you not love a trickster, after all?  Now I won’t argue that I too love the movies, and the actor, but I’m still pretty proud to have been a Loki fan before it was cool to be a Loki fan.

• Murtagh

Does anyone remember Murtagh?  I’m very curious; so curious, in fact, that I’m not going to mention the books he’s from.  They are very popular books, but I don’t think he got much attention, really, which I think is quite an oversight.  So, he is going to be my mystery villain.  And as for the reasons I love him?  Well, if you can tell me who he is in the comments ( with no Googling! ), then I’ll give you the reasons I love him ( and a shout-out in my next post, for remembering him with me ).

Villains To Love To Hate

• Opal

I can’t mention Artemis Fowl without mentioning his villainous archenemy.  Opal Koboi was one nasty pixie.  My main reason for hating her is how much I love Artemis.  It was her fault, really, that ( highlight to read spoiler ) Artemis died ( him coming back only did so much to make me feel better ), so really, how could I not love to hate her?

• Umbridge

I don’t need to say why we all hate Umbridge.  We all just sort of do, don’t we?  It’s a nice understanding between Potter Heads, to have a collective villain we love to hate without needing to say why we all feel the same why.

• Octavian

HE MURDERED PERCY’S PANDA.

• Hitler

I know Hitler was not a fictional character.  I don’t think I need to say much more about him personally.  The point goes without saying.  But I do include him here along side these other works of fiction due to all the WWII historical fiction books we have cried over.

• Gudrun

This is one villain that perhaps might not be as well recognized.  She is an evil sorceress from Snow-Walker by Catherine Fisher, for those that don’t know her.  My love to hate her was refueled recently when I finished reading The Sagas of Icelanders which featured another Gudrun who killed for pure pleasure and self-gain, and no “good” reason at all.  I don’t like those sort of villains.

So there are my villains, for today, at least.  There are so many good, and not so good, villains that did not make this list; but perhaps that will change in the future.

Em

Let’s Chat!

How do you feel about villains in books?  Do you generally love, or hate them?  How crucial do you think their role is in a story?  I want to know who else loved Loki before everyone loved Loki; all Norse mythology fans, band together, and tell me what your favorite Loki myth is!  And don’t forget Murtagh; do YOU remember him?  Can you tell me who he is?  ( And do you love him, too? )  Link me to your TTT in your comments.  I would love to read about your villains!  :)