Crazy as I am, I like my villains deliciously evil. I personally like them; insanely crazy,
driven, sexy, a beauty or a beast, overly intelligent, powerful, and deeply wounded. It’s a villain I loooove to hate and never
want to meet personally, but one I want the hero to take down and blow away.
I was thinking about which villains stood out in mind for
the sole purpose of how to model them for the villain in my story.
Here are the ones that I came up with:
Mattie Walker in Body
Heat
Delores Umbridge in Harry
Potter
Annie Wilkes in Misery
Alex Forrest in Fatal
Attraction
Hannibal Lecter in Silence
of the Lambs
Norman Bates in Psycho
Lord Voldermort in Harry
Potter
Palpatine in Star Wars
The Evil Queen in Snow
White and the Huntsman
I thought the character of Mattie Walker in Body Heat was such a great villain
because I didn’t expect her to be. But,
right from the start she knew what she wanted and would do anything to get
it. Anything. She manipulated the hero using her strength against
his weakness spinning a web he couldn’t resist or get out of. Yummy
We all know the story of Snow White, but never was there an
evil queen as portrayed by Charlize Theron in the new Snow White movie.
What I come away with in this brief study is the best
villains are not just dark and scary, but intrinsically layered with deep
desires, a complete disregard for others, creating an attraction and loathing towards
them from the viewer/reader. Oh, and by the way, my villain is a woman.
What are your all-time favorite villains?
Till next time,
Elizabeth
10 comments:
I agree that Charlize stole the movie--what an evil character!
From Harry Potter, I'd add Lucius Malfoy. I enjoyed his haughty, calculated evil nature.
I submit Javert, from Les Miserables. Not only does he have a name with sneaky silent letters, but he relentlessly pursues the protagonist (a reformed convict) for his past crimes. To his dying breath Javert believes in the sacred order of law, and he will rip the protagonist out of space-time to uphold it.
Marsha,
Oh, I agree about Charlize. Here the evilness of the Queen and the why of her wound is made so clear and vivid. The way it's written in the film, the queen is a much fuller character than Snow White. Perhaps its should have been called the Ravenna and the Huntsman. Lol.
Didn't you just love it when Lucius in the last film, tuck his tail and ran. heheheh
Thanks for your comment, as always.
AE,
Javert! Yes! Cool choice.
What a powerful book, play and movie. Javert was a complicated character. Driven to serve the law, and blinded by the words of the law. So he didn't want to see anything else. Did you feel sorry for him? Or did you feel he was right going after Valjean?
Thank you for reminding about Javert.
Hans Gruber from DIE HARD. Deliciously bad.
Paula,
Ooooo! Yes. Bad, bad, bad! He make a great opponent for the Willis character.
Thanks for your comment.
You've all hit on great examples...as I read them, I kept saying, YES, oh yah...Lucius a victim of his own arrogance; Javert who suffered from his own lack of imagination and inabiltiy to accept that men could be a mix of good and bad;Hans Gruber, YES, but didn't Alan Rickman just OWN that role :)...so how about Queen Cersei and her twin Jamie in Song of Ice and Fire...single-minded self-serving...pushing little Bran out the window..
S.A.
Cersei, beautiful, devious, and powerful! I love female villains. But, Cersei's relationship with her brother brought on the ewwwwwwwwwwws. LOL.
Thanks for you comment.
My favorite villain is Lindsey McDonald from Angel. He's cynical and ambitious, conflicted, unpredictable, and OMG sexy. It's no surprise he was created by Joss Whedon.
Amelia,
Christine Kane, oh yay, he's got the sexy down. What intrigued me about Lindsey is his moments of concience besides all the other things you mentioned. As you said unpredictable, a very important characteristic for a villain.
Speaking of Joss Whedon, have you seen his new movie, The Avengers?
Thanks for posting.
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