The Big Bad Read

[Folwren]

Don't smash me, but Feanor makes an awesome villain. And he is one, too. If it hadn't been for him a great deal of damage wouldn't have been done! But he is my favorite because at the same time that he's such a rogue, he's also very...how do I put it? I feel bad for making him a villain, but he was one. He was also a perfect elf, though, so far as looks and ability go. He was remarkable! But he was evil.

Originally Posted by Macalaure

From LotR I would pick the Witch-King. Each time I hear him (or a fellow Nazgûl) speak in the book I shudder. He's extremely scary to me, yet he makes me wonder what kind of person he is, or better, was, and whether he would have chosen differently long ago in hindsight. In a way he's a very tragic figure, on second sight.

Do you know what's funny. . .when I first read the books (I was 11, maybe), the Nazguls so scared me that first, I didn't sleep near the edge of my bed for a week for fear of being grabbed by one (from underneath the bed, yes). Second, I even quit reading the first book I was so frightened! I now find it interesting that Tolkien coud have made something so scarry without having any blood or horrible images described in that part of the book. (I'm speaking mainly about Three Is Company.)

Anyway, there are my two cents.

-- Folwren

[Lalwendë]

Hmmm, I could be convinced by The Mouth of Sauron and Feanor to get a place in my top ten Rings baddies, but still nobody tops the satisfaction I get from reading and thinking about Saruman. He's so erm...colourful!

I'm surprised more kids didn't vote for Gollum, but then he did have an endearing side in the films - and I personally don't think he's a villain, more of a victim as Bethberry says. Poor Gollum. I know someone who loves Gollum like he's an imaginary pet too.

[Folwren]

I actually like Gollum a lot when I read the books. I like him all up to The Choices of Master Samwise, and then I hate him. But every time I read the books it's the same. . .poor little chap. He deserves pity during the first half of the story!

-- Folwren

[Bêthberry]

Oh, do we have to make our picks only from the list?

Well then, for me it's a toss-up between The Other Mother in Coraline and Heathcliffe, assuming it's the fellow from Wuthering Heights and not any mangy cat. (okay, yes, it says he is. Just checking.)

Gaiman's book is one of the best creepy children's reads I've read in some time. It moves soooo smooothly from curiosity to peril to terror and I love female charactes who keep their wits about them. And it has its funny moments too. (Yes, I keep a bit of an eye out on the good stuff in children's lit.)

As for Heathcliffe, he's an absolute monster of manipulation, cunning, cruelty, self-satisfaction, vengeance. Who'd have thought Yorkshiremen and women would be so hapless in the hands of an ilk such as him? And that ending! I can't think of another romance that ends any creepier. Boy, that parson's daughter had some imagination--assuming there weren't any sources for him in the neighbourhood which Emily drew upon.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

As for Heathcliffe, he's an absolute monster of manipulation, cunning, cruelty, self-satisfaction, vengeance. Who'd have thought Yorkshiremen and women would be so hapless in the hands of an ilk such as him? And that ending! I can't think of another romance that ends any creepier. Boy, that parson's daughter had some imagination--assuming there weren't any sources for him in the neighbourhood which Emily drew upon.

You never know in Haworth, its a rum place, the West Riding. Also spawned Mr Hughes. Heathcliffe of course was a scouser, and anyone in the UK knows the terror they can strike into the heart of the God fearin' honest folk (I'm allowed to get away with saying that because my mother's one). What about Cathy though? Let's not put all the blame on H; she was a vain, self-centred thing.

Personally I always found Mr Rochester much nicer, even though he himself wasn't the purest of souls what with his locked up wives and deception of Jane.

My other favourites form that list are (of course) Dracula, who has loomed large in my mind since I frst heard of him (via a Hammer horror) and Mrs Coulter, who is not in the end a 'boo-hiss' villain - I'll say no more so as not to spoil the books for anyone yet to read them. But what she does at Bolvangar is probably quite enough to fix her as utterly beyond redemption in most readers' minds. I'm looking forward to seeing Nicole Kidman play her, as she can do cold, chilling badness very well.

[Farael]

or three questions in one

My favourite LoTR Villain? That has to be the Witch King. When he speaks, it sends a shiver down your spine. He's outright rotten, even if he was not so once a long time ago. Yes, he is not completely his own Master, his will is bent to Sauron's, and yet he is much more real... Sauron in LoTR is too abstract to be scary.

But my favourite baddie in all of Tolkien's work? ah, when we add the Silmarillion to the equation then Sauron wins by a landslide. Morgoth is as bad as they get, but he's again too abstract (less abstract than Sauron in LoTR but still a bit too out there. Yet Sauron.... we get to learn a bit more about him on the Sil, so that when you read about his work in LoTR he is no longer a big red eye standing atop a mighty fortress... he's the same guy who ensnared the elves (elves! and he messed with them!) of Eregion, the same guy who fought with Beren and Luthien (and lost)... and the list goes on.

My favourite bad guy on that list? well, Sauron, 'cos I plain old don't really know any others. And no, Zaphoid is NOT a villian.

[Laitoste]

My favorite bad guy? The Ring, unless you count it as part of Sauron. How cool (in concept)/terrifying (in actuality) is an object that can take over your mind and soul? And we all can relate to it. It's the ultimate enemy--how do you fight against an inanimate object? How do you battle something that is corroding your willpower, your very being?

Other than that, the Witch King--what Farael said--or Smaug would have to be my favorites. Such delicious malice! Sauron is almost too easy to ignore--it's the Ring we worry about, the Ring that frightens us. And the only time Sauron scares me in the films is when, in Bree, the Eye suddenly flashes on the screen. I jump off the couch every time...

Oh, and favorite villain on list? Heathcliff. Hands down. Even though I don't remember the book very well, I remember being thoroughly creeped out by him--the whole thing, really.