Comments on: Literary Villains We Love To Hate

By: grace

grace — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:44:50 +0000

Wow, thanks! My personal favorite villain will always be Voldemort. I can see why you like villains such as Darth Vader, who you can sympathize with. I can see no way to sympathize Voldemort, seeing as what he does to gain power, control, and immortality.

By: Onyx Sturm

Onyx Sturm — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:46:00 +0000

I couldn’t agree with you more. The villain for my book was incredibly hard yet enjoyable to create, like finding the last piece to a giant jigsaw puzzle. My favorite villains – and the ones who inspired my own – have to be Sauron from The Lord of the Rings and The Crimson King from Stephen King’s Insomnia and The Dark Tower Novels. They both represent everything a villain stands for – an iron will and a dominating obsession to see their twisted plans through.

By: Pen to Paper: The Villain |

Pen to Paper: The Villain | — Mon, 09 May 2011 05:08:21 +0000

[...] Suzannah Freeman reminds us why villains are villains and what villains do in a story. David B. Coe writes about how the traditional villain has given way to a more nuanced character as well as the greater use in fiction of the anti-hero. He tells us about some of the villains in his stories and how he made them believable. [...]

By: Seth Frederiksen

Seth Frederiksen — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:36:45 +0000

I loved it when I came up with my villain for my novel, it was fun to come up with someone who could give the hero a good challenge in the book.

By: Write It Sideways Happenings, April 2010

Write It Sideways Happenings, April 2010 — Sat, 01 May 2010 11:59:56 +0000

[...] Literary Villains We Love to Hate [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:25:49 +0000

God is by far my favorite literary villain especially in the Old Testament. He goes kinda soft in the New Testament but sequels are never as good as the original.

By: How Do I Make My Villain 3 Dimensional? | The Creative Penn

How Do I Make My Villain 3 Dimensional? | The Creative Penn — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:50:45 +0000

[...] the reasons why behind their driving force. Fuel Your Writing has a good list of what motivates a villain here. Mine wants power but the question is why does he want that. What has got him to the point of [...]

By: Suzannah-Write It Sideways

Suzannah-Write It Sideways — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:27:19 +0000

Why, thank you!

And thanks for another great example.

By: Archan Mehta

Archan Mehta — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:26:29 +0000

Alas, Suzy, you have omitted the best villain of them all…Professor Moriarty, the perfect foil to the legendary Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr.Watson.

How many endless hours of pleasure have I derived from the mighty artistry and intellectual sophistication of none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

And the sheer majesty of this villain…a very agile mind combined with ruthlessness and the power to destroy all good, and a rivalry with our pet detective. Who can forget the scene–forever etched in our mind’s eye–of the two foes, locked in mortal combat, and falling off a cliff deep in the hinterland, away from the hurly-burly of London? There really ought to be a statue dedicated to great writers in Madame Tussuad’ wax museum….don’t you think?

Anyway, thanks for your great post. And keep on writing for us. You are fabulous, Suzy.

By: Suzannah

Suzannah — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:19:58 +0000

The Phantom is a great example of a villain with whom we empathize!

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:47:51 +0000

Who me? Lol. Just kidding.

Very good point about the anti-hero. Definitely a gray area. I don’t know that this post is trying to touch on that specifically, but would be a great topic for another post.

By: e.lee

e.lee — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:10:00 +0000

agree with the supernatural element- Dracula is a fantastic villain! And Eric from ‘Phantom of the Opera’
however one should be aware of the grey area of anti-hero.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:12:42 +0000

Villains are often the best characters. You can often take them further than you can the hero. They can be more outgoing, more ambitious, more driven, more insane, more off the wall, and they can do it without having to be too relatable (depending on the story you want to tell). The downside to a hero is that ideally he should be sympathetic, relatable. This hampers how far she can be taken.

But the best villains, for me, are the antithesis of the hero; the dark side of the same persona, the other side of the coin. George Lucas exemplifies this best in “Star Wars,” literally labeling the villains as being on “the dark side.”

Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter (both from the Thomas Harris novels and “Silence of the Lambs” the film), Denzel Washington’s character in “Training Day,” Cardinal Richelieu, and Benjamin Linus from “Lost” are, for me, some of the best written characters in recent memory.

By: ChristopherR2D2

ChristopherR2D2 — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:28:46 +0000

The films are great examples of characters dancing on the line of hero and villain, too, but I was referring to the graphic novels — everyone should definitely check them out next time you’re at the bookshop.

Both are written by one of the most talented writers of our time — Alan Moore.

By: Suzannah

Suzannah — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:14:16 +0000

Hi Christopher,

You make a great point, but unfortunately I haven’t seen “V for Vendetta” or “Watchmen,” so I can’t really comment!

I guess a hero can do bad things, and as long as we understand their intentions are good, we’ll still side with them.

Thank you :)