THE
TOP 13... FANTASY VILLAINSIt is hard, if not impossible, to consider the construction of a Fantasy realm without a powerful villain determined to thwart our plucky band of motley heroes in their efforts to reclaim a lost throne, or restore light to the world, or whatever. True, most artistic endeavors are incomplete without a villain of some sort (what would superheroes be without their nemeses, or star-going humans without their enemy bug species… and is it even possible to have a crime novel without a bad guy?), but in those oeuvres as well as in most others -- Romance, Western, Suspense, what have you -- the dastardly scoundrel upon whom our champions wage war is just as often some guy working out of his basement as he is a Lex Luthor-style captain of industry.
Not so in Fantasy.
Here, we are invariably confronted with big bads: malevolent warlocks wielding dark magics; unbalanced gods determined to bring about misrule; mighty warlords who control vast armies of the undead, or inhuman; silver-tongued royal advisers who manipulate their charges to their own ominous ends. It’s never just some amoral, sociopathic dude in a costume: when a Fantasy villain dons a black cape, you better believe he deserves to wear that thing.
Here, we list those we consider the greatest of these twisted, megalomaniacal souls (if they even have souls, that is), from some of our favorite Fantasy series…
1.
SauronThe Lord of the Rings Trilogy
J. R. R. Tolkien
There was some debate around the Geek Speak halls as to whether or not Sauron was, in fact, the most villainous of all the LoTR baddies, and therefore worthy of his place on this list. Because Sauron may have the disconcerting, all-seeing eye thingy going on, and he may want to rule them all and in the darkness bind them, but despite being a looming presence throughout the plenitude of pages that make up the trilogy… that is mostly all he is. A presence. Looming. Nevertheless, it must be conceded that it is through his unremitting evilness that everything bad that happens in those books happens (Boromir! Orcs! The razing of the Shire!), and when he shows up in battle he is both formidable and effective, which is why the icky but rarely-seen Sauron must needs get the nod, over...
HONORABLE LORD OF THE RINGS MENTIONS: Saruman, Grima Wormtongue and Gollum. Plus, the Nazgul! Oh, and that giant spider! (Shudder.)
2.
The White WitchThe Chronicles of Narnia
C. S. Lewis
Is there a person alive whose childhood wasn’t made more menacing by the introduction of this sinister, yet subtly attractive, Narnian sorceress? Whether she was an allegory for Satan or not (she probably was, with Aslan as Jesus and the Pevensie kids as, what, disciples?), she sure was creepy, with her offerings of Turkish delight, bringing of eternal Winter and turning into stone of those who displeased her. While effectively brought down by a group of meddling kids, which may seem to put her in the light of a Scooby-Doo ghost-costumed fairground caretaker or somesuch, the White Witch’s insidious impact on impressionable young minds cannot be overlooked, and therefore warrants her inclusion here.
3.
TorakThe Belgariad and The Malloreon, etc.
David Eddings
The mad, maimed god with a yen for chaos and human sacrifice, Torak -- throughout the five books each of the Belgariad and the Malloreon – was very much your garden-variety, kill ’em all black hat with major Daddy issues. But then came a much greater understanding of him gleaned from the companion novels Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the Sorceress and The Rivan Codex, taking Torak from irredeemable to misunderstood -- and making him much more interesting in the process.
HONORABLE BELGARIAD/MALLOREON MENTIONS: Asharak the Murgo, Ctuchik, Zakath, Annias and Belzedar.
4.
Lord VoldemortHarry Potter
J. K. Rowling
Way more terrifying before given a whole Hitler-esque back story detailing the reasons for his anti-Muggle rhetoric, Voldemort still managed to maintain his air of menace for seven increasingly long installments due to one thing: Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. In a world in which even someone as morally repugnant as Draco Malfoy finds the uttering of such an Unforgiveable spell difficult, it is clear that a person -- if He Who Shall Not be Named can be termed as such -- who feels able to use it with impunity is the very essence of evil. As half-blood Tom Riddle, he was slimy and far too smart for his own (or anyone else’s) good; as the Dark Lord, he was hypnotic in his insanity, and while he may eventually have been taken out by yet more meddling kids and, ahem, love, he remains an utterly unforgettable character without whom this list would not be complete.
4.
The LadyThe Black Company
Glen Cook
The Lady -- gorgeous, ruthless, powerful -- is the kind of woman who would kill her own sister… and, in fact, did. She would do anything if it would bring her greater prestige; centuries-old and a sorceress of skill and renown, it is through her malign devices that many of the ills perpetrated on her adopted realm are fully realized. (Her mother, by the way? Sleeping Beauty. One who never woke up, and yet bore her creepy husband four daughters. Yeah, when Cook goes dark, he goes dark.) Yet for all that, she has a… a way about her. She marries Croaker, sometime hero of the series, and bears him a child -- whom they misplace for a quarter-century. She has truck with a goddess from whom she wrests magical powers, and yet when that goddess is defeated, the Lady is given yet more power by her husband, now a god himself. (Long story.) But above all, she is interesting. Amusing. Entertaining and downright sexy. Which is all wonderful in a hero, but absolutely mesmerizing in a villain, and beyond doubt grants the Lady a place here.
6.
JulianThe Chronicles of Amber
Roger Zelazny
Seemingly subservient to fellow prince in Amber, Eric, Julian is really the standout villain from the series due mainly to his acerbic tongue, deadly serenity and control over a ravening pack of vicious brutes known as the hellhounds. Also, he kind of has a thing for his sister, and that is just icky. (See below.) Eric may have eventually crowned himself king of the one true world, and may have put his own needs above those of almost everyone else in that world, but cunning, calm and cutting Julian was the one who let him -- and he was also pretty funny, which goes a long way in a villain. (See above.)
7.
Cersei LannisterA Song of Ice and Fire
George R. R. Martin
There are some pretty evil types in this particular book series, and even the so-called good guys can be more than a little awful. (Note to Sansa: die horribly.) But Cersei takes the prize here for three reasons:
1. She foisted off three children she conceived with her brother as belonging to her husband, the then King.
2. She had a small child pushed out of a window.
3. Did we mention she conceived children with her brother? Moreover… he’s her twin.
Oh, and she ordered the death of another child's pet. Really, a lot of her villainy is kid-based.
Now, any one of those would be enough to get Cersei a place here, but when added to her general air of superiority and disdain, her backroom dealings with assorted enemy forces and her casual complicity in coldblooded murder (of children, direwolves, conscientious objectors, etc.), then she is clearly the stand out among a cast of very strong contenders.
HONORABLE A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE MENTIONS: Jaime Lannister (natch), Gregor Clegane, Viserys Traegareon, Petyr Baelish and Roose Bolton -- among so many, many others.
8.
Prince RegalThe Farseer Trilogy
Robin Hobb
In a society -- nay, family -- of folks named things like “Chivalry” and “Verity”, Regal is noticeably the one who does not live up to his name. A prince of the blood, but evil to his very bones, Regal is one of those spoiled brats with an inadequacy complex who make such good fodder for villainy. Youngest son of the King -- King Shrewd, of course; though perhaps he wasn’t quite as shrewd as he might have liked, having agreed to marry a chick named Desire, Regal’s mother -- he is lacking in so many ways, for which he compensates by hating our hero, gathering a passel of minions unto himself, and generally making mischief everywhere he goes. There are some bad guys in Fantasy, and elsewhere, that are just bad, and there can be no gainsaying it. But with Regal… one can speculate on whether his innate talent for cruelty would have won out had he been raised differently, with more boundaries and less subservience surrounding him. Or maybe he was just trying to live up to his name? So really, we can pretty much blame the parents. Although, if they’d gone with something like “Pushover”, Hobbs’s 1600 page epic trilogy would have been a whole lot shorter.
9.
Utuk'ku GardenbornMemory, Sorrow and Thorn
Tad Williams
Tired. That is the word that comes first to mind when contemplating the dread queen Utuk'ku. Old when the world was young, her mind driven over the edge by great age and unhappiness and a thirst for vengeance, she is suicidal to the point of melancholia but also fuelled with such self-regard that she refuses to go gentle into that good night, but instead insists on taking the rest of the world with her. With an unearthly beauty, a searing gaze and a kind of doomsday cult-leader magnetism, she is a villain, to be sure, but also arouses sympathy and understanding; she is crazy, but she has a right to be crazy, and it is for this that Utuk'ku can not only be forgiven, but also kind of admired. Uh… well, except for the destroy-the-world part, of course.
10.
Ma’arValdemar
Mercedes Lackey
Once, there were two very great mages of enormous skill and power. One was good; he made pretty animals and of his land, a garden. The other was evil: he made abominations and turned the land around him barren and sick. They both despised the other and all of their works; a supernatural war ensued between the wizards and their followers, until their final battle ended in a cataclysm that would leave the world scarred for millennia to come. That should have been the end of it, but the evil one, Ma’ar -- oh, he was crafty. He created a spell through which his soul would be downloaded into one of his descendants every time he died, and so he continued to wreak havoc through the centuries, though with far diminished magical resources. Until finally extinguished, his light burned bright and nasty throughout the long years, and he deserves a place here if for no other reason than his remarkable and quite nifty gift of longevity.
11.
The Auditors of Reality Discworld
Terry Pratchett
It is hard to assign villainy to a bunch of supernatural bureaucrats; they are just following the rules, making the world function as best they might under trying circumstances. One might as well consider an IRS agent evil; it may feel that way sometimes, but when it comes right down to it it is the tax cheat who committed the real crime, not the person who caught him. Where that metaphor falls down is that the Auditors of Reality hate humanity (and, in fact, all forms of life) because their jobs are so much simpler without such complicating factors; it would be like that IRS agent plotting to take out every taxpaying citizen in order to prevent fraudulent exemption claims. Lacking poetry, compassion or humor in their actuarial souls, the Auditors are very much the Discworld’s most abhorrent creations: the Machiavellian Lord Vetinari may rule with an iron fist; sundry assassins, royal advisers and religious fanatics may disrupt things in delightfully entertaining fashion; but of all Pratchett’s lovingly-drawn caricatures, his staid factotums of cosmic law are surely the most chilling.
12.
Mrs. CoulterHis Dark Materials
Phillip Pullman
As played fairly competently by Nicole Kidman in the not-entirely-successful 2007 movie The Golden Compass, Mrs. Coulter is disturbingly one dimensional, clearly our villain from the very outset. In the novels, she is a much more conflicted character: she struggles against the strictures of her church and the dictates of her heart; she awkwardly attempts to connect with a daughter she had long ago given up, despite not owning to one iota of maternal instinct; she kidnaps and experiments on children, but all in what she considers to be a noble cause -- ridding the world of Original Sin. (It’s all very God-y up in here, in case you were unaware; much more so than Narnia, that’s for damned sure.) What makes Mrs. Coulter so compelling a villain is in her very subtlety; her motivations are constantly under question, and as we travel through the multiverse we can only wonder exactly what game she is playing -- in the end, it would be all too easy to forgive her earlier transgressions (and they are manifold) in approval of her one redemptive act. She is hardly a good woman, but neither is she utterly black of heart, and that makes her not only fascinating but also quite, quite beautiful.
13.
The RopeThe Malazan Book of the Fallen
Steven Erickson and Ian C. Esselmont
No, not just a thicker version of the Thread from Pern, The Rope is instead the name given to the assassin-god Cotillion, who co-founded the Malazan Empire when a mere mortal -- but already assassin -- named Dancer, and who has since caused no end of strife amongst the many-faceted denizens of that seemingly ill-fated land. Patron idol of assassins (so, not exactly big with the warm and fuzzies, this guy) and filled with cold calculation, The Rope is certainly not to be trifled with. When his strategems fail, he rethinks things intelligently; when betrayal is expedient, he does what he has to; and when the truth can be presented as a harmful lie, he will bend it to his wayward will, and damn the consequences. He is a proud man (entity?), and one who sees his own actions as inevitable; he is the very embodiment of the saying that revenge is a dish best served cold; and he is so very convincing that he almost makes his merciless pursuit of it seem not only reasonable, but also quite noble. Which is just confusing, but in a really cool way.
HONORABLE MALAZAN MENTIONS: Shadowthrone and Empress Laseen, of course!
--
Further Reading:
Previous Top 13's
♦ Geek Speak Recommendations, Issue 13, March 2011
♦ Paranormal Romance Clichés, Issue 12, February 2011
♦ Robots, Male Division, Issue 11, January 2011
♦ Geek Gifts, Issue 10, December 2010
♦ Nameless Extras Made Good, Issue 9, November 2010
♦ Pop-Culture Witches, Issue 8, October 2010
♦ Confusing Movies of All Time, Issue 7, September, 2010
♦ Superheroes Without Superpowers, Issue 6, August 2010
♦ Genre Heroines Who Kick Ass, Literary Division, Issue 5, July, 2010
♦ Vampires! Issue 4, June 2010
♦ Geek Goddesses, Issue 3, May, 2010
♦ Genre-Themed Songs, Issue 2, April 2010
♦ Genre Parodies, Issue 1, March 2010
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