Tuesday, November 16, 2010

In Which Trai Lists Her Top Ten Villains, Criminals, and Degenerates


I decided to participate again in Top 10 Tuesday, simply because I just had to sit down and think about which villains have made my skin crawl! This was definitely a fun list and it'll be interesting to see what other choices people made beside the classic ones! A lot of these guys have fantastically creepy screen portrayals to match, too. Only one lady makes my list; she comes in at #10, but if you have any interest in reading the Fingerprints / Echoes books by Melinda Metz, I highly recommend you avert your eyes, as it's a huge spoiler.

** Spoilers ahoy! **

1) Nils Bjurman, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Yeah, this guy beat out the previous head honcho on my list (who's #2 here) by a lot. He takes advantage of Lisbeth in some really twisted ways and just thinking about him makes me mad! I was dying for him to get his just desserts, and luckily Lisbeth served up the hurt! (Played to creepy perfection by Peter Andersson.)

2) Paul Marshall, Atonement: Since 2007 until early this year, this guy reigned supreme in my mind. He's a rapist and he's just... nyuhhh he freaks me out so much. He is the only one that can turn a chocolate bar into the most menacing thing in the world. Watching a younger girl he has his eye on eat one, there's this creepy little paragraph: He crossed and uncrossed his legs. Then he took a deep breath. "Bite it," he said softly. "You've got to bite it." (In order to see this so spectacularly done right, check out Benedict Cumberbatch in the film version. I give that man as many thumbs up as possible because while the chocolate bar scene still gives me nightmares, he succeeded in winning my heart as Sherlock Holmes.)

3) Bob Ewell, To Kill a Mockingbird: This is my all-time favorite book, and Bob Ewell is pretty reprehensible. You have to really feel for Mayella, who's really only on trial because she has no other choice. He's a drunk, he beats his daughter, and then accuses Tom of rape just because Mayella tried to find some sort of affection. And then, to top it all off, he tries to kill Jem and Scout? Not cool, Bob Ewell, not cool.

4) Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter series: Where would any list of villains be without Voldemort? Anybody who tries to kill a baby is not cool in my book! Not to mention, you know, the hundreds upon hundreds of other people he massacred. Basically, all of the Death Eaters and Umbridge fit into this list, too!

5) The Capitol, The Hunger Games series: I still haven't read Mockingjay, so I don't know the worst of it, but, um, making kids fight to the death on live television? Making it mandatory for the families of those kids, and everyone else in the nation, to watch? And doing all this just to show your citizens that they'd better not question the government? Twisted's not even the word.

6) Roman, Kitty Norville series: One of my lesser-known choices, this guy comes from Carrie Vaughn's Kitty books, which I've reviewed here before. He's become more of a major player recently and has had his hands dipped in most, if not all, of the villainy stuff going on since Book 4. We still don't know all of his motivations, but he's got some seriously scary power and I'm really interested to see where his storyline will go.

7) Mr. Harvey, The Lovely Bones: If you want evidence of how creepy this guy is, look at the movie poster and tell me that does not give you nightmares. UGH. He rapes and dismembers Susie, and he's done it to other girls and women over the years, and he's just so severely creepy. (Check out Stanley Tucci in the movie version!)

8) Stanley, A Streetcar Named Desire: Most of the people on my list seem to be rapists... anyway. Abusive jackass who hits his pregnant wife and rapes his already mentally unstable sister-in-law after basically verbally torturing her. Stanley's just a fun guy, isn't he?

9) Sauron, The Lord of the Rings series: Where would my list be without this one? I read these books in elementary school and there's just something about the all-seeing eye and that ring and what it does to Gollum that's all wrapped up in the lovely notion of Sauron.

10) Yana, the Fingerprints / Echoes series: These books (by Melinda Metz) have recently been reissued under a different series title, hence me giving both. There's seven books in the series and you don't find out until the sixth that Yana has been the main villain all along, hence the massive spoiler warning. Believing that Rae's mother was responsible for the death of her own mother (I think; I'm fuzzy on the details as it's been six years), Yana poses as Rae's friend and does some pretty crazy things in order to scare her or try and kill her, including a pipe bomb, sending along her mom's ashes and a bone fragment, and using her powers of mental coercion to try and get Rae to cut herself to death with a knife. "I wonder how many cuts it will take for you to die? I bet thousands and thousands." Yana reforms once it's revealed Rae's mother didn't do anything, but still, she's just scary!

I'm interested to see what villains made the cut for you guys!

11 comments:

  1. Some great choices here!

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  2. I was going to have one entry devoted to all the various Potter villains, but decided to narrow it down to the one I disliked the most.

    That "thousands and thousands" line is...creepy!

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  3. great great choices! Mine features Mr. Wickham and Captain Hook among others!

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  4. Great list! I chose Snape over Voldemort though... and of course had to add in the Capitol as well... but there are a few others you may not be familiar with....

    Sarah
    http://sarahreadstoomuch.blogspot.com

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  5. I forgot about Bob Ewell! He's such an awful, pathetic man. Nice list!

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  6. I actually had Briony from Atonement on my list. I sort of forgot about Paul Marshall--it's been years since I read the book. But Briony, in her naivete, just made some stupid mistakes and started that long chain of events that turned out badly.

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  7. Nice list. You have got some good choices, even if our lists don't cross.

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  8. Glad to see Sauron popped up on someone else's list! Such a classic and there really is something chilling about his all-seeing eye and that corrupting ring.

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  9. I love when you do Top Tens! :)

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  10. Oh my God, Yana! I'm so surprised to see her on a list, I thought everyone forgot about Fingerprints, lol. Yeah, she's pretty masterful at the whole deceit aspect, I thought it was sort of a cop-out that she reformed in the end, but eh. I guess she was sort of a victim, too. Also, wow, I totally forgot about Ewell. D:

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  11. I never liked Stanley. Sad little man.

    I'm a new follower!

    Here's my post.

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