[allanon]

OK,I prefer bad characters to good-Rimer Dal
to Par Omsford,Ba'alzamon to Rand al'Thor,Murmandamus to Arutha,Glaurung to Turin. I think that they are more interesting.What do you think about that?Who
is your favorite bad character?

[FitzChivalry]

I usually like the good guys more.
A bad guy that i liked was Gerald Tarrant in the cold fire trilogy, but he could be good too...

[Cellandros]

I've always like the 'in-between' characters (much like a Gerald Tarrant). Ones that are intially presented as bad, but develop into a 'gray' area. Where either their actions based on a situation; or their motivation for the 'bad' actions creates some stirrings of sympathy.

[FitzChivalry]

Yeah, like Raistlin, i liked him too, and he was somewhere between noble to pure evil.

There are some cool evil characters too like Jordan's Demandred, Moridin or Lanfear... or Cook's Soulcatcher.

[Pluvious]

I wish there were more really bad characters that were written about in the first person-they are more interesting to me. Of course they need to have some morality or need to belong or they probably aren't easy to identify with. Anyway, I like characters that aren't so concerned with winning the love of others, but instead have more lofty goals.

That reminds me of one character...I can't remember the name of the books though. His name was Gath of Baael. He was a conanish kind of barbarian, but more interesting. Anyone know the name of those books?

[ethanx]

I believe that Martin has the best "bad" guys for more reason than one. Firstly many of the percieved "bad" guys are not wholly evil but actual just in their own mind. Martin also lets us see through the eyes of these bad guys by his writing style. And as someone else stated most of these characters fall into that grey area where their really is neither good nor bad, just different people with their own motives which I see as more believable than other more traditional "bad" characters.

[Rob B]

Yeah I think Martin does the likeable bad characters great. Tyrion is one of my favorite characters from any book.

I also think that Robin Hobb does this very well. The character of Kennit from the LIVESHIP books is a scumbag, yet when you read the parts of the story through his eyes you can sympatize and understand his motivations, even admire some of his motivations.

[Pluvious]

I certainly wouldn't consider Tyrion a truly bad guy though. He just is perceived to be that way by others-but we know better. Really bad characters I would say are the "mountain" or Jeoffrey. That would be interesting to see their points of view.

Kennit is a good example, however.

[FitzChivalry]

Heh, Martin has the best everything, it's just boring to mention him over and over again so i didn't.

[Alex]

I like bad guys who get forced into doing something good.. Their motive is totally selfish but in doing this good deed they become "hero" declared and they cant't cope with it... David Gemmel has written a lot of books within this area... Bad guy does good stuff. Try out waylander.
The opening scene there is great:
Waylander the Slayer (the most feared assasin in the world) has been tracking a group of rouges who have stolen his horse.
Upon encountering them in a clearing he sees they're in the middle of torturing a priest... Anyway, waylander slaughters all the bandits in the clearing, and afterwards when the priest beggs him to cut him down of the tree and help him out Waylander just asks: Why?....(Is Waylander a badass or what????)