Of course Mithf, but we all know Women are evil.
(Ladies, I am only kidding, of course, my tounge is planted very firmly in cheek as I typed the above)
Trying to bring this back to topic, two of the more convincing "villians" are related to my screen name:
Regal from The Farseer
and Flagg from many Stephen King novels.
Okay, as long as people are going to mention King villains, Christine creeped the heck outta me. I always got a chill whenever her engine came to life
Qin is right, every time I see a McDonalds ad, I think... man if I was a kid and that guy popped out at me, I'd poop myself.
Some nasty pieces of work I can think of:
Rakoth Maugrim the Unraveller, of Kay's Fionavar Tapestry... unlike Sauron who is one obvious source of inspiration, Rakoth actually takes an active role in the story and does some truly despicable things.
Agree with above re. Lord Soth of Dragonlance; truly frightening especially when he decided he wanted Kitiara as his bride. Also agree the clown from "IT", but refs to "The Stand" are valid - Randall Flagg was also a very scary villain.
Who else?
I liked the Minwanabi of Feist/Wurts Kelewan series - actually, any villains who are a bit loony are usually good, as you're forever apprehensive about just how far they will go.
Yeah, Quin and Warewolf, both McDonald and Lord Soth were pretty sacrry. Hoever, McDonald is probably the scarrier of the two. Man if that guy jumped out at me he would have the crap out of me in a matter of seconds.
Fitz, you'll forgive me, but is that a quote from somewhere I don't recognize or did you, err, come up with it? ;-)The only thing more evil than a clown is a cat.
-- Elessar
[This message has been edited by Elessar (edited February 01, 2002).]
Damn, I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I read that! Thanks Qin, I needed that!Chilling? Evil? I know just the person: Ronald McDonald. That man scares the crap out of me. Big red hair, big red shoes, a ghost white face, and a proprensity to devour mass quantities of burgers. *Shiver*
Carmichael
Well, I'm not even through the second book of the Wheel of Time, but I think Mordeth is pretty damn creepy. The main villain isn't so bad, but the idea of a whole city being consumed by some evil is interesting.
Fitz, I have to say that Regal was chilling, but only due to the fact that the others seemed to be either blind to his intentions or so unbelievable passive towards him. He was given carte blanche to do what he wanted, it irritated the hell out of me. This is another character like Sauron, in that he is evil but not frightening (to me). As Fitz concludes at the end, he is nothing more than a big baby for whom this was a all a game of jealousy.
Elessar:
May have existed before, I don't know. I just know I hate almost every cat. With exception of my freinds cat that thinks its a dog.
Clowns! Damn, every time I think of that clown in Richard Laymons Night in the lonesome October, it scares me! That thing gave me nightmares and..
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he wasn't even dead or vaguely supernatural!
Do I need to put a spoiler warning in this thread? I mean the whole idea of the thread should be sufficient warning...
*shrug*
****Needful Things Spoiler****
I'll stick with King villians. How about the shopkeeper in Needful Things. I've always thought he was just an incredible character. Never does anything outright, but still manages to completely tear the town apart. I think that's part of what I like in a villian. Someone whose effects are far greater than just their actions.
Flagg *IS* scary.
Though.. there are some King novels where he looks.. well.. I think King describes him as (this sounds stupid as I write it) someone that doesn't remember much of the past, or much of what he did. He doesn't seem to, well, *PLAN* the evil he is going to achieve.
As Lamanai said.. I think the guy from Needful Things was a lot scarier. IT was scary, but then again I didn't like the novel much.
I always felt that Flagg does evil because he IS evil, and because it's his doom. But I think the Crimson King (and what he attempts to do) is a lot scarier, even though one doesn't read much about him.
-- Elessar
Are we still talking Fantasy characters or have we dived into the horror genre? I've not read any King so I don't know who Flagg is. Is he human?
No, I believe, from what I have heard, he is a demon.
***** Needful Things Spoiler *****
Much of King's work is, while definitely horror, very fantastic also. Needful Things is about a guy who opens up a shop, and whatever it is that a person most wants, he has in his shop. And he doesn't ask for money, but instead asks them to do some benign sounding task... It's not traditional fantasy by any means, but I wouldn't object to it being categorized in the fantasy section.
It, Langoliers, The Stand, Dark Tower, Regulators, King employs some pretty fantastic bits in his stories. They're not necessarily fantasy, but they're definitely not real-world fiction.
However we classify him, he does villians very very well.
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