Truly chilling villains

**JohnH** · February 3rd, 2002, 08:47 PM

I think that characters that are chilling and those that are villains are not necessarily the same. Before you lambast for such obvious simplicity, note that I seldom find a 'villain' chilling. I do find those characters or creatures that are totally malevolent to be quite chilling. But they are not so much evil as usually amoral.

Mrs. Coulter's Daemon is a very good example
of this latter type. Very cold and vicious without really being evil I thought. Certainly for all of its hateful practices, I would hesitate to call it a villain.

I cannot think, though, of any book that contained a character truly chilling enough to actually bother me. Perhaps the Nazgul in my first read of The Lord of the Rings.

The Talisman did contain some rather forceful characters/creatures. It has been so long though that I am not sure I would qualify them as 'chilling' or disturbing.

**milamber_reborn** · February 4th, 2002, 07:07 PM

Mithfânion

No offense taken. Pug is original in the fact that usually only dogs and pirates are named pug (that i can recall).

**Shehzad** · February 4th, 2002, 07:31 PM

TRULY chilling??? Dennizm in Victoria's Secret!

**estranghero** · February 4th, 2002, 09:01 PM

Of course! Dennizm goes prancing around in a lingerie, he'll definitely get a chill up his you-know-what!

**Mithfânion** · August 19th, 2004, 03:31 PM

Mog Pharau from Bakker's The Darkness that comes before. Finally a Dark Lord done right. His arrival alone causes widespread infant stillbirth.

**Iskaral Pust** · August 19th, 2004, 03:55 PM

Richard of Northwoods - Juliet Marillier
LAdy Oonagh - "
Melisandre - George Martin
Melisinde - Jacqueline CArey
Prince Regal - Robin Hobb
Jeoffry Lannister - George Martin
Cersei Lannister - "
Pyrates - Tad Williams
Izgard -JV Jones
Mrs Coulter - Phillip Pullman
Nith Batoxxx - Eric Van Lustbader
Captain Kennit - Robin Hobb
Scar - The Lion King

Probably forgot a couple there.

**saintjon** · August 20th, 2004, 10:30 AM

OMG I so take back what I said about Lord Foul. *abases self before the most vile of all evil lords in the many many fantasy books*

Holy mother of God, Foul's got it all man. Vast evil hordes, power, wits, panache, absolute and complete dupery of all things considered opposition to Lord Foul, man what was that line from the second trilogy? "It boots nothing to evade his snares" More like "It boots nothing to be anyone but Lord Foul, really, cuz if you're not Lord Foul you're screwed. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of eternity" Thumbs up to Lord Foul for horsewhipping a good world into becoming it's own worst nightmare and crash-landing such a complete skyscraper of torment and remorse on a protagonist. This guy is the Kefka of novel villains, a half-looped hypodermic of pure malice straight to the bloodstream of everything right and good about his world. Even if you don't care for his name, he's got others that are much more appropriately nasty sounding, such as the Grey Slayer (my personal fave).

Ah yes Mog-Pharau, Tsurumah, the No-God, a truly menacing evil force if ever there was one (although as I've demonstrated above there certainly was lol). The Prince of Nothing is absolutely peppered with great villains tell the truth. If the 2 Inchoroi who've made appearances thus far weren't DAMN chilling then I dunno what is. Stupid sexy inchoroi.

Berne was a pretty chilling villain also I thought. Another nasty piece of work who could get things done.

**Mithfânion** · August 20th, 2004, 12:55 PM

I'm actually not that big on Foul. The Ravers are freakier, and Foul is diminished to me because of the way he cops it at the end of the first trilogy. Like Sauron the problem with Foul (IMO) is that he remains so figureless and faceless. Just being an evil entity with some henchmen doesn't cut it for me.

I actually prefer Sauron over Foul because at least Sauron isn't going on and on about how he's going to rip everyone apart (or let them do it to themselved) before being done in by someone as pathetic as Covenant.

**magze** · August 20th, 2004, 03:26 PM

truely chilling think back to when you first read The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe and you ecountered the queen she was terrifying and Edmond was completely enthralled with her ,also the snow queen from the fairy tale and the most villianous of all Cruella D'Evil and yes Pennywise ,the shopkeeper from Needful hing and Flagg

**saintjon** · August 20th, 2004, 06:37 PM

Okay well my first response to that is that for one Foul can't cop it, for two there's no way to read the second trilogy and feel that the first was a series of complete failures for him. I thought Foul's hand was clearly visible throughout both series, in the way he makes a bunch of predictions to Covenant and by the end no matter what covenant does or even whether he wins or not it all comes to pass.

I mean, we're not just talking about someone with a lot of bark and no bite, Foul is the master of making you become what you hate.

**funky_fantasist** · August 21st, 2004, 07:55 AM

Okay - I am SO with y'all on the Clown thing - eeeeucck! Hate em AND creepy dolls (which my lovely friend Jessica Rydill collects - really dammed creepy looking ones too - called "Dolphi dolls" I think - well scary! Sorry Jess!)

AND puppets - mainly marionettes though cos of the weird way they move... do love Henson though - have to say Dark Crystal really freaked me out - the limits of grotesquere there...

I think that's the key - anything 'grotesque' in the pure sense, creeps me out. I went to see Cirque du Soliel doing their v. dark 'traditional' circus show 'Alegria' & that was flippin' scary - the clowns, deliberately macarbe and gloomy - there were children in the audience too! Scarred for life methinks!

Soz - back to fiction - as someone said waaaay back at the beginning of this thread, there is some difference between an immoral bad guy/girl/demon and an amoral one. I tend to make my Gods & demons amoral because they are not constrained by the same codes people are and therefore, it is easy for them to justify (to themselves) any evil action (i.e. that nation was irritating me so I just wiped them out) whereas, human characters who are immoral can IMO be far more chilling... Just my take on it... Yes, King is the master of such distinction and 'Needful Things' a great fave of mine mainly because of Mr Gaunt (hands up who 'sees' the late Peter Cushing as Mr Gaunt?) His manipulative behaviour is brilliantly done - even if (IMO again) SK painted himself into a corner with the plot of the story and the ending was less than satisfying...

Lord Foul ROCKS! But... erm...

I can't actually remember why! See, it's about 16 years since I read the Covenant books. Completely loved em - they were hugely influential to me as a writer - but now, the details are a wee bit hazy!

Best get back to work - I'm still mulling over my all time fave 'baddie' though...

Cheers for now
Funky

**allanon** · September 4th, 2004, 01:52 AM

What about the bad guy from "Running with the Demon". He was really scary, I think.

**Grimnir** · September 4th, 2004, 05:15 AM

Definitely a sinister villain; the demon from the third book, Findo Gask was quite chilling too. In fact the two of them combined would be nearly as chilling as the Taterdamalions; creatures made from the dreams of dead children - and they were on the side of the good guys!

**Voland** · September 4th, 2004, 05:02 PM

Not quite fantasy....more like crime/thriller, but with some "fantasyish" aspects.

Bad Men, Every Dead Thing, Dark Hollow, The Killing Kind and The White Road all by John Connolly have some pretty scary villains. Mr Pudd, Reverend Faulkner, Kaleb Kyle, etc.