Wednesday, 28 October 2009
-
Villainy, treachery, thrills and chills
Television this week is wall-to-wall terror (well that, and, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown). Ghouls. Creeps. Monsters. Villains. Bad guys who have what it takes to give us a very good scare.
We may root for the hero, but we love the villain. So I ask you. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? What makes a villain truly villainous? In books, movies or on TV, who are your favorite villains?
-
recommend
- recs 0
-
share
-
email
- sent 0
Post a Comment
- Back to doahsdeer's Xanga Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in doahsdeer's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
Comments (5)
When they reach the point where there's no humanity left in them.
I think the villian is only as good or as interesting as the hero. It is the dance between them, in my opinion. One of my favorite villians of all time was in Swan Song, by Robert McCammon - pure, ancient evil. I still can't look at flies the same way. But if I recall correctly (it has been a while) the protagonist had me hooked as well. The Stand was like that too.
Hmmmm, maybe I just like apocalypse? That would soooo figure.
Voldemort!
And, um, Melificent from Sleeping Beauty.
What makes a villain villainous is that he shocks your socks off when you realize you want to do that horrible thing too. Not only that, you realize that you possibly could do that awful thing. Now that's villainous!
The secret to writing a believable villain is to write someone who thinks he's the hero of his own story. (Can't take credit for that one, but I can't the workshop where I first heard it.