Top Ten Villains

So I have ten awesome heroes, I should have ten creepy villians, right? Here they are, in my opinion. Let me know what you think! Remember, they are fictional villains, not real ones!

10. Darth Vader--Star Wars--film: Okay, maybe it's just me, but that breathing thing just freaks me out. Not to mention he can suck the oxygen from another person, so they fall down dead? And he tries to kill his own son? Plus, we never get to see his face. What's he hiding under that mask? Oh, yeah, we see it at the end, and it's not pretty. Three definite signs of a bad guy. Sure, he's redeemed at the end, but all the other things manage to get him placed in my top ten.

9. Sauron--The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein--book: There are few things creepier than a bad guy you can't see, except one you can't see, but who can always see you. The depiction of Sauron in the movie version doesn't help this creepiness; it makes it worse. He has few actual powers himself--not having a real body and all--but he can motivate hundreds of thousands of orcish and who-knows-whats to rise as his army and attack all that is good in the world. Definitely villanous.

8. Dracula--Dracula by Bram Stoker--book: I know, there's tons of movies and such about Dracula, too. But I'm not going to deal with them. None of them portray Dracula as skin-crawlingly creepy as he is in Stoker's novel. Sure, he's gorier in their depictions, but just killing a lot of people doesn't necessarily make you a good villian. Stoker's Dracula is not simply trying to turn England into an undead army: he's trying to do it with methodical, meticulous calculations. After all, any villian can kill. A good villian can intelligently kill. Dracula is smart. He knows how to make the heroes look one way, while he sneaks in to attack the heroine. He knows how to get around the rules of his race (garlic, crucifixes, etc.) to defeat the good guys. That makes it exponentially harder for Seward and the gang: how can they outsmart a man who's had centuries of practice at being smart?

7. Jadis--The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis--books (and film): How can you kill a witch who won't die? It's never explicitly said that Jadis is all three witches, but it is implied. Besides, she does eat the fruit of eternal life in The Magician's Nephew. Apparently, the only way to kill her is if you kill her when she is not in her natural form (as they do in The Silver Chair). Still, she's pretty awesomely evil. They like her at first, but what makes her so creepy, is that she's so manipulative. Everyone likes her when they first meet her: Digory saves her because she is so beautiful (Polly's the only one who isn't fooled), Edmund agrees to join her and betray his siblings because she gives him Turkish Delight and Hot Chocolate, and Jill and Eustace take up her "splendid" advice to go visit some giants for their feast (which turns out to be a feast of "man") because she seems "so nice." (the Marshwiggle is the only one not fooled here). Nothing is really quite scarier than evil going in the guise of good. If evil appears good, then how are we supposed to know what good is when we see it? This is what makes Jadis so deliciously evil.

6. Jack--Lord of the Flies by William Golding--book: Oh, Jack. I almost put Ralph on my top ten Heroes list, but Ralph is so overwhelmed at the end, he really saves very little, except his personal honor. Jack is quite terrifying. Forget that he's a young teenage boy. He seems so much older than his years. He is a manipulator, and such a thorough one, I think even he believes his spiel. I have said that little is scarier than evil disguised as good or intelligent villians or villians whom one cannot see, and I think Jack is all three, in a sense. He is evil in the guise of good, in that I think he actually believes his own crock. He is highly intelligent and manages to convince an entire island of boys to leave Ralph and follow him. And, though we can physically see him, his motives are hidden. Why does he so badly want Ralph out of the way? Even when he gains power over Ralph, he insists that they kill him. To what purpose? Jack most certainly deserves a spot on this list.

5. The Nothing--The Neverending Story by Michael Ende--book/film: Come on, it's destroys things. No, it isn't a person with motive, but the very msytery of who or what it is makes it terrifying. The fact is, you don't know. And not knowing is scary. This thing is terrifying: it destroys the imagination. How awful!

4. Morgan le Fay--Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory--book: Face it, any person who joins a convent to learn dark magic and then use it to stop your brother and his group of knights from doing good things has to be pretty evil. Especially when you enjoy capturing your brother's knights and trying to force them to sleep with you, or when you love whispering words of encouragement to a disgruntled knight looking to take over the kingdom, or when your hobby is giving assistance to your brother's enemies. And there you have Morgan le Fay--perfectly manipulative, deliciously evil, and a delightful femme fatale. I'd hate to cross her path, though.

3. Satan--Paradise Lost by John Milton--book: I know, I said fictional characters, and many believe Satan to be real, however, I am dealing here with the Satan of John Milton's imagination: the one from Paradise lost. As mentioned earlier, evil in the guise of good is creepy, but what about evil who thinks itself good? This is the complex of Milton's Satan. He believes himself to be in the right, and will do whatever is necessary to take down God, even if that means manipulating poor Eve by tormenting her dreams and talking her into doing what she knows to be wrong. Satan may think himself to be right, and his intentions may be good, but his "means to an end," so to speak lead to the downfall of mankind--sadly, mankind has hardly any time to rise before it falls. Thanks, Satan.

2. Countess de Winter--The Three Musketeers by Alexander Duman--book: Well, she would have been #1, if Heroes hadn't invented Sylar, but more on that later. In any case, she's not only an ultimate femme fatale, she's an ultimate villian. She reads people to determine what they most need, she gives it to them, and then coldly kills them when she no longer has need of them. Example: when the four musketeers finally capture her, she is locked up in her room. She notes the guard is pious, so she makes a scene of praying and fasting, even though she cares about as much for God as she does a fire in July. The guard takes pity on her, and she convinces him she was locked in here out of spite to be forced into doing immoral things. The guard arranges for her escape, and as he helps her down the river, she kills him, then merely steps out of the boat and goes along her merry little way. Some of the films victimize her and some don't make her nearly as evil as she is. Here's the fact: there are few villians ever invented that are as cruel, cunning, or cold as she is. As a villian, she rocks. And she totally deserves her ending. Don't watch the films to take my word on it; read the book. You will be SOOO glad you did.

1. SYLAR--Heroes--TV (NBC): Man, when we first met Gabriel Grey, he was this geeky watchmaker. Then, he realizes he has a power to understand "how things work." Instead of using it to fix things, he uses it to take them apart. Or rather, I should say, to take people apart. Similar to his brother Peter Petrelli (see top ten heroes), he can take other people's powers, however unlike Peter, the people from whom he takes powers do not get to keep their powers after. They can hardly keep them, as they're generally dead. Sylar has a "hunger." He must kill. But he can't kill just anyone. He gets really upset at the prospect of taking out an entire city, but delights in cracking people's skulls to get their powers. He kills with calculation and reason, and Zachary Quinto (the actor) has the creepiest voice for this character. Not only is his serial killing and voice creepy, but any guy with motive to kill, who also has the following powers: power of persuasion, power to become a nuclear bomb, power of supersonic hearing, power of telekenesis, power of healing (not dying), power to steal powers, etc. etc. plus intelligence is a really, really awesome (and creepy) villian.

Comments? Other great villians? Agree? Disagree? Let me know! I'm interested in hearing from you!