Another Tuesday, another round of Top Ten Tuesday. Today’s topic is Villains. While thinking about this topic, I realized that not every book has a good villain.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Without further adieu, these are some of the villains that I found interesting:
Valentine: The Mortal Instruments (Books 1-3). Valentine from The Mortal Instruments series is a great villain. He thinks that he’s doing the right thing. Perhaps at one time, he was doing the right thing, but he got carried away. And he became very, very bad. Real life villains are often the same way.
Adelina Amouteru: The Young Elites. It’s not often that the villain and the heroine are the same people. You have to feel sorry for Adelina because you know her story, and you know that deep down inside, she’s a decent person, but she’s wicked at the same time. Somehow, you just can’t help but root for her and hope that she redeems herself.
Vicomte de Séguin: Enchantée. I don’t think that there’s many redeeming qualities about the Vicomte de Séguin in Enchantée (it’s an amazing book, you’ll want to read it when it comes out). He is so devious and smart though. And in the end, it seems like he might feel that he has no choice but to be evil. Of course, we all have choices.
Maven: Red Queen series. Maven is one of those villains that you have to like, at least a little. He had crappy parenting and might have been a decent person, if he hadn’t been pushed to the dark side. I was even hoping that he would change.
Pit Viper: Frequency. He seems like such a nice guy! People seem to love him. And he was treated horribly. Still, once you find out what he’s planning, you realize that he’s not such a great guy after all. Maybe he’ll change. You want him to change. That’s why he makes a great villain.
Redacted: Everless. Unless you read Everless, then you probably don’t know who the true villain of this story is. If I was to say who this person was, it would be too much of a spoiler. This person makes a great villain because you don’t even suspect him/her! He/she seems so nice. I’m not sure if there are any redeeming qualities to him/her, but he/she’s a great villain because he/she blends in so well!
Zero: Warcross. Is Zero really the villain? Or is he a hero? Or is someone else altogether the villain? One of the things that I love about the villainy in the Warcross duology is that there’s a point in Wildcard where you’re thinking “there is nobody in power that is good in this story.” Sometimes real life is like that, especially when it comes to politics.
Prince of Hearts: Legendary. He probably doesn’t have too many redeeming qualities to him, but he puts Tella in a seemingly impossible situation. He’s quite devious, and as a result, he’s a fairly noteworthy villain.
Catherine: Heartless. I’m not sure if we can consider Catherine to be the villain of this story or not, but we know that she becomes a villain. Maybe that’s why she makes such a good villain in this story. She’s not really a bad person, is she? But life’s circumstances shape her in a way that cause her to become a bad person. Often, that’s the way people become villains in real life.
The Nightbringer: Ember in the Ashes tetralogy. This guy is really creepy. I don’t want to give out spoilers if you haven’t read the series, but the way he uses people is just disgusting. Which makes him a good villain. Because you have to loathe him. Maybe at one point there were good things about him, but his interactions with Laia… ::shudder::. Another good thing that for a long time, he fools some of the readers into thinking that he’s not really a bad guy. Now that I know better, I’m going to have to think of this when I reread the series prior to Ember 4 coming out.
So there are all the baddies for this week! I who are your favorite villains? I can’t wait to find out. Leave a link to your Top Ten Tuesday and I’ll visit!
Next week: Stories with Dark Magic and darkness. I’m not a real Halloween person (I’ll give you the back story next week) but there are plenty of stories with dark magic to go around!