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villains

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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Tue September 2nd, 2008, 7:11 pm

I like villains who are intelligent/funny. None of those one-dimensional, idiot, evil overlord types for me. I also like to get a sense of why a villain is the way he/she is.

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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Tue September 2nd, 2008, 7:26 pm

I could easily identify what I like about fictional villains, but historical "villains" (which I assume to mean murderers) are much more difficult to read about/write because few people probably considers themselves a villain. Stalin, for example, probbaly thought of himself as quite the stand-up guy. Clearly, he knew he was a murderer, but while that word has terrible connotations for most of us, I'd be willing to bet that in his mind, there were varying degrees of murderers defined (and sometimes excused) by motivation/position in society.
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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Tue September 2nd, 2008, 8:14 pm

[quote=""michellemoran""]I could easily identify what I like about fictional villains, but historical "villains" (which I assume to mean murderers) are much more difficult to read about/write because few people probably considers themselves a villain. Stalin, for example, probbaly thought of himself as quite the stand-up guy. Clearly, he knew he was a murderer, but while that word has terrible connotations for most of us, I'd be willing to bet that in his mind, there were varying degrees of murderers defined (and sometimes excused) by motivation/position in society.[/quote]

Isn't he the guy who said that one death is a tragedy but a million deaths is a statistic?

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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Tue September 2nd, 2008, 8:54 pm

Yes! And the one death he was talking about was probably his own. :/
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Spitfire
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Post by Spitfire » Wed September 3rd, 2008, 4:33 pm

I would have to say that I love to hate Prince John in Geillis's Roselynd Chronicle series. Or how about PG's Beatrice Lacey...although she is probably idenified as the protagonist, she can also be grouped as a villian as well as she is so corrupt and evil. Thus I would nominate her as another villian that you love to hate!
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LCW
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Post by LCW » Wed September 3rd, 2008, 4:42 pm

My favorite villains of all time are Maegwllyn (sp?) and Sir Nicholas from Nectar From A Stone. Maegwllyn was just creepily evil while Nicholas was deviously insane! They were just flat out bad but also had touching sides to them and they really believed they were right. They were just absolutely brilliant!
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Post by Eyza » Sun September 7th, 2008, 11:48 pm

Margaret and all:

I kind of tend to prefer what might be called "antiheroes" to real "villains". For one thing, they're more complex and less likely to be one-dimensional. For another, you end up having some sympathy for them, although these characters end up doing bad things. Besides, they're kind of "driven" to do them, even if they want to do "right", which makes for a more "textured" story.
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chuck
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Post by chuck » Tue September 9th, 2008, 3:25 pm

"The Three Musketeers"...The lovely, charming and villainous Milady de Winter....strangling Constance with a Rosary...a very nasty deed....
Last edited by chuck on Tue September 9th, 2008, 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue September 9th, 2008, 4:10 pm

[quote=""chuck""]"The Three Musketeers"...The lovely, charming and villainous Milady de Winter....strangling Constance with a Rosary...a very nasty deed....[/quote]

Milady was very very wicked indeed, as was her son in Twenty Years After.

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Post by chuck » Tue September 9th, 2008, 4:28 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]Milady was very very wicked indeed, as was her son in Twenty Years After.[/quote]

Hello Misfit....The great writer... Dumas....I need to read him again....Might be a good for the coming Winter to re-read AD again....Haven't read him since my College Lit. days....It was required reading and it opened the doors for my passion for HF....Cheers.....P.S...This is such a informative and friendly group of posters....Long live HF Online....

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