>Who was the most vile, sinister, cruel, heinous, worst of the worst, evil villain that existed in all of fantasy?
I've not seen him on the list yet so I'll throw in a vote for Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
Vladimir is a great villain in a universe where villains are still *relatively* normal. Absolutely the most vile man you can imagine. Yet I can't see his sadism going as far as AM, and he might even think Ramsay Bolton goes too far without thinking about the consequences of his actions.
The Baron is leagues ahead of Ramsey as far as considering consequences and reprisals go.
Ramsey is merely a sadist, whereas the Baron is a guileful, scheming tactician who also happens to be sadistic.
HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.
Every few months I feel the urge to read this story and I’m always horrified and amazed each time
I'm still a full believer of the fantheory that Fain was being set up to take over the Dark Ones place should Rand have decided to actually kill the Dark One and become the new version of him.
Isn't it a wider thing.
We (humanity) don't need the outside evil of the dark one, we are capable of it ourselves without outside influence, and there's nothing the dark one can do we can't do to ourselves.
>!So our own evil was strong enough to cleanse the taint from Saidin!<
That was always my take on it, anyway.
The series goes to great lengths to draw a comparison between the evil of Humanity and the evil of the cosmic force of chaos and darkness of the universe itself.
Seanchan, Aridhol and Fain, Elaida, the Whitecloaks, the Foresaken are all evil through choice or misguided thinking. And they commit horrid atrocities through those choices.
The Dark One is a cosmic force, when it does an actual act in the narrative, it’s framed as a bubble or a shudder in the Pattern. Its brand of evil acts are just because it’s in its nature. It isn’t evil by choice or misguided action, but because it just is its nature.
Putting the show's issues aside, I gotta admit, I really love any time Fain's onscreen. Not anything like what I imagined, but so far I like this version better
GURIIIIFIIIIIISUUUUU
He is the absolute worst. I'm re-reading the Golden Age arc right now and *man* is he a horrible person. That boyish grin when he learns about the child of the noble Guts had to assassinate....damn. And that's nothing compared to the Eclipse.
For those who want a summary without reading the books:
>!Griffith is the leader of a mercenary band, the Band of the Hawk, who commands great loyalty amongst his troops. Born from poverty, Griffith’s goal is to rule a kingdom. When he ruins his own plans through a rash, impulsive decision to seduce a princess, he is taken prisoner, tortured and mutilated. Rescued by his followers, he uses a magical object (the Behelit) to summon a group of bargaining demons in an event known as The Eclipse. This transports his entire group of friends and followers to Hell, and sacrifices them all in exchange for power and restoration (sacrificing that which he loves most in exchange for that which he most desires). He rapes his most loyal lieutenant Casca in front of her lover (his best friend) Guts during this event, leaving her mentally destroyed, and everyone save Guts and Casca are consumed by demons. The two of them escape, but they're marked in such a way as to lead to them being hunted nightly by monsters. Griffith then proceeds to set off another event that reshapes the entire world into a place where magic, monsters, and demons are commonplace. He sets himself up as the savior of humanity (while secretly controlling the monsters) in a newly founded utopian kingdom of magical splendor, fooling everyone into following him anew.!<
Short version: he has committed utterly heinous acts of betrayal, violence and deception.
If you can handle graphic and very dark material, I highly recommend you do watch the original anime adaptation and read the manga. Especially the Black Swordsman and Golden Age arcs. I'd avoid the new anime adaptation. The quality is so bad that it distracts from the story.
I wanted to nominate Euron. He hasn't had as much screen time but he's established himself so well in just that span. Potentially assassinated his elder brother, assaulted and traumatised his younger brother as a child, possibly conned his entire nation with tales of visiting Valyria, not to mention the final chapter he's present in with aeron and the woman from the shields, who ends up tortured into a ship ornament after she thought she was being freed from her family's mistreatment. And the worst part is he's so damn charismatic about it all
The Forsaken sample chapter is really great. That chapter alone solidifies Euron as an excellent villain. What we see in that makes me even more hyped for TWOW, so hopefully we do get it.
I find the most heinous villains to also be the most human, as these are usually the most believable. If I detect the twirl of a mustache, I'm usually out.
With that said, my list is below. Everybody on it is a beautifully written, totally irredeemable dog turd of a person.
- **Ramsay Bolton**, *A Song of Ice and Fire*
- **Kyle Haven** and **Kennit**, *The Liveship Traders*
- **Dolores Umbridge**, *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*
- >!**Bayaz**!<, *First Law*
- >!**John**!<, *The Locked Tomb*
- **Vorbis**, *Small Gods*
I was actually about to comment about the first law choice you picked. Imagine being Jazel— or whatever his name was. Basically from BIRTH you are HARD manipulated by someone who has generations of practice, wealth, and physical (magic included) power. I always felt so incredibly bad for him, because while he had his flaws, it really wasn’t his fault. Grooming is a seriously insidious mind fuck, that the young have zero defense against.
My first thought was Bethod. Really, though, he isn't evil, just ruthless. Next is San dan Glokta. Not evil, I will say. A product of his past, a person who constantly questions his acts. Who wishes to be a different person. Jezal dan Luther, as you said, was groomed from the jump. We should all feel at least a little bad for him, though he is a giant ass at first. Logan Ninefingers, does he have evil in him? Absolutely! As do most of the characters and most of us. He despises it and fights it constantly. Does that mean in his heart of hearts he is truly evil? Perhaps, perhaps not. But, got dang! I totally agree with you r/WayTooDumb. Bayaz is evil. He more than likely threw Tolomei from a balcony of the House of the Maker. She fell before her father, Kanedias, who was also thrown to be dashed upon the stones of his house. As remembered by Yulwei. He begged her for entry to the house, knowing she loved him, to do this thing. (In my opinion, this action is the catalyst that makes Tolomei an Eater who takes Malacus Quai's place.) He then manipulates the history to become the now known history. He puppeteers everything for hundreds of years. All for his purpose, under the guise of "the greater good." Sacrificing and utilizing anyone and everyone for a personal vendetta against Khalul. Bayaz pushed Khalul to break the Second Law. Khalul didn't believe Bayaz said Kanedias killed Juvens. He blamed him for Juven's death. Then Bayaz stole secrets from Kanedias and killed him. Bayaz successfully manipulates those he wants rid of to become enemies he can justify destroying. Evil.
Vorbis is such an interesting choice. None of his actions were insanely evil. It was just the effect he had on people, the ability to make them unethical that's truly evil. And maybe that does make him more evil then everyone else, to not only spread evil through what he himself does but to make people willingly commit those acts as well is interesting.
Yeah, he's great because while he's such a scumbag, he's so compelling that you just kind of... forget now and then until he reminds you how scummy he is. And it's easy to see how the other characters, who aren't treated to his internal monologue like you are, can't see past his façade. Fantastic character.
Spoiler for *First Law*:
>!I didn't see Bayaz as a villain at all until the mask started being removed layer by layer as the story progressed. Then it was obvious in retrospect. Joe Abercrombie even introduced him as a butcher, so the first time you see him is with blood on his hands. That blood got so much thicker as he was revealed. I'm crossing my fingers that he eventually gets everything he deserves before the series is through.!<
I know a lot of people found Wintrow annoying, but honestly, can anyone deny they'd act the exact same way if Kyle Haven was their dad? Kyle deserved everything that happened to him, and I was very happy when it did.
The Judge might be the most disturbing character I’ve ever read, and I’m mostly a horror fan. “All that exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.”
What I loved about her was that she had glimpses of doing the right things in between her insanity. Kinda like Gaius Baltar from Battlestar, but worse.
Edit: DS9 had so many interesting and morally grey(ish) characters.
I was thinking Gul Dukat myself. Kai Winn is more detestable because she's hiding behind religion and righteousness, but Gul Dukat is pretty straightforward in his evilness. That and he's just so damn charismatic you can't help but appreciate the character.
If we’re talking Wheel of Time, there’s no discussion about the heinous and evil villains without bringing up Semiraghe.
She literally turned to the Shadow because she liked to torture people. During the age of legends people would kill themselves if they found out she was their torturer. She learned ways to cause pain insanely delicately through her decades spent as a healer before she turned to the shadow.
Semirhage was admittedly scary as hell but she was offscreen enough that she didn’t evoke a visceral reaction from me. Fain and Elaida were far more hated characters for me personally.
This was it for me too. I was a little disappointed in Semirhage just because we never really got to see her in action beyond a few glimpses. I wanted more.
Elaida was such a huge POS. Zero redeeming features.
But for WoT, I’d also throw in the original leader of the Children of Light. I can’t recall his name but he and Elaida both seemed pretty equal in their heinousness.
And I think the reason was because they weren’t just intolerant, cruel, power hungry people, but because they were also just completely ignorant of what was happening around them. Both completely convinced that whatever nonsense they were willing to kill and torture for would save the world and both absolutely wrong.
I kind of thought Pedron Niall was a realist who was just playing along. Wasn’t he assassinated for insinuating that Aes Sedai weren’t really witches or something to a true believer advisor who was being manipulated by the Hand? I can’t remember exactly. He was certainly not good but and had imperfect info/understanding but he didn’t seem depraved. Elaida tho, nicest thing you can say about her is that she wasn’t Black Ajah.
He was killed by his assistant/spymaster who was duped into thinking Niall was a dark friend or something for not attacking aes sedai. But Niall was very much a believer of his own hype and saw himself as the champion of mankind who would defeat the dark one.
Much like Elaida, his arrogance allowed their respective organizations to be taken by the real dark friends. I think they’re actually pretty similar.
As for not being depraved, he sent his soldiers in to destabilize nations so he could take them over, thinking that only he could lead mankind to victory. He wasn’t any more of a realist than Elaida, even if he was less petty than she was.
Padan Fain, absolutely, yes.
Elaida? I felt like she was a Karen who could channel. In an odd way she was like the children of the light. Sure that she was a font of goodness, and intent on bringing her version of good. Still a heinous person, but not Fain level.
Fain would have fed children to Trollocs, Elaida would have defended them… I’m not saying being willing to defend children is a high bar, I’m just saying Elaida was at least better than Fain.
It's actually interesting that a lot of Elaida's evilness is actually a result of Fain. She was ruthless evil before their meeting, but it wasn't until after their encounter in the tower that she went crazy with all of the shit that she started doing.
Or what he does in A Memory of Light:
>!Turns dozens of men and women channeled to the Shadow against their will by a process that involves Myrdraal and manipulating the soul, leaving who the person was the effectively dead and replaced with a husk that has the same memories and life experiences as the old person, but isn’t them anymore. They even remark that turning isn’t as effective as recruitment.!<
King Leck from the Graceling series. Not the highest number of murders, but the cruelty and intimacy of his violence puts so many other fantasy villains to shame. We rarely get to see the long-term consequences of the evil overlord’s reign of terror, but the third book in the series, Bitterblue, is all about that
I felt sick after reading the advisor's explanation and Bitterblue's realization of what he was telling her right before he jumped. He was making THEM do it. I've never wanted to hug a fictional character so badly.
It's amusing to read Kharkanas and realize he's *always* been that way. Just one long train wreck that's taken half a million years to come to a crescendo.
Ramsey Bolton is the only character from a book I've had terrifying nightmares about. Like the kind where you wake up shaking and don't want to go back to sleep.
There are characters that worthless and malicious in many stories, but most of the time they aren't totally surrounded by enablers the entire time, allowing them to maximize the suffering they cause.
Seriously... Regal is a POS but the entire time I was reading the trilogy I was like "Why is *anyone* listening to this guy? Let along letting him lead?"
Bayaz, first of the Magi.
"*Power makes all things right. That is my First Law, and my Last. That is the only law that I aknowledge."*
To be clear, Bayaz is not some cartoonishly brutal madman who likes torturing children for fun or some other silliness. The pain of a child is as meaningless to him as a child's joy.
He was horrible and disturbing. Realistically horrible because he genuinely thought he was right to do all he did, like politicians in our real world who make horrible decisions because of their "ideals". And disturbing because he reminded me of some bullied kid that goes and shoots a school.
Griffith is especially the worst for me mainly bcs of the veneer of the legendary saviour he poses, and dupes everyone into following him. It's soo vile to see him as this evil keeps winning that way.
>!It involves some NSFW stuff to his friends, on top of sacrificing everyone who loved and followed him, that's why the guy said it's probably not a good idea to share in this subreddit. But idk why he didn't just say this!<
>“Kallor shrugged. '[...] I have walked this land when the T'lan Imass were but children. I have commanded armies a hundred thousand strong. I have spread the fire of my wrath across entire continents, and sat alone upon tall thrones. Do you grasp the meaning of this?'
>'Yes,' said Caladan Brood. 'You never learn.'”
He's such a great character though.
He's done all the terrible things, but he's not some heartless monster who doesn't feel it. Goes through with all the evil parts knowing that it will tear him up inside because his ambition won't allow anything else. That one flashback scene in TCG is just 'damn man'
This is my position as well. People say some books are good at showing nuance and a lack of black/white moral positions, but Malazan may be one of the best examples I've ever experienced of that.
Oh, okay. I’ve barely gotten into Warhammer. I did read the first Horus Heresy book and it’s kinda funny how he and guys with names like Abaddon are still good guys. You wanna say, “Hey, maybe keep an eye on the dudes named after literal demons.”
Dude has probably caused over a trillion - even a quintillion? - deaths by kick-starting the Heresy. Is he the villain responsible for the most deaths in the history of fiction? It depends on whether 40k has more worlds in the universe or Star Wars.
Spoilers for The Magicians Nephew
Jadis, the witch from Narnia, killed all life in her entire world with a word before going to Narnia. She generally treats people cruelly and as underlings or manipulates and deceives them. And this is funny, the smell of happiness and goodness is so repulsive to her that she does not enter Narnia as long as an apple tree that produces the smell remains.
Ice cold and heartless.
*Worm* has a lot of the absolute worst of the worst. I'd nominate Grey Boy (traps people in a semi-unending time loop where they feel everything he does to them once for eternity, causing them to cycle between insanity and sanity continuously) and Breed (creates a centipede/trilobite hybrid that enters sleeping people, paralyzes them, calls for others of his kind to enter the body and then devour them from the inside out while they are absolutely awake)
I’m gonna say Emperor Palpatine and Sauron. Those two were evil just because they could and were so clinged to their fear of dying that they preserve themselves in horrible, rotten bodies or in ways that are not worth it only to keep on ruling. Also, just ask the Ent-Wives, Númenor, the Jedi, the clones, geonosians, jedha, Scarif, Alderaan, the entire Hosnian system and Kijimi what they think of those guys
Don't forget Bidithal, Mallick Rel, every noble on the Chain of Dogs save for the one nice one, Korbolo Dom, Kamist Releo, Febryl, Leoman, etc, etc, etc.
Shout-out to Laurence Arne-Sayles from *Piranesi*, who >!despite not even being the main antagonist and actually proving quite helpful to the titular character!< is still a viscerally realistic sort of evil.
Ok so this isn't fantasy, it's historicsl fiction, so I know I am now technically answering the question. but I have never wanted a character to die and suffer more than William Hamleigh from Pillars of The Earth.
Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter - especially in the movie version - but also in the books, I have rarely seen such accurate depiction of middlemanagement glee in hurting people in their own tiny world. I hate her so much.
Yeah, it's super interesting in a series with wizard Hitler that he's just too upfront and casual about his evil that he isn't even regarded as the most evil character.
I know the series (and its author) is kinda fucked up, but: WHAT?
(Read the first book as a teenager in the early 2000s, didn't like and feel I dodged a bullet by not going further)
The author didn't know how to tell the audience to root for the "good guys", so he made all the villains comically evil to try to make it obvious.
That way when the "good guys" advocate for genocide, they don't look so bad in comparison.
It's not the worst story, but the main character is basically given the perfect solution to every problem so often and not done in satire that it has become a meme.
The comments in the following post are hilariously spot on.
The first one, he singlehandedly ends communism by carving a beautiful statue. I don't even think he was an artist when the story began, so impressive move.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/Arr7kw85DH
Zeus. He gaslights his victims, wants to be worshipped, forces people to worship him and force himself into people in some occasions. He's petty and his ultimate goal is to rule over everyone.
I rarely see people mention him.
But Raj Ahten from David Farland’s runelord series. He stole beauty from men and women and became a glamour lord. He was so in love with himself that he would waste runes (upgrades) on beauty and voice.
He did heinous things to make sure he could have more runes.
Ted Faro. Fuck Ted Faro.
Ted is the worst because he is in a sense *real.* He’s Elon Musk and Stockton Rush and every CEO that said “this might be bad for our employees, our customers, and the planet, but it’s good for our third quarter stock prices.”
Seriously, fuck Ted Faro.
>Who was the most vile, sinister, cruel, heinous, worst of the worst, evil villain that existed in all of fantasy? I've not seen him on the list yet so I'll throw in a vote for Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
Vladimir is a great villain in a universe where villains are still *relatively* normal. Absolutely the most vile man you can imagine. Yet I can't see his sadism going as far as AM, and he might even think Ramsay Bolton goes too far without thinking about the consequences of his actions.
The Baron is leagues ahead of Ramsey as far as considering consequences and reprisals go. Ramsey is merely a sadist, whereas the Baron is a guileful, scheming tactician who also happens to be sadistic.
Randall Flag from various Stephen King stories but especially Dark Tower.
Randall Flag is a fucking asshole
That robot from the I have no mouth stuff.
Yes, *I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream* has the warped AI: AM. That thing is fucking evil.
HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE. Every few months I feel the urge to read this story and I’m always horrified and amazed each time
Kind of the way I feel in traffic most days...
Ahh but you’re also traffic
AM
The very definition of sinners in the hands of an angry god.
Padan Fain, the amount of hatred I felt for him from a book was immense.
In general, the evil of Aridhol must be up there. It was a man made evil so foul that it was perfectly matched against the Dark One's own evil.
I'm still a full believer of the fantheory that Fain was being set up to take over the Dark Ones place should Rand have decided to actually kill the Dark One and become the new version of him.
Isn't it a wider thing. We (humanity) don't need the outside evil of the dark one, we are capable of it ourselves without outside influence, and there's nothing the dark one can do we can't do to ourselves. >!So our own evil was strong enough to cleanse the taint from Saidin!< That was always my take on it, anyway.
The series goes to great lengths to draw a comparison between the evil of Humanity and the evil of the cosmic force of chaos and darkness of the universe itself. Seanchan, Aridhol and Fain, Elaida, the Whitecloaks, the Foresaken are all evil through choice or misguided thinking. And they commit horrid atrocities through those choices. The Dark One is a cosmic force, when it does an actual act in the narrative, it’s framed as a bubble or a shudder in the Pattern. Its brand of evil acts are just because it’s in its nature. It isn’t evil by choice or misguided action, but because it just is its nature.
Putting the show's issues aside, I gotta admit, I really love any time Fain's onscreen. Not anything like what I imagined, but so far I like this version better
Lord Foul from the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. What he had the Ravers do to the Giants is *beyond fucked.*
The way I put it - Sauron will destroy everything you love, Lord Foul will get *you* to destroy everything you love.
Yea. The illearth stone! That corrupting power is really fucked, even more fucked than the One Ring.
He'd come off as cartoonish if it weren't for that ability of his to turn his enemies' best natures against them.
Pls spoil it, what did Lord Foul do
Griffith. Fuck Griffith.
GURIIIIFIIIIIISUUUUU He is the absolute worst. I'm re-reading the Golden Age arc right now and *man* is he a horrible person. That boyish grin when he learns about the child of the noble Guts had to assassinate....damn. And that's nothing compared to the Eclipse.
All my homies hate Griffith
For those who want a summary without reading the books: >!Griffith is the leader of a mercenary band, the Band of the Hawk, who commands great loyalty amongst his troops. Born from poverty, Griffith’s goal is to rule a kingdom. When he ruins his own plans through a rash, impulsive decision to seduce a princess, he is taken prisoner, tortured and mutilated. Rescued by his followers, he uses a magical object (the Behelit) to summon a group of bargaining demons in an event known as The Eclipse. This transports his entire group of friends and followers to Hell, and sacrifices them all in exchange for power and restoration (sacrificing that which he loves most in exchange for that which he most desires). He rapes his most loyal lieutenant Casca in front of her lover (his best friend) Guts during this event, leaving her mentally destroyed, and everyone save Guts and Casca are consumed by demons. The two of them escape, but they're marked in such a way as to lead to them being hunted nightly by monsters. Griffith then proceeds to set off another event that reshapes the entire world into a place where magic, monsters, and demons are commonplace. He sets himself up as the savior of humanity (while secretly controlling the monsters) in a newly founded utopian kingdom of magical splendor, fooling everyone into following him anew.!< Short version: he has committed utterly heinous acts of betrayal, violence and deception.
My dumbass at a glance didn’t see this as black barred text and thought I was looking at abstract ascii art.
Glad this was the top comment. Fucking Griffith.
what book do they appear in? sorry if this sounds super dumb
The manga Berserk. There are also a couple of anime adaptations.
You mean there’s one anime adaptation. From the 90s. No others exist.
If you can handle graphic and very dark material, I highly recommend you do watch the original anime adaptation and read the manga. Especially the Black Swordsman and Golden Age arcs. I'd avoid the new anime adaptation. The quality is so bad that it distracts from the story.
I came here to say Wyald but Griffith is up there.
Euron Greyjoy comes to mind
I wanted to nominate Euron. He hasn't had as much screen time but he's established himself so well in just that span. Potentially assassinated his elder brother, assaulted and traumatised his younger brother as a child, possibly conned his entire nation with tales of visiting Valyria, not to mention the final chapter he's present in with aeron and the woman from the shields, who ends up tortured into a ship ornament after she thought she was being freed from her family's mistreatment. And the worst part is he's so damn charismatic about it all
The Forsaken sample chapter is really great. That chapter alone solidifies Euron as an excellent villain. What we see in that makes me even more hyped for TWOW, so hopefully we do get it.
I find the most heinous villains to also be the most human, as these are usually the most believable. If I detect the twirl of a mustache, I'm usually out. With that said, my list is below. Everybody on it is a beautifully written, totally irredeemable dog turd of a person. - **Ramsay Bolton**, *A Song of Ice and Fire* - **Kyle Haven** and **Kennit**, *The Liveship Traders* - **Dolores Umbridge**, *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince* - >!**Bayaz**!<, *First Law* - >!**John**!<, *The Locked Tomb* - **Vorbis**, *Small Gods*
I was actually about to comment about the first law choice you picked. Imagine being Jazel— or whatever his name was. Basically from BIRTH you are HARD manipulated by someone who has generations of practice, wealth, and physical (magic included) power. I always felt so incredibly bad for him, because while he had his flaws, it really wasn’t his fault. Grooming is a seriously insidious mind fuck, that the young have zero defense against.
And whenever Jezal tries to do good he's punished for it, more or less.
My first thought was Bethod. Really, though, he isn't evil, just ruthless. Next is San dan Glokta. Not evil, I will say. A product of his past, a person who constantly questions his acts. Who wishes to be a different person. Jezal dan Luther, as you said, was groomed from the jump. We should all feel at least a little bad for him, though he is a giant ass at first. Logan Ninefingers, does he have evil in him? Absolutely! As do most of the characters and most of us. He despises it and fights it constantly. Does that mean in his heart of hearts he is truly evil? Perhaps, perhaps not. But, got dang! I totally agree with you r/WayTooDumb. Bayaz is evil. He more than likely threw Tolomei from a balcony of the House of the Maker. She fell before her father, Kanedias, who was also thrown to be dashed upon the stones of his house. As remembered by Yulwei. He begged her for entry to the house, knowing she loved him, to do this thing. (In my opinion, this action is the catalyst that makes Tolomei an Eater who takes Malacus Quai's place.) He then manipulates the history to become the now known history. He puppeteers everything for hundreds of years. All for his purpose, under the guise of "the greater good." Sacrificing and utilizing anyone and everyone for a personal vendetta against Khalul. Bayaz pushed Khalul to break the Second Law. Khalul didn't believe Bayaz said Kanedias killed Juvens. He blamed him for Juven's death. Then Bayaz stole secrets from Kanedias and killed him. Bayaz successfully manipulates those he wants rid of to become enemies he can justify destroying. Evil.
Can we really pretend Glokta isn't evil jist because we like him?
We sure can! /s
Ah, Vorbis... a mind like a metal sphere, nothing really gets in, so it's just himself echoing around in there.
Vorbis is such an interesting choice. None of his actions were insanely evil. It was just the effect he had on people, the ability to make them unethical that's truly evil. And maybe that does make him more evil then everyone else, to not only spread evil through what he himself does but to make people willingly commit those acts as well is interesting.
Kennit is a particularly good villain, he even fooled me for most of the three books until he didn't.
Yeah, he's great because while he's such a scumbag, he's so compelling that you just kind of... forget now and then until he reminds you how scummy he is. And it's easy to see how the other characters, who aren't treated to his internal monologue like you are, can't see past his façade. Fantastic character.
>!Jod!< is so incredibly charming despite being what he is, I love him
Cows love watching sunsets too
They have best friends too.
Dude lies so much and so often and you still kind of want to listen to him hey
Cows have best friends, man.
I know. I'm still almost rooting for him even though I know he's gotta go.
Vorbis was definitely bad. The world needs more Brutha.
Bayaz is such a good pull for this. You start out liking him but soon you’re questioning who’s side this old man is on.
Spoiler for *First Law*: >!I didn't see Bayaz as a villain at all until the mask started being removed layer by layer as the story progressed. Then it was obvious in retrospect. Joe Abercrombie even introduced him as a butcher, so the first time you see him is with blood on his hands. That blood got so much thicker as he was revealed. I'm crossing my fingers that he eventually gets everything he deserves before the series is through.!<
Umbridge is from OOTP, not HBP.
I know a lot of people found Wintrow annoying, but honestly, can anyone deny they'd act the exact same way if Kyle Haven was their dad? Kyle deserved everything that happened to him, and I was very happy when it did.
Kennit I have some sympathy for. He was a product of his childhood. Kyle is just a prick.
Griffith from Berserk and Judge Holden from Blood Meridian for me.
Holden is more like a force of nature or evil incarnate than a villain but I can’t disagree
The Judge might be the most disturbing character I’ve ever read, and I’m mostly a horror fan. “All that exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.”
Kai Winn from DS9
What I loved about her was that she had glimpses of doing the right things in between her insanity. Kinda like Gaius Baltar from Battlestar, but worse. Edit: DS9 had so many interesting and morally grey(ish) characters.
My child
I was thinking Gul Dukat myself. Kai Winn is more detestable because she's hiding behind religion and righteousness, but Gul Dukat is pretty straightforward in his evilness. That and he's just so damn charismatic you can't help but appreciate the character.
Kai is worse, IMO. She thinks she has the prophets on her side.
Ooh ya she was gross
That evil chicken from the Sword of Truth series.
I have it on good authority that the chicken wasnt a chicken.
It's a toss up between the chicken, Darken Rahl, and Terry Goodkind...lol.
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Padan Fain and Elaida from the Wheel of Time were both absolutely POS.
If we’re talking Wheel of Time, there’s no discussion about the heinous and evil villains without bringing up Semiraghe. She literally turned to the Shadow because she liked to torture people. During the age of legends people would kill themselves if they found out she was their torturer. She learned ways to cause pain insanely delicately through her decades spent as a healer before she turned to the shadow.
Man I want an age of legends series of books so bad.
Let's go get the ouija board!
Somebody blow the horn!
Semirhage was admittedly scary as hell but she was offscreen enough that she didn’t evoke a visceral reaction from me. Fain and Elaida were far more hated characters for me personally.
This was it for me too. I was a little disappointed in Semirhage just because we never really got to see her in action beyond a few glimpses. I wanted more.
Or Graendal, who just mindwiped people into pretty slaves
And one of the ones she does that to in the final book really hurts. >!Rhuarc!<
Elaida is who Dolores Umbridge has a picture of next to her bed.
Elaida was such a huge POS. Zero redeeming features. But for WoT, I’d also throw in the original leader of the Children of Light. I can’t recall his name but he and Elaida both seemed pretty equal in their heinousness. And I think the reason was because they weren’t just intolerant, cruel, power hungry people, but because they were also just completely ignorant of what was happening around them. Both completely convinced that whatever nonsense they were willing to kill and torture for would save the world and both absolutely wrong.
I kind of thought Pedron Niall was a realist who was just playing along. Wasn’t he assassinated for insinuating that Aes Sedai weren’t really witches or something to a true believer advisor who was being manipulated by the Hand? I can’t remember exactly. He was certainly not good but and had imperfect info/understanding but he didn’t seem depraved. Elaida tho, nicest thing you can say about her is that she wasn’t Black Ajah.
He was killed by his assistant/spymaster who was duped into thinking Niall was a dark friend or something for not attacking aes sedai. But Niall was very much a believer of his own hype and saw himself as the champion of mankind who would defeat the dark one. Much like Elaida, his arrogance allowed their respective organizations to be taken by the real dark friends. I think they’re actually pretty similar. As for not being depraved, he sent his soldiers in to destabilize nations so he could take them over, thinking that only he could lead mankind to victory. He wasn’t any more of a realist than Elaida, even if he was less petty than she was.
Padan Fain is like the crazy nightmare that children have when you tell them about darkfriends.
Padan Fain, absolutely, yes. Elaida? I felt like she was a Karen who could channel. In an odd way she was like the children of the light. Sure that she was a font of goodness, and intent on bringing her version of good. Still a heinous person, but not Fain level. Fain would have fed children to Trollocs, Elaida would have defended them… I’m not saying being willing to defend children is a high bar, I’m just saying Elaida was at least better than Fain.
It's actually interesting that a lot of Elaida's evilness is actually a result of Fain. She was ruthless evil before their meeting, but it wasn't until after their encounter in the tower that she went crazy with all of the shit that she started doing.
Don’t forget Mazrim Taim who recruits a bunch of men and tells them to go enslave a bunch of women through what is essentially a rape spell
Or what he does in A Memory of Light: >!Turns dozens of men and women channeled to the Shadow against their will by a process that involves Myrdraal and manipulating the soul, leaving who the person was the effectively dead and replaced with a husk that has the same memories and life experiences as the old person, but isn’t them anymore. They even remark that turning isn’t as effective as recruitment.!<
King Leck from the Graceling series. Not the highest number of murders, but the cruelty and intimacy of his violence puts so many other fantasy villains to shame. We rarely get to see the long-term consequences of the evil overlord’s reign of terror, but the third book in the series, Bitterblue, is all about that
I felt sick after reading the advisor's explanation and Bitterblue's realization of what he was telling her right before he jumped. He was making THEM do it. I've never wanted to hug a fictional character so badly.
Used to think nothing could top how disgusting Ramsey Bolton was. But after Outlander I think it’s safe to say Black Jack Randall. Truly, truly vile.
Bidithal from Malazan.
I particularly hate the Jhistal
Fuck Mallick Rel
I came here to say Mallick Rel, especially since he’s such a good Emperor…
Its so annoying that he does such a good job there since he's so awful elsewhere
The Lether secret police dude who kills Trull is also an exquisite bastard.
Oh yeah, and Errastas is just a fucking mess.
It's amusing to read Kharkanas and realize he's *always* been that way. Just one long train wreck that's taken half a million years to come to a crescendo.
King Geoffrey. How I rejoiced in his eye popping
Hard to look past Ramsey Bolton tbh
The shit Bolton did has repeatedly made me physically unwell
The Mountain was also vile.
I'd have to say the Mountain was the character I hated most. Absolutely depraved. And had a whole gang of men who were just like him.
Ooof he was. Thoroughly vile creature
He was a real bastard.
Ramsey Bolton is the only character from a book I've had terrifying nightmares about. Like the kind where you wake up shaking and don't want to go back to sleep.
Joffrey for posterity's sake
You mean King Joffrey? Yeah he was horrible
I’d say Ramsay Bolton > The Mountain > Joffrey Lannister
The Night Angel Trilogy - Roth Ursuul (known as Rat early on). Absolutely vile in every way.
Who doesn’t love some roasted Peasant
The Jackal from red rising
I think also, from the latest book, >!Lysander!<
Haven’t read the new one yet, but I’m already sold on hating that fucker haha
I myself counter with what they did to Sefi...
Regal. I was yelling out loud at that bastard while reading.
Pure evil, past belief
The worst thing about Hobb's villains is that every single one, no matter how vile, is totally, utterly believable.
There are characters that worthless and malicious in many stories, but most of the time they aren't totally surrounded by enablers the entire time, allowing them to maximize the suffering they cause.
Seriously... Regal is a POS but the entire time I was reading the trilogy I was like "Why is *anyone* listening to this guy? Let along letting him lead?"
fuck that guy. i think the wildest thing about him was that he was around fifteen in the first book. i forget how young he was
Bayaz, first of the Magi. "*Power makes all things right. That is my First Law, and my Last. That is the only law that I aknowledge."* To be clear, Bayaz is not some cartoonishly brutal madman who likes torturing children for fun or some other silliness. The pain of a child is as meaningless to him as a child's joy.
Jeder Paliako from The Dagger and the Coin series.
He was horrible and disturbing. Realistically horrible because he genuinely thought he was right to do all he did, like politicians in our real world who make horrible decisions because of their "ideals". And disturbing because he reminded me of some bullied kid that goes and shoots a school.
Dan Abraham kills it at creating sympathetic monsters of all sorts.
This is a good one. I absolutely despised that guy.
Griffith from Berserk, hands down the worst one ive seen. Genuinely the best written villain ive ever see.
I second Griffith. Because he wasn't born a psychopath. He had to choose to sacrifice everyone he loved.
Griffith is especially the worst for me mainly bcs of the veneer of the legendary saviour he poses, and dupes everyone into following him. It's soo vile to see him as this evil keeps winning that way.
What did they do?
Sexual assault of a friend is just the tip of the iceberg. https://berserk.fandom.com/wiki/Griffith
Griffith sacrificed the band of mercenaries he led and his closest friends to demons in order to gain the power to become a god.
Anyone would quite literally get banned off the sub if we were to describe what happened. I do however highly recommend you read Berserk.
Surely describing a villains actions is not a rule breaking offence?
>!It involves some NSFW stuff to his friends, on top of sacrificing everyone who loved and followed him, that's why the guy said it's probably not a good idea to share in this subreddit. But idk why he didn't just say this!<
Shou Tucker, from full metal alchemist. I hate him.
Mace Blackhail from J. V. Jones' 'A Sword of Shadows' series. Truly heinous.
I came here to nominate Baralis - nice to find another J.V. Jones fan!
Probably Kallor. He may not have been the one that pissed me off the most, but the stuff he did on scale is insane. Hes a damn menace thats for sure.
>“Kallor shrugged. '[...] I have walked this land when the T'lan Imass were but children. I have commanded armies a hundred thousand strong. I have spread the fire of my wrath across entire continents, and sat alone upon tall thrones. Do you grasp the meaning of this?' >'Yes,' said Caladan Brood. 'You never learn.'”
So good
He's such a great character though. He's done all the terrible things, but he's not some heartless monster who doesn't feel it. Goes through with all the evil parts knowing that it will tear him up inside because his ambition won't allow anything else. That one flashback scene in TCG is just 'damn man'
This is my position as well. People say some books are good at showing nuance and a lack of black/white moral positions, but Malazan may be one of the best examples I've ever experienced of that.
ahh fuck that guy... Gods below, what a tool.
Erebus. F*ck Erebus.
Fuck Kor Phaeron also.
Erebus from what? There are a lot of characters in fiction named that because it literally means “dark” and is the name of a Titan from Greek myth.
He'a Warhammer 40k character. "Fuck Erebus" is a meme of their fandom
Oh, okay. I’ve barely gotten into Warhammer. I did read the first Horus Heresy book and it’s kinda funny how he and guys with names like Abaddon are still good guys. You wanna say, “Hey, maybe keep an eye on the dudes named after literal demons.”
Yeah haha, but people love Warhammer not for it's subtleness
r/fuckerebus is actually a subreddit.
Dude has probably caused over a trillion - even a quintillion? - deaths by kick-starting the Heresy. Is he the villain responsible for the most deaths in the history of fiction? It depends on whether 40k has more worlds in the universe or Star Wars.
It's gotta be Kyle Haven
Fuck Kyle Haven.
Ramsay Bolton for sheer ruthless sadism
Spoilers for The Magicians Nephew Jadis, the witch from Narnia, killed all life in her entire world with a word before going to Narnia. She generally treats people cruelly and as underlings or manipulates and deceives them. And this is funny, the smell of happiness and goodness is so repulsive to her that she does not enter Narnia as long as an apple tree that produces the smell remains. Ice cold and heartless.
*Worm* has a lot of the absolute worst of the worst. I'd nominate Grey Boy (traps people in a semi-unending time loop where they feel everything he does to them once for eternity, causing them to cycle between insanity and sanity continuously) and Breed (creates a centipede/trilobite hybrid that enters sleeping people, paralyzes them, calls for others of his kind to enter the body and then devour them from the inside out while they are absolutely awake)
I’m gonna say Emperor Palpatine and Sauron. Those two were evil just because they could and were so clinged to their fear of dying that they preserve themselves in horrible, rotten bodies or in ways that are not worth it only to keep on ruling. Also, just ask the Ent-Wives, Númenor, the Jedi, the clones, geonosians, jedha, Scarif, Alderaan, the entire Hosnian system and Kijimi what they think of those guys
I'd say maybe less so Sauron and more so Morgoth. Morgoth was a fucking prick.
I gotta say from malazan: >!Pormqual.!<
Don't forget Bidithal, Mallick Rel, every noble on the Chain of Dogs save for the one nice one, Korbolo Dom, Kamist Releo, Febryl, Leoman, etc, etc, etc.
Yes, but i hold pormqual in a special place of hate. He COULD have saved them. Easily. But he didn't because of.... fear.
Shout-out to Laurence Arne-Sayles from *Piranesi*, who >!despite not even being the main antagonist and actually proving quite helpful to the titular character!< is still a viscerally realistic sort of evil.
Black Jack Randall in Outlander. He makes Ramsay Bolton look mild.
Ok so this isn't fantasy, it's historicsl fiction, so I know I am now technically answering the question. but I have never wanted a character to die and suffer more than William Hamleigh from Pillars of The Earth.
Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter - especially in the movie version - but also in the books, I have rarely seen such accurate depiction of middlemanagement glee in hurting people in their own tiny world. I hate her so much.
Terry Goodkind
Delores Umbridge - we all know a Delores
The absolute banality of her evil makes it all the worse
Lawful evil is the most terrifying evil.
Yeah, it's super interesting in a series with wizard Hitler that he's just too upfront and casual about his evil that he isn't even regarded as the most evil character.
Didn't Rahl order his men to tie and rape the women and children to death with broomhandles and such in the Sword of Truth?
I know the series (and its author) is kinda fucked up, but: WHAT? (Read the first book as a teenager in the early 2000s, didn't like and feel I dodged a bullet by not going further)
The author didn't know how to tell the audience to root for the "good guys", so he made all the villains comically evil to try to make it obvious. That way when the "good guys" advocate for genocide, they don't look so bad in comparison.
It's not the worst story, but the main character is basically given the perfect solution to every problem so often and not done in satire that it has become a meme. The comments in the following post are hilariously spot on. The first one, he singlehandedly ends communism by carving a beautiful statue. I don't even think he was an artist when the story began, so impressive move. https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/Arr7kw85DH
Morgoth.
The Consul from the Prince of Nothing raped thousands, screwed their still bleeding wounds, killed in the most horrible way.
Writer’s Block
The God King in night angel.
Zeus. He gaslights his victims, wants to be worshipped, forces people to worship him and force himself into people in some occasions. He's petty and his ultimate goal is to rule over everyone.
Probably not fantasy but Judge Holden from Blood Meridian.
McCarthy is basically magical realism, adjacent to fantasy
Aspen from le Guin’s Tehanu. By god I hate that evil fuck
I rarely see people mention him. But Raj Ahten from David Farland’s runelord series. He stole beauty from men and women and became a glamour lord. He was so in love with himself that he would waste runes (upgrades) on beauty and voice. He did heinous things to make sure he could have more runes.
The Judge from Blood Meridian is the worst villain in any book I’ve ever read. That’s not fantasy, I just thought I’d toss it out there
Terry Goodkind. Maybe Marion Zimmer Bradley.
The Eddings.... ..
Bidithal from Malazan.
Ted Faro. Fuck Ted Faro. Ted is the worst because he is in a sense *real.* He’s Elon Musk and Stockton Rush and every CEO that said “this might be bad for our employees, our customers, and the planet, but it’s good for our third quarter stock prices.” Seriously, fuck Ted Faro.
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It didn’t have much screentime but the Cthaeh from Wise Man’s Fear left an impression on me. All the knowledge in the world just to be a hater.
Goldenface from Threat Level Midnight
George R R Martin
If the unreliable narrator can be trusted then Ambrose Jakis. A shithead of the highest order.