The 10 Best Villains In Fantasy Books
A story is only as good as its villain. I dunno what smart person said that, but they were onto something! When it comes to enduring works of fantasy, it’s often the antagonist that gives the story its true literary weight. A dragon to be slain. A dark lord to be bested. An undead army to be sent packing back to the crypt. A hero is only as powerful as the villain they must defeat. A weak villain? A weak hero. A weak story. These 10 best villains in fantasy books make their respective stories anything but.
Randall Flagg – The Stand
While Randall Flagg aka The Man In Black aka The Walking Dude aka Marten Broadcloak etc. appears as a central villain in Stephen King’s fantasy magnum opus The Dark Tower, the true depth of his depravity is best showcased by his actions in the post apocalyptic tome The Stand. After the world is ravaged by a super-flu that kills 99% of the population, the remaining survivors begin to have strange spiritual visions based on the orientation of their moral compass. The good dream of a kindhearted woman in rural Nebraska, while the evil are drawn to a dark figure who is building an evil empire in the ruins of Las Vegas. Randall is described as a man whose only allegiance is to chaos. A white supremacist, a neo-Nazi, a dark wizard, a scheming tyrant, Flagg adopts any an all evil identities in order to best serve the forces of darkness in King’s multiverse – and does a very good job at being bad.
The Dragon – Grendel
While dragons have appeared as literary big bads for as long as people could write, the dragon from John Gardner’s Grendel is easily the most terrifying serpent ever conceived. In this retelling of Beowulf from the point of view of one of its monsters, the dragon isn’t a force of destruction like in the original myth. It burns no cities, devours no maidens, it just sits on a horde of gold and thinks. And lemme tell ya, this lizard’s philosophies could depress even Nietzsche. The dragon of Grendel is omnipotent, and his all knowing state of mind has turned him into the ultimate nihilist. This dragon knows that everything in the world while die at some point, whether it be heroes or hopes or humanity itself – so might as well sit on a pile of gold! The dragon represents pure existential horror, an abyss that stares back with cold and reptilian eyes.
Griffith – Berserk
Like Dorian Grey and his portrait, Griffith’s beautiful face belies an exceedingly ugly personality. Griffith is a the leader of a mercenary army called The Band of The Hawk. At least he was, until he sacrificed his loyal comrades in arms to demons in exchange for godlike power. Despite now being an archangel of darkness, Griffith is attempting to lead humanity into a new golden age – paving the way with the bodies of those who stand against him. While it may seem that the ends justify the means, it’s clear throughout Kentaro Miura’s manga that Griffith’s ends are in service to himself alone.
Marisa Coulter – His Dark Materials
The twisted mother figure of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Marisa Coulter is a lot like Berserk‘s Griffith – putrid personality hiding beneath a pretty face. There’s no way to describe her wrongs without spoiling the series’ plot, so spoiler alert. Marisa Coulter begins her tenure in evil by kidnapping children in order to subject them to horrifying experiments that literally sever them from their very souls. Described as a “cess-pit of moral filth” by one of the series’ other major antagonists, Mrs. Coulter is capable of offending even the most implacable bad guys. Another “ends justify the means” sort, Mrs. Coulter’s deeds are done to save mankind from a pre-ordained fall from divine grace – and she chooses to save humanity in the most graceless ways.
Gollum – The Lord of the Rings
While The Dark Lord Sauron is the most powerful villain in The Lord of The Rings, he feels far less frightening than the twisted little wretch that lusts for the Ring of Power. After finding the cursed jewelry in a riverbed, the hobbit formerly known as Sméagol murdered his own relative in order to keep it for himself. As the centuries passed, the ring corrupted the hobbit into something hardly halfling – a cave dwelling critter named for the horrible sounds that come from its throat. Unlike the one dimensional Dark Lord, Gollum is a cautionary tale of how the promise of power can pervert even the most innocent of creatures. As pitiful as he is pernicious, Gollum is a creature that stirs both our sympathy and revulsion – like many of the world’s most messed up criminals. Hurt people hurt people, after all.
Nicodemus Archleon – The Dresden Files
Nicodemus Archleon from The Dresden Files doesn’t have a traumatic backstory to explain his horrible actions – his horribleness is simply a God-given trait. After being bonded to a fallen angel housed within a cursed piece of silver, Nicodemus pulls a Judas and betrays his fellow man. He believes that the world is corrupt beyond saving (understandable) and that only a group of dark angel possessed zealots is capable of ruling it (less understandable). He’s the type of man to bet against humanity, the ultimate misanthrope who believes that mankind is not worthy to inherit the Earth, and that Heaven itself is corrupt for promising the contrary. And he’s willing to kill millions until Heaven changes its divine mind.
Captain Kennit – The Liveship Traders
Captain Kennit is the evil version of Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece. When he first appears in Robin Hobb’s The Liveship Traders, he’s a charismatic privateer who dreams of one day becoming King of the Pirate Isles and liberating its populace – how whimsical! As the tale goes on, it comes clear that Kennit is willing to do just about anything to accomplish his goals, even if that means resorting to manipulation, abuse, and murder. But what makes Kennit one of the most chilling villains is his total lack of awareness and accountability – he truly believes that he’s making the world a better place, and desires to be seen as a force of good above all else. Beneath his hero’s mask is a shell of a man, one whose broken past causes him to rationalize his deplorable present.
The Gentleman With The Thistledown Hair – Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
While Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell end up becoming villains themselves after mutual antagonism causes their mutual ruin, their jealous rivalry is spurred on by a Faustian bargain with a spirit from beyond. Despite his genteel name, The Gentleman With The Thistledown Hair is certainly not the sort you’d want to invite to your parlor room for tea. Operating with old world fairytale logic, The Gentleman coaxes and cajoles those who would summon him into magical bargains against their better judgement. He’s a primordial force of fae chaos, a spirit who makes little distinction between cruelty and play. His idea of fun includes throwing parties, but all the guests are magically forced to dance until they drop. Oh, and he’ll replace your loved ones with a changeling lookalike while enslaving the real one. All for his immortal amusement.
The Crippled God – The Malazan Book of the Fallen
In the grimdark world of The Malazan Book of the Fallen, it takes a lot to evildoing for one to be regarded as a true villain – but The Crippled God fits the bill. This broken god is one of the primary forces of doom in the world, a dark deity that seeks to drench the lands of Malazan in suffering. He wasn’t always that way! In fact, it’s kind of the Malazan Empire’s fault he’s acting out in the first place. The Crippled God doesn’t belong in the Malazan universe, he was dragged there kicking and screaming after a group of mages summoned him in order to start a political rebellion – overkill much? The metaphysical trauma that The Crippled God sustained caused him to shatter to pieces when he arrived in the universe – and I don’t mean that figuratively. This broken god is the ultimate tragic villain, a nigh-omnipotent innocent who was forced into suffering, and now seeks to spread that suffering across a world he was forced to inhabit.
Nashira Sarga – The Bone Season
In the dystopian world of The Bone Season, magic is a big no-no. Any of those caught screwing around with sorceries are captured by the Scion regime – sent to re-education camps where they are stripped of their autonomy and forced into servitude. At the center of this re-education effort is Nashira Sarga, a clairvoyant extraterrestrial from a parallel dimension who serves as the leader of the Scion Republic. She’s essentially a sort of divine chauvinist, a semi-angelic being that believes that humans are beneath her and her kind – worthy only of subjugation. Part cult leader, part colonial overlord, all evil.
(Featured Image: New Line Cinema)
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