the best of the worst

[cacian]

who would you say is the best anti-hero/villain/ or non human in terms of worseness/grotesqueness?

I would say Frankenstein for me. not in terms of villainy but in terms of monstrosity followed closely then vampirisms.
the concept for me is monstrous.

[mal4mac]

I think the human villains are the worst, like Iago, who betrayed the unique trust that Othello placed in him, while maintaining his reputation of honesty and dedication. Creatures like Frankenstein or Count Dracula just can't get close enough to gain real trust or look honest & reputable in everyday life. Once you encounter Iago you will think there are unseen monsters around you everywhere, and you'll be right, which is much more scary than some inhuman creature that you know doesn't exist.

[ChicagoReader]

The Judge from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, without a doubt.

[YesNo]

Vampires mostly seem funny to me. Generally, they are rather gross, although the movie Vamps had some cute ones in it.

The worst villains are those who are supposed to be good guys, but later turn out to be something less.

[Volya]

Rumpelstiltskin always seemed quite scary to me.

[cacian]

Vampires mostly seem funny to me. Generally, they are rather gross, although the movie Vamps had some cute ones in it.

The worst villains are those who are supposed to be good guys, but later turn out to be something less.

Hi YesNo do you have one in mind?

[cafolini]

The utterly horrifying story Cacian Dates Frankenstein.

[Kyriakos]

Well, Meyrink's novel "The Golem" has some nasty characters in it, like the merchant Wasserturm, and also his son, the optician Wassory.

I think that Wassory is the worst there, given his plot against his patients which pretty much harms their eyes to a significant degree.

Meyrink is often said to only have written one decent novel, the Golem, and although as a novel it too has some weak points (and i did not like the ending at all), it still is an interesting creation :)

[kev67]

There was an episode of Dr Who in the 70's in which The Master was decaying because he had lost the power to regenerate. He looked like a brown, rotting corpse with no skin or nose. It put me off Kelloggs Frosties for years because the image recurred to me when I was having breakfast the next day.

I also remember an episode of Jackanory in which the story being read involved a boy and girl whose father had remarried a beautiful woman. However, when they were all at church, the vicar could see that she was a hideous witch with a small cloud hovering above her head. That bothered me for a long time.

[ennison]

"Worseness"? I guess if it didn't exist it does now. Anything with a hump or deformity I suppose but this seems to be pandering to our innate stereotyping of ugliness equals badness which is REALLY not true.

[wordeater]

You can distinguish between the antihero who has a mixture of good and bad characteritics, and the villain who's exclusively evil.

Antiheroes:
Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment)
Julien Sorel (Le Rouge et le Noir)
Anna Karenina
Humbert Humbert (Lolita)

Villains:
Fagin; Bill Sykes (Oliver Twist)
Macbeth; Richard III (Shakespeare)
Professor Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes)
Hannibal Lecter (Red Dragon)

[Kyriakos]

Of the above i only have read Macbeth in regards to villains. I thought of mentioning Polyphemus, but wonder if a villain who has his own pathos/despair is not something different than an "absolute" villain (Polyphemus prays to his father, Poseidon, after being blinded by Odysseus. He also makes the other cyclopae laugh at him when he claims that "no one" has blinded him...).

Of course an "absolute" villain probably would in most cases be a bad concept for a story.

[NedSiegel]

You can distinguish between the antihero who has a mixture of good and bad characteritics, and the villain who's exclusively evil.

Antiheroes:
Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment)
Julien Sorel (Le Rouge et le Noir)
Anna Karenina
Humbert Humbert (Lolita)

Villains:
Fagin; Bill Sykes (Oliver Twist)
Macbeth; Richard III (Shakespeare)
Professor Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes)
Hannibal Lecter (Red Dragon)

Do you consider Fagin 100% evil? Granted he was no saint, and yes, he exploits children, but we need to look at it from a 19th Century point of view: he also fed and sheltered street urchins that no one else wanted, and who came to him escaping worse faith. By the standards of the day, they had a pretty good life for orphans. He did not lock them up, torture them, work them to death (like they do in the orphanage) or otherwise abused them, just had them pickpocket for him. Also, he is presented in the novel as more charming than evil -- a sign that Dickens also did not see him as all bad.

[NedSiegel]

The best villains in my opinion are those who are three dimensional: there is reasoning behind their bad deeds and also they have a life besides doing evil.

* Dracula
* Lady Macbeth
* Javert (not really a villain, more like a strict enforcer of law and order)