The Villains’ Table: Antagonists Who Made the Biggest Impression On Me

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baroness emma orczy, brian jacques, c.s. lewis, castaways of the flying dutchman, disney, disney fairies, j.m. barrie, j.r.r. tolkien, lord of the rings, peter pan, redwall, return to neverland, secret of the wings, star wars, the chronicles of narnia, the clone wars, the pirate fairy, the scarlet pimpernel

Hello, and welcome to another list! This time, we are discussing the Top Ten Villains who Made an Impression on Me.

I mentioned in my TCWT post that I was thinking of posting this. Well, here it is, realized. 🙂

1. Tash, The Last Battle, The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. Basically the demonic opposite of Aslan, Tash was a four-armed beast with a vulture’s head and demanded human sacrifice of his worshipers.  Honestly, if Tash was not the father of lies (and desensitization), who’d want to serve him?
2. Darth Sidious, The Return of the Jedi, Star Wars. Was there ever any quibbling? This villain is something of an archetype, but oh Force, he pulls it off with charisma. Darth Sidious made an impression on me, mostly because he was THE villain, back in the day when I was wide-eyed and clutching my teddy bear as I watched The Return of the Jedi for the first time. I mean, most villains want the hero dead. Sidious wanted Luke’s soul. How creepy is that?!
3. Gabrielle Damien (Mademoiselle Guillotine), A&E’s Scarlet Pimpernel trilogy, based on the books by Baroness Orczy. Both blatant and shockingly vile, Mademoiselle Guillotine has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. What earns her a place on this list, though, is her hatred for Catholicism and disrespect for the sacred, coupled with her utter disregard for human life or dignity. Surprisingly enough, Damien was shot by the series’ main villain, which redeemed him, slightly, in my eyes. (That alone should tell you exactly what I think of Damien.)
4. Maguda Razan, The Angel’s Command, Castaways of the Flying Dutchman trilogy, by Brian Jacques. She was a sort of mafia-boss-slash-mother-of-evil-slash-abomination. Think Sidious’ insanity crossed with the White Witch and then throw in a splash of Tash, and you have Maguda Razan. She kidnapped Ben basically because she wanted to feed off of his nightmares and the memories of his time on the Flying Dutchman years before.
5. Shift, Ginger, and Rishta Tarkaan, The Last Battle, Narnia. Shift and his cadre of liars made a special impression on me. I was as enraged by their deceptions as the heroes of the story were (after reading the book, I had a dream where I was chasing Shift through Narnia, walloping him with a frying pan. I have counted it as one of my sweetest ever.) Their respective, well-deserved deaths (claimed by Tash, losing the power of speech, and claimed by Tash) were received by me with vindictive feelings of justification.
6. The White Witch, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Narnia. The White Witch was a conniving deceiver, and I still think she hasn’t been portrayed correctly on screen. In the old BBC movies, she looked overdone (though that’s due to the style of the times), and her acting seemed overly dramatic. However, she was the better of the two portrayals, in my opinion. (Those movies also had the perfect Peter, too… *sigh* In fact, all of the Pevensies, Jill, and Eustace were perfectly casted. It’s the costume design and the special effects that I have problems with.) The White Witch in the new movies seems a bit too exotic for the role. (I have not seen the new movies. But from what I have seen, this is what I think.)
7. Moriarty, Sherlock, based on the books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is one of those generic villains who wanted the hero dead in the original. However, his intellect earned him a spot on this list even before the BBC series. Andrew Scott’s acting brings the character of Moriarty to new levels; from mere brilliant criminal mastermind, he goes to total insane psychopath, playing a game against Sherlock. The biggest difference between Moriarty and Sherlock is that Sherlock has a reason to live, while Moriarty is “bored” by life, and his only reason to live is to play the game. (Also, is he coming back in Season Four?!)
8. Cluny the Scourge, Redwall. He was the Redwall villain. He made a big impression on me mostly because he was almost like an orc only he was a rat, and I was eleven, I think. It was the more kid-friendly version of orcs, actually. 😛
9. Grima Wormtongue, The Two Towers, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Sauruman was an also-ran, competing for this spot, but though he managed to nearly permanently wreck the Shire, it was Wormtongue I felt made the bigger impression. There’s something in the human psyche that despises a truth-twister, and as a truth-twister Wormtongue definitely qualifies.
10. Captain Hook, Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie. There was no way I was going to leave the number one villain of childhood off this list. (Sid, aka The Destructive Kid Next Door, from Toy Story was the only other person I’d consider for this spot, and he comes nowhere near to what I felt from Hook.) Hook was scary. He wanted to kill Peter. He was able to use Peter’s cockiness against him. That’s what I liked about him as a kid.
    Pros as a teenager/young adult: Hook is the most sympathetic villain you will come across in children’s literature. He is wonderfully fleshed out, and even has more backstory than Peter, though parts of his past are shrouded in mystery. Since Peter symbolizes the innocence and wonder of childhood (in my fanfiction re-telling of Peter Pan I go so far as make him a metaphor for fairytales and the far reaches of the imagination,) Hook thus symbolically, by extension, wants to do away with the innocence and wonder and imagination of childhood. Yet he still feels bad about it! (“No little children to love me.”)
    And last but not least, for a word about Hook in The Pirate Fairy. In my opinion, Hook (played by Tom Hiddleston) was the best part of The Pirate Fairy. Without him, it would have been just another Disney fairy movie, (No offense, Secret of the Wings), with its corresponding message of “follow your heart”, “believe in yourself”, and “have faith” (well, scratch that last one, it’s actually from Return to Neverland.) IS THERE ANYBODY ELSE IN ALL THE WORLD WHO WANTS TO SEE A REMAKE OF Peter Pan, only with Hiddleston as Hook and Asa Butterfield as Peter?! (And a properly vindictive Tinker Bell, from which Disney has recently strayed?!)
    Anyway, Tom Hiddleston played a thoroughly entrancing Hook, making us feel like he was a good guy who’d fallen in with bad companions, until the turn-about near the end, when he shocked us by the fact that, though he is able to believe enough to fly (grown-ups flying is still really nausea-inducing for me, unless it’s the Return to Neverland version of Wendy; in my opinion, it detracts from the mystique it should have–Disney, please do your research!), he is the mastermind of the pirates’ plan.
    The other thing I’d love to see with Hook would have to be a story where he ends up helping Peter, Wendy, Michael, John and the Lost Boys to save Neverland (or helps Wendy, Michael, John, and the Lost Boys to rescue Pan.) Actually, this is the plot of the latter part of the retelling I’m working on, though it would be nice to see other people’s takes on it as well. 😉
11. Captain/Admiral/Grand Moff Tarkin, Star Wars. No, actually, there is no number eleven. 😛 Tarkin is just the runner up. As is everyone else after him on the list. Tarkin struck me as evil because he’s a sociopath who doesn’t care who gets in his way, and he will stop at nothing to see the Jedi removed from military service (mainly because of their MORALS, which is vile in the extreme,) and vilified as well, if possible. Tarkin is a good example of why, after the Clone Wars began, for the Jedi there was really no good way out. They are keepers of the peace, not soldiers, as Master Windu explains, but once they’ve begun as a part of the fighting, they are no longer able to withdraw, due to people like Tarkin, who would gladly perpetrate all kinds of atrocities if the Jedi were to leave the field of war. Also, the war has horrible effects on their young (Ahsoka Tano’s inability to relax, for one, and Barriss Offee’s fall for another), and not just on their young: Pong Krell, a full Jedi Knight, is allured by the power the Dark Side offers and falls. (In fact, Obi-Wan and Anakin’s journey is actually a microcosmic allegory for what is happening to the Jedi as a whole. Ever since Qui-Gon’s death, Obi-Wan has been doomed to failure with Anakin by both his own promise to train Anakin and his [often conflicting] oath to serve the Republic and Jedi Order. Obi-Wan’s unwillingness to talk about his emotions, furthered by Anakin’s tendency to throw it back into his face when he summoned up the guts to do so, exacerbated the problem, sending them, inextricably linked, in a downward spiral, which ended with Anakin’s fall, which wounded Obi-Wan in a way that he never recovered from. Similar things happened with the Jedi Order and the crippled, failing Republic.)
12. Pong Krell, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Yes, most of my villains are from Star Wars or Narnia, I’m well aware. -_- This guy is the reason why the Jedi were vilified in the latter years of the Clone Wars. As explained above, he sold out his loyalties to the Republic and Jedi Order in the hopes of gaining a place in what he believed to be Dooku’s “New Order”. In the process, a bunch of clones were murdered, including Waxer, the trooper who befriended the little girl (Numa) back in Season One. (I am still in shock from Waxer’s death. And it’s been almost two full seasons since Umbara!) Umbara was an attempt on the Clone Wars writers’ part to show the darker side of war, and was the first incident of friendly fire actually shown on the Clone Wars. Man, did they nail the story. :’-( (I totally wanted to see Obi-Wan finding out about Krell’s treason and come and fight him and be incredibly awesome and do some tail-kicking, but it didn’t happen, and I guess the episode was more effective this way. However, there was a darker side to the clones taking Krell down; they proved that clones could, in fact, defeat Force Users, even those of dubious alignment.)
13. Sauruman. He laid waste to the Shire, desecrating something we held sacred. And he was killed by Wormtongue, partially redeeming the Rohan traitor.

So, there’s my list of Top Ten Villains who made an impression along with three runner-ups. (Sorry Dooku did not make it onto the list, he’s awesome and I love to write him, but he didn’t make nearly the impression on me that even Cluny did.) I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

Archivist of Selay’uu’s Journal: Closet Locking

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closets, humor, j.m. barrie, peter pan, selay'uu, star wars

“Erin, let me out! Please, let me out! I’ll take back what I said about your hair and your writing and your squeaky, scratchy pens and your pet hedgehog! Just let me out and I’ll be good for the rest of my natural life!”

This is Anakin, when he’s locked in a closet with no prospect of release, or any food or drink other than bread, water, and lettuce. If I keep him in here for over twelve hours, I will give him either a hard-boiled egg or beans, but that’s it. I think I rather like holding him prisoner. It’s pretty obvious that he’s lost his lightsaber, again, too–or he wouldn’t be begging, no matter what the Council says about destroyed doors. I lean in close to the door and shout back at him.

“And if your life isn’t natural, what then?”

“I’ll be good all the same! Just please, please, please no more lettuce!” I grin and walk away. There’s a chamber pot in there, so I’m not worried about anything at all. Anakin can meditate in the time he’s in there. Do him good.

Now, you may be wondering why I locked Anakin in a closet. Well, the answer is simple.

He destroyed my IRL job search. And I mean destroyed. All browser windows closed. All progress deleted. All browser history gone. I didn’t want to do it, true, but I knew it had to be done and for goodness sake, I just wanted to have it done. I have never been more mad in my life than I was at Anakin.

And if you want to know how I dragged Anakin into the closet, the answer is, I didn’t. I chased him in. Yup. The Chosen One. Running. From me.

Admittedly, I am part Irish, but still. Must’ve been humiliating to run from a girl, but Anakin was too scared to care. Yes, this is the guy they nicknamed the Hero With No Fear. The Hero who doesn’t think is more like it!

There is blissful calm all evening. It lasts through the night and partway through the next morning, until Obi-Wan (finally back from his mission) notices how quiet it is.

“Where’s my shadow?” he asks. Or wait–that was Peter Pan. I forget what Obi-Wan said. I would’ve helped Pan if it meant I could keep Anakin in the closet longer, but you all know Obi-Wan, as single-minded as the day is long and twice as stubborn. I wound up releasing him. And Anakin did apologize, very profusely…. hiding behind Obi-Wan the entire time.

Sigh. Maybe I shall imprison Palpatine next. Or raid the kitchens with Ahsoka… whichever comes to a head first.

Archivist of Selay’uu’s Journal: Staff Meeting

Tags

bound to the flame, disney, disney fairies, iris, j.m. barrie, j.r.r. tolkien, kysherin, lord of the rings, muse, peter pan, selay'uu, star wars

Eight people sat around a table, three of them dark-haired, one blonde, three ginger, and one with mousy nondescript unkempt locks. There were notebooks in front of five of them; the other three weren’t particularly keen on taking notes. All of them had coffee or cocoa in tall mugs, and there was a plate of cookies and another of hot muffins on the table. No one seemed overly interested in the food, though.

I finished telling them about my plans for the Peter Pan story that had recently devoured most of my imagination and time. I turned to look around the table at the two main actors and my various encouragement moguls and assistants. “So, any questions?” There were none. “Thoughts? Pan?” Peter sat up from where he had been lounging in his chair with his light boots on the table.

“We’re dealing with some pretty weighty stuff here,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s as well you banned Tinker Bell from this meeting.” Everyone except Obi-Wan gave a collective shudder at the idea of the jealous and vain fairy disrupting the staff meeting. Wendy nodded.

“I like the multi-generational aspect,” she said encouragingly. “There’s an awful lot of theory involved though.” I nodded.

“This isn’t going to be such a light-hearted jaunt through Neverland. For some reason, as well as emulating J.M. Barrie’s style, I’ve also wound up adding doses of Tolkien in equal parts–completely unintentionally, of course.” Obi-Wan steepled his fingers; it was hard to tell whether he was channeling Mace Windu, or Sherlock.

“Please tell me you’re not attempting a truly dark fantasy, Erin.” he said in a tone that told me he was already fairly sure that I wasn’t.

“No, I’m not,” I said. “I just felt the urge to put my own twist on the classic. Don’t worry, Rowan and Margery, I’ll get back to yours as soon as may be.”

“Are you borrowing theory from our story?” Rowan asked.

“I don’t think so,” I said thoughtfully. “If anything, I’m borrowing it slightly from Heather Dale. But no, I think not. Your Scotland is a very different place from Neverland, and I think that the magic system there will probably be a bit more varied than yours. For instance, Shadow Summoners. Though your novel could do with one, I guess.”

“Mmm,” Rowan said. “I already get the feeling that you’re planning a scene with some sort of monster for us.” I grinned.

“It can only harm you if you look at it.” Rowan shrugged.

“I can walk just fine blindfolded, you know.” I grinned.

“Exactly.” Margery raised her hand, hesitantly.

“What about me?”

“You’re going to be helping him control the Amatane power when that comes up. In fact, I have a feeling that you’ll be key. As a matter of fact, I just realized that Wielders’ powers come from their compassion and their connections to other people and nature. I’m not quite sure how yet. Anyway, back to Peter.”

Iris had listened quietly all this time, but now she spoke up. “I especially like your idea of having Neverland begin to fall apart when Peter goes missing.”

“Well, in my mind, it just made sense,” I excused myself. “Peter Pan is, essentially, the life of fairy tales. His role is just to be, and to keep back the dark. So when he’s gone, or threatened, the person who threatens him is essentially threatening to let all the powers of evil–at least in this world–loose on both Neverland and the mainland. You know…” she paused. “If we could get someone half-decent to do the editing and effects, this would make an amazing movie.”

“It would,” Iris said. Obi-Wan decisively downed the last of his coffee and leaned back with a grimace.

“I’d suggest that you keep it doable, keep up a realistic outlook.” he said. “After all, unlike some of your projects, this one is completely doable.”

Kysherin gave an evil, uncanny, skin-crawl-inducing chuckle. “Yet.” I scowled at the Muse.

“This is why you’re ugly, Kysherin,” I said. She smiled evilly.

“I know.”

Suddenly, the doors slammed open and Legolas burst in. “Someone left the stables unlocked, and all the flying dragons and horses and even H’vyenteh are getting away!” he shouted.

Life as usual with Selay’uu.