(urth) choices

[Jeff Wilson]

On 8/5/2011 11:01 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
> From: "António Pedro Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
>
>> It was written:
>>
>>> villains
>>
>> Time for another query. Who are your favourite arch-villains? I mean,
>> those who really rejoice in their villainy? Almost cartoonishly?
>> (cartoon villains don't count)
>
> Is rejoicing in one's villainy really a necessary characteristic of a
> good villain? It seems hard to avoid cartoonishness in such - the
> example that springs to mind is the Archimandrite in Iain M. Banks' _The
> Algebraist_.
>
> My favourite villian is Casmir in Jack Vance's _Lyonesse_, but he
> doesn't really rejoice in his villainy, and would probably find
> arguments to justify all his actions.

This.

Mohammed Vance in Daniel Keys Moran's THE LONG RUN and other Continuing 
Time Books is in fact a mostly decent, honorable person who sincerely 
believes in his democratically elected world government is the only hope 
for long-term peace and the ultimate survival of humanity, and pursues 
his job to put down the ungrateful rebellious Americans without mercy.

Babylon 5's Mr Bester, on the other hand, is a vicious brainwashing 
weasel pack leader who is too damaged to really enjoy himself but he 
does display a sort of consolation prize of amusement that he is so 
often able to use crime, politics, and war as a pretext to further his 
power to take away the freedoms and families of everyone who crosses 
him, in repayment for the way their democratically elected world 
government did to him, twice.


-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >