We’ve done favourite short story writers and then fictional characters we’ve never forgotten, this month we’re going to the dark side and I want to know your best baddies! They can be from novels, short stories, and/or TV and movies.
Here are two of mine:
Doug Judy in Brooklyn Nine-Nine — only a baddie as he’s a criminal in a TV show all about cops, he’s funny, big-hearted, an amazing singer and dancer, and can’t see that what he does (stealing cars usually) is wrong in a world that has never given him any chances to have a different life.
Barbara in Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller — I love the slow burn of the revelation that she is actually the baddie in this novel. She’s hugely complex. Lonely, manipulative, and borderline psychotic. Her melancholy loneliness has forced her to do terrible things to find human companionship and I really felt for her while simultaneously being horrified by the things she does.
Miss Havisham in Great Expectations… or the version Olivia Colman played in the BBC series. Post menopausal woman who couldn’t care less about how she looks or housework. Spends her time in her mansion smoking and wearing her decaying wedding dress , throw in a few cats and she’s life goals 😂
The Once-ler from Suess' "The Lorax." He's a multi-dimensional villain who sees the error of his destructive ways. He tries to develop sustainable way to harvest truffula fluffs, but his toxic family barges in and he's no match for their greed. After the truffula forest and the creatures who rely on it are decimated, the Once-ler is so full of guilt he becomes a hermit, only speaking to tell his cautionary tale. I love him because he changed when the rest of the world didn't.
I've just watched The Imaginary and Mr Bunting is the most chilling villain. Followed closely by The Other Mother from Coraline and The Moon King and his daughters from Kubo and The Two Strings. Hard to believe they were all devised for children!!
Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - she's more evil in the book than the film
Ooh yes she’s a good one!
Miss Havisham in Great Expectations… or the version Olivia Colman played in the BBC series. Post menopausal woman who couldn’t care less about how she looks or housework. Spends her time in her mansion smoking and wearing her decaying wedding dress , throw in a few cats and she’s life goals 😂
Ha. I’ve not seen that version but Olivia Colman is always great.
The Once-ler from Suess' "The Lorax." He's a multi-dimensional villain who sees the error of his destructive ways. He tries to develop sustainable way to harvest truffula fluffs, but his toxic family barges in and he's no match for their greed. After the truffula forest and the creatures who rely on it are decimated, the Once-ler is so full of guilt he becomes a hermit, only speaking to tell his cautionary tale. I love him because he changed when the rest of the world didn't.
He sounds amazing.
So many choices in my mind...
Go on, pick one!
I've just watched The Imaginary and Mr Bunting is the most chilling villain. Followed closely by The Other Mother from Coraline and The Moon King and his daughters from Kubo and The Two Strings. Hard to believe they were all devised for children!!
I don't know any of these!
General Woundwort from Watership Down terrified me as a child
Yes, me too!
Bill Sikes from "Oliver Twist". Nasty to children, nasty to women, nasty to erstwhile "friends", nasty to his dog- nasty all around.