Villains we love to hate and hate to love
They say a book is only as good as it’s villain, and while I don’t know if that’s true all of the time, I do know this about villains: they are there to push the protagonist into action, but they are also there to play with the reader’s feelings. The really good villains always fall into two categories for me: The ones I love to hate and the ones I hate to love. So, let me share some of them with you.
Love to Hate: Madoc from the Folk of Air
Listen when I tell you there is nothing about this man I liked, I mean it. He was just horrible. But I honestly think he is the perfect villain; you can’t help but DESIRE for him to fail. The thing that makes Madoc the perfect villain is because he is smart, fierce, loyal to those who are loyal to him, and a little charming, you can see why people would follow him. All of that makes him dangerous. So yeah, I super hate him.
Hate to Love: Carden from the Folk of Air
Duh! I mean would it be a list without him? So honestly, he is only the true villain for the first book. It was so bad that I couldn’t figure out how he was going to be a [SPOILER ALERT] love interest, but as the series goes on you can’t help but love him.
Love to Hate: Master Eynon from The Bone Houses
Can I start by saying, “ewww! This man, just ugh!” He isn’t in the story a lot but he’s in it too much for my taste and I would love to see him gone. He was just so mean and nasty for no reason and I didn’t like that. Trying to steal from people that already have nothing—off with this head. Was that too extreme?
Love to Hate: Tobias Hawthorne from The Inheritance Games
I know he isn’t the villain of the story, but isn’t he? Think about it: even in death this man is playing with the lives of other people—people who don’t even know him. He had to make sure that everyone was doing exactly what he wanted them to do and when died, there was no difference. You can’t play with people like that Tobias. So…hate.
Love to Hate: Emily Laughlin from The Inheritance Games
She is the kind of person I can’t stand. If you’re upset with something, take that up with the person you’re upset with and don’t involve other people, who have no idea what’s going on. I can’t stand bullies. Emily is still stuck in her mean girl phase but it’s time for her grow up.
Hate to Love: Akiva from Daughter of Smoke and Bone
He just sucks—I know you agree. We can’t be the only ones who think that. I refuse to believe it. (Okay so we don’t love him so much, but we just feel bad for him mostly because he sucks so much.)
Love to Hate: Simon from None Shall Sleep
He is the perfect person to hate: I mean he was a serial killer! If you need more of reason than that…I’m worried about you.
Looking back at this list I realized there aren’t that many villains I hate to love and that is because I hate everyone. Let a character do one thing to annoy me and they are forever on my hate list. Sorry I don’t make the rules.