Have you ever encountered a fictitous villain that you have loved beyond all reason? Someone who is the very embodiment of evil, and yet you just can't help but smile as you read about them?
For me, that character is UMBRIDGE! The first time I read Order of the Pheonix, I was disappointed. I was reading it primarily for Harry, and Harry came off as a whining, petulant little punk on first blush. But on subsequent readings, I became infatuated with Delores Umbridge.
In my opinion, she is the best kind of villain. Someone who isn't overtly evil, and yet is so sick and twisted that you can't doubt that there is some sort of blackness in their soul.
As Sirius reminds Harry, "... the world isn't divided into good people and Death Eaters." In so many stories, the villains and heroes are very one dimensional. Black hats and white hats. But with Umbridge, you get someone who is diametrically opposed to the bad guys, and yet is so against the actions of the good guys that you have to wonder about what her motivations truly are. She's not evil to the core like Voldemort, but she's beyond a royal pain in the ass.
Her pink bows, her plates with the kittens on them, the doilies, and her educational decrees... they all make my skin crawl. In the most delicious way possible.
What villain do you love to hate?
The best villains THINK they are doing good. Since you are on a Harry Potter kick, I have to say that Snape is one of my favorite villains.
ReplyDeleteOh, and then I was weirdly attacked to Ralph Fiennes Nazi character in Schindler's List and hated myself for it and tried to block it from my memory. Don't judge me, please!!!
YES!!!! I love Umbridge. :) I understand that everyone thinks Harry is so whiney and bratty during that book, but I totally disagree on that point. I've had a year when I lost several close people to unexpected deaths, and had actual PTSD from it, and so I COMPLETELY related to everything Harry felt, said, and did during that book. But that aside, Umbridge is awesome! :) I have a friend who does discipline at a ranch for "troubled teens" and she says she feels like Umbridge every day as she smiles through gritted teeth. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI think the best villains "look fairer and feel fouler" to paraphrase somewhat. I am right back at Shakespeare I am afraid. Iago is a great villain, because only we know he is bad. Or C.S. Lewis' White Witch, she is beautiful and "kind" to Edmund and then... bam!
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