Favourite Villians

As a young adult and university student, I spend (or waste) a lot of time watching YouTube videos. Recently, I've been obsessed with the BookTube community - a significant group of YouTuber's who regularly upload videos that are book related in some way (for example, book reviews, book to movie adaptations, favourite books and authors and all that jazz). A few months ago, one of my favourite BookTuber's posted a video in collaboration with two other BookTuber's in which they discussed some of their favourite fictional villains, which has inspired this post. If you're interested in seeing the original video, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHsaxDjSbzo

1. Professor Delores Umbridge - Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling
If you don't hate on Delores, there's literally something wrong with you. Literally. She is one of the most ignorant fictional book characters that I've ever read. When Harry doesn't agree with what she's teaching and he stands up for what he values, Umbridge punishes him in one of the most cruel ways I've ever seen. I don't even think that she's an evil character, but her obsession with pleasing and being recognised by the highest authority drives her to commit any act, no matter how terrible. She desperately needs attention from who she sees as the highest authority and I just can't stand her.

2. Count Olaf - A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
It's been a while since I read this series and I never actually even completed all thirteen books, but Jesse sparked my memory of this character from his list in the video, and I completely agree with his argument. The three siblings all try desperately hard to figure out what's going on and to escape Olaf, but he always somehow manages to be one step ahead of them. No matter what they do, he has predicted it and figured out a way to stop their plans immediately. He's such a manipulative and sneaky character, and this along with the infuriating aspect of him being a mastermind are what make him such a good villain.

3. Alex - A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
This one's bending the rules a bit I think, because Alex is actually the protagonist of the novel, but he's a really bad person. He really enjoys raping women and any sort of violence, but the novel is written in such a way that you as the reader easily sympathise with him. So he counts.

4. Bellatrix LeStrange - Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling
I don't really know why, but I think Bellatrix is a great character. She's kind of pathetically obsessed with Voldemort and will do absolutely anything to please him. She's also pretty damn crazy, especially in the movies. I just love her childish behaviour and her total lack of empathy.

5. The Government - any dystopian novel ever written
If you've read a dystopian novel, you know what I'm talking about. The government always makes bad decisions that ruin the lives of so many people, and it's up to a select few to fix the entire world. They're a pretty cliché villain, but I think that having the government as an antagonist is a brilliant idea, because it's so easily relatable. And by that, I mean that no one will ever agree with every political decision ever made and governmental bodies sometimes screw up in our society.

So they're some of my favourite villains, and really, as much as I hate some of them they're a lot of my favourite characters. A good villain often makes for a good book. People are complex, and so are characters.