Top Ten Tuesday | Villains

By Birdie

villains

tree-divider-dark-grey-hi

Ten Villains That Believe They’re the Good Guy

I love talking about villains.  I think it’s one of my favorite book topics.  The bad  guy is so integral to the story, even when it’s something as vague as Schizophrenia like in Challenger Deep.

My favorite villains, or the ones that really stick with me, aren’t the clear cut ‘bad guys’, twirling their mustaches and cackling as they wreak havoc on their worlds.  My favorite villains are the ones that truly believe that they’re on the side that’s “right”.

So, here’s my Top Ten list of villains that believe they’re the good guy.

#1. WICKED from Maze Runner by James Dashner

Why wouldn’t it be okay to run experiments on a test group, if it meant saving humanity in its entirety?  Wouldn’t we feel like it was the correct action, if it meant saving our child?

#2. Bertrand Zobrist from Inferno by Dan Brown

Human overpopulation is a serious problem on earth.  There’s no question about it.  By the end of this book I was hoping the villain would win.  I became Bertrand.  If I agreed with him, is he really a villain?

#3. Assorted Heroes from Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell

I can’t say much without giving anything away.  Suffice to say that Villains in this world are labeled criminals even when they aren’t.  Heroes are revered even when they horrible.  That’s scary, and a version of it is happening right here in our reality.

#4.  The Gov’t that wrote The Bill of Life, and those that enforce it,  in Unwind by Neal Shusterman

If you haven’t read Unwind you’re missing out.  The Bill of Life prevents abortion by giving parents the option of having their children Unwound later in life if they’re trouble.  It also brought about Storking, which is leaving your child on another’s doorstep, forcing them to raise it.

#5. Mistress Coyle from Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness

Mistress Coyle embodies the slippery slope of starting on the side of good and crossing the line into extremism.  Her intentions were honorable, but the need too win took her too far.

#6. Jim Rennie from Under the Dome by Stephen King

Oh how I hated Jim Rennie.  I hated him so much.  However, I do also think Rennie truly believed that he was exactly what the people in Chester’s Mill needed.  He honestly believed he had all the answers.

#7. The Alchemists from Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

This one may be interesting to some, because we clearly hated them in both Vampire Academy and its spin-off.  They were horrible, and judgmental.  To be fair, they fought for the preservation of the human race.

#8. The Guides in the Elemental series by Brigid Kemmerer

People, teenagers, born with the ability to bend the elements.  People able to cause the earth to crack.  People able to create destructive fire, flash floods, to withold oxygen and suffocate others just by controlling the air.  Shouldn’t they have a group to police them?

#9. Mary Hightower from Skinjacker by Neal Shusterman

Mary Hightower is one of the creepiest villains I’ve ever read, because her decisions came from a place of nurturing.  She believed herself the protectors of the lost children, and refused to see that she was the one damaging them.

#10. Humans First and Last movement in The Others by Anne Bishop

Reading The Others is an interesting story because you know early on that we, as humans, are the bad guys.  We deplete the earth, kill the animals, and run roughshod over everything.  The Others stand between humans and the existence of the planet.  However, they do so by wiping out whole cities.  Humans First and Last believe they are protecting their species.

Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!

About Birdie

Don’t look for her in any bar, club, crazy raging party, or anywhere there may be a large gathering of strangers. She’s more likely to be found tucked into the corner of the couch watching one of her favorite shows, or preferably under a comforter with her current novel.

24 Responses

  4. Holly

    Oooh, WICKED is a really good one! Although I was a bit disappointed by the direction the series ultimately went in, the first book was amazing! Great list! 🙂

    Like

  5. Bri

    Oh i definitely agree that villains are the best when they aren’t so cookie-cutter and at some points you can almost find yourself understanding them. I completely forgot how much I really hated Jim throughout everything! Great addition!

    Like

    1. Birdie

      It’s definitely one of the most unique story of paranormal beings I’ve ever read. The Others are everything from shifters, to vampires, to Elementals, to actual monsters… and yet each one is its own spin on the mythology. It’s definitely worth checking out.

      Like

  9. Lisa

    I haven’t read most of these, but I definitely agree about Jim Rennie from Under the Dome! That was such a great book. I do really need to read the Chaos Walking books.

    Like

Tell me something!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.