Leland Gaunt the kind of "guy" that played the whole town and made them kill eachother. He is pretty high up on the evil list lbvs.
Bad guys :)
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...actually, The Trashman didn't give me a shudder either, but he does fit the bill of "bad guy"-to me he is tragi-comic, because of his realness...
The first time i read The Stand
When Trashcan Man found the nuke i was like omg man what is he going to do with that!
For sheer charisma and just being a helluva fun villain to read, it's gotta be Randall Flagg. In second and third place for the charimsa stakes, however, would be Charlie Decker and Rose the Hat. In partiuclar, it was every two or three pages or so that I had to remind myself of the fact that Decker'd shot and killed two people, and was fully prepared to take out someone else if the wind blew in a certain direction.
In terms of just being vile as sin characters that really show off what being a villain is all about, my choices would be "The Kid", Kurt Dussander, Todd Bowden & Beadie. It was many moons ago that I read The Stand (back when I wasn't really into King's writing), and I remember being stunned and appalled by the actions of "The Kid". In particular, his abuse of the Trashcan Man. "Apt Pupil" is a story I've only recently read, and I was really struck by how Bowden and Dussander seemed to feed off of each other's evil. It was a disturbingly symbiotic relationship that made me feel slightly queasy for most of the story. And of course, with Beadie, I was disgusted by the character of Bob Anderson as it was, but the detective's reveal of what he'd done to the little boy who'd walk in on one of his murders...
The only King villains that have genuinely frightened me (so far, anyway), have been The Space Cowboy, The Boogeyman and Rose the Hat. In addition to being a very charming villainess, I also found the desctiptions of her true form (the singular tusk of a tooth and whatnot), to paint quite a scary picture in my mind. I'll give special mention to Tim Grunwald, who features in the short story "A Very Tight Place" for just making me laugh so much. I'm not sure whether it was King's intentions or not (probably was), but that was a really comedic character for me. I found his belief that Curtis was a "****** witch" to be hysterically funny.
In terms of just being vile as sin characters that really show off what being a villain is all about, my choices would be "The Kid", Kurt Dussander, Todd Bowden & Beadie. It was many moons ago that I read The Stand (back when I wasn't really into King's writing), and I remember being stunned and appalled by the actions of "The Kid". In particular, his abuse of the Trashcan Man. "Apt Pupil" is a story I've only recently read, and I was really struck by how Bowden and Dussander seemed to feed off of each other's evil. It was a disturbingly symbiotic relationship that made me feel slightly queasy for most of the story. And of course, with Beadie, I was disgusted by the character of Bob Anderson as it was, but the detective's reveal of what he'd done to the little boy who'd walk in on one of his murders...
The only King villains that have genuinely frightened me (so far, anyway), have been The Space Cowboy, The Boogeyman and Rose the Hat. In addition to being a very charming villainess, I also found the desctiptions of her true form (the singular tusk of a tooth and whatnot), to paint quite a scary picture in my mind. I'll give special mention to Tim Grunwald, who features in the short story "A Very Tight Place" for just making me laugh so much. I'm not sure whether it was King's intentions or not (probably was), but that was a really comedic character for me. I found his belief that Curtis was a "****** witch" to be hysterically funny.
Ran out of time before finishing my edit as I decided I better qualify my choice or suffer the evil eye.
Depends on how you look at things I figure. You expect bad things from the classic bad guys, but when you get bad things done by good people, well that elevates them to a higher form of bad guy.
Depends on how you look at things I figure. You expect bad things from the classic bad guys, but when you get bad things done by good people, well that elevates them to a higher form of bad guy.
Sending people to their death, knowing who will die on the journey and not telling them, so they can make the decision on their own whether or not to make the ultimate sacrifice is a higher level of bad IMO.
My family friend is so hilariius. He said "I know a villain so horrible that even Stephen King could never have thought him up. That's where the saying 'truth is stranger than fiction' comes from.
I'm speaking of course of Richard Milhaus Nixon."
I was having trouble thinking up a "favorite villain." I usually hate the villains. I know the story would fall to pieces without one, but I still have trouble with their existence. Probably because I struggle so much to keep real-life villains out of my mind. I work with someone who's so difficult to get along with that whenever I HAVE to do it I imagine that the devil himself would be easier pleased than THIS guy.
It's the only way I can handle his freezing-cold shoulder and icy attitude, which even the fires of the hot place would fail to melt.
I'm speaking of course of Richard Milhaus Nixon."
I was having trouble thinking up a "favorite villain." I usually hate the villains. I know the story would fall to pieces without one, but I still have trouble with their existence. Probably because I struggle so much to keep real-life villains out of my mind. I work with someone who's so difficult to get along with that whenever I HAVE to do it I imagine that the devil himself would be easier pleased than THIS guy.
It's the only way I can handle his freezing-cold shoulder and icy attitude, which even the fires of the hot place would fail to melt.
This is why I love this question, and one of the reasons I love sK. I wonder how many authors have enough villains to support such a question.
Robert "Sunlight" Gardener and Charles Burnside. Leland Gaunt and Christine get Honorable Mentions.
I vote for Cujo just because it was the one that made me the most uncomfortable. I love animals, and for a short period worked as a veterinary technician at an animal hospital. Luckily, I never saw a rabid dog in real life but the idea of a lovable family pet going mad and attacking is one that has stayed in the back of my mind. Every time I hear a dog growl I can't help but think of Cujo lol