Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Sympathetic Villains

A weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

So I started my reread of The Young Elites yesterday and oh man do I love that book. And I have seen a few people talk talking about their villain squads in anticipation of The Rose Society coming out in less then a month. So I decided I would do my top ten favorite sympathetic villains.

1.) Adeline Amouteru in The Young Elites by Marie Lu - My Review
I had to. Adelina is seriously one of my all-time favorite characters because she is so dark and tortured but she's also so sympathetic. I don't blame her at all for going crazy and I'm excited to see her descent into madness.

2.) Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling - Goodreads
I always thought Snape was the consulate opportunist. I thought he was playing everyone and that in the end he was going to be like "I was on your side the whole time." But then we got his backstory and it was even better.

3.) Peter in the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth - My Review
Uh, Peter. I mean I found him so devious and interesting in Divergent and then when we learned about his moral code and sense of karma or justice in Insurgent I was fascinated by him. Plus his development is just ugh, brilliant. Peter was like the only thing I liked about Allegiant.

4.) Circe in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray - My Review
I found Circe so dark and devious in the first book especially when we learned more about her but then you see her development throughout the book and it makes her all the more interesting and sympathetic.

5.) Queen Levana in The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer - My Review
How brilliant was Fairest? Before reading it I absolutely hated Levana but wow did it make her so sympathetic. I mean she's devious and pretty damn evil but her backstory made me so conflicted.

6.) The Darkling in The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo - My Review
I know a lot of people are Team Darkling. I'm not but I get it, I do. He's charming in his way but he's also dark and unapologetic in his diabolical actions. There is something to be said about that in a villain. His backstory in Ruin and Rising was pretty great too.

7.) The island of Nil in the Nil trilogy by Lynne Matson - My Review
Seriously you guys, I love that the setting of this book is also the villain. It's one of my all-time favorite antagonists ever. It's such a creative concept and the island is a sneaky little jerk sometimes. But learning it's history and unlocking it's secrets in Nil Unlocked was fascinating and made me like it even more.

Source
8.) Manon Blackbeak in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas - My Review
I find it so hard calling Manon a villain but she is not Team Celeana (yet?) and her allegiance makes her an antagonist. But she is so sympathetic. And maybe my favorite character in those series. She's a serious badass and her development is amazing. I am a proud member of Team Ironteeth.

9.) Victor Vale in Vicious by Victoria Schwab - My Review
It's even harder calling Victor a villain. He's basically the protagonist of this book but he admits to being a villain a bit so I'm including no him. But Victor is so sympathetic. He has an odious moral code and does some pretty nasty things but he does make you wonder if the ends justify the means.

10.) Jamie Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin - My Review
Another tough one to put on this list but then I think back to Jamie during book 1 and remember that he has done some pretty bad things throughout his life and during this series. I forget all of this because now I understand Jamie and why he made these choices and he is a bit of a tortured soul. I love torture and turmoil in a villain.

Who are your favorite sympathetic villains? Do you like any of the ones I listed? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READIG!

11 comments:

  1. Down with Jamie, he is not the most villainous yet. But yes, Levana made me think that not all bad people were bad.
    And Peter was just ... Peter (Divergent)

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  2. Great topic! I love this list. I haven't read all of these books, but the ones I have, you're spot on.

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  3. I absolutely LOVE this list! I totally love that you included Snape. He is definitely one of my favorite villains! I probably would have included Captain Hook, but I have a huge soft spot for him :P Great list!

    Here are my Top Ten!

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  4. This might be my favorite post ever!! I always love the villains ESPECIALLY the ones who have that "other" side that humanizes them like Holland in ADSOM. xoxox
    <3 Britt

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  5. OOooh The Darkling! I actually loved him too! That's why I was near tears at the end of the trilogy. I mean I got it, but yeah...tears. Still want to read his prequel story, I just bought it a few weeks ago, cause I wasn't aware at the time of the special edition hardcover of R&R!

    Peter was another that surprised me. He was such a *ick! But then yeah, Allegiant, he surprised me yet again!

    And the coupe de grace of surprises was most definitely Snape! I remember my jaw was just unhinged in that one chapter in the last book.

    Here's my Tuesday Post

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

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  6. I'm not a Snape fan, but I can appreciate that he was definitely a well-written, gray character. And I get what you're saying about Peter. I just finished the trilogy and I was kind of fascinated by him, too, in Allegiant. I just noticed that @Tracy mentioned Captain Hook, and I think I have to agree that he's my favorite sympathetic villain. I liked him far more than Peter Pan in the book. And do movies count? Because I also love Hans from Frozen lol. Here's my TTT :-)

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  7. I'm not big on Snape but I can totally see what you're saying! My TTT

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  8. I haven't read any of these. Shame on me. But I am all for the villains even the ones that have that slight soft, human side. Nice list.

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  9. Great picks! I was seriously considering doing a topic on villains, or anti-heroes this week too. :)

    Check out my TTT.

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  10. Manon... oh Manon! How I love that witch! :) Totally agree with you on Snape, those memories in Deathly Hallows had me bawling my eyes out. Really interesting list! :)

    www.bookrantorrave.com

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  11. I love Manon, she's awesome!
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/top-ten-tuesday-22/

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