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!