The winner is ……. CatS! I’ve emailed you privately CatS. You’ve won a copy of Invitation to Scandal.
I’m talking about villains – those characters we love to hate. There are villains and then there are villains. For instance, you would have to call both Salvatore brothers (Vampire Dairies) villains, they are in fact killers. But Damon in particular captures my heart. He’s so torn. He never wanted to be a vampire. Stefan turned him against his will, and yet, of the two brothers, he became the most evil. He tries hard to be good and to win Elena’s heart, yet falls at every turn, only to redeem himself and repeat the cycle.
Then there are truly evil villains with no redeeming characteristics at all, such as Darken Rahl from Legends of the 
Seeker. He is simply about power, money and greed. He doesn’t care who he has to hurt, kill, or destroy to achieve his aim of ruling the world. He’s totally unlikeable, in fact, very easy to hate. You are rooting for him to get his comeuppance and are right there with the Seeker shoving the blade through his dark heart.
I must admit I’m partial to both types of villains (if the story is done well). Let’s face it; most of us ladies love the bad
boy. The man we can still see a glimmer of good in if only we could love him he might reform. However, I do love a story where it starts with a man very evil, like Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) in the Gladiator. He was creepy, a bit disturbed and evil to his core. I loved watching him get beaten.
My villain in INVITATION TO SCANDAL (May 2012) is truly evil. You don’t learn his identity until near the end of the story, and I did that so it would be more fun and interesting for the reader. I always find hidden evil is far more interesting in any story, be it a movie, TV program or book! I love being able to try and follow clues or hints from the writer as to who the baddie might be and I’m extra happy when I’m surprised.
Then again, sometimes I like knowing who the villain is from the start so I can take satisfaction from watching him be destroyed. Rufus Swell’s character in A Knight’s T
ale, was like that for me. I loved watching him get beaten at the end. Having seen how he treated everyone from the beginning made me really want him to lose.
In Invitation to Scandal, I don’t promise to surprise you, but I hope you are at least unsure of the villain’s identity for most of the book. Drop me a line and let me know at which chapter you guessed who the spy in Invitation to Scandal is.
Today I’m giving away a copy of Invitation to Scandal. Tell me who you think is the sexiest villain (male or female) and which villain you’d like to personally redeem. I pick Damon Salvatore. I’ll draw the winner on Sunday 3 June and its open internationally.
PLUS – don’t forget my Invitation to Romance blog tour is still on. You still have a chance to collect all the clues and win a $200 Gift Card from Amazon or B&N, as well as a collection of 30 signed books from various historical romance authors. Visit my website www.bronwenevans.com for more details.
(Not sure if this answer the question but–)
My favorite story about a villain is Wicked by Gregory Maguire, which looks at the history of the Wicked Witch of the West and asked the question: Are people born wicked or is wickedness thrust upon them?
My favorite redeemed villain is Spike from Joss Whedon’s Buffy series. ^_^
Congratulations on the release of your new book!
Wow – interesting question. Born wicked or learned. I think probably a bit of both.
Bronwen -
You really picked a hard choice making us decide between all those lovely villains!
I’ve decided to stick with the first one that I thought of and say Guy Pearce and the villian he portrayed in The Count of Monte Cristo! Wow, how someone so bad could look so good!
Yes – Guy is a very sexy Australian. I loved him in LA Confidential.
Will have to think about the villain question–no one comes immediately to mind. But wanted to let you know I enjoyed the blog.
Take care,
Leslioe
Thanks, Leslie. I love writing about villains. There is something very satisfying about defeating them or redeeming them.
My favorite villian would be Eric Norman from True Blood! He’s so HOT!! Evil but oh so dreamy!!
And my villian redeem would be Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights!! Thank you so much for the giveaway!!
I too love Eric. Why are bad boys so HOT!
Nice post. I’d say the Count of Monte Cristo. I don’t think they need to be redeemed.
OK, I have a man and a woman. Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction and Robert DeNiro from Cape Fear. They both were evil villian’s
. Very happy when they died. Thanks for the giveaway.
Glenn Close was so evil in that movie. I still can’t watch the bath tub scene.
I didn’t watch Cape Fear – to scary for me.
I woud choose Professor Snape from the Harry Potter books – mostly because I love Alan Rickman!
I love Alan Rickman too – especially in the original Die Hard and the Sheriff in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
I was always partial to JR on Dallas…. Love good villians you can just hate and wait for them to get their just desserts!
Oh I LOVED to hate JR. He made me so angry. I couldn’t wait to see him defeated. I liked Bobby.
I would like to see Sir Richard – the villainous former fiance of Lady Mary on Downton Abbey – not quite redeemed but perhaps humanized a bit. He gave the show an edge that will be missed if he doesn’t return to cause more trouble.
Funny, I thought of him too and almost used him but thought he might be redeemable.
Honestly, I have been thinking about this post the whole time. I can’t think of one villain I love or would want to change. I have been at a total lost. I have been reading other post and no one jumps at me. I know that’s so sad.
It simply tells me you love a true hero and villains are to be dealt with! Nothing wrong with that.
Spike from Buffy . And Angel when he was so evil you loved to hate him
Isn’t it awful that I loved Angel when he turned bad. Probably because I knew he wouldn’t stay bad, that would have been horrible and he would not have bene able to stay a hero. I loved how repentant he became when he realised the terrible things he’s done.
My vote is for Joan Collins’s character Alexis Carrington from the TV series Dynasty