Things are coming down to the wire here for our villains, and eight of the nastiest characters in books have made it this far to the fourth round, which will decide the winner of each of category.
Some surprising results yesterday: King's It is out, and Nurse Ratched was bested by O’Brien, his menacing duplicity beating out her electro-shock dominance. Humbert Humbert lost too — pour one out for the Nabokov fans. Although I have to imagine even in defeat, Humbert and Hannibal Lector are probably still getting along and, as a friend texted me, splitting the most pretentious wine in existence. And Satan beat Javert — ACAB.
The more righteous Anti-Villain won in the Medea vs. Gollum match-up. Being covetous of a powerful ring has nothing on a scorned and wrathful Greek. But Tolkien fans still have Sauron to root for in the Monsters corner. Sauron won handily versus Dracula, who got no extra villainy cred for his real estate speculation — vindication for landlords.
Our in-house speculations for how this was going to go haven’t borne out — if you want to see our staff picks in the, we’ve been posting our own brackets alongside our thoughts on our favorite villains. Looking at the current field, one of the four from the Authority Figures or Manipulative Bastards sections seems poised to win it all. The Iago versus Hannibal Lector match-up will be interesting. These are two guys who would text “hey can you call me? nothing big, just want to catch-up!” and then convince you to ruin your life. And Sauron versus Kurtz is a fitting pairing — two fallen lieutenants who’ve set themselves up in fortified nests of depravity. Will the otherworldly beat out the all-too-of-this-world?
