xlvii - Day 18 - Favorite Antagonist

Today I bring you a three part answer because no single one of these characters fulfills the spirit of this week's topic.


My favorite antagonist (that I've written) is Ira Mastema.

I discuss him here(http://thestoriesofix.blogspot.com/2011/07/xl-day-11-who-is-your-favoriteleast.html), so I won't tread that ground again. I don't feel I can offer him as an answer alone because I haven't written enough of him to claim him as a fully-formed character.

My favourite antagonist (from a novel someone else wrote) is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

His cunning and ruthlessness are traits I always strive to imbue in my arch-nemeses. In my opinion raw intellect will find a way to win most battles - and what's scarier than a bad guy with an agenda and the means to make it happen. By the midpoint of Dune, Baron Harkonnen had destroyed the main character's house and assassinated his father. There's no doubt he'll get his eventually, but this is clearly not a villain to be taken lightly.

Still, I'm hesitant to hold him up as my sole choice because he's not my character and, perhaps more importantly this time, because I think there are a few elements of his characterization that, and it pains me to write this about the author of my favorite book, strike me as downright lazy. He's a red-headed homosexual pedophile with an eastern european name. It's like Herbert drew up a cliched list of "horrible 1960s character flaws" and built an otherwise well executed character into it.

My favourite antagonist (from any print media) is Magneto, from the X-Men series of comics.

He has a lot of the upside of a Baron Harkonnen without many of the telegraphed characteristics. With fifty-ish years of comic book backstory, things are bound to go off the rails, but at his best, he's been written as an extremely compelling character on an almost-but-not-quite noble crusade. I also hesitate to include him as a single response due to his not being my character, and that he's not written in the traditional sense