SM Stirling creates many vile villains but does show his readers the Armingers at least reforming although Norman's moral reform does not begin until he is in the hereafter. Better late than never.
Who else in fiction?
GK Chesterton's Flambeau;
Lionel (not Lex) Luthor in the Smallville TV series.
Not many.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
From a literary POV, it's more interesting to NOT have villains reforming! Of the villains created by Stirling, the most horrific has to be Count Ignatieff. Albeit, if the count had not been killed in THE PESHAWAR LANCERS and lived to have a change of heart and reform, he would probably have become a VERY good man indeed!
One thing I noticed about Poul Anderson's works is that he seldom created really VICIOUS or evil persons who were villains. More often, like Brann in THE CORRIDORS OF TIME, the "villains" were good men by their own standards, simply not RIGHT or less right than the persons they opposed. Again, Brann comes to mind.
In other books, like THE WINTER OF THE WORLD, there were no villains and neither side was appreciably better or worse than the other. The Rahidian civil and military viceroys seen in that book achieved a tragic nobility in defeat.
Sean
Kaor, Sean!
I'm not sure I can agree about THE WINTER OF THE WORLD. All of the peoples involved may have been flawed, but the Barommian-Rahidian Empire was trying to expand by conquest, while the Rogaviki only fought to be left in peace on their ancestral territory, and the Seniory of Killimaraich, for reasons of its own, was aiding the Rogaviki and helping to restore Arvannath's independence. I think that there are some distinctions there.
Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen
Nicholas,
A book that I have reread too infrequently.
Paul.
Kaor, Nicholas!
And I agree with the distinctions you made! I simply don't think the Rahidian Empire, ruled by a vigorous Barommian dynasty, was that bad. No worse than any other nation, and probably better than some. Yes, the Empire was trying to expand--but all rising nations have indulged in conquest.
Yes, the Seniory of Killimaraich was alarmed by that annoyingly reinvigorated Empire--because it was a challenge to its own ambitions.
And I have wondered how LONG the Rogaviki can LAST, if they were genetically hardwired to a basically migratory way of life based on hunting bison. One SOMEONE finally figures out how dependent the Rogaviki were on the bison, then their days seem numbered.
Also, I don't much like the Rogaviki due to their callousness and cruelty. Things like infanticide and the killing of prisoners comes to mind. I don't care if the infants killed were sterile "mules", they were still BABIES.
And I still found myself liking both Yurussun Soth-Zora and Captain General Sidir, the civil and military viceroys of Rahid in Arvanneth. I still think they were decent by their own standards.
Sean
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