Okay, now it’s time to discuss my favorite villain. My immediate thoughts go to Bellatrix Lestrange, because she is so unabashedly, wickedly, deliciously awful and cruel. In part, I think this is thanks to Helena Bonham Carter’s genius performance in the films. Her unrequited love for Voldemort is such an interesting little sub-plot. And yet… I still think my Favorite Villain Award goes to…
Dolores Jane Umbridge. I’ve already talked about why I hate her, but my reasons for choosing her as my favorite villain are slightly different. We all know that she’s a racist, pompous, elitist, back-stabbing straight-up bitch, and every time I read a passage featuring her, I find myself gritting my teeth. My fingers itch to skip over those portions of the books, and that’s exactly why she’s my favorite. While Bellatrix is tantalizingly insane, she is also unremittingly devoted to the Death Eater cause (and to Voldemort), and this makes her somewhat less of a three-dimensional character. Umbridge wavers back and forth originally between being annoying yet good-intentioned or purely evil with a sugary coating. You can almost admit that she does kind of have a point about the professors at Hogwarts often being somewhat… subpar, shall we say. And you have to wonder to what degree she actually buys into all that she spouts off for the Ministry… unlike Bellatrix, who obviously believes 100% in her “cause” and probably does not see herself as performing in an evil manner, you get the feeling that Umbridge is well aware that maybe Harry was telling the truth about Voldemort returning, and that forcing him to torture himself with her quill during detention was pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable. Whereas Bellatrix would probably hunt down some Mudbloods and Muggles to harm even if she were not in the midst of a war, I have to wonder if Umbridge would have pursued trying to ruin Harry’s life if he had been like, “Yep, I lied! Voldemort isn’t back, no worries!” This is a woman whose devotion to Fudge and the Ministry led her to respond to what she viewed as threats in a totally batshit-crazy manner that included emotional, verbal, and physical torture and abuse of students and professors alike. The fact that I think she knows she is bad and wrong (especially during the “trial” of Mary Cattermole) makes me revile her even more. People who can tell the difference between right and wrong and consciously choose the latter disgust me far more than those who have no concept of the two. J.K. takes my hatred for this and wraps it up in the pink, kitten-covered bundle known as Dolores Umbridge, and it is for this reason that I continue to feel that Umbridge is the most well-written villain of the series.
I also have an overwhelming soft spot for Draco Malfoy (as I know many readers do), but I think I will reserve my thoughts about him for a future character analysis devoted to him and him alone.
