Favorite Cosmere Villain

[BenKenobi7333 He/Him/Mandalorian]

Mine is Ruin and Odium because they are some of the villains in cosmere that absolutely terrified me.

[Trusk'our he/him]

3 minutes ago, BenKenobi7333 said:

Mine is Ruin and Odium because they are some of the villains in cosmere that absolutely terrified me.

For me it's TLR.

Mistborn being my first Cosmere book, I had very limited information about him and what could be expected via the magic yet, but his presence being a massive overlying threat made me fear constantly for Kelsier, Vin, Sazed, and the rest of the crew. How were they supposed to kill a millenia old demigod who'd regenerate from any injuries? The Steel Inquisitors alone were terrifying and I didn't know how they'd be beaten at the time. Their master was sure to be far worse.

I really loved him as a bad guy. Nobody's come remotely close to feeling the danger as Rashek has.

[Entr0pic He/him]

Telsin. While i hate her, i find her very interesting. An interesting juxtaposition to Wax.

[bmcclure7]

On 3/12/2025 at 11:25 AM, BenKenobi7333 said:

Mine is Ruin and Odium because they are some of the villains in cosmere that absolutely terrified me.

Todium for me

[Lord Ruler Sylphrena He/Him]

On 3/12/2025 at 10:25 AM, BenKenobi7333 said:

Mine is Ruin and Odium because they are some of the villains in cosmere that absolutely terrified me.

Szeth. The very first time we see him he is a absolute demon in combat. The mystery as to what his powers are and who his is gives WoK such a strong start. Also his fights with Kaladin are some of my favorite in the series.

[+robardin he/him]

I would agree that so far, it's TLR... Not just because of the "hidden menace" he starts out as in TFE, only to show up in person even more scary at the executions and the fight in his throne room, ... and then ultimately, at the very end, Sazed the Eunuch Terrisman appraises his life's work as someone who had "planned very well for [the Catacendre]", who "suffered much beneath Ruin's hand" but proved "a good man who ultimately had honorable intentions".

For the most part, "villains" in Cosmere works have been similarly well-done in the sense that they're fully fleshed out, often had sympathetic moments or "moments of decision" to Make A Choice, and in general do not view themselves as "villains". They are, as all people are, the Hero Of Their Own Stories.

Moash/Vyre comes closest, because of his self-hatred and need to have his pain taken from him for the deeds he's done. When he sees his shadow image as a Windrunner after killing a few captive prisoners in the basement at Hearthstone, the image of himself had he chosen differently when facing down Kaladin with Graves over the unconscious Elhokar ("Me? Or petty vengeance?") -- standing tall in a blue Bridge Four coat, protecting people, bursting afire with Stormlight while summoning a Shardspear...

I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

I would exclude a few rather cartoonish Fused antagonists from Stormlight like Lezian The Pursuer, or another Fused that we see in Wind and Truth (no spoilers!), but you could argue that they are presented as "cartoonish" exactly to highlight that they're on the way to becoming mad and "sprenlike" from so many soul recyclings. They're not MEANT to be "fully fleshed out", because they no longer are, even in-world. But that can come across pretty badly in the first reading.

 

Edited March 19, 2025 by robardin

[Trusk'our he/him]

22 hours ago, Lord Ruler Sylphrena said:

Szeth. The very first time we see him he is a absolute demon in combat. The mystery as to what his powers are and who his is gives WoK such a strong start. Also his fights with Kaladin are some of my favorite in the series.

You know, I was never intimidated by Szeth. I always envisioned him as a part of "us", the roll usually assigned strictly to protagonists. 

Kind of like Kelsier, if I'm being honest. He'd probably be scary as an enemy, but I just can't wrap my head around Kel being the bad guy, part of "them".

[DoctaDajman]

I don't have a great reason behind this... but I really liked Denth. 

I feel like he was so straight forward with Vivenna it was almost criminal for him to actual be a bad guy. He told her the entire time that he wasn't good but that he just helped whoever would pay the best. 

His crew was top notch in my opinion.  They all offered something and they were all twisted but almost openly so. 

For Vivenna to see their cold honestly and then choose to trust them despite them saying not to the entire time. 

She knew that the only thing she could count on was that they couldn't be counted on. They told her in almost every interaction. But she also convinces herself that she needs them. The whole bait and trap of it all was great. 

 

[Treamayne]

1 hour ago, DoctaDajman said:

I don't have a great reason behind this... but I really liked Denth. 

Have you read the Warbreaker Annotations on all of this relationship and foreshadowing?

Example:

Spoiler

Annotation to Ch 10:

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Ten

Vivenna Meets the Mercenaries in the Restaurant

Denth was planned as an important figure in this book from the early going. I was looking for a type of character I'd never written, someone who could be interesting, but not steal the show too much from Vivenna. But I also wanted someone who would provide some good verbal sparring (a theme of this book) without simply replicating the way that Lightsong makes word plays.

Denth's and Tonk Fah's personalities grew out of this. I wanted them to offer a more lowbrow sort of humor, conversations that dealt with more base types of joking. They aren't supposed to be laugh-out-loud funny, but hopefully they're amusing and colorful as characters.

Warbreaker Annotations (Sept. 2, 2010)

Denth the Traitor

Denth was always going to betray Vivenna. In fact, this is one of the very early concepts for the book—the idea that I wanted a bad guy who was not only likable, but funny. Too often, villains are portrayed as simply despicable people. If they laugh, it's evil laughter.

But people just aren't like that, not most of them. They're real, they have goals and motivations, but they also laugh, cry, and feel. Denth is a mercenary. More than that, he's a man who has caused a lot of pain and death in his long lifetime, and he copes with it by letting himself be hired to do important tasks. So that he doesn't have to feel as responsible.

In a lot of ways, I imagined Denth as the anti-Kelsier. Glib, smart, and hired to do impossible tasks. Only in this book he works for the wrong team. In this scene in particular, he was doing his best to nudge Vivenna to give him the Breaths. His job was only to hold her, to keep her captive and in reserve just in case the plots with Siri failed. That way, there would be a second princess to use in the plots. He was assigned to work for Lemex originally just to give him an in with the Idrians in the city, so that he could rile them up to incite the war further. But when he found that Vivenna was coming, he realized that she would be a much better pawn, and so he poisoned Lemex and took her instead. His employers were very happy to have a backup princess.

So, anyway, Lemex's Breaths were secondary. Denth wanted them, but he knew that the most important thing to do here was get Vivenna to trust him. So he tried to subtly manipulate her into giving them to him. (He intentionally acted reluctant to take them in order to goad her.)

In some ways, even though he doesn't have a viewpoint, a big theme of this book is the tragedy of the man Denth. He could have been more. At one time, he was a much better man than most who have lived.

Tonk Fah is a waste of flesh, though. Even if he is funny sometimes.

Warbreaker Annotations (Sept. 2, 2010)

Most applicable seem to be the Annotations to Chapters 10, 13, 19, 22, 28, 35, 53, 56, and 57

 

Edited March 19, 2025 by Treamayne
Ref

[DoctaDajman]

2 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Have you read the Warbreaker Annotations on all of this relationship and foreshadowing?

Example:

  Hide contents

Annotation to Ch 10:

Most applicable seem to be the Annotations to Chapters 10, 13, 19, 22, 28, 35, 53, 56, and 57

 

I will have to check them out. That snippet there does a good job of illustrating some of the things I really liked about Denth. 

[TwinStorm He/Him]

Taravangian: obviously

Bleeder: terrifying and omnipresent

[dezaS Hᴇ/Hɪᴍ]

Autonomy: a cosmere APT who it is practically impossible to defend against. Even quite nearly overpowered one of the most powerful entities in the Cosmere at the time: Harmony. Also an insider threat who will find a way to infiltrate your world with avatars. How do you defeat a literal god from another planet, whose main power you cannot even access? Autonomy is the hacker Shard.

Edited March 20, 2025 by dezaS

[Little_Dagger she/her]

Raboniel: relatable, ruthless and smart. Such a complex villain!

[XaliaStormblessed she/her]

On 3/20/2025 at 6:03 PM, Little_Dagger said:

Raboniel: relatable, ruthless and smart. Such a complex villain!

YES she was awesome, wish we could have seen more of her!

[Through the living jeff he/him(straight)]

26 minutes ago, XaliaStormblessed said:

YES she was awesome, wish we could have seen more of her!

Woah

hey

its been a minute