Road Trip Wednesday - It's a love/hate thing

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This Week's Topic:

 

Who are your favorite literary villains?

To me, the best literary villains are those who choose to be bad people (I'm using the term people lightly, not all villains are necessarily people, I know.).  Not the ones who are just bad for bad's sake -- the ones who are bad with intent.  They know the difference, and it would have been just as easy for them to stay on the straight and narrow, but they opted not to.  I think it makes them much more realistic, and much scarier.

For this reason, Voldemort tops my list of favorites.  He's a prime example of a villain who didn't have to be bad.  He was given a chance by Dumbledore when he went to Hogwarts -- he had the option of being a great student and going on to be a great, and good, wizard but he chose not to.

Another example would be Cruella DeVille. (Does she count as a literary villain?  I know I read a book, but I can't remember if it was a book first...)  I mean, killing puppies to make a coat out of their skin... That's pretty awful, and is purely a selfish choice.  She used to freak me out as a kid.  lol 

What about you?  Who are some of your favorite villains?