Physicality 

When working in the world of adaptation, the look of a character is paramount.  Dance’s Tywin has a ferocity to him that is both a product of his being physically imposing and his having such sharp and intimidating facial features.  I love this scene between Tywin and Jamie; even without being anywhere in his face, Tywin is able to make Jamie (who is threatening and imposing in his own scenes) seem like nothing more than a childish squire (fun fact: that’s real onscreen butchery in that scene).

After seeing an adaptation of a book, I often enjoy returning to the novel to see how my visions of the characters hold up.  Dance’s Tywin is the kind of character who instantly takes over what I imagined while originally reading.  Not only do I allow this to happen, but I’m grateful for it.  He makes me see scenes as written far more clearly in my mind because his presence is so spot on.

Voice

In addition to his look, Tywin’s voice is key to selling the character.  He speaks each and every word as if there is true conviction behind what he’s saying.  This is the voice that I want as Hand of any king.  In the aforementioned butchery scene, the way he states “that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact” is at once both terrifying and inspiring.  He commands authority and respect.

I’m equally happy to hear this guy’s voice in my head as I read as I am to see him as I picture Tywin.

Pathos

I’ve heard some people critique Tywin’s scenes with Arya for being out of character.  True enough, Martin goes to great lengths to suggest that Tywin was not much of a smiler, and Arya Stark does seem to make him smile (albeit it mostly evilly).  Nonetheless, I think that people aren’t recognizing that Martin did not give us the same amount of interaction between Tywin and Arya, and the scenes thus far between them have shown us exactly how Tywin would behave if he had significant interaction with her.  She amuses him because she shares his ferocity (and deep down, though he may only infer it, she shares his belief in familial loyalty).  If there is any Stark that deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with Tywin, it’s Arya.

This pairing does a remarkable job of humanizing the character–and not by showing a somewhat ‘softer’ side to him.  Rather, it humanizes him by allowing us to join him in respecting what he respects.  We admire his clear admiration for Arya because we share it and we recognize that he’s smart enough to admire her too.

Charles Dance has a terribly difficult job in these scenes.  There’s a fatherliness that he must sell (which Arya is clearly starved for), but he cannot necessarily make the character appear entirely fatherly.  Even as he’s speaking to Arya he always seems to be smarter than she thinks she’s being; we don’t quite know what he knows about her or what he thinks he knows.  And that’s what makes these moments so compelling: they are oddly heartwarming even as they are tense and somewhat terrifying.

I’d have never singled out Tywin as a character I particularly loved (when this series is full of so many standout characters), but this portrayal does stand out, adding a richness that complements and enhances the books.

This is fine.  I have no problem with dividing my attention between multiple casual tasks.

Nonetheless, while I normally disdain any conversation that begins with ‘the problems with today’s world is,’ I still feel shocked when people pay to see a movie and then spend it texting.  I can’t tell you the amount of phone screens I saw illuminated while the Hulk was tearing through Manhattan in my theater last week.

There’s a difference between casually multi-tasking while watching some tv show you’re half-interested in and paying $18 to see a 3D IMAX movie at midnight and spending a good portion of it on your smartphone.  I’m disgusted by the latter.  When I watch or read something that I’m intent on seeing/reading, I give it my full attention.  It deserves my full attention.

Still, I’m a realist.  We live in an age of distraction, and this multitasking mentality will alter how we experience art.  Here are three ways I think we have to deal with this when it comes to writers:

Recognize and Embrace Impatience as a Reality

I remember when I first realized that my multitasking lifestyle was getting in the way of my reading.  I was reading a scene from George R. R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords.  Without being spoilery, one character was approaching a castle and seemed poised to finally reunite with a family member who I knew (from previous chapters) was in that chapter.  Suddenly, the chapter ended before the reunion scene.  The next chapter began inside the castle using nothing but slowly building exposition.  I couldn’t handle it; I had to get to the reunion scene.  I succumbed to skimming.  I had no patience for the slow-build and rushed through the chapter.  Suddenly, I realized my skim had skipped over major, major events (the payoff of the slow-build).  I did the right thing: I went back and re-read.

But think about how many people skim through the ‘slow-build’ writing we labor on so much– The kind of writing that takes real time and effort–just to get to ‘the good stuff.’

I’m certain that this ‘skimming’ mentality is only increasing.  In a world where people text over devoting their attention to a Hulking-out Hulk, there must be a lot of skim-reading.

Does that mean we should ditch all slow-building narratives?  No.  But we can’t rely on it too much.  There needs to be a middle ground between Martin (who writes nothing but slow-building exposition that leads to stunning plot turns) and Dan Brown (who writes entirely for an ADD generation).  In a multi-tasking world, we need to mix it up.

Treat the Page as Your Canvas

This is simple:

Play.

With.

How.

You.

Organize.

SPACE.

(BuT dOn’T bE tOo GiMmIcKy)

Educators are always buzzing about how people have different learning styles.  There are tens of different types of styles they preach about.  Except that, when I’ve dealt with students, I find that most classes are stocked with visual learners (at least 2/3).  Do you have to give in to this and turn the page of a book into something it’s not?  Not necessarily, but I do think that crafting your story with an insight into how it looks on the blank page can be both stimulating for a reader and thematically significant.

Rely on Your Reader to be a Googler

This is where the multitasking mentality can be somewhat of an advance.  Books are knowledge.  They always have been.  But they are no longer the key source of knowledge.  In the past, novels like Robinson Crusoe were so big because they brought people to distant, exotic places when it was unlikely that most people would ever travel to such places in their lifetimes.  Today, we neither need to travel nor read books to go anywhere or learn anything: Google will do it for us, in an instant.

I have to expect that readers of the future (and many in the present) are constantly Googling what they do not know when reading a book.  A few months ago I read Ready Player One, which is entirely informed by 80′s pop culture.  There were many moments where the author felt compelled to describe his references, but more often than not, I was content to Google them myself.  The moments that pulled the narrative down in exposition were unnecessary: I could be the expositor for the details.  I didn’t need the narrator.

I think we need to write with this in mind.  What can we rely on readers to find on their own?  What do we need to explain through exposition?  Knowing that we live in a world where everything can be looked up rather simply is important.

However, every once in a while science fiction and fantasy presents us with a death scene that tops all of these real-life oddities, either from pure strangeness, gruesomeness, creativity, or irony.  Here are ten SF/F deaths that real life can never compete with (I hope!):

Because this list is about deaths, be forewarned there will be spoilers below.

10. Tie between death by “Death by Flesh Eating Scarabs” from The Mummy and “Death by Parasitic Alien” in Alien

Okay, full disclosure – flesh-eating bugs do exist.  They are called dermestidae and are used in taxidermy and forensics.  But they do not swarm on a living humans, eat them alive, and burrow under their skin like the scarabs do in the 1999 remake of the film The Mummy.

Similarly, parasites that kill humans from within their bodies are also real, but of course they are not anything like the aliens from Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien.

Maybe it’s the quasi-realism of these two ways of dying that makes them so terrifyingly memorable.  Fantastical and unusual?  Yes.  But still verging on legitimate fears.  This earns them joint placement in slot ten on this list.

9. “Death by the Arc of the Covenant” from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Arc

Dying by getting your face melted off, mummified, or exploded by opening a religious artifact embodied by the spirits of the Old Testament God is something I have yet to come across in the news.  Though this way of dying is not truly original since it borrows from the idea of the “Angel of Death” and other religious and mythical killers,  its juxtaposition with nazis, fantastic pre-CGI special effects, and Indy’s random loophole of escaping it by simply closing his eyes makes it a tour de force of creative character killing.  I especially like how the creators couldn’t decide on just one way the arc might kill someone – instead they came up with different deaths for each characters.  How nice and personal…

8. “Death by T. Rex While on the Can” from Jurassic Park

To be killed by a dinosaur is bad enough.  But to be gobbled right off the toilet like Donald Gennaro is from Jurassic Park?  That’s deliciously overboard and a perfect way for a whiny no-fun red shirt to meet his demise.  Steven Spielberg proves once again that he knows his way around weird death scenes.

7. “Death by Stabbing, Falling, Being Impaled, and Drowning” from the extended edition of Return of the King

Sarumon’s death in the extended movie version of the LotR series is a smorgasbord of pain.  It deserves to be on this list not because any of the individual components of his death are that unusual but because when added up they are unusually brutal.  Considering Sarumon doesn’t die that way at all in the books, it’s fascinating that Peter Jackson made this death scene so intense – it’s as if he knew he was probably going to annoy fans by changing the story so he made Sarumon’s death as overboard as possible.

6. “Death by Melting from Water” in The Wizard of Oz

There’s something so satisfying in making the Wicked Witch of the West fatally vulnerable to something as innocuous as a splash of water.  Instead of going in the direction of the super violent Saruman-style death scene, The Wizard of Oz achieves great drama with something completely un-violent and a few choice lines of dialogue.  It just goes to show how conducive the fantasy genre is to creating unusual deaths: when reality doesn’t matter, even a few drops of water can kill.

5. “Death by Gold” in Game of Thrones

Dying by molten metal probably isn’t all that unusual in the history of science fiction and fantasy stories, but Viserys Targaryen’s death deserves special consideration because of how it fits into the story: the character most desperate to be crowned ends up dying from being crowned.  It should really be called “death by irony,” which is a useful thing for writers to keep in mind when trying to come up with a memorable death scene.

4. “Death by Giant Microwave” from Kick Ass

I never considered dying by cooking inside a giant microwave an option, but now that Kick Ass has implanted it in my brain as a possible way to die I can’t think of a worse way to go.  If you haven’t seen the movie, just think of how a potato explodes after a few minutes and let your imagination take over from there.

3. “Death by Dip” from Who Framed Roger Rabbit

It’s not healthy for anyone to be doused in paint thinner and solvents, but when you’re an animated character brought to life with pen and ink it’s absolutely fatal.  In terms of creativity, I think this is one of the best deaths in the fantasy genre.

Warning – the next entry on the list is a bit of a spoiler for anyone who hasn’t seen The Cabin in the Woods!!  Skip ahead if you don’t want to know!

2. “Death by Unicorn” in The Cabin in the Woods

There were a lot of crazy death scenes in this film.  (Death by merman, anyone??)  But the most unusual was when one of the workers was stabbed to death by a charging unicorn.  It was funny, but also completely believable within the premise of the narrative.  It’s pretty much like being murdered by a My Little Pony.  A wonderful dose of irreverence.

1. “Death by Cape” (aka “death by being a sell out”) from Watchmen  

Though only a minor character in Watchmen, costumed hero Dollar Bill gets such a rotten death that he earns the place as number one on this list.  The bank that hires Dollar Bill to be its superhero mascot makes him wear a cape, which gets stuck in the revolving door and causes him to be an easy target for a gun-wielding bank robber.  It’s irony, tragedy, dark humor, and social commentary all wrapped into one perfectly thought-out death.  Of course, The Incredibles includes a similar “death by cape” moment, but Watchmen, in typical Alan Moore style, makes it much more biting.

This list is by no means exhaustive.  The science fiction and fantasy genres are filled with strange and original deaths.  What are your favorites?

Technorati Tags: alien, Cabin in the Woods, character deaths, game of thrones, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Kick Ass, lord of the rings, Roger Rabbit, The Mummy, The Wizard of Oz, Watchmen

For instance, as the second season of Game of Thrones continues to soldier on, Arya continues to impress me.  Of course, I’ve always loved her as a character in the books, but there’s something so rewarding about seeing her brought to life as perfectly as she has been.

There are two Arya Stark spinoff shows I’d like to see.

1.  Arya from Game of Thrones and Hit Girl from Kick-Ass as deadly assassins for hire.

2.  Arya Stark from Game of Thrones and Sally Draper from Mad Men are adopted by hetero-life partners/Odd Couple Tywin Lannister and Roger Sterling.

Trust me, if you have not yet met Sally Draper as a television viewer, you are missing out.  She is the only other child actor out there who gives Maisie Williams (Arya) a run for her money. Of course, there are other reasons to watch Mad Men if you have not yet.

One of the joys of television is having the time to explore all sorts of potential pairings of seemingly disparate characters.  The best change that the filmmakers have made to A Clash of Kings has been the added material on Arya as Tywin’s cupbearer.  The two share the same steely resolve and undying familial loyalty, something which I’d never considered while reading the books.  The actors play off one another spectacularly.  Likewise, this season of Mad Men brought together Sally Draper and Roger Stirling for a number of classic moments.

Part of what makes The Avengers special is that films rarely ‘cross-over,’ and because of the limited amount of screen time available a filmmaker can rarely allow all possible characters to interact meaningfully (in the same way that TV can eventually allow characters like Tywin and Arya to share an arc).  The Avengers allowed us that breathing room, and the character connections explored were often quite memorable.

What characters from different novels, films and shows would you like to see join forces?

The Avengers clobbered opening weekend box office records.  I love reading articles that begin this way:

Joss Whedon’s The Avengers has set a new bar in opening to a walloping $200.3 million at the domestic box office, the largest debut ever and kicking of summer 2012 in high style.

May it become the #1 film of all time (box office wise) and give Whedon complete freedom to make whatever he wants on the big and small screen until the end of his days.  The world will be better for it.

Get the rest of the news here and here.

Here are some critic blurbs that I wholeheartedly agree with:

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic:

Ultimately, it all comes back to Whedon: His clear vision for each character and how they might be profitably intermingled; his unexpected knack for action choreography; his funny, tender, immaculately constructed script.

Kevin McCarthy, NerdTears.com:

Mark Ruffalo was born to the play The Hulk. There is a ten second epic action sequence that is worth the entire price of admission and every one of your nerd tears! Hulk Smash!

Jake Wilson, The Age:

Whedon can deconstruct the myth of heroism in his sleep, and probably does, but on this occasion he’s here to redeem the cliches, not to bury them.

Neil Cumpston, HitFix/Some Kind of Insane Asylum:

So let me just save you some time and say this movie will break your hand with its cock and balls by running at your hand which you’ve made into a fist, thinking, “I’m gonna punch this movie in its cock and balls ‘cause no fucking way can it be good” but then before you do anything the movie runs at you and breaks your hand with its cock and balls because its cock and balls are like a chunk of highway.  They can use this part of the review on the poster.

On Monday I asked writers on twitter how they typically get past writer’s block and received such a variety of useful answers I figured I’d share them on the blog.  There are pretty much seven different approaches, each of them providing useful bits of advice.

1. Self-diagnose and Find a New Angle

“I reevaluate where I am with stuff and try to tackle it from another angle.”   @Sidney_Bristol

As writers, we have pretty good intuition.  If something isn’t working in our story oftentimes it becomes drudgery to keep writing – even if we don’t consciously realize there’s a serious problem.  The next step is to let our analytical brains wise up to what our intuition already knows and determine why we are dissatisfied.

This is one of the reasons why writers should actually embrace writer’s block.  For the past ten months I have been returning to a draft of a chapter, repeatedly attempting to rewrite it from scratch because I’m dissatisfied with it.  At this point I’m an expert on gauging my intuition: if I get writer’s block working on the rewrite within a few days I know I need to scrap it, diagnose what the problem is within the narrative, and start over.  Without writer’s block to give me this warning sign I’d be wasting a lot more time pumping out bad writing.  Consider writer’s block a sign from the gods of writing and suddenly it’s not so crippling after all – it’s just another resource on which we can depend to make our stories better.

2. Take a Break

“Sometimes I need a couple of weeks/months away from my #WIP.  Readers can tell when writing is forced & I want my novel 2 be authentic.”   @WriteLkeUMeanit 

It’s easy to say we should use writer’s block as a sign we need to self-diagnose problems in our narratives.  Sure sounds good, right?  But of course the hard part is figuring out what’s wrong.  Sometimes it’s not clear.  Sometimes it never becomes clear. When it seems like that might be the case, it’s time to take a step back from the story.  @WriteLikeUMeanit is right – forced writing is usually not good enough.  When we are uninspired, our writing becomes uninspired.  Better to take time off from that part of the writing and let it work itself out in the periphery of our minds than beat our heads against the wall and get increasingly more frustrated.  When you return to the part giving you trouble you will be refreshed and approach it with better perspective.

3.  Enjoy Someone Else’s Work

“Let it run its course but in the meanwhile, read a good book or watch a writer-type movie, something inspiring… ”   @nm_angelfairy

If you need to take a break from writing, what better way than to use it as an opportunity to read or watch something that adds to your writerly knowledge base and might inspire you by example?

When writers are really on a roll writing we risk ignoring everything else.  This includes doing dishes and buying groceries, but also includes keeping up with our reading and movie-watching, which are pretty important hobbies for anyone hoping to be a stellar storyteller because you can’t be a good writer if you don’t know what good writing looks like.  So if you’ve got writer’s block and you feel guilty about avoiding your WIP, get into “audience-mode” (reading/watching/digesting other’s works) and tell yourself it’s not procrastination, but essential to the writing process.

4. Rule out External Causes

“Determine the reason. Caused by bad mood = get over it. Caused by losing your job and being depressed: Look for new job, then write.”   @JakobDrud

The previous three tactics for handling writer’s block apply when something within your writing is the cause of the blockage.  However, we all know that’s not always the case.  For me, quite possibly the majority of my writer’s block spells are caused by external, non-writerly issues: laziness, sleepiness, lack of time, or just being in a bad mood.

As @JakobDrud points out, some of these external causes are genuine priorities.  Jobs and families inevitably come first.

But if the real reason you’re not churning out the words is because you’re feeling sorry for yourself for no good reason or you’re moody, that is not an excuse to stop writing.  At times like these I find it’s best to force yourself to get back to writing.  If you truly love writing it will end up improving your spirits anyway.

5. Write Through It

“Sit down and start writing, and something will come.”   @garethlpowell 

“Totally fight through it. Writing anything is better than nothing, and once I get going, amazing things happen. ”   @GG_Silverman

Taking a break from writing is not necessarily always the right course of action.  Though it takes enormous willpower, sometimes forcing myself to sit down and write – even if I’m not “feeling it” – is simply better than nothing.  You never know what little detail you write even on an “off” day might inspire you to write some of your best stuff.  Sometimes the hardest part of writing is picking up the pen/laptop – do that, and half the battle’s already won.

6. Start Editing What You’ve Already Written

“I find a good trick, if stuck in the middle of a story, is to go back and edit the earlier part. This builds momentum to keep going.”   @garethlpowell

Editing and writing are so different from each other that going from one action to the other can give you the sense of “taking a break” when really you’re still locked into the writing process.  Using the times you have writer’s block as a time to edit keeps your head in the game and forces you to reevaluate what you’ve done.  This can do two things to get you back on track: 1) it can help you diagnose any problems in your narrative holding you up in later sections; and 2) it can motivate you by reminding you how much you love your story and want to keep working on it.

7. Every Situation is Different

“If it’s a story that’s been in my head awhile, I write through the block. If it’s a new story, I may let it simmer longer.”   @AnitaKingWrites

Because writer’s block is such an umbrella term for all sorts of writing issues, no one answer or trick is sufficient to fix it every time.  New stories demand different tactics than well-established stories; and every day brings a new set of writerly challenges.  Maybe that truth is overwhelming, but it shouldn’t be.  After all, we’re writers!  We are familiar with the idea that solutions to conflict are always at hand to creative thinkers.

The Bottom Line:

The important thing to take away from all this is that you should not let writer’s block crush you.  Instead, choose a tactic – any tactic – and adopt it confidently.  Taking a definitive action to defeat the block is empowering and much more helpful than being wishy-washy about whether you have any control over breaking through the block.  If you think you can get past it, you can.  Don’t let it become the boogeyman that cripples your psyche.

What are your strategies for overcoming writer’s block?

Technorati Tags: Writer's block, writing tips

It’s a fascinating look at his youthful mind.  What intrigues me most is how this type of learned discussion could never be part of his political life.  While I find that he comes across as an intelligent public servant (one who is actually critiqued for seeming too scholarly), his political self seems a run of the mill lout compared to statements like this:

Eliot contains the same ecstatic vision which runs from Münzer to Yeats. However, he retains a grounding in the social reality/order of his time. Facing what he perceives as a choice between ecstatic chaos and lifeless mechanistic order, he accedes to maintaining a separation of asexual purity and brutal sexual reality. And he wears a stoical face before this.

Keep in mind this is a personal letter, not a English Lit Paper.  Not that language like this should be part of a stump speech, but I find it frustrating that our public discourse essentially will not allow us to have an ‘adult conversation’ about anything of substance.  A man capable of thinking on this level has to be reduced to responding to the idiotic conversations that dominate the headlines of our wonderful news media.

For instance, right now Matt Drudge is still running headlines attacking Obama for lying in his memoir by creating ‘compressed characters’ (“Obama admits fabricating girlfriend in memoir”); Drudge believes this to be a damning revelation from the recent biography–except that Obama acknowledged the compressed characters in the forward to the first edition of his memoir.  I’d much rather hear if his thoughts on Eliot’s brand of conservatism as expressed through his poetry have changed since writing the above letter; instead, he must educate the media about compressed characters in another non-controversy.

But some characters, whether they be more evil or less evil than monsters like the Joker, are just pieces of shit.  It’s not that they are poorly constructed characters–it’s that our desire to see them snuffed out of existence (and to see the look on their faces as they approach their doom) overrides the enjoyment we get from watching their evil antics.  These are the characters that elicit such visceral feelings of hate from audiences and readers that if they actually existed and attended fan conventions, they’d never make it out alive.  Here are ten that deserve special places in hell (needless to say, Spoiler Alert for all shows/books/films discussed):

10.  Stryker from X-Men 2

I’m not sure if the comics character is nearly as loathsome (I see he has some religious affiliations, so I can guess the direction that would take him), but X2 was marked by Stryker’s dickishness.  This is a guy who tries to frame poor Nightcrawler for assassinating the president, kidnaps Professor X, and tries to commit genocide against an entire population.  More than that, he lobotomized his son and uses him as his pawn.  And that’s ignoring all of his complicated history with Wolverine.  When he got chained up and left for dead, there wasn’t an ounce of me feeling any remorse for him.

9.  Captain Vidal from Pan’s Labyrinth 

Guillermo del Toro is known for his horror movie monsters, and Captain Vidal, the fascist villain of Pan’s Labyrinth fits into Toro’s oeuvre, despite the fact he’s purely human.  He tortures, he kills, and still thinks he’s the best guy around town.  Audiences came away from the film terrified by the Pale Man, but Captain Vidal is far more frightening as some sort of evil version of Captain Von Trapp.  I can be a bit squeamish, but I have no problem watching the scene where this guy’s mouth is knifed open.

8.  Admiral Helena Cain from Battlestar Galactica

How can you be a good leader if you steal from refugee civilians, strip their ships, and force them to join you under the threat that you’ll kill their families?  Not to mention let your crew rape and torture prisoners, and plan to kill Bill Adama, one the greatest men possibly ever.  Though Razor did an earnest job of humanizing Cain (and many fans like her) there is no way she could ever be forgiven, nor does she seem to care.  It says a lot that, in a show about humans fighting the monsters that murdered most of humanity, I was never more sure about the rightness of Adama than when he decided to risk everything to get back Tyrol and Helo from this monster.

7. Dodge Landon from Rise of the Planet of the Apes

If this was meant to be a breakout role for Tom Felton, the actor who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, I think it may have accomplished little more than further typecast him as an evil shit.  At least Draco had a few sympathetic moments.  This guy, with his cruelty toward primates and his douchebag swagger, is absolutely unforgivable.  Think about it: his douchebaggery with poor, lovable Caesar and his new friends is nearly singlehandedly responsible for the audience watching scenes of the early stages of the coming ape-induced apocalypse and saying, yep, we deserve that.

6.  Shane from The Walking Dead

Shane started out okay, but somewhere along the line he just became a serious pain in the ass.  I guess the Otis episode was the turning point.  After that, all he wanted to do was defy Rick and stir up trouble.  When he let the Walkers out of Hershel’s barn I was really just hoping one of the others would put him out of his misery.  I’m sorry, but the trauma of a zombie apocalypse is no excuse for becoming a total jerkass.

5.  Walter Peck in Ghostbusters

Some characters are evil and loathsome in a violent, sadistically physical way.  Walter Peck isn’t that type.  This ‘dickless’ piece of shit is the type who doesn’t listen to you when you tell him that what he’s doing is dangerous and then blames you when bad things happen because of what he did.  Some people would question this prick being on a list alongside confirmed murderers and psychopaths (and being this high up on it too!), but I’m perfectly comfortable with it.  It’s one thing to be smug; it’s another thing to use your smugness to (indirectly, yes) help bring about the return of GOZER and the apocalypse. As Lloyd Christmas would say, OK–Kill him!

4.  Angelus from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 2 Arc)

When Angelus makes his debut in Season 2, he is positively twisted.  He loves playing games with his victims to the point where it becomes almost unbearable to watch. (Anyone remember his needless slaying of Willow’s pet fish?)  Buffy’s feelings for Angel make it hard for her to kill Angelus, but his stalking, torture, and love for snapping necks would have made it easy for anybody else.  In a way, he’s (like the Joker) just too fun to watch be evil, but this guy crosses a line and I’m totally with Xander when he discusses (to Angelus’s face) his desire to watch him get killed by Buffy.  The great thing about this show is in the first few episodes of Season Two, we are rooting for Angel along with every other hero.  But, by the time he leaves a dead Jenny Calendar in Giles’s bed, we are ready to have that sick puppy put down in the meanest possible way.  There’s nothing more satisfying than watching Giles beat Angelus down with a flaming baseball bat.

3.  Percy from The Green Mile

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