The Most Sinister Villains In Sci-Fi Literature

Today, we're diving into the sci-fi literature to uncover eight of the genre’s most sinister villains. These are the characters that kept us up at night, questioned our morals, and captivated us... in disturbing ways.
Thanks for watching and don't forget to check out my sci-fi books below.
#scifi #scifibooks #villian
0:00 - Intro
1:14 - The Mule
2:50 - Veppers
4:34 - Baron Harkonnen
6:16 - HAL 9000
8:05 - Griffin/The Invisible Man
9:47 - O'Brien
11:22 - Alex DeLarge
13:15 - Mrs Coulter
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MY STUFF
linktr.ee/scifiodyssey
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MY SCI-FI NOVELS
www.amazon.co.uk/Darrel-Willi...
DELPHINE DESCENDS
After her family is killed and her homeworld occupied, young Kathreen Martin is sent to the distant world of Furoris for re-education. She will live the rest of her life as a serf - to be bought and sold as a commodity of the Imperial Network.
When her only chance of escape is ruined, a chance mistaken identity offers her a new life as the orphaned daughter of a First-Citizen Senator and heiress to a vast fortune.
She vows to claw her way into power to sit among the worlds’ elite. Then, with her own hands, she will reap bloody vengeance on them all.
But to beat them, she must play their game. And she must play it better than them all.
BLACK MILK
Prometheus has the chance to bring his wife back from the dead, but doing so will mean the destruction of Earth.
Spanning time, planets and dimensions, Black Milk draws to a climactic point in a post-apocalyptic future, where humanity, stranded with no planet to call home, fights to survive against a post-human digital entity that pursues them through the depths of space.
Five lives separated by aeons are inextricably linked by Prometheus’s actions:
Ystil.3 is an AI unit sent back in time from the distant future to investigate Prometheus’s discovery...
The mysterious Lydia has devoted her life to finding a planet that the last remaining humans can call home…
Tom Jones (he’s a HUGE fan!) is an AI trapped inside a digital subspace, lost and desperate to find his way back to his beloved in real-time…
Dr Norma Stanwyck is a neuroscientist from 24th Century Earth whose personal choices ripple throughout time...
Prometheus must learn the necessity of death or the entire universe will be swallowed by his grief.
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GOODREADS
You can stalk me on Goodreads to see what I'm currently reading. bit.ly/3rrcByD
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IMAGE USE
The images in my videos are mostly licensed stock photos. However, occasionally I will use images found online. I always seek to properly credit artists and offer a link back to their amazing work but sometimes it's hard to find the original source of the work. If I've used an image you own and I haven't credited you, please feel free to get in touch as I am always more than happy to do so.

[@MrGrokNRoll]

01:52 Telekinesis? Isn't that moving objects? I'd have thought of the mule more along the line of an active empath or telepath, reading and transmitting and changing thoughts and feelings. (Oh, and not galaxies, just the one in the Foundation series :)

[@dorerd]

You are very correct in my opinion. The definition of telekinesis is "the supposed ability to move objects at a distance by mental power or other nonphysical means". Tele, in ancient Greek is "far off" and kinesis is movement or motion. (All definitions I've listed were provided by Google and Miriam-Webster.)

[@alphadraconis9898]

It’s a pity we lost Iain M Banks when we did as the Algebraist’s Archimandrite Luciferous was a great villain that deserved further exposure.

[@fburton8]

Archie was an utter bastard, I agree, but an Iain M. Banks ‘villain’ that I found more sinister and scary was the Iln in Matter. Does that count?

[@bold810]

I have no mouth, yet I must scream. Harlan Ellison. 🎉

[@Scottlp2]

The most disturbing SF I’ve ever read. Then again anyone who’d sent a dead animal to their publisher 3rd class mail as revenge ….

[@DinoCism]

I loved listening to the audiobook of Foundation with the old 1950s sounding voices saying lines like: "He's a Mule-man now!" and "This Mule is a madman!" It's amazing how that part of the Foundation books stands out regardless of the era it was published in. It works whatever year you were born in.

[@burrahobbit]

Do you know which version that was? I'm assuming that there is more than one

[@pavo1394]

I can't believe you left out AM from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.

[@nicholasszabo5954]

Getting in early, always a good start to the day when Darrel uploads.

[@tishapatton7446]

Thanks, Darrel. You write outstanding scripts and deliver them beautifully. I'm really glad I found your channel.

[@beethoven2351]

Excellent list! I'd have to make room somewhere on my list for Randall Flagg, assuming we can call The Stand Sci-Fi.

[@talimomolapo128]

Gaky from Cage of Souls deserves an honorable mention

[@jasperdoornbos8989]

Funny, the first villain that came to mind was the Mule. And then you mentioned him.

[@theonewhoistornapart2506]

When sinister and depraved villains in science fiction gets brought up I immediately think of Quinn Dexter from The Nights Dawn trilogy. He was truly and evil character.

[@ResoluteLemon]

Amazing analysis and presentation! Thank you for your presence on KZbin.

[@mdthatsme89]

Loved this video. What an insight! Cheers.

[@arzabael]

Nice compilation sir. It was easy to tell your descriptions were your own, as in the way you described them was in your own words. Righteous!

[@barryvercueil2346]

Brilliant list. Cheers

[@ghostdreamer7272]

Great choices!

[@donnywynne3105]

Everyone on this list, bar HAL, are double plus ungood!

[@stevezeidman7224]

I appreciate you starting with “The Mule”. When I saw the title I was curious if he was sinister enough.

[@JonathanMoffat]

For me, I think AM from I have no mouth and I must scream fits this list to a tee!

[@marcow.4846]

Great idea for the video - my additions to the list would be "Morning Light Mountain" from Peter F. Hamiltons Commonwealth Saga and Felix Jongleur (and perhaps also Dread) from Tad Wiliams Otherland Series.

[@askani21]

1:52 The word should be empathy, the Mule is an empath. Or telepathy, as used by the author. Sorry for nitpicking lol. You are, as always, awesome and captivating! :)

[@joebrooks4448]

Impressive list. A few more: Alien villain told from his perspective and very evil - Coeurl, Black Destroyer/The Voyage of The Space Beagle. Innelda Isher - Earth Empress, The Weapon Shops of Isher short story and novel. Mostly satiric and funny but sometimes seriously evil alien race villains - The Groaci from Laumer's large collection of Retief short stories and novels.

[@behzad52002]

Great video 👍,just one small correction, mule wasn't telekinetist at all, but had tremendous telepathic power

[@wesleyrodgers886]

The nanites in. The Goliath Stone.

[@SteveShahbazian]

HAL 9000. What happens when fictional computer programmers ignore Asimov's laws of robotics....

[@xcyoteex]

You can't ignore something that's impossible to build. The 3 Laws can't actually be programed.

[@Alpha_GameDev-wq5cc]

@@xcyoteex why?

[@BunkHarvestIII]

It says a lot about Iain Banks that the scariest person he could imagine was someone who's filthy rich!

[@bazoo513]

Very interesting overview. However, I beg to differ regarding HAL9000: we have no evidence that his programming include our usual human emotions (except perhaps fear at the end, which may just be an imperative of self-preservation). Contradictory instructions he received at the last moment (in particular, that to keep the true objective of the mission from the en-route crew) lead to the outcome the creators haven't envisioned (in that respect you are right to consider it a warning about unintended consequences of advanced technology). Then again, one could argue that other villains probably had some such transformative event in their history. Clarke's approach in the sequel was that of treating HAL9000 as a mental patient, one that can be healed. HAL9000 may be _the_ antagonist in the part of the novel (and film), but there is no malice in its actions. Warning, yes. But villain? I don't think so.

[@josephzamer5802]

Alex Delarge a young distopian version of the judge from blood meridian

[@theiathegondia7349]

What about AM

[@KakashiHatake-ou7mp]

I guess The Shrike doesn't count since it's technically not sinister 😃

[@summerkagan6049]

Hal is not a villain he's a victim. He's a intelligent being incapable of falsehoods who's asked to lie and through withholding information complete the mission on his own.

[@woufff_]

I disagree with the analysis of HAL, IMHO he is not a villain, just a computer programmed with contradicting orders given by his programmers i.e. humans.