Favorite Fictional Despot
- Thread starter Enigmajones
- Start date
Darken Rahl
Seconded. Legend of the Seeker was already awesome, but he definitely cranked that show up to eleven
This is epic.Not exactly what Enigmajones had in mind when he started this thread....but......Nintendo's Il Duce:
Orville_third
Banned
I like The Master. I also like The Marshal of Atrios, from "The Armageddon Factor" and The Pirate Captain, from "The Pirate Planet".
While he does not qualify a despot, Valentin Karstev from Eric Harry's "Protect and Defend" is the coolest anarchist figure in literature since V and Sunday.
While he does not qualify a despot, Valentin Karstev from Eric Harry's "Protect and Defend" is the coolest anarchist figure in literature since V and Sunday.
Difficult choice
thirded, the man is pretty efficient, Veterinary is the kind of man Machiavelli must have had in mind (maybe a copy of discworld that fell back thru time inspired him)
the Skroob and Dark Helmet team from spaceballs was rather funny
This is a pretty good one, but the following one is better.
thirded, the man is pretty efficient, Veterinary is the kind of man Machiavelli must have had in mind (maybe a copy of discworld that fell back thru time inspired him
)the Skroob and Dark Helmet team from spaceballs was rather funny
At least until the prequel trilogy got rid of all his menace.
He wasn't a dictator though was he? More of a dictator's right hand. He had dreams of becoming one, but Palpatine was in the way.....
Tywin Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire.
SPOILERS
He was the beloved and competent King's Hand for the mad king Aerys for 20-odd years and his people are safe and prosperous.
But he's obsessed with his house getting respect. To that end, he'll sack a city and have his especially brutish henchmen kill women and children to be on the winning side, he'll unleash said brutish henchmen on the lands of a noblewoman's birth family for arresting/kidnapping his youngest and least-favored son, he'll use sick, sexualized punishments on (allegedly) gold-digging women (the forced nude parade of his father's mistress and the rape of Tysha), he'll mastermind one of the worst acts of treachery in a continent's history (the Red Wedding), use his children as pawns, etc.
And yet when he dreams his children (well, two of them) will be brave and strong and beautiful and nobody will ever laugh at them, I can empathize.
SPOILERS
He was the beloved and competent King's Hand for the mad king Aerys for 20-odd years and his people are safe and prosperous.
But he's obsessed with his house getting respect. To that end, he'll sack a city and have his especially brutish henchmen kill women and children to be on the winning side, he'll unleash said brutish henchmen on the lands of a noblewoman's birth family for arresting/kidnapping his youngest and least-favored son, he'll use sick, sexualized punishments on (allegedly) gold-digging women (the forced nude parade of his father's mistress and the rape of Tysha), he'll mastermind one of the worst acts of treachery in a continent's history (the Red Wedding), use his children as pawns, etc.
And yet when he dreams his children (well, two of them) will be brave and strong and beautiful and nobody will ever laugh at them, I can empathize.
Despot might not be quite the right word for him... his original power-acquiring coup was based on making the elected council and the position it elected - Mayor - the authority on Terminus, and the Council still could have deposed him. He just managed to use political manoeuvres and what popularity he had to avoid that at his last appearance (and we do know that the Actionists and Sef Sermak got into power later on).
Now, Hober Mallow, who transforms the Foundation into a de-facto mercantile oligarchy, might be closer to a despot...
wormyguy
Banned
despot noun
1. a king or other ruler with absolute, unlimited power; autocrat.
2. any tyrant or oppressor.
