Saturday, September 3, 2011


In a mirror image to my last post on Harry Potter, I now bring you my top ten most LOATHED Harry Potter characters. It will not include Lord Voldemort because he is just too obvious - too purely evil.

1. Dolores Umbridge
One of the things I think J. K. Rowling does really well is to show the range of human nastiness. Good and evil are complicated. I will always remember the line from Order of the Phoenix, in reference to this particularly repulsive character - "The world is not made up of good people and Death Eaters, Harry."

2. Fenrir Greyback
This werewolf - so different to Remus Lupin - sends shivers up my spine.

3. Marvolo Gaunt
A hideous character who sums up everything that JKR wants to show us is wrong with the wizarding world.

4. Rita Skeeter
I love it when famous people get their own back on the paparazzi by creating loathsome (while hilarious) characters like this.

5. Marjorie Dursley
HORRID. Deserved to be blown up and float away.

6. Vernon Dursley
Not so high on the list as Marjorie... but a true redneck. I do sometimes end up feeling a little sorry for him.

7. Nagini
Is it okay to loathe creatures?

8. Bellatrix Lestrange
This seems like a bit of a cop-out, but really - she is just so foul. And she killed Sirius. And tortured Neville's parents. Eminently loath-able.

9. Pansy Parkinson
Not sure why I'm picking on her in particular of all the Slytherins but she seemed to be the quintessential bully-type kid, without any of the excuses Malfoy might have to have turned out nasty. And the fact that her name was so saccharine made her seem even worse.

10. Mrs Norris
I can't bring myself to dislike poor old Filch... but his tattle-tale cat is just horrid. On the other hand, she would be in my top ten J. K. Rowling character name choices (and JKR does names very well).

Would you agree with this list? Would you add or remove anyone?

1 comment:

  1. This is hilarious. Dolores Umbridge is the most hated villain of all time, I think, and I'm sure every reader let out huge cheers when Fred and George pranked her and flew off into the distance. I think I agree with you on all of them. I do think though that, until we understood who Snape really was, he was pretty loathsome. He was so mean to Harry and didn't change his ways. But, on the other hand, I think he is the best HP character.