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Worst Villain Poll- Kate Daniels Edition

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Calling all Kate Daniels fans.

Who do you just love to hate? Which character simply gets your goat? (the lame one Erra used to conquer a city.)

Inquiring minds want to know.

Edit: Inquiring minds are focusing on the baddies from the main KD series today. That’s why Moloch, Landon Nez etc are not in play. Yet šŸ˜‰

In the ring today:

Roland

Should be a no brainer, right? We begrudge him his hubris, and the monstrous things he concocts whilst playing with human lives. And yetā€¦ the road to hell really is paved with good intentions and a lot of charm.

Lorelei

Sure, she takes out a kill contract on Kate, ’nuff said. But the worst thing about her is that she deals a different kind of pain altogether. Lorelei goes for the low blow and tries to insert herself in Kateā€™s place with no regard for what sheā€™s breaking up.  And she stands for all the things we hate, from manipulation to weakness and pick me energy. Letā€™s face it, it doesnā€™t matter that she did not succeed, sheā€™s just villainous.

Neig

Monster is as monster does. He comes from the furthest recesses of time and embodies the nightmares that never really disappear. War, terror, subjugation. Whatā€™s not to hate?

Hibla

She knows what she did.

Pour one out for Aunt B. RIP kind, gentle angel. Aunt B would never have been hard on us. (Magic Binds, page 68 šŸ˜‰ before you ask whatā€™s wrong with me. We could be here all day otherwise)

Ted Moynohan

In the immortal words of the Angevin: ā€œIf that man was in charge of nothing except his own dick, sooner or later heā€™d suspect it of presenting a danger to humanity.ā€ He lets his prejudices drive him to madness, and picks a “holy” war that sacrifices many worthy lives for nothing. He’s the evil we’ve all met.

Jim

Jim does everything for the benefit of the Pack. But what about the friends he hurts? He shows no devotion to Kate and betrays Curran after all they went through. If you donā€™t expect much from an enemy, but you canā€™t forgive a friendā€™s lack of loyalty, you blame Jim.

Hugh

Ooooooooo. I can hear the sound of Kindles being dropped in outrage. Yes, thatā€™s right, weā€™re going spicy šŸ˜ˆ. Have you still not forgiven him for Mishmar, Curranā€™s legs, Mauro? Do you only read Iron and Magic in the dark where no one can see you? Vote for everyoneā€™s favourite baddie.

Voron

Surprise contender. Before Kate’s mother magically coerced him into loving her, he was already Roland’s warlord, and we all know what kind of man Roland wanted to fill that job opening. We donā€™t really get to meet Voron, but he raises a child as a weapon, denying her any normality. He turns her into a killing machine and sets the entire thing in motion. And is it really for her own benefit or for the sake of his pain and hatred? His choices damn him, you know they do.

Worst KD Villain

  • Ted Moynohan (47%, 4,222 Votes)
  • Lorelei (12%, 1,033 Votes)
  • Voron (10%, 932 Votes)
  • Jim (8%, 710 Votes)
  • Roland (7%, 641 Votes)
  • Hibla (6%, 561 Votes)
  • Neig (6%, 555 Votes)
  • Hugh (3%, 306 Votes)

Total Voters: 8,960

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Comments

    • But he was fried… hugh specifically states he wasnā€™t that type of person until Kateā€™s mon magically ruined him.

      • Kate’s mother fried him into loving her, not into turning her daughter into a mindless killer. That was all Voron. There was a reason that man was Roland’s warlord. You don’t get that job by being an upstanding citizen.

            • Can you imagine what Hugh would’ve been able to do with all his healing and all his magic if Voron hadn’t gotten hold of him?

            • Actually after much thought, I change my vote to Roland. He’s the catalyst for all the evil done to Kate, Hugh, Erra etc.

          • I would also contend that Kate’s mom is a big villain here. After all, she was ok with Roland and his antics until he decided to kill her, and then she fried Voron.

            • Her mom had one saving grace, she fries voron to get him to save Kate’s life,she had some kind of love for her.

            • Roland probably didn’t show Kalina everything. And Kalina probably didn’t see everything Roland did even when it was right in front of her. Love is funny like that.

        • I have read every Ilona Andrews book that is available, but i do not recall Neig. My kids tell me i have a goldfish’s memory, so its possible i forgot if he isnt a prominent character. Can anyone clue me into where i can find him (what book?). i feel like its maybe in Hugh’s book, because i only have read that through one time.

          • Hey Nikki,
            Neig is (one of) the villains in the final book of the Kate Daniels series, Magic Triumphs ????.
            I hope this helps ????.

            • Thank you! Good thing ive been rereading KD series. Im on Magic Slays, so it might be a min til i reread KD #10.

            • Which technically also makes him the villain, albeit unnamed, in Hugh’s book, too.

        • You changed my view with Hugh after learning his story. Voron was a vindictive SOB taking advantage of an innocent child, so he’s my choice. Ted is so stupid I don’t even want to consider having to read about him further he irritates me that much, but I could see him being #1 just from my reaction to him. But not Jim who I earned affinity for after the short story with him and Dahli. I can’t see Dahli allowing it to go further betrayal wise due to her ethics, and Jim has redeeming qualities so why make a good character bad? There’s always a chance to introduce new ones.

      • She made him love her so he would rescue her from his chosen boss. She didn’t make him abuse and betray an innocent child, the child of his loved one whether truly or falsely, to perform the vengeance he would be unable to fulfil and survive himself. Indeed it seemed like he took perverse pleasure in the idea of the daughter killing the father as if she was purely his and naught of her mother.

      • If anything he should have protected Kate, not set her up to die. Pox on the fella:)

      • But doesn’t Kate say that he did show her some kindness? Going for green clothes when given a choice, coz he knew she liked green…

    • I was conflicted about Voron because in the earlier books he didnā€™t sound so bad. I think Jim is worst because you expect the others to be shitty but he was her friend and that hurt the most

      • I agree with it being Jim.. his betrayal is worse having known her the longest besides Voron. They worked together and he has yet to show any redeeming qualities.

      • Some if these are supposed to be bad and I can find some redeeming qualities in them for the most part. Jim just pissed me off so he gets my vote

      • My thoughts, exactly. Although, at some point he has told Kate very bluntly that if you don’t grow fangs, claws and fur you won’t get his loyalty (even though his dad didn’t have any of that) Also, his paranoia is over the top. He needs to relax a little bit. I guess thats not in his nature, though.

        • Maybe we could turn him into a YouTuber- I wonder how that would work out for him and us.

      • Yep, it’s the betrayal of trust and friendship that really got me. I can excuse shitty behavior from shitty people, but Jim, really? What does that say about you as a person?

      • Jim gets my vote after threatening to kill Kate ā€œif necessaryā€. Maybe her self-hatred made her disregard that but that was NOT OK. With his lack of loyalty to anyone but Dali (and maybe the Pack but that could be self-interest in maintaining a power base as heā€™s lost direct access to the guild) I can totally see him becoming a villain.

    • I didnā€™t like Ted or Voron at all eitherā€¦ but hands down for me, it was Hibla. The scene with Aunt B tears me up every time I read or listen to it.

      I learned to respect Hugh after reading his story.

      • Yep. This is about it for me. Prior to Iron and Blood, Hugh would have been at the top of my list. I was kind of mad that (if I remember correctly) Hughā€™s book went from an April Fools prank to something that actually happened due mostly to fan interest (I think? Fuzzy memory TBH). But the beloved Authors knew better and turned out a book that actually reformed my thinking on Hugh when I didnā€™t think it was possible. So, yeah, Ted is the worst.

      • Ted > Hibla all the way. Yeah, Aunt B, but Hibla was doing her job the best way she knew how, and I have to respect that. If Hibla had her people fight Aunt B fairly, she would be betraying her people and getting them killed for no reason, and I would respect her less at that point.

        On the other hand, Ted is just an asshole. And, like, he’s not just an asshole, he’s an incompetent asshole who unintentionally gets his people killed for no reason. I can respect a competent asshole, but an incompetent asshole is just pointless.

          • +1 agreed, that’s my vote. All that horror that Nick went through with Roland, wasted by that fool and so many people who were trying to do their jobs killed because of his xenophobic hatred.

        • I can understand the point about the job, but what gets me about Hibla is when Kate asks her how she can follow Hugh after seeing him systematically torture Christopher and leave him to die in a cage. Hibla tells Kate, “I follow him because I’m not the one in the cage.” As long as it’s not happening to her, she can deal with atrocities happening to someone else. That’s evil. She was on the top of my list with Ted and Jim.

    • Ditto. He’s the real reason Mauro is dead. He could have released Nick from his task earlier so that Nick could save Mauro. Plus he thought shifters weren’t worth saving.

      • And by releasing Nick when he did, Ted literally pissed everything that Nick had done right down the drain. He didn’t think anyone was worth saving.

    • Yes! Bad all the way around. There were no redeeming qualities ever! The others had gray areas, but not Terrible Ted!

    • Agreed!! Moynahan is just such an ass with no redeeming factors. We meet him and he’s an ass to Kate when Greg has just been murdered. He’s an ass to Andrea the entire time she’s with the Order. Then he knowingly sacrifices all the knights and blows Nick’s cover when Hugh attacks the Order. Moynahan is the reason that Mauro is dead, I know Hugh did the actual killing but Ted created the opportunity!!

    • Me too, he is just so arrogant and self righteous and bigoted he stands out..a villain is a villain, a nasty,mean stupid supposed hero is much,much worse, has sanctioning for his stupidity.

    • Yes. They are all bad in different ways but Ted is the banality of evil that represents how evil can sink its way into the world through a million petty actions

    • I voted for Ted, I do feel for him. Ted saw the first shift, right? He fought horrors to save people, then got together with others to stand there and fight for people. And some of the people he was fighting to save decided the new way was just peachy because they got the lottery pick of privileges and extra (magical) powers. It broke him.

      He as more a rabid dog: an possibly valued companion with a disease of the mind and an inability to be healed.

      He isn’t a great villian. He is a small, broken man, put in a situation where he did a lot of damage.

      The villians were the men (like in the quote) that KNEW this and were too afraid of political consequences to retire him.

  3. I went for Ted. Small-minded, jealous, hateful people do a lot of damage in the world. More than the supervillains because it’s more common.

    • + 1 That’s the same thing I thought. The other villains were big and bold, theyhad reasons. Ted was small-minded and petty. He shouldn’t have been running a Chapter of the Order, he should have been in charge of a DMV office.

    • This, 100%. The others are all awful, but seem to have been strongly impacted by negative influences and experiences in their lives. To me Ted and Lorelei donā€™t have the same excuse. They both seem to have had fairly normal, privileged upbringings, so the crappy behavior is all them, making them especially hideous people in my book. Of the two, Tedā€™s prejudices and level of influence make him way more malicious and capable of inflicting way more damage than Little Princess Gimme Your Man.

      • I went with the racist, sexist twat Ted

        – although Jim was nearly second. Iā€™m still mad Dali mated with him

        • +1
          My tablet won’t let me call it but you are so right on the money about Ted.

      • I understand his motivations perfectly. However I have been taught from childhood that since prejudice is such an inherent part of human nature, it is the thing we need most to guard against. He didn’t even evaluate his judgements of people or situations. He always gave his effort to finding others who were as warped as he and teamed up with them to make everything worse.

  4. I read Hugh proudly at the sunny beach! And I will read the other books in front of a crowd too! Come at me šŸ˜›
    Marriage is an excellent punishment for this particular villain šŸ˜€

    • I agree, having to face himself is probably the most painful punishment Hugh could endure and he has to experience that in spades. I can certainly say that he didn’t get off easy with Elara!

  5. I went with Lorelei. All the others are bad guys, but theyā€™re bad, I donā€™t expect much out of them except being a bad guy…but Lorelei just gets my blood boiling every time. Sheā€™s followed strongly by Ted, who also gets my blood boiling. Then hibla who pisses me off and got less than she deserved from Kate

    • I went with Ted but Lorelei was a strong second only because she thought she could challenge Kate. Just because you’re a shifter princess doesn’t mean you’re superior.

    • I went with Ted, but Lorelei was a close second for me. She was so awful and I was really bothered that she didnā€™t really face any consequences for trying to bump Kate off.

      • I didn’t like Lorelei, but I don’t see her as having any real power. She can’t go near Atlanta, and bridges were burned with Ice Fury. If she wants to dance around in Europe, let her.

      • Lorelei is so incompetent, she is her own worst enemy. Her punishment is that she until figures out how to be a real person, she has to spend the rest of her life being Lorelei.

    • +1 all the others were expected in a way. She had already had to deal with the loyalty issue with Jim before. Ted was what she had already kinda experienced in the academy. Voron though she loved him was never great to her. Roland and Hugh she already grew up expecting. Neig as horrible as he is was something she was trained to face. Hilba already got what she deserved by Kate.

      But Lorelie she makes me so mad and she is the one reason I was so mad at Curran. I think this one hurt Kate the most the others she knew how to deal with but not this situation because killing her went against who Kate is in a way so she couldn’t do that (she wasn’t a life threat to her or others) and when she finally found out about the contract she understood but it was more of a double pain because she had to experience all that because she can’t act so they didn’t tell her.

    • Lorelei was raised as a princess and never actually grew up. She had no concept of anything regarding being in a loving relationship, only the “guidance” of others to tell her that because she was pretty and a shapeshifter and young and willing, she was fit to be the leader of the pack with Curran, who should automatically love her because she was young and fit to be a pack leader. Clueless, in other words, not aware of the real world outside of her small circle of people who told her she was supposed to be the queen of Curran’s heart because of her birth. A stupid little girl whose only real training was that killing her opposition, as Kate was in her eyes, was the actual way to deal with making Curran accept her as wife and mother of his children and leader of his pack.

      A stupid little girl with no idea that what she did was wrong, how can you hate her? Hate her parents and those around her for not teaching her.

      • This. That’s how I read Lorelai. A spoiled child who reads fantasy books and then tries to re-create her favorite parts in the real world with an actual expectation of success.

        (that’s what she was doing when she ‘challenged’ Kate)

    • Same here. Lorelei and then Ted. Had a debate with myself between the two. And the thing is, just about everyone has met some variation of either.

  6. Tedā€™s the worst of all humanity. While the others present clear and present danger, Teddy Boy represents all thing wrong with humans in general, and the kicker is, heā€™s usually never alone in his unglued thinking. Facing one giant monster vs a hive mind of bigots that sometimes wait to show their true colors is absolutely evil, and makes the betrayal much worse. I vote Ted.

    • You know what I love that I can hear my thoughts echoed without even having to explain myself. BDH is the best.

      Ted is a fanatic and the worst kind.

      Btw, 100 percent House Andrews will use this against us right?

    • Yeah me too I vote for Ted and I don’t seem to be the only one.
      He’s unredeemable, and I agree with all above comments.

      Despicable for tons of reasons, especially his petty and enormously stupid decision at the end.

      As Einstein said: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity.ā€

  8. I eventually made a choice, but as of (10:28 AM ET) my top two contenders were the WORST and the BEST of villains. And this is why I love your books, you write the best villains.

    • I feel you on this! I struggled with several. I appreciate that this query is more about which one personally, deeply rubs you the worst way, rather than ā€œin the field of absolute evil, who ranks worst out there.ā€ I landed on Voron, as his revelation of utter betrayal through Evdokia shattered any shreds of meaning and purpose from her upbringing for Kate, all being loss and horrible guilt and despair. But I also agree with the BDH member who brought up Kalena (? Kateā€™s mom) falling for the megalomaniac shiny star of Roland.

      • Also, considering the poisonous worm of Ted Moynihan, I appreciated House Andrews for shining a magnifying glass on his shriveled character through the recorded notes between the Order Knights at the end of Julieā€™s book.

        • Though that raises an interesting question, who is worse, Ted or his idiot superiors who made him head of the office after Greg died? Ted is an evil person but what is that they about those who enable evil, who is more guilty?

  9. omg Ted Moynohan! i cheered when hugh healed him to torture him again, he deserved it for andrea, the lighthouse people, the pack safe house scene etc..

    • just want to add, the way kate killed hibla really cooled my loathing for her, it was epic !

  10. Iā€™d vote Jim – a friendā€™s betrayal is the worst – but his name isnā€™t in the actual poll.

    • Your eyes must have skipped over it, Angel, it was there. But I definitely agree with you. I haven’t liked Jim since the first time he deserted Kate, and nothing he did since has redeemed him. Most of his actions have only put him deeper in the hole. I could give a list but BDH knows what they are.

      • Angel was right, I forgot the Jim option in the actual poll at first šŸ™‚

        • Dear Moderator R,

          First my comment disappears with no real explanation, now you jump on me before I finish apologizing to Angel (see comment below). I’m done, it’s back to lurker status for me.

          • Hey MagicTrix,

            I’m sorry if I upset you, that was not my intention.
            Please check your emails, I sent you an explanation as to why your comment is gone 8 hours ago. It came from modr@ilona-andrews.com.
            My intention was not to jump on you, just to acknowledge that it was indeed my fault, Jim’s option didn’t appear in the poll and Angel helped me fix it. If you look above your comment you will see me thanking them for mentioning it :).

      • I liked him fine when he skipped out on the fire gecko, but when he was sitting in their kitchen after they left the Pack… probably not worth killing him over, but I wouldā€™ve definitely cut off something that would take time growing back.

    • Jim is the I find hard to forgive, I don’t expect any better from anyone else as they are the villians but Jim is a close friend and I find his suspicion and betrayal unforgiving.

      • Jim is a long-time coworker or associate, but not a close friend. They had a working relationship, which is not the same thing as friendship. That’s why I didn’t pick Jim. He had made it clear from the beginning that the Pack and shapeshifters came a long way first to him, and Kate knew it.

        • That was my take on Jim as well, that’s why I picked Voron. The child should be protected and loved, but he made her into a weapon. What kind of father is telling his little girl to grab a knife and go kill the wild dogs, but leave a doll and pretty dress behind? This is the worst betrayal because she grew up thinking it was done out of love! He is the worst!

          • This is gr8 but this is also why I loved the books the plot. If Voron wasnt who he was and what Kates Mom made him Kate should’ve just been mercifully killed as a babe. Because he made her into who she needed to be and inspite of him she is a caring and loyal and generous even to her detriment sometimes. So I didnt pick him.

  11. Lorelei? Really? Honestly I never took her that serious as a bad guy. Sheā€™s a wanna be, as far as bad guys go.

    A mean girl who doesnā€™t get that high school is over, you know.

    • I so agree and I even pitied her a bit for her sheer insignificance. Also, sheā€™s the kind of person who could never actually hurt a person like Kate in any way without Curran engineering the situation to allow it. Kate is too confident in the person she is and in her own competence to be threatened by a child like Lorelei, except that Curran made Kate think that she was being replaced in his affections. Sure Lorelei isnā€™t a good person (sheā€™s willing to collude to have someone killed to secure her position and I imagine we will learn she has done other cruel things for her own ends), but ultimately she was used by everyone around her into playing a game she was never going to win and that could only put her in the position to be killed. Her kind of selfishness and cruelty could never match the evil of some of the other villains listed.

      • I agree. We love to hate on her because she’s the other woman but in the end I feel like Curran was more to blame because he humiliated Kate after constantly insisting how important maintaining the status quo is. Lorelei was pathetic, but not really deserving of hate.

        I think Ted was the worst because he was convinced he was the good guy and that his prejudice was justified.

  12. It’s hard to qualify who’s the “worst” villain – do I go for who I hate most? Who I think is the most dangerous/hard to vanquish? The one who I think is the most devoid of any ethics or morality? The one who would frighten me the most if I had to go up against them? The one who I found the most plausibly reminiscent of what scares me the most in real-life today? (i.e. rampant, self-satisfied prejudice)

    Ultimately, I went with the one I had the strongest urge to slap: Lorelei (although Ted was a very, very, close second).

    • THIS!

      We need to agree on what we mean by ā€œworstā€ first. I hate Lorelei bc she kinda ruined the book for me. As a villain, she wasnā€™t that effective.

    • I went with the one I have no discomfort truly hating. Hate is a strong word. You don’t want any empathetic impulses getting in the way. Neig.

  15. Ted seems like the leader of a cult and a dumb leader at that
    The immortal words of Angevin have given me many a giggle. ????
    He describes it so well, itā€™s hard not to picture it.

  16. Mace across the midriff for Ted, what a narrow minded righteous person, uh Hibla was next, RIP Aunt B.

  17. Didn’t even have to think hard – I know WAY too many people like Ted who wiggle their way to power and let their prejudices ruin lives.

    • He is still at the top of my list. Even though he has magically transformed into a tragic figger, one of top five KD scenes to be written is Curran gutting him with his claws.
      As far as Ted goes, the poll is worst villain, not biggest horseā€™s a**, so he doesnā€™t even register with me.

  18. Voron is a very interesting choice, but I ultimately donā€™t know enough about him. How much did Kateā€™s mother fry him? Did he have any genuine feelings for Kate or Hugh? In many ways, heā€™s worse if he did care for them. Yet, Voron was also Rolandā€™s weapon, so isnā€™t a vote for Voron a soft vote for Roland?

    I had to go with Ted. The villain who always rings true is the one who highlights manā€™s inhumanity to man. The fact he does his wickedness in the name of humanity and an extra delicious layer of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy frosting, if you will. Ted is a a racist cake with inhuman filling and hypocrisy frosting. It looks like chocolate, but it is not. It is sh*t. Heā€™s a fancy pile of sh*t. Good villain.

    • Well dang, I was going to give my take on Ted but I don’t think I could have said it more eloquently or succinctly that you have. Careful, the authors may ask to use that description on the back cover.

    • ā€œTed is a a racist cake with inhuman filling…ā€

      But heā€™s NOT inhuman. He is all the worst, nastiest, horrible bits of humanity, but he IS human. Which is probably why I hate him so viscerally. He exemplifies the quote from Maya Angelou: ā€œWe are all human; therefore, nothing human can be alien to me.ā€ Ted is not alien to me. Ted is loathsome, but I understand who he is.

    • Good call on the vote for Voron being a soft Roland vote. I still chose him. Iā€™m assuming Roland must have purged him like he did Hugh, from a distance? But maybe Kalinaā€™s frying seared some of his empathetic feelings of guilt and remorse for his bad actions? But I notice Hugh rallying for his loyal people, creating something good, while Voron systematically tried to fry Kateā€™s sense of right/wrong and empathy on separation from Roland.

      But I absolutely hear you and agree on your thoughts about Ted.

  19. Ted. Thereā€™s nothing worse than a man who canā€™t reconcile his perspective with reality and/or compromise.

  20. I hate Hugh so much that I have only read his book once. (I’ve read all the others… many many times.)

    • Me, too, DameB. The books to follow with Hugh’s story will most likely be skipped by me. His ability to heal should have made him a superhero, but he was bitter about Roland loving Kate, despite her hating Roland and being taught to hate him so strongly, and he took it out on a lot of people. So many things he did made me want to just crush him and skip over what he did when I read the books a second, third, and fourth time! He took his resentment out on everyone, and when Roland threw him out, I applauded. Let him age and die of old age or die in a war he causes, I say! I have absolutely no further interest in how his life goes.

  22. I love Hugh and his story! Canā€™t wait to see the next book in his Iron Covenant storyline.

  23. I was going to vote to Ted hands down until I saw Voron was on the list, as a child therapist I had to vote for him.

  24. There’s something about Ted’s particular brand of bigotry, suspicion and vindictiveness that feels painfully true to life. He hurts so many people in terrible ways with his prejudicial madness. Forget ancient dragons, wizards and warlords, the Knight Protector definitely takes the cake.

    • I agree. His type of evil is dangerous because it’s so insidious. A fellow human, in a position of power, with a duty to protect. But he uses his position to foster hatred, bigotry, and to actively cause death. An evil without a monstrous face. I hate him.

  25. It would have been Hugh before you redeemed him. Kudos on redeeming the irredeemable. You made him human, showed his pain and his lack of choice in actions he has to now live with.

    That taken care of, Ted Moynohan is the evil that destroys humanity. The hubris, hate, and need to be important that rips nations apart.

  26. Voted for Ted as he is my actual worst, but Jim, ah Jim. His stuff comes in second. Which is a surprise to me. As I am also fond of Jim, and love Dali.

    • Jim is a tough one, I struggle to think of him as a villain because his flaws seem so very human. He is only really a villain from the perspective of Kate and Curran, and only in certain instances. It hurts because he is supposed to be a friend of their’s. Jim is an ambiguous villain for sure, the kind of villain any good friend could become if they let their fears and paranoia rule them.

      • I see Jim as more of a proto-villain. He’s not there yet, but given more time, more paranoia and the absence of Dali’s influence, he could be just as bad or worse than Ted. He has already shown that he will sacrifice friendship, honor and principle in favor of his own interests and what he considers the “greater good”. A little warping of that sense of “greater good” and you wind up with Ted or, going further and with more power, Roland.

        • That is such a great point and one I hadnā€™t really considered! Youā€™re so right that he is just another flavor of Ted, but that Dali may well help him realize that he should have some boundaries of friendship and loyalty to stop him from crossing too many lines. He has more redeeming qualities than Ted, but heā€™s also younger and has had less time to truly play out his agenda to the end. Of course I like him better because he is Curranā€™s friend and Daliā€™s mate, but he hasnā€™t done much on his own behalf in recent books to give me reason to like him independently.

        • +1!! Curious whether he sought any sort of sincere reconciliation with the Lennarts by the time of Julieā€™s book…

    • Jim isnt a villain in my mind, but he’s not a good friend. His loyalty is to Dali and the pack in general, which is noble. Unfortunately, he’ll abandon his friends if they get in the way of that.

    • Hugh is actually now one of my favorites. So much of his inner dialogue rings true as someone with a mental illness, and he’s an incredibly charming likeable bastage.

  27. J’ai votĆ© pour Jim car il n’y a pas pire que d’ĆŖtre trahi par un ami. Mais Ted est un trou du cul ^^ Pour les autres, certains on fait rĆ©demption, d’autres ont Ć©tĆ© manipulĆ©s par des mĆ©chants donc j’Ć©prouve davantage la pitiĆ© que la colĆØre envers eux.

  28. I hated those alien guys that kidnapped Derek in book 3, but I can’t remember what to call them.

    Also, who released the Wendigo(sp?), because that villain is evil too!! Was it Hugh? because when he tortured Ascanio I thought I could never, ever forgive or like him as a character.

    • Iā€™m with you there. They had no redeeming qualities at all and hated humans and shifters equally. I wish theyā€™d been on the list for what they did to Derek.

  29. Ted Moynahan just because of his old white gammon mentality.
    Neigh and Roland remind me of Anne Rice’s Akasha (Queen of the Damned), quasi eternal, super powerful but just not adjusting to modern times. But Neigh is also way crazier than Roland

  30. I’m going to have to really think about this one… There are so many levels of salt and each character on the list is a different flavor.

    • +1 Even though I voted for him, I’m surprised that he’s #1 by such a large margin (at the time of this comment, it could change).

    • I think it’s because he’s the closest to real. Roland or others couldn’t exist in our world but there’s enough Teds around. Ugh.

  32. Iā€™m going with Jezebel. A knife in the heart from a trusted friend hurts worse than anything else. Relatively speaking.

  33. I went to Lorelei mainly because I couldnā€™t think of a single redeeming quality she possessed. (I may need a reread to see if I missed something.)

  35. I wanna vote for that group (Lighthouse Keepers, I think they’re called) that invented the device that was designed to mass-exterminate anyone with any magical abilities (book 5?).

    Roland is awful, but the authors did a good job of drawing him as a nuanced character. He’s not all bad (as long as he can be contained). He’s a good example of “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” but he loves Kate and his grandkids.

    Moynohan is a biggot like the Lighthouse Keepers, but on a smaller scale.

    Hibla’s death was the most satisfying in the whole book. I loved seeing her being LITERALLY sliced to pieces. But I can’t rank her the worst villain.

    Hugh…no. Abused and working hard at redemption.

    Voron…warped and brain-fried.

    Lorelei? No. Girl needs to be slapped, but the worst villain in the whole series? No.

    Neig. Would probably have been my vote if he’d had more of a presence throughout the whole series.

    Jim… No.

    But those awful, bigoted, murderous, zealous Lighthouse Keepers? Yep. They get my vote.

    • I totally and completely agree, and actually grouped Ted with the Lighthouse Keepers in my mind because he let his subordinate help them. They give me the shivers because I think we live among people just like them.

      I also agree that Hiblaā€™s death was the most satisfying in the whole series!

  36. Voron was so complicated and distant that I hardly felt anything against him… I found Roland a product of immortality that simply needed to be killed. Jim didnt really do anything evil šŸ˜€ Hibla and Neig… yeees they were deffinetly evil but kind of straitforvard evil. Just enought to be happy when destroied, not enough to develope hate towords them. Ted! Ted was like Jofferey from GoT, like Gaston from B&B like… perfekt villan! Egocentrick, discousting, rapt in laws and rules just enought to be untouchable.. BUT OH LORELEY YOU LITTLE SNEKY B*&%!!! XD I’m not sure if it is not for how her plot pushed Kate and Curran’s relationship forvard… but deeeeem how I loved to hate her!

  37. I voted for Ted because the things he can cause are able to harm many innocents. And the important factor is he works in organization that should actually be in the good side, so opposing him or asking him to be responsible for bad things he caused is very tricky and gives me a lot of angsts.

  38. Jim walks that fine line between asshole and villain, which… is pretty standard for a cat. I do submit (paper-thin, tongue-in-cheek) outrage that Jennifer didn’t make the list alongside Lorelei. Both are the contemptable sort.

    • While I wonā€™t argue for a second against cats being, deep down at their core, horrible assholes, I wouldnā€™t ever call them villains.

      Note: This is me.

      • Don’t worry, we know you can’t say otherwise because they already have you surrounded.

        I can only say something because mine left the room. šŸ™‚

      • I love kitties… even when they are being assholes. My fifi is an asshole but she is still my little fifi munchkin love.

      • I don’t know, aren’t villains usually people who think they should run the world and that others should serve their every whim? Kinda sounds like cats…….. ????????

  39. Probably because I viscerally identify with Kate, definitely Voron. To have him as a father figure who lied to her for his own purposes, making her a weapon for his own devices . . . don’t get me started. There’s endemic evil, there’s stupid evil, and then there’s purposeful, aware evil. The last’s the worst, in my opinion.

    • +1

      I voted Voron because, yeah, Daddy issues.

      He did what he did to her because she wasn’t his daughter. Any guy who’d take Hugh as a kid and turn him into a mini-me, then repeat it even harder with an infant is definite evil villain material. He was my choice because he hit Kate the hardest, without any recourse or chance to know his mind. How do you confront your father figure after he’s bones? You don’t. It hit her like a cement truck of loss, pain, and shock. Kate was hurt more by Voron than I think any other character. Roland didn’t have a chance at her until she was an adult. Voron raised Kate to be an attack dog. Hell, he even treated her like one. That said, how Kate dealt with that betrayal of trust is one of the healthiest I’ve read.

      The runner up for me was mentioned by someone else and that was the Lighthouse Keepers, which for me included Ted. Ted is a banal kind of evil that is convinced he’s a beacon of virtue. He’s the human version of Yosemite Sam, minus the magnificent whiskers.

  41. Well, Mod R, thanks for the thought provoking villain vote. For me it was between Ted M or Lorelei. I went with Lorelei as I thought she planned and consciously choose her actions. Ted M was a person with a loose screw, okay a few loose screws, that was allowed into a position of power without proper reining in oversight. At least thatā€™s how I saw what Ilona Andrews wrote.

  42. While I agree with everyone’s comments on Ted and Lorelei, it has to be Voron for me. He took advantage of a child’s trust and basically tortured Kate with his training. In the real world, such a kid would be horribly damaged and would not have the benefit of House Andrews to give them a HEA. There is a special place in Hell for people who would treat a child like that.

  43. I had to pick Ted Moynohan because his hatred was the cause of his entire existence. I honestly wanted to pick Voron but with Ted’s name in the hat it had to be him. I feel that Voron’s actions would put him top of my list otherwise. I did not like the way he was used but even more what he did to Kate in response of it. He could have taken the high road and been a better person taking care of her as was expected.

  44. Oooooooooh, it was a close one between Loreli and Ted, Ted won. Ignorance, selfishness and ego will do it for me! Leave Hugh alone!

  45. ### Niegh?

    Neigh confused me. I think autocowreck is to blame here. My copy shows Neig

    ### Ted Moynohan

    Has to be my pick. That a$$hat has to be right.

    Moynohan is told repeatedly by superiors, noble people, empirical evidence and impartial third parties that his obsession is destroying his world. Dragging it down as Moynohan repeatedly doubles down again and again.

    But Moynohan will be right, if he has to burn down the whole world to prove it.

  46. I thought I would be mostly alone with Ted! I hate above all things self-righteous bigots who think that they have the right to do whatever they want to the target of their bigotry. His character probably hit home hardest given todayā€™s political environment, but he and the Lighthouse Keepers continue to disturb me the most out of all KD because they felt so real and like a representation of some of the worst aspects of people today. I miss B so much and loved the scene where Kate was able to eviscerate her, but Hibla was a soldier doing what she was ordered so I canā€™t hate her as much as Ted.

    • YES!!! I picked him because you don’t get to call yourself a defender but pick and choose who to defend LMAO. I detest bigots so he went to the top of my list.

      • So true! Itā€™s definitely worst from people who view themselves as the protectors of those weaker than themselves, though I canā€™t stand it in anyone.

  47. I voted for Ted. You expect the others big, bad guys to be evil but Ted with his position is supposed to be on the “good” side. He is a duplicitous, hypocritical sociopath in my non-expert opinion. šŸ™‚

    Jim I don’t see as evil – as the description says he does everything for the Pack. It is part of his nature. You can expect that if it comes down to the Pack or an individual he will choose the Pack. It makes for a good leader but a bad friend. A bad friend is not what I would call evil.

  49. BAHAHAHAHA, “Kindles being dropped in outrage” – that is awesome.

    I went for Moynohan – I detest people like that – bigots. Even if Voron was a bigger douche, Moynohan is the worse offender. You don’t get to call yourself a defender and pick and choose who to defend. Also, I am so surprised Nick isn’t here or even Kate’s mother.

  50. OMG, this was fun! Each entry I read, I was like, “yeah, I hate him/her”, and then after the next entry I thought, “they’re right! That was a rotten thing to do! Now I hate him/her more!” You guys are awesome writers with “go for the jugular” villains – I was talking out loud by the end of the list (not good with a house full of work & study from home peeps)! Finally voted, and I’m not far from the majority.

    THANK YOU for these fun diversions. šŸ™‚

  52. I was really in doubt about Ted and Lorelai. Ended up going with the the biaaaaaatch though in many ways Ted is, objectively, worse. But his evil is based on prejudice and stupidity – but at least he’s honest about it. In reality all of them are worse than Lorelai, but I think all of us have met someone like her, and just like with Umbridge (of HP fame) the evil we meet on a day to day basis, who smile and make nice to our faces and then proceed to stick a knife in our backs, is in many ways worse than the great evil.

    • I’m with you on choosing Lorelai, she is the epitome of the woman I hate having to deal with in real life. While most of her power as a villain came from the fact that Curran enabled her, she was still petty and awful. I have, sadly, met way too many versions of her in real life.

  54. Jim got a surprising amount of consideration from me, considering I actually like Jim, but in the end I guess I can forgive disloyalty when it is driven by an attempt at protecting others.

    But Ted got his own people slaughtered for nothing but negligent hubris and idiotic prejudice. It’s one thing to take your people into battle, even a hopeless battle, for the right reasons. But selfishness is never the right reason; that’s one heck of a betrayal of loyalties, honor, and trust.

    Voron would probably be more of a contender for me if he’d been actually around during the story’s “present.” He’s more of a “you can’t change the past” backstory actor than an actual character in my mind.

  55. Def Lorelei! The rest were terrible in their own way, but you could fight them. Certainly, some were harder to do, especially if they were emotionally manipulative, but it was still possible. There is no real way to fight against her.
    The rest were bad and unapologetic about it. Lorelie pretended to be good. She pretends to be a victim, and acts like a helpless, hapless, twit. She makes you look like a petty bully if you try to deal with her. It’s impossible to call her out without looking over sensitive and hyper jealous.

    • To be clear the rest were bad guys I appreciated seeing and, at the same time hating. However, with Lorelie I don’t love to hate her. I just hate her. She is part of the reason I often skip Magic Rises when rereading KD.

  56. I went for Roland simply because I think he is still a threat. What surprised me was seeing Jim in the list. I had never thought about his actions that way. So interesting.

    • I liked Roland, in his own way he was trying to help people. He just thought he knew better. Which is clearly problematic :).

      I get your view though.

    • I voted for Roland for the same reason.

      Ted came a very close second.

      Jim got what was coming to him when Curran retired. Jim moaned and groaned about being Beast Lord, but Curran reminded him that Jim would make a better Beast Lord than him. Yes he betrayed his friends, but he got the Beast Lord stick which, I think, is worse since he has to deal with the Pack Council.

      As for the rest of the list, yeah they’re bad, but not as bad as the three above. šŸ™‚

  57. Yes! I voted for Ted not thinking that anyone would consider him the absolute worst. He is the absolute worst. Just a garbage person. Bigoted, manipulative, rude, arrogant with a casual disregard for other. Being a decent person isnā€™t even on his radar as long as he pushes his agenda.

    Typical entitled patriarchal archetype that we see in politics today.

    Love this post.

  58. Im sticking with Roland. Ted was crazy but Uncle Stupid head isnt far behind honestly.
    Lorelai is just dumb, Hebla was a pawn poor things.

  59. Not surprised by the results here. Ted was the absolute worst. He was racist (speciesist?) towards shapeshifters. He lied about Kate and ruined her reputation, and he caused the deaths of his entire team for his insane crusade. I was so glad when he finally died. Lorelei was my next choice just for the lack of self-realization, although it did lead to one of my favourite scenes in the book when Curran and Kate reconciled.

    • I saw Ted’s death coming and hated every second of it. It was such a waste and so accurate to human behavior. The Order is one of those things that I wish could be better than it is.

    • I have to say, that Lorelei carried around David Eddingsā€™ Diamond Throne was a point in her favor for me. Or was it The Sapphire Rose, or an Elenium Omnibus? Wholeheartedly believing the world works that way? Not so much.

  60. I was always genuinely terrified when Hugh showed up in KD bc my brain always went omgnononosomeoneisgonnadienononono but you have successfully made me love him with one book. Jennifer I loved to hate but I still felt bad about it bc she went through a lot but she was still horrible. Ted was always an asshole so itā€™s Ted for me

  62. This is so hard to choose!! I’m torn between Roland, Hilba, Ted and maybe Jim. But I think I really have to go with Roland.

    • I changed my mind – Definitely Ted. Ted is someone who currently exists in our society today. So he is the worst. Thankfully Roland does not!

  63. I voted Ted because out of all the people on the list he made his choices step by step. Humanity sucks so hard when fear dictates everything.

    Voron came in a close second. He’s a monster who tried to make a monster out of a child. I dunno his past but that’s what it looked like to me.

    Jim came in as third because betrayal sucks. I give him something of a pass because Jim never hid his priorities. I think if Jim hadn’t been part of the pack and subsumed himself a little to its needs he might have been a better person. Hopefully retirement and his kids help.

  64. It’s a no-brainer for me : HUGH !!!
    I believe book 6 remains my favorite to this day because of him ><

  65. I voted for Hibla, but Iā€™ll love to share my preferences:
    1. Hibla
    2. Ted
    3. Lorelei
    Dislike not hate: 1. Roland, 2. Voron, 3.Hugh, 4. Jim, 5.Neig

  66. Jim
    I think the worst is a friend. The deepest cut. Strangers coming in as a Horror is @ least an honest evil.
    I cant imagine how his relationship w D survives this charactor flaw.

  67. I went with Jim. Jim makes bad choices, he has no reason to betray his friends. He knows what is wrong with him but chooses not to do anything about it. Voron was a very close second. Exploitation of children…yuk

  69. Ted is the worst villain because he’s human. His mindset, sadly, is too much with us in the mundane world

  70. Out of the list, totally Ted, because his small mindedness and sanctimonious self righteousness damaged so many people and he couldn’t see anything else. At least the big villain’s like Roland, Hugh and Neig were complicated by their humanity or at least their very natures. Ted was consumed by his fanaticism.

    Same with the Light house keepers, which wasn’t an option. Brain washing damaged teenagers and then having them betray all that they had built in their lives for the the fanaticism. I think it just goes to show, fanatics are the worse.

    • Ooo if the Lighthouse Keepers had been on the list, I’d have had a hard time picking between them and Ted.

  71. Between Ted Moynohan and Lorelei, mon coeur balance; I picked Ted, though. I feel like I would feel better if I could just headbutt Lorelei.

    Moynohan is the kind with the superpower to makes me loose my cool in about 0.5 second.

    • Myself, I can’t pick Bono from the first book, though his treatment of his children was horrendous, simply because he was what he was meant to be. A horror trying to pass on his genes. Same reason Neig isn’t the worst for me, how could a dragon be held to human morality and the babies he turned into the yeddimur, were children that were sacrificed to him by humans. It feels a little like being pissed at a wolf for eating a deer, but all us farmers agree, when they go after your sheep or cattle, they gotta go. Doesn’t make them villians, just something acting to their . . .species (? maybe that is the right term, nature might be better).

  73. These descriptions were so awesome, I have a huge smile on my face and I actually laughed out loud more than once.

    Thanks for that, now I am off to re-read the series. . . After I finish Emerald Blaze, thanks to the fabulous snippet the other day.

    Has there ever been another author with such a large collection of books that can withstand SO MANY re-reads?

    Got me through a year of sleepless nights breastfeeding & then the pandemic.

    Thank you for sharing your talents!

    • I reread White Hot so many times I had to ask my husband to hide my Kindle for a few days. I reread KD every couple of months*. I absolutely agree with you that ALL the Ilona Andrewsā€™ books are rereadable as… as… Dragonsinger, which I can recite from my teen years.
      ____
      *but it also helps to be a very fast reader and also mostly unemployed.

      • Rereading right now. Hidden Legacy -> Innkeeper -> KD. Every time something goes up on the blog it sends me to the worlds. I want to live in the House Baylor gatehouse.

  75. Well that was fun.

    I see Roland, Ted, and Jim as people who all made an analysis of their world and made a thoughtful decision on what was necessary to make their world better. The differences among those three are in their individual power and the scope of the effects of their acts. Roland needed to have order, Ted needed to protect humanity, and Jim needed to protect the Pack.

    Now before House Andrews redeemed Hugh, incredible triumph BTW, and before we saw Hugh’s lack of agency, now *there* was a bad guy.

  76. The villain that came to my mind was magic bites. The fake necromancer that took Kate’s guardian.

  77. I voted Ted, no question about it (maybe also because when he finally met his end it wasn’t nearly painful enough ;))
    I did consider voting for Jim, but ultimately I decided that I can’t really call him a ‘villain’ (what I consider to be one). For me he’s an unreliable, distrustful “friend” type of person that you can’t fully trust to always have your back, not really; someone who’s on your side as long as your side matches/is advantageous to >his< side. But not a 'villain'.

  78. its a difficult decision between Ted and Voron and i went for Voron because Ted already has a lot of votes. but the real baddy is toxic masculinity, right? šŸ˜›

  79. Jim is not a villain. Jim is a single-minded asshole who can occasionally be brought to see that he was wrong. I don’t particularly like Jim, but he’s not a villain.

    Hugh is an unapologetic asshole who, even under Roland, sometimes did the right thing. I can just hear Elara, several years and maybe a couple of kids down the road, referring to him as “my occasionally not so beloved”.

    The villains are the ones who never think they’re wrong. Who don’t even consider the possibility that they could be.

    • “my occasionally not so beloved”, thank you for that, that is priceless. And yes, I can just hear Elara saying it.

  80. Neig was a dragon, at heart, doing what dragons do- eating, acquiring and hoarding…

    Lorelie was raised to be a shapeshifter princess, and desperately wanted to be a princess, so she tried her best to take the only shapeshifter that could give her that status for real. She was just too self-absorbed to realize she was being used by Curran.

    Hugh has decades of penance as a husband to perform. I don’t think Elara will go easy on him.

    Voron was what Roland was trying to shape Hugh into. Voron had no conscience, no love in him, though he could show loyalty. He was a master manipulator- a psychopath. Who got brain fried into devotion/obsession to Kate’s mom. She obviously knew what type of person he was, at least partially, and she was right in thinking that whoever Voron stood in front of would be safe, but still not a caretaker at heart.

    Roland is the epitome of absolute power corrupting absolutely…

    Jim is that Scorpio, you know the one, the one that obsesses over the object of his sexual desire. He really only wants to be close to the object of his desire, to have her, take care of her, to provide her with happiness. Nothing is as important to him as Dali (even kids would not be as important.) Friends are okay as long as they don’t pose any impediment to his ability to keep Dali healthy, happy, and happy with him.

    Ted… people are promoted to their level of incompetence and Ted is a prime example. Bigot. Know-it-all (not). Small minded. Petty. He has my vote.

  81. I picked Neig. I know he what he is but it’s that lack of empathy and excess of hubris (word of the day) that makes me want to erase his existence from the multiverse. The unlimited power and absence of a sense of responsibility makes him the worst for me.

  83. I voted for Ted because he was just pure evil but the people who really broke Kate’s heart were Jim and voron because she trusted them.
    In a way she new others were her enemy but she never thought about them in that way. So they were the worst

  84. I vote for that genie as worst villain. He promised everybody their wish and twisted it all up. How dare he betray our Disney dreams.

  85. Ted! He is the proverbial incompetent boss (in addition to all the other things already mentioned).

  86. I went Ted. He is not the biggest threat, but he is a common one, especially with an organization like the Order. Incompetent and apathetic to suffering of people who he doesn’t consider the right amount of human. Skewing laws and rules to protect his own agenda.
    He is a prime example of a man who should not have power of any kind, yet even worse is the fact that is not the only one. Plenty of bullies join organization with and axe to grind over their own mediocrity and a lust for power. People who only accept and uphold rules that keep them in power and pretend otherwise, when they don’t. I hate him cause he signals corrupt and abusive systems.

  87. Ted, no question of these for me. The rest have all possible redeeming qualities or soā€¦
    But that being said, Iā€™m terrified that this may give ideas of a second April Fools spin-off and my heart is not yet ready for something like that again.

  88. I was wondering what happened to Red. He broke Julieā€™s heart and Iā€™ve always thought of him as a super villain in the makingā€¦.

    • I had vague dread/glee that House Andrews would take all the “Julie’s first love” chanting and bring him back as a love interest.

  90. Ted. He is reminiscent of every bloviating, bigoted, racist, unwoke jerk that is part and parcel of current events in this country.

    You did an excellent job building this character as someone to loathe.

  91. I vote bunnycat. These are the animals truly running this mad world. Their warped bodies are proof of that!

    (snurk) šŸ™‚

    • I was too afraid to add them. You never know who is listening, and they have too much power.

      šŸ˜‰

      • *sings* ???? what do they need such good eyesight for anywaaaay? Bunnies, bunnies, it must be BUNNIES ????

  92. Voron- hands down. He was trusted to protect Kate and instead set her on a path of peril.

  93. I voted for Ted. There are, imo, extenuating circumstances for everyone else (Neig is a monster, what else can he do) so Ted just being a super jerk is inexcusable.

  94. I had a hard time choosing. I eventually chose Jim. Not so much for how he treated Kate. I always felt he was pretty upfront about where he stood with Kate. For me, it was him abandoning Curran. Writing off his best friend like that was a deep betrayal of trust.

    I almost picked Hibla just because Aunt B.’s death hit me particularly hard and I was very angry at that imaginary character for a while.

  95. It took me years of rereads to appreciate book 6, but it still my least favorite bc of Lorelei.

    Itā€™s funny – Iā€™ll begrudgingly reread it, and then remember all the stuff I love – the duel w Hugh! We meet Christopher! The Shepherd!!! – but if you woke me in the middle of the night and whispered, ā€œBook 6ā€ I would reply, ā€œUgh. Lorelei.ā€

  96. Hah! I was really torn between Moynohan and Jim. I finally went with Jim, but gawd I understand Moynohan.

    And for the same reasons. These are supposed to be good guys. Iā€™m genuinely not sure if Jim even thinks about being a good guy or a bad guy, but Moynohan sure does. The only thing worse than a self-righteous, bigoted, stupid asshole in charge is someone who has been your friend for a decade turning out to not give two shits about you. To the point that you donā€™t know if heā€™ll stab you in the back.

    • That’s actually a good point. Jim probably doesn’t care about being the good guy.

      Although I understand why Ted’s winning. We’ve met him.

    • This is why Jim has my vote. You think heā€™s your friend, psych! Heā€™d just as soon stab you in the back. You expect it from your enemies, not your friends.

    • +1
      Ted and Jim are the worst, for all the above stated reasons. But I think above all because they are the worst threats to real life us, in our real lives (so the most relateable and looming threat in our mundane, un-magic world).

      We all see the resultat of our world’s Ted’s on our everyday life and the life of everyone on the planet (and the planet itself). And I think we all have been let down and betrayed by someone we cared about, so we all know a Jim…

  97. NONE!!! I can happily say not a single one of them bothers me at all, anymore. What a great place to be where you have healed triggers and have no emotional reaction to a superbly written super villain. Of course it could be that they are so well written for purpose in Kate’s story that they become a necessary evil or a gift for Kate’s growth.

    But I do miss Kate, with a passion. I have reread this series more than any other and I feel like I have lost contact with a best friend.

    I was watching the Friends reunion and the writers respond to questions of an update episode, to catch up and they said that they would never unravel the happily ever after they wrote for each character just to bring a new story to the table and I thought about Kate. I felt that for real. But it would be nice to know how she felt when Julie left or when Derrick left or how she is doing as a mother watching Conlan become, feeling her marriage evolve and her friendships and business change as she changes. I spent so many years in her head that I miss her thought processes.

    Like a diary, POV for Kate. Any chance?

  98. I had trouble with this one. I’d like to tear Lorelei to pieces, but Jim hurt Kate and Curran in a very personal way and that feels harder….

    Really though, it’s Ted. What a prick.

  99. Ooh this was tough. I almost went with Ted but chose Roland. I think I love to hate Ted the most because we havenā€™t seen another side of him to understand his motives. Roland did horrible stuff though, and as charming as he is, he knows better.

  100. Voron
    you don’t abuse and teach hate to children, not just Kate but he also helped to twist Hugh.

  101. I picked Voron because what he did is despicable but I don’t think Kate would be who she is without the way Voron raised her. Arrrgh!!

  102. One of the things I love about House Andrews and the things they share with us is the passionate conversations they generate from us, their fans! Not only do I get to enjoy their books and stories but I also get the bonus of these fun conversations among the BDH!

    Each of these baddies has something to offer but I cast my vote for Ted Moynohan! Not only does he reflect the bigoted\closed mindedness of the world he also perverts what should be the good works of a law enforcement agency, slipping in even MORE damage to the world while supposedly protecting it!

  103. I picked Hibla in the poll not simply because of what she did to Aunt B. But also because of her particular acting ability and her attitude afterward. But Ted was particularly heinous. In one way you knew how unsavory he was because of his attitude toward shifters, but then to disintegrate the order the way he did and to allow humans to die because if his small minded stupidity makes him the worst kind of monster. So if I could change my vote, Ted would win, followed closely by Hibla.

    • I can’t hate Hibla for her deception. The whole trip to Europe was a deception. Hibla was under Hugh’s command. Hugh told her what her part was, and she both met and exceeded expectations.

      Hibla was what I like to call, “corporate evil”. She wasn’t being evil in her own name, but in the name of others.

      The way she took her time killing Aunt B was bad but it still paled in comparison Ted and Voron’s villainy.

      In my mind, Hibla was never really a contender.

  105. Went with Lorelei…reason was simple; the others had strong convictions about their actions; a conclusion they had reached after being in that situation and working in that field for a long time.

    This girl acted out of a misplaced and totally out of reality sense of entitlement: I am so and so, this is my right and I want that (Curran, Kate’s place, rule over the largest shapeshifter pack)

    So yeah….lorelei, for me, is the worst KD villain…..

  106. Wow. That wasnā€™t easy- but I kept going back to Ted…. I guess Iā€™m in good company!

  107. I picked Ted Moynihan because he was a knight and used a noble organization to foment chaos and weaponize his hate. He *could* have been a Rock of Gibraltar against a sea of uncertainty but instead helped to not only besmirch the knights as an organization but kill many on his way out. When you look at the original biblical titles for Satan, Ted ticks a bunch ā€”>The Scatterer, The killer from the beginning, The Accuser. Itā€™s a subtle insidious evil.

  108. Not Moloch?

    I pick Neig because total selfishness and zero empathy paired with immense power is so bad.

    I see that Ted Moynohan is winning and he is the kind of stupid and crazy that causes a lot of unnecessary damage, but every single one of the knights under him had free will and could have walked away. Neig took babies and turned them into monsters.

    • Neig reminds me of a quote I picked up somewhere long ago, “I’m not worried about all Hell breaking loose, but that I small part of it should… it would be much harder to detect.”
      Neig is all Hell breaking loose. He’s evil, but he’s easy to see and everyone outside of his little world – literally – was pretty much on board with “yep, he’s evil, let’s find a way to get rid of that guy!” He’s a monster, and it’s obvious.

      The others are people. Even Roland – he’s bug-nuts, but he’s a person. He thinks he knows what’s best for people and he’s just crazy enough to use violence to enforce it (and haven’t we all known someone with that basic personality?) We all hate Ted or Lorelei or Jim because we know people like that. The person who is so bigoted and hateful that he’ll take his own team down in a blaze with him rather than take a moment to re-evaluate. The childishly self-centered one causing chaos because the world refuses to conform to their idea of what the world should be. And the “friend” who, when $h!t hits the fan, doesn’t actually have your back. They are people who you let into your life or who wind up there anyway because circumstances dictate it, and then they smash around destroying your faith in humanity bit by bit.

      • +1
        Exactly, smashing you faith in humanity. Which is probably the greatest villany of all, which I think is why so man of us choose the “normal, everyday bad-guys” in think poll…

      • Doesn’t Landon Nez appear in magic breaks (7)?

        “Awesome. I’d terrified the Legatus of the Golden Legion just by showing him my sword. If I waved it around, he’d probably explode.” – chapter 7

  110. Voron was the villain that snuck up on me slowly, book after book. It wasnā€™t until the last few novels that I realized how awful what he did truly was. Having that unfold over time was such a heartbreak to read.

    Or maybe I just have daddy issues. *shrug*

  111. For me Ted is the most realistic as in Iā€™ve had to deal with this type of mentality in the work place.

    The scariest things are the ones that could be true šŸ™‚

  112. It was a 30 second internal debate for me between Lorelei and Ted, but had to go with Ted in the end.

    Ted is the evil we’re all facing nowadays, and when I think about it, I’m still more saltly at Curran for the whole Lorelei thing.

  113. I went for Voron, buuuut….honestly I’d have voted for Molok or Bono (remember, the Upir from Book 1? The mostly unkillable guy)

    • Yes – had that thought too. But he wasn’t in the voting list.
      Fortunately that mad my decision a little easier.

  114. I chose Hugh bc, before the April Fools joke, he was the stereotypical villain. He unleashed the wendigo, he tortured Kate in Mishmar, and tortured Ascanoo. Absolutely vile! You two did a fabulous job redeeming Hugh, who I didnā€™t think could be redeemed. Christopher might have been on the list, but we really didnā€™t see his evil as it happened.

  115. After the miracle of Hugh, I believe IA can redeem pretty much anyone. Except Lorelai. How much do we want to bet she will appear in the Knight Ryder series as an older hateful self possibly preying on Derek. Yuck.

    My vote for Lorelai.

    • OMG! ????????????Those were my thoughts exactly. More ” improved evil” Loreley who tries to get rid of Julie… If that happens, I’ll vote her as the worst vilane then, since she is not just stupid, but also unable to learn from her mistakes. Lol

  116. Lorelei was the worst. Not because she pretended to be something she wasn’t (looking at you, Hibla), but because she constantly positioned herself in a way to inflict maximum emotional pain. I truly hate stupid mindf*ck games and that’s what she was all about.

  117. I voted for Ted. But I really really want a #2 for Hugh. Donā€™t like him in the slightest. IM2 may be the first House Andrews book that I donā€™t plan to buy.

  119. I was going to vote Hugh, but I actually love to love him! Roland is the easy answer for me.

  120. Betrayal is the worst, so any villain who is just out there with “Yes, I AM the villain, MWA HA HA” isn’t going to make the final cut.

    Betrayal of dependents/subordinates is the worst, because it causes more damage, more permanently, and is punching down as well. So, it’s a choice between Voron and Moynohan.

    Of the two, Voron has some slight excuse because his brain is fried (and I can’t see that as having completely zero impact on his choices with regard to Kate, even though the frying had other purposes). Plus, he did in fact provide for her (imagine Kate at two?) and gave her the tools to survive, though in a horrible way. Finally, his betrayal impacted one person.

    Ted’s evil was all self-grown. He betrayed an entire team of people depending on him to their deaths, and for the pettiest and most assholish of personal selfish reasons. Yo, Ted, you’re Villain #1. (and how surprised I was to find I wasn’t the only one to vote for him!)

  121. I was torn between Ted and Jim. I went with Ted because he cloaked evil in the belief that he was doing all for good.

    Jim is a damaged person that spent his time trying to redeem his father’s mistakes. His friends understood that and made allowances

  122. I’m torn between Ted and Jim.

    The way Ted just threw lives away to feed his prejudices made me want to scream. Yet you knew Ted wasn’t going to be anything other than what he was.

    Jim’s breaking of trust with Kate and later with Curran was a slap to the face of all that friendship is meant to be.

  124. I voted Lorelei, but Ted and Voron were both close seconds.

    But seriously, where is Moloch on this list!?!? He’s practically evil incarnate!

    Or Saiman… His amorality is nearly as bad as Ted’s bigoted morality. Look at all the pain Saiman causes just by being himself. If this was a ranked list Saiman would be near the top, just because he’s soooooo selfish.

  125. Ted is kind of like an alternate reality Trump. Fanatic, wrong and too dim to see it (we Brits have those too). I saw the thread title and immediately though Ted.

    Hibla, Lorelai and Hugh. What a book. I was pregnant when reading that one so my emotions were WILD. Lorelai isn’t a villian she’s just a brat who heard no for the first time and had a tantrum. Hibla was the worst and I still cry now about Aunt B. Side note: still not entirely forgiven Curran for his involvement in that mess either – as I said I was very pregnant and hormonal for that one.

    Jim is a dick.

  127. This was a hard decision but I went with Lorelei. For most of the other villains I can understand how they become the people they are. Lorelei, in my opinion, does not have any excuse for being the horrible person that she is.

  128. Wow this was way tougher than I thought it would be. Eventually I just had to go with process of elimination.

    Jim, made bad decisions and has set himself up for worse ones, but never went full out villain to me and is at least self-aware enough to realize he needs an emotional anchor (Dali).

    Lorelei, yup I hated her along with everyone else, but a spoiled brat narcissist just doesnā€™t compare with some other names on this list.

    Neig, I canā€™t really blame a monster of chaos and destruction for being a monster of chaos and destruction. Itā€™s kind of like blaming a wolf for not being vegan.

    Hibla, when karma bites someone so beautifully immediately after their worst villainous act (that we see) itā€™s hard to see them as the worst villain, because the worst villains are the ones that get away with their villainy.

    Hugh, no bones about it, Hugh was a monster. But he was a created monster that was warped from a very early age by a master manipulator which was then further reinforced by a magical geas. When we finally meet the man under the monsterā€¦ okay, yeah, heā€™s still an asshole, but one that does genuinely care about people. Kind of reminds me of Trevor Belmont from Castlevania.

    Voron, a monster like Hugh but with less of an excuse. Ruthless warlord and abusive parent, but did, whether he meant to or not, give Kate the skills and fortitude (mental and physical) that she would need to survive being what she was.

    Ted, I think Tedā€™s getting a lot of votes because we have all had to deal with a Ted. The selfish bigot who doesnā€™t care who he hurts in pursuit of his own interests and ideals. But the active damage he has done doesnā€™t compare to the winnerā€¦

    Roland, I seem to be breaking the mold a bit in choosing Roland, probably because he often shown in a positive light when he interacts with his family (at least, during the times heā€™s not actively trying to kill them). But Roland is the absolute apex of villainy for me. His selfish ā€œI know bestā€ attitude and willingness to utterly destroy anything that stands in the way of his vision for humanity, up to and including the people he loves most, that is the Destroyer of Worlds.

  129. Honestly all of them. I voted jim because you can’t trust the selfish bastard, and I expect betrayal soon even if the main series is done.

  130. Went for Lorelei although her deeds are nothing in the grand scheme of things. And I guess if we’d had a book about her story, maybe things would be different. Or maybe it s just that our own life stories makes it possible for us to identify ourselves to Kate when she was facing the consequences of Lorelei’s actions – just like Ted’s actions seems to hit close to home or what we can actually see at home.

    But please, don’t make her a recurring figure, better to have villains like Hugh, Rolland, or even Ted ! Hehe

    Anyway. Lorelei. Such a bitch.

  131. Kate Daniels is my escape and monsters she fought in books are by all means, fantastical, but Ted Moynohan really got on my nerves and I realized it’s because what she had to deal when dealing with him is the reality we get to see every day: prejudice. And, dear god, some days fighting prejudice feels hopeless.

  132. It was hard to pick someone to vote for because I really do not hate your villain’s. I mean Neig was Neig, he behaved as his nature dictated. Jim, Voron, and Hugh were warriors who performed their duty and made hard decisions, painful ones. I was surprised that Jim broke his friendship with Kate and Curran, it seemed out fo character. Now Lorelei, what a vapid, naĆÆve, little girl. Her world wide was definitely skewed. Self centered much? Not aware of consequences? Or was aware of consequences and didn’t care if people died. Now Ted absolute example of a person who has power, hate, prejudices, and uses his position to f**k with people. He was nasty and he felt totally justified in what he did. But I didn’t hate him. However if someone had killed him on my watch I would definitely not seen it.

  133. I selected Lorelei, she is EVIL! I start getting angry as soon as I see her name in print!!!!!

  134. Voron, for all the reasons listed in other comments. Some people are irredeemable.

    Two that didn’t make the list: Landon Nez and Ghastek. I would rank them ahead of Lorelei. They could be cold-minded and cold-blooded, and quite efficiently, too. She is a spoiled brat, and ultimately, a sad little bitch. (We all know one from high school/college/work….)

  135. I voted for Jim – his lack of loyalty must hurt much more than the others who came at them

  136. Everyone on that list except for Jim stabbed from the front. It’s the backstabbers that deserve real animosity.

  137. Itā€™s Voron for me, all day long. When Kate realizedā€¦.well in case thereā€™s newbies reading, I guess I wonā€™t. Tedā€™s just an ignorant asshole and Lorelei was never a threat, though she made Kate doubt, which I did hate. Hibla would be my second, though Hugh was indirectly responsible there too.

    And Hughā€¦.still has much to atone for. But heā€™s trying and Kate forgave him so I did too. ????????ā€ā™€ļø

  138. Itā€™s absolutely Lorelei, and I will die on this hill.
    She did everything she could to undermine Kate and usurp her position, and she didnā€™t even have the courtesy to be good at it.

    I really want a novella about what happened to her after the castle burned, and I want her outcome to be gloriously awful.

      • Ohh is that a spoiler that Landon Nez is going to be a main villain in the Ryder continuation?? ????

        • I solemnly swear I know nothing about Ryder 2! Even if I wanted to spoiler, I couldn’t :).

          But Nez is pretty much the worst in IC, that’s why I mentioned him šŸ™‚

  141. I had to go with Ted. The guy was so bigoted and horrible for no logical reason. He made me feel stabby in pretty much every scene with him, and his betrayal of his own people at the end puts him at the top of the list for me. I mean, you pretty much expected him to be a horrible person to anyone who wasnā€™t human (in his mind, at least), but his own people? That was a disgusting act. I kinda wish Hugh had tortured him more. He deserved it.

    For me, Jim is up there too, but I feel more hurt and pain over that one. I liked his books with Dali, and those really redeemed him for me. I still want to reach into the book to punch him in the face for hurting Kate and Curran, and ruining what could be an amazing friendship, but he doesnt make me stabby like Ted always did/does. I think partly because we knew the kind of person he was from the beginning. He always put the Pack over everything else, so I never expected more from him. I wanted more, but wasnā€™t at all surprised at his choices.

  143. Nice question…finally went with Voron…mainly cause he was Roland’s enforcer, helped mess up Hugh with Roland, after that mess up Kate and who knows how many other. Don’t get me wrong do think Roland is bad, but more in the I know best so do what I say way. Ted was my runner up, evil bigot, in a position of being good guy…Really don’t like bad intentions wrapped in a good profile. After Hugh’s book, I can’t put him or Jim (he’s a cat) in the truely evil villains list, (lol that can change but really don’t think they are really evil close but not sure list yes)

  144. HUGH!!!

    Every great hero story needs a really evil villain. In KD thatā€™s definitely Hugh. Roland may be Hughā€™s puppeteer, but Hugh decides how to accomplish goals in diabolically bloody ways. Heā€™s smart and his manipulations are more long range game theory than any of the other villains on the list, with the exception of maybe Voron. Heā€™s a Darth Vader type villain because his backstory makes him relatable despite his manipulative and violent characteristics. Openly looking forward to iron and magic 2 šŸ™‚

  145. I would have voted for Jim but couldn’t bring myself to do it because the very first story by House Andrews that I’d ever read (as in ever) was one of the Jim+Dali short stories in an anthology. And I loved that story enough that I went and looked up the KD series and that’s how I ended up reading everything that our authors have published. So for sentimental reasons, I just couldn’t vote for him.

    IMHO, Hugh shouldn’t even be on this list. (Sorry, not sorry.)

    • Yes! That’s how I found KD world and then the rest of IA!! The Jim and Dali short stories!!

      Theory: Jim is the anti-Spock. He would sacrifice one person to save the Pack, but that one person would not be himself….
      “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one” – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

  147. ohhhh this is so exciting, I have so many in mind but some were not on the list….I am loyal to my bones so my vote goes for friends that are not always “Friends”.Jim.
    Kate considers Jim a friend and she is a loyal friend who will drop everything to help you when you are in need, but Jim is a different sort of person all together… loyal first to his pack.

    Here are some other charterers that come to my mind:

    Saimin
    Nick
    Raphael

  148. I voted for Roland, because even though he has plenty of charm to redeem him, he is the reason Hugh, Voron, Hibla and specially Kate became what they were. For someone to kill the wife he supposedly loved as it was expected for him to retaliate when he breaks so many other rules just shows he has no real loyalty, he ditched Hugh so ruthlessly and he wanted a puppet not a daughter. Ted was just a below average intelligence, prejudiced guy with too much power (so many of those around!) Honestly all your characters are amazing, the fact that Roland has instigated so many evil plots and yet we readers still want him to be redeemed (since heā€™s so helpful to his grandchildren) show what a complex person youā€™ve created. Also can I just say how much I love Erraā€™s character development, sheā€™s the aunt we all want!! Oh I just realized you left out one of the most villainous characters…Saimon! Someone whoā€™s willing to do anything for the sake of money with no morals etc, you canā€™t get more villainous then that!

    • Must concur. Roland is so evil!!!

      1. He wakes up in a new world and immediately surrounds himself with people that HE has no loyalty too, though totally expects them to fall on their swords for him through mind control (totally subverts Hugh’s need to heal and steals his empathy)

      2. Exhumes his mother’s bones and plants them in an unfamiliar place to power up his evil lair.

      3. Sterilises all his lovers for HIS convenience – c’mon!!!

      4. Throws his sister away just to control a threat from Curran.

      5. Tries to subvert Julie as soon as he becomes aware of her.

      6. Forces Hugh to extremes to manipulate Kate to come into the fold.

      7. Completely breaks his agreement with Kate and harrasses folk just for living in Atlanta.

      8. After throwing away Hugh and ruining his life tries to get him back to kick Kate’s arse – good to know Roland is afraid of something/someone.

      9. Tries to steal Kate’s SON!!! I mean c’mon!!!

      10. After coming to an agreement with Kate to help with Neig waits to see which way the battle goes before committing his forces.

      11. Double crossing Kate and okay – falls into THAT trap – YEAH!!!

      12. Still trying to subvert Conlan and Julie……STILL…..while desperately trying to find a way out of his prison.

      Don’t get me wrong!!! Ted’s a douche bag, but Roland tried to steal his own grandson and the only reason he didn’t kill Kate is self presevation.

      Nothing left to say.

  149. We need to add Saiman to this list too! I love Hugh and read his book loud and proud. Patiently awaiting Iron and Magic II!!

  150. Ted wins for being the worst villain since his motivation is solely based on racism, bigotry, and discrimination. He isn’t acting out of misplaced devotion to someone else, he’s not an otherworldly monster with dark powers, he’s not a jealous little brat, and he’s not power-brain-washed by a godlike magical human, he’s not seeking vengeance or retribution, so in the end his reasons are truly evil and irredeemable. I’m glad to see that so many of us KD fans are thinking the same thing!

    Honestly though, all of these villains are so great to hate on, it’s what makes the series so fantastic and complex.

  152. Ted, Ted, glad you’re dead, dead.

    I know Kate’s view of Voron has fluctuated from what she learned, but I still hold on to the hope that he cared for her more than she thinks. There was a blurb somewhere about him buying clothes in her favorite color. And he saved villages that he didn’t have to.

  153. At first I was split between Jim and Ted Moynehan. I really really can’t like Jim after everything that happened. I’m hoping he’s redeemed somewhere in the Julie series…. but I’m not holding my breath.

    Glad to see the choice I went with in the end was a popular (or unpopular) one!

  154. Please define “worst”

    Most dangerous: Roland
    Most inhumanly evil: Neig
    Most despicable: a tie between Moynohan and Voron

  155. MAHON!

    It shows just how evil he is he managed to escape the poll.

    Folks he’s the Voron of The Pack! How does he get a pass?

    He took a kid, made a weapon for his own purposes and managed to be the power behind the throne for most of Curran’s life.

    Honey muffins don’t get you a pass šŸ˜›

  156. I was briefly torn between Ted and Voron
    but at the end Ted is just the absolute worst.
    And apparently everyone agrees with me. ????????????

  157. Woa, hard decision… all of them? Went for ted, though, because he really gets under my skin.

  158. From the candidates listed though I’d go with Jim……
    Butcher.

    I’ll never forgive him for what he did in Battle Ground damnit.

    • It was inevitable. Better sooner than later. Totally sucks, but I’m imagining all sorts of “what next” scenarios. 1 of which involves a rescue/retrieval. (Sorry, that was awful close to a spoiler you’re obviously trying to avoid.)

  159. Voron with Ted a close second. Voronā€™s abuse of a Kate throughout her childhood was such a betrayal of her and her mother. Heā€™s no angel with Hugh either. Ted stays true to his screwed up, racist beliefs and really doesnā€™t hide them. Whoever gave him the power he had, though, is a different story.

    Maybe Iā€™m the exception, I never really saw Jim as a villain. Curran gave him the job as security chief because Jim is a paranoid, untrusting guy. I expected him to take that too far at some point. To me Jim is a flawed individual, but not a villain. Jim screwed up and maybe too much to repair the friendship. But that friendship would be difficult with Jim as Curranā€™s replacement in any circumstance.

  160. Not surprised Ted is winning. (Plus my pick too lol)

    Because all of us can relate to hating Ted. He’s that boss you hate, that nightmare client you don’t want to work with, the PTA mom with a control kink, the racist cop that discriminates against minorities.

    Neig is objectively much worse, but since I can’t fit world ending dragon into my frame of reference, he pales in comparison lol

  162. Sometimes thereā€™s a harsh character ( later found to have a heart of gold,) who is actually pushing/ encouraging the hero/ heroine in the direction of wisdom and personal growth. Not Ted. Mean, nasty, belittling, even before he went full out whack-job. (Admittedly, he was already pretty close.) Using others, and insulting their successes. Hiss! Boo!

  163. I have to go with Jim because I feel so betrayed. How could someone that I loved and respected turn on Curran and Kate? You can turn on good people and still be good. Doesnā€™t work. I expect bad people to be villains. But Jim? Heā€™s killing me….

  166. Moynehan

    The others more or less fought FOR something.

    Ted operated on hate and against someting.

  167. As a couple of others up above have said, I would have voted for the Lighthouse Keepers if they had been in the poll, but Ted is pretty similar and a good stand-in for them. Voron was a close second for me, but Ted is the one who **should** have been better, and wasn’t. And Ted’s everyday brand of bigotry is pretty scarily relevant to our world today, so it hits home even more.

    On another subject, Ted’s “why-I’m-a-villian” blurb, featuring comments from the Angevin, reminded me about the wonderful snippet that HA gifted to us a while back: “Grand Master Damian Angevin in His Own Words”. (Available elsewhere on this website, and also at the end of Blood Heir…) I loved Damian in that, and hope that someday we get to see a short story, or novella, or book (fanning myself) with Damian and Erra…

  169. Ted Moynihan for the (maybe) crazy reason that heā€™s the most real and insidious evil. By that I mean heā€™s not remotely factionalized, there are TMā€™s everywhere hiding behind their zealotry.

  170. I had a hard time choosing between Lorelei and Voron. But I agree there’s a good chance being Roland’s for so long had to have an impact. However Lorelei, that’s all her by her own choice, and we have all met Lorelei’s, that person who thinks they are in the right and what they are doing is acceptable.

  171. I went with Jim. Your enemies or acquaintances you have low expectations for. Even Voron, since Kate was not his child so little to no expectations. But Jim was more than an acquaintance, he was supposed to be a close friend to Kate and like a brother to Curran. He showed them who he really was an asshole. Someone not to be trusted and zero loyalty to them. I believe it’s his jealousy of Curran and Kate that drove him. He believes he could singlehandedly make the pack better and stronger because he was better and stronger than everyone because he puts the pack first last and always. If his wife left the pack I bet he’d tell her she’s dead to him.

    • Hmm, I disagree with the last part. I believe that Jim’s priorities are: Dali, a gap, then the pack, then another gap, then ‘friends’ and whatnot.

  172. I’m surprised I didn’t see Nick on here. Stick up his butt, yep. Makes fixing shit more difficult, yep. Blames Kate for what happened with his folks breakup, then his Dad’s death, yep. Treats her like shit, after he spent all that time working with the bad guys, yep. Nope, Nick knows better, but doesn’t care. He should be on the list.

    • I think Nick likes to hang on to the hate, but he and Kate both know better. If you look at the snippets of him in Julie’s story, he’s not as rigid as he was in the KD books. He snipes out of habit but the heat doesn’t seem to be there.

  173. HaHaHaHaHa! Thank you so much for this laugh to start off my Friday! It has been a tough week for me and this was a great pick-me-up:)

  174. I can’t forget what happened to the Knights…especially Kate’s friend Mauro. That was one of the most terrible scenes ever…

  175. Voron is the worst by far because he not only abused a child but he conditioned her to believe that it was for her own good or the good of the world or whatever. So, even as an adult it took her years to begin to realize what he had done to her mind, which was why he didn’t really seem like a bad guy at first. Even at the end of the series, I don’t think she fully understands what’s been done to her. He formed her self image and bent her world view to his own ends. The others will always be with her, in different ways, but he’s so fully embedded in her self awareness that he will always be part of her psyche.

    • Damn, that’s actually quite convincing. If I hadn’t already voted for Ted, I might have gone with Voron, but since we got ‘close and personal’ with Ted while Voron was present only in Kate’s recollections of past events here and there, I didn’t spare much thought for him before.

  176. Roland and Hugh are the 2 I’m most conflicted about. Jim’s betrayals are hard, but he is a friend. Roland and Hugh are family. They have loveable qualities, and that “humanizes” them a bit more, to me anyway. I don’t love to hate the rest, just hate them.

  177. Lorelei made my blood pressure shoot up the most. Book 6 is always so stressful to read (but then SO satisfying to finish! Ah, the torture of a good story!)

    But I didn’t want to vote for her because I have the feeling that her gender plays a role in my perception. I can’t see myself hating a male version of her as much.

    • You know what… Weirdly me too. I wonder why that is. Is it because I’m a girl?

      • Could be? As girls, we’re told to be nice, even if it means we can’t get what we want. When we see other women not being nice, it feels like they are cheating. We want them to have the same handicap we put upon ourselves.

        Lorelei obviously did some typically villainous things like plotting for Kate’s death. But some things she did, like getting naked in front of Curran, without a shred of shame, only really seem “evil” to me because I have traces of the common bias that women should be modest and not go for what they want.

  179. I think thr safest on this list is Jim. In his books it talks about how he expects betrayal from everyone. In reality he’s the onr who bretrays.

  183. Neig is the one that illicits the most negative emotions for me. Such a pompous, sadistic, psychopathic, mass murdering ASS with absolutely NO redeeming qualities.

    Lorene is a close second. Can’t say how mNy times I wanted Kate to bitch slap her. No redeeming qualities at all.

  184. Surprisingly even to myself, I voted for Jim. Enemy, no matter how horrible, you could win against. No matter how evil, once you learned that that is an enemy, you are ready. Nothing hirts more than a friend’s betrayal. You have reminded me how many times I was angered by Jim’s actions.

  185. Definately Ted. He’s a dirty cop. He’s a bigot. He betrays his own people. I love the scene in which Nick kicks TM’s corpse in a fit of rage.

  186. I voted Ted Moynohan. Like Khan in Star Trek, there’s almost nothing more evil than wanting to kill someone just because they don’t stand up to his ideal of a perfect person. Plus, him wanting a holy war led to poor military strategy and got Mauro killed (though Hugh was the culprit, he showed remorse for the time he was robocop for Roland).

  187. Youā€™ve redeemed Hugh too well, I canā€™t hate him. Now Lorelei? I canā€™t stand someone who thinks they can ā€œtakeā€ someone away from someone. Itā€™s so conceited.

  190. Kate’s mom! Hooks up with the evil baddie (knowingly); ghosts him without giving him a chance to do the right thing; mind-slaves another baddie; abandons her kid to the mind-slaved baddie.

  191. #1 Jim that asshole without a doubt.
    He’s their “friend” yet doesn’t give a shit that his actions are a betrayal and hurts those who trust him. That is no friend. Those are no actions for their own good or whatever.
    I honestly hate his backstabbing traitorous personality and keep wishing for him to live a miserable life and die an even worse death.
    Never liked him and he only got worse with every book as he betrayed Kate again & again after all she’s done for him as a friend and for shifters as a whole.
    Jerk.

    #2 Ted Moynohan.
    Honestly, in a way I prefer him to Jim, ‘cuz at least he’s flat out clear that he only cares about black & white and there is nothing here to trust at all.

  192. This was a really hard choice for me. I picked Ted based on all of the bureaucracy and bosses I’ve hated. You know the bosses that only care about the bottom line and don’t care about the employees they hurt. It’s a personal pain I can relate to. I’m honestly surprised he was the main choice, 46% when I took the quiz, but probably a lot of people have seen the kind of destruction this sort of tin god can create. Or perhaps it was his willingness to treat other people like they are monsters just to make himself feel better. It’s a powerful combination of awfulness.

  193. Decisions, decisions. Lorelei? No, a were-valley girl. Stupid and useless, but not bright enough to be a class A villain. I really dislike Jim. Heads and preserves the pack, but no real loyalty. Nope don;t like him,, really don’t like him. But the top villain? Nope. . Neig? He’s a dragon, is a dragon, is a dragon. You slay them. Not a villain. Voron?. Not giving him a pass because of brain fry by Kate’s mom, but he has to have been manipulated by Roland too, Then free of that. Lot of hatred there. Probably before 2 possible brain fries. Good warlord. Really satanic sort of child rearing. But Moynohan? total waste of oxygen.Got Mauro killed, And then at the very end, he chooses to betray everything he was supposed to be working for, even his own warped beliefs, and betrays Uncle Stupidhead. Probably won’t even make good compost.

  194. I said Hugh and I know Iā€™m in the minority. I know heā€™s a fan favorite and his image was rehabbed once Roland purged him and we found out he was found and raised by Roland as a child, so he was indoctrinated. But I never really got into the reformation of Hugh, sorry! Everything that happened in Georgia in Magic Rises and all the Magic Breaks drama with kidnapping Kate and leaving her in a well full of stagnant water to slowly starve her to death (I know he wouldnā€™t have truly let her die but she was on deathā€™s door) and poor Curran out of his mind wandering the country and in Mishmar for days desperately trying to find her… He tried to snatch Kate not once but twice. And as someone who listens/watches to a lot of true crime podcasts/documentaries, kidnap victims donā€™t just ā€œget overā€ being kidnapped. I know Kate and Curran have ā€œmade peaceā€ with it in the books but realistically if Kate were a real person, that trauma would be part of her for the rest of her life and she would want nothing to do with him ever. Not to mention Hugh willfully ignored Kateā€™s consent despite being told multiple times she had no intention of ever joining him as a couple or joining him to join her dad.

    Voron is second because he basically subjected Kate and Hugh to child abuse and almost succeeded creating two psychopaths (he failed where Kate is concerned). He didnā€™t nurture Kate and let her thrive, he tried to force her into becoming him. She had a horrific childhood (like many characters in the series).

    Lorelei and Jim are tied for third. Lorelei because she was basically impersonating Miranda Lambert (yes the country star lol her love life is sooo messy and she is known to go after married men on purpose) and thinking she can do what she wants no matter the consequences. Jim for betraying Curran and treating Kate like an enemy.

  196. Honestly, if I could have voted all of the above, I would have. You’ve got some bad ass super villains. Well maybe not Hugh and possibly not Jim. But everyone else.

  199. Ted all the way. He threw lives away for his own self interest of glory. Totally evil.

  200. You have gone spicy, indeed! Jim was it for me, because he claims the moral high ground of doing everything for the pack and for that the throws everyone and everything under the bus. He knows what he is doing and he’ll do it anyway, which is what makes him rub me the wrong way through the entire series.

    Roland had centuries of life, godly power and responsibility over his people to strip away his humanity. Lorelei is sneaking her way into power in what she knows to be a profoundly misogynistic world. She’s hateable but understandable. Hibla, Hugh – they’re doing their jobs.

    Ted gives me the creeps in the way he’s the bastard we all know. He’s an evil upon the world, but his world view is distorted and he’s deeply hateable, but in my opinion, still not as much as Jim because, unlike Jim, Ted does not believe that the other side of the argument is justified. Jim knows it, and he’ll still burn anyone who stands against the pack.

  201. I voted for Ted because he didnā€™t care about who he hurt, betrayed, or killed as long as he hurt the ā€œrightā€ people/ not people. He would love to kill his enemies but he settled for petty attacks (like hurting Kate and Andrea emotionally). He didnā€™t even care about winning the fight in the end or that his knights lived to protect humanity, it was about throwing as many bodies at the enemy in front of him hoping to make a dent. There was no big picture, lives were disposable.

  202. I voted for Ted, because he is a judgmental bigot who let his people die to prove a point. But, Jim is a close second, he betrays those who are loyal to him.

  203. Oh it was between Ted and Jim for me, primarily for the same reason they are on opposite sides but it’s the intolerance for people who are different from them, in the end Ted won because he was proactive in his intolerance.

  204. I chose Neig over the others as he was not only into pain and suffering but extinction of humans too.

  205. I voted for Ted for all the reasons everyone else has listed so thoroughly and eloquently. Guy was just an all around asshat consumed by prejudices, fears, and hatred. The damage a person like that can do when given power and authority is immeasurable and can continue to breed long after they are gone.

    Requiescat in pace, Mauro. You have not been forgotten.

  206. Ted is too real. Idiots in power who think they know best.
    As above put so eloquently
    – Ted is a “racist cake”.
    – And “fighting prejudice is becoming harder every day”.
    In our current society damage caused by ignorance is worse than evil intent.

  208. Wow. I didnā€™t realize the hate on Ted. Lol. Hugh to me will always be a mother fudger for life. Canā€™t forgive what he did to Kate.

  209. I was just reading comments. People seems to forget that Roland tortures people and children for his gain. He MURDERS his own children. How does Ted compare to that? That was rhetorical question

  210. I voted for Ted, but, seriously, Roland has killed millions of people. His motives are somewhat less evil (maybe). It’s really a tossup. Ted would be happy to kill just as many people as Roland did, given the ability and a hint of a conspiracy (fanciful or not).

  212. Jim. I love Dali but I have no time for him. Nothing worse than someone who is meant to be your friend, and who you care about, consistently betraying your trust. Ted Moynohan is awful (and my second pick) but he’s transparently so. Although reading some of the comments, people make a great case for Voron!

  213. I am voting Ted from this list. But, I have severe reservations about Kate’s Mom. Is it possible she purposefully seduced Roland to bear a child? We start with the understanding that she sacrifices herself to let Voltron and Kate escape. But this story comes from V. and we all know now that she “cooked” him good ????

    Could she secretly still be alive? Was Kate’s conception for the sole purpose of destroying Roland? Was she just an innocent or a schemer?

    Inquiring minds need to know.

  214. Bono the Upir was pretty nasty, certainly in retrospect worse than some who made the list. I thought the lighthouse keepers in Magic Slays were pretty nasty too.

    • Right. Both good choices – and I’ve got to believe Ted was a closet Lighthouse Keeper.

    • Ted got worse over time and by the end was utterly deranged. He might not have been a lighthouse keeper at the time of the confrontation, but he was there in spirit at the end.

      Voron was evil, but we only saw the aftermath, and Kate shook him off. Hugh was fried. Jim was selfish, but heā€™s a cat. Neig is a dragon, he was born that way. Roland was awful, but he had redeeming points sometimes. Hibla was bad, but not in the same league as Ted. Lorelei was bad, but not in the same league as some of the other big bads.

      Bono was a deranged sadistic serial killer/rapist. Yes he was born that way, but he was more human than Neig, which just made him so much worse.

  215. Ted he was all for killing anyone who was not like him didn’t matter if they worked for him , even blowing his own undercover investigator I.d.he got so many of his own men killed despicable.

  216. I bought the book because I adore and support the authors, but I cannot bring myself to read Iron and Magic. I don’t hate Hugh, but I despise him and am unable to perceive him as redeemed him. I have no doubt the authors have successfully redeemed him in the book, I just don’t want any part of him.

    If Voron were still alive I might have chosen him, but I do think he is the reason Kate has been able to survive.

    • Try and read the book. It is worth the read and you will see that not only does Hugh pay for his deeds but, he holds himself more accountable than most people would.

  217. I picked Voron because ruining multiple childrenā€™s childhood is the worst anathema possible.
    The other choices are either very arguable (Hugh, Hibla, Jim, Roland), in which you can argue at nauseam why they are and arenā€™t the worst villains; too obvious (Neig, Ted, Lorelei) in which thereā€™s no argument to be made…you know theyā€™re villains and the only thing to debate is who and what shouldā€™ve been done to stop them before they could do damage; Voron is the absolute sole winner of the contest.

  219. I voted for Ted, for a lot of reasons already stated, by most of BDH.
    But my real question is WHO did Gordon and Ilona Vote for ?

  220. OK, I voted for Hibla, but Bono the Upir wins — hands down.
    That guy was a creepazoid.

  221. Definitely Ted Moynohan. Hugh and Voron were pretty bad, but they were influenced by magic. Ted was just a prejudiced a-hole. I really hated Lorelei too and wish Kate had a chance to kick her butt.

  222. Since Voron was never a character we had 2 face in the story I dont think he count unless house andrews write a prequel Kate series lol. It was a hard decision 2 make between Roland and Ted but I voted red couse Roland actualy believe he is a force of Peace and order if not good Ted look at the world changing and wanted 2 make it burn.

  223. I voted for Roland. Voron might have abusively raised 2 kids, but we don’t know what he was like before Roland messed with him. We’ve heard from both Hugh and Erra how Roland overrode their will so they did things they didn’t want to do. If Roland could turn a born healer and the princess of Shinar into murdering monsters, Voron might have been a good person too. It all comes back to Roland.

  224. I voted for Roland as “worst villain” because I sorta overlooked the part that said “which villain do you love to hate?”. The award for *that* goes to Ted.

    Lot of good villainous awards to go around though.

    Worst Villain (historic): Neig (when he was active he was full chaotic evil)
    Worst Villain (modern): Roland
    %age of Villainous Potential Realized: Voron

  225. I had to pick Jim. They have handled all the other villians, but with Jim, they never really acknowledge that Jim isn’t really her friend. People show you what they think of you, and he walks out in the middle of things. He tries to get Curran not to marry her, he’s not her friend. Dallie is. Jim has never returned her regard.

  226. Ted because…. he is all the more scary for being the most realistic. I could name a dozen ā€˜Tedsā€™ alive and well today walking around infecting people with his insidious, divisive, self-righteous brand of hate.

  227. I think I struggled with my selections because Kate is incredibly talented at getting revenge. Hibla’s punishment was perfect. And I don’t blame Voron, because Roland trained him before Kalina fried him. Plus, Kate doesn’t blame him. Lorelei is stupid and probably dead by now. Ted was really bad, but ultimately, he got what he wanted, which was a bloody exit. Roland? As long as Roland stays in his pocket dimension and builds weapons for Julie, he can live. But Jim? If Jim would reach out to Kate, or express regret to anyone near her, I could be happier with him. But for now, he’s the no. 1 villain because he was a friend who betrayed Kate more than once.

  228. Voron is my pick! He’s the worse kind of villain. Betrayal of a child’s trust is the lowest. He tried to hammer out all that was good in Kate for his own purposes. I have to admit I smiled when his death was described.

  229. I mustā€™ve misunderstood the criteriaā€™s I thought we were voting for a villain that we hate but love but I think I have that wrong because Ted is winning

  230. I think Jim may be the biggest asshole amongst a fine collection of assholes, simply because Jim doesn’t care that he’s an asshole. He doesn’t care about much of anything except Dali and power. I don’t find anything sympathetic about him. I don’t find any redeeming qualities. He’s just an asshole.

    Hugh is also an asshole. He’s a much better asshole than Jim is. But he also has personality, he has weakness, he has loyalty – he has humanity.

    Jim is a cat in human form.

  231. I picked Neig as the truly villainous … he seemed truly alien and truly uncaring about any other life or lifeform. Everyone else I see as a flawed human … evil in that they did not resist when their flaws drew them into heinous behaviour … but still a human with a flaw. Even Roland seems quintessentially human, his flaw being a big “I know better than everybody”.

    It is all the fault of how well the characters are drawn — I see where they are broken and what they might have been if they had not given in to that flaw. Neig is the only one that fit into a neat, mustache-twirling, evil for evil’s sake villain.

    I kind of like Roland, as long as he is safely locked-up in a pocket dimension.

    • My exact thoughts. I understand the impulses of the other villains. Neig, however, is that alien attack that brings all nations together.

  232. Also, villains I would go with before Jim:
    Derek’s dad
    Leslie the Render
    Landon Nez
    Jennifer
    Adam Kamen

    • Edit: Inquiring minds are focusing on the main KD series today. Thatā€™s why Moloch, Landon Nez etc are not in play. Yet

      We first met Landon Nez outside Mishmar in Magic Breaks. I believe he drove Kate and Curran to The Swan Palace.
      He seemed to freak out over Kate’s new sword, if I recall correctly.

      • Yes, he does appear briefly in the series, but he does not distinguish himself as a villain until Hugh’s book :).

        I hope this helps šŸ™‚

        • Sarrat smoked on my lap. It’s magic wasn’t subtle, like Slayer’s. No this sword emanated power. It coiled around me. It liked me.

          Sarrat seemed to have an opinion about Landon from the jump. That’s good enough for me.

  233. Voron not just because how he damaged Kate but, also, because he is at least half as responsible as Roland for how Hugh turned out. Yes, I am a Hugh fan old lady( I am way too old to be a fan girl).

    • Their was also the upir, the crow god and the djinn. Basically megalomania and threat of extinction. I guess Ted counts as well but apparently I can prioritize extinction over genocide. I don’t know what that says about me. ????

  235. I picked Jim – that type of betrayal deserves Villain of the Year followed closely by Lorelei. The rest were either insane or warped by who they followed and believed they were doing what was right

  236. Roland. He is monstrous because his version of a perfect world leaves no room for anyone else. Everyone serves a purpose in his plans or they are disposed of. His charm is a trap that makes you like him, but it is a false mask. His love (and I genuinely think he loves his family on some level) gives him tacit permission to force people to live their best lives. To make them live HIS VERSION of their best life. He is the only voice that decides what is best. Always. How many other people on this list were twisted into the people they are today because of Roland’s influence on their lives? Would Hugh, Hilba, or Voron have made the choices they made and done the damage to the world that they did with out that extra desire to serve at Roland’s feet (or rebel against him)?

  237. Ted all the way, because he and Lorelei are the most realistic villains in the books and people like that are responsible for real world ills. I have met Teds, and theyā€™re awful and pernicious.

    Though Roland does remind me of some tech billionaires with their culture fanboys and insistence that we just donā€™t understand how theyā€™re giving us a better future, a better society.

  238. Is anyone else wondering if all this Lorelei hate is going to get her a redeeming book too? ???? Just kidding, mostly. ????

  239. Ted, for much the same reason that Dolores Umbridge is the worst villain of Harry Potter. They don’t think they’re the villain, they consider themselves the hero.

  240. Suprised Saiman didn’t make the list. He has some rather abhorent qualities, but not sure if they were truly villanous. He showed up when needed in Triumphs, but his all encompassing self centered egotism and, let’s admit, creepy sexualism especially to Kate was memorable.

    But, Ted, well, he topped my list. He was a shallow, self centered, small minded, racist individual that used his power in a way that resulted in him actually killing the people he was sworn to protect – his very won knights of the Order. In this, he was very cultish Jim Jones like figure to me. I saw shades of this when he wouldn’t let Kate fight Erra because she wasn’t officially in the Order and his “blindness” when it came to the lightkeepers. When it came to the destruction of the Atlanta order, though, rather than just kill himself, he killed everyone around him – all for a “greater cause” or a “holy war.” People who do this frighten me on so many levels. Life becomes meaningless in the pursuit of their greater goal. In a way, how Hugh killed him was a bit of come uppence, but it in no way mitigated all the harm he did both to the people he killed and the people he left behind. Angevin really summed him up succiently.

  241. Apparently I am not alone in my utter loathing of Ted Moynahan, that useless waste of space. I almost started to like Hugh after his utter annihilation of Moynahan…

  242. Wow, a lot of us are still angry at Ted. Please tell me this is not going to be one of those “Ohhh how we wrote this character was impactful so we should do it again!” Things. Lore was second for me.
    Love your writing

  243. Ted Moynihan deliberately sabotaged his fellow knights and put an entire city in danger for his pride. Total jerk, no redeeming feature.

  244. Had to vote Ted. He is the most irritating villain who you just want to punch really hard (and keep on punching ????)
    After reading Iron & Magic I now have secret fantasies for Hugh! Even if he is a villain.
    Can’t wait for the next books in this series……coming anytime soon I hope?? ????

  245. Bigotry encompasses fear, hate, cruelty, tortute and murder due to a false belief of someone else’s inferiority and your selfish belief of entitlement .

    I voted for a man who misused his position of power.

    Ted Moynohan.

  246. Yeesh!! It was almost a tie for me between Ted and Voron. Ted just edged him out though. Voron was wrong, and we found out that he never loved Kate and had planned on sacrificing her from the jump. However, had he not raised her the way he did, she wouldn’t have survived, period. He was a crap father, but in the end, he gave her the tools she later used to survive and then thrive. He’s still a jackhole though.
    NOW, had this poll come out before Iron and Magic, I’d have thrown Hugh under the bus. Now that’s my baby. I love him more than I like Curran. Yeah I said it: and what? Roland is Roland, and he’s quite simply a monster, no ifs, ands or buts about it. He’s the terrifying monster you don’t realize is one until you find yourself subjugated. He can talk you into believing he actually is right and that he knows best.
    I was actually surprised Jim got as much hate as he did: he wasn’t a villain in my eyes so much as a fair weather, half-assed sometimey friend. Otherwise, he was cool, though I never picked up on the vibe of him and Curran being besties. It just never washed for me, but I rolled with it because…House Andrews.

  247. HUGH.
    All the way. He was calculated , vicious, smart, competent, driven and a little bit insane. In fact when he and Curran clashed, I felt he relished the insanity and a good fight. Every time he turned up unexpectedly, the fear factor and “oh no what now” increased. You can love a good villain when they are what they are with no remorse.
    I think knowing this makes Hugh’s redemption more interesting, when he has to reconcile all that he was and embraced, with his new life.

  248. Weā€™ve all worked or been subject to a decision by a Ted Moynohan equivalent, seen the quiet damage they do to people, to important causes and to institutions. Itā€™s easy to go for the acute examples, who are often products of their situations, of Vorons, of parents who applaud brutal or helpless behaviour. But Ted has no such excuse.

  249. IF you subscribe to the idea that anyone Roland “cooked” was not doing things of their own volition, that let’s out several candidates.

    Lorelei is just a small time baddie.

    Roland, the highway to hell is paved… etc.

    I honestly can’t remember Neig, even though I’ve read everything more than once… I won’t admit to how many.

    That leaves me with Jim and Ted. Jim has a few good moments, but Ted is just a serial hate crime looking for places to happen. A failed life a wasting away like a bad case of leprosy.

  250. I didn’t vote for Hugh but I hate his ass so much I haven’t read his book. Bought it years ago and never read a page. It goes like this, open kindle, oh what a pretty cover, Hugh I hate your ass. Thank you, next. (hugh and ted win asshole of the year awards) I can’t forgive Jim’s disloyalty. Burn in hell Jim! I do so love IA 1st description of Jim…let there be a badass! Hehehe!

  251. I voted for Ted because his brand of bigotry, prejudice, and zealotry are inexcusable and far too close to what weā€™re wrestling with today.

    My second was Jim. Although he was not an in-your-face villain like the others, his betrayal of long-time friendships put him at the top. We can explain his character traits as being as cat, which are admittedly assholes, bless their fuzzy, purring little hearts, but Curran is also a cat, and his loyalty is unquestionable except for that atrocious misjudgment in the Lorelei incident.

  252. Tough choice. I voted Hibla, because Aunt B’s death made me cry. I am absolutely not a crier.

  253. Voron was the worse because he knew Kate would die if she ever faced her father.

  254. i love Jim and Ascanio hope they don’t become villains. I love your ability to redeem villains in your books like Roland, his sister, and hugh.

  255. When you have followed characters through the series, and see them grow and change, you get to know a little of what makes them tick. If they are rigid, have an obsession, what their past traumas are, etc. Makes it hard to hate them.

  256. Roland is my love to hate, but Ted is the one I wish a horrible painful death on.

    While Roland is the big bad of the series, he at least is shown to care about something even if he goes about it in the absolute worst way.

    Ted is just awful. He decisions sacrifice so much and for no redeemable reason. He literally sacrifices himself rather than help people he sees as “less than”.

  257. Roland may have acted like the loving father at times, but he had a serious problem (Dah, like killing his own children) so overall he was the biggest villain in the KD books. Neig and Hugh were villains but it was funny to see Curran jealous of them. According to Curran and Luther, Kate attracted all the weirdos so I couldnā€™t ā€œhateā€ them. The question the moderator asked was, ā€œWho do you just love to hate? Which character simply gets your goat? It would have to be Lorelei! I hated how she (and letā€™s not forget Curran too) made Kate feel. I never felt like Lorelei ever got her comeuppance. She deserved to be humiliated just as much as Kate was.

  258. Hello, Did go for Hibla even if after voting I can see it’s only 6% of fans who choosed like. I hesitated with Voron cause he definetly “raised” Kate to make her a wapon to take revenge. But he was also a victime of Kate’s mom magic manipulation, wasn’t he?

  259. Between Ted and Voron.
    I chose Ted by a narrow margin. Just can’t stand a bigoted idiot and Voron was already dead.

  261. I was hoping Saiman would be on this list lol. I surprised myself by how upset I was with his final fate in Magic Triumphs. I didn’t realize how much I love to hate how immoral and self serving he is. Maybe he doesn’t count as a villain since he is a terrible person but doesn’t actively work against Kate?

  262. Lmao!!! Gotta love that the most hated person is the one with no magical ability whatsoever. He was a d bag. LOL

  263. I know I’m in the minority, but I say Roland. I love him, but I think that’s what makes him such a scary villain. I have no doubt he’d kill any of the characters in the KD world and have some justification for it, including Kate and kiddos. Roland’s top priority is himself. He’s charming and manipulative and brilliant. But I’d 100% believe he’d commit genocide and claim the greater good while doing it (kinda like Ted, but Roland’s scary sane). I love him,but I am also very glad he’s in his prison. I also think he’s totally manipulating his grandson to eventually get free, cause Roland can’t help but be who he’s always been. He is a fantastic villain. Voron is also awful, but I think the villain crown belongs to the man who he bowed to.

  265. Jim. It would have been Lorelei but then I saw Jim. Nothing worse than a betrayal from a ā€˜friendā€™.

  266. At time of writing, Ted has a huge lead. I’m guessing that to KD fans, the biggest sin is prejudice expressed through banality.

    Ted: lawful evil -3 charisma

  267. I voted Lorelei, not because she is actually the worst villain overall, but as some other people said, she just pisses me off everytime I reread the series. It was a close call, all the villains have their own special brand of creepiness.. But everytime I get to the story with Lorilei I have to ask myself, do I have the energy to deal with her – but if it was just her, it wouldn’t be so bad, it is together with Curran being such an idiot in regards to her. If he had dealt with her differently, it might not hurt that much. So for me, it was actually more Curran who sort of betrayed Kate through his own bad decisions there.
    Ted is – yeah, just the sort of incompetent asshole I unfortunately have seen too many times, he even ran for president somewhere I think.. He is the person you want to shake and rage over, “are you really that stupid!?!” Yes, yes he is.
    I wanted to vote again after reading all the comments and thinking it over, oh well.

  269. Take Jim off the list. He’s an imperfect good person. And not taking him off could be dangerous.

  270. Most of these choices are people who know they’re not the good guys and then there’s Moynohan.
    I think what makes him so hateworthy is that he’s sitting on such a high horse while doing such petty things.

    All the others have excuses or at least honest explanations, all the way from “magically dominated into doing evil stuff” to “monster does as monster does”.
    But Moynohan is a monster who thinks himself an angle. An ineffective monster at that, which makes it twice inexcusable.
    We also saw a lot of him, so we’re heartily sick of his shit^^

  271. Roland for the win, although not sure this is a win????. Because he kills those he loves, and not for a good reason.

  272. To me it is Roland. Almost every other villain listed is in some way negatively influenced, some without their true consent, by him. He also kills, almost, all of his children. He tries to steal his grandchild and sends his minions out to kill him. That he doesn’t succeed is because of Kate and Curran. How many has he killed and tortured over his long lifetime only to serve his own narcissism? He cannot be trusted. To me there is a reason he is the protagonist throughout the entire book and that is because he is the most evil entity that must be contained if he cannot be killed.

    • So technically Roland succeeded in killing all his children, thus the necessity for Curran’s gambit

  273. Before reading Iron And Magic, Hugh would have been a serious contender for me. But since that book made me love him, it wasn’t really a contest. Ted. I loathe Ted. I have always loathed Ted. The Order as an organization bothers me, and he in particular was one of the worst possible examples of it. It might be because the zealotry and bigotry reminds me a little too much of non-fictional horrors, but he has always been the most rage-inducing character in the entire series for me. Hugh and Roland did things that came close, but never quite eclipsed him.

    Jim is interesting. I often have mixed feelings about him because there are times when he comes through and times when I want to punch him. Part of this is that I decided to try a novella before committing to a long series and the first KD world story I read was Magic Steals. I love Dali, and Dali loves Jim. I’ve always had kind of a soft spot for him because one of their novellas was how I met the character.

  274. I agree with the comments that the group that wanted to rid the world of all magic killing millions of innocent people was definitely the worst!
    But, I voted for Lorelei because I cannot STAND women going after other women.

  275. Ted. He is the most vile, heinous excuse for a human in the entire KD universe. Everyone else had some reason for their predjudice or behaviors (for the most part). Lorelei was just a petty wench. Jim is a jerk, but his goals are for the greater good (in his mind, at least).

    But Ted…

    I would give just about anything to know what was going through his mind when he met his well-deserved fate.

    Now, if everyone will excuse me, I must go start yet another re-read of the KD series.

  276. I’d actually go for Bono. His army of sad, half upir, half animal children is something that haunts me. So much suffering because one disgusting upir couldn’t keep it in his pants.

  277. I can reason out every character’s choices and actions except Ted. He is just a d!ck.

  278. This might be a language barrier thing, but I need clarification:

    should we pick the person we absolutely loath and want to strangle ourselves because he/she has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and you hate reading about him/her and wait until he/she finally meets his/her deserved gruesome death (yeah, I am looking at you Joffrey from Game of Thrones)?

    Or should we name the villain that is evil and deserves all that he/she gets but is kind of cool because he/she is badass or at least has some kind of reason (Cersei is evil to stay with Game of Thrones, but at least all she does is for her children)?

  279. I dislike the monsters behind the monsters. The people who left Ted Monyaham in charge AND funneled their rejects into Tedā€™s command. And for that matter how they treat their rejects.

    And Roland for driving and nurturing Voron and Erra (before her death) in carnage etc.

  280. Fun poll! Also fun reading the comments!
    Tough to decide so still thinkingā€¦. ????

  281. Worst villain = most bad? Or most useless? ‘Most bad’= most evil? Or most sucky? ‘Love to hate’ is different again.

    Roland is for me the most evil. With that much power, choosing to do what he does with it… who else?

    Most sucky? Really hard. Lorelei’s tedious little femme fatale wannabe routine leaves little to like. But she’s encroaching on Curran, and only acting as trained. Walk on part. Like Jessica Rabbit, she’s drawn bad. Kate was reared to be a revenger, and Hugh a trained sword. If those two can be redeemed on the basis that nurture and nature aren’t equivalent, then Lorelei possibly doesn’t deserve the scrap heap. Yet. She could have a redemptive arc. Or prove a devoid of nuance monster in her own right.

    Voron. Dead, so has little possibility for redemption. Though cf Erra, not none! Messed Kate up but good, and knew what Roland was. But to what extent did he really have agency after Kalina overcooked him with her magic? And at the same time he was jeopardising Kate with desire for revenge… he was giving her amazing survival skills. I note that in a comment response Ilona states that the love magic was all that distorted him, the rest was his character that made him fitting as Roland’s warlord. But… Hugh? In ‘Iron and Magic’ ‘Magic Triumphs’ and ‘Blood Heir’ all outline a redemptive arc for one of Roland’s former warlords. Was the other really so lacking in nuance, and the selection so different?

    Neig. Similar characteristics to Roland. Barring the nudity. And getting canned. Too ridiculous.

    Hibla. Duty ridden Iron Dog. Not the most evil, most interesting, or most memorable. Which made her role in the death of Aunt B striking. Likely magically distorted.

    Ted. No indication of influence/distortion. He chose his corruptions. Embraced prejudices. Deliberately hurt and humiliated others. For me, one of the more terrible and culpable.

    Hugh. Nature/nurture. His nature seems to be as a mystical healer. Roland cooked him wrong – seems to have forcibly misdirected his energies. Recent stories have suggested long-term redemptive arc. But. Ilona’s comments in response to some offering suggestions of redemptive qualities re Voron being magically cooked by Kalina suggest he’s inherently brutal, and that was why he was made the warlord. Hugh was also warlord. If Roland enjoyed perverting Hugh’s apparent healing gift… Why wouldn’t/couldn’t he have done something similar to Voron?

    Jim. Hmmm. A former close friend could be a terrible enemy. Thus far,
    nothing suggests that Jim is anything other than politically inclined and completely scrupulous to understood lines. His lines may frustrate. But are clear, shared in advance, and recognised. Even in early appearances his values and Kate’s didn’t always align. References to his desire for retirement and spending more time with his kids in Blood Heir don’t suggest Jim is planning any kind of coup.

  282. So Ted’s suspicion of his own dick is valid. Can you imagine the harm to humanity if that thing bred!?

  283. Loved to hate Ted Moynohan! Horrible boss, short-sighted asshole, outright bigot, outed Nick Feldman after ALL those years and all round terrible human being.

  284. Jim. I donā€™t understand him. He cares about Dali to the exclusion of his friends? Really thatā€™s just protecting himself, as hurting Dali hurts Jim. Over and over when the chips are down, he has shown what a poor friend he is, from walking off on Kate before a job is finished because the pack called, in Book 1, to offering to use Kate in book 2 to lure in the Fomorians to letting the pack jump her in book 4. Heā€™s an asshole. Why Kate didnā€™t cut him out a lot sooner, thereā€™s the question. Anyway, a friend that betrays you is the worst. Dali canā€™t fix that.

  286. I think your poll proves that the Iron & Magic joke ruined your best bad guy. Nothing makes the KD books more fun than having Hugh in town throwing bodies on tables, torturing a starving Kate with a scrumptious feast, or goading Kate into a reckless sparring match. But now we know about his unfortunate childhood as a street urchin and his scary wife, and nobody even considers him a bad guy anymore. But just because he’s found some guilt, doesn’t mean he didn’t really enjoy all the evil shit he pulled.

  287. I really wanted Bono/the Upir to be on this list, profoundly evil, rapist, killer AND unspeakable cruelty to animals

  288. Had to go with Jim, though TM was a close second. Jim is just repeatedly such a bastard. Probably because he is a decent guy, it makes every time he pulls his ā€œfor the good of the pack, I have to cut you looseā€ BS, it makes me rage.

  290. Iron and Magic really turns around for me, but without that Hugh is by far the most villainous.

  291. Lorelei made me angry, upset and outraged at her behaviour. It took me a while for a reread, ha ha so well written.

    Nonetheless itā€™s Ted all the way, ugh I disliked him so much I found myself shouting at my book! Luckily I was nowhere near anyone to hear hehe ????