Dastardly Villian Poll

[IluvBarnabas]

Dark Shadows had a lot of villians but which one do you think tops them all in terms of being the baddest of them all?

[Brandon Collins]

I voted for Rev. Trask but I also wanted to vote for Gregory Trask as well. Both were equally bad, but in my mind Gregory takes the cake over his "great-great-grandfather" (too many greats? I think that was an OOPS by the writers, but it could've worked I s'pose) because Greg's Micheal Jackson-esque treatment of those kids at Worthington Hall was just wrong! And if the writers didn't mean to insinuate the molestation, then they sure as heck had something else going on in their subconscious mind at the time!

[Para L. Time]

I voted for Nicholas Blair, because... Hello, the guy worked for Satan! Out of all the villains on that list, he was the only one who could actually say his boss was the devil!

[Brandon Collins]

Great point Para L.! I didn't even think about Nicky working for Satan when I voted!

I'm wishing more and more that I had've voted for Gregory Trask because I just remembered that he and Evan Handley [spoiler]attempted to drive Judith insane in order to get control of the Collins fortune.[/spoiler]Geez!

And question--is it ever said that Evan Handley is Nickolas Blair's former self? Sure, he may just be a lawyer, but I don't care what you are, if you're not a witch or a warlock there's no way you have that much knowledge of Satan's ways and spells!

[arashi]

Personally I voted for Petofi as he was the only villan on the show (with the exception of Nicholas Blair) whose motives were "pure evil" which he even ADMITS to in one episode.

Nicholas Blair would fall under this vote as well except for the fact that even the Devil's Disciple was capable of Love. 

[stefan]

I feel Angelique was the worst villan of them all but I guess this is a poll for the male villans so I chose the Reverand Trask bunch but Nicholas Blair was the most charming.

[MagnusTrask]

Petofi is the most impressive and magnetic as a character, & I voted for him.  But what exactly were his "evil" motives?"    He shows up, wants his hand back, who can blame him....he wants to escape gypsies, and uses people to do it, but what if the gypsies were to leave him alone?     What would he do then?    We don't know of any objective of his besides health and survival.    Does he steal?  We don't know.   There's that whole Kitty backstory we never really hear enough about.    

[IluvBarnabas]

I don't think it was Petofi's motives that were evil (I agree he can't really be blamed for looking out for his own survival), it was his way of doing things or getting things he was after that were downright despicable.

[spoiler]1. he possessed Jamison in order to force Quentin and Magda's (excuse the pun) hand to get the hand.

2.He had Aristede abduct Quentin as a plot to force Angelique to return the hand to him (whether Petofi told Aristede to trap Quentin under that blade or that was purely Aristede's idea I don't know).

3.He kidnaps Julia and threatens her with the hand unless she tells him to go to the future (then when things don't work out and Julia tells him the truth he doesn't believe her and sics Aristede on her).

4.Knowing he must have a body that's already alive in the future in order to go there, he steals Quentin's.

5.He set up Magda with the fake hand when King Johnny around to throw him off track (and knowing very well Magda would be a dead woman for certain when Johnny saw the hand was a fake).

6.He makes Jamison possessed with the spirit of David in an attempt to force Barnabas to reveal how he go to the future.[/spoiler]

Petofi was no innocent babe in the woods for sure!

[CyrusL]

These were all good adversaries in their right. The tough part was do I vote for Nicholas who is Dark Shadows Snidely Whiplash or Gregory Trask? Or Count Petofi? Since Nicholas was charming and had a smooth style, I decided on Gregory as he was the most self centered and most hypocritical. Nicholas at least was open to Julia and Barnabas about his intentions, with a "dare you stop me!" style, and Humbert once described his character as "the James Bond of the Underworld". Petofi was very clever and while of great ego, he was a great foil, sort of the Lex Luthor of the 19th century. Gregory was deliciously insufferable and completely duplictious. And as stated, particulary reprehensible is one who preys upon children, and does so in the name of God. The great Dickensian villian of our show. Kudos to Jerry Lacey who did such a fine job defining and deliniating the differences and yet common threads of the Trasks.

Michael

[MagnusTrask]

Petofi was more the Sidney Greenstreet of DS, and actually he was part of a crowd of Sidney Greenstreet clones that infested American TV in the 60s, and even the Avengers.  A particularly bad Tara King episode has Greenstreet and Peter Lorre surrogates.    Petofi was the only one that deserved to exist.   I prefer T David to Sidney Greenstreet.

[arashi]

I can't remember exactly what episode it is, but I just watched it recently. Petofi and Quentin are standing in the foyer and Petofi asks Quentin something along the lines of 'Why don't you join my camp' when Quentin asks him what his motives are, Petofi answered 'Evil. Pure Evil.' Just for admitting it, he gets my vote 

[Josette]

I think I'd have to go with Judah Zachary or [spoiler]Gerard as possessed by him.

Those first glimpses of Gerard in the future were really chilling and one got the sense, especially from what Julia and everyone else said, that the sense of evil pervaded everything.  Then, in 1840 we got to see what actually happened and how powerful and evil he really was.[/spoiler]

[Sunny_Collins]

This was a really difficult decision for me, as all these candidates were evil in their own ways.

At first I thought of voting for Nicholas, but there's something in his personality that's a bit helpless, after all he can never escape his fate, and I think in some ways he may have wanted to. Okay, am I insane for thinking this? Oh well.  :-

Gregory Trask got my vote because he claimed goodness as his motives, when obviously they were anything but. He enjoyed inventing lies for the sake of control and money, and most of all for mistreating children whom he was entrusted to care for and instruct, locking them in closets, depriving them of food, all for there benefit! Yeah, right! 

[MagnusTrask]

Greg's weasel factor adds to his dastardidity.    He was able to plan murders and in the same breath moralize and pontificate to the person he's planning the murders with (I'm thinking of Evan), certain that he still has the moral high ground over everyone, and that God is going to be very, very good to him after he dies.   

[Zahir]

I'm gonna go with Petofi.  He was not only powerful and evil and dangerous, he was cool.