Ricky was the villain, he shouldn’t have held his breath!!!
From a Buick 8 doesn’t have a human villain. Neither does Elevation, though there are unpleasant humans.
Not to derail the thread but I wouldn’t call Lloyd Henreid evil. He was amoral and did bad things but at his heart he was an angry and weak man but not evil. There is plenty of Evil in The Stand but he wouldn’t be an example of it.
The Eyes Of The Dragon has some weak people, but Flagg is not human.
I was going to mention Eye of the Dragon. Speaking of Flagg, one could argue that The Gunslinger qualifies; the worst human person in the book is probably Sylvia Pittston, who seems to be acting under Flagg/Walter/The-Man-In-Black’s influence.
I suppose one could also argue that Roland sacrificing Jake makes him a villain in his own story, but I think it’s a lot more nuanced than that.
Nah. The worst villain in the series is a bog standard human with no special abilities of any kind. Name was Paul “Pimli” Prentiss. In terms of actual acts of villainy, he did far worse than Flagg or even the Crimson King. He’s not just my most hated villain from the Dark Tower series. He’s not just my most hated villain from all of Stephen King’s works. He’s my most hated villain of all the fictional works I’ve ever watched or read, including TV, movies, and video games as well as books.
ETA. Dark Tower V-VII were filled with all other manner of distasteful ordinary human villains. That’s why I stick to I through IV 1/2 when I re-read the Dark Tower series.
I’m just talking about The Gunslinger. In the series as a whole there are any number of human villains, but most of them don’t show up until later.
I don’t remember Jack being an asshole. He was an alcoholic and kind of a loser, but he was trying to do his best for his family.
He broke Danny’s arm in Vermont, well before they got to Colorado. And I think there’s something in Doctor Sleep or a short story that implies he killed someone in a hit and run while driving drunk
Jack Torrance himself came from an abusive household; his father would beat him and his mother. So, Jack was perpetuating that cycle of violence. The hotel just brought out what was already in him.
I will say though, that in the novel version of The Shining, Jack sacrificed his own life to burn down the hotel and destroy the evil housed there. So, while he was the villain, he ended up being the hero as well.
You think they would have thought about that possibility while designing the procedure.
Or had someone check to make sure people are really unconscious. Maybe have equipment that monitors people to ensure they aren’t awake. For something this dangerous, you’d expect that the liability of not doing it is so high, it’s crazy to not have that step.