As promised, I’m about to delve into a comparison of two of the villains from John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice book series. The first is Morgarath, the main villain of the first two books of the main series. The second is Baron Lassigny, the main villain of the fourth and fifth books of the sequel series, the Royal Ranger. I’ll compare the two along four categories: appearance, power, ruthlessness, and stakes.

1. The appearance of the villain

Morgarath’s introduction in the Ruins of Gorlan immediately showed him as an unforgettable villain with a terrifying appearance.

According to Morgarath’s description in the Flanagan Wiki (these descriptions are directly from the book): “Morgarath has a ‘a low voice, with a slight snakelike sibilance,’ his eyes were ‘black pools’ and he had ‘unnatural peripheral vision’…He was said to be thin and clean shaven, with an extremely pale complexion and ‘dead white’ hair and a red gash of a mouth. In contrast to his deathly pale appearance, he wears all black. He stoops, giving the impression of a vulture and rides a bone-white battlehorse.”

Notice how the words used to describe Morgarath are dark and terrifying from the start: “snakelike,” “unnatural,” “dead white” hair, “red gash” of a mouth, “deathly pale,” on a “bone-white battlehorse.” Each of these descriptions are carefully chosen to show how fear-inspiring the mere presence of Morgarath was and to associate him strongly with death.

Contrast that with the introduction of Baron Lassigny in “The Missing Prince.”

“He was taller than average, which meant he had to stoop to speak to the shorter man beside him. He was powerfully built, with broad shoulders. There appeared to be no excess fat on him. He was fit-looking and muscular. His hair was close cropped – black, but with traces of gray at the temples. His skin was olive complexioned and he had no beard. Dark brown eyes, almost black, were set under heavy brows. They made Maddie think of a hawk’s eyes, and, like a hawk, they seemed not to blink. The nose was strong and the features were even. All in all, the Baron was a handsome figure of a man.”

Besides some unnecessary repetition (powerfully built with broad shoulders, no excess fat, fit-looking and muscular), the description tells us little about the Baron beyond the fact that he is a warrior. The same description could apply to a minor captain of the guard under his employ. The only thing that is remotely intimidating is the description of a “hawk,” but the main thing you come away with is knowing that the Baron is handsome, which doesn’t exactly make him an awe-inspiring villain.

In addition, while Morgarath’s association with death is repeated across multiple chapters and books and even his horse has a “bone-white” appearance to double down on this, the Baron’s association with a hawk is hardly referenced after the first meeting.

2. The power of the villain

Appearance isn’t everything. In Morgarath’s initial introduction, we see that he also has complete control over some terrifying, beastly creatures known as wargals. While they don’t seem to be particularly intelligent, we later learn that he even has control over some even more terrifying creatures that are quite intelligent and are systematically assassinating important individuals in Araluen. By the end of the first book, they have severely wounded Halt, who is known to be an incredible fighter, and nearly killed Sir Rodney and Baron Arald. This demonstrates Morgarath’s intelligence and his strength, since these very strong and capable creatures obey his whims.

In the second book, by the time Morgarath fights young Horace, we have seen the villain’s abilities in battle and notice that even the king of Araluen is hesitant to face him and respects his abilities. The reader is concerned for Horace because he has limited experience and is quite young, and it doesn’t seem likely that he will survive the encounter. During the battle, Horace barely holds his own, is trampled by Morgarath’s horse, and is seconds away from death when he finally manages to gain the upper hand by a clever stroke and defeats Morgarath. Throughout, Morgarath is terrifying, making the final victory extremely satisfying.

Over the course of the prequel series, we learn that Morgarath is also the only antagonist ever seen to overcome the rangers. He is directly responsible for the deaths of several, as well as replacing the entire corps with his own men and banishing several more rangers.

By contrast, Baron Lassigny is shown to have a tenuous hold even over the men in his castle. They dislike him, and while some are shown to fear him, for the most part they seem entirely disloyal and apathetic. They present little threat over the course of the two books and are not seen to kill or even particularly harm a single individual. They’re also basically incompetent, leaving Will with his lock picks to escape at his leisure, and the baron’s trusted knight loses to Maddie rather pathetically.

Worse still, it’s clear that the characters aren’t even slightly afraid of the baron, since Will sends Maddie into the castle in his stead to rescue the prince simply because it’s an unpleasant job and that’s what apprentices are for. Horace barely protests, and it turns out that Maddie is more than up to the task thanks to the poor security measures and planning of the castle’s baron.

And what of the final appearance of the villain? In the end of the book “Escape from Falaise,” it is again Horace who confronts Baron Lassigny and enters into combat with him. The baron’s men show no intention to interfere because they are afraid, which means there is no real threat from them. Horace is also joined by Halt, Will, and Maddie, all capable fighters who could easily help him take out the baron. When Horace reveals his identity, Lassigny nearly tries to back out of the fight, making it clear he expects to lose and stripping the ensuing battle of any tension whatsoever. As expected, Horace dominates Lassigny, who isn’t able to get in a single serious strike before it is over. While Lassigny does try to stab Horace in the back afterwards, Horace’s companions immediately dispatch Lassigny, almost contemptuously, and Lassigny’s men are glad he is dead.

If instead Lassigny had access to a small but elite force comparable with the rangers, some of whom were deadly assassins and might attempt to interfere in the match, the stakes would be higher. If we had seen Lassigny fight in the past and defeat a competent enemy even once, we might be convinced he was a threat, but as matters stand, Lassigny comes across as a rather pathetic figure who is dealing with people considerably above his league.

3. The ruthlessness of the villain

As I mentioned in the initial article on making your villains more frightening, ruthlessness is a major factor in whether or not they appear to be a threat to the main character. Even if the main character is extremely powerful, a ruthless villain could go after the character’s friends or innocent people, which means there is still a reason to fear that villain’s actions. This is a ploy commonly used in tales of Superman: since Superman is invulnerable to many threats, Lois is often in danger to make the villain more threatening.

Morgarath has already assassinated multiple important figures by the time the main characters come into contact with him. Later, he also is seen to slaughter villages. In the prequel series, he murders multiple rangers and many other people along his path to power.

Additionally, Morgarath is shown multiple times as throwing his wargals into a fight without any concern for losses, showing that he is an enemy who is implacable and who won’t be swayed, and he killed his own loyal associate, Dirk Reacher, as part of his plan. He also captures Will and tells Halt that he plans to torture the young apprentice, giving no doubt that he is utterly merciless.

Baron Lassigny, on the other hand, while described by reputation as enjoying torturing people and flogging his servants, is never actually seen to do so. Even when he has Will and Maddie in his hands, after a couple days in a dungeon, he gives them a more comfortable tower room instead. When he captured the son of his enemy, the prince who Will and Maddie are attempting to rescue, Lassigny didn’t actually do anything to the prince. Even his threats to the prince’s father were carefully worded and not particularly threatening. Except in the last moment when he tries to stab Horace in the back, his most ruthless act is insulting people he sees as beneath him.

4. The stakes of the villain

Every villain should come with some serious stakes; something terrible that will happen if they get their way, whether that be just the death of a beloved character or the invasion of an entire country.

The stakes of Morgarath’s victory were shown from the start: he intended to invade Araluen and completely take it over as a tyrant while also getting revenge on anyone who had crossed him in the past, including several beloved characters. The devastation his wargals could wreak was clearly painted in the dead bodies of his victims. Also, even though he was shown to be defeated in the past, it was a hard-won victory and the best they could do was effectively exile him because he remained so powerful.

By contrast, the stakes of Baron Lassigny’s victory are fuzzy at best. Even in the opening chapters of The Missing Prince, it’s clear that no one is particularly sure it’s even necessary to stop him. Eventually they decide to because he supposedly could be a threat to Araluen in the future if he unites Gallica against them. Unfortunately, as I already mentioned, it’s clear that Baron Lassigny is incapable of uniting anyone, and even his own men have no loyalty to him, so this is shown to be a false fear very quickly. It’s also vague. He could invade at some point in the future if he gains full power unopposed and if he decides it is worth his while.

The stakes should be to save a prince who is hopelessly caught up in hostage situation, but the prince is quickly discovered to be obnoxious and essentially worthless. He has no real morals, he is spoiled, and he is stupid. He nearly leads Maddie to be discovered multiple times, and his father also doesn’t seem to really care all that much about him, so there are no real stakes there.

When Maddie and Will are captured, the stakes should be that Horace is terrified of losing his daughter, but he doesn’t seem all that worried, since Will is with her and they are both quite capable. Plus, Will tells Maddie they could escape at any time. There is a brief moment where it seems the stakes will rise as Maddie is in single combat with a fully fledged knight, but those hopes are dashed as she doesn’t seem particularly concerned about it and defeats the knight with ridiculous ease. Eventually, there is some concern that Will and Maddie will be executed. However, Halt and Horace quickly come up with a rescue plan and there is never any indication that any of the characters are overly worried about the execution actually taking place.

These problems could have been solved by making Lassigny a clear and present threat to Araluen with many allies who were ready to back him up, a clear plan that was already in progress, and taking the lockpicks out of the picture.

Final thoughts

Ultimately, I think the problem with Baron Lassigny is that the characters always seem two steps ahead of him. They are nearly always aware of his plans and exactly what he is doing and where he is. On an individual level, any one of them could easily take him on, and as for his men, there is no one who presents the slightest threat. Morgarath, on the other hand, is always two steps ahead of the characters, right to the end. He is constantly tricking them, building up his army outside of their view, and devastating their forces. Anyone who wins against him does so just barely, with a lot of pain and wounds along the way.

I recommend reading fantasy novels like these and finding your own favorite villains. Look for the ones that make your skin crawl and worry about what they’ll do to the protagonists. Those are the villains you typically will want to emulate in your own writing.

To continue my series on villains, I’ll write next about sympathetic villains, which many people have seen too much of at the moment from the media, but are still a valuable tool to inject some nuance into your novels. I’ll also give a sneak peak into my early prep for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which takes place in November.

Until then, enjoy Loyalty Fallen and get ready for Book 2 in November!