Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

To participate, just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link in the comments at YA Highway.

This week’s prompt:
Who are your favorite literary villains/antagonists, and why?

I just saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, so the villain who immediately comes to mind is Severus Snape, possibly the most complex character in all of Harry Potter. For the first half of the series, Snape is relentlessly horrible—a villain you love to hate. Then, when he reluctantly allows Harry access to his memories in Prisoner of Azkaban, we begin to gain some insight into his character, and understand his hatred for Harry’s father. Right then, he becomes far more than a stock villain.

My favorite moment in the entire series is the scene in the final book when Snape gives Harry one final memory right before he dies, revealing his love for Harry’s mother, Lily.

We might have expected Snape’s patronus to be a rat or a crow, but the fact that it’s a gentle doe is unexpected, and the fact that it’s a doe because Lily’s patronus was a doe is heartbreaking.

Snape is wonderful because we hate him, we root for him, and we cry for him. Though it turns out he’s not evil after all, he’s definitely not good. He is just human.