Hooded Worms

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Let's look at the baddies. Not 'The' baddy per se, but the sideline villains: the devious double agents, perhaps. A classic example from The Lord of the Rings might be Wormtongue. He is sent in by his master Saruman who has turned to the Dark Side to spy on and corrupt the King of Rohan, Theoden. To Saruman he is a slave, a servant and so he is treated accordingly. He is the underling of evil who you cannot help but feel sorry for. When it is discovered that Wormtongue is infact a servant of evil he is held at gunpoint (or swordpoint, or wandpoint) but he pleads for mercy, and he is granted it. Later on in the story, however, his karma catches up with him and he ends up dying, of his own infliction.

Who does this remind you of? Hint: the clue is in the name. That's right. The mirror image of Wormtongue is Wormtail. Oh, how lovely. Both of these names start with Worm and end in a body part. Now, I ask that you reread the previous paragraph with the second name in mind...

This is what I mean. Begin to understand why it is possible to entertain at least a little resentment towards the creator of this mess.

As that was too short a point to fill an entire chapter, here's a two-in-one. Think of the Nazgul. They are creatures of the Dark, servants of the Dark Lord although they were once on the side of Good. They are black, hooded, cloaked figures that have no faces. They strike terrible, paralysing fear into their enemies and turn everything cold. They sense only by smell. They possess a weapon that can turn one soulless or at least into one of them (a soulless creature). They very nearly achieve this with the main character. This leaves a lasting impact on our hero, he is now terrified of nothing more than these creatures, even the Dark Lord.

Who could I possibly be talking about? Dementors. Those wonderful rip-offs.

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