Over the seven seasons of True Blood, viewers were exposed to one intense situation after another. Most of the time, these intense situations were instigated by characters of highly evil proportions. While the protagonists occasionally found themselves committing questionable acts when forced into dangerous situations, there were some characters that were truly evil. The following list is comprised of baddies that left their bloody imprint on the lives of the main characters in ways that many of them never recovered from.
Lettie Mae Thornton
While she is a character that eventually finds a sense of redemption, Lettie Mae’s treatment of Tara throughout the bulk of the series is one of abuse and oppression. Lettie Mae represents what addiction can do to an individual, however even after beating addiction Lettie Mae still manages to find ways to oppress Tara. The forgiveness given to Lettie Mae only further demonstrates what a tragically heroic character Tara was for the series. This is true because time after time, the ways in which Lettie Mae fails as a mother affect Tara’s actions. Tara is physically and emotionally assaulted by Lettie Mae. This leads to Tara’s desperation to get away from her mother at any cost and is often put at risk. What makes Lettie Mae a true villain, despite her ultimate redemption, is that Tara never achieves real happiness in her short life, all because of the acceptance continually denied by Lettie Mae. One can even argue that her attempts to save Tara’s soul in the final episodes are still a selfish pursuit to ease Lettie Mae’s own guilt.
Lorena is the type of villain that enjoys the torture of her prey. She justifies her own behavior as indicative of the evil behavior around her. For instance, the setting of turning Bill into a vampire allows her to demonstrate how easily she, herself, could be a victim if not for her own power. She uses the vulnerability of being a woman alone to instigate attacks upon her in order to justify attacking someone else. It becomes a game for her. When playing this game with Bill, he proves to her that he is not the type of man to hurt her. However, instead of letting him move on she punishes him into an existence that he will forever regret. She is willing to turn Bill into a sadistic murderer like herself in order to simply not be alone. Yet, when he denies her for the last time, she turns her tortuous methods onto Bill. Her presence is always one of calculating malevolence.
Governor Truman Burrell
Burrell’s policies later in the series ultimately led to the construction of a vampire concentration camp. While Sarah Newlin had a major behind-the-scenes influence on Burrell, it was he who chose to enforce the concentration camp as well as a series of other oppressive acts upon the vampire and supernatural communities. His actions were mainly governed by emotional reasons and because of his own personal pain. As such, he decided to inflict pain a thousand times worse upon others.
Macklyn Warlow
Warlow’s presence was hinted at in the second half of the series and was known as the vampire that murdered the parents of Sookie and Jason. He takes a few different forms (which is a little confusing) in order to supposedly mask his identity, but his big surprise is thwarted when Sookie reveals that she knows that he is Warlow. Yet, despite the fact that he has murdered her parents and a few other fairies, his villainous charm manages to convince Sookie that he might just be her true love after all. His version of events discloses that he murdered her parents in order to save her life. Daddy Stackhouse would have rather seen Sookie dead than turned into a vampire. Sookie is almost convinced until he finally snaps and smacks her across the face, ultimately revealing that he would be nothing more than a despicable wife beater.
Marnie Stonebrook
While it is true that Marnie does tend to be possessed by the spirit of Antonia from time to time, she is not completely innocent, herself. Marnie represents the kind of evil that is produced from ignorance. One gets the impression that she often is led solely by her desire to have power and does not think her actions through. This ignorance is what leads to her acts of violence. She makes herself vulnerable to Antonia. Antonia, while an antagonist, is acting from a place of justice albeit blind justice. However, Marnie is willing to do whatever she has to do to have power and that is what makes her one of the more dangerous villains of the series.
Steve Newlin
While making appearances throughout the series until season six, the Reverend Steve Newlin’s reign as a true villain of the series occurred in the second season. Steve Newlin was the leader of the Fellowship of the Sun; an organization used to discriminate against vampires. He was willing to abduct and kill Sookie, as well as anybody associating themselves with vampires. Even though he claimed to stand for “Human Rights,” he lacked any true humanity himself. The only thing he was successful in doing was spreading ignorance. However, ignorance is a truly dangerous thing. Later, after being turned into a vampire, he remained an antagonistic, somewhat comedic, presence throughout the series but was his most truly evil at the height of his leadership of Fellowship of the Sun.
Rene Lenier/Drew Marshall
Rene has the distinction of being the first true villain of the series. While the first season introduced several characters of evil potential, it was the actions of Rene that held the first season in suspense and ultimately had the first great impact on the lives of the main characters. Some examples include Jason being a murder suspect and losing the first woman he had any sort of real feelings towards; Arlene’s humiliation and fear of an evil baby; and the first real wedge between humans and vampires in Bon Temps. His bigoted actions caused many people to suspect that it was a vampire killing all the women murdered in the first season and thus began the reoccurring prejudice that would snowball larger until the end of the series.
Sarah Newlin
A reoccurring character throughout the series, Sarah Newlin developed from a trophy wife to one of the most detested villains in the series. Primarily influenced by an estranged relationship with her vampire sister, she took one stand after another for the oppression of vampires. Beginning with her involvement with the Fellowship of the Sun and continuing all the way through to the maintaining of the vampire concentration camp after Burrell’s death. Her ultimate act of evil is poisoning the Tru Blood with Hepatitis V to bring about the true death of all vampires. While she definitely receives her comeuppance in the end, several lives are lost and changed forever because of the actions of Sarah Newlin.
Russell Edgington
Due to their powers, age, and experience vampires tend to “live” by a different set of rules. However, Russell Edgington was proof that even amongst the supernatural, there are those that can still find ways to further deviate into corruption. Russell’s age and power was one to be reckoned with and because of this, few would even try to take any power away from him. He often used this to make his own rules and choose to do whatever he wanted at any cost. Throughout the series, he was often dangerous yet what made him truly scary was the way in which he only laughed off any opposition. Several lost their lives to him and after losing his progeny, he broke with any sanity he might have had left. This is shown when he publicly kills a news anchor on live television to show that the only rules he will follow will be his own. These actions change the course of the series and the lives of all beings whether they be human, vampire, or supernatural.
Maryann Forrester
When True Blood as a series ended, many viewers found the conclusion to be somewhat unsatisfactory. The final season became a sort of rendition of Agatha Christie’s And then there were None. One character after another was unceremoniously picked off. Earlier seasons used more dramatic impact when losing characters or putting them in truly dangerous situations. While the first season had a serial killer as the main antagonist, the second season depicted a villain of a supernatural nature that was truly formidable. It took wit, courage, and determination in order to defeat someone like Maryann Forrester. She was a villain in the greatest sense. She used seduction, lust, and violence to serve her purpose. However, her purpose was not simply for her own claim to power but to serve a greater, mysterious force. Sookie Stackhouse barely had any interaction with her until the final showdown. Sookie had already had to defeat the Newlins and came home to find her home completely taken over by the possessed citizens of Bon Temps. These were the moments of True Blood that truly captivated those early viewers and it could not have been accomplished without such a malevolent force like that of Maryann Forrester. Even when she was doing something perceived as kind there was always something inherently unsettling about her character. So, when she unleashed into full force surrounded by citizens of Bon Temps with their eyes turned black, it was not only terrifying but actually thrilling.
