Discworld receives new villains

[Sidewinder]

Palpatine. Political acumen for the win! See a hero who wants to destroy evil? Convince the hero you're on his side-- see his winning over Anakin in 'Revenge of the Sith'. Win again!

[Sam Or I]

Hmmmm the shadows were not directly evil, they just wanted chaos, the disc is not the most orderly place. I can see them fitting into disc world just fine.

[weemadando]

Shadows are altogether too otherworldly.

They'll be gone in no time.

Same with Sauron and possibly Palpatine too - they're just too powerful to be ignored by Deus Ex Machinas.

[Lord of the Abyss]

With Sauron; I suspect that someone, say Cohen, chops off his Ring again. Then it somehow ends up tossed over the Edge. Sauron has to leave the Disc on a near infinite quest to get the Ring back.

Note that the Ring cannot be destroyed on the Disc, because Mount Doom isn't there.

[Dartzap]

I suspect the Ring itself would just end up on some random blokes finger, and due to reasons of Plot, wont effect him.

[Tiriol]

With Sauron; I suspect that someone, say Cohen, chops off his Ring again. Then it somehow ends up tossed over the Edge. Sauron has to leave the Disc on a near infinite quest to get the Ring back.

Note that the Ring cannot be destroyed on the Disc, because Mount Doom isn't there.

I am not sure if Cohen would be able to do so. Not in the sense that he wouldn't be FIT enough (good Heaven, no, his advanced age only shows that he's extremely good at surviving and keeping himself fit), but that Sauron apparently has some sense of storyline after getting pounded by Huan and the Last Alliance had to lay siege to Barad-dûr for seven years before he finally relented and engaged in combat personally. Cohen might not have the luxury of waiting time on his side (the events of The Last Hero are at least partially fueled by his sense of mortality).

Strangely enough, Sauron and Palpatine - the two most notorious Dark Lords on the list - avoid most of the Evil Overlord blunders or at least learn from them. In that sense they'd be very hard for a traditionally-minded hero to stop. However, someone with a fool's luck like Rincewind or a rather non-traditional hero (Commander Vimes, Mr. von Lipwig and perhaps Captain Carrot, after a sense) would be much better equipped to deal with them. Rincewind might end up in a hapless Hobbit's role in a long run (but how long he could endure the Ring is another matter entirely). Palpatine might find Vimes and his ilk frusfrating to the extreme since he often uses illegal means to gain influence and power; things that rub the modern Watch very much the bad way.

Wasn't there debate about the possible places for the Ring to be destroyed? While I always held the belief that the Ring is magically linked to Mount Doom where Sauron's might is at its strongest and that is the reason why it could be destroyed only there, the consensus here seemed to be that any sufficiently hot place or item could do the trick (of course, forcing yourself to destroy the Ring is another matter entirely).

[DesertFly]

Wasn't there debate about the possible places for the Ring to be destroyed? While I always held the belief that the Ring is magically linked to Mount Doom where Sauron's might is at its strongest and that is the reason why it could be destroyed only there, the consensus here seemed to be that any sufficiently hot place or item could do the trick (of course, forcing yourself to destroy the Ring is another matter entirely).

I don't have the trilogy to dig for the exact quotes, but Gandalf says that the rings of power could only be destroyed in the flames of dragons, and I believe he either heavily implies, or says outright that the One Ring can only be destroyed where it was forged: in Mount Doom.

[Mr Bean]

Getting rid of the ring is much easier for Ricewind, he can just toss it into the Luggage, try and find it in multi-dimension space that eats you ... good luck.

Also THE STORY is the main problem for these villians. Your talking about fundamental magic forces which change your very reality so you will always lose, or at least only somewhat-win.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Getting rid of the ring is much easier for Ricewind, he can just toss it into the Luggage, try and find it in multi-dimension space that eats you ... good luck.

And given it's invulnerabilty to magic, it should be immune to corruption as well. Of course, for the same reason it probably couldn't use the Ring, but it's not like the Luggage NEEDS the Ring to be dangerous. Plus, even if it could use the Ring it lacks fingers.

Perhaps a tongue piercing ?

[Crazedwraith]

Judging by Commander Vimes willpower in Thud! how effective do people thing his 'Guarding Dark' would be in resisting the ring's corruption?

[Tiriol]

Judging by Commander Vimes willpower in Thud! how effective do people thing his 'Guarding Dark' would be in resisting the ring's corruption?

It would give him more time, nothing more. Perhaps he could give it away, even, with a terrible feat of will (similar to Bilbo's in Fellowship of the Ring, if he hadn't used it much; but given time, the Ring would have corrupted even him. Unlike the entity in Thud!, the Ring tempts its wielders by their own desires, wishes, hopes and fears and doesn't fear light (nor is it, strictly speaking, an actual entity per se, but a manifestation of Sauron's will and malevolence, so the intimidation used by the Guarding Dark would be useless). And if anything, Vimes is full of possible avenues for temptation and corruption: his overwhelming love for his wife and son, his sense of duty and of right and wrong, and his distrust of anything and everything. He would surely fall to the Ring, given time.

I hold that Rincewind would be a better candidate for carrying the Ring for the purposes of avoiding its corruption, but he's not above temptation (although his almost fetish-like desire for potatoes is a strange temptation, indeed). It has been shown that he is positively delighted when he can use magic and right there is the hook which the Ring could use (although using potato temptation might do the trick, as well - the Ring DID show to Sam, after all, how he could become Hero of Age and turn all of Mordor into a garden). And even if he would dispose of the Ring by letting the Luggage have it, Rincewind would be tormented by it and its temptations; Gandalf noted that even if the Ring would be buried under the White Mountains, Lord Denethor would still crave it and couldn't find peace or rest until Isildur's Bane would be in his sight.

[wautd]

Cutler Beckett seems like a good villain but only for one novel. He's the kind of guy that will have his comeuppance at the end of the story, probably in a comical fasion


(heh... almost made a Discoworld typo)

[Lusankya]

Getting rid of the ring is much easier for Ricewind, he can just toss it into the Luggage, try and find it in multi-dimension space that eats you ... good luck.

And given it's invulnerabilty to magic, it should be immune to corruption as well. Of course, for the same reason it probably couldn't use the Ring, but it's not like the Luggage NEEDS the Ring to be dangerous. Plus, even if it could use the Ring it lacks fingers.

Perhaps a tongue piercing ?

Maybe it could wear The Ring on its toes.

In any case, how would the ring change the luggage's temperament anyway? Make it even more disagreeable? Disagreeable and invisible?

[wautd]

Getting rid of the ring is much easier for Ricewind, he can just toss it into the Luggage, try and find it in multi-dimension space that eats you ... good luck.

And given it's invulnerabilty to magic, it should be immune to corruption as well. Of course, for the same reason it probably couldn't use the Ring, but it's not like the Luggage NEEDS the Ring to be dangerous. Plus, even if it could use the Ring it lacks fingers.

Nonsense, it has plenty of fingers bitten off from innocent bystanders