Dark lord
In literature and fiction, the dark lord is an archetype of a particular form of primary antagonist, typical of genre fantasy. Characteristics. Dark lord figures are characterized by aspirations to power and identification with a devil or antichrist. The " Encyclopedia of Fantasy" notes that common themes of dark lord characters include being "already defeated but not destroyed eons before" and engaging in "wounding of the land" or other rituals of desecration. Philip Pullman noted that the dark lord archetype in literature reflects the belief "that evil in the real world is usually embodied in a single person and  requires a high position to be effective" and that this contrasts with Hannah Arendt's notion of the banality of evil. Examples. Alberich, of the Ring cycle of Richard Wagner, is a prototypical dark lord. Other notable dark lord figures in literature include Sauron (of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings") and Morgoth (of Tolkien's "The Silmarillion"), Ineluki the Storm King of Tad Williams's "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" and Lord Voldemort of Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. In film, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine of the "Star Wars" series are commonly referred to as "Dark Lords of the  Sith" and Skeksis from "The Dark Crystal" are archetypes of evil overlords. In Japanese media, this archetype of villainy is often called a . Section::::"Evil Overlord List". Science fiction fans have collected several lists of resolutions for a competent dark lord to avoid the well-known, cliché blunders committed by supervillains in popular fictional works. For example, one such resolution is: "I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament to show my superiority. I will shoot them." Internet copies of these lists vary in number and order of entries. History. The most famous lists, both referred to as the Evil Overlord  List, were developed concurrently. Both were published to the Web in the early 1990s. The original, if lesser-known list was compiled in 1990 by members of the now-defunct FidoNet Science Fiction and Fandom (SFFAN) email echo. The FidoNet list originated with a 1988 "Saturday Night Live" skit featuring Bond Villains touting a book "What Not To Do When You Capture James Bond". The FidoNet list arose out of discussions regarding what sort of advice might be in that book, and was compiled and published by Jack Butler. It predated the following list, but was only widely published later , and is the more obscure of the two. The later-produced and more famous version of the list was compiled in 1994 by Peter Anspach (hence it is occasionally titled "Peter's Evil Overlord List") based on informal discussions at conventions and on online bulletin boards in the early 1990s, and has subsequently become one of the best-known parodies of bad SF/F writing, frequently referenced online. It was originally "The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord", but grew to include over 100 entries. Anspach and Butler acknowledge the existence of each  other's lists, and state that their two lists have been so cross-pollinated over the years as to become effectively identical. The Evil Overlord List has led to spinoffs, including lists for stock characters including (but not limited to) heroes, henchmen, sidekicks, the Evil Overlord's Accountant, and Starfleet captains. Usage. In Australia, a minor literary scandal erupted in 1997 when it emerged that award-winning author Helen Darville plagiarised this list for her regular column in Brisbane's "Courier-Mail" newspaper, which led to her being fired. Teresa Nielsen Hayden, noted author and lecturer, uses an expanded version  of the list in her lectures on writing science fiction. She recommends selecting five random clichés from the list, and using them, or their reverse ("Say you've drawn A-34, 'I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.' You can have a character turn into a snake and find it doesn't help, or do it and find it very useful indeed") as the basis for a plot.