Walter Padick: displaying massive red flaggs of being Obviously Evil
Examples of Satanic Archetype in literature.
- Bazil Broketail: Waakzaam the Great a.k.a. the Dominator fits the image of a fallen angel to a tee. He was created as a servant of a benevolent, omnipotent deity, but turned against it because he thought he would do a better job at shaping the worlds, turning utterly evil as a consequence.
- The Beginning After the End: Agrona Vritra, the Lord of the Vritra Clan and the Big Bad of the novel, exhibits many parallels to Satan himself (on top of also being an example of Maou the Demon King given the novel's basis in the Isekai genre). He and his clan were cast out from Epheotus by Kezess Indrath, the Lord of the Indrath Clan and the ruler of the Asuras, when they discovered that the Indrath Clan committed genocide upon the ancient Djinn in the distant past. This led to his Start of Darkness, as in his to exact revenge on Kezess and the Indrath he launched for a Divine Conflict in which Arthur's homeland of Dicathen has been caught in the crossfire. He and his clan have become a case of He Who Fights Monsters, having become no better than the Indrath if not much worse. While not explicitly a demon as he and his clan are basilisks, they nonetheless are considered gods and demons with horns, especially by the inhabitants of Alacrya whom they rule over. Like how Lucifer is depicted as maintaining his angelic beauty even after being cast out, Agrona in his humanoid form is depicted as youthful as that of his archnemesis Kezess with the only inhuman attributes he has being his Raven Hair, Ivory Skin, Red Eyes, Take Warning, and Horns of Villainy. He also has a penchant for making deals with lessers wherein he holds their loved ones' lives at stake though sometimes he promises them power and wealth. Through such deals, he is responsible for the corruption of the nobility of Dicathen and throughout the story approaches some of the protagonists and their loved ones at crucial points to strike deals that would favor him. He is responsible for much of the misfortune Arthur has faced in his reincarnated life, as he has caused the deaths of many of Arthur's loved ones and conquered his homeland. In particular, he reincarnated not only him but his childhood friends Nico and Cecilia and subjected them both to Mind Rape so they would both be Reforged into a Minion to turn them against Arthur, even stealing his Love Interest Tessia as a vessel for the latter.
- Blood Meridian has Judge Holden; he has an unusual appearance and seemingly supernatural strength, apparently doesn't age, a dizzying array of knowledge and skill, makes sermon-like speeches about worshipping war as God, makes gunpowder in one scene in a manner which alludes to Satan doing the same in Paradise Lost, and towards the end, when it's suggested that some unknown entity controls all human actions, The Judge remarks "I know him well".
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Both the White Witch at the beginning of the series and the Calormene deity Tash are represented as evil opposites of Aslan, who is basically Lion Jesus.
- Lord Foul the Despiser of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, immortal lord of evil and corrupter of mortal souls and a divine being exiled from heaven (though he's the Creator's evil doppelganger rather than a Fallen Angel, and he was exiled to the mortal world rather than Hell, albeit still associated with the Seven Hells by many characters). His name among the Giants, Satansheart Soulcrusher, makes this explicit (and his Dragon in the third book is called by the Giant name "Satansfist").
- Coraline has the Beldam an ancient Humanoid Abomination who enchants children into visiting her world and tempts them with good food, fun, or anything that their hearts desired. Whenever they decide to stay in the Other World permanently, the Beldam has them sew buttons over their eyes, and she feeds on their souls until she grows bored of them.
- Nyarlathotep from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos is more or less Lovecraftian Satan. A shapeshifter, sometimes a Humanoid Abomination (as the Black Pharaoh in "Nyarlathotep"), sometimes a hideous Eldritch Abomination (as "The Haunter of the Dark" in the story of the same name), a diabolical pact-maker (to Keziah Mason in "The Dreams in the Witch House"), and a trickster (to Randolph Carter in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath). Although he serves as The Dragon for Azathoth, Nyarlathotep can be seen as a physical manifestation of the will of the other Outer Gods (Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth), and is referred to as their "soul and messenger" more than once, which means the Outer Gods are colossal bastards. He's also the only one of them with a human mindset, and has active interest in humanity. This isn't a good thing. AT ALL.
- Many of the Gods of Darkness from Dragonlance have Satanic elements. Takhisis is the supreme evil deity determined to dominate the world, and her most iconic form is a multi-headed dragon. Chemosh is a tempter who tricks dead souls into remaining with the world, thereby damning them to become his undead minions. The closest Satan expy in terms of both methods and motifs, though, is probably Hiddukel, patron god of liars and crooked deals and tormentor of the souls of those who bargain with him.
- East of Eden: Serpentine imagery is used to describe Cathy Ames, including one instance where "her tongue flicked around her lips, and that the eyes were flat and the mouth with its small up-curve at the corners was carven." In her youth, nearly everyone thought something was off about her behind the angelic looks, and the author even described her as a soulless monster incapable of empathy. She manipulates others For the Evulz, and has small, stubby feet that have insteps "almost like little hooves." The narrator claims that she was simply born this way: while some children are born with physical defects, Cathy was born without a conscience. Later on, Cathy becomes the madam of a bordello and turns it into a den of sexual sadism.
- Demon King (later Kicked Upstairs to Life President of Hell) Astfgl in Eric consciously models himself on the archetype to the extent that he looks somewhat ridiculous (he wears a horned cowl like a panto demon, and has a trident, but the end keeps falling off), and is very keen on Faustian bargains, although he usually leaves the details to a subordinate. His preferred brand of torture is extremely boring bureaucratic procedure like having to hear hundreds of volumes of safety procedures before they'll let you push the boulder up the hill.
- In Fantendo canon, The Mysterious Mr. ? is portrayed as Satan, as well as the manifestation of Chaos in the universe. Mr. ? often comes to Earth and other universes and causes Chaos, not for the sake of causing it but rather to maintain balance in the universes, as opposed to his counterpart Abaddon, the manifestation of Order. He does still get some sick pleasure out of it.)
- The Fountainhead: Ellsworth Toohey is a devious master manipulator who prides himself on using false or misleading promises to tempt people into giving up what is most valuable to them. His status as a Satan-figure is made most overt in his Motive Rant to Peter Keating in Part Four, where he describes himself as a "collector of souls" and explains that his greatest dream is to enslave the entire world and turn it into a realm of endless misery.
- Frankenstein: The original version of Frankenstein's Monster is a silver-tongued fiend who was created to be noble and beautiful, but became filled with pride and wrath at not being given the respect he felt he deserved, and dedicated himself to wreaking havoc on mankind in order to spite his creator. Lampshaded when the Monster mentions having read Paradise Lost and felt a kinship with Satan.
- Harry Potter: Tom Marvolo Riddle aka Lord Voldemort is unabashedly Satan based on JK's own views on evil and desire to escape death. Snakes are considered vile and evil in nearly all religions, and snake-like Voldemort being descended from Salazar Slytherin's bloodline, Riddle wasn't likely to turn out decent. Though Tom Riddle was adored by those around him when he was young, he scorned normality and desired power and greatness, so he made himself an abomination as a twisted way of escapism and fell into darkness as a result. Voldemort's most demonic trait is his lust for immortality which blinds him to all the other pleasures in life. One of Voldemort's greatest weaknesses is that he cannot feel or understand love, tying into themes of Satan only understanding lust. Voldemort is the devil figure is part of a trifecta, with Dumbledore playing the God-like figure while Harry plays Jesus.
- The titular "Lord of the Flies" from Lord of the Flies. He represents the inner savagery of man, the savagery that leads to the boys killing each other and destroying any sense of order. The fact that he's named after Beelzebub and is dubbed "the Beast" really hammers this point home.
- Stephen King:
- The Stand has Randall Flagg, pictured above. Also known as the dark man, also known as the tall man, also known as the Walkin' Dude. A supernatural entity who brings chaos and destruction wherever he goes, Flagg manages to tempt the vast majority of surviving humans After the End to give into their baser instincts and join his new society in Vegas while plotting to destroy the only new society that won't bow to him. He's directly compared to Satan many times throughout the book, to the point where Mother Abagail has to clarify to the other characters that he's not really the devil. Though it's made clear he is a servant of him.
- It, or Pennywise the Dancing Clown, from the 1986 novel of the same name, manipulates others into doing its bidding, namely Henry Bowers, lords over the sewer system of Derry, Maine, and its spider form, clown form, and Deadlights can all be seen as an evil version of the Holy Trinity. At the end of its reign, It also desperately tries to bargain with Bill and Ritchie by offering them whatever their hearts desired as long as they let it go.
- From The Dark Tower, Susannah surmises in the last book that the Crimson King is what is effectively known in our world as Satan: an evil, demonic entity and corrupter that appears to hold great power but is in fact vastly less powerful than the creator God he opposes.
- The Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid is one of the Deal with the Devil variety, but unlike Ursula in the Disney adaptation, she has no ulterior motives and honestly warns the protagonist of the consequences of the deal.
- The Lost Years of Merlin takes Rhita Gawr, a very minor villain from Arthurian Legend, and reimagines him as this, opposed to a rather God-like version of the Dagda. He even appears as a vain Pretty Boy for added "Lucifer" vibes.
- Apollyon from the Maradonia Saga is supposed to be this. He's an Expy of Satan in terms of backstory and motifs. Unintentionally subverted, given 1) Apollyon is fairly likable, frequently singing "Mother Earth Songs" and extolling the values of friendship, love, and kindness and 2) He's opposing the books' protagonists, Maya and Joey.
- Moby-Dick: Moby Dick and Ahab alternate between this role and Crystal Dragon Jesus; one of the novel's central themes is dualities, and both characters can symbolize either God or Satan at different points, showing the contradictions inherent to life.
- In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Party's Propaganda Machine portrays Emmanuel Goldstein as this (though the author George Orwell is more commonly thought to have based Goldstein on Leon Trotsky). According to the propaganda, Goldstein used to be a high-ranking lieutenant of Big Brother, the God figure, but he turned against his master and is currently the cause of everything bad that happens in Oceania. He has an insidious network of followers who help him carry out his evil bidding, and he likes to tempt good faithful Party members into sin — or thoughtcrime, Oceania's equivalent. Of course, since the Party is an incredibly Unreliable Expositor, we have no way of knowing the real story about Goldstein, or if he even exists In-Universe at all.
- Redwall features Cluny the Scourge. Sure, Asmodeus seems like an obvious choice, but all he has to seem demonic is his name and reaper complex.. Cluny, on the other paw, wears a horned helmet, a cloak made of bat wings, and an iron spike on his tail, making him look the part. He is a megalomaniac, a habitual liar, cruel to his underlings, and goes for a Deal with the Devil with a family of dormice. He even refers to himself as the direct opposite of what he calls the Redwall Abbey's guardian angel.
- In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, Morgoth was the greatest of the Ainur (angels), but rebelled against Eru Illúvatar (God). He corrupted Fëanor, he twisted Eru's creations into the various monstrous Slave Races, and created the Hell-like fortresses of Utumno and Angband which are occasionally called "Hell" straight up. When he was eventually exiled to the Void, his servant Sauron took his place as the Big Bad. Sauron continued Morgoth's Satanic behavior, corrupting the Númenóreans and ruling the Hell-like Mordor. Both Morgoth and Sauron originally had beautiful forms, but lost access to that ability. If Melkor/Morgoth was any more obviously the devil of Middle-earth, he'd have an elven Louis Cypher name. It gets better when you realize that since Middle-earth was Earth All Along, Satan is actually Morgoth and possibly Sauron. In fact, Morgoth and especially Sauron are more consistently referred as simply "the Enemy" rather than their names, and Satan literally means "the adversary."
- The eponymous antagonist of the The Phantom of the Opera manages to be case of this, as well as a Tragic Monster. Erik is a being that lives in the bowls of the Earth (in his case the hellish cellars of the Opera House), who delights in causing misery and pain for those above, and repeatedly tempts the heroine named Christine (a name literally derived from the Hebrew word for Messiah). He actually first appears to her pretending to be an angel the "Angel of Music", which perfectly fits the Light Is Not Good Fallen Angel allusions to a T. If the point wasn't hammered home hard enough, both Christine and the Persian liken Erik to a demon and Raoul even explicitly calls him Satan when recalling coming face-to-face with him in the church of Perros.
- In Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, the troll king who makes the magical mirror that distorts everything good and magnifies everything bad is an allegory to the devil. He even has his minions carry the mirror into heaven with the idea of making fools of the angels and God so they'll lose faith in humanity.
- Sword Art Online seems to be fond of making its big bads modeled after the Devil:
- If Akihiko Kayaba is the equivalent of God and Kirito is the Messianic Archetype, then this makes Nobuyuki Sugou the Devil, the personification of everything awful. He once worked for Kayaba, but was always his inferior, however once given the chance Sugou seizes the world and its people, declaring himself its new god and ruler. However he's no match for the intervention of the real God, where Kayaba's Virtual Ghost steps in to give Kirito the means to beat him. As Kirito puts it, Sugou is a "King of Thieves, sitting alone on [his] stolen throne." His Light Is Not Good theme only makes it all the more apparent.
- Quinella, the Big Bad of the first half of Alicization. She has a backstory paints her as one. She rebelled against the Underworld's version of God in order to become one herself, setting herself up as one gifted by the gods before constructing a false faith in her own name, eventually succeeded in her goals, and ruled enforced by her specially-prepared laws and her Integrity Knights.
- Gabriel Miller, the Big Bad of the second half of Alicization. His obsession with souls easily parallels the Faustian depictions of Satan, his Chessmaster abilities parallel some contemporary depictions of Satan as a sophisticated, Machiavellian smooth-talker a la The Rolling Stones's depiction of the Devil from Sympathy for the Devil, and, as Vector, he's a God of Darkness with an Eldritch Abomination true form who leads an army of demihumans and monsters like the traditional depictions of Satan. To finish it off, considering that Alicization was the last arc in the original web novel series and the Book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible, if Gabriel is Satan then Kirito is the Messiah who ultimately defeats Satan in the Final Battle.
- Vassago Casals is perhaps the closest example in the series. He was considered an outcast having been born as an illegitimate child similar to Lucifer being cast from Heaven. Not only is he responsible for the corruption of many an SAO player and the post-SAO incidents but he dons a dark robe, his name comes from one of the demon princes from the Ars Goetia, and he calls himself PoH (meaning Prince of Hell). Also adding to his Satanic character is that he deceives players from America, China, Korea and Russia to fight the Japanese players in the Underworld, which neatly parallels Satan gathering the nations around the world to fight the people of God in the Book of Revelation. To further add to the Messiah-Satan contrast with Kirito, Kirito's recovery from his Game-Breaking Injury and victory over PoH and his forces during the final battle parallels the Second Coming of Christ and him defeating Satan's forces in the final battle in the Book of Revelation.
- Warrior Cats: The closest this series of cats has to one of these is Ashfur, who invokes this trope in a rather symbolic way. He started out as one of Thunder Clan's best warriors before Lust combined with Envy led him to betray his leader, and eventually, his fellow spirits in Cat-Heaven. His obsession with Squirrelflight and inability to see her as anything more than a possession is similar to Satan only understanding Lust. Eventually, Ashfur's obsession leads him to become arguably the darkest and most dangerous villain ever encountered by the Clans, lying left and right and even being willing to destroy ''everything' to achieve his goals. He shows himself to be charismatic, deceitful, manipulative, and narcissistic. Also, one of Ashfur's signature scenes involves fire; a motif associated with the devil.
- The Dark One in The Wheel of Time is, canonically, the Biblical Satan, claiming the true name of Shai'tan (the conceit of the setting being that Legend Fades to Myth and truths become muddled in mythology)note . The usual comforting mantra is that he was imprisoned by the Creator at the beginning of time. Where he came from isn't clear, but he remained safely sealed in his can until the Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends accidentally cracked his prison. He offered them a Power that both men and women could use together (unlike their own magic), and several made deals with him. Too bad he wants to destroy the universe and end time. From inside his can, he tries to destroy humanity using hordes of subhuman monsters, not to mention said quisling Aes Sedai.
- In the World of the Five Gods series, the Bastard is sort of the Satan equivalent, being the offspring of the Mother and a powerful demon lord that did a Heel–Face Turn. He's the ruler of demons and god of the unexpected, including disasters, but his job is to rein in demons so they don't harm humans, and he's also the god of unexpected blessings. He has a very vulgar sense of humor and is a Trickster Mentor to his followers, but is basically benevolent, although he's also the one that metes out vengeance upon Karma Houdinis.
- The Lone Power from the Young Wizards series. When the Powers That Be got together to create the universe, the Lone Power's contribution was Entropy and Death, for which It was exiled from the Powers' home dimension. The job of the titular wizards is to slow down the death of the Universe and prevent the Lone Power from further interfering with Life. It does get redeemed in one volume, but warns the protagonists that this only applies to the current "facet" of Its intertemporal existence — they will still have to deal with unredeemed versions of It.
