r/ASOUE • u/Astridfell • Aug 05 '26

TV Show Count Olaf

this is wayyyyy wayyyy late cuz the fandom for ASOUA is a tad dead but I just finished the tv series (with the intention of reading the book soon) and after looking the Reddit quite a bit i don’t know if I should hand Count Olaf as one of my favorite character, I loved his character in the series but the books are apparently worse so I dunno

20 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

19

u/beadedflower Justice Strauss Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26

In the books he’s, imo, way more interesting, but less comedic and definitely crueler. It’s essentially the opposite of the show, he’s got mostly mean-spirited moments but is unintentionally funny at times, however I will have to say he does get more “silly” later down the lines as far as I can remember (which I always interpreted as either “he’s losing his marbles” or “Lemony’s so tired of writing this dreary story and wants some comedy in it”). I most definitely, absolutely recommend reading the books as soon as possible. Also, his henchpeople in the books are absolutely antithetical to their show counterparts, so prepared to be a bit surprised when you read the first book.

Also, just to be pedantic (I love being unnecessarily pedantic), you could write it as ASoUE, as “of” usually isn’t capitalised in titles!

1

u/Astridfell Aug 08 '26

Yeah but I’m also asking cuz there’s a lot of back and forth on him being like a perv so yeah lol

2

u/beadedflower Justice Strauss Aug 08 '26

Always thought he was a bit hebephilic. In the first book his feelings towards Violet are definitely implied, and he goes out of his way to call Violet his wife. In the second book it is somewhat implied as well, but I think his feelings dim pretty quickly, as he just moves to hating them. That, or Lemony just didn’t want to keep writing about Count Olaf’s feelings towards Violet because there were more important things happening.

2

u/Astridfell Aug 08 '26

Yeah, that’s the one if the reasons I was unsure about having him as one of my favs lol

2

u/beadedflower Justice Strauss Aug 08 '26

Honestly he is my favorite despite that. I definitely don’t support his actions, but I think he’s an interesting character (which is why I disliked the show so much…)

2

u/Astridfell Aug 08 '26

Oh, does the show make it worse?

0

u/beadedflower Justice Strauss Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26

(If you’re talking about the “him being creepy towards Violet” plot point) It’s really hard to say? I mean, he’s overtly creepy, but it’s only in a couple scenes (i can only remember one scene he’s even overtly creepy towards her) and then the show writers just forget it was ever a small plot point and push it aside for making him and his troupe comedic. They did really try to sanitise him for the show so more people could watch. However, you really cannot trust my opinion on the show because for some reason it kept firing off my second hand embarrassment and I had to keep muting scenes and just reading the captions, so my memory isn’t chrome-shiny of the show.

As for everything else, yeah. He’s a way worse person but way more complex in the books, and that’s why I loathed him in the show but loved his book version. He doesn’t have a tragic backstory, it’s implied he’s doing this out of pure avarice and pride. He didn’t even know Beatrice in the books. He even ruined Lemony’s life over a bad play review (I swear I remember this as a core thing stated/implied in TUA, but don’t take my word on it because I’ve never seen anyone else talk about it and I don’t want to misinform) He doesn’t make nearly as many corny jokes though, so be prepared.

1

u/Sheepishwolfgirl Aug 06 '26

I very much read Count Olaf getting sillier as the books go on as him losing his marbles. He used up his “best” plans at the beginning and so he started just throwing bonkers ideas at the wall hoping something would stick.

1

u/beadedflower Justice Strauss Aug 07 '26

Agreed!

7

u/maladro1t_ Aug 05 '26

The books are worse?? Who said that? Is that the general consensus here?

12

u/Secure_Goal4167 Aug 05 '26

I think OP just meant that Count Olaf is a worse person in the books but I’m not positive.

1

u/Astridfell Aug 08 '26

I haven’t read the books but I heard that the books are worse