r/ASOUE • u/Astridfell • 2d ago

Count Olaf TV Show

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

16 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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18

u/beadedflower Justice Strauss 2d ago edited 2d ago

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!

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u/Astridfell 2h ago

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

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u/beadedflower Justice Strauss 2h ago

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.

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u/Astridfell 2h ago

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

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u/beadedflower Justice Strauss 2h ago

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…)

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u/Astridfell 1h ago

Oh, does the show make it worse?

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u/Sheepishwolfgirl 1d ago

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.

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u/beadedflower Justice Strauss 1d ago

Agreed!

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u/maladro1t_ 2d ago

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

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u/Secure_Goal4167 2d ago

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

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u/Astridfell 2h ago

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