Irv Hartwig

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Hate Sink
Full Name	Irv Hartwig
Alias	M. Hartwig
Origin	Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Allies	Albert Ingalls (formerly)
Powers/Skills	Manipulations Disguise Blacksmith skills
Goals	Having Sylvia for him by raping her as much as he wants (succeeded once but failed at the end)
What Makes Them Despicable	Rape the innocent 15-year-old Sylvia and as a result, get her pregnant later.
"Love to hate" factors	None
Type of Hate Sink	Pedophilic Loser

Irv Hartwig is an antagonist of the TV series Little House on the Prairie. He appears in the episode "Sylvia" and is portrayed by Richard Jaeckel. He is a Blacksmith of Walnut Grove's town for which Albert asked for work, but under his facade of a friendly blacksmith, actually hides that he's a pedophilic sexual predator who is obsessed with a 15-year-old girl named Sylvia Webb.

What Makes Him a Hate Sink?

• He masquerades to be a sympathetic blacksmith while he is actually a sexual and pedophilic pervert, having a sexually unhealthy attraction for a 15-year-old girl named Sylvia Webb.
• While Sylvia was walking alone in the forest to return home, Hartwig disguised himself with a mask and brutally assaulted and raped her, which not only mentally traumatized Sylvia and physically injured her, but also resulted in fertilization in the young girl, causing her to become pregnant with a child.
• Throughout the episode, Hartwig continues to hunt down and monitor Sylvia Webb as the latter quietly fishes with Albert Ingalls.
• When Albert reveals to him where Sylvia is after the latter is runaway, Hartwig lies to him by making him believe that he will help him and Sylvia to run away together, only so he can secretly find the girl in the abandoned barn with sexual intentions.
• When he goes to the abandoned barn and finds Sylvia, he tries to rape her a second time by blocking the exit and trying to catch her at the top of a ladder, and he would probably have succeeded if Albert had not suddenly intervened to stop him.
• When Sylvia was suddenly injured falling off the ladder, Hartwig showed no sign of concern for her, which well shows that his obsession for Sylvia was nothing but lust.
• While he tries to hit Albert with a wooden board, he is suddenly killed by Sylvia’s father and even at that time, his death certainly does not make him a scapegoat. This is entirely merited for his crimes.
• Overall, he is fully responsible for Sylvia's misery and death as a result of her fall because without him, Sylvia’s father would never have considered moving because of the child Sylvia was expecting following her rape and therefore, the girl would not have run away and would not have been driven to her death trying to run away from Mr. Hartwig in climbing a ladder.