My Favorite Villainesses

Ever since childhood I've always been a huge fan of the villains in fiction; whether it's the morally ambiguous villains that one can understand and sometimes even sympathize with, or the truly diabolical fiends. As such it should come as no surprise that villains will be a recurring topic on this blog. For my first villain-related post I've decided to write about some of my favorite female villains: It's been said that the female of the species is deadlier than the male, and these bad girls do their best to prove that saying right.

(Please note that while I've tried to keep spoilers to a minimum, sometimes they're unavoidable. Thread carefully).

Maleficent

Let's start with someone obvious. Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty is pretty much the ultimate villain in the Disney Animated Canon. Her design and her voice (provided by Eleanor Audrey who also voiced Lady Tremaine in Cinderella) both ooze with stylish wickedness and to top it off, she can turn into a dragon, something which always gives you points in my books. Disney has provided us it several great female villains over the years, but Maleficent is a cut above the rest. Truly, she lives up to her self-proclaimed title as Mistress of All Evil.

Azula

Another obvious choice: Princess Azula of the Fire-Nation was the most tenacious and formidable villain on Avatar: The Last Air-Bender. Cunning, powerful and smug; I loved to hate Azula and later, as more of what made her thick was revealed, I came to pity her as well. Firelord Ozai may have been the big bad of the series, but his daughter was by far its best bad.

Milady de Winter

One thing I've noticed in fiction is that when we have a female villain working for, or with, a male colleague, she tends to be the less evil of the two. Not so with Milady de Winter from The Three Musketeers; Cardinal Richelieu's mysterious and seductive spy/assassin who is by far the most evil character in the novel, completely outdoing her Magnificent Bastard of a boss in terms of sheer wickedness. Of course, the musketeers themselves aren't exactly saints, but Milady goes that extra mile. Her finest moment? Locked up she manages to not only seduce her jailer into freeing her, but also convinces him to carry out her assassination-mission, leaving the poor sap to be hauled off to the gallows. Damn.

Vermouth

Not just my favorite female character in Detective Conan, but quite possibly my favorite villain in the series as well. Vermouth aka Sharon Vineyard is a character that can best be described as an enigma wrapped up in multiple questions: She's a member of the Black Organization, yet she seems to enjoy a great deal of autonomy, she knows the true identities of Conan and Haibara, but for some reason she hasn't told her boss or fellow members and of course, there's the fact that she apparently hasn't aged a bit in twenty years. All in all, the many mysteries surrounding her helps make Vermouth into one of the most intriguing characters in the Detective Conan franchise.

Lydia Gwilt

One of the more obscure characters on this list, Lydia is the main villainess of the 19th century novel Armadale by Wilkie Collins and easily the best character in it. Collins wrote some of my favorite female characters of his era and Lydia is no exception; an adventuress and murderess with a stormy past whose machinations are at the core of the novel. The epistolary-format of Armadale also means that we, the readers, get a lot of insight into what goes on in Lydia's head, via her letters and exceprts from her diary. A wonderful character from one of my favorite authors.

Evelyn Crow

The villainess of The Rainbow Orchid, like Princess Azula, Evelyn is not the big bad of this great adventure comic, but she serves as the primary enemy of the heroes. Evelyn, with her Louise Brooks-haircut and ruthless personality was definitely my favorite character in The Rainbow Orchid. Tasked by shady tycoon Urkaz Grope to prevent hero Julius Chancer and his friends from recovering the eponymous flower, Evelyn goes about her mission with a commitment and efficiency that I couldn't help but find admirable. If Garen Ewing ever makes a sequel to The Rainbow Orchid, I hope we get to see her again.

Lady Kaede

The villainess of Ran, the movie itself may be Akira Kurosawa's take on King Lear with the genders reversed, but Kaede owes more to Tamora or Lady MacBeth than she does to Edmund. Kaede is a woman driven entirely by vengeance; when she was a child her entire clan was killed by the warlord Hidetora and now she seeks revenge. Understandable and yet, the lengths Kaede is willing to go in order to achieve her vengeance unquestionably makes her a villain, at least in my eyes. She also gets one of my favorite death-scenes in all of cinema.

Phyllis Dietrichson

Not much to write about Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity, except that she's pretty much the film-noir femme fatale. Oh, and the movie itself great, if you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend you check it out.

Rosemary Applefield

I've talked about Ashita no Nadja before so I'd recommend you follow the link if you want to know my opinion about this unjustly obscure shojo anime. I'll say this though, Rosemary was without a doubt my favorite character in it. When she appeared, the plot kicked into high-gear, she was the real mastermind behind Herman Preminger's schemes and was so fabulous that although I hated the things she did, I could never hate Rosemary herself. I wasn't even mad when she got away scot-free at the end, and since I normally hate that sort of thing, it should tell you what an awesome character Rosemary is.

Mrs. Iselin

The villain of The Manchurian Candidate played by Angela Lansbury. Mrs. Iselin is a woman who desires power over any cost, no matter what she has to do get it, even brainwashing her own son into becoming an assassin and partaking in a Communist plot to take over America. Of course, once the take-over is succesful, Mrs. Iselin has no intention to share the power with anyone. Who would've thought that Mrs. Potts could be so evil?

Snoop

Along with Chris Partlow, Felicia Pearson a.k.a. Snoop is Marlo Stanfield's top-lieutenant in his bid to take control of the Baltimore drug-trade. Do not get fooled by her small stature and cute looks, this woman is an extremely efficient and brutal killer. Probably my favorite female character in The Wire.

Livia Drusilla

Most of these ladies are, thankfully, the product of fertile imagination. However, here's one villainess who actually existed in real-life, though whether she was as bad as her portrayal in I, Claudius make her out to be is highly unlikely. Not it matters though, because the Livia written by Robert Graves and later portrayed by Sian Philips in the 70's mini-series is an awesome villain, being brilliant, ruthless and funny. The last one may come as a surprise, but Livia's one-liners are a great source for really black humor in both the book and the show.

Mags Bennett

The matriarch of the Bennett clan in Justified and the big bad of the show's second season. Mags was a terrific character and Margo Martindale did a great job portraying her. Whether she was poisoning a competitor with some of her special 'apple pie', getting the denizens of Bennett county riled up against Black Pike or simply smashing on of her son's hands with a hammer for being an idiot, Mags was always riveting to watch.

Ravel Puzzlewell

The Night Hag who made The Nameless One immortal, Ravel doesn't get much screen-time in Planescape: Torment, being only present for a single conversation and a boss-battle, but she definitely makes the most of the time she gets. The conversation with Ravel is one of the game's high-points and reveals a ton about her character and her relationship with The Nameless One, among other things. Creepy, obsessive and tragic among other things, Ravel was an engrossing and fascinating character in a game filled with them.

SHODAN

The AI that becomes self-aware and turns evil has been a staple of the Sci-Fi genre for a long, long time. One of the best of these rogue AI is SHODAN of System Shock 1 & 2 fame, who is one of the scariest and most formidable villains in video-game history. One of the things that make SHODAN so great is her omni-precense; throughout the game, she's constantly taunting you,daring you to challenge her bid for Godhood. Good luck, you'll need it. After all, what could you possibly do against a powerful, immortal machine?

Balalaika

Black Lagoon is one of those series in which basically the entire cast  consists of villains. However, if I were to pick one character that towers above the rest, it would be Balalaika. Balalaika is the head of Hotel Moscow, the biggest and most powerful gang in Roanapur, the fictional city in which Black Lagoon takes place. Hotel Moscow consists entirely of Balalaika's old squad from her days as a soldier in the Afghan War and she runs it with military efficiency. Although she rarely acts an antagonist to the Black Lagoon crew, there's no denying that Balalaika is an extremely frightening woman, whose path you'd best not cross if you value your life.

Demona

If Maleficent is the ultimate female villain in the Disney Animated Canon, than Demona holds that title when it comes to Disney's animated TV-shows. Frankly, there's not much I can say about this genocidal gargoyle that other people (like GregX) haven't said already. Suffice to say that Demona is one of the most fully-realized and complex characters ever seen in a cartoon and let's leave it at that.

                                        Kreia

Another villain written by Chris Avellone. However, unlike Ravel, Kreia is present in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II from beginning to the end, making her a much more detailed character. Throughout the game we learn about a lot about Kreia, so that by the end it feels like KOTOR II is her story, just as much (if not more) as the main character's. Kreia is one of the most well-written and complex characters I've seen, not just in the Star Wars franchise, but in videogames in general. Personally, I found her to be much more subtle and complex in her villainy than Palpatine and Vader.

 

Ren Gyokuen

Magi is one of the best shonen manga in recent memory and one major reason for that are the characters, which are all very well-handled, including the major villains. When we first meet Gyokuen she seems like the perfect picture of a kind and loving mother. However, nothing could be farther from the truth (naturally, since she's here). Gyokuen is a cruel and deceitful women, willing to kill anyone who stands in the way of her goals, including her husband and children. She's also the leader of Al-Thamen, the evil organization that's behind the most of the bad shit in Magi's universe. Aside from being a great love-to-hate villain, Gyokuen also gets major points for being a rare example of a female big bad in a shonen series, something we don't see often.

So, there you have it. Other evil women worthy of mentioning are: The aforementioned Lady MacBeth and Tamora from MacBeth and Titus Andronicus respectjvely. Cirin from Cerebus, Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke, Gretel from The Milkweed Triptych, Dunya Musta'sim from Magi, Eve Harrington from All About Eve and several others.