Recently I’ve done several poll on the SFF Facebook group to determine the Top 5 of lots of different things. For the 24 days leading up to the 25th Anniversary (and the day itself, of course) I will be posting a new Top 5 list each day, using the highly scientific and unbiased results from those FB polls. I’ll try to make these posts short but I’m pretty long winded and like to talk so…they’re probably all going to be pretty long. Enjoy?
Top 5 Villains
What makes someone evil or wicked? Do they like being bad or do they think they're really the hero and everyone else are the villains? If heroes are the cake of a story then villains are the icing on top - beautiful, delicious, and really bad for you. Well, that's how I see it, but then again I love villains!
CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD!
#5 - It's a tie between
The Psi-Squad and The Villains
The Psi-Squad
The Psi-Squad are characters in the movie Mind Games, played by Jen Weber, Jacob MacLeod, and Margaret Olson. They are mentioned in the beginning of the movie as an organization that Talin belongs to and they sent him the psionic device to try out. At the end of the movie we finally see them in person much to Tilia's surprise. Are they there to help? Nope, they are there to clean up the mess of the malfunctioning psionic device. They are methodical and ruthless in their disposal methods, only showing compassion for Talin because he had psionic powers as well. Arranging everything to look like a massacre from an enemy, they tidy up all the loose ends and leave no one alive. They are both frighting and evil even though they would never think of themselves as being villains.
The Villains
The Villains are a collection of bad guys in the short film The Villain's Workshop. They're participating in a weekend workshop to learn how to be better at being bad. With a mad scientist (Eric Patrick), a greedy CEO (Drew Thomas), a selfish diva (Brittany Ann Whalen), a succubus (Morgan Thomas), someone who's career is still undecided (Syndi Eller) and the evil overlord who runs the workshop (Dan Zangerl) there's a villain for every type.
The characters are discussed in more details in the Film Shoot Wrap Up post about the Villain's Workshop, so check that out for more information.
#4 - General
General, played by LaQuisha Harris, is a character in the TV show The Gift Bearer. Not much is known about General, not even her real name just her code name. We do learn that she used to be in a very powerful position but for some reason she was demoted and relegated to the Termination Unit, which she implies is somehow Xavier's fault. Despite being demoted she is still fiercely loyal to the Echelon and would never betray them.
That is until Minerva is turned evil by a brainwashing machine that backfires and she takes over the Echelon. General becomes Minerva's right hand minion and seems to go with the flow choosing to follow whoever has the most power. However she is actually just fed up with how weak the Echelon has become, how badly she is being treated, and is just waiting for the opportunity to overthrow Minerva and take over the Echelon herself.
She is a fanatic, full of ambition and greed, eager to rise to her former rank again and ultimately go beyond it. She genuinely believes that she's the only one who can make the Echelon better and in doing so make the world - past and present - a better place for everyone else, as long as everyone else wants a military dictatorship.
General was originally envisioned to be played by a man, but the script is non gender specific and when LaQuisha auditioned for the part she blew me away. She is an AMAZING actress, one of the most talented I have met. She took General from being a very generic, flat, one dimensional character to being a fully formed, three-dimensional character with a mysterious past, a complicated mindset, and an iron will. I expanded the role just for her and my only regret is that I never got to film with her again.
#3 - Asarai
Asaria, played by Annamarie MacLeod, is a character in the movie The Dragon & The Unicorn. Cursed at birth to be an evil immortal, Asarai has to spend thousands of years battling her twin sister Leona, who is reborn every time she dies. Although she seems to be bloodthirsty and cruel at first she is actually a rather pitiful soul who has to drink blood to survive yet can't stay dead. Her beautiful, good and kind sister gets to forget their cycles of pain with every rebirth and often gets what Asarai wants but can't have.
There's a Characters 101 post about her so if you want to know more details about Asarai check it out. She's a very cool character and much more three-dimensional then a lot of villains.
#2 - Balthazar
Balthazar, played by Jacob MacLeod, is a character in the Destiny Trilogy movies and Mini-Series and he is the first real villain I ever wrote. He starts out as the evil King Gergio's minion/right hand man but ends up killing his master and taking his place. Declaring himself the king of Traldon, Balthazar steals the throne and seeks to solidify his power by marrying Princess Elaina from the Kingdom of Liliya. His wedding is interrupted by the heroes, he is captured but laters escapes and comes back twelve years later to get revenge.
He has a complicated past with Esteban and the royal family and although he started out as a rather flat one dimensional villain he grew in complexity through the Trilogy. By the end of the story he has become three dimensional with flaws and even a few virtues. He's a classic type of fairytale villain for a fairytale type story but with a more complex past.
There's a Characters 101 post about him so if you want to know more details you can check it out.
#1 - Zarina
Zarina, played by Nina Samii, is a character in the TV show Pandora's Box. In the beginning she is a very one-dimensional, typical selfish diva princess with no compassion. She has a quick temper, anger management issues and yells a lot. Zarina also has a victim complex believing that everything bad that happens to her is someone else's fault and she never did anything to deserve all the hatred people have towards her.
When some children threw rotten fruit at her carriage she lied to the army and told them that the village they were from was full of dangerous rebels and that everyone there needed to be eliminated. Since she was the only princess and heir to the throne of the Empire her orders were not questioned and an entire village full of innocent peasants including children were brutally massacred.
She is so hated by the people that one day they manage to topple her carriage and pull her out. They drag her into a clearing in the woods and string her up, about to hang her, when they are stopped by a young druid named Diyara whom they call the Chosen One. With absolute reverence they listen to Diyara's commands and let Zarina go, even though they know she will seek revenge and they will probably all die. You would think Zarina would be grateful that Diyara saved her life, but Zarina is furious. How dare someone else be more respected then the princess?!? Zarina begins a systematic campaign to eliminate all of the druids in the Empire and execute Diyara.
This is the kind of selfish, spoiled bitch Zarina is. She's vindictive, cruel, and a total sociopath. She poisons her mother, the Empress Zarynthia (who was a terrible mother anyway, but that's not the point) and takes the throne. Within weeks, however, the army rebels against her forcing her to abandon the palace and run. For over a year she fights a civil war against her own people in order to stay in power. Since she's such a terrible person the longer the war drags on the more people leave her side and join the Army Faction.
Eventually even the extremely loyal General De Carlo turns against her. Alone in a shabby room in a broken down house she literally confronts herself in a mirror and decides she has to change, after blaming everyone else first and throwing a world-class temper tantrum of course. The only person who doesn't abandon her is bodyguard Coskin. He even helps her fake her own death so she can start a new life and find a way to get back into power. Of course in order for people to believe the corpse is actually Zarina, her faithful bodyguard's corpse must be found lying next to her so she kills him.
Truly alone for the first time in her life she finds it difficult to even exist. Eventually, starving, beaten, and alone she collapses from exhaustion on a deserted road far away from any town. She is saved by a kind old lady who takes her in. The woman, Thebe, treats her wounds, and more importantly heals her soul. By now Zarina has faced the truth about herself, she decided to change but didn't know how. Thebe teaches her the joys of living a simple life and for several months Zarina experiences peace and quiet with a friend who becomes like a mother to her.
When Thebe's secret is revealed - that she was actually Zarynthia's most loyal general and the most powerful person in the Army before she secretly retired - Zarina flips out. She's been lied to by the person she trusted most. Thebe calms her down and offers to train her if Zarina still wants to join the army and work her way up the ranks of power. Although Thebe goes from being a motherly mentor to a drill sergeant yet their relationship actually improves because there are no longer any secrets between them.
Thebe declares Zarina's training to be done and Zarina says goodbye to Thebe as she heads off to join the army, fully intending to visit her again. As Zarina, who has now adopted the name of Mira Mernecky since Zarina is offically dead, is traveling she overhears people talking about a rebel commander who is oging around killing army officers. Realizing the rebels are heading in Thebe's direction Zarina runs back home just in time to see Thebe being slaughtered by the rebel leader, Ryaka Salfrom. She holds Thebe in her arms as Thebe dies.
Ryaka declares Thebe's death to be a great triumph and a victory for the rebels. Still in shock Zarina demands to know who ordered Thebe's death - rebel groups always coordinate their attacks. Ryaka proudly declares that Cat, Diyara, and the other rebels gave the order and Zarina sees red. Cat and Diyara helped take everything away from her and now the death of her mentor - her best friend and adopted mother - is one their hands. She has no way to know, of course, that Ryaka is lying about all of that and is in fact an insane renegade who was kicked out of the rebels. All Zarina knows is that Cat, Diyara, and the other rebels murdered Thebe. Full of fury and grief, she attacks Ryaka and brutally murders her then, with her hands still covered in both Thebe and Ryaka's blood, she vows to avenge Thebe's death and murder everyone who was responsible for it.
From this point on Zarina has completely changed. She was an ugly caterpillar who became a butterfly after being nourished with love, then suddenly turns into a raging Basilisk. Before Zarina was just a one-dimensional spoiled princess bitch, a very flat character, but she changed and mellowed and experienced love and life for the first time as Mira. That made her two-dimensional. With Thebe's death and Mira's blood vow her character becomes fully three-dimensional. Now she has a purpose in life, a solid goal, and a reason to hate. Zarina is back to being the villain but this time she is smarter, stronger, and more determined then ever before.
She joins the army without hesitation and quickly rises up the ranks to become a general in only three years thanks to Thebe's training, her own intelligence, and her hard work and ambition. Mira is focused on only one thing - getting enough power to take down all the rebels and publicly execute Cat and Diyara. Her hatred drives her and she becomes even more twisted.
It takes years and a lot of hard work but eventually she kicks General Leffridge - who had lead the rebellion against Zarina when she was the Empress - out of power and becomes the undisputed leader of the Army Faction and takes over as a dictator. All this time she has planted spies among the rebels who report to her their every action. When she discovers the rebels are planning a massive attack to bring down the Army Faction once and for all, Zarina plans a surprise counter attack and traps them. Cat, Diyara, and the others sacrifice their lives in a desperate last stand to hold back the enemy so the other rebels can escape.
Diyara somehow survives the final battle and Zarina orders her to be burned at the stake. She watches with ruthless delight as Diyara burns alive, knowing that her revenge is complete. Those who killed Thebe are dead and she has regained everything she lost. It's very rare to see a villain win, but since I made this show for Nina Samii I had to honor her request to not just play a villain, but a villain who wins because in her words "being a loser villain is no good."
Zarina is the only villain in any of my productions, or even the stories and novels I write on my own, to beat the heroes and take over the world. I actually really like Zarina because she became such a complex and well rounded character. Zarina is complicated yet simple at the same time. She wants what she wants, is selfish and looses. She learns to love, has that love brutally taken from her, then vows revenge. Simple, just full of depth and meaning. I find Zarina's transformation to be fascinating and really ended up liking her a lot in the end. It also helped that Nina Samii did an AMAZING job playing her.
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