Just what the title suggests – who are your favorite fictional villainesses?
The list changes from day to day, but Milady de Winter from Alexandre Dumas’ “Three musketeers” is always in the top ten. Cold as ice to the very end – brrr! Most film versions of “Three musketeers” either redeem her (Disney’s horrible version) or cut her out completely (the even more horrible “Musketeer”). What gives? Is she just too threatening?
Beatrice Lacey in Philipa Gregory’s book Wideacre is almost unsurpassably bad. She murders her father, commits incest with her brother and has his children, leaves her lover to die in an animal trap and ensures tenants on her family’s estate die of starvation. And it’s all done in the name of feminism!! In England in the 18th Century women apparently couldn’t inherit land and Beatrice Lacey really likes land.
Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft is pretty bad. OK, it wasn’t really her fault that she got turned to evil in the first place, but she lets her desire for vengeance overwhelm her morality even when she can think for herself again. She repeatedly betrays most of the galaxy (double- and triple- crossing just about everyone). Plus she gets most of the good lines. She’s one of my favorite villainesses, but there were hints that she’s getting in a little over her head toward the end.
I’ll second Sarah Kerrigan… she was once the most likeable of Good Guys, and suddenly is revealed as the most heinous of Bad Guys. Such a wonderful dichotomy.
Of course, as cool and evil as Kerrigan is, she’s no match for the villainy of Princess Sara from the 8-Bit Theatre comic.
Greatest villain is definitely Joseph Heric, from The Practice. The way he manipulated the law to get away with three murders is nothing short of masterful.
Best Villainesses, will have to be Catwoman–she was so bad that Batman had no choice but to marry her–and The Wicked Witch of the West. Snow White’s stepmother would also be up there too.