Sally wrote:
I like Servalan best in her most inhuman moments, such as Deliverance, Trial
and Terminal. Or - if one wants vulnerability - when it's her own safety
that affects her usual invulnerability, such as Rumours.
Great scenes all (which I don't see as mutually exclusive with Sand, btw). What I find remarkable is that the writers never put her through the cliché of clichés, evil villain begging hero(es) for her life. In Rumours, you can see she's more than worried before Anna & Co. burst through the door, but as soon as they're in, she's all sang-froid again. Later, in the cellar scene, which must definitely be her lowest moment, there's no begging either. When she sees a chance to get out, she takes it, but without humiliating herself. Incidentally, at the end we get what I'd count as the first ambigious Servalan moment - the little thing with Avon at the end. I don't think she really wanted to kill him right then, but pretending to want to was the only way to get him put the bracelet back on. And she definitely looked neither angry nor gloating after his exit.
Sally:
The Servie in Sand belongs more in Batman than B7 :-)
Would that be Batman as written by a) Bob Kane, b) Frank Miller or c) various Hollywood scribes? <g> Come to think of it, Tarrant does have some similarity to Robin (I can just hear Avon refer to him as The Boy Wonder), while the jury is still out on Avon as Bruce Wayne...
Tanja