Guy said -
I'm a newcomer here, so I should really borrow some of Slave's humility
for my first few postings
No way - get stuck in like everyone else does. Hello by the way.
Do we really believe Servalan thinks about this stuff much ?
'Think about' and 'believe that' are ambiguous terms. A person might 'think that' something is the case without framing it in their mind in so many words. So it might be that Servalan doesn't spend much time thinking about political or historical processes, but she just instinctively feels that everything must end badly, that compassion and love will lose to greed and terror: as she says 'it's an old wall, and it waits for everyone'.
I think adding this radical pessimism to her character makes her more rounded (no pun intended) than the average SF villain of the time. Her ruthlessness isn't just an inexplicable plot device, but reflects a complete, bleak, world view.
As it happens I'd go a bit further than that, as I think Servalan probably does think in explicit terms about these things. I think she is a bit of an intellectual, though a pragmatic one rather than a lover of ideas for their own sake. But I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions.
Alison
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