Following on from Alison and Guy (welcome aboard, 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 wonder whether the Federation ideology might have contributed to this belief. After all Totalitarian regimes have a habit of subscribing to perverse variants of Darwinian theory - Eugenics in Nazi Germany, Lysenko's theories in Stalinist Russia. The Federation probably justified itself through it's propaganda by suggesting that if nasty malcontents like Blake got their way and gave everyone freedom, the galaxy would descend into Chaos. Servalan's own experiences and character may have given this the romantic, quasi-Wagnerian twist that the Chaos would come in any event and that all one could do was hold it back.
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.
I think I'll just me too at this point.
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.
I can't myself see this. On the rare occasions Servalan does justify herself it's in terms of her own experience and feelings. But I can imagine that she's intelligent enough to understand the appeal that ideas have for other people and to use it when she suits her.
Stephen.
____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie