How do you rank Bond girls and Bond villains?

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Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Basically when having this discussion with other friends who are Bond fans, I am not sure how I would pick a favorite Bond girl and villain?

When it comes to ranking with the women, I could go for who is the best looking and sexiest like Domino Derval, although her character isn't very interesting, beyond looks and sex appeal.

Or I could go for a girl who is not as high in the looks department for me, but has a much better character development like Vesper Lynd, or Tracy.

When it comes to picking villains, I could go for the villain who is the most iconic in looks and performance such as Donald Pleasance's take on Blofeld, or I could go for the villain who is given the best character arc in terms of story, like Renard.

What do you think, or how would you pick?



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Film Crit Hulk did this four-part series of articles about the Bond series that brought up a couple of interesting points regarding Bond girls and Bond villains. It posits that the villains aren't all that important in the grand scheme of things because so many of them are effectively interchangeable in their world-domination schemes and don't usually have much in the way of distinct personalities and aesthetics (though there are a few notable exceptions such as Red Grant or Alec Trevelyan). The girls, on the other hand, are more noteworthy because the series' notorious level of chauvinism draws extra attention to how each installment treats (or mistreats) its female characters. The articles hypothesise that the best Bond movies also tend to make good use of the Bond girls within the plot beyond just being disposable eye-candy.

As a result, I'm inclined to think that the best villains and girls are the ones that serve the narrative of a given Bond movie best rather than superficial appearances or claims to "iconic" status. Villains tend to be more interesting when they serve as evil counterparts to Bond instead of just being rich megalomaniacs with their own agendas like Goldfinger or Karl Stromberg. Blofeld being a recurring villain also weakened him as a whole since each individual appearance could vary in quality. That's why I'd pick Trevelyan as my favourite Bond villain - there are some layers to his take on the "evil counterpart". As for the girls, it's hard to go past the ones that act as proper foils for Bond and his shenanigans (whether in terms of the narrative or their personal relationship), so I'd be more inclined to pick Tracy Bond or Vesper Lynd over the likes of Honey Ryder or Pussy Galore.
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I hate Vesper Lynd, the "romance" between her and Bond is farcical at best and the film's attempt to manipulate me into feeling sorry for her falls flat. Oh, she betrayed her country for her man, instead of telling her superiors of the situation like any sane person would do. Her love was just that great! Choirs of angels sung whenever she looked upon him! But oh, turns out he was just a "Quantum" agent (or is it Spectre?) that played her. Boo hoo.

I was completely unaffected by her death, and the entire movie to be frank.

My favorite Bond girl is Pam Bouvier from Licence to Kill. She was a tough heroine done right, without needless dialogue of her emasculating her male counterparts, and she had legs to die for.




As for villains, I'm quite fond of Hugo Drax. He's the highlight of an otherwise ridiculous movie, I love his dry delivery. "Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him."



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To be fair, if your significant other is being held by a top-secret terrorist organisation that is capable of planting moles into various intelligence agencies (including the one you work for), then reporting to one's superiors about the situation would almost certainly result in dire consequences for said significant other. If Bond was willing to quit MI6 entirely for Vesper, then it's not surprising that she'd pull similarly extreme moves for whatsisface.

Also, I'm surprised you didn't consider the bit where Bond shows off his Walther and an unimpressed Pam pulls out a shotgun to be "emasculating".



Basically when having this discussion with other friends who are Bond fans, I am not sure how I would pick a favorite Bond girl and villain?

When it comes to ranking with the women, I could go for who is the best looking and sexiest like Domino Derval, although her character isn't very interesting, beyond looks and sex appeal.

Or I could go for a girl who is not as high in the looks department for me, but has a much better character development like Vesper Lynd, or Tracy.

When it comes to picking villains, I could go for the villain who is the most iconic in looks and performance such as Donald Pleasance's take on Blofeld, or I could go for the villain who is given the best character arc in terms of story, like Renard.

What do you think, or how would you pick?
Put it this way, if somebody says "who's your favourite Bond girl?" I think it would traditionally be taken as meaning the one you fancy the most. In my case it's Sophie Marceau and Olga Kurylenko (agonizing to choose between them). I agree that Tracy is one of the most interesting characters and I suppose Elektra King and Camille Montes are in that same vein.

My favourite villain is actually the same as my favourite Bond film, Sanchez in Licence to Kill. That may not be true of other fans though.



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Put it this way, if somebody says "who's your favourite Bond girl?" I think it would traditionally be taken as meaning the one you fancy the most. In my case it's Sophie Marceau and Olga Kurylenko (agonizing to choose between them)..
I agree. Probably just easier for me to say which one I don't like

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Sanchez is pretty good. I guess if I pick the best villain I might say Renard, cause he has the most interesting backstory, with the reverse stockholm syndrome, that lead to his downfall.



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Renard's an interesting pick because he's ultimately more of an archetypal Bond henchman than an actual main villain, especially since

WARNING: "The World is Not Enough" spoilers below
Elektra King is the real villain of the story, which is an interesting twist on the Bond formula by having the Bond girl also be the true villain - and Renard only lives to serve her


plus his bullet-in-the-head invincibility really does push him into the same kind of freaky henchman territory as characters like Tee Hee or Jaws.



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True, if we were to put the henchman in another category, then perhaps he would belong there. But he has his own terrorist syndicate that he runs, apart from Electra, so that would make him independent from being just a henchmen though?



well there is no question that ernst stavro blofeld is the ultimate villain in all of the film history, u have to admit, but i also like sean bean a lot from goldeneye, he s a very very capable and very likeable character and u feel for him in the film.
as for girls i personally rate sophie marceau as in terms of character complexity and beauty but i also rate jayne seymour really high in terms of beauty



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well there is no question that ernst stavro blofeld is the ultimate villain in all of the film history, u have to admit,


In all honesty, I'll be very dissapointed of Waltz doesn't come back but, then again, it would be keeping in with the franchise to have a new Blofeld.

I like Alec as well. Anyone else hoped to see his name on the memorial wall in Spectre?



well there is no question that ernst stavro blofeld is the ultimate villain in all of the film history, u have to admit, but i also like sean bean a lot from goldeneye, he s a very very capable and very likeable character and u feel for him in the film.
as for girls i personally rate sophie marceau as in terms of character complexity and beauty but i also rate jayne seymour really high in terms of beauty
Yeah I think that's a given .

I think in theory Blofeld is the ultimate Bond villain but what lets him down is the amount of different actors playing him and the success of each one. Much as I like Charles Gray I wasn't a fan of his Blofeld. Telly Savalas was okay. Pleasence is great of course – what a good actor he was; so interesting to watch.



Sanchez is pretty good. I guess if I pick the best villain I might say Renard, cause he has the most interesting backstory, with the reverse stockholm syndrome, that lead to his downfall.
I liked Renard and his peculiar situation but it was just the film itself that was a bit weak. And the whole Christmas Jones thing was quite embarrassing. People never think either that the story with M in Skyfall had pretty much already been done in The World is Not Enough.



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Best Villain: Blofeld, You Only Live Twice

Best Henchman: Jaws

Best Bond Girl: tough one, probably Barbara Bach in Spy Who Loved Me playing agent triple X.

Worst Villain: Media Baron in Tomorrow Never Dies

Worst Henchman: The big blonde German puff in Tomorrow Never Dies

Worst Bond Girl: Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger
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Best Villain: Blofeld, You Only Live Twice

Best Henchman: Jaws

Best Bond Girl: tough one, probably Barbara Bach in Spy Who Loved Me playing agent triple X.

Worst Villain: Media Baron in Tomorrow Never Dies

Worst Henchman: The big blonde German puff in Tomorrow Never Dies

Worst Bond Girl: Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger
Barbara Bach's probably my third favourite, and The Spy Who Loved Me my second favourite of the films.

I thought Stamper was entertaining enough. Jonathan Pryce's Carver was a bit annoying but he probably should be .



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It wasn't Jonathan Pryce's fault, great actor, just having a ****ing media mogul as bad guy was lol bad.



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^^^^ Lady Olenna from GOT, I didn't know that for quite a while after her character appeared.



What??? not one pic of a Bond Girl on this thread I did see one pic yesterday but the image isn't showing.
Yes, we've been sleepwalking through this conversation. Thanks for rectifying this appalling oversight .