Teen Tyrant
The Master Debater
One great thing you can say about Resident Evil's progressive messages, is how it presents the dynamic of the two sexes. While I'm not really one to care about such things usually, it has to be admitted and acknowledged that RE has been pretty great about this since the beginning. You see this in the presentation of both Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, and how they compliment each other; Chris has the standard male attributes, being physically stronger than Jill by a measurable degree, and being more combat effective, even with lesser tools. Jill is not diminished by this at all, however, and her character is still respected despite having the standard female attribute of being officially weaker, as she has access to more tools, the ability to use them in situations Chris can't, and having access to more powerful weaponry to make up for her lesser combat effectiveness. This has translated across the series to virtually all other male/female partner dynamics, and the series has never pandered to anyone in trying to make the sexes exactly equal in all categories, but rather to show how being lesser in one category just leads to mastery in another. This also carries over to the series villains. Resident Evil has almost as many female primary villains as it does male ones, and they are every bit as evil, ruthless, intelligent, and at times just as predictable, cliche', and boring.
We have a thread on how the heroic women compare, but how do the bad ladies of the series rank up next to each other? My selection, below:
10) Lisa Trevor - Hardly a villain at all, Lisa was a young girl whose mind devolved even further to something more like an animal. While she'll kill anyone who is not her mother, it's hardly her fault, due to what she's become and how she got like that. Still, dangerous as she is and hard as she is to put down, she ranks.
9) Marguerite Baker - Like Lisa, it's not her fault that she is what she is, as she is literally being controlled by a hostile force, as well as turned into a monster. Her aggression is heightened considerably, and while it is hinted that some part of the Bakers' personalities pre-infection translated to how they are now, they were primarily good people, and Marguerite is simply succumbing to sickness. All the same, her raging tirades and loud swearing are terrifying, so you don't really feel sorry for her until after she's dead.
8) Annette Birkin - Annette is only barely over the line into villainy. Yeah, she worked for Umbrella; yeah, she killed people or got them killed; yeah, she neglected her daughter. All bad stuff. But, in the end, Annette, like her husband, William, just wanted to succeed in her work. She didn't necessarily have the best intentions, but neither was she actively cheering for Umbrella to conquer the world. She killed when she felt she had to, to protect her and William's research, and was at the very least a professional scientist. She makes the cut on technicalities, due to her complicity with the real bad guys.
7) Maria Gomez - Gotta admit, this one is only here to get the list up to ten. We don't really know anything significant about her character, other than she is one of the few surviving members of Los Illuminados, she may have Las Plagas in her based on her red eyes, and she worked with Arias to destroy the United States with the A-virus, and likely wouldn't stop there. And, she's still alive at the end. Merciless yet mysterious, we may never hear from her again, but I'd be willing to bet cash money that those of you who even watched Vendetta didn't even remember she existed, and didn't know who I was talking about when you first read the name. So, not much loss if she never returns.
6) Excella Gionne - Excella could have really gone somewhere as a villain, but with such an empty character, she didn't have much. Sexy as hell in looks and voice, Excella was basically a gold digger, albeit for power rather than money, and actually was genuinely interested in banging Albert Wesker, even if his power wasn't part of the equation. She was cut-throat, for sure, had a sense of style, and ambition, but came second fiddle to Wesker, and seemed to be OK with it. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it's just really hard to consider her a major villain under such conditions. The fact that she was willing to kill billions of people in such an off-handed way that she hardly even noticed she was talking about it is what gets her such a high rank, and to be fair, even Wesker cared enough to at least brag about what he was gonna do. Excella didn't care one way or another so long as she got to have a crown, and Wesker in the sack. Pretty fitting that he gave her a different kind of... injection.
5) Eveline - Eveline is almost like Lisa Trevor. She's really just a little girl who wants love... maybe. It's hard to tell with this little brat. Being the only BOW who was not a pre-existing character before becoming a BOW, Eveline is unique in the Resident Evil world for that reason. Do we blame her evil acts on her for doing them? Yeah, she was a sociopath who could not feel empathy, did not care about others except how they fed her desires, and would have gladly infected the entire world. However, she was made to do that, so she was following her function without even really knowing it. Plus, she probably really did want a family, even if that was also a psychological manifestation of her function of taking control of people. All the same, the fact that she's absolutely heartless and has no problem destroying anybody or anything, and that she's just so damn creepy, allows her to make the top five of female villains, and definitely one of the scariest villains in the series, period.
4) Svetlana Belikova - Was really hard choosing between President Belikova and Eveline for the four and five spots, but in the end, the fact that Eveline might not necessarily have consciously known what she was doing was wrong had to be considered a mitigating factor. Belikova, however, knew exactly what she was doing, and she damn near won. Unleashing a prototype Las Plagas on the people of her own capital city, as well as having Lickers and Tyrants on hand, Belikova just wanted power, and dressed it up as wanting independence and economic prosperity for her country. This was bull, and we all know it. She just wanted the glory of being able to do it, and I'm pretty sure she wanted to flaunt her having control over the men in her government, if Ada Wong's observations during their meeting are any indication. If so, she's oddly the only female villain who has the desire to upend gender roles as an influence on her actions. Either way, she nearly succeeded, and actually beat Ada in a fight, which is no small feat, although she may or may not have had a control plaga in her, which would have aided her victory. Wish we could have seen what happened to her after the U.S. and Russia invaded, and see how hard she fell.
3) Carla Radames - Carla Radames, admittedly, came closer than anyone except perhaps Wesker, to accomplishing her goal of worldwide infection. This lady had a rough history, and the fact that she had an identity crisis and was pretty much insane is certainly a mitigating factor, and the only reason why she's not at number two. However, being willing to doom the world to take revenge on one man, resulting in probably about a million people dead even with failure, and creating the second most dangerous biohazardous substance in the series (Wesker still has the honor of first) goes a long way. By the time she's encountered in-game, she no longer cares who she hurts or kills, and has a master plan that spans continents. That is James Bond levels of evil, no matter what psychological issues may be involved. Carla is a raging lunatic who needed to be put down sooner, and it speaks to Ada's character that she still felt bad for her. But no man, no matter how badly he may have screwed her over, is worth taking revenge on at the cost of everyone else's life. Sorry, Carla, but nobody is gonna defend you.
2) Alex Wesker - Truthfully, I had to ask myself if I wasn't ranking this one this high just because she has the name Wesker. After careful consideration, I concluded that her possession of that name is inconsequential to her actions. One of Spencer's most trusted underlings, Alex is a brilliant scientist who is perfectly willing to lie, cheat, steal and murder to get what she wants and doesn't give a damn about anybody but herself, and perhaps her adoptive brother, Albert. Even Spencer she speaks about with unconcealed distain, having the same dismissive feelings toward him as the other Wesker did. Alex kills entire island populations, thousands of test subjects, and puts her victims through indescribable torture in the name of immortality, and was willing to kill a little girl in order to spare herself. She partially failed, revealing herself as the true horrific monster underneath after her virus kicked in. The smartest person in the room usually, with limitless resources and an untold body count, as far as evil women go in this series, she is surpassed by only one.
1) Alexia Ashford - Despite being in a somewhat controversial entry in the series, nobody forgets Alexia after playing Code: Veronica or Darkside Chronicles. This horrible woman is Alex, Carla and Eveline all rolled into one. Born as a clone of her genius ancestor, but possessing even greater intelligence, Alexia is probably the most intelligent person to ever live, within the realm of Resident Evil. Her arrogance, privileged upbringing and extreme intelligence all fed into a sense of superiority over everyone else in the world, including her above-average brother, and her fellow scientists at Umbrella. Being hired as a chief scientist while still a child, completely outshining William Birkin, it's clear that her connection to the founding families of Umbrella played not part in her position. After experimenting on and torturing her own father and coming out of her hibernation, Alexia was worse, because she had actual power at her disposal now, and while T-Veronica is basically kid stuff now, it was a nightmare at the time, only rivaled by the G-virus. There is also something to be said for the fact that she smacked Wesker around the room even while he was enhanced! That is a signature feat all on it's own, although Wesker took it in stride and didn't seem too bothered. But really, Alexia being the first villain in the series to explicitly be seeking world conquest through the use of Umbrella's bioweapons research, her view of herself as a queen and goddess compared to other people, and her absolute lack of connection to any other person, or even a desire to have one, makes her not only the most evil woman in the series, but I'd say the most evil person in the series, period, beating out even Wesker, Spencer, and Marcus, cruel and wicked as they are. In fact, with the exception of SHODAN from the System Shock series, I'd even go so far as to say that Alexia is the most evil female character in the history of video games. She deserves to be number one with a linear launcher plasma blast.
Honorable mention goes to Rachel from Revelations, who was like Lisa Trevor, but we don't know her mental state while she's mutated, so she's just a monster, not a villain.
Did I miss anybody relevant? Do you agree with the order? Share!
We have a thread on how the heroic women compare, but how do the bad ladies of the series rank up next to each other? My selection, below:
10) Lisa Trevor - Hardly a villain at all, Lisa was a young girl whose mind devolved even further to something more like an animal. While she'll kill anyone who is not her mother, it's hardly her fault, due to what she's become and how she got like that. Still, dangerous as she is and hard as she is to put down, she ranks.
9) Marguerite Baker - Like Lisa, it's not her fault that she is what she is, as she is literally being controlled by a hostile force, as well as turned into a monster. Her aggression is heightened considerably, and while it is hinted that some part of the Bakers' personalities pre-infection translated to how they are now, they were primarily good people, and Marguerite is simply succumbing to sickness. All the same, her raging tirades and loud swearing are terrifying, so you don't really feel sorry for her until after she's dead.
8) Annette Birkin - Annette is only barely over the line into villainy. Yeah, she worked for Umbrella; yeah, she killed people or got them killed; yeah, she neglected her daughter. All bad stuff. But, in the end, Annette, like her husband, William, just wanted to succeed in her work. She didn't necessarily have the best intentions, but neither was she actively cheering for Umbrella to conquer the world. She killed when she felt she had to, to protect her and William's research, and was at the very least a professional scientist. She makes the cut on technicalities, due to her complicity with the real bad guys.
7) Maria Gomez - Gotta admit, this one is only here to get the list up to ten. We don't really know anything significant about her character, other than she is one of the few surviving members of Los Illuminados, she may have Las Plagas in her based on her red eyes, and she worked with Arias to destroy the United States with the A-virus, and likely wouldn't stop there. And, she's still alive at the end. Merciless yet mysterious, we may never hear from her again, but I'd be willing to bet cash money that those of you who even watched Vendetta didn't even remember she existed, and didn't know who I was talking about when you first read the name. So, not much loss if she never returns.
6) Excella Gionne - Excella could have really gone somewhere as a villain, but with such an empty character, she didn't have much. Sexy as hell in looks and voice, Excella was basically a gold digger, albeit for power rather than money, and actually was genuinely interested in banging Albert Wesker, even if his power wasn't part of the equation. She was cut-throat, for sure, had a sense of style, and ambition, but came second fiddle to Wesker, and seemed to be OK with it. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it's just really hard to consider her a major villain under such conditions. The fact that she was willing to kill billions of people in such an off-handed way that she hardly even noticed she was talking about it is what gets her such a high rank, and to be fair, even Wesker cared enough to at least brag about what he was gonna do. Excella didn't care one way or another so long as she got to have a crown, and Wesker in the sack. Pretty fitting that he gave her a different kind of... injection.
5) Eveline - Eveline is almost like Lisa Trevor. She's really just a little girl who wants love... maybe. It's hard to tell with this little brat. Being the only BOW who was not a pre-existing character before becoming a BOW, Eveline is unique in the Resident Evil world for that reason. Do we blame her evil acts on her for doing them? Yeah, she was a sociopath who could not feel empathy, did not care about others except how they fed her desires, and would have gladly infected the entire world. However, she was made to do that, so she was following her function without even really knowing it. Plus, she probably really did want a family, even if that was also a psychological manifestation of her function of taking control of people. All the same, the fact that she's absolutely heartless and has no problem destroying anybody or anything, and that she's just so damn creepy, allows her to make the top five of female villains, and definitely one of the scariest villains in the series, period.
4) Svetlana Belikova - Was really hard choosing between President Belikova and Eveline for the four and five spots, but in the end, the fact that Eveline might not necessarily have consciously known what she was doing was wrong had to be considered a mitigating factor. Belikova, however, knew exactly what she was doing, and she damn near won. Unleashing a prototype Las Plagas on the people of her own capital city, as well as having Lickers and Tyrants on hand, Belikova just wanted power, and dressed it up as wanting independence and economic prosperity for her country. This was bull, and we all know it. She just wanted the glory of being able to do it, and I'm pretty sure she wanted to flaunt her having control over the men in her government, if Ada Wong's observations during their meeting are any indication. If so, she's oddly the only female villain who has the desire to upend gender roles as an influence on her actions. Either way, she nearly succeeded, and actually beat Ada in a fight, which is no small feat, although she may or may not have had a control plaga in her, which would have aided her victory. Wish we could have seen what happened to her after the U.S. and Russia invaded, and see how hard she fell.
3) Carla Radames - Carla Radames, admittedly, came closer than anyone except perhaps Wesker, to accomplishing her goal of worldwide infection. This lady had a rough history, and the fact that she had an identity crisis and was pretty much insane is certainly a mitigating factor, and the only reason why she's not at number two. However, being willing to doom the world to take revenge on one man, resulting in probably about a million people dead even with failure, and creating the second most dangerous biohazardous substance in the series (Wesker still has the honor of first) goes a long way. By the time she's encountered in-game, she no longer cares who she hurts or kills, and has a master plan that spans continents. That is James Bond levels of evil, no matter what psychological issues may be involved. Carla is a raging lunatic who needed to be put down sooner, and it speaks to Ada's character that she still felt bad for her. But no man, no matter how badly he may have screwed her over, is worth taking revenge on at the cost of everyone else's life. Sorry, Carla, but nobody is gonna defend you.
2) Alex Wesker - Truthfully, I had to ask myself if I wasn't ranking this one this high just because she has the name Wesker. After careful consideration, I concluded that her possession of that name is inconsequential to her actions. One of Spencer's most trusted underlings, Alex is a brilliant scientist who is perfectly willing to lie, cheat, steal and murder to get what she wants and doesn't give a damn about anybody but herself, and perhaps her adoptive brother, Albert. Even Spencer she speaks about with unconcealed distain, having the same dismissive feelings toward him as the other Wesker did. Alex kills entire island populations, thousands of test subjects, and puts her victims through indescribable torture in the name of immortality, and was willing to kill a little girl in order to spare herself. She partially failed, revealing herself as the true horrific monster underneath after her virus kicked in. The smartest person in the room usually, with limitless resources and an untold body count, as far as evil women go in this series, she is surpassed by only one.
1) Alexia Ashford - Despite being in a somewhat controversial entry in the series, nobody forgets Alexia after playing Code: Veronica or Darkside Chronicles. This horrible woman is Alex, Carla and Eveline all rolled into one. Born as a clone of her genius ancestor, but possessing even greater intelligence, Alexia is probably the most intelligent person to ever live, within the realm of Resident Evil. Her arrogance, privileged upbringing and extreme intelligence all fed into a sense of superiority over everyone else in the world, including her above-average brother, and her fellow scientists at Umbrella. Being hired as a chief scientist while still a child, completely outshining William Birkin, it's clear that her connection to the founding families of Umbrella played not part in her position. After experimenting on and torturing her own father and coming out of her hibernation, Alexia was worse, because she had actual power at her disposal now, and while T-Veronica is basically kid stuff now, it was a nightmare at the time, only rivaled by the G-virus. There is also something to be said for the fact that she smacked Wesker around the room even while he was enhanced! That is a signature feat all on it's own, although Wesker took it in stride and didn't seem too bothered. But really, Alexia being the first villain in the series to explicitly be seeking world conquest through the use of Umbrella's bioweapons research, her view of herself as a queen and goddess compared to other people, and her absolute lack of connection to any other person, or even a desire to have one, makes her not only the most evil woman in the series, but I'd say the most evil person in the series, period, beating out even Wesker, Spencer, and Marcus, cruel and wicked as they are. In fact, with the exception of SHODAN from the System Shock series, I'd even go so far as to say that Alexia is the most evil female character in the history of video games. She deserves to be number one with a linear launcher plasma blast.
Honorable mention goes to Rachel from Revelations, who was like Lisa Trevor, but we don't know her mental state while she's mutated, so she's just a monster, not a villain.
Did I miss anybody relevant? Do you agree with the order? Share!
