Sally said of Sand "I *do* think it makes her weaker (yes, the scene with Reeves is good, however) *without* adding any worthwhile dimension at all - and the whole thing is so utterly conventional. I guess it comes down to our perception of the character: Servalan is fairly cliched from the start (all of this is IMO only) but there is a reasonable integrity of character in the charming, smiling, hollow, unable-to-feel monster which Children of Auron and Sand totally violate. And the Authorial Intrusion is particularly jarring - I can feel the author jumping up and down and screaming "look, look, I'm giving her feelings!!"
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.
The Servie in Sand belongs more in Batman than B7 :-)"
I agree. Whilst Sand was an interesting concept, it felt two dimensional, and the situation seemed very contrived. (Consider the alternatives in which someone else was left on the planet.) I liked the Servalan of Star One best. We're told that Servalan's troops are very loyal (eg comments in Aftermath), but simple brutality doesn't create the sort of loyalty that will make people want to die in a ditch for you (particularly if there's no-one watching to be impressed). The scene where Servalan, after being convinced that Star One is failing the Federation, uses *every* means at her disposal to try to establish its location, and the later scene where she takes the risk that the message from the Liberator is genuine, seem to me to be to be the only indicators in the whole series that Servalan has traits of the kind that troops might think are worth risking their lives to protect.
In terms of developing Servalan's character, I would have liked to see more of the dual pulls of personal ambition and her belief in order, as represented by the Federation, as shown in Star One and Aftermath.
Helen
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