Una McCormack wrote:
I personally always think that Servalan is completely sane, and that her murderous behaviour has been trained into her by the brutal society in which she lives; bit like Travis' argument in 'Trial'. If Servalan had been living in a comfy western liberal democracy she would be a substantially different person. OK, she has some loopy impulses, but it's mainly that the environment she has been trained and lives in encourages those to some degree.
I agree. If Travis is the ultimate Federation Soldier, Servalan is the ultimate Federation Politician, playing the game better than most people in her society. In said comfy western liberal democracy, she might be the head of a big cooperation and wouldn't care a bit if whatever her firm is producing is poisoning the environment, but she wouldn't necessarily assassinate anyone in order to sell the product.
So, without scrupels? Definitely. Evil? Sure. But insane? No.
Tanja