Clear results coming through the Quarter-Finals. Dr Kananga’s bubble finally burst; Stromberg shot his bolt; Zorin dropped out and Emilio Largo took one right up the old junkanoo.
Ouch.
Many dead – four (…yes I know it’s five really) to go.
Losers of the Semi-Finals go to a Third place death-off.
0 voters
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Very tough round, but went with Silva and Blofeld.
If Drax doesn’t win this then he should exterminate humanity and start his own poll in space, where his master race voters will deliver the only correct result.
…you do know how democratic vote works right?
I mean, Drax source material was literally a Nazi so he might well try that, but we may need to consult @Jim for a fictional character playing to type in a trivial context
Blofeld and Drax.
They both wanted more than just chaos.
I chose for Drax and Klebb & Grant.
Silva did too: he wanted an apology.
Well, he really really badly wanted that apology.
It is the miserliness of Silva’s ambition that I find off-putting (among other things).
Drax, emulating John D. Rockefeller, Jr. with The Cloisters, brought a chateau stone-by-stone across the Atlantic, and tried for the Eiffel Tower as well.
Silva wanted an apology, while Drax wanted to establish a dynasty.
But Drax‘ ambition is merely that of all dragons: keep their hoard, feast on virgins and some knights and not much else. You could even see that dynasty crumbling, provided he ever got it, which the thespian gods prevent.
Silva’s ambition, while seeming small and insignificant, carries significantly more drama because its source is at the heart of all big tragedies: human feelings neglected and hurt. And not even wilfully but as a result of other considerations.
Silva is a relative of Brutus. Both their actions cut deeper and resonate longer than those of the dragon Drax. Drax’ ambition stems from delusions of grandeur, he tried to shape the world after his own visions, dreams and illusions. Silva, a character of posture and deceit whose actions have multiple layers of purpose, is radically honest about his aim because his driving force is equally true: he has been betrayed by the only person he didn’t expect to be betrayed by; the only one he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for. The world hurt him at his core.
Drax and Silva both carry an abyss. But Silva’s is the one most people would feel looking back if they dared to peek.
I disagree (which we always do about Silva LOL). For me, Drax’s actions are more a matter of the “motiveless malignity” Coleridge ascribes to Iago–all served up with a soupcon of fabulousness.
Maybe it is because I am a Buddhist, but it is because such feelings can be surmounted that Silva’s situation/response does not strike me as tragic (for that to be true there would have to be grandeur of some sort present). Same situation with SPECTRE: Blofeld was neglected and hurt, and his response is all out of proportion to what occurred (he just gets better mise en scene that Silva did). Blofeld would have been much more interesting as a character if, like Drax, he were depicted as “A being next to Devil—only not quite Devil.”
Sticking with Coleridge for a moment: “It is a matter of infinite difficulty, but fortunately of comparative indifference, to determine what a man’s motive may have been for this or that particular action. Rather seek to learn what his objects in general are!—What does he habitually wish? habitually pursue?”
As you say: Silva wants an apology. Drax wants to repopulate the earth with humans who will regard him as their new deity. I do not know whether there are more Drax’s or Silva’s in the world today, but those who have dominion as their object are for me far more dangerous than those who want an apology. As I see it, it is easier (and more likely) to maintain malignant momentum when it is grounded in a desire for dominance and control. If it is based on hurt–even a hurt felt at the core of one’s being–it is going to run out of steam–emotions are more evanescent than desires.
Ends…
I voted for Raoul Silva winning the fight but I like Hugo Drax better.
And I voted for Telly Savalas’ Ernst Stavro Blofeld.