19 replies to this topic

[bondfisher007]

Who is the better villain?

[Dustin]

Silva, easily. Not even the same league.

[tdalton]

006, without question.

[Iceskater101]

Hmm that's a tough choice but I think I am going to go with Silva just because he had more dynamics to him. I mean 006 doesn't really scare me while Silva does and that's what makes him the better villain. I like to be fearful of a villain and Silva is more scary because the stuff that he would do is really unpredictable. 006 is just your stereotypical pissed off guy who betrays everybody.

[QOS4EVER]

Silva, easily. Not even the same league.

Why ?

Silva Is a joke, not meant to be taken seriously.

Edited by QOS4EVER, 27 February 2013 - 03:39 PM.

[thecasinoroyale]

Hmm. Easy on the surface, but going in deeper it's a tricky question.

 

Silva isn't a strong physical villain. He's very handy with a gun, and very, very smart and calculating and technologically aware.

 

Trevelyan isn't very strong physically but he's agressive and brutal, which he showed against 007. He's equally handy with a gun and also smart, very devious and aware of technology and what it can do.

 

I think they both are equally clever when it comes to technology and outsmarting the enemy, so physically I have to give the edge to Trevelyan but only on the basis of what we've seen in a fight. Also, he seemed to fare better in a gun-fight that Silva would do, but again only because of what we've seen in the film.

 

Tough one, but I'll give the edge to Alec Trevelyan.

[Dustin]

Silva, easily. Not even the same league.

Why ?
Silva Is a joke, not meant to be taken seriously.

Can't say I agree there.

Let's start with 006:
After decades of 007 working alone we are suddenly introduced to a fellow 00-agent. And not just a colleague, a buddy to boot, with countless adventures shared with Bond (and everything else, we are later told). Trevelyan initially is interesting enough, but quickly disappears, long before we can care about the character. When he suddenly reappears it doesn't have much impact, we didn't much care for him in the first place and his being the villain doesn't come as a surprise. What's completely unexplained are his reasons as to why he turned traitor. That 'Linzer cossak' subplot is mentioned, but hardly explained in the film (the film tie-in does a better job there, thanks to John Gardner; unfortunately it cannot help the fact Trevelyan is simply too young to be the son of that particular group of people). What's more, it makes Trevelyan's behaviour entirely lunatic, working with the killers of his parents against the people who saved his life. Furthermore it is entirely mysterious when exactly Trevelyan decided to become a renegade: While he was still living through all those adventures with Bond? After the explosion at the chemical arms arsenal? During the time spent in the USSR? None of that is elaborated. And frankly none of it explains his position as head of Janus or the GoldenEye caper. It simply doesn't fit logically into the series or the plot of the film itself.

Silva on the other hand is much better developed motivation-wise. He's a former top-agent, earned his handler M a massive career-boost and was willing to sacrifice his life for her. It's alluded in the film M (SIS in general?) tend to get the most out of orphan agents, and M herself capitalises on assuming a mother role for her agents. Silva, whose loyalty literally went as far as humanly possible, survives a death pill and the complete destruction of his illusions. What comes back years later is in effect the fruit of M's betrayal, a creature out if his mind unleashing hell upon those who betrayed him, the woman who refuses to even call him by his name. The more I think about it the surer I am M could have stopped a lot of carnage and loss of lives if she had simply fessed up to sacrificing her agent for her own goals.

Silva's actions are not far from what Bond would do in his place. And yet Silva in the end isn't able to kill M, he hesitates long enough at the hearing room so Bond is able to get her out. And even in the kirk when he's got her effectively at his mercy he hands her the gun so she can end both their lives. I must have posted it somewhere else before, to me Silva is the creature of Frankenstein calling at his master to get redemption for both of them.

[seawolfnyy]

Silva. More calculating and cerebral. Both are great villains, but Silva comes off as scarier. Think about it, when M is frightened of him, maybe we should be too.

[007jamesbond]

Silva even though he not physical.......his fear and terror can be felt by everyone hidden in the shadow and that no matter where you go you not safe with his ability to attack the security network 

[Grard Bond]

Silva ofcourse without any doubt.

He realy dominates the whole movie, even if he's not seen before an hour or so in the movie.

006 is not a legendary Bondvillian at all. He can't compete with villians like Dr. No, Goldfinger, Blofeld, Drax or.... Silva.

[Professor Pi]

Silva is certainly more psychotic, and we understand his back story, and can sympathize with him to a degree, or at least understand his motives.  His ultimate desire is to confront M and kill her (though he hesitates on pulling the trigger two distinct times.)  Other than that, he doesn't seem to have a master megalomaniac plan like other Bond villains (or he has tired of his 'own little secret missions.').  I'd say his murder of Severine also makes him more brutal.

 

Trevelyan's actions are more oriented as a means to an end--steal the helicopter to get the GoldenEye in order to then to steal billions from England.  Plus this murky back story of vengeance so "poor little Alec can settle a score with a world 40 years on."  I don't recall him doing anything as explicitly brutal as Silva's killing of Severine, though he's physically more intimidating.  Silva strikes more fear into hearts than Trevelyan does.

 

Silva also symbolizes how a country's actions often have unintended consequences of making future enemies.  Trevelyan needed Boris to accomplish his computer hacking.  It's never explained how Trevelyan gets influence over Orumov either, but he seems to be able to get Onatopp, Orumov, and Boris to buy into his plan.  His character represents the corporate multi-national financial threats of the nineties.

 

They are different Bond villians from different decades, eras, and Bond actors.  But I think Craig's 007 would dispose of 006 pretty quickly.

[x007AceOfSpades]

Silva

[Turn]

Trevelyan is basically just a counter Bond. That was a big deal when GE came out, putting Bond up against someone who knows him and has the same training.. But compaed with Silva he's just not that interesting. Silva's the most intriguing main villain in years.

[Mallory]

Silva succeeded, one way or another. 006 just resorted to an old fashioned shootout/brawl. Nothing intelligent, Boris gets outsmarted by a level two programmer while Alec just gets into a brawl with Bond. Silva plays it out like an MI6 Agent and M ends up dead.

[QLink]

Silva has the edge in being able to do more with less. 006 needed the usual Bond villain infrastructure with hidden hideouts, high tech helicopters, and exploding satellites. Silva was able to pose just as dangerous a threat with a room full of servers and a laptop.

[Guy Haines]

Alec Trevelyan 006 was a potentially intriguing opponent for James Bond 007. However, I think that he became less interesting because the script for GE concentrated on the mechanics of his plot against England rather than his motivation, and his rivalry with 007. They gave Trevelyan a megalomaniac plan that could have been attempted by almost any other villain. It hardly mattered why he was doing it. In the end then, 006 became another typical Bond baddie, albeit one with a backstory referred to on occasion in GE.

 

On reflection, I think if 007 had to take on a former Double-O, it ought to have been as part of a story in which 006 turns his skills as a former Double-O on Bond - which is where Silva comes in, because that is what he does in SF, although the target is M rather than 007. Silva is a much more intriguing character, not least because of his rather unsettling love/hate "mother fixation" on M which has vague echoes, for me, of a similar theme in the 1962/2004 movies entitled "The Manchurian Candidate".

 

The only other way I can think of that would have had 007 and 006 in a contest of equals rather than a Bond versus megalomaniac battle would have been if Bond had to take on Trevelyan as a former agent turned assassin or terrorist - perhaps with 006 planning to kill a leading figure and taunting 007 to try and stop him  - again a plotline already seen in the Clint Eastwood film "In The Line Of Fire". As for 007 and 006 going "mano a mano" to see who is the greatest - that had already been done in TMWTGG, but in that film the solar energy blackmail plot took a backseat compared with the duel between Bond and Scaramanga.

[AgenttiNollaNollaSeitsemän]

Silva, though 006 is better than any of the 80's main villains.

Edited by AgenttiNollaNollaSeitsemän, 28 February 2013 - 09:33 AM.

[Grard Bond]

I thought Christopher Walken as Max Zorin was great too!

[Gt Munn]

I would have to side with Trevelyan as my favorite.

 

I respect the character of 006. To me, his motives carry a greater legitimacy than that of Silva's. I can imagine the growing weight of the betrayal against his parents and people just building over the decades. I do wish this was better represented in the film. I also believe Trevelyan's elaborate and time expansive plan to place himself in such a threatening position took great discipline and foresight.

 

Silva's perceived betrayal was essentially because he was out of line. He exceeded his orders. M's "betrayal" was justified in my mind. His unhinged mental state does not move me to grant him pity or respect. Additionally, there is no way cyanide could ever do that to anyone. I had the pleasure of spending my first viewing with a chemist friend of mine. This was his first post-film comment. I also did not care for the complete disregard to history used for the back-story of Silva's lair. On a positive note, I will say that Silva's greatest moments were when he had donned the police uniform and was acting out his plan. 

 

However, I will agree that Trevelyan was not as fleshed out as Silva on screen. The fact that his film was also introducing a brand new Bond worked against him.

By the way, I do enjoy the character of Silva very much. 

Edited by Gt Munn, 28 February 2013 - 10:21 PM.

[Lucky]

I feel like 006 would win, but I can see how it could go either way depending on the circumstances.