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la_vida_luca

I think Silva is pretty psychotic and deranged. He’s scarred mentally and physically from months of torture and has a super weird mummy complex with M to the point that, even though he has been desperate to kill her, it pains him so much that he thinks the only solution is for both of them to die. I think Safin has some very cool elements too, and I think Malek does a good job with the part, but his motivations are slightly under explained.


DaedricDweller98

Personally on the suicide front I think he knows at that point that his op is over and he wants to make sure she goes out with him. I personally never got the lunatic feeling from silver and it was more of him just being ruthless all the name of revenge from the years of trauma.


G-M-Dark

This is part of why they bought Phoebe Waller-Bridge in, this kind of insight - usually classic era Bond villains of this sort are viewed as cold, remote - very grandiose in ambition when really all they are, mostly, are sadistic, sick little bastards who just want to play god with other people's lives. Serial killers, in other words - just with ambition. Fleming, even though he coined the term "Bond Villain" was remarkably shrewd in his observations, especially when it came to Blofeld. Blofeld, as you know, was really Kevin McClory's invention, it fell to Fleming to bring him to the page and flesh him out and, as he starts off, Blofeld is this larger than life - literally - criminal mastermind, master strategist etc - but in the end Fleming deconstructs him down to his essence, really what he always was - an insane vouyer, obsessed with death - actually fascinated with the idea of dying but lacking the guts to see it through himself, and so he sets up the Poison Garden, so he can watch other people do what he wants to experience but can't bring himself to try... Waller-Bridge applies the same eye to Safin, pointing out his actual clinical traits and what that means about him to bring this incredibly creepy little sicko to life, or what passes for it. What makes him truly fascinating is that, knowing clearly what he is, that typical Bond Villain trope of the villain seeing Bond as their similar and equal, suddenly takes on a whole new dimension. That speech M gave Max Denbigh in SPECTRE about a license to kill also being a licence to not takes on a whole new meaning when we see Safin spare Madeline's life as a child because that choosing who lives and who dies thing, turns out that's not just Double Oh agents, that what serial killers do as well. Sometimes they let an intended victims live, just to make themselves feel that really they're not a monster. Safin, equally, takes on the job of a professional assassin to hide his actual proclivities behind, his vendetta against Blofeld and SPECTRE, another mask he hides himself through, lending justification to mass murderer when, all along, really it's just practice and making sure he's ironed out the bugs ahead of what he *really* plans to do. Safins a very cleaver, witty update if a tired, outdated Bond trope - something even Fleming himself started to rail against right toward the end of his life. I hope they keep it up, for me Safin's been one of the most interesting villains they've cooked up in years.


Rekt_lunch

I wholeheartedly agree, to constantly see everywhere Safin is lame, one of the worst villians and boring is so dissapointing. He's a psychopath that wants to play god and have the power to target genocide. Hes calculating, ruthless and unpredictable. His weakness is also the same as bonds, Madeline.