// AH HA HA. Okay. No. That's it. Time for a rant. Because I'm feeling like it and this person clearly needs a lesson about a few things.
First of all. If you found Victoria one-dimensional and non-redeemable, you clearly were not watching the same film. Victoria Siebert was, by far, (to me anyhow) the most interesting character in the movie. We see her show an enormous array of emotions throughout the film: her calm, collected professionalism, her contentment when her plan is working, her deceitful, intellectual skill as she manipulates the film's main protagonist, Dr. John Banks . . . we see a moment of panic when she fears she is caught in a lie, we see her angry (BEYOND angry), we see her defeated, crushed, and in disbelief. And this is all in a span of about ten minutes. Yeah, that's right. Victoria has about ten fucking minutes in the whole movie, and you're going to complain about one-dimensionalism? She's extraordinarily and deliciously manipulative, talented at lying, talented at scheming . . . and she isn't in the movie a whole lot, so the fact that she has so much pull over the plot is incredibly interesting. She isn't given a backstory because a backstory is not necessary -- it adds to the mysteriousness of her character. There is enough there to capture interest just by observing her. She carries herself with such refinement, though her somewhat obvious dark undertones give her an incredible sense of ambiguity, which is exactly how I try to play her -- she is supposed to be mysterious. She is supposed to be dark, and subtle. This isn't one-dimensionalism, this is subtlety. And it also stems from the fact that the movie isn't centered on her. Even so, there are an enormous amount of layers with Victoria Siebert that I picked up on and it disappoints me that other people did not feel the same.
And about redeeming qualities? I could go on here, but I'll try and make it simple. Her redeeming quality is just about one of the most important things of all: she is in love. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that Victoria truly does have feelings for Emily, and I honestly feel that everything she did, in spite of her lust for power and money, was ultimately for love. She loved Emily; she would've done anything to keep her with her. She's ruthless and fearless, and she's not afraid to kill or break the law, but it's all, in the end, because she loves Emily. She's obsessive and I think this comes from her loneliness; it's also suggested that she hasn't fully come to terms with her sexuality until meeting Emily, so it's an entirely new, exciting feeling for her (and it's possible she's never even felt sexual attraction before her because she had always been with a man). As the movie ends, she doesn't sell Emily out or think on it -- not even once -- something we certainly cannot say for Emily. She only becomes more and more desperate to get her safe and with her. And when Emily does sell her out, she's visibly crushed -- taken by complete surprise, and heartbroken. Victoria is a very lonely woman who fell in love with someone as mentally unstable as she and it didn't end well.
Now to the last point: don't even get me started on the LGBT stuff. Really? Victoria is just an evil, ruthless, dark character. Those exist in the real world. The fact that she's gay has nothing to do with it. Would she have fallen in love with a man, she would've acted in the same exact manner. She's just obsessive in love no matter who it is with; the fact that she falls in love with a woman, however, just makes the ending less obvious because, guess what: heteronormativity! THAT'S what you should be complaining about. Not the fact that someone made a gay woman morally compromised in their movie. LGBT people are real people, and should be represented as such. Being a bisexual woman myself, I honestly do not understand the LGBT community's criticisms sometimes. They complain about no representation, or lack of proper, real representation, and then when a queer character shows up, they complain about 'adding to misconceptions' because she happens to be a counselor. Yeah, okay, maybe it'll add to the misconception that LGBT people are perverts if you're a fucking moron. This isn't like she's falling in love for a kindergartener -- Emily is at least 27 years old! It's a large age difference but it's far from pedophilia! No one would be batting an eyelid if this was a man that had fallen in love with a woman he was supposed to be treating, and yet, it's the same thing.
So yeah. Anyway. Rant over. I wish more people could see how cool of a character Victoria is and not undermine her for the LBGT community because people like to complain for no reason. I think the story between Emily and Victoria is a really cool little dark twist to add to the archive of femmeslash ships. I really enjoyed it! I don't want that taken away for others.
