Is Xenia Onatopp perhaps the best Bond girl of the entire series?

I know when picking the best Bong girl, it's normal for people to say you have to pick one that added a lot of emotional depth to the story, like Tracy or Vesper, and even though I am close on those ones, I can't help but feel that perhaps Xenia is the most entertaining, even if she is not there for emotional depth. What do you think?

She's great, very entertaining. And (apart from Bond joking with Vesper in CR that her cover name is 'Stephanie Broadchest'), she's the series' last Bond girl with a direct sexual innuendo in her name so there's maybe a nostalgia factor too.

I love Xenia Onatopp, she's a riot. For some reason, though, I don't see her as a Bond girl. Maybe because she never sleeps with Bond. She's certainly high up on my henchmen list. Probably in the top 3 behind May Day and Red Grant.

If nothing else, her death may be the best in all of Bond. At least, until we see Bond bury some poor slob in bird guano.

Maybe Dr. Safin No !

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

I love Xenia Onatopp, she's a riot. For some reason, though, I don't see her as a Bond girl. Maybe because she never sleeps with Bond. She's certainly high up on my henchmen list. Probably in the top 3 behind May Day and Red Grant.

She would definitely be my favorite Henchwoman, but whenever you look at Bond girl list rankings, she is always on those lists, unless the people who make the lists, have it wrong?

If they're written by those who put CR06 near/at the top, they most certainly have it wrong.

When it comes to rankings, IP, as has been said countless times, there are no hard and fast rules to get it right. It's whatever works for you.

Oh okay thanks.  I guess I still like to here other people's opinions on how they choose.  When it comes to picking Bond girls, do you choose based on libido, or based on character development?  I was watching the Siskel and Ebert episode where they chose the best Bond girl and Ebert says "i'll think I'll function as a critic, instead of a libido", and he says this to Siskel after Siskel chooses based on libido.  He says it at 6:55 into the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4IbNtjJCBU

So do you choose as a critic, or based on libido?

A bit of both. I think Natalya, Tracy and Elektra, for example, are very strong characters and drop dead gorgeous (maybe Diana Rigg a little less so), hence why they're in my top 5.

I'm also a fan of Stacey Sutton, but perhaps that's my libido talking.

Xenia is definitely in the henchman camp but despite my adoration for her delicious bloodlust that crown will always be Fiona's.

I find many of the actresses of the original series absolutely stunning but that always comes a far second to personality or character.

I consider Fiona to be a Bond girl, again I think because she actually had sex with Bond. This rule breaks only with May Day, who I feel was less interested in sleeping with him but to dominate him for Zorin's sake.

Any actress who appears in a Bond film is a Bond girl, IMO. Even Lotte Lenya and Ilsa Steppet.

I can't subscribe to that. Sexiness and sex is what first comes to mind when thinking of what makes a Bond girl, and Klebb, Bunt and Dench's M just don't that for me.  

That said, Lenya and Steppat were something back in the day.





Steppat has shades of Rebecca Ferguson. Didn't realise she was only 52 when she passed.

The ravages of age...especially before modern plastic surgery and health routines.

Sex and sexiness are two different things. Are you saying a Bond girl must engage in sex or that she must simply be sexy? MayDay does the former, but hardly qualifies by the latter.

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Sex and sexiness are two different things. Are you saying a Bond girl must engage in sex or that she must simply be sexy? MayDay does the former, but hardly qualifies by the latter.

They are two very different things, and they should qualify on both scales to be considered a true Bond girl. As I said above, the sole exception to the rule is indeed May Day.

I think the honorific Bond Girl refers to the role of the lead female character in each film, but that the "bad girls" that follow in Fiona's wake all fall into the henchwoman category. Of course most articles refer to all of them as Bond girls and if you've been an actress in any film you're also a Bond girl for life so there's that too.

I can understand the difference between henchwoman and Bond girl to but see how they cross over there as well, with other opinions.