I don’t even think the problem with female villains is that they’re not evil enough or even that they’re too evil because most of the time they actually are very much evil. The problem rather is that they just don’t have enough or rather aren’t allowed to have as much depth as villains to be that compelling and interesting.
Now I am not saying they necessarily need to have redemption arcs or even tragic backstories although the latter one doesn’t even have to be out of the question either but they don’t possibly need to just be evil for evil’s sake.
I want female villains who actually pose a genuine impactful threat to the heroes that can’t just be thwarted so easily instead of just being some annoying nuisances who you can deal with relatively easily. Their rather twisted philosophy is often the best way in performing this because it can make the heroes and the fans alike question their stances about the world and their own actions. Let them do unapologetical deeds, and not be particularly remorseful about it but at the same time allow them to actually back it all up. Let them have interesting and extremely compelling motives that make them engaging and interesting.
For Shion I hate how most of her villainy is mostly being centered around her abusive relationship with Mizuki despite giving her a rather cool and actually innovative backstory. Because if Shion was male then we might actually call it anything but abusive and maybe then the emphasis would’ve been more in how she was merely preparing him to survive in a very cruel world. Because it’s not like Shion was treating Mizuki so harshly just for the heck of it. Yes she was primarily raising him to become a Hashimoto enforcer. And honestly Mizuki broke free from Shion’s leash a bit too easily and the Yokai also saved Toshiro & Genji way too easily. Like maybe just save Genji but not Toshiro.
Also Lucio’s father seemingly just escaped from Vishkar way too easily. Which takes us to Domina.
I feel like Domina would’ve been far more interesting if they actually gave her a vision she’d try to enforce on Vishkar instead of just basking in all her fake glory and thinking only about furthering her own power. Or is that perhaps something that should be reserved only for male villains because female villains can’t have any actual depth whatsoever lest they’d be far too sympathetic to even be considered as true villains? Because I was actually expecting Sanjay Korpal to be exactly like this. But the upper hand short story already labeled him as a spineless opportunist which surprise surprise Domina also kinda turned out to be. So perhaps they should’ve reserved that to solely Sanjay by chance.
And to be fair her insecurities and the societal pressures she faced from her family don’t exactly help make her as depthful as people like to make it seem. In fact they just feed into her already shallow character. Wanting power for power’s sake can’t possibly be her only motive.
So instead of making Domina just a vain and egotistical power for power’s sake stereotypical female villain who only cares about herself perhaps she should’ve instead wanted to root out the hedonism and complacency from Vishkar. She would actually disagree with her grandfather’s more open ideals instead of trying to live up to them as she would see them being the exact reason for how Vishkar became too complacent and hedonist with their technology. She wouldn’t need to pursue biolight or sonic technology just because she wants them for herself. Instead she would simply not trust anyone outside of Vishkar with either of them and believes that they’d be in much better and safe use in the hands of Vishkar’s architechs than anyone outside of Vishkar who would just cause unnecessary turmoil. And the same of course would go towards hardlight too.
And notice how none of this is even necessarily tragic or sympathetic of her. Because if anything her current story already makes her needlessly sympathetic by portraying her as a victim of a system where you are shaped only by the opinions of others from which she saw no way out and thus had no choice but to succumbing to it by creating a false image of herself to gain other peoples approval. And yes it is indicated that she doesn’t seem to care about the opinions of others about her but in the end she still does heavily rely on them to stay in power.
She doesn’t even need to see the error of her ways and eventually repent but she should be allowed to change her approach when faced with failure but never just sulk and whine about it and let it be the end. She should also be allowed do absolutely unforgivable deeds like maybe torturing and perhaps even killing Lucio’s father just for defying her vision. And this would ultimately make Lucio consider the cost of his rebellion and having absolute freedom such as putting those you care about into grave danger but it would eventually drive him much further to rebel against Vishkar. The family pressures and the emphasis on natural talent instead of actual hard work could’ve worked well on her as well but instead of trying to create a fake impression that she is naturally talented when she’s not thus feeding on her ego she would’ve attempted to break the whole nepotist system and move towards a more meritocratic but still rather limiting and totalitarian system. The mechanical arms do work on her too but not as an extension of her ego but rather the tools with which she would impose her vision. And her being feminine, c**ty and an absolute diva is also completely fine as long as it actually further expands her potential.
I also want to clarify that I do not hate either of these characters. On the contrary I actually like them. I just think Domina could’ve been much more than what Blizzard made her since I’ve been waiting for a properly evil Vishkar villain for a long time and feel so disappointed to see how poorly they ended up making one.
Edit: And before anyone brings her up yes I know Moira exists and has existed for a long time already and that’s why I consider her to be the prime example of how to really write a compelling female villain who isn’t exactly tragic or sympathetic either.
They actually did a good job at fleshing out all of these characters. Like, they explicitly don’t only center Shion’s villainy around Mizuki. They do show that it’s part of her obsession with him and that she’s not exclusively using him as a punching bag. You’re just going to see more interactions in game about him because she’s obsessed with the control she has over him and he’s a playable character that other characters know.