You can most certainly have more than one HBIC in a canon. They just can't both be on the same side.
Emma Frost vs. Mystique. I rest my case. (Okay, in comics I don't think they have ever fought. Also, in comics, Mystique has never teamed up with Magneto. Actually she fought him, and her team, under her leadership, kicked his ass, and he had to be rescued by the X-Men, so by definition Mystique is an HBIC. Thus, Emma Frost vs. Mystique would be HBIC vs. HBIC. And also, something that needs to happen, yesterday.)
I would also imagine that Captain Janeway is (or can be) an HBIC, despite being part of a chain of command and having people who can give her orders, because 90% of her canon involves her being so far away from anyone who can give her orders that she is solely in charge. Admiral Necheyev is not the top brass head of Starfleet and even if she was Starfleet takes its marching orders from the civilian leader of the Federation, but she is most definitely an HBIC, because every time we *see* her she is a bitch who is giving orders (that being said, about half the time her orders are stupid. The other half the time, they are much smarter than whatever it was Picard or Sisko wanted to do instead.) T'Pau of Vulcan is totally an HBIC, but so is the fanfic version of the Romulan Commander (the actual version got pwned by Spock because she wanted some hot Vulcan lovin', which disqualifies her).
So while I do mostly agree with your categorization strata, the fact is that just because Woman A is at the top of her own hierarchy and cannot be given orders by anyone does not invalidate the existence of Woman B at the top of *her* own hierarchy. They just can't be both part of the same hierarchy. And whether a woman is HBIC or not varies depending on where she is in her own canon, also; Emma has taken marching orders from Charles Xavier and from Sebastian Shaw, at various points in canon, and lets her husband tell her what to do on occasion, due to the fact that he is not a moron and she wouldn't have married him if he was. (Actually, are they married? Scott and Emma are so much better for each other than Scott and Jean ever were, I assume they're married, but given how long it took Scott and Jean to tie the knot it's quite possible they never got married.)
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Date: 2011-02-08 02:18 pm (UTC)Emma Frost vs. Mystique. I rest my case. (Okay, in comics I don't think they have ever fought. Also, in comics, Mystique has never teamed up with Magneto. Actually she fought him, and her team, under her leadership, kicked his ass, and he had to be rescued by the X-Men, so by definition Mystique is an HBIC. Thus, Emma Frost vs. Mystique would be HBIC vs. HBIC. And also, something that needs to happen, yesterday.)
I would also imagine that Captain Janeway is (or can be) an HBIC, despite being part of a chain of command and having people who can give her orders, because 90% of her canon involves her being so far away from anyone who can give her orders that she is solely in charge. Admiral Necheyev is not the top brass head of Starfleet and even if she was Starfleet takes its marching orders from the civilian leader of the Federation, but she is most definitely an HBIC, because every time we *see* her she is a bitch who is giving orders (that being said, about half the time her orders are stupid. The other half the time, they are much smarter than whatever it was Picard or Sisko wanted to do instead.) T'Pau of Vulcan is totally an HBIC, but so is the fanfic version of the Romulan Commander (the actual version got pwned by Spock because she wanted some hot Vulcan lovin', which disqualifies her).
So while I do mostly agree with your categorization strata, the fact is that just because Woman A is at the top of her own hierarchy and cannot be given orders by anyone does not invalidate the existence of Woman B at the top of *her* own hierarchy. They just can't be both part of the same hierarchy. And whether a woman is HBIC or not varies depending on where she is in her own canon, also; Emma has taken marching orders from Charles Xavier and from Sebastian Shaw, at various points in canon, and lets her husband tell her what to do on occasion, due to the fact that he is not a moron and she wouldn't have married him if he was. (Actually, are they married? Scott and Emma are so much better for each other than Scott and Jean ever were, I assume they're married, but given how long it took Scott and Jean to tie the knot it's quite possible they never got married.)