Adaptational Heroism: She’s still a good person in the comics, but is more of an unfettered, callous anti-hero, doing things like threatening to disembowel the Black Queen or strangling her. In the movie, she’s too nice to do such violent things.
Adaptational Wimp: Barbarella in the comics is much more proactive and resourceful.
Captain Crash: Crashes her spaceship both times she takes command of it, though to be fair she has to contend with a space storm (or whatever) the first time, and the second time her spaceship had been repaired in a faulty way.
Clothing Damage: Her outfits are frequently damaged in her exploits, so that the audience can see some skin and as an excuse for her to change clothes frequently.
Cuteness Proximity: Barbarella gushes over Stomoxys and Glossina ("What marvelous little girls!") and the birds ("Oh, how darling!"). In both cases, she ends up being attacked by them immediately afterwards.
Double Standard: If a guy wants sex from her as a reward for rescuing her, she’ll do it, even if she’s not that wild about the prospect. She doesn’t even consider it with the Black Queen.
Dude Magnet: Every guy she meets wants her to some degree; she has sex with three men over the course of the movie, and those who don't get that far ogle her plenty at the very least. And it's not just men she attracts...
Even the Girls Want Her: The Black Queen desires her. The redheaded essence of man junkie also seems interested in her.
Fur Bikini: One of her outfits, a gift from Mark Hand. Some humorous scenes reveal how impractical it is. She quickly discards it for another outfit.
Go Through Me: When Pygar is being attacked by many Sogoites and one levels a scythe at him, Barbarella runs to shield Pygar with her own body.
Handy Helper: In exchange for the blind Pygar flying her to Sogo, she says she'll be his eyes. Prior to this she also helps him shoot a gun by telling him where his target is when she's being attacked.
I Am Not Pretty: When Dildano asks her if she's typical of Earth women, she says she's "about average".
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Despite engaging in sex plenty of times throughout the movie, this does not diminish her innocence, which is the reason she survives being engulfed the Mathmos; it finds her purity literally indigestible.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: It seems as if Earth culture has done away with any sort of nudity taboo judging from how Barbarella has no problem being briefed by the president while wearing her birthday suit, and the president isn't distracted either.
The Ingenue: Incredibly naive and innocent, which makes her impervious to the many vices of Sogo.
Laugh of Love: She laughs coquettishly at a picture of a 25-year-old Durand Durand. Too bad about the reality.
Last-Second Chance: She tries to convince Durand Durand to give up on his plans and go back to Earth. She's not really in a position to try this though, as she's trapped in the Chamber of Dreams. So of course he refuses.
Nice Girl: She has such a kind and pure heart, that the Mathmos forms a shield around her to protect itself from her goodness and purity.
Not in This for Your Revolution: When Dildano asks her to help his rebellion, she refuses because she has her own mission to think about. She does help out in another way, because it just so happens that hers and Dildano's goals coincide (Dildano needs to kidnap the Black Queen and Babs needs to ask her where Durand Durand is).
Pinball Protagonist: Barbarella's primary role in the story is 1) Get into trouble. 2) Get rescued by someone. 3) Have Rescue Sex with her savior. 4) Repeat. The only reason she manages to find Durand Durand is because he accidentally steps on the sensor designed to locate him, setting it off.
Plucky Girl: She’s put in a lot of crazy, dangerous situations, but she stays bright-eyed and determined to find Durand Durand throughout the whole thing.
Sexy Silhouette: After sex with Mark Hand, the camera cuts to the outside of the plastic tube thing to show a naked Barbarella through the semi-transparent material.
Superheroes Wear Capes: Being a heroine who originated in comic books (though she ironically never wore capes there), some of her outfits come with capes.
Unlimited Wardrobe: She burns through a fairly large amount of outfits during the movie. This is justified by the fact that her clothes keep getting totaled in her exploits.
Weapon for Intimidation: Barbarella tries to bluff her way with a depleted Ray Gun, and it almost succeeds til Durand Durand informs the Black Queen her weapon is useless.
Pygar
Played by: John Phillip Law
All-Loving Hero: An angel is love, which is probably why he saves the Black Queen at the end.
Angelic Aliens: He's from a race of aliens who resemble angels, or ARE them. And he is accordingly very pretty to look at.
Angelic Beauty: He is of a clean and delicate handsomeness compared to the other men Barbarella sleeps with.
Broken Angel: He went blind and lost the ability to fly when he crash-landed on Lythion. Barbarella helps him fly again.
Catchphrase: "An angel doesn't make love. An angel is love."
Disabled Deity: Depending on whether he's really an angel or not (the movie's pretty ambiguous about that).
Distressed Dude: He needs to be saved by Barbarella a few times (at least as many as she needs him, in fact), like when the Sogoites try to rip his feathers off or the Black Queen holds him hostage.
Extreme Doormat: He fights back against the Sogoites' abuse even less than Barbarella does and has a very matter-of-fact attitude about having been blinded by them.
Fed to the Beast: The Black Queen has him thrown into the Mathmos for refusing her advances. However, the Mathmos vomits Pygar back out because he's too good for it.
Gentle Giant: Pygar easily towers over every other character, but he's a sweet, peaceful angel. He's even taller in the comics, where Barbarella's head barely reaches his chest.
Hunk: Pygar seems to be this and a Pretty Boy at the same time.
A Lady on Each Arm: He ends the movie flying away with Barbarella and the Black Queen on each arm (and with a big smile on his face).
Last of His Kind: He says he's the last of the ornithanthropes while introducing himself to Barbarella, but doesn't elaborate.
Little Bit Beastly: He has some bird-like characteristics in that he actually has a tail (only really visible when he's flying) and his idea of a home is a bird's nest.
Non-Action Guy: His main use is as a means of locomotion. His ultra-pacifist, borderline-apathetic disposition means he has even fewer action-y traits than Barbarella.
Our Angels Are Different: Angels are aliens, or something. He doesn't seem to be connected to any religion nor does he pray to any fictional god, though he does have a most Jesus-like penchant for forgiveness.
Out of Focus: The movie just ignores him between the Black Queen getting rid of him and the Mathmos throwing him up at the end.
Pants-Positive Safety: Barbarella hides her spent laser gun in his loincloth, probably because there's no space in her own skin-tight outfits. She later pulls it out against the Black Queen.
Save the Villain: He chooses not to leave the Black Queen stranded on an islet surrounded by the Mathmos.
Turn the Other Cheek: What he means when he says "An angel has no memory." He doesn't react to the Black Queen throwing him to his death in the Mathmos other than saving her when her city is razed.
Walking Shirtless Scene: Walks around in nothing but a loincloth for the whole movie. Justified because his very big wings must make it impractical for him to wear upper body clothing.
Abled in the Adaptation: In the comics, the eye patch stays on throughout the entire story, suggesting she really is blind in that eye. In the movie, it only appears in one scene as a sort of fashion statement.
Accidental Hero: Her release of the Mathmos on Durand Durand is purely motivated by wanting to get the last laugh on him, but she nonetheless ends up as the savior of the universe because of it.
Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Inverted. By removing the detail about her feeling remorse for her evil actions and her breakdown when Sogo is destroyed, she is less angsty in the movie than in the comics.
Adaptational Sexuality: In the comics, she likes Barbarella more and ignores Pygar, while in the movie, she wants them both and seems to prefer Pygar.
Adaptational Villainy: In the comics, she feels so much remorse about the evil things she does that she has insomnia. In the movie, she’s completely gleeful, and also appears to be completely indifferent to the destruction of her realm.
Adaptation Dye-Job: Her hair is blue in the comics (hard to tell because they're in black and white, but Durand/Ping says it's so), while in the movie she has black hair.
Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: By killing Durand Durand, the Black Queen pragmatically finishes Barbarella's mission for her.
Big Bad Wannabe: The queen of the evil city of Sogo, but is little more than a nuisance to Barbarella, while Durand Durand is a far bigger threat. And then they actually work together in the climax to stop Durand Durand.
Blade Below the Shoulder: The knives she wields appear to be attached to some sort of mechanism on her wrists.
The Caligula: She isn’t alternatively called the Great Tyrant for nothing. She sends dissidents to a labyrinth outside the city to suffer all manner of fates worse than death, while giving them orchids as food, and that's just one example.
Circling Monologue: She briefly does this with Barbarella while talking about her undercover outings in Sogo.
Cold Ham: Has a super-flowery way of talking, but doesn't yell much.
Corrupt the Cutie: Her favorite sport. She attempts to do this to both Pygar and Barbarella.
Crown of Horns: Her crown actually is a single horn. It's not even attached to a tiara; it's just a horn. It's also possibly a visual innuendo.
Dark Action Girl: Competent and does it all with a thick air of moral ambiguity.
Dark Is Evil: With a name like Black Queen and her Caligula tendencies, it's no wonder. Helps that she is visually very dark, with her predominantly black clothes and dark hair, contrasting Barbarella who’s shinier.
Depraved Bisexual: In her craziness, she see-saws between wanting Barbarella and Pygar and wanting to kill them.
Dual Wielding: Wields two knives in her introduction. All the better to stab Barbarella's two would-be rapists with.
Easily Forgiven: By Pygar, who carries her away from the wreckage of her city and the Mathmos despite how she tried to throw him in it earlier. Barbarella isn't so keen on forgiving her and asks Pygar why he'd do that, and he answers that angels have no memory.
Evil Is Hammy: She pales compared to Durand Durand, but her rant about the “crimes” Pygar has committed is worth noting.
Evil Sounds Deep: She has a much lower-pitched voice than the heroic Barbarella.
Eyepatch of Power: She wears an eyepatch once, in King Incognito mode, which is also when she performs her most badass action in the film (saving Barbarella).
Faux Affably Evil: Flirting with Barbarella after having just driven her knives into two goons in cold blood, or doing the same with Pygar while ripping his feathers.
Femme Fatalons: She's sporting some fake metal ones on her gloves when she and Barbarella meet for the second time.
Gender-Concealing Writing: Before she shows up, she's only referred to as the Great Tyrant and pronouns are avoided, so it's easy to assume the character's going to be male.
Hypocritical Humor: Her parting shot to Pygar after he refuses her advances is to call him a "winged fruitcake". This is in spite of her being the one who's on the LGBT spectrum.
I Have You Now, My Pretty-Pretty: In her first meeting with Barbarella, she aggressively grabs her wrist and caresses her face. Later when she tries to seduce Pygar, she outright gets on top of him and makes him feel her up.
Incoming Ham: (stabs two guys in the back) "Hello, pretty-pretty." (dual knife twirling)
The Insomniac: You know how it's sometimes asked of villains "How do you sleep at night?" Well, she can't, because her evil-doing makes her feel so remorseful. In the comics anyway. This was the original reason she slept in the Chamber of Dreams at all; the dreams helped her sleep.
In the Back: Surreptitiously kills Barbarella's attackers by driving her knives through their backs. They never saw her coming.
It Amused Me: Her reason for a lot of the evil (or just neutral, like the going undercover in Sogo thing) stuff she does is that "it amuses her immensely".
Karma Houdini: She is saved by Pygar in the end, despite her actions as a tyrant and her repeated attempts to kill him and Barbarella. Because, as Pygar explains, "An angel has no memory."
King Incognito: She likes to mingle in Sogo as a knife-wielding prostitute. It's in one of these outings that she meets, saves and attempts to proposition Barbarella.
Meaningful Background Event: She can be seen navigating through the plastic pillow things in the background while Barbarella's two attackers smirk at each other over whatever they're about to do to her.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Destroys her own city of festering evil because she wants to make sure a usurper won’t have it for himself.
Not in the Face!: When Barbarella threatens to "melt her face" if she doesn't release Pygar.
No Name Given: Her proper name isn't revealed. Fun fact: in the comics, she presents herself as Slupe to Barbarella, but given the circumstances it's probably a lie.
She enjoys these sort of executions. Barbarella, being sentenced to death by bird pecking, even exclaims, "This is much too poetic a way to die!"
She also killed Barbarella's would-be rapists by driving knives (phallic symbols) into their backs.
Preserve Your Gays: Which is remarkable considering the film goes for an "Everyone Dies" Ending, yet the scary, rapey, bisexual villain is among the handful of survivors.
Proud Beauty: Her strident concern that Barbarella might melt her "beautiful face" and bragging about her good looks to Pygar to try to convince him to give himself to her.
Psycho Knife Nut: The insane tyrant's weapon of choice is a pair of double-bladed knives.
Psychopathic Manchild: Check out her childlike glee when Durand Durand suggests that Barbarella get eaten alive by birds.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: The outfit she's wearing when she first appears is dark red and black. The rest of her outfits are all-black. Surely she's trustworthy and not dangerous at all.
Same Language Dub: The Black Queen's voice is provided by Joan Greenwood, not Anita Pallenberg, presumably because Pallenberg had a German accent.
Scarpia Ultimatum: She holds Pygar hostage to try to get Barbarella to "play" with her.
Taking You with Me: Intends for this to be the case when she releases the Mathmos to destroy Durand Durand and Sogo, but she didn't count on the power of Barbarella’s innocence saving her.
Villainesses Want Heroes: She, a veritable alien Caligula, takes an interest in the pure-hearted Barbarella and Pygar.
Villainous Crush: On both Barbarella and Pygar, though it's purely sexual.
The very first thing she does in the film is save Barbarella from two rapists/killers.
While she's not physically present, saving Barbarella from the Chamber of Ultimate Solution is also on her, since the concierge only goes there because she ordered him to get Barbarella out.
Weapon Twirling: She twirls her knives after killing Barbarella's attackers (perhaps to show off to her) and after deciding not to kill Barbarella when she rejects her advances.
What Is Evil?: Unlike Durand Durand's complete embracing of evil, the Black Queen doesn't seem to think of herself or her subjects as such and challenges Barbarella's Earthling views on it.
"Yes, sometimes I like to go among my people. Be like them. Ordinary. 'Evil', as you call it."
Woman Scorned: When Barbarella rejects her, she almost knifes her, but decides against it and instead kidnaps Pygar to try to force Barbarella.
The Concierge / Durand Durand
Played by: Milo O'Shea
Adaptation Origin Connection: In the comics he's just a Sogoite mook. For the movie he's made into a famous Earth scientist, and Barbarella's mission is explicitly to find him, which makes him quite a bit more personally significant to Barbarella than in the comics.
Almighty Janitor: For a lowly concierge, he sure seems to take direct orders from the Black Queen a lot.
Big Bad: The builder of the positron ray that threatens the universe, which is the reason Barbarella is looking for him.
His most direct comic book counterpart is Gronf II (who operates the Excessive Machine and usurps the throne), but he also takes elements from Captain Sun (a Sogoite soldier who guides Barbarella to the Black Queen) and Professor Ping's original name.
He also takes on the role of providing exposition about the Mathmos, something the Black Queen does in the comics.
Despotism Justifies the Means: There's no clear reason as to why he wants to take over the universe. It seems to be simply that he has an ultra-advanced weapon, therefore he can.
Dirty Old Man: He did invent the Excessive Machine and seems to take some disturbing pleasure from killing with it.
Evil Gloating: He takes his time telling Barbarella, trapped in the Chamber of Dreams, about what he plans to accomplish with the positron ray now that there's no one to stop him.
Evil Is Hammy: Once the path is clear for him to usurp Sogo's throne, he throws any and all subtlety out the window.
Evil Laugh: Lets out one after locking Barbarella in the Chamber of Dreams and gloating about his plans.
Faux Affably Evil: Oh, he's so glad to see that Barbarella escaped the birds... now he can kill her with his Excessive Machine!
Foreshadowing: The fact that he knows how Barbarella's laser gun works hints at him being from Earth some time before he reveals his identity. He also shows himself to be more level-headed than the Black Queen and capable of influencing her (the scene where she's trying to think of a suitable punishment for Barbarella for tricking her and he makes a suggestion), which hints that he's a lot more dangerous than she is.
Galactic Conqueror: He wants to use the positron ray to take over the universe.
Going Native: Originally from Earth, he easily took to Sogo's culture because, as he tells Barbarella, he found truth in evil.
Mad Scientist: Durand Durand is a brilliant scientist who chooses to use his talents to make machines that kill in various inventive ways, such as the Excessive Machine and the Positronic Ray.
Slasher Smile: Sports a big creepy grin while using the Excessive Machine on Barbarella.
Surrounded by Idiots: Once he takes the throne and the rebels attack, he calls his subjects fools, liars and idiots just for informing him that the battle is going south for their side.
This Cannot Be!: He can't believe that the Black Queen managed to use the Mathmos against him, apparently believing that being the leader of Sogo automatically gives him control of the Mathmos. ("I am the master of the Mathmos!")
Torture Technician: Using the Excessive Machine on Barbarella. When that doesn't work, he brings in a box presumably filled with more stuff to torture her with, but the plot luckily interrupts him.
The Usurper: He wants to take over Sogo’s throne from his liege the Black Queen as the first stage in universal domination. He manages to do it in the climax, but then she drops the Mathmos on him.
Younger Than They Look: The Mathmos has prematurely aged Durand Durand, to Barbarella's shock.
Dildano
Played by: David Hemmings
Big Damn Heroes: He saves Barbarella from getting eaten alive in the bird cage.
Composite Character: Is a composite of comic book-Dildano (an ally of Barbarella in a different story who has a very different personality and role) and Captain Sun (a Sogoite who saves Barbarella from the birds and rebels against the Black Queen).
Cultural Cringe: He’s not fond of his home culture of Sogo and wishes it’d be more like Earth’s.
Endearingly Dorky: Endearingly enthusiastic about Earth culture, while being a total screw-up as a rebel leader with a comically malfunctioning HQ. Barbarella doesn't mind and has sex with him.
Foreign Culture Fetish: Loves 41st century Earth and thinks his own planet is full of savages.
Forgetful Jones: He misplaces everything, to humorous effect. Not a good trait to have when you’re taking care of an invisible key.
Adaptational Nice Guy: He's a rather grumpy and pessimistic old man in the comics, occasionally criticizing Barbarella's actions. He's made more endearing and grandfatherly for the film.
Death by Adaptation: While in the comics Durand/Ping leaves the Labyrinth safely with the other prisoners after it's flooded by the Mathmos, in the movie all of them are killed by the positronic ray.
Mr. Exposition: He explains the nature of the city of Sogo and its ruler to Barbarella.
Adaptational Attractiveness: The equivalent character in the comics is a rather gross-looking short and portly guy but in the movie he’s handsome in a rugged way.
Adaptational Heroism: He’s the villain of one story in the comics, but in the movie he’s kind and helpful to Barbarella.
Country Mouse: Claims that Sogo’s city life isn’t for him, which is why he doesn’t come with Barbarella.
Hunter Trapper: He makes a living hunting animals for their fur.
Spared by the Adaptation: Strickno dies in an encounter with a stag, but Mark Hand is alive and well the last time we see him.
Stomoxys and Glossina
Played by: Catherine and Marie Therese Chevallier
Age Lift: They’re teenagers in the comics but in the movie they’re little kids.
Demoted to Extra: While they’re the main villains of one comic book story, they're minor ones in the movie.
Enfant Terrible: They’re as frightful as their aunt the Black Queen.
Rags to Royalty: They go from living inside a broken-down spaceship in an icy wasteland to a position of great privilege as the Black Queen's nieces.
Related in the Adaptation: They’re the Black Queen’s nieces in the movie, but in the comics they have nothing to do with her and live in a different city.
Also applies in the movie since they're the Black Queen's nieces. Besides doing a more downplayed version of the above, they whine about the concierge ruining their fun.
