We Think The Women Should Be Allowed To Fight.

[rionaleonhart]

A while ago, misscam posted an entry about the hard time female characters get in fandom and invited everyone to talk about female characters they loved in the comments. I thought that this was a lovely idea, and so I am completely stealing it. Because I do tend to talk about male characters far more than I talk about female ones, and that's not right. There are plenty of female characters I adore. Here are some of them.

I love the women of House. I love poor adorable Cameron and her tendency to become attached to patients and her emotional masochism. I love longsuffering, sarcastic, awesome Cuddy. I LOVE THE BUDDY COP DUO THAT CAMERON AND CUDDY HAVE FORMED IN MY MIND. I love Thirteen when she is vulnerable and when she has that ridiculously cute grin or that little smile and when she is rolling her eyes and when she is going 'THESE ARE NOT THE CORRECT DRUGS; THEY ARE INSUFFICIENTLY CRAP' and when she is saying words and when she is on the screen.

I love Donna of Doctor Who. I love that she could so easily have been a shallow, exaggerated comic character, but that the writers instead took her and made something wonderful. I love that she made me emotionally invested in Doctor Who again; I cared about what happened to her, which was something I hadn't felt about any Doctor Who character (with the possible exception of the Master) since Eccleston's regeneration. I love that she will stand up to the Doctor, and she won't take 'I AM A TIME LORD AND THEREFORE MORALLY SUPERIOR' for an answer. She is compassionate and awesome and ridiculous and amazing and I adore her.

I love Toph of Avatar. She is mocking and hilarious and kicks arse, and the way she uses Earthbending to see is utterly fascinating. Katara, meanwhile, is lovely and awesome in equal measures, and Ty Lee is just the most adorable antagonist ever, bless her. I also love the fact that Toph and Katara both have very real flaws, and that these flaws in no way stop them from being wonderful.

I love Annie of Being Human, because she is adorable. I love her inept attempts to conform to the cultural image of what a ghost should be like. I love that she wants to be in Hufflepuff and make glittery cards. I love the little things she does for Owen, and her little smile when he notices them (even if he does not deserve them. Why don't you adorably haunt my house, Annie?). I love her friendship with Mitchell and George, and the ridiculous amounts of chemistry they all have.

These certainly aren't all the female characters I love (Carla, Elliot, Tosh, Sharpay, Fran, Celes, Selphie, Quistis, Freya, Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, Paine, Larxene, Ruby, Bela, Pamela, Ellen, Gwen, Morgana, Rose Tyler, Alex Drake, Samantha Carter, Luna Lovegood, Sara Tancredi...), but it's a start. Who are your favourite female characters? I'd love to hear about why you love them in the comments.

Comments

[rhosyndu.livejournal.com]

I was going to say most of my fandoms don’t have women in, but then I thought about it and decided to stop being a silly ass.

One of my favourite comics is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (not the film, the film sucks so very very hard) where a team of characters from Victorian literature are led by Mina Harker from Dracula who doesn’t have a single super power or any bitchin’ fight scenes -- but is still very kick ass.

I think all of the women in the Discworld are pretty damn good (and have had a long argument in t’pub with swing_set over whether they are a clichéd pantomime of strong women or not. I say not, given that all the characters are slightly pantomime-y) but I am rather fond of Susan and Nanny Ogg; Nanny for doing what she damn well pleases and Susan for doing things like using the word ‘hero’ as an insult.

Leela from Futurama is brilliant; purple hair, big nose and just kicks seven bells out of anyone else when it’s needed. Rather like Zoe from Firefly, though I couldn’t help but like Kaleigh as, well, how can you not like someone who is so sweet as that?

Very fond of Evelyn in The Mummy (though not any of the sequels) for being so nerdily obsessed by the ancient Egyptians that she raises one from the dead. That she’s Rachel Weisz also helps rather.

Though I really, really do love Glinda and Elphaba from Wicked (musical version as I’ve not read the book yet). Oh, Glinda’s just so fantastically bubble headed -- but kind in a backhand way -- and Elphaba is just so cool. There are exchanges like:
Elphaba: You're the only friend I've ever had.
Glinda: (Earnestly) And I've had so many friends. (Pause) But only one --that mattered.

And I’m probably forgetting loads, but I’ll stop here.