So. About that annoying female character flowchart.

[laurus_nobilis]

(This one, in case you haven't seen it.)

Instead of ranting about it, I'm going to 1)link to a great fix (thanks to etrangere for the link!), and 2)follow allira_dream's idea and channel my RAAAAGE in a positive way:

GIVE ME A CHARACTER WHO IDENTIFIES AS FEMALE. Then I will write you the reasons why the lady is awesomer than awesome. It might be my squealing, it might be a drabble, it might be five reasons. The point is, I will gush about a female character, then YOU can gush about said female character and we will all be a little bit happier because 'FUCK YEAH, SHE'S AWESOME'.

I'll probably go for squealing/listing reasons instead of drabbles. But still. GO WILD.

Martha Jones (Doctor Who) - spoilers for the end of season 3
Sari and Arcee (Transformers: Animated) - spoilers for the end of the series
Donna Noble (Doctor Who) - implied spoilers up to End of Time
Trucy Wright (Apollo Justice)
Katara (Avatar: the Last Airbender)
Karrin Murphy (The Dresden Files)
Airazor (Beast Wars)
Nakuru (Card Captor Sakura) and Suki (Avatar: the Last Airbender)

Comments

[cygna-hime.livejournal.com]

I'm just going to state right here that if the name of one of your 'stereotypes' is the character's name, that's not a stereotype. Because science says that's not how it works.

Katara!

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Honestly. And there were several of those, too. :|

Katara is great because she is so, so rounded. She's caring, hopeful, sweet, compassionate, sometimes overprotective. She's also moody and stubborn and a bit judgemental and might chew your head out, for a good reason or for none at all. (I've said this before, but I love that finally I can look at a girl who gets angry a lot but she's not defined solely by that and is still shown in a positive light.)

She's always trying to do the right thing. Sometimes she does it in ways that turn out to be counterproductive, yes, but she learns, she listens to other people (after a while, at times, but she does). She's not afraid to speak her mind or to defy tradition. And she never, ever loses hope.

[cygna-hime.livejournal.com]

Bonus 'love' for the question 'can she carry the story'. Well, gee, maybe if there's an ensemble cast, or if she happens to be in a supporting role, she's not *supposed* to, and it doesn't make her a bad character. Especially when the equivalent male character can't carry a story either.

I love that Katara is in some ways the stereotypical "Chick/Team Mom", but in other ways a fully rounded character. Like, she's not angelically virtuous and somehow totally unaffected by growing up in a world at war. And while she's the team mom, that role means that sometimes she drives the other characters up the wall, as one's mom does.

Also I love that she's sometimes wrong, and she's sometimes right, and she's sometimes uncertain, but she's always *something*. I love the writers for the fact that she always has an opinion of her very own, and that she's not either wrong or right all the time. And she gets angry and I'm allowed to think that's okay.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely. Only protagonists can be good characters? o.O Yes, I'd love more female protagonists too, but if that's what they were getting at it's... poorly worded.

And while she's the team mom, that role means that sometimes she drives the other characters up the wall, as one's mom does.
Yes, definitely! Besides, while she does have some stereotypically "girly" traits, she'll be the first one to kick you if you suggest that's because she's a girl and not because it's, you know, her personality.