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Feb. 1st, 2010 11:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsAm I ever going to pass up an opportunity to babble extensively about AWESOME LADIES? The answer is: no, I most certainly am not!
Therefore, stolen from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
in_the_blue and a few other people by now: name a canon you know I know, and I'll tell you (in no particular order) my three favorite females and why. And then I'll name a canon for you, because I'm just as curious as I am eager to share.
Therefore, stolen from
in_the_blue and a few other people by now: name a canon you know I know, and I'll tell you (in no particular order) my three favorite females and why. And then I'll name a canon for you, because I'm just as curious as I am eager to share.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2010-02-01 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 05:02 pm (UTC)Rue: After several rewatches, Rue has become completely my favorite character in the series. She's so complicated, and she grows so much, and there's so much she gives up - I love how human she is deep down, and how her friendship with Duck is ultimately as important as her relationship with Mytho (even though she's never talked to another girl like this, she doesn't think she hates it!) and how the one thing she knows how to do is love, and every time I hear "The Dying Swan" these days, I have to stop and go RUUUUUUUUUUE in my heart.
Duck: Of course I adore Duck! Drosselmeyer's Mary Sue who destroys the script and thwarts tragedy single-handedly, just by real person who cares about everyone and not just the pretty boy she's supposed to be in love with. I love her terrible taste in clothing (DUCK PANTS) and her amazing Fakir impressions and how very, very hard she tries, and most of all I love how she refuses to vanish. Because she doesn't need to sacrifice herself to save the boy, she just needs to be herself.
Pique: I love Pique because she is so SANE. It's easy to miss because Lilie is so crazy! But Pique is completely under the impression that she's in a normal dance school and people should react in normal ways. So she has a crush on the jerktastic-but-hot older boy (and finds Mytho totally boring, which I find hilarious) and tells Duck to do her homework and runs around doing normal teenaged things. And I love that she's the only person who goes up to Mytho and is like, "hey, that Fakir relationship? That - that looks kind of unhealthy. And maybe you should get out of that." I mean, she's going after the wrong person in this case, but it's a SENSIBLE REACTION.
Revolutionary Girl Utena!
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Date: 2010-02-01 07:17 pm (UTC)Anthy: I love how Anthy changes, so very subtly, over the series, and how you get that little 'ohsnap' moment when you're rewatching and realize what she must've actually been thinking. I love how, despite being sympathetic in the end, she is still not completely a good person. And it's understandable that she isn't! And I love so much her giant fuck you to Akio at the very end.
Utena: You can't watch this series and not love Utena. She's completely awesome, in ways that I'm sure I don't have to explain. But what I love most about her are those little peeks at fucked-upedness we get as the series progresses, ultimately culminating in a complete deconstruction of her beliefs.
Nanami: Nanami is completely hilarious, for one thing. From her first appearance she is pretty much the best scheming Mean Girl ever. But out of all the characters in Utena, I think she's the one that grows the most, and, is, in a sense, the normalest out of the bunch. Compare her reactions to the news people are yanking swords out of duelists' chests with the rest of the student council's. Her main concern is how much it hurts. That's what I love about her, she knows she's in a weirdass show. And she's still obsessed with her brother.
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Date: 2010-02-01 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 05:04 pm (UTC)AS IF YOU COULDN'T GUESS
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Date: 2010-02-01 05:18 pm (UTC)okay okay okay um
Rachel: I LOVE RACHEL OKAY. She is the Biggest Damn Hero ever to not appear in the opening credits. I love how she just kind of casually rescues everybody without even breaking a sweat, AND ALSO how she totally ends up having lunch and giving romantic advice to the most feared assassin in the world, ALSO without breaking a sweat. And also her inexplicable fashion choices. (Why army fatigues? WHY NOT.) Even the editor of the Daily Days thinks she is the most hardcore! If I end up requesting Baccano! for Yuletide next year I am totally requesting Rachel fic, because it needs to exist.
Nice Holystone: oh like you didn't know this was coming. NICE. She keeps a bomb in her eye socket! Do I even need to say anything more! And she totally does not even care about who sees her scars by this point; she is awesome and self-confident and totally in charge of a gang of amazing bootleggers. (Yes, Jacuzzi is technically in charge. But we all know who it is that everyone goes to for orders when Jacuzzi's teeth are chattering in terror.) It is not enough for her just to throw a knife; she throws a knife with a bomb on it. And yet, despite all this, she is one of the sanest characters on the show! Which says something either about her, or about Baccano! . . . (also she and Jacuzzi are so ridiculously adorable.)
Ennis: THIS THIRD SLOT WAS SO HARD, LET ME TELL YOU. But I think Ennis wins because she is just so amazingly earnest. She takes ISAAC AND MIRIA seriously. That tells you something! And she is still kind of learning how to be a person, and once she figures it out she's going to be an awesome one (she already kind of is.) And she wants a baby brother! Okay, she didn't ask for one, but Isaac and Miria gave her one anyway, and you know she is going to be the best and most badass big sister ever. Also, she looks super snazzy in her suit.
(Eve, Miria, and Chane were all runners-up for this third slot too - Eve a little more than the others just because I have an extra fondness for her after writing that Yuletide fic.)
I FORGOT TO GIVE YOU ONE. Princess Tutu!
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Date: 2010-02-01 05:26 pm (UTC)MY PRINCESS TUTU ANSWERS WOULD BE PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS THE ONES YOU ALREADY GAVE. D: Give me something else?
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Date: 2010-02-01 05:37 pm (UTC)Ummmmmm okay ANYTHING DIANA WYNNE JONES.
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Date: 2010-02-01 07:04 pm (UTC)MILLIE. I read The Lives of Christopher Chant before any of the others, and thus was introduced to her when she was a kid rather than when she was already grown-up and married, and I am pretty sure this is what formed my main opinion of her. Because she was a girl who wanted desperately to live a life like she read about in stories, and, well, back then that was me. And she actually got to do it! By forcing people to give her the chance! Seeing her later as a respectable witch with an (admittedly slightly off-kilter) family life was lovely, but it was the lonely girl who pushed herself into the world she wanted whom I loved so dearly.
--okay I do not remember this one's name, um. WIKIPEDIA WILL HELP ME ah, she is Claudia! From Year of the Griffin. I do not like that book as much as I did Dark Lord of Derkholm, mostly because of DWJ's decision to pair up everybody ever even with people they barely knew, but Claudia was one of the aspects I adored. For some reason the idea of a slightly greenish girl with muddy hair and a tendency to get sopping wet seemed absolutely beautiful to me. And she was cranky, but in a wonderful way, and again reminded me a bit of myself; as a kid, I didn't have very many friends, and knew all too well what it was like to be the weird one. So I was very fond of her, and, come to think of it, still am.
And, of course, there is SOPHIE. Seeing her in the movie did not impress me much, because, well, the movie in general did not impress me much, but seeing her in the book and in proper DWJ form was awesome. An eminently practical girl who takes bizarre situations in stride but will not take any crap from the equally-bizarre guy who is often the cause of them! And then she does not go all moony-eyed when she realizes she is in love with him, instead she goes and kills some plants and shouts at him for a bit. Basically, she is what I want out of a romantic heroine in every way. AND THEN SOME.
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Date: 2010-02-01 08:20 pm (UTC)(I forget, have you read Conrad's Fate yet? In which Millie mercilessly mocks Christopher who is HILARIOUSLY HEAD OVER HEELS for her? :D :D :D)
Claudia is amazing! I wish I felt like I'd gotten to know her better - that was one of the things about Year of the Griffin, aside from the sudden explosion of pairings at the end, yeah - but she was so fabulous. Travel jinx! <333
And what can I do but flail my hands around and go SOPHIE. :D :D :D :D She epitomizes my favorite kind of DWJ-lady - cranky and take-charge!
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Date: 2010-02-01 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 09:15 pm (UTC)omg those illustrations were SO AWESOME *_* also so accurate! Christopher: <3 <3 <3 <3 Millie let's run away together
Millie: >:| oh my god are you insane
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Date: 2010-02-01 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 09:42 pm (UTC)LIBRARIES ARE YOUR FRIENDS. I promise!
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Date: 2010-02-01 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 05:45 pm (UTC)Lady Sybil Ramkin: Lady Sybil IS. AMAZING. She's so warm-hearted and practical and freaking badass when it counts, and I ship Sybil/Vimes enormously. The city's whole hospital is named after her! FOR GOOD REASON. Someday, I would love a book where Lady Sybil and not Vimes gets to play the major active role - she's completely capable of it, and when Young Sam is a little older you know she will be charging back into the fray. (And now I want to reread Guards, Guards!)
Susan Death: When I was younger I always loved the Susan books best; now I think I love the Guards books a little more, but that does not detract from my belief that Susan is made of pure awesomesauce. I love her development from wannabe-goth teen to most sensible schoolteacher ever, I love the poker under the bed, and every time she and her grandpa have a heartwarming reconciliation I am full of joy.
Glenda Sugarbean: I fell in love with Glenda after reading Unseen Academicals and now she is very high in my heart! I firmly believe that she is going to help rule the city some day. She ignored Mrs. Whitlow and snickered at Ridcully, she gave the Patrician and Lady Margolatta both a piece of her mind, and she makes the best pies in the land; in short, she is a FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH. And everyone had better start learning it.
(Honorable mentions: um, all the witches ever? I did not name any of them because how can I pick just one! Also, Cheery Littlebottom.)
. . . I keep forgetting to actually give canons to other people! Because I suck. Can I do Discworld right back at you?
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Date: 2010-02-01 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 05:50 pm (UTC)Patience: Okay she appeared for all of one episode. But dammit, I love a lady who is willing to shoot off Mal Reynolds' kneecaps. (I love Mal too! But there is something about Patience's cheerful amorality that I seriously adore.)
Kaylee: I think Kaylee was my first exposure to the cheerful girly mechanic archetype, and it was so exciting! And I remember being really, really happy to have a character who was not hardcore-badass and who liked frilly dresses and girly things but was still competent, a character who I could identify with.
(River would have been on here, but I love Milliways River more than canon River, and also I feel like River gets so much attention from canon that other ladies should have a turn.)
Also, in exchange: Ugly Betty!
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Date: 2010-02-01 05:33 pm (UTC)Hana Yori Dango. (The LA drama preferably.)
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Date: 2010-02-01 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 06:37 pm (UTC)Sheeeeerlock Holmes.
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Date: 2010-02-01 08:10 pm (UTC)Irene Adler: Of course Irene Adler has to be up here (story-canon, specifically, though movie-canon Irene is cool too.) She's the only person, let alone woman, who ever turned the tables on Holmes! And moreover, she does it with such good humor, and such class. (And cross-dressing! You know my feelings about cross-dressing, and they are a+++ at all times. :D)
Mary Morstan: I love both movieverse and short story-verse Mary; she is a cool, classy, sensible lady, who totally gets that occasionally her husband has to run around having ADVENTURES. (And once had an ADVENTURE of her own! And I hope if there are movie sequels that we will get to see Mary being clever and active and full of agency. It is my dearest wish!)
Mrs. Hudson: She puts up with SO MUCH from her tenants. You have to sympathize. D: How she has not yet kicked them out is an EXCELLENT question. And yet nonetheless (in book-canon at least) she is unfailingly polite and very sweet! I am awfully fond of her.
Hmmmm, give me . . . Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals!
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Date: 2010-02-01 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 07:45 pm (UTC)Hildrida Navisdaughter: I never stopped loving Hildy - cranky, pompous, stuck-up brat though she is, but I have a fondness for cranky, pompous, stuck-up brats. And I love her determination, and how even though in many things she's selfish she always puts her brother first, and that she somehow miraculously grew a kind of moral code even with the upbringing she had. And I spend a lot of book 4 fanwanking her behavior to make sense, because yes, she's acting awful to Mitt at that point, but . . . kids are allowed to go through phases of being awful, and I do believe she has reasons for it.
Maewen Singer: OH MAEWEN. How can anyone not love Maewen? Partly because she's a reader stand-in, totally - an Ordinary Girl dropped down into the middle of this crazy story - and partly because she knows how history goes, and she just has to hang in there until it comes out properly, and because she yells at Mitt and Moril to get their heads on straight and she's got such good sense at heart.
Brid Singer: I always want more Brid - well, I always want more wacky Singer siblings in general, but I am really fond of Brid especially. She has such chutzpah! I like that she thinks she's better than she is, because it's so human (and I suspect that since we're looking at things through Moril's viewpoint, he sees her talents slightly less charitably than a non-sibling would) and how she is Clennen's grandiose, larger-than-life daughter through-and-through.
Honorable mention goes to Tanaqui and Lenina! (But Tanaqui especially.)
And I ask for Dalemark right back at you! (Because I always want an excuse to make more people babble about Dalemark.)
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Date: 2010-02-01 08:01 pm (UTC)Maewen-- OH MAEWEN♥ Maewen is sort of my favourite! She's so sensible, and she tries so hard to put everyone at ease when they're all busy hating and mistrusting each other! And I love her for inciting the miners (were they miners?) to strike, and for almost saying "I'm in love with--" when Al asks her for a truth, and for her "nervous, freckly look".
Tanaqui-- I love Tanaqui because of her arc, for how she grows to trust in herself and her own power, and how she saves the day with weaving! And I like how not-perfect she is, when she snaps at Robin, and her badly woven rhyme-skirt, how she's always Duck's older sister, and how she terrifies the Heathen boy she saves from drowning.
To conclude: &DALEMARK; &LADIES;
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Date: 2010-02-01 08:25 pm (UTC)And YES the boat scene is one of my favorites <333333 Hildy. (My personal fanwanking for Hildy is that she knows Mitt has a crush on her, and she kiiiiiiind of sort of has a crush on him too and HATES IT, and, because she's a ridiculous teenager, she decides to make it go away by being AWFUL to him so he will stop being soppy and things can go back to normal. Clearly that will help everything sort itself out! BEST PLAN.)
And also yes to everything else too. *_* How is everyone in Dalemark so awesome? LADIES ESPECIALLY.
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Date: 2010-02-01 08:32 pm (UTC)I like your Hildy theory, and I think that makes perfect sense for her character! And it explains the way she is with Maewen, too. Only then it makes me sad on everyone's part again :(
I love Dalemark so much because-- like Witch Week, and a handful of other Chrestomanci books-- EVERYONE IS SECRETLY AN UTTER FREAKING BADASS. It is like one long chain of Crowning Moments Of Awesome!
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Date: 2010-02-01 09:16 pm (UTC)SO MUCH SO. And yet, at the same time, they're all so DWJ-real-people! It is CROWNING MOMENT OF AWESOME followed by hilariously adorable moment of petty followed by another CROWNING MOMENT OF AWESOME.
(That may be why Witch Week is my other favorite. :D)
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Date: 2010-02-01 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 08:44 pm (UTC)Serra Teresa: How do have absolutely zero official status and still manage to completely manipulate the fate of an entire empire? BY BEING AS BADASS AS SERRA TERESA, THAT IS HOW. (Which means that no one else can, except possibly Serra Diora.) What I love most about her, though, is after all that badassery, in the end she's completely capable of throwing it all away and picking up a different life when it becomes necessary. Because that is possibly the most hardcore of all.
Finch: Yes, I love Jewel . . . but I possibly am starting to love Finch even more, for trying so hard to BE Jewel, and for "What Would Jewel Do? . . . aside from be a jerk, but OTHER than that." And for trying really hard to stand up for herself against some terrifying and powerful people! I am so looking forward to seeing more of her.
Serra Maria: Another minor character who I love unreasonably! I am so fascinated by her, and how on earth she has managed to hold two such disparate roles as proper Serra and VOYANI MATRIARCH. You have to be kind of crazy impressive to pull that off without tearing yourself apart. I don't know if we'll see much more of her, but hers is a backstory I would really like to find out about.
(Honorable mentions of course go to Jewel and Margret and Miriam and and and and . . .)
Agh I keep forgetting to ask things in return! THE COLLECTED WORKS OF URASAWA.
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Date: 2010-02-02 03:18 am (UTC)And you give me a very hard choice! I shall choose a few who I feel deserve more love (not that Nina, Yukiji, or Uran do not deserve love! but I think they get it fairly often).
From Monster, we have Lotte! Because more Lotte is needed. I love her smarts, her mad research skills, and the fact that she does really cool things simply because she likes people and wants to help them out, whether they realize they need the help or not! She can be sneaky, sly, and mischievous, but all in the name of good things like making sure a massive fortune goes to the rightful heir! And the way she falls for Karl is really sweet and I know they eventually end up together because anything else is unacceptable.
From 20th Century Boys, we have Koizumi Kyoko! ...And because my copy of volume 6 is lent out, I don't know if you've met her yet or not. But I love Kyoko! She is a ditzy teenager who does things like miss large amounts of class because she is an incurable groupie for an awful band. Because of this, everyone, including Kyoko, thinks that she is not all that bright. But she is pretty bright! Just kind of clueless about it. Which means that she's smart enough to notice things that others don't, and clueless enough to say that she notices said things and thus end up in huge amounts of trouble. And she keeps this wonderful sanity, which results in "ohmygod this is so messed up why do I have to deal with this oh FINE I'll take care of it in as straightforward a way as I can." Also, she is tied with Chouno in the MOST HILARIOUS FACES category, which is great fun.
From Pluto, we have Helena! Helena is, all things considered, pretty minor. She's the wife of the main character, Gesicht. But in a lot of ways, she's among the most human of the robot characters. A lot of the "imitation of humans" that robots do seems to come pretty naturally to her. She manages to come through a lot of things while keeping huge reserves of kindness and compassion, and has the ability to make large sacrifices simply because she knows it's both the right thing to do and a necessary thing. (Also: fiction needs more happily married couples, and she is part of one! I love happily married couples.)
Honorary mention goes to the series Yawara!, which I do not yet have firsthand knowledge of but which I understand is full of awesome ladies, many of whom know judo!
(Do I get to ask you for another? Because if I do, I choose Otherland.)
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Date: 2010-02-02 07:38 pm (UTC)Hee hee sure, why not! It is not like Otherland does not have lots to choose from. :D
Sam Fredericks: Oh, like this was going to be a surprise. Sam is pretty much my favorite character in the books! Because she really has no backstory angst - she's got all the necessary social skills, a supportive family, and so on - but she feels like she wants something more out of her life, even though she doesn't know what yet; because she thinks making gender a big deal is kind of stupid; because she read Lord of the Rings and didn't tell Orlando, but she knows she's totally the Sam. I love how at first that plotline is totally all about Orlando, but in the fourth book it becomes Sam's story. (I also love the fact that she's biracial, and it's not a big deal or a source of massive angst or whatever. And one of the things I love about Otherland is that it is not a story full of white people!)
Renie Sulaweyo: I don't know if there's a better word for Renie than FIERCE. She is totally the hero of this story, in the classic sense - the one who charges into danger, who protects her friends and family, who kicks ass and takes names and everything else. On top of that, she's smart - she works at a university! - determined and loyal, but she's not at all perfect. She can be short-tempered and headstrong and totally bossy, and I love that about her too, for her flaws as well as for the things that make her awesome.
Calliope Skouros: Not a main character, but I love her a lot! Most of all I love how in the middle of all this futuristic virtual fantasyland stuff, Calliope's storyline is baaaaasically a straight-up police procedural. *laughing* And let me tell you, if there were a police procedural starring her on TV, it would be so much higher on my list than any of the ones we have now. SO MUCH HIGHER.
Okay, if we are still going . . . Sunshine!
(Also: I got your letter! :D It DID INDEED make me beam all the way through. You will be getting a response soon!)
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Date: 2010-02-03 03:23 am (UTC)I think Otherland is a great guide for how to Do Things Right. It's not perfect, but damn it pulls off so much so well.
And now I desperately want a t.v. show about Calliope (and her poor partner)! It would be so good. *_*
Now for Sunshine!
Rae Seddon: Obviously I absolutely love Sunshine. She's sane, kind of geeky, and just tries to do the right thing on principle. She's not an epic hero, she's too sane to want that. What she wants is to exercise her mad baking skills and to read her fantasy fiction, and that is awesome. She's among the most human of protagonists I've ever encountered. I relate to her enormously.
Sadie: Sunshine's mom is badass. She didn't just have the guts to completely cut ties with her family in order to ~follow her heart~, she had the guts to take her daughter and leave with no support from anyone when the guy turned out to be a controlling jerk. She's ended up with a good place in life because she's worked for it, and no one is going to threaten her or hers.
Aimil: Dude she's a librarian who moonlights with the S.O.F. how is that not completely awesome?
Honorary mention goes to Yolande!
And if we are still going...The Twelve Kingdoms!
(I am so happy to hear that! 8D)
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Date: 2010-02-03 03:52 pm (UTC)Yeah - it's definitely not perfect, but there's a lot of things that it does incredibly well. (It amazes me more because I have yet to be that impressed by anything else Tad Williams has written. Where did Otherland come from, Tad Williams! And where did it gooooo. D:)
That is one of the amazing thing about Sunshine, is how incredibly relatable she is! And I loooove her relationship with her mom, messy as it can sometimes be.
OH MAN but how can I talk about awesome female characters without spoiling you? D: Because the third book has some awesome ones. I will try to be vague . . .
Yoko: UM HOW MUCH DO I LOVE YOKO. I LOVE YOKO SO MUCH I WROTE A WHOLE LJ POST ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE HER AND IDENTIFY WITH HER. THAT IS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOKO. I mean BASICALLY she is one of my favorite fantasy heroines of all time, because it's not easy, and because of how much she grows, and because even though she had no real connections at home she still wants to go home and change that. YOKO. <33333
Risai: So I . . . am discovering I have kind of a thing for awesome lady generals? Risai is THE AWESOMEST lady general. I like the way Sea of Wind works out, but I am still a little sad that she wasn't king, because dang would she have been amazing at it. She is hardcore without losing her kindness and she has an amazing sense of perspective. And I want her and Taiki to be BFF forever.
Ribi: You haven't met Ribi yet, but she is seriously amazing. She is one of Shoryu's councillors and the ambassador to a potentially rebellious province, and she is completely loyal and dedicated and ruthless - one of those characters who is willing to sacrifice a lot for her ideals. There's a scene where she is stating once again her loyalty to Shoryu and to the kingdom, and Enki is being a total brat, all "I bet that's because you loooooooove him! SHORYU AND RIBI SITTIN' IN A TREE," and she just refuses to be swayed or bothered at all - it's not about that, it's about doing what you know is right.
Iiiif we are keeping up the chain: Princess Tutu!
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Date: 2010-02-01 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 09:13 pm (UTC)Cordelia Chase: OH CORDY. How so awesome! I am a total sucker for the bitchy-girl-turned-awesome-heroine trope - that girl who may be a jerk, but you know what, in face of peril, she continues to be a jerk who does what needs doing and also is a jerk to the bad guys, and thus proves her bona fides of hardcoreness. I loved how she did not care enough to tell the nice little lies to each other that everybody else did, and that she might not have actually liked the Scoobies all that much, actually, but that doesn't stop her from fighting evil anyway.
Tara: What I love most about Tara is how, once she comes out of her shell a little, she is so quietly sane. When everyone else in season six is running around digging themselves deeper and deeper into their own little unhappy holes, Tara gets herself out of an unhappy situation and keeps on living her life. She's calm, but she's got massive amounts of backbone. Also I love her ridiculous dress sense.
Amanda: My favorite Potential Slayer! Plays D&D with the best of them! Punches annoying boys in the FACE!
Also: for you, the works of Shakespeare! Whatever you have read most recently.
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Date: 2010-02-01 11:28 pm (UTC)Mistress Ford and Mistress Page from The Merry Wives of Windsor. Because basically they run the entire show by playing fabulous tricks on people.
Emilia from Othello. Because she is cynical and the only person in the play who is not totally overdramatic about everything.
I feel like I could answer this prompt better at the end of the semester when I will have reread a lot more Shakespeare. >.> Most of his plays I haven't seen in years.
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Date: 2010-02-02 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 09:22 pm (UTC)Toph: TOPH IS AWESOME. EVERYBODY BETTER RECOGNIZE. FULL STOP. She is literally the most badass person on the show, quite probably the most badass person IN THE WORLD, and also the most hilariously cranky twelve-year-old in existence. <3333 This combination is like my kryptonite! Every time she punches Sokka in the shoulder in a manly way because she can't admit she liiiiikes him, my heart grows three sizes. Every time she and Katara bond over Toph's secret secret inner angst, my heart grows FOUR sizes. Every time she reminds them all for the umpty millionth time that SHE CAN'T ACTUALLY SEE THE POSTER YOU'RE UNFURLING, my heart grows FIVE SIZES!
Mai: I love Mai, and I love her extra because for some reason there are large portions of fandom that are bizarrely anti-Mai. How can you hate Mai! I love her hilarious deadpan, and how she is almost as cool as she thinks she is, and her FIVE MILLION KNIVES, and how she doesn't hate Zuko, and how, in the end, the fate of the world hangs in the balance of her choice . . . almost. Because really, the fate of the world hangs on:
Ty Lee: I love Ty Lee because I have never seen a character quite like her before on TV, I think. She's so cheerful and likeable! But she works for Team Evil! But she's actually competent! But her choice not to let one of her best friends kill the other is actually quite possibly what saves the world! OH TY LEE. <3333
For you: Fullmetal Alchemist!
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Date: 2010-02-02 04:31 am (UTC)FMA! SO MANY CHOICES. I think I have to start with:
Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye: She is just AWESOME from the very beginning. She's loyal to Mustang, yet she will TOTALLY undermine him, especially if he's being stupid. It's only chapter seven where she's knocks his feet out from under him, saving him from Scar's hand, and he's, "What was THAT for?!" and she goes, "You're useless on rainy days." and the USELESS hits him like a ton of bricks. Plus so many other awesome things she's done. She potty trained her dog by scaring him with a gun! SO MUCH LOVE.
Izumi Curtis: How could anyone NOT think she's awesome? The first thing she does when she first meets young Ed and All is throw a bed at them! She beats up the baddies, then throws up blood, then continues beating them up! She and her husband are total badasses, then they hug and have hearts around them and are all "I love you, honey." The way she's all, "I'm a house wife!" SCARIEST YET MOST AWESOME THING EVER.
The third choice is tooooough. There are so many awesome women! But I think for my third gal I'm going to go with:
Sheska: Books. Books books books books books. Need I say more?
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Date: 2010-02-02 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-02 09:44 pm (UTC)Which post was this about all the women in FMA? If it's older I've probably read it, but I don't remember.
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Date: 2010-02-02 10:05 pm (UTC)It was this one!
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Date: 2010-02-02 10:36 pm (UTC)... *goes and reads it again*
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Date: 2010-02-01 07:41 pm (UTC)(It's that or Inda. :D)
Re: I don't have an appropriate icon uploaded yet
Date: 2010-02-01 09:41 pm (UTC)Lt. Riza Hawkeye: GOSH WHAT A SURPRISE do I have to rehash everything we have been saying in email all
dayweekTHIS PAST LONG TIME. *cracking up* But for the benefit of anyone else who might be interested: Riza is so awesome! She is a HARDCORE ACTUAL GROWNUP PERSON who TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR HER ACTIONS; it is not that her only choice is to revolutionize the world, she does have other choices, but it's the only way to live with herself. <3333333 Haaaaaaawkeye.Izumi Curtis: Izumi is so incredibly badass! But besides that, as I have said before also and will say again: dude, where else in fiction have you ever seen a disabled woman with an incredibly strong and happy marriage be the single most hardcore person in the universe? Susannah probably qualifies, but I think that's it.
General Olivier Milla Armstrong: It breaks my heart not to have room for Ross or Paninya or Lan Fan, but when it comes down to it I have to go with General Armstrong: ruler of the north, savvy middle-aged career soldier, PERSONIFICATION OF AWESOME. I love how badass she is, but I also love how savvy she is. Who else could get away with baldly informing the Fuhrer that she killed one of his generals in cold blood because the general just WAS NOT HARD ENOUGH? Nobody else could!
Also, while I'm here, I may as well do Inda too. :D
Hadand: Hadand is going to be the best queen ever. True, her situation sort of sucks for her. :( But she deals with it with grace! I fell in love with her during that competition with Tanrid, when they for once let their awesome flag fly and bond over super sibling hardcore, and I have not stopped loving her since. <3
Jeje: Our trademark Sherwood Smith cheerful ordinary-looking girl who is constantly questioning the sanity of all the drama queens around her! Which is enough of a reason to love her, but she's also incredibly fierce and loyal. (And I love her deep barrel-voice. I say this like I've actually heard it, which of course I haven't. But I can imagine it!)
Tdor: Tall and scrawny and cleverer than you'd think her for being so honest. Tdor is just a good person, and you can tell that. Which is why Inda relies completely on her advice, as a kid! And, like Hadand, she copes with difficult situations with grace; she has her own hopes and dreams, but she also knows her priorities and her duty.
FOR YOU: Utena!
I have an appropriate icon now!
Date: 2010-02-02 11:17 pm (UTC)Utena: ummm. See, I am handicapped because
Anthy: She starts out such a cipher -- and she stays one, in some ways, but she's so complicated, and there's a young woman under all that weight of role and allegory. I love her for her spite and her stubbornness and her cruelty and the way she giggles at elephant flip books and adopts snails. I love that she starts out being the damsel, and turns out to be the witch who wouldn't be a princess, and turns out to just be Anthy.
Juri: She is so messed up. So messed up. And she knows that so is everyone else around her and so is the system, but she can't break out of it anyway. She's in love with a dead guy and a girl who toys with her for fun, she says she doesn't believe in miracles but she fights to find one, and she's the only person who ever loses a duel on her own terms.
Nanami: I very nearly did Utena, because I adore her, but Utena's the protagonist and I'm contrary. The thing about Nanami is that she's an irritating, emotionally incestuous laughingstock with no sense of proportion and no sense of reality, and her plotlines reflect that -- until suddenly she isn't, and they don't, and she's one of the most human characters on the screen and it's her eyes we're seeing through. It's Nanami's viewpoint we're agreeing with when she says no, that's fucked up, that's WRONG, NO, and suddenly you find yourself caring about her very real desperation. And that's a kind of table-turning I love.
(See how I'm being good and stopping the chain there?)
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Date: 2010-02-01 09:07 pm (UTC)difficultdifferent.no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 09:53 pm (UTC)Estelle Green: Estelle is a knitting chatterbox who seems like nothing more than a spineless hanger-on of the boarding school's popular crowd. BUT WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW is that Estelle's mom is in prison for smuggling condemned witches out of the country, and Estelle is determined to secretly keeping watch on the whole school in case someone eventually needs rescuing. Which doesn't stop her from being genuinely sweet and bubbly and chattery, which I love too, but there are such hidden depths under there. <3333
Nan Pilgrim: Another Witch Week girl, Nan is dumpy and plain but has a secret gift (well, aside from the witchcraft): she can describe things amazingly. Sometimes she gets so caught up in describing things that she can't stop, which is kind of a problem at the lunch table when she is going on about how the tinned tomatoes look like skinned mice. >.> At the start, she's sort of the school punching bag, but throughout the story she finds her spine and her voice, and it's a hell of a voice. I love her a lot.
Millie: I love Millie in all stages of life! As a cranky goddess, kind of scared for her life, but also just bored and longing for a life like she reads about in books; as a sensible and far-too-stubborn teenager, mocking Christopher mercilessly and occasionally getting into scrapes she can't quite get out of; as an extremely sensible adult witch and mother, with how powerful she is hidden under a layer of ordinariness that you have to squint to see past. She is amazing at every stage!
For you . . . Samurai Champloo!
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Date: 2010-02-02 12:57 am (UTC)*shoves Mugen aside*
There are some great female characters in this show. For me, Fuu isn't one of them and so I give you this trio instead:
Sara (episodes 20 & 21). In a world that keeps wanting to marginalize and prostitute its women, she stands out as a beacon of strength and as an embodiment of dedicated motherhood. She's strong, she's skilled, she's deadly, and she does it all for love... of her son. It doesn't hurt that she's a completely kick-ass fighter who never lets her blindness get in her way at all for any reason.
Yatsuha (Who? episode 15). I bet in all the time she worked undercover in that brothel, she never once let a single customer lay a hand on her. And considering her "competition," that's got to take some skill. She held her own fighting against Mugen, and that's not easy to do, and stayed focused on her job the whole time, did what she needed to do, and got the hell out of there relatively unscathed. She fared a lot better than her (male) partner, too, and I like her whimsical last line about how Mugen's the man she's going to marry some day. I wouldn't put it past her.
Shino (episode 11). There was so much chemistry between her and Jin, but that's not why I like her. She stands as one of my favorite Champloo characters because she's got such quiet strength even though she's faced with this ridiculous adversity. From her introductory last night of freedom to the weight being lifted from her eyes and shoulders as she makes her getaway via boat to Enkiri Dera. Only someone with an abundance of inner strength could endure what she did and still hold any hope in her heart.
Runner-up: Hotaru (episode 2), just because she's awesome in an evil way.
(Also, will now probably have to read Witch Week.)
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Date: 2010-02-02 07:14 pm (UTC)(I've forgotten who Hotaru is, though. *sheepish*)
(IT IS MY FAVORITE CHRESTOMANCI.)
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Date: 2010-02-03 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 10:04 pm (UTC)Athena: Boomer was the first lady in the series I fell in love with . . . and I still feel bad for transferring my affections a little to Sharon/Athena, because did Boomer ever get a raw deal. And I love Boomer too! But I love the lengths Sharon was willing to go to, once she'd picked her side, and how much she eventually becomes part of the crew in spite of everything - that takes a lot of guts, and a lot of perseverance. I think it's that that I admire most about her, how she stuck that out.
D'Anna/Three: It was a tough call, on this, between D'Anna and Ellen Tigh. But eventually D'Anna won out.
Because she's XenaBecause she's so snarky and cynical, but at the same time she really, really believes in something. (And also, just because she's fabulous. >.>)BSG back at you!
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Date: 2010-02-02 03:36 am (UTC)Sharon Agathon - I really have a weakness for characters that kind of hold between the "good" and "bad" sides in a story. There's a lot of characters this applies to in BSG, but Sharon's probably my favorite. I was a sucker for shipping her with Helo, and she's the only Cylon who really goes entirely into rejecting her Cylon identity, which - not healthy, but interesting. Plus she's a smartass.
Caprica-Six - I kind of like her for similar reasons to Sharon, except that she consistently stayed on the other side of the line and was never even really tempted away from her Cylon identity. But she's also a very in-between character, which is only accentuated by her direct role in the attacks on the Colonies and then key role in the overall plot arc.
Ellen Tigh - Because she gets drunk and cheats and everyone hates her. I love that she's this weird combination of hilariously Machiavellian and yet also hopelessly romantic - she fucks with Tigh all the time, but then commits all sorts of desperate acts to save him. And seriously, I love her because she pisses everyone off and they kept her around, anyway. It doesn't make me forgive them for who they didn't keep around when they should have, but it does amuse the hell out of me.
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Date: 2010-02-02 07:12 pm (UTC)I love Ellen Tigh way more than I ever thought I would. She just totally does not care who she pisses off, it's amazing.
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Date: 2010-02-01 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-01 10:29 pm (UTC)Meg Giry: I have basically always seen Phantom of the Opera from a Meg's-eye view. (In fact, I think my very first posted fanfiction was a Very Secret Diary version of Meg's journal. *nostalgia*) She just seems so sane compared to the rest of the cast! "Christine, please stop talking about the voices in your head, you sound like a CRAZY PERSON" seems to be pretty much her attitude. And who can deny that it is, indeed, an eminently sane and sensible attitude?
Madame Giry: Oh my god, the woman is such an amazing drama queen. *_* I mean, presumably she is also a good ballet teacher! But you know she gets an incredible thrill out of swooping around wearing black and intoning ominous warnings. And the managers are just like "PLEASE, Madame Giry, you are NOT BEING HELPFUL."
Christine Daae: She's a total airhead who probably should not be let out alone, but I can't help it, I have a great fondness for her. She totally thinks the Phantom is her dead father! Which you have to admit makes it pretty awkward when he tries to hit on her. :( She spends most of her time off in la-la land, but you have to admit she's basically a sweetheart who just got unlucky with stalkers.
For you: Sailor Moon!
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Date: 2010-02-02 08:26 pm (UTC)Meiou Setsuna/Sailor Pluto: Ageless, essentially immortal, stuck with an important but depressingly solitary duty that involves guarding the Door of Time, prone to cryptic statements about past and future, ridiculously powerful but unable to really use her most powerful attack, and possessed of a small secret inner woe? I am, as they say, predictable. ^_^ I also think she has the best regular attack, and doesn't get nearly enough screen time to show off her awesomeness.
Kino Makoto/Sailor Jupiter: I think I started liking her for the simple reason that she's tall and tends to be unintentionally intimidating because of it. I remember reading that Naoki Takeuchi originally wanted to write her character as being more of a juvenile deliquent and a brawler -- the sukeban or yankii type -- and only the physical aspects (such as curly hair and a longer skirt) ended up in the final version. She's tough but kind, very self-reliant (enough to live on her own after her parents die), and her featured episodes always reveal some interesting aspect of her character.
Interestingly enough, the first slash fanfic I ever read was Makoto/Ami -- the pairing had quite a following on alt.fan.sailor-moon. ^_^