skygiants | (no subject)

Princess Tutu! Because nothing says badass like a tutu.

Princess Tutu, I am ashamed to say, is pretty easy for me because even though there are lots of awesome ladies there are clearly some that hold special places in my heart.

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!

BACCANO

AS IF YOU COULDN'T GUESS

Discworld!

Baccano! is so hard! TOO MUCH AWESOME AND I LOVE THEM ALL @_@

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!

Edited 2010-02-01 17:23 (UTC)

EXCELLENT CHOICES ALL. One of the things I love most about Baccano is the ridiculously high number of awesome ladies! Awesome ladies who get to do awesome things and are not looked down upon or oversexualized! (Nice may like to show off her cleavage, but that is more because she is Confident With Her Body rather than using it as a tactic to get what she wants, and also nobody ever comments on it anyway.)

MY PRINCESS TUTU ANSWERS WOULD BE PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS THE ONES YOU ALREADY GAVE. D: Give me something else?

Firefly!

I don't know if you know, but I'll ask anyway:

Hana Yori Dango. (The LA drama preferably.)

Me toooooo. I mean, there is a ridiculously high number of awesome characters in general . . . but so many of them are ladies! *_* (Exactly! There is that one awkward moment with Jacuzzi and Miriacleavage, but other than that I can't really think of anything fanservicey at all. Also, let's face it, Nice's outfit is AWESOME.)

Ummmmmm okay ANYTHING DIANA WYNNE JONES.

Discworld is haaaaaard. Um, this will totally be influenced by the fact that I read Unseen Academicals most recently. But yes.

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?

Edited 2010-02-01 17:54 (UTC)

Zoe Washburne: Who is surprised that Zoe is my favorite? NO ONE is surprised. The deadpan snark, the utter loyalty, the complete and utter badassery . . . the only complaint I have about Zoe is that she was never given enough screentime or a story of her own, and if I have one dearest sorrow about Firefly being cancelled, it's that now we'll never get it. (Not that we necessarily would have anyways . . . but we'll never know now.)

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!

Edited 2010-02-01 17:55 (UTC)

I actually do not know it! I saw a few episodes of the Korean version (Boys Over Flowers), but not enough to really get a sense for any of the characters except, like, the main three. Pick again?

DALEMARK♥

The Sun Sword!

Already had a back up. ^^ (And that's a shame! Nearly all the female characters are made of awesome!)

Sheeeeerlock Holmes.

BtVS?

It has been a while since I have read any of her stuff, but I shall work from my ingrained childhood memories!

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.

Aaaaa, Utena is kinda hard since there are so many awesome ladies to choose from!

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.

Avatar the Last Airbender!

THREE GUESSES

(It's that or Inda. :D)

DALEMARK oh man okay! Oh this is going to be hard.

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.)

Edited 2010-02-01 19:47 (UTC)

Hildy-- Oh, man, see, I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy Hildy at first! I can't remember why, now, but needless to say I got to the part where she draws Wind's Road and tears it in two, and writes Ynen on one piece and Hildy on the other, and then crosses her name out and writes Ynen again, and I loved her wholeheartedly from that point onwards. I love her because she's so stubborn and determined and kind of an idiot sometimes because of that, and I was really sad by her behaviour in Crown of Dalemark. I pretty much fanwanked it away too-- "She's caught up in being at boarding school! She'll sort it out eventually!"

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;

Oh man, it has been too long since I read the short stories!

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!

That is one of the many reasons I love Utena! *_* In the end, it is ALL ABOUT the ladies, including the three that you mentioned who are ALL AMAZING. (And man, I keep thinking I have an Utena icon and realizing I don't. One day soon I will have to remedy this. :O)

AMAZING CHOICES ALL. *_* I love Millie and her love of boarding school novels so, so much; she's so determined, and sometimes she's a brat about it (though no more than Christopher is) and man, can you ever understand why.

(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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