fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3021 ]

[ SECRET POST #3021 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3021 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 093 secrets from Secret Submission Post #432.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 2 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

what's your favorite type of female character, f!s? what type would you like to see more of?

(if anybody needs examples: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlwaysFemale)

Characters that are intelligent and capable (without being incapable of failure), who are morally grounded and determined, and who have a sense of self and self-determination in their lives and agency in their stories.

Also, on a less serious note, if they have an outward demeanor that's gruff and prickly, that's also a plus.

Female characters that are physically strong/warriors that are actually built physically strong. I like action women but am annoyed when they are tiny, stick-thin, and seem more like they are supposed to be sexy or eye-candy than actually warriors. I want more women built like MMA fighters.

(I heard Korra was designed specifically with an MMA fighter built and I love how she looks in the cartoon)

Re: female characters

lb_lee - 2015-04-12 20:23 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

feotakahari - 2015-04-12 20:26 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

lb_lee - 2015-04-12 20:40 (UTC) - Expand

If there's a group of female characters and one of them is the brash, punchy, Buttercup-from-Powerpuff-Girls type, I will always gravitate towards that one.

Re: female characters

diet_poison - 2015-04-12 21:48 (UTC) - Expand

Dark Action Girl, Spoiled Sweet, there seems to be a trend of Raven-haird loner badasses but I don't know if that all falls under a single trope.

Re: female characters

(Anonymous) - 2015-04-12 20:12 (UTC) - Expand

to answer my own question, i love female characters that are explicitly confident and aware of how awesome they are. i'm getting tired of the false humility thing. you're allowed to know you're attractive! you're allowed to be positive of your skills! where are my female thors and tony starks and captain kirks? starbuck from battlestar galactica was great, but i would really like to see more of that.

Re: op

anonymouslyyours - 2015-04-12 21:08 (UTC) - Expand

Re: op

(Anonymous) - 2015-04-13 02:37 (UTC) - Expand

I like all types! As long as they get to be feminine and it's not portrayed as a weakness.

Death Proof nails it, which is why it's one of my favourite movies.

I like female characters who have their own stories.

If they're smart, opinionated, beautiful, nurturing, kind, sarcastic, nurturing, etc. -- well, that's all great and stuff. But, to me, they're not interesting unless they've got a story of their own.

It doesn't even have to be front and center.

For the MCU, for instance, I really came to like Natasha the more they dropped clues about her past -- about how she's trying to redeem herself, how her work with the KGB involved doing things that she still feels responsibility to own up to. It's one of the reasons I didn't much care for her in Iron Man 2...because they'd done nothing with her character yet.

Pepper though is one of the those characters I can't really get into because her entire story revolves around Tony so heavily and she's not interesting outside of her relation to him.

1. Female characters who like each other. They don't have to be BFFs who share pants when they go on vacation to separate locations, but do they always have to either be adversaries or just barely interact? (Cordelia and Fred on Angel drove me nuts for that very reason. They would've been such interesting foils to each other, too. But I think they got five or ten cumulative minutes of one-on-one interaction the entire two seasons they were on the show together.)

2. When they are close friends, I like female characters who act like they're close friends. Leslie and Ann, Phoebe and Monica. Buffy and Willow. Just some examples. :)

3. Characters who are strong in many ways, not just physically.

April from The Longest Journey is a pretty good example of what I go for. Someone who can rise to a challenge and be useful in a combat situation, but is still fazed by violence and isn't just a one-liner machine.

I like preppy, high-strung perfectionists like Annie Edison (Community) or Spencer Hastings (Pretty Little Liars), ESPECIALLY if they hint at something darker/pathological underneath. It's an archetype that can go super wrong, but is endlessly interesting when done right. Idk where it comes from because I'm a total slouch IRL, but yeah.

Re: female characters

tabaqui - 2015-04-12 20:27 (UTC) - Expand

I don't know if i can characterize type so well, but - Bones in season one and two (and her friendship with Angela) and, actually, Angela in season one and two, as well. Intelligent, secure in their knowledge and proficiency, not apologetic about their foibles or quirks or pasts, up front about their sexuality, not 'rivals', not looking for their OTL at all times. Angela in particular was feminine and into some 'girly' things and was never mocked for it or told she couldn't do her job because of it (or called slutty or made less of because of her sexual past/present). Bones didn't care that she looked a little funny in huge safety goggles, bun, coveralls and wellies - it was necessary for the job and who wants to be covered in ick?

Brenda Leigh Johnson (from The Closer) and Sharon Ryder (from The Closer and Major Crimes). Professional, intelligent, loyal, hard working but *not* humorless, sexless robots. In particular, Deputy Chief Johnson wore flowered dresses, flowy skirts, pink and heels, and always had her enormous bag on her arm (she did go practical when necessary) - and nobody gave her shite for dressing 'girly'. Sharon Ryder wore more businesslike attire, darker colors and was less flamboyant but she wasn't denigrated for being 'mannish' or anything like that. They had their own styles and they earned the respect and loyalty of the men and women around them by being smart, capable and professional, and were never treated like damsels.

Ripley. Just....Ripley.

Re: female characters

anonymouslyyours - 2015-04-12 21:00 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

tabaqui - 2015-04-12 21:13 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

anonymouslyyours - 2015-04-12 21:24 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

tabaqui - 2015-04-12 21:32 (UTC) - Expand

I have a mega weakness for butch women characters, in part because I just don't see that many of them. At the same time, I DON'T like the whole, "I'll pretend to be a boy because girls suck and being a boy is totally better!" character type.

Sakura Oogami is a big favorite. Not sure she really counts as 'butch,' but she's a martial arts champ whose dream is to become the Strongest Person In The World who draws inspiration from samurai, and is protective and gentle to her friends. I also like Linda Hamilton roles, and... oh god, who's that actress who always ends up dead in her roles?

I also really enjoy female characters who are honest to god non-normative in appearance. No ugly duckling stories, I mean women who own their appearance and therefore get an actual distinctive design and silouhette. (See Sakura Oogami again.)

--Rogan

Re: female characters

feotakahari - 2015-04-12 21:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

lb_lee - 2015-04-12 21:32 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

feotakahari - 2015-04-12 21:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

lb_lee - 2015-04-12 21:58 (UTC) - Expand

I like female characters who are cunning, who are determined, who have deep convictions, and who are mentally and emotionally strong; who overcome or survive difficult/dangerous situations by drawing on a reserve of will and inner strength that they might not even have realized they had; who are capable and willing and able to fight, whether in a physical sense or otherwise.

She doesn't have to have every single one of these traits, but I like seeing a decent combination of them.

Re: female characters

(Anonymous) - 2015-04-12 22:12 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

a_potato - 2015-04-12 22:46 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

(Anonymous) - 2015-04-12 23:09 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

a_potato - 2015-04-12 23:37 (UTC) - Expand

Women of any kind who have hopes, desires, goals, and motivation. Who aren't defined solely by the people they interact with/know, but to some extent by their internal values.

This shouldn't be hard to find, because this is just making female characters like real women are in real life.

And yet...

Re: female characters

(Anonymous) - 2015-04-12 21:00 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

anonymouslyyours - 2015-04-12 21:05 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

(Anonymous) - 2015-04-13 06:54 (UTC) - Expand

I am most entertained by female characters that don't give a fuck what other people think of them or at least manage to act like they don't. Like Mona Lisa Saperstein or April (Parks & Rec) or Gina Linetti (Brooklyn 99).

I don't care if I agree with their morals or behavior I'm just envious of and entertained by women who act with the unapologetic confidence of Kanye West.

I love kind, compassionate, non-asskicking female characters with lots of emotional strength. But I would love there to be more of those types of characters whose strength isn't directed mainly towards the benefit of a male love interest, or even another person at all, but towards herself. I also want them to have more serious flaws than "being too nice." What I'm really getting at, I guess, is I'd like more of this female character as a lead character instead of a supporting one.

Re: female characters

anonymouslyyours - 2015-04-12 21:10 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

diet_poison - 2015-04-12 21:51 (UTC) - Expand

Re: female characters

author_by_night - 2015-04-12 22:52 (UTC) - Expand

I don't actually know. I have a range of character types that I'm consistently drawn to: spies, tricksters, grizzled survivors, guile heroes, aliens in a strange world, the lone honourable officer in a corrupt establishment, the absent-minded professor, the moral/ethical scientist forced by grim circumstances to be involved in very dodgy technology. I like them whether they're women or men. I'm having trouble thinking of a character type I'm drawn to that's always women.

I don't care how cliché it is, I will always like the badass ones the best.

I don't think it's because female characters have to be ~~strong~~ to be good characters, nor do I prefer shallow characters over 3D, well-developed ones. I honestly think it's just because I'm competitive, I like a good fight, and I wish I could be that badass myself. I like that these characters can be feminine and nobody tells them they aren't even though they are physically strong, athletic, competitive, loud, and/or aggressive. I also relate to them somewhat.

I wouldn't pick that as the one I want to see more of, though, since there are already a bunch of those. I'd really like to see more female characters in general who are as developed as their male counterparts - I wish that were the norm, rather than the exception. We need a variety of flaws and motives and some good ol' internal conflict.

cute ones

I used to prefer bad-ass warrior character (when I was going through my "not like other girls" phase). I still like a good, kick-ass warrior woman, but I've expanded to other types female characters. I'll take a well-written housewife character over a shallow warrior women character any day of the week.

Women who know what needs to be done, and then go do it. Doesn't matter if it's dangerous. Someone needs to do it; might as well be them.

And also if they push back to the best of their ability; if there's an obstacle in their way, they find a way to get around it. Or under it. Or over it.

Some examples - Magdalena Wahlstedt (Anno 1790), Anna (Valiant Hearts), Granny Weatherwax (Discworld), Zamira Drakasha (Gentlemen Bastards sequence)

Edited 2015-04-12 22:35 (UTC)

I like variety mostly and complex characters. My two favorites are warrior female characters and brainy female characters, but I mostly just like to have different types with complex and interesting characterization.

I like quieter characters, especially in action movies. I'm tired of the perfect goddess trope.

I like quiet inner strength in a character. I like legitimately nice characters. I don't think I want someone who's neurotic or super insecure, or super genius or the kind of character who's secretive and knows everything.

I just want someone normal.

Older female characters (like, in their forties or fifties or older, maybe), who are allowed to have agency and be the centre of storylines and be treated as smart and strong and sexy, just like older male characters often are.