[ SECRET POST #2216 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2216 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 120 secrets from Secret Submission Post #317.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - personal attack ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who dares to admit that she likes Eddings and her female characters. No, I didn't like the constant bathing and motherhood for all either. On the other hand, come one, Polgara was badass. Ce'Nedra getting her very special armor for sensible reasons and then stealing the Tolnedra army was awesome. Velvet keeping a snake in her bodice and being an awesome spy was awesome. Taiba was strong and and awesome despite all she'd gone through. Mirtai was so awesome I still kind of want to be an Atan woman. Ehlana and Melidere were shrewd, intelligent and awesome. Etc.

It's like half the internet is saying that it's sexist to only like warrior type of female character. That not all women have to be physically badass to be strong and interesting. Then, when there are other types (mothers, spies, princessess and so on), you can't like them either because they're ~so stereotypically feminine~.

[(Anonymous)]

* likes Eddings and his female characters

Or actually, I should say "their" because apparently Leigh was a co-author from the beginning.

[(Anonymous)]

I think Eddings's female characters were about as good as his male characters -- often entertaining but mostly not very deep. It's just his gender worldview which strikes me as strange. And apparently also his wife's gender worldview.

[ketita]

I love Polgara so much.

Honestly, I think Eddings is kind of ridiculous, but a lot of fun. All the characters are about as deep as puddles, but those books just made me stupidly happy XD

[shadowblight]

+10, anon.

IA that I couldn't stand some of the rather pervading domestic need to breed as I'm personally not of "breeding stock" myself, but I can accept that part and move on, as I understand it to be a rather innate social/biological need for many women, not to mention the society in which these people are living (which is arguably quite medieval ages). But the women themselves (esp. Polgara) in Eddings Belgariad/Mallorean were overall ones I found to be very strong and inspiring.

[ariakas]

No, I liked his female characters just fine, it's just - as one anon said above - his worldview on gender relations was bizarre.

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't really like the Oedipal undertones to them all. How they were so very mothering. Because tee hee men are all secretly little boys who need mommy to guide them and wipe their noses and smile as they run out to play and think they're in charge.

Most of the named female characters were either A Childlike Nature Spirit. Or Mommy. And the men tended to fall in love with the Mommy ones. And Ce'Nedra growing up from Childlike Nature Spirit to Manipulating Mommy with Polgara's help and just....

I enjoy the books! I enjoy the heck out of them! But the whole mothering thing got weird.

I also have issues with the fact that oh hey, we have a male thief, dee dee dee, oh hay! A female thief! And we have a paladin. A few chapters later, female paladin! A male hopscotch champion accountant... oh hey! Lets introduce a female hopscotch champion accountant! I wonder who they're going to end up with by the end? I liked that there were slightly different characters, but.... I wish they'd mixed and matched.

[(Anonymous)]

What bothers me is that all of Eddings' female characters are pretty. All of them. Because that's how women have to be. And as badass as they are, there comes a time when every single goddamn one flutters her eyelashes at a man to get her way, and of course, it works.

THAT'S what's sexist.

[(Anonymous)]

Of course they're pretty. Fictional characters tend to be because people like pretty people. His male characters were attractive too, in different ways. Exception being Beldin but the man spent most of his time as a hawk anyway.

When did Mirtai flutter her eyelashes to get her way? Kring was ready to walk through fire for her because he loved her, not because she fluttered her eyelashes or anything like that.

[ariakas]

Mirtai was described as pretty, though. Several times. While Sparhawk was frequently described as unattractive, grizzled, and his nose badly broken. Not to mention "too old" for Ehlana. I loved the Elenium/Tamuli anyway, but dude could have stood to have one Brienne.

Eh, you both have a point, though. Fictional characters do tend to be pretty, especially the female ones. At least he doesn't pull Weis and Hickman's "she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen" with every new female character they meet. So by the end of the books, the last woman's either unimaginably hot, or the first one was hideous, lol.

Doesn't mean it's not sexist, however. And it doesn't mean I don't have a lot more respect for authors who break that trope.

[(Anonymous)]

Uh, no. If the author cares about realism, not every character is going to look like a model. In Eddings' work, ALL the women are pretty, but the men show more variation in appearance. And nope, Beldin is not the only exception, since Silk is described as having a "rat-like" face. None of the main male characters in the Belgariad/Mallorean series are described as exceptionally handsome, yet nearly all of them score a hot chick at the end, even if they are assholes. Weird how that works, huh?