Meme time

[selenak]

In no particular oder, ten female characters I love:



1) Angelique. koimistress reminded me of this in a recent post. The Angelique novels by Anne Golon were among the first historical novels I've read as a child and then teenager. What impressed me about the heroine was that aside from being obligatory beautiful as all heroines, she was characterized as a survivor. Truly bad things happened to her, and she made it back to the top, not always in admirable fashion. This was also the only romance series I read which tackled the tricky subject of rape (in novel No.5) and a resulting pregnancy without prettifying it. She doesn't want the child, and it takes her a long time to accept it and even smile at it, and an equally long time before she can have sex with anyone again without flashbacks to the rape. (One and a half books, to be precise.) The other thing that stood out about Angelique for my child and teenage self was that she had far better taste in men than the other French romance heroines I read at the time, Juliette Benzoni's Cathérine and Marianne, and wasn't an emotional masochist accepting all kind of crap from her beloved.

2.) Laura Roslin. Smart, elegant, tough and vulnerable at the same time, with an eye on the big picture. By no means immune from making bad decisions but always with the integrity to take full responsibility. And that rare breed, a middle-aged woman on tv who is no one's mother. My favourite character of the new Battlestar Galactica.

3.) Jadzia Dax. I love Ezri, too, but Jadzia was the character on DS9 I most would have liked to have as a friend. For her joie de vivre, her intelligence, the way she was able to make friends with people as diverse as Klingons and Ferengi without ever giving the impression she was condescending to them. And for all the stories of her various lifetimes she was able to tell.

4.) Winn Adami Still DS9 territory. Winn was smart, ruthless, manipulative, and totally hit my soft spot for ruthless Renaissance Cardinals and Popes. Her tragedy wasn't that she didn't believe but that she did, in gods who wouldn't talk to her. It didn't hurt that she was played by an actress of the calibre of Louise Fletcher, either.

5.) Servalan. One fanfic has her twist the "all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" to "and absolute power is absolutely delightful". That's Servalan in a nutshell. A power player of the first order, without scruples, and only rare moments of vulnerability. (Basically three in four seasons.) While never letting us doubt her evilness, the show also made it clear she was brave; during the few occasions when her life was seriously threatened by someone else, she never grovelled, and once managed to intimidate a jerk who thought he could blackmail her into sex with an icy putdown and a look. Oh, and she had wonderful, twisted chemistry with Avon. Their kisses - during which both were fully clothed - were hotter than many a nude scene in other media.

6.) Buffy. My messed-up, still trying heroine, getting more scarred inside and out as the seasons went by. Fiercely loyal to her friends, with the lovelife from hell, really not good at explaining her feelings (or sorting them out for herself), the type to better speak through actions than words, and making that journey from cheerful innocent to broken hero that never fails to touch me deeply.

7.) Darla. I was intrigued by the brief flashbacks we got in Becoming and season 1 of Angel, but really fell for the character in the season 2 Angel episode Dear Boy ("God doesn't want you, but I still do"). Darla is another sophisticated villain I adore (and incidentally, bimo just wrote a great post on her and Drusilla), and her twisted, passionate relationship with Angel through the ages was a big element of what made me love the show.

8.) Thessaly. From Neil Gaiman's Sandman saga. Thessaly is a millennia-old witch who cultivates a mousy, bookish look, has a lethal way of dealing with anyone making the mistake of trying to harm her, no sense of humour, and a no-nonsense attitude throughout. It's not surprising that her romance with the King of Dreams went as badly as Morpheus' affairs tend to do. As survivors go, she ranks among the best.

9.) Mina Murray. Originally of Dracula fame, but I'm referring specifically to the Alan Moore written incarnation, in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. (Books! Not the cinematic abomination.) Moore's Mina is another no-nonsense, acerbic and intelligent lady, the leader the League direly needs, and determined not to be a victim again. She has no supernatural powers; she doesn't need them. What she does have are scars, also inside and outside. And a red scarf. Mina, I salute you.

10.) Lydia Gwilt. And we're back among the villains. Lydia is from Wilkie Collins' Armadale, with her red, red hair and femme fatale allure the very incarnation of the Victorian villainess. Collins' readers were rather disgruntled that she wasn't properly punished but allowed to die a heroic death, saving the man she loved in the process. Before that, she's scheming her sarcastic, determined way through the novel, making entirely correct observations on the insufferable cheerful and self-righteous hero and his ladylove.

A Fun Angel: The Series Survey
Did you follow Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer?	Yes.
What did you think of Doyle?	Nice. But not as interesting as his replacement.
Was Wesley a good replace for Doyle?	More than that.
Who do you ship from the show?	Angel/Darla. Angel & Connor in the sense of loving the relationship. Wesley/Angel in an UC kind of way.
Who do you refuse to ship from the show?	Angel/Cordelia.
Which season was your favorite? Why?	Season 4 for the great writing throughout and the arc-ness. Season 2 would be my favorite if not for a) Pylea and b) the cop-out the writers gave Angel from "Epiphany" onwards for the lawyer buffet.
Which characters from Buffy did you want to see as regulars on Angel?	I was content with those we did see.
Faith: Like her? Loathe her? Don't care about her?	Like her. Always have done, always will.
What did you think of Fred and Gunn's relationship?	They put each other on a pedestal, and not surprisingly, the relationship didn't survive the mutual falling off same.
Did you want to see more of Darla?	Yes. She's my favourite AtS character, after all.
Which season Wesley is your favorite?	I liked him thoughout the seasons.
Which was better, Spin The Bottle or Smile Time?	Smile Time.
Did you cry when Cordy, Fred and Wesley died?	No, yes, somewhat.
Was Angel out of line by erasing his friend's memories when it came to Connor?	Yes. But I understand why he did it.
Did you like street!Gunn or lawyer!Gunn better?	Lawyer!Gunn. His season 5 storyline was the first - moments of season 4 apart - I found interesting relating to him.
Are you one of those creeps who believe Fred and Lindsey were twins, seperated at birth?	Like everyone else, I never heard that theory before.
Who was better, Angel or Spike?	Not playing. They could both be bastards, and both had their good sides.
Who do you think survived the alley?	Illyria. Maybe one of the vampires.
What happened to Justine? Is she still handcuffed by the docks?!	No. She disappeared for a year and then returned and started a messed-up relationship with Connor.
Do you think Dru and Darla had sexual relations?	Is that even a question?
Who did Angel belong with, Buffy or Cordy?	Neither.
Favorite overall episode?	Depending on my mood, "Darla" for Darla and flashback gorgeousness, "Reunion" for true noir plus Darla & Dru, or "Peace Out" for Connor's tragedy and Jasmine as Galadriel gone wrong.
Do you think Joss needs to create a new series based on characters from Angel and Buffy?	No. Let him play with a new toy set. It brings shiny results like Firefly.
Do think Wesley deserved forgiveness for kidnapping Connor?	Yes.
Were Lilah and Wesley in love?	Lilah loved Wesley. Wesley felt strongly about Lilah but didn't permit himself to love her.
Did you write hate mail to the WB when they cancelled the series? And, did you send hate mail to Joss when he killed Fred off?	I don't write hatemail. It's silly.
Spike called Wesley Percy a lot. Do you think Spike read Harry Potter?	I think Dawn lend him the books in season 5 and he kept on reading.
Are you glad this is over and done with?	Yes.
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

Comments

[k-julia.livejournal.com]

For her joie de vivre, her intelligence, the way she was able to make friends with people as diverse as Klingons and Ferengi without ever giving the impression she was condescending to them.

Dax really was a lot of fun, and I thought she had interesting relationships with just about everyone. She kind of sneaked up on me -- someone like Kira is a character I'm predisposed to like, unless they do something that actively puts me off, but with Dax, it took me a while to realise how much I enjoyed it whenever there was a Dax episode.

Not a secret that I'm with you on the Roslin appreciation. *g*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Dax sneaked up on me, too. I think the episodes which made me realize how much I liked her were the season 2 eps Playing God (where she had her Trill intern) and Rules of Aquisition (a Quark episode in which she defended the Ferengi to Kira and said about Quark in particular what my icon quotes.*g*

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Angelique was written by Serganne Golon if memory serves. (I often wondered if it was a partnership) I read them all at the time and I didn't go much for romances at that age, but I'd never go back to them now.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Here you have the difference between German and French publication: In Germany, they were published under the name Anne Golon alone. In France, they were credited to Sergei and Anne Golon, so yes, partnership.

(And no, I don't know why the different credits.) I read them until book 8, and then I stopped. Ah, those were the days...

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I'm quite intrigued about UC shipping of Wesley & Angel, tell me more. . .

i tried to do this survey before and accidentally deleted it, but my answer on Justine was suspiciously similar to yours. :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

UC Wesley/Angel:

Somewhere between the episode with Cordy's first demonic pregnancy and I've got you under my skin, I started to see a big, big crush on Wesley's part. Season 2 showed him Angel was fallible (and how!), which redresses the power balance, and then of course there was the big Connor kidnapping fallout. No matter how you define it, what Wesley feels for Angel is certainly strong enough to be called love, throughout the seasons (Arm feeding! Angelus crushing! When suspected of being guilty regarding Fred's fate, Gunn gets knifed, whereas Angel's "I could have saved Fred, but I didn't, because..." gets heard out and an "I understand"). What Angel feels for Wesley is also pretty strong, plus there is no parallel to anyone else in his life. Buffy is, among many other things, an echo of Darla. You can parallel Dru and Cordy (seers, and all). Even Connor and Spike. But Wesley is unique, and arguably the most healthy of Angel's relationships after the friendship with Cordy got, alas, turned into romance.

my answer on Justine was suspiciously similar to yours. :)

:)...

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

So how can I agree heartily with all your points here (particularly that Wesley loves Angel), and still insist I don't ship them? Maybe because I think Wes keeps his love for Angel too "pure" for sex to get in the way (if he's really got a Madonna/whore complex, then the Madonna is Angel, not Fred (he knows he wants to fuck her and, if anything, her vengeance-seeking side in "supersymmetry" turns him on that much more). and since purity's not an issue with Angelus, that explains why Wes/Angelus is overtly slashy in a way that Wes/Angel (in my mind, anyway) rarely is.

From Angel's point of view, I'm not sure the relationship is ever as important to him as it is to Wes. A lot of the A/W slash that I've seen, of course, revolves around Angel getting clued in to Wesley's feelings, but I usually end up wanting to stake Angel for his denseness long before the payoff.

Now if "there's love, but one party will never allow himself to acknowledge, much less act on the attraction, and the other party is entirely oblivious" counts as 'shipping, then I'm on board!

arguably the most healthy of Angel's relationships

healthiest for Angel, anyway, especially when he's low on blood!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Maybe because I think Wes keeps his love for Angel too "pure" for sex to get in the way (if he's really got a Madonna/whore complex, then the Madonna is Angel, not Fred

That image cracks me up beyond belief. Though I agree that Wesley is if anything more turned on by Fred's darker aspects.*g*

Now if "there's love, but one party will never allow himself to acknowledge, much less act on the attraction, and the other party is entirely oblivious" counts as 'shipping, then I'm on board!

That would be the canon version, and I did write UC.*g*

healthiest for Angel, anyway, especially when he's low on blood!

So true, so true...

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

If Angel-as-Madonna cracks YOU up, I hate to imagine Darla's reaction!

As far as Wes & Angel, I'd love to read something that actually got them together while still working with the canon dynamics, but I think it would be tricky to pull off:

This week on RepressionVerse, Wesley almost gets in touch with his own emotions, and Angel almost notices. Warning for awkward silences, and consumption of tea.

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I love Angelique too! Although I think I preferred Marianne because I like the period so much better. (Though Jason Beaufort was seriously annoying, and I would have dumped him in a second. Trailing all over Russia for him seriously strained my suspension of disbelief!)

And of course I'm with you on Jadzia, though I like Kira too. The many layers of Jadzia are really fascinating to me. I've been wondering if something similar could be done through another mechanism in original fic.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Short of the old reincarnation gambit, I can't think of something, though I suppose one could write a kind of myth fantasy novel with a character like Tiresias who switches genders at the whim of the gods.*g*

And you know I agree about Jason Beaufort.*g*

[meganinhiding.livejournal.com]

As a DS9 fan I was real pleased to that two of the characters made the list. Dax in many ways reminds me of Methos except that Dax is infinitely more trustworthy. I kind of wish though that the Jadzia part of Jadzia Dax (such as meeting her parents and sister at the wedding) had been more clearly defined the way they did with Ezri. For a while there I had a stronger feel for Curzon than Jadzia and after she hooked up with Worf her stories focused on their relationship; they didn't really explore the Trill after that until Ezri came along. Its very interesting that the majority of your favorite females come from the sci fi/fantasy/horror genres.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

More Jadzia stories about Jadzia Dax would have been good, yes. I suppose that's one of those things which begs for fanfic.

I'm a genre girl. Mind you, I could give you another list of favourite females solely composed of RL historical characters, but I thought the meme asked for fictional ones...