Fannish5: Kickass Female Characters
Sep. 4th, 2010 02:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI have the feeling I did this once before, but no time to check, plus what the hell, it's always fun to rave about the women. Qualification: I'm choosing to interpret as referring to females who can do the kicking of the aforementioned backside both literally and figuratively. So ladies who could rule the universe by force of personality, cleverness and manipulative skills like Laura Roslin or Livia Drusilla won't show up; they're in a class of their own.
1) Abigail Brand (originally Astonishing X-Men, now Marvelverse at large). See icon. Green-haired, tough, abrasive, willing to put her life on the line along with everyone else's, with a gift for sarcasm and (so far) great taste in men. Has even mastered the art of admitting of having been wrong and drawing consequences, which is rare in ruthless types. I love her quite a lot.
2) River Song (Doctor Who). Was interesting in her first outing which due to timey-wimeyness was also her end, and became downright fascinating in the last season when we got to know her better; can wear space suits, uniform and evening wardrobe with the same aplomb and is played by the vibrant Alex Kingston. "Hello, Sweetie" will never sound the same again. :)
3.) Sarah Connor (The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the first two Terminator films). Transforming herself from hunted teenage waitress to warrior woman, Sarah picked up a lot of intimacy issues on the way, not to mention poetic if disturbing dreams. I love that she loves stories, which is rare in an action heroine, that she bonds with strangers but has difficulties with her nearest and dearest, and that she tries not just to win a fight but to do so without losing sight of what she fights for. Oh, Sarah.
4.) Ellen Ripley (Alien and subsequent sequels). Like Sarah, Ripley didn't start out as a warrior. She was the space equivalent of a trucker, and one of several reasons why I'm in the minority who prefers Alien over Aliens is that the crew of the Nostromo strikes me as much more real - they aren't marines who banter in movie speak, they are people doing their jobs who have been together far too long. (Also, more British actors.) And it's far from obvious or signaled that Ripley will be the one to survive. But survive she does, and while her life becomes one out of time nightmare in which she keeps being reborn, she never loses her humanity. I ♥ Ripley.
5.) Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess). Actually, most of the women of that show, but Xena is in a class of her own. Cheerfully anachronistic as her show was, she did the dark-haired brooding former villain seeking redemption stick before Angel and various imitations of same, and she did it (more often than not) better. Lucy Lawless gave her a fierce joy in fighting that ex-villains not often get to display, a deadpan sense of humour and a confident sexuality.
1) Abigail Brand (originally Astonishing X-Men, now Marvelverse at large). See icon. Green-haired, tough, abrasive, willing to put her life on the line along with everyone else's, with a gift for sarcasm and (so far) great taste in men. Has even mastered the art of admitting of having been wrong and drawing consequences, which is rare in ruthless types. I love her quite a lot.
2) River Song (Doctor Who). Was interesting in her first outing which due to timey-wimeyness was also her end, and became downright fascinating in the last season when we got to know her better; can wear space suits, uniform and evening wardrobe with the same aplomb and is played by the vibrant Alex Kingston. "Hello, Sweetie" will never sound the same again. :)
3.) Sarah Connor (The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the first two Terminator films). Transforming herself from hunted teenage waitress to warrior woman, Sarah picked up a lot of intimacy issues on the way, not to mention poetic if disturbing dreams. I love that she loves stories, which is rare in an action heroine, that she bonds with strangers but has difficulties with her nearest and dearest, and that she tries not just to win a fight but to do so without losing sight of what she fights for. Oh, Sarah.
4.) Ellen Ripley (Alien and subsequent sequels). Like Sarah, Ripley didn't start out as a warrior. She was the space equivalent of a trucker, and one of several reasons why I'm in the minority who prefers Alien over Aliens is that the crew of the Nostromo strikes me as much more real - they aren't marines who banter in movie speak, they are people doing their jobs who have been together far too long. (Also, more British actors.) And it's far from obvious or signaled that Ripley will be the one to survive. But survive she does, and while her life becomes one out of time nightmare in which she keeps being reborn, she never loses her humanity. I ♥ Ripley.
5.) Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess). Actually, most of the women of that show, but Xena is in a class of her own. Cheerfully anachronistic as her show was, she did the dark-haired brooding former villain seeking redemption stick before Angel and various imitations of same, and she did it (more often than not) better. Lucy Lawless gave her a fierce joy in fighting that ex-villains not often get to display, a deadpan sense of humour and a confident sexuality.
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Date: 2010-09-05 08:09 am (UTC)There's a lot of talk about Xena lately (is it the 15 year anniversary?) and it makes me so happy. I can't even begin to describe how much Xena meant for me when I was younger, and I'm glad she's not forgotten. You know, I hadn't even thought about how she's the same type of character as Angel, probably because I never got annoyed when Xena brooded like I did with Angel (much as I loved the character and the show).
Because I agree so much about characters 2-5, I almost feel like I ought to be reading Marvel so I can get acquainted with Abigail Brand. :)
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Date: 2010-09-05 02:59 pm (UTC)Re: Alien versus Aliens: yes, exactly! I wrote about the entire quartet:
http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/61506.html (I and II)
http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/61753.html (III and IV)
wherein I blather at length about this.
Brand first shows up in Joss Whedon's run of AXM (he created the character) and then in a couple of other titles. Not everyone great, but the four Astonishing X-Men arcs creating one mega arc certainly, are, for a lot of reasons, of which she is one, and I also love SWORD, the five part miniseries where she was the lead. Plus I wrote fanfic. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-09-05 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 06:07 pm (UTC)The Alien boxset is so worth it. Audio commentaries, making of documentaries, interviews...