MysterionMuffles Posted April 22, 2016 Posted April 22, 2016 So it has been brought to our attention through Frozen and The Force Awakens that there is a rising trend of creating over powered female characters with little to no training to earn their prowess. Let's flip that around and see if we can think up of some female characters who do put a lot of work into earning their status as heroines of the franchises they come from. Mulan comes to mind right away for me because a lot of the movie is about her pretending to be a male AND a soldier, and horribly getting her ass handed to her. Ya'll know the catchy tune BE A MAN! (we must be swift as coursing river)--where basically a great montage shows her growing from awkward novice to promising soldier who would later turn the tide at a critical war with the Huns. Her motivation was great too, she had a great love for her father and did not want to lose him to a war he was drafted to serve in, and instead took his armour and posed as him to protect him, and ultimately her country. Then there's a really extreme example of Hit Girl from Kick Ass, a little preteen girl who wields katanas and a variety of firearms, who can decimate an entire gang singlehandedly. Where she lacks strength, she has a ton of agility and her tiny frame allows her to be as nimble as possible in order to maneuver around crowds and deliver lacerations and gunshots with breakneck speed. It was her father Big Daddy who trained her to be a lethal killer, and I do see the apparent child abuse shown in their training sessions, what with Big Daddy basically shooting her point blank so she can learn how to take a gunshot, as well as telling her ot kill her conscience in order to be okay with killing criminals. I don't praise this at all, but it does serve as an example in which a female character DOES earn their fighting prowess. While I don't condone the idea of turning little girls into soldiers, or anyone else for that matter, I just wanted to point out these examples in which female characters DO put in the training and effort to become the femme fatales they are known to be. Do you have any other examples? And what are your thoughts on these characters? I now leave you with one of the most epic Disney songs ever...
dsayers Posted April 22, 2016 Posted April 22, 2016 Do you have any other examples? Sarah Connor in (leading up to) Terminator 2. 1
Wuzzums Posted April 22, 2016 Posted April 22, 2016 Ripley, Alien series. There have always been strong female characters in fiction but feminists actively ignore them. For instance, feminists/sjw's always bitch about how comics are male driven and whatnot, how little girls have no female superhero role models. They say all of this while Wonder Woman exists and has a huge fanbase. A character as huge as Batman or Superman and it's not hailed as some feminist symbol. It boggles the mind, it makes no sense, until you judge them (sjw's/feminists) by what they do not say. Then it all makes sense why regressives run away from characters that become heroes through merit not "redistribution". 1
Troubador Posted April 22, 2016 Posted April 22, 2016 Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Yes she is bestowed with powers but spends a lot of time in training and honing it. The Bride - Kill Bill Katniss Everdine - Spent a lot of time honing hunter skills. Plus trains prior to the games. Hermione in Harry Potter - Almost all her proficiency comes across as the result of study and hard work. Black Widow - Both trained hard plus surgically mutilated to ensure compliance. 1
AncapFTW Posted April 22, 2016 Posted April 22, 2016 Trinity- The Matrix. Sure, she had a lot of skills given to her, but everyone did. Her determination and creativeness, however, weren't given to her. 1
RichardY Posted April 22, 2016 Posted April 22, 2016 Xena - Her boobs and bizarre war-cry would be a distraction, as the circular boomerang thing knocked out her opponents, unless they were Spartans. Or Ripley (Alien Series) - Courage and Creativity.
WorBlux Posted April 23, 2016 Posted April 23, 2016 Samantha Carter in the various Stargate franchises. Main asset was her brain, but could gold her own in a tactical battle. The training isn't show, but it's implied the whole team (save Daniel at first) were very extensively trained.
Maquox Posted April 24, 2016 Posted April 24, 2016 Samus Aran; she didn't even need to show her boobs to sell games until well into the XXI century, when casuals started to ruin the genre :c
Anuojat Posted April 25, 2016 Posted April 25, 2016 Bella from twilight... ...naah just kidding Aqua - Birth by Sleep (Creative and brave and persistant)
shirgall Posted April 25, 2016 Posted April 25, 2016 Samantha Carter in the various Stargate franchises. Main asset was her brain, but could gold her own in a tactical battle. The training isn't show, but it's implied the whole team (save Daniel at first) were very extensively trained. While she Mary Sue'd over time, but when things first started, she was quite a bit more egghead than career soldier. Struck me very much like the kind of person that went into the Air Force to become an astronaut than a warrior. Unfortunately, it got extremely unrealistic about what she could do compared to the amount of time she put into skills and learning. Compare her to Daniel who had the benefit of getting "swole" from spending time in a sarcophagus (even cured his nearsightedness) but was never a special forces type and Jack who was interesting because he hid what he was learning so everyone would underestimate him (although they were incredibly inconsistent about his interest in astronomy, and it was unreal that he could fly anything he got his hands on).
AncapFTW Posted April 25, 2016 Posted April 25, 2016 Samantha Carter in the various Stargate franchises. Main asset was her brain, but could gold her own in a tactical battle. The training isn't show, but it's implied the whole team (save Daniel at first) were very extensively trained. Also Valla from later in the series (not that she usually fought with a weapon), and Tayla from SGA.
shirgall Posted April 29, 2016 Posted April 29, 2016 Elizabeth Jennings, The Americans She may barely break 100 pounds if soaking wet, but she was shown going through intensive spy combat training.
MysterionMuffles Posted April 29, 2016 Author Posted April 29, 2016 Balsa from Moribito (Skip to 3:20) that was some top notch animation. Protip to make a video skip automatically to your time desired, add this to the end of your link: #t=3m20s like so https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al1CpCfSEHo#t=3m20s
ValueOfBrevity Posted May 9, 2016 Posted May 9, 2016 that was some top notch animation. Protip to make a video skip automatically to your time desired, add this to the end of your link: #t=3m20s like so https://youtu.be/al1CpCfSEHo#t=3m20s Thanks for the 'protip', but it didn't seem to work for you, either
EclecticIdealist Posted May 11, 2016 Posted May 11, 2016 Clarice Starling (Silence of the Lambs) Ziva David (NCIS) Joan of Arc
MysterionMuffles Posted May 11, 2016 Author Posted May 11, 2016 Thanks for the 'protip', but it didn't seem to work for you, either yeah it does, in your quote at least LOL I don't know what happened there. Guess the board coding doesn't support embedding the time skip and turns into a regular ol link.
ValueOfBrevity Posted May 11, 2016 Posted May 11, 2016 yeah it does, in your quote at least LOL I don't know what happened there. Guess the board coding doesn't support embedding the time skip and turns into a regular ol link. lol I tried to add a time code when I first posted and it didn't work either
AncapFTW Posted May 11, 2016 Posted May 11, 2016 yeah it does, in your quote at least LOL I don't know what happened there. Guess the board coding doesn't support embedding the time skip and turns into a regular ol link. maybe you have a plugin we don't.
AccuTron Posted May 12, 2016 Posted May 12, 2016 https://i.imgur.com/WQvNS1V.gifv This reminds me of a forum topic elsewhere, about how women taught self defense might be taught delusion instead of reality.
raz1911 Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 Rita - Edge of Tomorrow (from what i remember) Michelle - 10 Cloverfield Lane - Because she took something girly and made it useful and didn't do anything to much out of what a female could do e.g. man strength
rosencrantz Posted May 27, 2016 Posted May 27, 2016 Apsalar, Malazan. Turns from young fishergirl to an assasin. http://malazan.wikia.com/wiki/ApsalarSergeant Hellian, Malazan. Her strategy of moving from pub to pub allows her unit to survive a war unharmed. http://malazan.wikia.com/wiki/HellianMoiraine, Wheel of Time. Uses Magic and a bit of swordfight to save the world http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Moiraine_DamodredAvienda, Wheel of Time. Member of a female warrior class she later becomes a Wise Woman (or tries to) http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Aviendha
twinklingwinter Posted May 27, 2016 Posted May 27, 2016 Someone already mentioned Buffy, but I wanna also mention 2 other characters from that show: Willow and Tara. We see them develop their skills episode by episode (especially Willow), to the point where they're really powerful witches, thanks to their diligence alone. The following characters I'm gonna mention are not fighters, but I still think it's worth to mention them in this thread because they are talented doctors/administrators who earned their talent. House MD: Thirteen, Cameron, Cuddy, among other female characters that came in later seasons of the show. They are often targets of jokes by Dr House, who is the head of their department. These jokes frequently are about their gender or their sexual appeal in a manner that could be considered "offensive" by your average SJW. However, they understand that they are harmless jokes so they just continue doing their job. Sometimes they're even entertained by those jokes. Dr House also says lots of stereotypical black jokes towards his black employee, yet he also understands that they're just jokes and sometimes he even entertains them. It is sad to think that the show probably wouldn't have aired today because of stupid stuff like this. Not without a script change, at least.
DaVinci Posted May 30, 2016 Posted May 30, 2016 That's one of the reasons I disliked SW EP 7. Rey just "knows" how to use a lightsaber because of her "mysterious past" we never see and we should accept it because we the audience are Star Wars fans. She didn't earn a single thing she did in the movies. 1
Queensalis Posted June 8, 2016 Posted June 8, 2016 I would like to add some people to that list: Pearl. From Steven Universe. and Connie from Steven Universe. As well as majority of the witches from Discworld novels, who, while not often engaged in fierce battles, are taking the effort to age wise, interconnect their communities and protect their lands and people when it is needed. By the way, Twilight Sparkle does qualify as well. Also, don't multum of female characters from those shonen action manganimes (Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist...) fit that description anyways?
Thus_Spake_the_Nightspirit Posted July 3, 2016 Posted July 3, 2016 "The Deed of Paksenarrion" by Elizabeth Moon has a protagonist who has to work extremely hard to become good at what she does.
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