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halfamoon2008-02-05 07:26 pm
anenko.livejournal.com) wrote in halfamoon2008-02-05 07:26 pm
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[Discussion] Female Friendships
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halfamoon has seen stories and vids about many interesting women from various fandoms over the past few days. I'm thrilled to see that so many people are willing to celebrate female characters in fandom!I'd be interested in hearing about some of your favourite female friendships (or sisters, or partners; even rivals will do!). Give me examples of series where two (or more) women regularly interact, and share more in common than a man.
I'll start:
I absolutely love Kyoko and Moko from the manga Skip Beat! Their friendship and earlier rivalry is in no way related to the men in their lives. Kyoko and Moko's understanding and appreciation of one another comes about through their acting, and their enforced partnership in the "Love Me" section of their agency. Neither of them have much experience with friendship, and Moko and Kyoko clash, misunderstand one another, and have to constantly work at being friends. But there's no doubt that they really *are* friends. See the story arc beginning in chapter 24 for a good example of why these two are great together.
Tohru, Uo, and Hana from Fruits Basket are another example of strong female friendship. They were friends long before the series began, and all three girls understand and care for one another deeply. They saved one another from difficult times in the past, and are always looking out for one another.
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warning: mild spoilers!
Nadia and Sydney
The loved each other as an idea of family first, then came to know and respect each other as people. They had their disagreements (Nadia was, after all, SLOANE's daughter), but they always respected each other first and foremost, and were able to function as a loving team.
Rachel and Sydney
Rachel idolized Sydney because of her prowess at her job. Sydney, in turn, mentored Rachel and helped her become a kickass operative. Rachel and Sydney were good friends to each other when they both really needed a friend.
Renee and Sydney
This relationship was fascinating. Renee secretly worked with Vaughn for years and years--she knew more about Vaughn in some ways than Sydney did. Yet there was never a hint of rivalry between them. Distrust (on Renee's part), yes--but that had everything to do with the fact that Renee was an outlaw, not with the man they both knew. Over time, Syd won Renee's trust and Renee began to care for Syd as a person, not just as another agent with similar goals. The best Renee & Syd scene? When Renee WHIPS out those throwing knives to try and stop Syd's abduction.
Francie and Sydney
You never once doubted these two were best friends. They shared support, jokes, hopes, and dreams, and they called each other on their bullshit.
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Yeah, I hated that they killed Francie, even though I loved the Francinator, too. With her eyeshadow of eeeeevil!
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Rose and Cybil in the Silent Hill movie: Cybil was incredibly brave and loyal to Rose. I really admire her even though she's a horror movie character.
You can laugh... I do... but my daughter watches Hannah Montana and I think Miley and Lily are really cute. They sort of support each other, tease each other sometimes, but they don't leave each other behind.
Meryl and Milly in Trigun. They're the insurance girls together and they kick butt! Sadly neglected in fanfic unless they're paired up with men ... even I haven't done it much.
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A few anime/manga series that spring to mind...(and an endorsement for Skip Beat! and Fruits Basket, which I also adore--and the relationship between Rin and Tohru is wonderful as well).
Azumanga Daioh (anime/manga)--the main female characters (who comprise most of the recognizable cast) relate with each other in interesting ways...even though the series is completely crazy.
Naruto (anime/manga)--Despite Sakura's and Ino's rivalry over Sasuke, we get a deeper, poignant look at their friendship later on.
Revolutionary Girl Utena (anime/manga), of course--there are fascinating relationships among the female characters. Sure, there's a lot of jealousy, but there's also friendship, attraction and self-sacrifice.
GALS! is basically built around the friendship that springs up between three very different girls--Ran, Miyu and Aya.
Princess Nine (anime)--Hey, it's a girl's baseball team, how can there not be some entertaining interactions among girls! Same is true of Angel Cup (manhwa) (only it's soccer).
Flower of Life is mostly a stream of high-school-life vignettes; several of them involve girls connecting/trying to get along with each other.
A few other titles are "honorable mentions": Love*Com (manga), R.O.D/Read or Dream (manga); Read or Die (anime OVA) and R.O.D The TV (anime); and Venus Versus Virus (manga).
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I *heart* Azumanga Daioh.
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This show does women's friendships so well; even the character who was brought in as an antagonist has developed into a friend.
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I love Cam, and that she introduced a new aspect to the lab--urban politics.
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Does anyone even remember that show? The idea was a group of human colonists were trying to settle on an alien planet. A woman ran the group, and there was a clear gender divide - the men wanted to basically be aggressive and fight for territory and kill the natives because they were scary; the women wanted to negotiate and work it out. And the women turned out to be right every single time and the men were shown to be hasty and overly aggressive.
Everyone bonded with everyone - there were heterosexual love interests, but the woman leader of group also had an interesting not-quite-friendship, semi-alliance with doctor, a woman named Julia (played by the actress who was Elizabeth Weir in the SGA pilot, I believe).
It was so awesome.
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Depending on the writer at the time, the relationships of the other women who wander in and out of the title can be mediocre or fantastic--Tony Bedard's take on the relationship between Oracle and Huntress in #110 is amazing.
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BTVS: I always liked Buffy and Willow's bff-ness, and the way that they both encouraged each other to fulfill their potential. Through various relationships & stages in each others' lives, they always had each others' back.
Firefly: Kaylee and Inara's friendship on "Firefly" was always kind of low-key, but a nice grace note to the show.
Babylon 5: This is more of a "lost chance," but I wish we had seen more of Ivanova and Delenn interacting. We got a bit of it in the one episode where Ivanova had to teach Delenn how to deal with her new, more-human body, and I always felt like that was a huge missed opportunity, that Delenn and Ivanova didn't get closer after that initial connection.
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Bones: I second the Brennan/Angela-friendship above. I love how wonderful and functional their friendship is, although they're so different from each other.
BTVS: Buffy/Willow-bff-ness in the early seasons was like candy for me. I also wish the show would have done more with the Buffy/Tara-relationship, because the moments they connected were very wonderful.
Deadwood: Alma/Trixie. Again, a functional friendship between two very different women. Their relationship was always something I would have loved to see more of in the show.
Firefly: Inara/Kaylee, and also Kaylee/River.
Grey's Anatomy: Christina/Meredith. I don't always like Meredith, nor do I like the show itself much anymore, but I've loved the Christina/Meredith-friendship from day one.
Smallville: Chloe/Lois. Their relationship has become more complicated in the seventh season, but I love how obvious it is that these two care so much for each other.
Veronica Mars: Veronica/Mac. A wonderful, fun dynamic that never got enough attention in the show.
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Amidst the romatic dramas of The L Word, I adore the platonic Shane/Jenny. So. Fucking. Adorable. (See icon!)
Old-school: everybody loves Rayanne on My So-Called Life, as well they should, but my favorite character dynamic was Angela/Sharon. All those ways that adolescent girls can be with their girlfriends: desperately needing each other's approval, deeply connected even when they don't have the emotional skills to deal with each other.
And I know that sitcoms aren't fannish, in that we never really deal with them in fandom, but I've never seen a fictional female friendship I like any better than Elliot/Carla on Scrubs. There are really not enough happy words in the English language to describe how I feel about them!
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Take Haibane Renmei, for instance. That's a series where there's no obvious reason why all the major characters are women; it's not vital to the plot or the setting that the men be sidelined. They just are, and so the series centres on the friendship between Reki and Rakka -- and the other friendships Rakka forms after arriving in Glie, but her bond with Reki is the most important. It's beautiful to watch it grow, from Reki's first discovery of Rakka's coccoon to Rakka's emergence/second birth, to the care Reki takes of Rakka as her wings grow, to Rakka's growing awareness that all is not well with Reki. There's a shift in concern, as Rakka starts out in the position of a newborn child, needing the intense care that Reki provides; then, as she grows more accustomed to her wings and to life in Glie, she's able to reciprocate that concern and help Reki to find her own salvation. The bond they form is intensely moving.
Or take Lucky*Star. There's a central foursome: Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki; then there's the four younger girls: Patricia, Yutaka, Minami and Hiyori. And there's Konata's cousin Yui and their form teacher Kuroi-sensei; and all of them have relationships with each other that are hilarious and vastly different. The relationship I like best is the one between Konata and Kagami: Konata is a laid-back geek, an unapologetic otaku who never reads anything but shounen manga and has a filthy mind; Kagami, meanwhile, is bossy and studious and tends her family shrine during the holidays. A lot of the humour of the series revolves around the contrast between these two: Konata makes geek references that Kagami doesn't get (and then Konata explains them, and Kagami yells "Argh! Talk like a normal person!"); Kagami chides Konata for not studying (and the criticism slides off Konata like water off a duck's back, because she'd rather be playing dating sims anyway); there's one particularly funny scene where Kagami is lamenting not having done a lot of studying the night before while Konata's delighted at how much she got done -- and it turns out they both did exactly the same amount... But though they're wildly different in some ways, deep down they understand each other, and they're obviously very fond of each other.
Or, ooh, Maria-sama ga Miteru! Marimite is all about female friendship: there's even a system in place in Lillian High to codify the friendships between the girls. It's taken absolutely for granted that the girls will love and support each other, and this is gently encouraged by the few adults in the series. So you have the pairs of "soeurs" ("sisters") -- Sachiko and Yumi, Rei and Yoshino, Sei and Shimako (and later, after Sei leaves the school, Shimako and Noriko); and then you have the less formal friendships between girls who aren't soeurs, and the whole show adds up to a warm and comforting celebration of female solidarity. It's like a soft blanket.
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I'm not caught up, but the relationship between the sisters Rose Red and Snow White in 'Fables' is fascinating too.
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