halfamoon | The Unpopular Woman Love Post

Entry tags:

.meta & discussion

The Unpopular Woman Love Post

Well. Another year, another

halfamoon fest of awesome. Another chance to celebrate the characters who are unappreciated and unloved.

Personally I'm the kind of fan who always roots for the underdog, and there are many female characters who fill that role, and even more of them fill it role in fandom if not in their respective canons. This post is for people who want to fan the hell out of their unappreciated women and do it as loud as they can. It works like this:

1. Start a thread and put the character's name and the canon they come from in the subject line.

2. Those who love the character comment on the thread with squee, thoughts, fic/art/vid recs, picspams, essays, links and everything they can think of. Make sure your character gets all the love and the attention she deserves.

3. If a character has a thread and you want to talk about her, comment to the thread in question. General comments and threads for new characters go to the main post.

4. Focus on the love. This is an all positivity, all time post. Embrace your happy!

5. Avoid making negative comparisons to other characters or other character types. Those characters and character types have their fans too.

Links to the threads will be compiled in this post.

Being a love post for unpopular characters, this post is bashing free. If you have any negative thoughts either about the characters discussed or their rivals in fandom (meaning no "well this character sucks more!" kind of comments), please keep them to yourself. This is about celebration and love, so let's keep it that way!

And now, celebrate!

Threads

Gwen, BBC Merlin (Thread includes pictures, vid rec, fic rec and a link to picspam)
Gwen Cooper, Torchwood (Thread includes pictures and a vid rec)
Thirteen, House (Thread includes a link)
Ellen Harvelle, Supernatural (Thread includes a vid rec)
Kido Saori/Athena, Saint Seiya (all series)
Winry Rockbell, Fullmetal Alchemist (Thread includes pictures and fic recs)
Dawn Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Thread includes pictures)
Kate, Terminator (Thread includes pictures)
Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, Battlestar Galactica (new) (Thread includes pictures)
Riley Dawson, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Thread includes pictures)
Bela Talbot, Supernatural (Thread includes pictures, vid rec and a fic rec)
Niki Sanders, Heroes (Thread includes a link to fanmix)
Jo Harvelle, Supernatural (Thread includes links to fiction journal and to delicious links)
Cally, Battlestar Galactica (new) (Thread includes pictures and a fic rec)
Bonnie Bennet (Thread includes pictures and a vid rec)
Anji Kapoor, Doctor Who
Relena Peacecraft/Darlian, Gundam Wing (Thread includes pictures)
Jennifer Keller, Stargate: Atlantis (Thread includes pictures, fic recs and link to picspam)
Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter (Thread includes a link)
Izumi Orimoto, Digimon Frontier
Betty Draper, Mad Men
Chloe Payne, Mercy (Thread includes pictures)
Helen Cutter, Primeval (Thread includes pictures)
Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter (Thread includes pictures)
Amy March, Little Women (Thread includes pictures)
Alex Fielding, Wire in the Blood (Thread includes pictures)
Rita Bennett, Dexter (Thread includes a vid rec)
Tear Grants, Tales of the Abyss (Thread includes a shrine link)
Sophie Aubrey, the Aubrey/Maturin novels (Thread includes pictures)
Diana Villiers, the Aubrey/Maturin novels
Kate Freelander, Sanctuary (Thread includes pictures)
Elizabeth Weir, Stargate Atlantis
Kate Pulaski, ST:TNG (Thread includes pictures and vid rec)
Tosh, Torchwood (Thread includes a fic link)
Melanie Bush, Doctor Who (Thread includes pictures)
Josephine Grant, Doctor Who
Tory Foster, Battlestar Galactica (new)
Christine Everheart, Iron Man (film)
Myka Bering, Warehouse 13
Claudia Donovan, Warehouse 13
Diana Fowley, The X-Files
Jolinar, Stargate SG-1 (Thread includes pictures)
Anise/Freya, Stargate-SG-1 (Thread includes pictures)
Yuffie Kisaragi, Final Fantasy VII (Thread includes pictures)
Tifa Lockhart, Final Fantasy VII (Thread includes pictures)
Aerith Gainsborough, Final Fantasy VII
Anamaria, Pirates of the Caribbean (Thread includes pictures)
Atsuko Jackson, Michiko to Hatchin (Thread includes pictures)
Elizabeth Swann, Pirates of the Caribbean
Shan, Doctor Who (Thread includes pictures)
Mai, Avatar: the Last Airbender (Thread includes pictures)
Lila, Dexter (Thread includes pictures)
Christine Hill, Dexter (Thread includes pictures)
Amy Burley, True Blood (Thread includes pictures)
Chibiusa, Sailor Moon (Thread includes pictures)
Ezri Dax, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Tess Harding, Roswell (Thread includes pictures and a video clip)
Britta Perry, Community

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Because when I first met her she was funny and irreverent and pink-haired and busy catching the bad guys, just the way I've always wanted to see my heroines. And then she then she fell in love with a man who didn't seem to appreciate her or deserve her, and all of the humor and irreverence and awesomeness disappeared. She just wilted there on the page, as I was reading. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, she got married--despite the fact that her man still didn't seem to appreciate her--and dropped out of the hunt for the bad guys while she had a baby. It's not like I don't respect the desire for love or a family, but at what cost? Everything wonderful about her character had vanished. By the time she reappeared to fight in the final battles, I didn't really care whether she lived or died.

Nymphadora Tonks' story is not the story I want for myself. But it's the story we have for her, and I certainly have enough experience redeeming other characters (often men) who are not only human and flawed, but whose actions have hurt others and tested the limits of our abilities to understand and forgive. Can I do this for her, too?

I still love her. I wish it were easier to do so.

Edited 2010-02-01 20:04 (UTC)

(deleted comment)

That's exactly why we have fan fiction, if you ask me.

(and the reasons listed above make me think that there is a logical explanation for my decreasing appreciation of Remus/Tonks, and my leaning towards the promise of adventure that is Charlie/Tonks)

Re: Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter

serendipityxxi.livejournal.com - 2010-02-03 06:11 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter

savepureness.livejournal.com - 2010-02-03 09:54 (UTC) - Expand

Exactly! It was the fun that drew me in originally... M.

It's not always easy to love our female characters, but hey, you gotta try. So let's focus on things that are awesome about Tonks.

This is why we have fanfiction, right? M.

OotP Tonks is one of my favourite HP characters. I wish we'd seen more of her the way she was then.

I think she kind of had to die in the end, because it seems like all witches with kids become stay-at-home moms, and even the warped version of her that's in the later books would never do that.

I wish we'd seen more of her the way she was then.

Exactly!

I'm not sure what was going on with her death at the end there. Lately I think I'm trying to forget I ever read Deathly Hallows--surely we can come up with a better ending for her! M.

God, I love her. ♥ I didn't really like her ~tragic ending~ either, but she was one of the first characters I ever really loved when I first got into fandom, and she still is good fun. ♥

She *is* fun. That's what I liked so much about her! M.

I think I fell in love with her when there was one side line about her wearing a THE WEIRD SISTERS t-shirt while she was off duty.

And her hair changes color! How cool was that!

Gah! I loved that t-shirt! M.

Her story didn't quite do her character justice. But she was still awesome all the same.

*cheers for Tonks*

She was! Is! M.

I still love her. I wish it were easier to do so.

This.

*waves Tonks flag* M.

Oh, Tonks. &hearts You deserved so much more than you got, and it still breaks me. I hope that someday I'll be able to write a story for you.

Yay for writing better endings for her! M.

I get the impression that Tonks is the sort of character who doesn't even know the *meaning* of the word 'expectation.' She'll wear her hair any way it pleases her, thank you very much. Her name is exactly what she chooses it to be. And if she wants to step into battle with the big boys, who's going to stop her? As for her dubious relationship, she doesn't care about the impropriety of marrying an older man, or the danger of marrying a werewolf, or the consequences of being shunned by society. Although I wish her fiery personality had never been so thoroughly extinguished, I like to believe that Tonks lived by her own rules every step of the way.

In my head Tonks is the character in OOP and she is awesome. I liked her that way, I write her that way, & canon be damned.

YES! Exactly.

Re: Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter

magnetic-pole.livejournal.com - 2010-02-03 19:02 (UTC) - Expand

She just wilted there on the page, as I was reading. [...] Everything wonderful about her character had vanished.

I have a different opinion and I'd prefer if we could keep with the "Focus on the love. This is an all positivity, all time post. Embrace your happy!"...

Anyway, I love her. I love her in all the books and whether she fights crime or is in love.

Re: Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter

magnetic-pole.livejournal.com - 2010-02-03 19:05 (UTC) - Expand

Tonks when she's young is so freaking much fun to write, seriously. She's a kickass Auror, she can CHANGE HER BODY INTO ANY SHAPE, she wears miniskirts and band t-shirts and pink hair.

Personally, I love the fact that JKR let her be soft for a while, that every Strong Female Character doesn't have to be hard-as-nails all the time. So she fell for the wrong guy -- it happens. But in the end, she went out a hero. <333.

Re: Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter

magnetic-pole.livejournal.com - 2010-02-03 19:04 (UTC) - Expand

I love Tonks. Marriage, Tonks/Remus, ALL OF IT. Love. Her.

I am, of course, sad about the character death. But the rest of it? I love that Tonks was exactly who and what she wanted to be, uncompromisingly, all the time. And maybe she was sad, but she still did things. Tonks' story was realistic in that way.

Re: Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter

magnetic-pole.livejournal.com - 2010-02-03 19:05 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only