[Discussion] Flawed canon and "bad" characters

[anenko.livejournal.com]

Who are your favourite "guilty pleasure" female characters? The ones who aren't good examples of what can be done with female characters, but who you deeply love anyway?

Have you spent hours creating backstory for a female character whose sole purpose in canon is to provide eyecandy for fanboys? Do you feel wildly passionate about a woman from a badly written, sexist series? Is your OTC a woman who died in the first episode of a new series, before the opening credits even began to roll?

Comments

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

Martha Jones was apparently brought in to be a servant to the Doctor and placeholder until he could get over (pretty blonde young dependent) Rose. The only character arc the writers could come up with for her was a humiliating unrequited crush on Ten. (The writers failed on the race front with her, too, showing a super-creepy predilection for putting her and her [also black] family into maid's uniforms.) But I loved her anyway--she was smart and brave and great in crises (one of those characters who actually say what you're thinking as the plot unfolds), and she didn't buy into all Ten's relentless self-mythologizing. I'm glad she's getting another shot on Torchwood.

[muccamukk]

But not that you're bitter, or anything. -g-

God, hated, hated, hated what they did to Martha. She never got a story of her own. It especially pisses me off considering how good a lot of the female characters in series one. It's not that they can't write women, it's just that they totally decided not to. And have said so.

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

Yay for Martha! I cheered when she barked out the bones of the hand. And I LOATHED the unrequieted love thing. Felt forced and annoyed me.

[se-parsons.livejournal.com]

Martha is made of win.

She WALKED THE EARTH for a YEAR, telling a story and sowing the seeds of victory. Yeah, eat me, Rose. All you did was get possessed by the Tardis and let go of a handle.

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

Not that you aren't entitled to hate Rose, but is this really the forum for those views, considering that the entire point of this community is to celebrate female characters?

[se-parsons.livejournal.com]

I actually don't hate Rose at all.

I just tend to hate the privilaging of Rose I've noticed in the fandom, that's all.

Martha is awesome, yet she's all about being compared to Rose as lesser, even in canon. It's shortchanging the excellent character the show created.

[livii.livejournal.com]

Agree with the above statement; this is awfully uncalled for, here.

::likes both characters a lot::

[se-parsons.livejournal.com]

I also like Rose.

I don't like the fandom's tendency to love her and not-like Martha, and to constantly compare her when they are different individuals.

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

Wordy McWord. Martha was made of win and awesome and I fell in love with her instantly -- and I couldn't see why the writers didn't love her as much as I did. (Or the Doctor, come to that.)

I loved Rose during the first two seasons, but now when I watch first or second-season episodes, all I can think is "This would be so much cooler if Martha was in it!"

Edit: And actually, isn't Rose another example? She started out as a plucky, brave, independent young woman who wanted a life with more to it than working in a shop, living with her mum, and eating chips with her boyfriend. She was great. She became a sodding Time Goddess, for crying out loud! Then in the second season, she became increasingly wrapped up in the Doctor, to the point where she couldn't seem to imagine a life without him, and referred to the day she was separated from him as "the day I died". What the hell?

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

Wordy McWord. Martha was made of win and awesome and I fell in love with her instantly -- and I couldn't see why the writers didn't love her as much as I did. (Or the Doctor, come to that.)

I thought the writers did love Martha - after all, she becomes her own Big Damn Hero in a way Rose never did (except maybe in the first episode) - she walked the Earth for a year! Dude!

What I do think was made of fail was the unrequited love - not because the Doctor didn't love her back - but because they went there at all. Seriously - chance to tool around the galaxy and you're only going to go because you fancy the guy driving? That is utterly Made of Fail, which is why I loved Martha's "I'm too good to pine after you speech."