The Unpopular Woman Love Post

[bofoddity.livejournal.com]

It's pretty natural that some female characters do worse in fandom than others, right? And sometimes it's difficult, if not downright impossible, to find a place where you can fan these characters in peace, or fellow fans to fan them with. Not to mention trying to find fanworks about them. Experience says: It hard.

So, stealing the idea shamelessly from doyle_sb4's Women of Doctor Who celebration post, here is a love post for the unpopular female characters. Like in doyle_sb4's post, you start a thread with the character's name and their respective fandom in the subject line, after which people are free to share fic and vid recs, picspams, links to essays, defenses or simply thoughts of love about the character in question. Because unpopularity is a subjective thing most of the time, the character doesn't have to be somebody you know to be the fandom underdog for sure, but if the character also has a large number of fans it would be good to give some reasons about why they're hated and why it's wrong. Links to the character threads will be collected in this post.

Being a post for unpopular characters, this is a bashing free post. If you have any negative opinions about the characters discussed or the fandom rivals of the character of your choice, please keep them to yourself.

And now, knock yourselves out!

ETA: The character and the fandom should both be named in the subject line, I forgot to mention the fandom initially. Sorry about the inconvenience!

ETA 2: If you want to share you thoughts about a character who has a thread, please reply to the thread in question. General comments and threads for new characters go to the main post.

Threads:

Diana Fowley, X-Files (Vid rec, Fic Recs, Fic recs)
Jennifer Hailey, Stargate: SG1
Sakura, Naruto (Fic recs, Author rec)
Dawn Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Anastasia Dualla, Battlestar Galactica (Comic rec, Reasons why Dee is awesome)
Lana Lang, Smallville (Vid recs)
Maya Herrera, Heroes (Vid rec)
Relena Peacecraft, Gundam Wing (Fic recs)
Cally Henderson-Tyrol, Battlestar Galactica
Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
Jennifer Keller, Stargate: Atlantis (Community link, Fic recs, Fic recs)
Niki Sanders
Freya/Anise, Stargate: SG1 (Fic rec)
Maria Hill, Marvel Comics
Thirteen/Dr. Remy Hadley, House MD (Picspam links)
Bela Talbot, Supernatural (Fic rec, Fic)
Shiori Takatsuki, Revolutionary Girl Utena
Tifa Lockhart, Final Fantasy VII
Max Guevara, Dark Angel (Vid rec, Fic rec)
Elizabeth Swann, Pirates of the Caribbean (Author rec)
Cynthia Velasquez, Silent Hill 4
Allison Cameron, House MD (Meme rec)
Liz Sherman, Hellboy
Dr. Camille "Cam" Saroyan, Bones
Ruby, Supernatural
Chloe Sullivan, Smallville
Sakaki Ouka, Weiss Kreuz
Jo Harvelle, Supernatural
Inara Serra, Firefly (Fic Rec)
Lt. Colonel Hollis Mann, NCIS
Director Jenny Shepard, NCIS
Lilly Kane, Veronica Mars
Kate Austen, Lost
Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Teyla Emmagan, Stargate Atlantis (Link, vid rec)
Alex Drake, Ashes to Ashes
Anya Jenkins, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Fic recs)
Koriand'r, DC Comics
Sam Carter, Stargate SG-1/Atlantis
Ana Lucia, Lost
Padme Amidala, Star Wars
Arwen, The Lord of the Rings
Martha Jones, Doctor Who/Torchwood
Kennedy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Lois Lane, Smallville
Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter
Shmi Skywalker, Star Wars
Mai, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Fic links, Fic links & recs)
Keiko Yukimura, Yu Yu Hakusho
Orihime Inoue, Bleach
Yakumo Tatsuro, Shinzo
Sakuno Ryuzaki, The prince Of Tennis
Tenten, Naruto
Anzu Mazaki, Yu-Gi-Oh!
Temari, Naruto
Himawari, xxxHOLiC
Karen Kouzuki/Kallen Stadtfeld, Code Geass
Yuuki Miaka, Fushigi Yuugi
Meg Griffin, Family Guy
Elliot Reid, Scrubs
Princess Zelda, Legend of Zelda series/Brawl
Mizuki Kaho, Card Captor Sakura
Colette Brunel, Tales of Symphonia
Kaoru Kamiya AND Tomoe Yukishiro, Rurouni Kenshin
Ninian, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken
Katara, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Vid rec)
Naomi Hunter, Metal Gear Solid
Scheris Adjani, Scryed
Silk Spectre II/Laurie Juspeczyk, Watchmen
Jun the Swan, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
Hinata Hyuuga, Naruto
Momo Hinamori, Bleach
Miyako Inoue, Digimon 02
Misa Amane, Death Note
Juri Katou, Digimon Tamers
Asuka Tenjoin, Yu-Gi-Oh GX

Comments

Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[some-stars.livejournal.com]

The first time I watched Heroes, I couldn't watch Niki--I literally had to ffwd through some of her scenes. Not because of her but because it just made me TOO ANGRY to watch her getting raped and violated (sexually, physically, emotionally) over and over and over. But when I got through the first season and I watched it again I realized that she was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. God knows there are huge, huge flaws in how they wrote her story--and then they destroyed almost everything good they'd done in season two--but the heart of season one for me will always, always be the moment when Niki and Jessica finally integrate--when the protective personality is strong enough to let Niki take control, and Niki is strong enough to TAKE IT and wield her strength on her own terms, for herself. She goes through so much shit, gets manipulated and violated by fucking everybody, does everything she can to protect the people she loves and do what's right, and in the end--I don't care how much the show went on to shit all over it--in the end SHE WINS. She doesn't destroy Jessica, she *integrates* her--learns to use her strength to protect herself without having to go out of her head.

I think it annoys a lot of people how helpless Niki seems at the beginning and for a while, but I love it because it's the story of her journey--how she's been so terrified of herself as a source of power, of her own rage, that she had to cut it off from herself entirely. She starts off depending on other people--mainly men--for everything, being exploited and abused and dismissed by men all around her, and it's her fear of those men that keeps Jessica alive and out of Niki's control. Her story is learning to LET HERSELF BE ANGRY and LET HERSELF BE STRONG so that she can take care of herself and the people she loves. And that is fucking amazing and I will never, ever stop being in love with it.

(And on a moderately tangential note, I also love love love Niki and DL's relationship--it's the only romantic relationship on the show that ever felt to me like they were both truly in love with each other and treated/viewed each other as equals. I love that she's allowed to lean on him and NEED him and it doesn't weaken her at all.)

Re: Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[ryf.livejournal.com]

Heh, I opened a thread about her at the same time (have deleted it now)

I have only watched season 1 of Heroes, but I liked that character so much. She had so much strength for her son and yet was such a realistic character who was afraid of what was happening.

Re: Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[miss-atom.livejournal.com]

♥ Niki was always my favourite, I don't watch anymore (I stopped half way through this season, I may go back, idk) but I loved her so much. I think this comment really sums up my feelings about her.

Re: Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[bofoddity.livejournal.com]

The integration moment was Niki's finest moment, the moment she became the Hero in all capitals, and I HATED how they threw that away in S2. Her storyline was very uncomfortable to follow, and while they were these many exploitative moments, her story was a story about growth at heart, the difficulties of it and the occasional losses, but the point was that she triumphed in the end. And the DL/Niki-relationship is still my favorite canon romance on the shows for the reasons you stated. What was done to Niki and DL/Niki in S2 was a massive injustice, but it doesn't take the strength of the S1-story away.

Re: Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

I second everything in this comment! Season 1 Niki WINS. And DL and Niki are totally love.

Re: Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[ever-obsessed.livejournal.com]

THIS!

Seriously, and an extra word about DL/Niki.

Ugh, I miss my damn Sanders-Hawkins family.

Sanders-Hawkins > frigging Petrellis, thanks.

Re: Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Fucking WORD to this!

Re: Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

She doesn't destroy Jessica, she *integrates* her--learns to use her strength to protect herself without having to go out of her head.

and

Her story is learning to LET HERSELF BE ANGRY and LET HERSELF BE STRONG so that she can take care of herself and the people she loves.

YAYE. I completely agree with all of this. It's too bad, like you said, that they rewound a lot of her character development/advancement, but I really did love her story in S1, both as Niki and as Jessica. (And like everyone else, bonus yaye for Niki/DL.)

Re: Niki Sanders (Heroes)

[m-crowley.livejournal.com]

You put it so eloquently that there's no way I could extrapolate upon it. Niki's journey into a burgeoning "super" is one that is subtle and bittersweet and deeply personal. It will always be one of my favorites.