halfamoon | The Unpopular Woman Love Post

bofoddity.livejournal.com posting in

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

wander-lust-79.livejournal.com

I love her so...Im a huge fan of Jewel and she's what brought me to the show, and I really loved how she played the Doc...they needed a female like her, to balance out Teyla's warrior strength, I like the way the two played off each other in Missing....I like that Jennifer got tougher too, like in Tracker when she actually fought a Wraith...it show'd good character development, IMO.

I would have liked to have seen her in more episodes, interacting more with the "main" team...but I liked what we did get.

I think they could do more with her IF they do the movie, but I wouldn't want her to be in a relationship with McKay, they don't mesh, again IMO, Id like to see her play more of a pivital role in the movie, like early Carson (who was similar to her in many ways, reluctant to join in missions in the begining). It would have been interesting to see where they would have gone with her character development, turning her from meek to, well never warrior, but more assertive and aggressive.

I don't know why anyone doesnt like her, Ive only heard this a few time before actually and never the why, but I think she's great! To each their own! :)

From:

mkitten13.livejournal.com

I agree with you. Jennifer's a terrific character. She has her strengths which are the reason she's even on this expedition, but she also has her share of weaknesses. Weaknesses that she acknowledge and fight every step of the way because part of her job throws her into those kinds of situations.

There's particularly one scene in "Missing" that I really love. When Jennifer calls Teyla out on the matter of leaving the stranger behind. Teyla admits that she feels Jennifer's safety is her responsibility, that she got her into this. Jennifer takes responsibility for her own situation, acknowledging that though she had no idea what she got herself into, she still volunteered for this. Now, I loved Jennifer from the get-go, because I am unable to hate any character portrayed by Jewel Staite, but that moment is really where Jennifer fully and completely proved herself.

And up until the middle of the fifth season Jennifer had a terrific character build-up, going from someone who was completely unprepared for what she could face on a mission, to someone who could hold her own, at least for a while, in a fight. She learned from "Missing" that she needed to learn to defend herself and she did something about it. Character growth.

So it's really a shame that the writers decided to ignore that build-up and reduce her into "the love interest". I am with you on not wanting to see her in a relationship with McKay (which is why I have not been able to watch the last half of the fifth season). So I will simply cherish the season and a half where Jennifer was her own person and ignore the rest.

From:

wander-lust-79.livejournal.com

You should check-out Identity if you watch no other episode, and maybe Las Vegas (I think those are the titles, the third to the last and second to last episodes) they are really good. Identity focuses on Jennifer, just stop watching the last few minutes to avoid McKay/Keller relationship, Vegas is just a fun AU.

I totally get what you're saying about being disappointed with their focus being on her as a love interest...I hoping it means they will do something more/better with her IF they do a movie, and my secret hope is it will be post break-up with McKay, shhhh.

The scene you mentioned is a good one, all of Missing for me was a high point...I enjoy the scene where you shots the bad guy in the leg, that also showed some "balls" on her part, that she was chosen to be part of this mission for a reason....she had the right stuff, she's just never been forced to use it. I like Jewel kicking butt! She's awesome, this character is more of how I would have liked to see Kaylee be when it came to fights, not that I wanted her all gung ho, but ready to fight (more from Firefly series and not at the end of Serenity where she put up her gun, lol)

BUT I LOVE Dr. Jennifer Keller!!! And I'll shout it from the roof tops!

From:

kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com

People dislike her for a lot of reasons. Often it's just that she's with Rodney when they think he should be with John.

Personally I liked her a lot in season four, but the way the writers acted in season five, sidelining Teyla even more to focus on Jennifer (complete with digs on Mallozzi's blog about Rachel Luttrel) really soured me on her. :(

From:

wander-lust-79.livejournal.com

I think its sad when people would dislike a character becuase of the way the writers chose too write them, but I am guilty of the same thing often so I guess its just the way things are.... I especially think people trashing her or whatever becuase she is with Rodney and John and Rodney cannot be "together" is silly? Its the problem with shippers, they cause undeded drama... I honestly do not think R/J would have even happened on the Sci-Fi channel, not with the role they had John's character in, and the relationship they had with the military, whatever.... IDK, but to each their own, live and let live...Im no one to judge....I just Love Dr Keller for her!

I can see what you're saying about her character becoming more of a focus in season 5, but I also think they may have been an attempt to 1) establish a new character, who up until that point fans had shown and interest in 2) Teyla had been the constant female lead for 4 season, there are only so many story lines they can write for her without being to re-dundent, plus the actress just had a baby and may have wanted some more time with her child.

I think they needed to branch out their focus, I dont know if they knew season 5 would be the last, but when they started doing the scripts they may have thought they had more time to do more with the other charatcers, but then had to jam their final concepts into the last few episodes and things got lost along the way....IDK....

But Im sad you got soured on her!!! :(

From:

kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com

Well, now that the show is over, I can just enjoy her in fanfic. :)

From:

vain-glorious.livejournal.com

I enjoyed Keller's character a great deal in season 4. I liked her ill-preparedness and quirky, dorky sense of humor. I liked her better than the character she replaced.

I'll agree that it was really the writing of the other characters that soured me over season 5. I liked Keller, but the writing of her was to the detriment of other characters. I think it's easy to hate on her for this reason, but for me it has a lot more to do with the overall writing.