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

Re: Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

[bofoddity.livejournal.com]

It's also PTSD from her dead mother, her boyfriend dumping her for not relying on him enough (omg, wtf?), her sister's life being in danger, and wrestling with the short lifespan of slayers. There's also the combined weight of 5 years of living in the supernatural equivalent of a combat zone with very little back up and resources. It's totally understandable that Buffy would have a break down, and people suffering tend to behave in shitty ways, which does negatively affect the people closest to them.

YES. And before she had always been able to deal. Went close to breakdowns? Yes. Was very moody at times? Yes. And she dealt with it all, but you can't deal forever. It's not even that she didn't try, but if the people around you don't understand just how bad you have it, trying gets hard too. One of the most unbelievable moments for me had to be when Scoobies told her that she was broke and that she would have to do something about it, despite, you know, having been dead for a while. Her breakdown may not have been so nice to watch, but you can definitely call it reasonable.

If you asked me before, I'd say I didn't see it. But now I'm beginning to think that's the case. Male characters are cut more slack because of their issues, while female characters aren't. The majority of fandom overlooks mitigating circumstances in the case of female characters, and they seldom write fix-it or redemptive fic for them.

It has become very clear to me too. Just think of how much people fan Gregory House in comparison to, well, just about any female character who has it worse than him. I do think it's perfectly okay to point out that maybe the suffering character could be less of an asshole to others, but biases are hard to ignore.

Part of why I like Buffy is because of her flaws. She feels like a real person, in that her screw ups tend to fall into a pattern. I also love that Buffy's character arcs are about her resilience, and fortitude, and while she suffers and screws up she still gets back up and keeps on going. That's at the heart of why I find her so heroic.

Me too. Sure, not everything was done perfectly, but she kept growing, and sometimes she had a setback or more and had to seek her way again, but she always found it, and grew some more. I also love that she isn't always easy to like. I may get angry with her for a while, but after the anger passes, I just love her more.

Re: Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

One of the most unbelievable moments for me had to be when Scoobies told her that she was broke and that she would have to do something about it, despite, you know, having been dead for a while.

I didn't find that unbelievable, because Buffy did end up being solely responsible for the Summers household. I also think it's believable that the Scoobies didn't get it, and they had their own problems to deal with. What I did find unbelievable was how the Scoobies and the narrative treated Buffy like she was immature and reluctant to grow up, when it seemed like she was having PTSD/depression and falling apart.

I do think it's perfectly okay to point out that maybe the suffering character could be less of an asshole to others, but biases are hard to ignore.

Yes, this. Although I admit to a soft spot for difficult female characters.

I also love that she isn't always easy to like. I may get angry with her for a while, but after the anger passes, I just love her more.

Yes! Sometimes I want to shake Buffy. Other times, I cheer her on.

Re: Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

[liliaeth]

Oh god, I hated the scoobies in that scene. Those bills came up while Buffy was dead, and since they were the ones keeping Buffy's death hidden, they should have been the ones paying for them. Especially since they knew they were going to try and bring her back.

If they couldn't pay the bills, they should have made sure that Dawn could go back to her father, or at the very least, sold the house and have Giles take in Dawn, so that she'd be taken care of.

Re: Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

[loligo.livejournal.com]

I also love that she isn't always easy to like. I may get angry with her for a while, but after the anger passes, I just love her more.

YES. On the level of personality traits, skills, interests, etc., she is not the type of person I would want to hang out with. We wouldn't get along all that well. But my god, how could anyone watch that show and not LOVE her? She never stopped trying, she never stopped growing, she never stopped caring, no matter what kind of trauma she went through. I love her fiercely.