Yet another thirty-day meme
Oct. 10th, 2014 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12What with life draining my energy in various ways, I've found it hard to keep writing regularly for these past few weeks. So when ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
author_by_night started a new thirty-day meme about female characters, I thought it might act as a good way to ease myself back into blogging. I'm going to try and do the meme within thirty days, but we'll see how that goes. The full list is behind the cut.
Day One: Favorite lead female character
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you’d like!
Day One: Favourite Lead Female Character
Sarah Connor (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Sarah is my absolute hero. She's written with such careful complexity, and what I've always appreciated most about the series is how it makes explicit the sheer effort involved in being Sarah Connor day after day. Being the mother of the saviour of humanity is exhausting. She has one task, and one task only: keep her son John alive long enough for him to fight back against the apocalypse, which leads her initially to play a very passive, reactive role: Skynet threatens, and Sarah runs. However, over the course of the show, Sarah begins to realise that the best way to save John might actually be to prevent the apocalypse altogether, rather than hiding out until it inevitably occurs. As such, she begins to take on a more active role, seeking out potential leads, gathering allies and standing her ground. One of the big themes of the show is that the future is unknowable, and thus almost anything can look like a threat, almost any innocuous action can seem to Sarah to hold the seeds of humanity's destruction, and so as the show progresses she becomes increasingly paranoid, seeing Skynet in every hint of artificial intelligence.
Her love for John wars with her desire to protect him, and the pair clash on how best to prepare him for the future. Being the mother of the messiah is hard work! Sarah's task is often thankless, and I love the quiet moments where the series shows Sarah making piles of sandwiches, doing laundry, or scrubbing the bathroom floor, juxtaposed with the trappings of her trade: the sandwiches are piled up next to weapons, the bathroom floor is covered with blood, and so on. The other characters very rarely realise the depths of what Sarah endures, let alone thank her, and yet her actions, no matter how small, are usually what keep them all alive. She is utterly selfless, brave in the face of the terrifying reality of her existence, relentless in the face of exhaustion, and resolute in spite of her increasing realisation that none of her actions have any effect on the inevitable apocalyptic future she is working so hard to avert.
[Note: I think ten, or even five years ago, Buffy Summers would've been my answer to this question, but I suspect that my own age has made me appreciate Sarah more and more. I still love Buffy, but she is a character who speaks to someone much younger than I am now.]
author_by_night started a new thirty-day meme about female characters, I thought it might act as a good way to ease myself back into blogging. I'm going to try and do the meme within thirty days, but we'll see how that goes. The full list is behind the cut.Day One: Favorite lead female character
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Three: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you’d like!
Day One: Favourite Lead Female Character
Sarah Connor (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Sarah is my absolute hero. She's written with such careful complexity, and what I've always appreciated most about the series is how it makes explicit the sheer effort involved in being Sarah Connor day after day. Being the mother of the saviour of humanity is exhausting. She has one task, and one task only: keep her son John alive long enough for him to fight back against the apocalypse, which leads her initially to play a very passive, reactive role: Skynet threatens, and Sarah runs. However, over the course of the show, Sarah begins to realise that the best way to save John might actually be to prevent the apocalypse altogether, rather than hiding out until it inevitably occurs. As such, she begins to take on a more active role, seeking out potential leads, gathering allies and standing her ground. One of the big themes of the show is that the future is unknowable, and thus almost anything can look like a threat, almost any innocuous action can seem to Sarah to hold the seeds of humanity's destruction, and so as the show progresses she becomes increasingly paranoid, seeing Skynet in every hint of artificial intelligence.
Her love for John wars with her desire to protect him, and the pair clash on how best to prepare him for the future. Being the mother of the messiah is hard work! Sarah's task is often thankless, and I love the quiet moments where the series shows Sarah making piles of sandwiches, doing laundry, or scrubbing the bathroom floor, juxtaposed with the trappings of her trade: the sandwiches are piled up next to weapons, the bathroom floor is covered with blood, and so on. The other characters very rarely realise the depths of what Sarah endures, let alone thank her, and yet her actions, no matter how small, are usually what keep them all alive. She is utterly selfless, brave in the face of the terrifying reality of her existence, relentless in the face of exhaustion, and resolute in spite of her increasing realisation that none of her actions have any effect on the inevitable apocalyptic future she is working so hard to avert.
[Note: I think ten, or even five years ago, Buffy Summers would've been my answer to this question, but I suspect that my own age has made me appreciate Sarah more and more. I still love Buffy, but she is a character who speaks to someone much younger than I am now.]
