Why Modern Movies Suck - The Strong Female Character
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- Опубликовано: 9 июн 2023
- One of the most tiresome tropes of the past ten years in moviemaking is the "Strong Female Character." Not women who are smart, capable, well written and complex, but bland, boring, superficially "strong" characters designed to pander to simplistic ideals of female empowerment.
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FYI - Experienced an editing glitch that caused the video to freeze half way through. Sorry about that, but its fixed now so enjoy the vid!
It's not an issue. Keep fighting the good fight against THE MESSAGE
I thought ‘they’ had disappeared you. Relieved! You are a ray of fun in a crazy world, who saves my frame of mind.
I thought you had been flagged.
my conspiracy theory brain just overloaded when midway through your video it stopped and was suddenly not available anymore ;-P
Too bad... I had a great and poignant comment on the last video, but since I forgot it I'll just say... women ☕️
People don't dislike female characters. They dislike poorly written characters.
No, women cannot act the part and they do not look the part. Same stances, same looks, rarely looked trashed and will never go through the movie with the black eye or swollen lip received while they were being strong.
@@winstonsmiths2449 Yes they can dumbazz, there are many women who have acted perfectly well and can pull emotions better than men actually since they tend to use emotions more often. The fact you deny this means you are just one of those incels. Are there bad female actors? Yes just like there are bad male actors. Are all of them bad at acting? No to generalize so is stupid.
@@winstonsmiths2449 Bro, if you think we want your type, your wrong. We hate sexisim agains men AND woman.
Edit: I have said that I misunderstood them and even said sorry. I'm getting real annoyed how you guys keep replying to my comment but won't put any effort to see my new responses.
Edit: I would usually be proud of this many likes but something tells me it's by woke lunatics, unless I'm wrong.
Also, for the love of gosh, please stop sending me hate and saying how I'm sexist or wrong when I have admitted to being incorrect
Thank you, This channel is starting to turn into right wing circle jerk. These are just movies at the end of the day.
No, it's not the role for them no matter how you write it, it's out of place. Stop with this "compromise" nonsense. Stop being a fence sitter.
Write female _characters_
Not _female_ characters.
Don't write strong characters
write characters who are strong
Truth has been spoken!
I think these writers are conflating strength (which has a moral dimension) with power (which does not).
This ^
More like beMale characters
Sarah Connor is a very good example which I never realized about. The writers never tried to overpower her from other men, she ran and escaped where she had to. She planned things out with her team. The writers never forcefully tried to show us that she's "equal" and as strong as the terminator.
Female or otherwise....that's what you WANT to see. An underdog protagonist bravely fighting against something much bigger/stronger/dangerous.
yea but only in the first and second movie
@@WaryofExtremes after the third film they discarded the John Conner act. Yes the messianic figure that the original film and its even more popular sequel build up. Instead they reintroduced Sarah Conner as a "strong female character".
She was played by the same actress just older, but now she was scrubbed clean of flaws and personality.
My old drama teacher always said that they make the first film because they have a great idea, and the second just to make money. But what do they do when they turn it into a franchise?
well I don't even think money is the goal anymore. by the fifth film they actually kill John conner in the past
@@stevej71393 Sarah Conner is the mother of John Conner, that is her MO, he is the one that is the prophetised one in the frasnshise
That key toss as a diversion before the gut hit with the baton was such a nice touch .
Im from Sri Lanka, and I think my mom was a strong female character. She did not fight an army or defeat a super villain nor had super powers. But she raised me alone amidst all the hardships the society threw at her. Now she inspires me. Not all powerful Captain America. 😢
proud you man, best wishes.
同意します。強い女性とはフェミ的なものでなく母親であるべきです
@@kobachau8815and thats why people needs to stop joking about ither people's moms
Not a single one of these so called female character in these movies is real! All of them do have an Y-chromosome! People are programed for believing in their stars, they've got blinded by makeup, wigs, plastic surgery, hormons and false voices!
Beautiful comment
Don’t forget the first ever female character to be strong:
Jennifer Lawrence
Then everything changed when Mystique came and downright assasinated her character with one line 😂
Didn't she literally take it in the ass from Harvey Weinstein to get her oscar?
She won’t let us forget!
Hahaha. Oh, stop.
Jennifer Lawrence is the first woman to exist, read the Bible
I'm a tall girl, 5'9. I was in a brief relationship with a guy who was shorter, skinnier, and weighed less than me, and he was still significantly stronger than me to the point I knew he could hurt me if he actually tried. Modern movies are ridiculous in their lack of realism.
atomic blonde is a film I would recommend as it has realistic action based on the hand to hand combat they teach women who work as spies and in special forces.
@@samueldawkins I still don't buy it. I'm in the army and even when women join special forces, they alway take support or surveillance roles. Those hand to hand combat techniques are last ressort and will still fail most of the time if your opponent is bigger/stronger.
_looks up at ya_ Dang, you're tall, hehe! 5' 8" here.
@@samueldawkins a story based on something I heard, from someone who told me, that something was possibly based on a thing they heard, was maybe true.
Tell us more about the so called SF/spy techniques that are taught. Please. The audience is enthralled with your fairy tales of she-hulks barely defeating average men.
@thibaldus3 agreed. When I went through combatives training, I had the opportunity to have to roll with two women. One immediately went to my back and correctly applied the rear naked choke. She wasn't strong enough. I choked the first one I grabbed until she tapped, then I pulled the one off my back and did the same. She was really upset and couldn't understand why it didn't work. I told her she just didn't have the strength necessary to apply the choke.
Eowyn vs the Witch King is how its done. Perfect example. I even smiled when she took off her helmet and said, "I am no man." And fucked him up. That wasn't insulting at all. She stood her ground, faced absolute death and won. Thats worthy of a standing applause in itself.
i mean.. the witch king gave her the perfect pass by saying no man can kill me.
At that moment, we all though in our heads... " wait a minute...."
If you read the book, it's even more significant, the meaning of those words, "no man can kill me" it's almost like a prophecy that he was destined to be defeated by a woman, and her trajectory, of desperation and hopelessness lead to her facing him and being the one, scared and all, but overcoming him for he was dishonoring his father that she só much loved, to the point that facing him was almost an everyday task, pretty amazing
Great example
Also, it seems like he was taken back by surprise at her statement, and that worked to her advantage.
She was also shown to be caring and compassionate while being of royal blood...who could fight to defend King and Country to the death.
I think Over-confidence looks gross on both men and women. No balance.
Exactly!
Traits like arrogance, self-entitlement, know it all, stoic, bluntness, rudeness, ruthlessness, confidence, self-respect, and aggressiveness
For males, they’re flaws
But for females, they’re “strengths”.
Double standards
Yep. According to modern "progressivism", women mist be toxic men, and men must be subservient and fawning.
this is what you get from your hate filled sis feminist writers. I wrote a funny.
Very *_TRUE_*
Being stoic is not a flaw, especially in men, but there's a time and place for stoicism, and a time and place for compassion and empathy.
Right-on brother!
Mulan is the perfect example of what you are talking about. In the original animated Mulan, she started off as a weak recruit that was trained and hardened into a fighter. She learned to fight using her speed and intelligence, not brute force. In the live action remake, she started off with a special ability that allowed her to quickly excel with little effort. The first one could be seen as inspiration for girls to exceed despite what hinders them. The remake just says, "she exceeded because she had special powers."
meh, all female protagonists are empowered by magic including the ones we look back upon fondly.
Men are twice as strong in the upper body. That is not a little. Men evolved to mentally cope in combat situations. Men have faster reflexes. A woman vs. a man is a child vs. an adult. No comparison.
More female nature does not allow for heroism. They evolved to be too valuable to risk and naturally avoid conflicts and risk. See how many female firefighters died rushing into the burning WTC (zero btw)
Take Beth Harmon
Utterly fictional character because women do not compete mentally either. Hundreds of male top chess players exist for a single average female chess player. Hence why Beth was fiction (yet acted like women were good at chess, they are not)
She was trained, worked with, and fought... MEN. So... does that make her magically STRONG and EMPOWERED??? Ummm... and one more thing... IT. WAS. AN. ANIMATED. FILM. BY. THE. WOKE. HEADQUARTERS... DISNEY!
@@TheBelrick is this supposed to be bait?
@@DrakeSilver truth does tend to upset awful people who then get baited. So i suppose so?
But more importantly, it raises the awareness of how fooled into believing lies like muh empowered women, normies are.
@@linus1792 yep, the original mulan was still a circle jerk of unfounded reality but at least it was done in a minimalist to ego boosting way
There are people who want us to believe that women can fight for the same reason why their are people who slip poison into besieged cities wells.
I’m glad you included Samantha Carter in your list of real women of strength. She often gets overlooked. I’ve known females in the Stargate fandom who went into a scientific field because of her.
The "I'm an expert at everything science plus impossibly advanced alien tech" trope was a bit eye-rolling, but overall Sam was a great character. Smart, capable fighter with realistic strength, strong compassion/emotional depth (e.g. Five).
Stargate did a great job with all the female characters.....Dr Fraiser, Dr Weir, Teyla...even Vala Mal Doran and Adria. All interesting in their own way.
@@pauldraper1736aka just good characters. Even the supposed week and undermining Woolsy in the final season, I feared would be the story equivalent of a nuclear bomb to the show because he seemed to be the bad side of male archetypes was a extremely well written and intelligent character who was competently written and through a interesting scenario where most of the main cast live were at stake demonstrated his worth and diplomatic capability by being a driving force and one of the only reasons they made it out of that situation, a interesting episode.
The show was better written then alot.
Honestly it suprised me how better call saul seem to manage to dodge most of this left stuff.
-Come over and see ‘I Sent Amber Heard's Lawyers A Letter…’
Yeah she could save the day with both her fists and smarts, but its not that she could do everything!
Well...maybe from Season 2 onwards. Accomplishments of Season 1 Carter:
- mouthed off to a room full of superior officers about her genitals being on the inside.
- Got offended on Sha'uri's behalf upon hearing the first 1% of the answer to "So how did you and Sha'uri meet, Dr. Jackson?"
- Literally fought the patriarchy. With a knife.
Among other just...cringeworthy uppity feminist shit they wrote for her. They eventually toned that shit down and you get the slightly workaholic ubernerd she was through the rest of the show.
Emily Blunt in Edge og Tomorrow is the brilliant way to tell a strong female character, we do not even see a second of what made her a Rey-like but we all learn from watching Tom Cruise go through the exact same over and over, we learn how it's all muscle memory and experience. Seeing women today just reminds me of how ridiculous it was watching Steven Seagal movies, wondering how he could possibly do 99% of the things he did or try to relate to his bland characters.
Edge of Tomorrow is such an underrated movie. It has its faults but damn it’s entertaining, looks good and has well written characters. I haven’t seen the movie in years but can easily recall the plot, the locations and the characters. Can’t say the same thing about most if any of the Disney/Marvel/DC garbage I’ve seen in the past years.
Ripley was done perfectly. She was often scared, indecisive, bested in battle, belittled by her male coworkers, and even - gasp - cried now and again. At the same time, she was 100% grade A badass.
Absolutely 100%. She was such a wonderful character. She also valued the men and women around her she felt she could trust and didn't treat them like they were less than her, but instead as equals. She was one of the best action heroes, man or woman.
I propose that female characters in action movies be measured in units called Ripleys (R). Ripley = 1 R. Someone like, say, Sarah Conner = 0.85 R (Aliens are slightly harder to deal with than Terminators). Of course, Strong Female Characters should be measured in Micro-Ripleys (mR, 1 R = 1000 mR). Rey would be ~20 mR.
She was one of a great many strong female characters who we all loved. Sarah Conner. Furiosa. Uma Thurman(Kill Bill). Vasquez. Princess Leia. Karen Allen(Raiders of the lost Ark)... to name a few. They were badass, and empathetic characters. We cared about them. Now they make strong female characters that no one gives a shit about.
best female character tied with Sarah Connor...Sijourney wins because she had more films...
My favorite
Also, can we just talk about how Disney felt the need to elevate already strong female characters into "even stronger" by basically making their whole personality "badass female character"?
For example, Belle was already a well written character, a girl who is nerdy and quiet but also knows where to stand up for herself or the people she cares about (rejecting Gaston directly, yelling at the Beast and refusing to join him for dinner, showing no qualms about walking away from him when he tried to scare her, scolding him later for not controlling his temper). But the live action? Belle is not strong enough, she needs an occupation to be a good character, so she is the scientist now. They also shoved in a few sexist comments that were too on the nose and cringy, to say the least.
Jasmine? OG Jasmine was already strong. Again, she knew when to speak for herself and exactly what she wanted. She knew her own worth and she wanted a suitor who would accept her as a person, rather than for her title. But in the live action, Jasmine needs an ambition. She wants to be the sultan. And she positively insults all men (unlike in the animated version, where she only insults the over the top haughty princes) and has an entire song that talks about not allowing herself to be silenced when there were no instances of anyone trying to silence her. Again, "strong female character".
And quite possibly the most unnecessary change was to Mulan. OG Mulan was arguably the most physically powerful female character but the creators felt the need to change that as well. OG Mulan was a socially awkward girl who cares about her family, and disguises herself as a soldier for selfless reasons. She is not perfect; she has to learn everything from scratch, she fails time and time again while training, she has to work her way to the top. She also used her brains in most of the fights because physical strength in itself isn't enough, and that's what made her stand apart from the others. She got along with the male characters perfectly well, with no need of comparison or proving herself to be better. But the live action version? That Mulan is born with magical chi, she has trained from when she was a child, so she has to face no difficulties when joining the army. The only thing stopping her from proving herself is the society; otherwise, she is perfect. She is far from being a realistic character because young girls would look at her and think, "well, she's strong because she was born with it". Not to mention, the live action Mulan was as boring as a slice of bread. She had no character other than "female warrior", emphasis on the "female".
Basically, physical strength isn't everything. All of the OG princesses were strong in their own ways. Cinderella dealt with abuse and torment for years, but still kept her good morals and kindness. Snow White realized that running away from toxic situations is not cowardly. Tiana wanted to have an occupation to support herself and her mother, and worked hard for it. Ariel wanted to explore a new world that she didn't know, and be part of new experiences.
Also. Romance is not weak. A strong female character can still fall in love. And if they choose to stay single, it should not be because "she's too independent for a partner". You can be in a relationship and still be independent. If the relationship is built on mutual trust and understanding, no one is "too strong" for it. I understand that aroace characters can exist, but their motive for not having a partner should not be "oh, I don't need a man"; it should just be that they're happier with friends or family, and they don't really feel the need to be in a relationship.
Basically they had to make the side characters pathetic so they can stand out 😂
Very well said, and great points!
Exactly
Mulan was pretty stupid in the animated version too though. She went from what you'd expect from a young girl who's been raised to be a housewife and completely in over her head as a soldier, physically unfit and far behind her male counterparts, to suddenly being able to outshoot, outrun, outlift and generally outperform all of the others - even defeating the captain, a man clearly much more physically imposing and trained as a warrior his whole life, in a sparring match, over the course of a single song (okay, of unspecified time but logically at best a few weeks to a month or two) purely from sheer force of will.
I'd totally get it if was just that she'd been using her smarts and being underestimated (elements like causing the avalanche, maybe figuring out how to climb the pole) but no. Literally she just instantly turns into the best.
Because they cant write female in the first place
BEATRIX FUCKING KIDDO - I love her character so much. My favorite part of the film series? Her rigorous training with Pei Mei and how she had to EARN his respect and admiration. The strength he teaches her comes full circle when she has to free herself. It’s *chefs kiss* perfection
Not to mention the main antagonist if the first movie O-Ren Ishii, who is given a clear and understandable motivation for eventually become as powerful as she did. Tarantino was writing genuinely powerful women years before we got the completely flat and one-dimensional girlbosses of modern times.
I think it's funny how the one time Disney hired an actress who actually looks like she has a pretty reasonable chance of being able to fuck up an average man in a one-on-one fight (Gina Carano) they went and shit-canned her.
She herself is a completely anti toxic feminist so they threw her out.
she's a strong female character in real life and she was blackballed by Disney
I do love seeing her fight in movies cause it's extremely believable, as she's also an actual fighter; she does seem like she could rip someone in half. But she hasn't had many good scripts to work with...
I never watched the mendalorian so I googled to see how she looks and HOLY FUCK, this woman could suplex a bear and I wouldn't give a shit.
Amazing that in the same breath, they wish to call masculinity "toxic" meanwhile, EVERY positive trait that creates the modern; Strong Female Character™ is masculine!
The irony cannot be lost if you are immune to it.
Lmfao nail on the head
More like a caricature of masculinity tbh
thank you! I swear I had given up hope that anyone would ever realize this OBVIOUS Paradox.
But this aint even half the story. Feminists CLAIM to be for the "feminine (hence "Feminist") but they demonize everything that is feminine while at the same time glorifying everything that is masculine. So they should be called ANTI FEMINISTS!!!!!
Though that has a limit. They only demonize the feminine until "the ship starts sinking". Then they all cry out "Women and Children first". No "equality" when it comes to DYING ey? Same with wars!
Then there is another Paradox that is beyond funny! Imagine Slaves asking their Masters to "fight" for THEIR Freedom...can you imagine such a nonsensical Situation? That is EXACTLY what Feminists do. They call men "oppressors", "Tyrants", "Patriarchs" and then ask the SAME MEN to "help them" against men. That is so beyond ridiculous that only mental infants can come up with something like that.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Absolutely right.
The best example of this is Mulan. In the animated movie, she constantly struggles during boot camp to the point where others are telling her to quit.
Then comes the giant pole with the arrow on top of it, and no one can get to it. No one! Not even the strongest recruit.
Mulan refuses to give up, and while everyone else is sleeping, she keeps trying her hardest until she reaches the top of that giant pole. When her drill Sergeant comes out in the morning, Mulan throws that arrow at his feet. It was a powerful moment, not just for Mulans character, but for ALL kids regardless of gender.
Jump to the live action movie, and Mulan is so strong from the moment of birth that she literally has to physically hold herself back so as not to easily embarrass everyone around her. Absolutely butchered her character with a straight trash message.
That moment when is climbing up and song hits its peak. Fantastic, you are in on her journey.
Keep in mind it wasn't simply endurance that got Mulan to the top. Getting to the top of the pole had to be done while wearing weights. Mulan uses cleverness in order to use the weights as an advantage instead of a handicap. It played to her using her intelligence to keep pace and even surpass others.
This, right here. The cartoon Mulan had everything to lose. If she was discovered, she'd be arrested. Going into battle, she very well might die. But, even knowing this, she risked it for her father. She could not physically keep up with the men. She literally had to be helped just to try and keep up. But, when she climbed the pole, it wasn't brute strength that got her there. The men were trying to climb the pole wearing the weights and they couldn't. She couldn't. It was when she stopped trying to be the strongest and used her brain that she did it. Instead of letting the weights pull her down, she used them to climb with. It was brilliant. During the battle with the Huns, she again thought through the problem and played to her strengths, showing that everyone has talents and they are all just as valuable as physical strength. In the end, she again risked everything to save her friends and her country, also playing to her strengths. She grew in confidence and saw her value. She had the confidence to say to the men, "I have an idea, follow me." Can you see her doing that at the beginning of I'll Make a Man Out of You? And they follow her without question, even Shan. And we went on that journey with her. We wanted her to succeed. We cheered when she did. We learned that we all have skills and worth, even if we don't see it. We just have to find it. What risk did the new Mulan have? She was the strongest and the best. She wasn't going to die and all she had to do was just have the men get out of the way. She wasn't really likeable. There was no risk which made the reward hollow. I didn't get to know her and I didn't care if she won or not. What growth did she have, what did we learn?
You are 100% right. The two Mulans are a very good illustration of what went wrong.
Not only that but once everyone saw that it could be done. Every one got their morale up and started working together.
Mulan turns the challenge of climbing the pole, around by thinking outside the box.
Work/think smarter not harder, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
They had to climb with 2 weights with was impossible for anyone at the time.
She figured out the solution, ties the weights together throws them around the pole and uses them to her advantage to climb the pole super easily with barely an inconvenience.
Overcoming the challenge and making it look easy to everyone else by comparison.
Our mind and our ingenuity are our only and greatest weapon and Mulans mind has been honed to a razor sharp edge by the end.
She also single handedly destroys the entire Mongol horde by using the environment to her advantage and causing an avalanche too.
She learned a lot from the pole challenge.
And later they infiltrate the palace to save the emperor using her technique of wrapping stuff around poles to enable them to climb up and do eventually save the day.
A friend of mine is an actual female writer. When I asked her about her views , she says the issue is agenda. Modern/woke female writers don't want to write female characters as people. They want to write them as agenda driven memes.
Which proves how lazy they and the companies are.
That's why everyone hates it but the psychos and political liars
My personal favorite example of a strong female character written really well comes from the animanga series Black Clover. The series has such an outstanding female cast, but the one that really takes the cake is Noelle Silva.
The series follows a young boy named Asta in a medieval world where magic is everything, but he has absolutely zero. Not one to back down, he works his ass off to get into the a Magic Knights squad and gets into the worst one, the Black Bulls; there, he meets Noelle.
She starts off as a really unlikeable character: she’s royalty, who naturally have huge magic powers, and thus she’s demeaning, condescending, and outright hostile to her fellow knights. However, this is all a façade, as she’s unable to control her magic powers and has been constantly ridiculed by her peers and her family, giving her a really nasty inferiority complex she takes out on others. However, due to her being inspired by Asta and the rest of her squad, she slowly overcomes her lack of magic control and grows to love and care for them as family. This, of course, naturally brings her to being one of the strongest characters in her universe, and it feels earned.
IMHO it’s damn good writing on the author’s part that a seemingly unlikeable character showed that much growth and depth throughout the series, to the point where she’s been voted fan favorite consistently. It just serves to highlight all of Drinker’s points that showing weakness in any character, regardless of gender, does more to strengthen them than being a badass bitch who don’t take shit. Hollywood should honestly take a page from this, since idk how many more Rey Palpatines we can take.
No faults.
No learning.
No suffering.
No realism.
No story.
= No Truths
So simple…. So basic… yet, it’s ignored to pander to an audience whose support is almost statistically nonexistent.
@@jayavionharris And the support they do get isn't even from normal women, it's from crazy feminists and trans women. And they all pretend they care when these movies flop, but they don't, really. Success or not, they're just happy that Hollywood panders to them. They know that all they have to do is say over and over that they flopped because mAn tRaNspHobiC & BaD, and way too many people will just go along.
I can't say why "strong female" characters are so popular ( it seems they aren't ), but I can say why I found the obvious matriarch of this gynocentric genre of kickassery appealing ( it wasn't her fabulous fashion sense in leather ). Most of the time Xenia was just hanging out and messing around with Gabriel - she was off duty. This what I find disappealing about so many "strong male" characters. Stuck in tough guy mode. You kicked somebodys' ass did you ? Wow, get over it. The problem is these "strong male" characters were not invented by tough guys. What we got is a preadolescent image of what a man should be ( Jody ).
A complete Mary Sue. Who need such ridiculous character, which does not evolve at all?
Marge Gunderson from _Fargo_ is one of the strongest characters in film history. Coincidentally, she's a great example of how Lawful Good doesn't need to be "lawful stupid."
All the female protagonists in the Fargo TV series are also pretty great characters. Smart, brave, and likeable, but also flawed. And not just written like male action heroes.
Absolutely. One of my all time favorite female movie characters. Seems like a naive rural housewife first, but is actually a super clever detective. Very well written and well acted.
Great movie
Heck I'd argue Penny from the Rescuers in 1977 is a better female character and shes just an animated little girl.
In the first half of the film, she drops a help message in a bottle that travels to the Rescue Aid Society and attempts running away too. Madame Medusa the villain of the film even yells shes done it again meaning this isnt Penny's first escape and the fact Penny is willing to run away without packing any supplies prives her willingness to escape her captors
@@andybrice2711Probably one of the best TV shows of all time IMO.
I would also include Selene from underworld, and Alice from Resident Evil. Don’t think people mind a strong female lead, just when it’s done right, and not forced.
The problem in modern Woman Power movies is that they have to one-up a man to prove what they can't prove.
For example, Bruce Lee is an amazing, ultra-disciplined badass of a man, yet if he were to go against Mike Tyson, there is no way he would win. The reason a weight class exists
In contrast, Because I am female, I beat man that is 150lbs more than me because I have woman parts. That is what the problem is - if you put Gina Joy Carano, a woman with superior genetics, against a soy boy, then I would completely side with her badassness because alone she already has an impressive build.
The reason why Sigourney Weaver was so incredible in Aliens, is because her character didn't possess any insane abilities. She wasn't overly smart or strong, she didn't fly around and walk through walls. She was a average scientist who had no idea how to fight or operate guns etc. Her weaknesses were on display the entire time and she managed to get herself though it. The role wasn't some stupid caricature of female empowerment and everyone loved it.
Mad integrity, too, to refuse to let her injured mate on the ship because it could (and did) harm everyone else on board.
She wasn't even a scientist. Ripley's job was like an interstellar truck driver. They wanted her to come along because she was the only one who had a damn clue about the Xenomorphs.
She had courage, reasonable intelligence and _common sense_ - something severely lacking in Weyland Yutani employees.
Ridley did whatever she could to survive with what she had. She didn’t possess special powers only an instinct to survive. That’s what made this movie so great and Weaver’s character so iconic. The other characters were great as well. I never get tired of watching this movie!
She was just a pilot, not a scientist. Like someone working on a container ship.
Strong female character is really just shorthand for abrasive, unlikable, completly flawless, and portrayed by an actress garaunteed to get into Twitter fights with anyone who doesn't worship her role as stunning and brave
I wonder if you’ll consider this template being used for a man character problematic.
@@DarkLord30199 "Gary Stu" is a thing, yea.
Modern definition refers to a non ovulating female with too must testosterone as a strong female. A strong female character would be what is a woman. Muscles is men. Nurturing is women. Ripley only went back to the planet because of her nightmares, but once there she kept fighting because of her maternal instincts protecting Newt when her own child grew up without her and had already died. Sarah protected her kid. Marion in Indian Jones, she didn't seem that strong. Buffy was given a younger sister to raise after losing her mom.
Women need to be allowed to act feminine on screen again
Too perfect Mary Sue = "Strong Female Character".
Just rewatched 'the love bug' from 1969. Carol Bennett is such a strong character. Smart, headstrong, no fear, automecanic and the way she get mad at Douglas still gives me the chills!
Thank you so much for including Buffy Summers as a an actual strong woman!!! 🥰
Although she has superhuman strength, she struggles emotionally and physically with this burden of a responsibility, and despite her power, she often gets her arse handed to her by underestimating her oponent or doubting herself. People shit of Joss Whedon for his Wonder Woman script and for Natasha Romanoff's attempt to date Bruce Banner (Wonder Woman origin story is terrible: literally falls in love with first male they see - Natasha is finaly free to make her own damn decisions, having never dated in her life beyond seduction for a mission). As a non-binary person (physically female), I loved that Buffy could kick arse, be emotionally vulnerable, does not always have a plan, has terrible dating experience, makes good and bad decisions, and LEARNS, yet manages to stay true to who she is.
SPOILER ALERT - she goes from a 16yo who wants to be a normal teenager and is scared of responsibilty, suffers PTSD from a near-death experience, makes a tough call between love and duty, losing her youthful support as she becomes an adult, fights a literal God (yet another woman in heels, make up, physically impossible to defeat, and yet still more "human" than modern "strong female characters"), losing friends and family to NATURAL causes (i.e., people she cannot save), until she gets to the point where she is no longer alone and can finally live her damn life. All of this while still wearing impractical holter-necks because if she is going to be forced to be a monster fighter, doomed to die young, she may as well look pretty while she's at it!
People mock Whedon's Buffy for being "contradictory" as she dresses and acts like the "dumb blonde" yet is super human, but that is the damn point. With great power, comes great responsibility - but that does not mean you have to surrender who you are as a person. Additionally, Buffy shows that you can have supernatural power, but that does not make you invicible, mentally stable, or able to save everyone... and that is okay.
My daughter loves Charmed. They were not always victorious. They suffered plenty of
heartache.They always were feminine and vulnerable.Women to look up to.
BTVS was my all-time favorite TV show. Whedon was careful to show that Buffy's superior physical strength was only an asset when fighting supernatural evil. When it came to the ordinary challenges of real life, that strength was either a detriment to relationships (ex. Riley) or meaningless (ex. Angel and Spike were just as strong.)
Another strong female character I really liked was Captain Janeway from Star Trek Voyager. She was in no way invincible, but her devotion to her crew, her respect for her duty as leader, and her perseverance in getting her people home the "right" way made her a totally believable, standout female character.
One thing I did appreciate about the first Wonder Woman movie, though, is that it pretty much showed equality between men and women (minus the required sexism for the setting, such as in the War Room).
Diana and Steve, however, helped each other out in different ways. Diana didn't always drag him along on her own mission. Yes, they played with reversing some of the common gender tropes (e.g., Steve lounging in the bath tub), but they treated each other with respect.
That's not even to mention Helpless, her 18th birthday episode where she loses her powers. This girl goes from superstrength to normal strength and still manages to defeat the bad guy because she's clever and quick on her feet
Buffy 💕💖💗💞💓
Hermione Granger wasn't as powerful as Harry but she often outperformed him cause she spend hours and hours reading books and no one ever said that one of these characters were weaker than the other. Hermione just found a way to compensate the lack of pure power and used her intelligence to outsmart others.
Hermione is not a good exemple. She was not just intelligent, she could do spells on her first try. She was not just book smart. Harry was forced to be competent in moment of crisis because he was put in those positions. He was powerful but we never knew if his magic was stronger than hers.
@@istoria4999 Um--the magic is a metaphor for her other "powers" of brains and personality--the reason she has more powerful magic is that she studies a lot! She's not ALWAYS superior magically--e.g. the contrast between her dissing the others over raising a feather (it's winGARDia!) and her paralysis before the troll, when it's the guys who can say the spell better in a physical crisis. Metaphors, metaphors.
Mulan (in the animated movie) is a better example of overcoming physical weakness with smarts.
Hermione put in more work than the entire school man, she even asked for an artifact that could turn back time just so that she can attend more classes, man, a time machine. to do more work. There is a reason that she always acts like a know-all, it's 'cause she fkn do. She deserves all of her strength and wit. she a real one in my book.
Hermione was great at magic because she is smart and her thirst for knowledge drove her forward but she was never perfect. She has her flaws like being extremely good in a classroom setting but less competent in dangerous situations (more notable in the earlier books/years), she also could be annoying because she got hyper focused on studying and would chatted insistently about it and although she was usually the best in every subject she was not as good in Defence Against The Dark Arts (she even admits this herself and struggled to produce a patronus until Harry helped her in their DA lessons). Now I admit she was probably the closest to being a perfect character in the books (and film) but she wasn’t actually perfect, she was still a flawed individual who messed up and struggled but her struggle was to do with growing up, discrimination and social interaction with her peers.
Hermione is a weird example because she could be interpreted as a “strong female character” but she is nuanced and well written enough that she comes across as talented individual that you low key envy in some respects but don’t actually wish you were.
Sorry about the essay but I thought Hermione was an interesting character to discuss in this subject matter.
Sarah Connor remains one of the most compelling female leads - she totally comes across as more than capable to best most men she encounters as she actually put in the work to convincingly portray the part. Yet in T2 the second she encounters the terminator she collapses in fear and flees, as she is self aware and understands her limitations. And NO ONE with a functional brain or beating heart thinks any less of her for it.
The awesome "Sarah-ness" continued in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Lena Headey has almost eclipsed Linda Hamilton as my favourite Sarah, and I wish the series had done better. The writers said that the end of T2 left Sarah in a really interesting dramatic position: she was a single mother on the run from law enforcement, knowing what was coming and having to prepare John for the future. The series reflected this, how angry and isolated she is, and the certainty that she's going to die sometime between 1999 (when the series starts) and 2007 (they do a time jump in the first episode). And the horror of raising a wayward teenager who does stupid things like hack into the school's computer, which can leave a trail to tip off future Terminators is something she has to deal with every day.
I mean, she is cool, but is she compelling? I don’t think anyone watching her is thinking wow, what a well written naunced character
@@scottgimple8107 I think so. We are introduced to her working in a diner. A completely unremarkable and average woman of her age. She largely plays mentee to Kyle Reese throughout the first movie, but you see her grow as a character. Only a few days pass throughout the entire first movie. At the end we see her drive off into a storm and expect a positive future for her. The beginning of the second movie, we find that she didn't live happily ever after, she's institutionalised, she failed at raising her son, but she is hardened, physically and mentally. After John and The T800 rescue her, and some more growth after trying to kill Dyson, she then takes on the mentor role for John that Kyle Reese did with her.
@@hjf3022 I absolutely concur with that. She is written very well, with plenty of failings and struggles to overcome. And when she overcomes them, we cheer her on because we know that she put in the work to get where she is.
Think less of her? It made her more compelling. To see the determination not flinch but just shift current priorities. Love that. That's good writing
Loving the call out for Colonel Samantha Carter! Amanda Tapping is one of my personal heroes ❤️ Her character of Helen Magnus in Sanctuary also deserves recognition in this context
Carter is awesome - proof that you can write a strong, capable, interesting female character who's also positive, optimistic and... nice
@TheCriticalDrinker Cheers for the reply mate 🙂 🍻
Samantha Carter, smart, tough, but can put on a dress and heels and be feminine. Love her!
Hell yeah, some Stargate SG1 love!
Chihiro Ogino from Spirited Away is another well written female protagonist who got actual character development.
She does. It's literally a story about a sheltered child growing up and learning the hardship of work, demeaning bosses, and problem-solving through improvisation because real life has no definite answers! She even gets immense self-esteem boosts after cleansing the river god, as seen when she eats the red bean bread with delight. Such a great and timeless story.
Miyazaki knows how to write a character arc. He gives them personality and charm; by the end you can’t help but love the character. That’s why I’ll watch his movies over and over, whereas with Marvel movies I can’t hardly watch them ONE time.
I’ll add: Nausicaa is an interesting case, almost a counter example; she’s the “strong female lead.” However that story is less about character growth and more about sacrifice.
As a woman, I'm just tired of this trope. It's not empowering to see a female character just act like an asshole to everyone and then succeed like Velma or Fake Galadriel. It's not empowering to see them be such a boring character like Rey. It's not empowering to see someone just be an inconsistent character like Wanda. I want more than the damsel in distress stereotype but by getting rid of it, they're just stereotyping us even more.
You know what is empowering? Watching Mulan get kicked out of training for bringing the team down and instead of leaving and giving up, working all night to complete Shang's challenge and do what every other man in the camp couldn't by retrieving the arrow. That was character development. That was a beautiful and powerful moment.
Why is it so difficult to have more moments like that for women?
God Rey was so fucking boring. Nothing worse than English Mary Sues
Preach
Because that would cause the women to have flaws. That doesn’t fit “ThE mEsSaGe” so it can’t be written as such.
Why?
Cause women are born perfect, it’s the law of nature, everyone knows that. And if you don’t agree, you must be a man then.
yep , as a man i loved the original mulan . she was a badass cause she worked hard and never give up .
Ripley from Aliens was one of the best female characters ever because she showed bravery and skill not because she was not afraid-she clearly was-but because she was so committed to rescuing the little girl that she found the courage to confront the Alien mother and kill it. Humanity with courage and competence is a very attractive combination.
Lmao right? I just got out of a semester with a professor who said that the movie was sexist because she was “too masculine.” She was a woman too.
@@_.hybrids._1680 imagine not steeling your nerves when someone else’s life is in danger, your lady professor would’ve probably been the first casualty in a survival movie 😂
Also, Ripley character wasn't written with a woman or man in mind. The writers created a well rounded believable character, then it happened Sigourney Weaver was cast as Ripley.
Yepp one of the best female characters in one of the best movies ever
Ripley was the "strong female" only because the men in the cast were portrayed as a bunch of incompetent sissies, even the little girl had more balls then these military trained men. Even the guy that was in charged of the mission freaked out under pressure, so with idiots like those, it was pretty easy to see Ripley as the "strong female" type.
Does anybody remember the movie courage Under Fire with Meg Ryan? I remember watching that movie and thinking how great of a job they did portraying a courageous woman in a battlefield situation. Didn't remove the things about her that made her a woman. They didn't shy away from the differences and were able to portray her as a total badass. As a father of daughters I watched that movie and thought that was a portrayal that showed the sort of courage I would hope my own daughter's would display if their backs were ever to the wall.
Many of these ‘strong female characters’ fail because they’re strong from the off. They have no weaknesses, nothing to learn, no way to develop. They therefore come across as one-dimensional, which makes it hard for audiences to empathise with them.
I don’t think people talk about her enough, but Holly McClane is a great example of being strong without physical strength. When her boss, Joe Takagi, is shot by Hans Gruber, she makes sure the needs of the other hostages are met, literally walking right up to Hans to ask him to get the pregnant woman a sofa to help her back. She remains calm under pressure, and when she is taken hostage by Hans later in the film, she is not afraid to insult him right to his face (calling him a “common thief.”) She knows what kind of a man Hans is, and she doesn’t hesitate. Not to mention all of her dialogue is outstanding.
Imagine if Holly McClane was written today, she’d kill a terrorist with her brute strength, start a hostage uprising, mow down all the terrorists on her floor, and when John is upstairs confronting Hans and the fake security guard, she shoots Hans and the other guy, saving her husband with not a scratch on her.
I’m so glad the drinker made this video, as a homo sapien without a Y chromosome I feel better represented in this video than in 98% of Movies today.
Edit: love these comments getting into all the details of her character, Holly is really underrated.
Why is this comment not top-rated? It's incredibly accurate!
I would like to see a die-hard-sequel where John's and Holly's daughter has married the computer nerd from DH4 and both get in trouble over something, most likely dad. They could form a couple with her being the action and him ... well, doing what he did in DH4. I think that would work ...
Grace under pressure, this is what's lacking in these female roles and the Alphabet mob in real life. The roles are all boring but the real people are always "victims" who cry wolf every time some pressure and work are expected. An employer can't demand some competence bcoz that will be "harassment" and "toxic". They immediately need meetings to deal with simple problems and "therapists" to cement their "victimhood."
Totally agree with this. Great comment.
Yes, all of the characters in that film were well written, Allen Rickman as Hans Gruber is one of my all time favorite villains.
This video should be required viewing once a week in every Hollywood studio boardroom. Except Disney -- EVERY DAY for them!
Honestly Like Disney you don't have to make every character in your movies either strong female character gay or black to make a good movie.
@@MasenM if Disney doesn't do it. who will take the responsibility of making the next generation "ultra woke" all over the world?
@@MasenM fr like you arent racist homophobic or sexist when you dont do that
Yep, I like my fantasy halfway believable.
why are you still watching their movies then? just ignore them and thats all
A reason why I love Nausicaa from the valley of Wind.
You need a strong female *CHARACTER*
Not a *STRONG* female character
Another actress who gets slotted into the 'strong female character' role a lot these days, Evangeline Lilly, has also come out against this 9:14 trend in particular:
"Why are we only applauding masculinity in women and villainizing it in men? And why are we only applauding femininity in men and debasing it in women? Why can't we just allow for all of it? Why do we feel the need to vilify a man wearing shit-kicker boots, driving a pick-up truck who's not afraid to punch someone in the face, but if they were a woman, they would be the epitome of cool? Why is a man who loves make-up, cries easily and stays at home to tend to the domestic responsibilities valiant, but a woman who does the same is pathetic?"
There is an answer to her question. Because it upends tradition and accelerates the destruction of society. That is the drive and always has been.
Then why's she playing those roles
@@santhosh4474 people need to eat
@@supsock180 Nah. She's too big of a star to go out of job.
@@supsock180 she literally had no role in Ant man 3. Remove her and it's the same movie. Did she not have any other movies to act? Only Ant Man 3?
Sarah Connor had an incredible and believable character development across T1 and T2. T1 she was scared, working a dead-end job, lacked confidence, and didn't know what was going on. She was useless. T2 she's figured it out, she has purpose, she's been working out every day and training with guns all to protect her son. Her combat skills make sense.
And simultaneously was neglecting her son (and becoming callous towards the rest of doomed humanity in general) whilst pursuing her single-minded hero's journey, and has to develop and begin to reconnect with him and appreciate her life in the moment rather than always being afraid of the future to come.
@@colinr0380 and it helps she came to realise she was becoming no different than the killer machines she hated and feared so much than when she went to try and assassinate miles dyson in the belief killing him would prevent skynet. Outright almost killing him in front of his own wife and kid. And how she came to respect the T100 aftermoutright distrusting it given its twin almost ended her own life. She came to think of it as the sort of father figure John needed in life and gave it a salute when it chose to have itself destroyed. “If a terminator,a machine,can learn to appreciate the value of human life…there’s hope”
@@Sketchfan Absolutely. She 'changed' and 'developed' over the course of the film.
The only thing I didn't particularly care for in T2 was they made her out as unhinged and almost psychopathic. I mean, I get where Cameron was coming from thematically with her character (i.e. she's becoming as machine-like as the Terminators themselves) and knowing the fate of humanity would cause anyone to go a little nuts, but I just didn't particularly care for it. The way Reese described Sarah in T1- "The Legend" "Who taught her son to fight," ect.-- made me believe Sarah kept her wits and was that revered figure that set John on his course to liberating Humanity. That's why, upon watching T2, I was disappointed that she was in a psych ward while John's out being a hulligan that just thinks his mom's a nutcase. Yeah, yeah, it makes a good story. I personally didn't care for it (but I'm also not the biggest fan of T2 in general, so I may be a bit biased).
@@GPMM213 hmmm. I felt frustrated at the way that Sarah Connor was being treated in the psych ward; but I think that’s how the audience is supposed to react. Since we, as the audience, know that she’s not delusional.
And yes, it’s sad and also frustrating that John thinks that she’s crazy; but these things make the payoffs more satisfying; when she breaks out of the psych ward the audience is really rooting for her because we know that she probably doesn’t belong there.
Same kind of thing happening with John and Sarah’s relationship; it starts out in a bad place but we see them rebuilding their bond during the movie; the fact that they are so much closer by the end - is made that much more rewarding given where they started. There are many satisfying and rewarding character arcs and relationship arcs in this movie.
But hey, maybe it’s down to personal taste as much as anything. Personally I like T1 but I think that T2 is a perfect movie.
Excellent insights - thanks. Your observation of how the "strong female character" in today's movies violates the classic story arc that makes for a good story is spot on.
I wrote a screenplay several years back, and after the producer I'd sent it to read it, he criticized it by saying that, "It's written like one of those old, classic movies where the guy rescues the girl". (Apparently, the irony of using the term "classic" to describe something as "bad" escaped him.) In reply, I told him, "Well, I wrote it that way on purpose - because, personally, I am sick to death of all these movies where it's the female lead who ultimately beats the bad guy in the climactic confrontation - the male lead does his best, but basically gets his ass kicked and is about to be killed by the bad guy - but then the girl jumps in and does what the guy apparently couldn't, finishes off the bad guy. I just want to throw up when I see those scenes in action/thriller movies these days - and I don't think I'm alone in that among the moviegoing public."
Thank you! I am writing a book and most of my heroines are old school so it is nice to see people might resonate to this wonderful depiction of such a heroine.
The way Sarah Connor was in T2 will ALWAYS be legendary. She was always fighting dirty to win, it felt legit.
She fought in dangerous situations how people, both male and female, fight in real life.
Screw being fair. If I can throw some dirt in that guys eyes to get an advantage, I’m gonna do it. If I see him clinching his fist and fixing to throw a punch I’m gonna punch him first.
Watched Terminator 2 recently and it hasn't aged one bit. Linda Hamilton performance is stellar. She's so badass
yeah... it was men who came up with rules of warfare so that the full horror of war did not fall on the women and children. So absolutely, anti-hero females who fight dirty are the real modern protagonists.
Dirty-fighting is a symptom of weak character. Just as claiming to be a girl so you can go from being a 500th place loser to a 1st place "winner"... because winning is more important than how you win.
@@OrtadragoonX That's true about how things work in a real, dangerous situation. Even in man vs. man, the fair fight only works in a civil setting with previously agreed upon rules such as official boxing or MMA fights. Bruce Lee, the legend considered to be the forefather of MMA, was notorious for being dirty and pragmatic. If he was in a fight, he aimed to win. He would poke your eyes, bite your hand, kick you in the knee cap, even deal a low blow. He never competed, he fought.
Yep she learned from the first movie. Unstoppable machines coming to get her. She has to use everything possible to overcome.
One important thing about Sarah Connor.
Do you remember her repetitive dream sequence? This is the fucking huge epitome of her character.
She sees herself, her former self, wearing a floral dress, playing with kid and being happy, just to be destroyed by impending doom.
Her dreams about being a normal woman and mother of her child destroyd by an inevitable war. She hates this idea so much that she's deciding to kill that Cyberdyne dude.
She never wanted to be like that, she just HAD to become one to protect her child. She decided to give up on her dreams not because she didn't want that "patriarcy induced bullshit" but because she wanted them so much that she had to sacrifice everything to keep them safe.
It is not just "she is so cool and badass", people just didn't realize her strong feminine aspirations.
Her character is awesome, isn't it? She's a believable character. Not like Guy-ladrial
Hahaha Guy-ladriel! That's a good one ;-)
She had her femininity & innocence destroyed by the 1st Terminator's relentlessness. She just became like a hardened combat vet after, the writers didn't treat her as an overcompensating woman at all but just human. Reminded me of Vietnam vets that went into the woods & became anti-social survivalist preppers.
This! Thank god someone gets it.
Yes! That's why that deleted dream scene with Kyle Reese is so important. Notice she's back to having her more feminine hair in that dream.
What’s hilarious is that by writing every female character to be “Better” than the male characters they are in fact defining the female based on the male. And removing the true unique attributes to the females in the movie.
i could not give crap if the female is better than the male character as long as the "better" is earned.
@@fig1115 exactly.
Every time Laura Dern's character flashed on your montage my stomach clenched...she made "Captain Phasma" seem plausible.
Emily Blunt is probably the last good female action star, even in A Quiet Place, she's shown to be a caring loving mother but she's also still a badass momma bear who takes on horrifying aliens to save her kids. And she's believable at it too. John Krasinski hit the jackpot with her.
She is my favorite actress
And she's a funny, intelligent, gorgeous woman to boot.
And has an amazing accent
Not to say she's a bad person, but Emily blunt isn't the characters she plays.
She stood on a nail and sucked it up because she had too
I think the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy and Marion are attempting to steal the plane is a perfect example of toughness on both counts. Indy is fighting a guy twice his size and getting his butt handed to him, but he keeps on fighting in spite of the size disadvantage. And Marion, far from the typical damsel in distress, fights alongside him, first by knocking out the pilot and then using the machine gun to take out a truck load of soldiers. A perfect action sequence that displays the bravery of both characters without going overboard.
Indy still saves her, just like if she were any other sidekick.
@@pflume1 But she still fought by his side and kicked butt rather than just cringing in a corner and waiting to be saved.
@@pflume1yeah, but it is his movie after all
Agreed! I get so annoyed when the lady doesn't jump in to help. I mean, do anything besides just stand there..
They also did it without framing Marion as better than Indy in every way. They also didn’t remove Marion’s femininity and give her masculine attributes.
This is so true
dear films stop telling me I have to be single hate men and put everyone around me down in order to be a ‘strong woman’ stop telling me having kids suck and I should be and appear perfect at all times and I have to be super tough and cool in every second of my life upholding the “perfection” standard you complain about in the same very movies. Please give me a real woman, with growth and flaws I miss when female characters didn’t just have 2 personality traits being victim complex , and Acting arrogant and better then everyone.
Ps some of us like love stories and that does not make me less of a woman (can’t believe I have to say that now )
What’s annoying is you can see how slow and weak women are in these staged and scripted fight scenes and they just look so slow and weak and you can tell the men are holding back. It’s just so annoying
Éowyn was so well played by Miranda Otto in that scene. She looked so scared. And stood her ground anyway. That's a strong female character.
That was a perfect example to use in that moment of explanation. Because she is SO POWERFUL in that moment. It makes a 34 year old big man cry to see it. She looks so afraid, but your eyes well up and you start to cry because you realize how unbelievably brave she's being. THAT is amazing story telling.
The fact that she's doing it to protect her father because they nurtured and loved one another just makes her look even stronger.
Éowin represents everything that a man actually love in a strong woman.
Beauty
Courage
Compassion
Empathy
Respect
Fierceness
But also vulnerability and
Femininity
Miranda Otto was the perfect cast for that role.
@@twelvecatsinatrenchcoather uncle. Her father died long before events in the trilogy. She and her brother eomer stays in the palace with their uncle.
@@worldoftophits I did not know that.
@@twelvecatsinatrenchcoatpoint remains. He was her father figure.
As a writer, we plan out a heroic character arc, then the suits come in and make the main character a female, gay, crippled, black, etc...
And if they have any weaknesses, it becomes, "You Hate (insert non-hetero white male character type)."
So, all of the flaws and weaknesses are removed and the character is suddenly perfect, just the way they are.
It's got all the dramatic tension of watching someone play a video game with cheat codes.
Ironically, it makes it even more demeaning to minorities to make characters that are supposed to represent them so infallible.
And yet so many writers stand by their work. Bizarre behavior if it's the suits that caused it.
@@tezwah5651 I can only presume that it is because they don’t want to make the people that pay their bills look bad publicly.
@@be1uuga355 maybe, but you could also presume they stand by their work.
Are the “suits” jewish?
This is good and to the point. Message and delivery are two of the most important components of messaging, and in this video you are scoring high on both…
That was a beautiful breakdown on everything wrong with Hollywood and our society today.
How right you are.
Emily Blunt was called out for that comment on the basis of her having played a number of strong female characters. However, if you read the context in the interview where she said it she means that if a writer has to use that phrase to describe a character she knows that they are a terrible writer and the rest of the script or pitch is trash and she shouldn't waste her time actually reading it.
She plays the ultimate Strong Female Character in Edge Of Tomorrow, the script is smart in letting us know that the trials that Cruise's character went through were the same trials SHE went through. We believe she is tough by seeing how Tough Cruise gets it, making the whole thing much more believable. Scriptwriters must have noted that, learnt none of the lessons and just thought, oh Emily Blunt. She can play tough, and take it from there. The Drinker is right, it's so boring.
Actually writing down "Strong Female Lead" is a prime example of telling instead of showing
The Full Metal Bitch was way stronger than Cage.
Cage let his feelings for Vrataski stop their mission. He knew she died in that farm, but once she realized she wouldn't let something as basic as a gruesome and painful death stop the mission.
@@Kayback Great point!
Xena was a wonderful example of a female character who was not only physically strong but it didn't feel out of place. She would outsmart and use what she knew to her advantage, rather than just being strong. She had motherly instincts, emotional flaws and felt far more well rounded as a character than a lot of the female characters these days.
Helps that Lucy Lawless is 6ft tall and built like a brick shithouse
The advantage was also that she was written as counterpart to hercules.
As god of strengh he solved most conflict by tossing giants.
Xena used her speed, techniques weapons and sorroundings more akin to a trained shaolin.
It was still silly fantasy fights but within the universe it all felt natural and fitting.
Now a days shed outmuscle a bodybuilder just because. But luckly her actress nailed it.
Im dissapointed with how unbelivable and poor most modern action actresses peform as opposed to their past counterparts.
Like someone using a weapon as if they picked one up for the first day in their life, weakly or wildly swinging while opponents let themseoves fall on purpose rather then delivering a good belivable coreography.
@@TrafalgarWaterDLaw-dl5cm I think the other difference is that Lucy Lawless genuinely looked like she could kick your ass if she put her mind to it. She was tall, muscular enough and imposing in a way that wasn't hyper masculine. Xena took those triats and enhanced them yes, but even though it was silly over the top fantasy, it felt like it was possible
@@Mazikeen2904 I agree. She looked moved and acted the part to embody a belivable warrior woman.
Now a days every skinny 5 ft girl kicks bulky man around while moving very stiff and fake. I miss when you had to learn skills for a role to a belivable degree.
Like Hercules though it was cheesy as hell - and in retrospect the association with Hercules and Kevin Sorbo does it no justice I'm afraid.
Trinity is the person I always think about when good strong female charecters come up, and when she fights it makes sense because of the matrix
One of my favorite iconic female protagonists is the Bride from Kill Bill. An authentic “strong female character.” She suffers, works hard, and genuinely earns the victories she accomplishes against her adversaries. Every fight scene she’s in, she earns those victories with her blood, sweat and tears. I so, so wish I could see more women characters like that in today’s media.
I also appreciate his point about men’s physical advantage over women: because it’s an opportunity writers could use to create clever ways for women to overcome male opponents- a way to showcase her quick thinking, her resourcefulness, or her problem solving abilities. But unfortunately we don’t get many female characters like that anymore (although we used to).
I still have hope though (just a fool’s hope, as Gandalf says. LOL).
I always loved Eowyn's story. She wasn't being left behind when Theoden and Eomer rode off. Theoden understood that they were going on a suicide mission. And he needed someone whom he could trust and was strong to lead the Rohirrim, thus making Eowyn queen. She faced down the Witch-King to protect her king and kinsman, showing both loyalty and bravery. After the battle, she married Faramir and settled down: "I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren." She understood that the time for being a shieldmaiden was over but she still had much to contribute in bringing peace after all of the destruction.
Nailed it.
Good point, but I'm trying to recall moments she had genuine chemistry with Faramir.
@@louisduarte8763 They were injured together and both were single. Times are simpler in such worlds and times.
And when she cried out, "I am no man!" it actually meant something other than "I'm better than you because I'm female."
@@louisduarte8763 It's briefly nodded at in the books; the movies spend like a moment of screen time hinting at it during Aragorn's wedding iirc both.
I’m glad you mentioned the ridiculous woman taking down a man twice her size thing. As an average sized woman, that has always annoyed the hell out of me
@Caro1ns - that would be a difficult even for the average guy, or a man with some basic fighting skills. Twice the size? Nah, not gonna happen.
That guy would simply want to be close to you, so he can grab you, and spin your body so your head will hit some pavement, trash can, some corner of a table in the pub, and so on. In extreme cases (when on drugs) he will try to take your eyes out, break one of youe fingers, crush your throat, stab you with a pen or pencil multiple times in a few seconds, or try to bite off part of your nose, cheek, upper/lower lips and so on... (note: seen all of that in a real life). Even a normal guy, with some basic skills wouldn't want to fight a dude like that. Even if you manage to win that one, good luck with your own treatment in a hospital.
As a smaller-than-average-sized man, this annoys the hell out of me too. I’ve been hit by average sized women many times and I’ve never even had a bruise to show for it. Watching a 100 pound woman kick a man across the room is beyond ridiculous.
The ONLY way it works is if the woman has magical superstrength
@@Superabound2 Or, like the Drinker hinted at, the woman attacks with surprise and uses her environment and tools therein to get off a solid, staggering shot and then does not let up in her attacks. Even then, it only closes the gap in strength and size.
Yea, that just makes them look stupid...
Absolutely spot on... i loved the Alien films not because Ellien Ripley was the lead character. It was because she made it through a tough situation as a human being. She was scared , she cared about her crew , she was frustrated, highly emotional, ready to think practicality and do anything to survive. It was realistic and how anyone would react in tge same situation. The script was originally written with Ripley as a man so goes to show it didnt matter in te end because the writers knew how to build a character wthout worrying about weather it was a man or a woman.
Looking forward to part 2. It's unfortunate that movies today can't simply tell a story. I am thinking specifically about types of literary conflict. It is easier to go back to the "Recycle Bin' and remake the same movie. Just update with a 'diverse' group of actors and throw in nostalgia bait for good measure.
When you put Elizabeth Swan from "Pirates of the Caribbean", I had a realization: she is what a real "strong and independent woman who no need no man" is. She starts being trapped in her role as a daughter of a wealthy man whose only purpose is to be married to someone powerful for the sake of her family, but due to her strenght of character and intelligence, she ends up being a vital character, and not just a damsel in distress. And though she's not the greatest fighter (iirc, she learns how to fight after the first movie, but can't recall a single major duel of her), she never yields to the wims of others. In fact, all the female characters of the trilogy are pretty great (and yes, I said trilogy, the other movies don't exist), and if Hollyweird wasn't so fixated nowadays in turning women into disguised men, they would use characters like her more in their movies.
She was so fun as well 😭 she was just as involved in the goofy antics as Jack and Will
Elizabeth Swan is a great character. But everyone in Pirates have amazing and satisfying arcs from top to bottom from Jack Sparrow to Capt Barbosa to even James Norrington. Love the scriptwriting in this trilogy (yep trilogy) overall
@@icupnibba3533 one of the best trilogies ever.
They aren't even turning them into disguised men. They are turning them into unlikeable abominations.
A very good example of how men are written good is in, say, Saving Private Ryan. This movie shows that all of the soldiers have their problems and flaws. They try to act tough at times, but at others their hold on their emotions breaks and they show how vulnerable they actually are. Captain Miller with his hand tremors from PTSD, the medic calling out for his mother when fatally wounded, Vin Diesel trying to save the girl, and getting killed for it, the translator that has to overcome his cowardice. It shows that, while men may be acting more stoic or seem emotionless at times, that they still do have emotions and the vulnerabilities that come with it.
The days of Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Clarice Starling and Thelma & Louise were a golden age for truly good female film characters.
Ripley was a woman, which was obviously invented by a male. It suited the plot, as the feminist woke shit was already running in the US, which was the most important market. People knew, it was just a quota woman. But a man wouldn't be able to destroy "Mother" and kill an "Alien Queen" as it was politically incorrect in regard to liberals.
Not really, but you have to go outside the mainstream to find them.
So were the 1950s in fact. Western heroines Annie Oakley, Dale Evans, Frankie Adams and Police Officer Casey Jones all ruled the TV while the movies had the actresses Grace Kelly, Maureen O'Hara and ESPECIALLY Barbara Stanwyck in multiple action or other strong roles. Can't believe he didn't mention any of them here.
And Cynthia Rothrock from the action movies
@@lemonacidrounds7293 Yes I remember Cynthia too. Thanks for mentioning her.
Notice how most the trash "strong female characters" are created from Disney. I grew up watching Disney and now I just wanna puke with everything it pushes out
the so called "Strong female Characters" lack three things:
- strength
- femininity
- charcter
"Toxic masculinity is terrible, horrible, it's what we need to move on from and in order to do that we need to give our female characters those traits."
🤣
Spot on
Toxic masculinity is about much more than just being a strong character. Nice try tho. 😉
@@hrs2044You do know that masculinity itself can't and never will be 'toxic', males as humans can be toxic if they misuse their physical strength in order to hurt or control others. But that makes them just toxic human beings, their so-called masculinity here is irrelevant. Females can be toxic too, they just do it more subtle, it doesn't make their femininity toxic it just also makes them toxic human beings. These new artificial neologisms don't really have much truth in them imo. I hope you get my idea, have a good day tho 😅
@@hrs2044 Don't forget to mention that most of it is made up by man hating feminists.
With T2, I like that they made Sara Connor more of a desperate character than a strong character. It shows how she took the time between 1984 and 1997 to prepare, and she didn't just magically have all these inhuman strengths to start with.
And how she was terrified of the Terminator when she first saw him in T2, but she would power her way through fear to fight: like Ripley in Alien/s.
Indeed. But wasn't it between '84 and '91? Or was T2 set in 1997?
She was also a very active character. By that I mean, , whatever stuff gets inflicted upon her, how Sarah react to said-things, instead of actively making them happen, is what defines her character. She also had a defining personality, especially shown very well in the first film.
Plus the two films manage to create some of the greatest instances of set up-&-payoff and dramatic irony to it's effect with her character.
Right. Only male white characters, similar to me and you can acquire magically such great traits!
We want movies with no females at all or at least in totally submissive roles! 🙃
@@reedr7142 I think it's set in 95, because Sarah was pregnant when she drove off at the end of T1, and John is listed as 10 years old in the police computer at the start of T2. It's reasonable to assume that he was born sometime in 85. However, the movie came out in 91.
Lmao dam that Viola part about killed me. Seeing her staying up after taking those hands was ridiculous.
Twitter made me believe I was mysoginistic for feeling this way,now I know I wasnt wrong and Im not the only one feeling this way
I'd like to nominate Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote as a great example of an actual strong female character. She's highly intelligent without bring condescending. She's thoughtful, charming, graceful, forgiving, resourceful, and funny. The fact that I, as a thirty year old man, can relate to and respect a middle aged female character more than any modern day "hero" says a lot.
I loved Murder She Wrote as a kid. Such a great show and character
Love Jessica. She was so very classy, a real lady.
Without fail, everywhere Jessica went, someone died. That's power! Love how a novelist with no forensic training was able to walk through crime scenes contaminating evidence yet still gets the killer. Put realistic procedure aside, this show was so well written to the point where Jessica's strength as a character never needed to be acted at all. It solely came through in the writing.
Yeah, spot on
She was awesome! Great example 😀👍
Tbh, before I discovered you're channel, I often felt like I was just spouting nonsense as no one really seemed interested. Glad there is someone out there, putting out their of frustration with modern entertainment and the lack of quality therein. Keep up the work Drinker.
No one tell him about efap!
What’s funny is I have always found that man love, well, written, strong, female characters. You don’t have to go all the way back to terminator or alien. You don’t even have to go back to fury road you can look no further to everything everywhere all at once. You write a female character. Well, you can make her as strong as you want. Men will respond positively.
mega dittos
@@TheTree1 Everything Everywhere All At Once was great. EEAAO showed that audiences will love great characters in an interesting story regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, whatever. Arcane was great. It showed that most people aren't turned off by interracial or same sex relationships, but are invested in good human stories.
Im happy you mentioned Samantha Carter, one of my favoeite characters and shows. I have liked Amanda Tapping ever since that role
"Greatest teacher failure is" Jedi Grandmaster Yoda
The pregnant Marge Gunderson in Fargo was a strong female character. Persistent, courageous, intelligent, noble. I didn't have to see her kick some guy's ass to get the message.
Yes, agree with you. Loved that movie, for years after seeing it I wanted my own personal heavy duty woodchipper, to use in case I ever found some guy intruding into my house. After I shot him, I'd chip him up, really good, and no one would know what happened!! LOL ;D
Strength of character matters. Just as this video illustrates, all Hollywood seems toc are about is establishing a false equivalency of physical strength, demonstrating a clear preference for female empowerment over actual character development.
You can never be strong unless you have plenty of testosterone. You know how much women has it. Women ☕
Oh yah, you betcha!
Like one of your fans below writes 'establishing a false equivalency' for the Corporate-World, the false equivalency media fuels the social deterioration CCP weaponizes via Woke fakery.
One of the strongest female characters I've ever seen on screen was Mrs. Brisby from the Secret of NIMH. She had no powers, she was weaker and smaller than those around her. And she was terrified of what she was asked to face. But she faced the peril to save her family. She never gave up even in the face of utter failure. She was kind, she was caring, and she was brave (not fearless).
Cinema and television need more Mrs. Brisby's.
Excellent example! One of the most underrated heroines of film.
Such a great movie.
WOW! SUCH a great example! That movie was PHENOMENAL.
I had forgotten about her, it's been so long since I last watched it. But you're absolutely right!
I agree with this, such a good movie and character. Came to my mind when watching the video and then saw your comment. May your day go well for you.
Quote from the movie "The Hunt For The Wilderpeople"; "Im the Terminator, you're Sarah Conner. No, I'm the terminator and you're Sarah Conner, the first one not the second one, before she could do chin-ups!😄
No pink or blue haired "Justice warriors" around. This is going to be a great movie!!
As a black female growing up (41 now) I never felt that I wasn't represented in films! I loved seeing women in films that made me want to be like them. Not because they were white, black, asian, whatever race but because of what they over came in the story or how the raised above a hardship and the strength it took for them to accomplish it.
I'm not saying that it isn't nice be diverse in films but don't do it for just to say you are being inclusive. Do it because this actor has something to add to the film. He or she is well fitted for the role.
Now a days it feels so forced that it makes the film bad!
I'm a white guy from a rural area, growing up on a farm I loved to watch Fat Albert it provided a glimpse into the world of city life and it was fun to relate to characters from a completely different background, and they were relatable because they were human and humanity relates to it's own story
~ Mic drop!
@@johntabler349 yes I love Fat Albert. I also love MLP and The Main 6 because they learn a lesson and grow from it. They also use their gifts to help others.
@@johntabler349 Normal people appreciate and are intrigued by different cultures and people groups. Society tries to indoctrinate us into being "threatened" by them.
Divide and Conquer.
@@D2Kprime well said
Haven't watched a new movie in years. It's all politicised these days. And yes, people still want to see the male hero rescue the damsel in distress...
This analysis of the present state of current movie making says it all. Thankyou Critical Drinker for revealing the stupidity and ineptitude of those who run the entertainment industry!!! Well done.
My 75 year old Mum calls 'the strong female character' the modern take on penis envy.
that's a good way to put it.
This is so smart 😂
Freud!!!
I’m 71, your mum is spot on.
Taken figuratively, penis envy explains a lot. Women have their own privileges but they want whatever privileges men have too. As Bill Burr said, it’s like they’re at a buffet, just taking the good without the bad.
The great aspect of Sarah Connor to me was the transformation from T1 to T2.
In T1 she was a waitress. An ordinary girl. Pretty physically helpless against violence. By the end of T1 she'd toughened and started her journey. In T2 she'd transformed herself. You could believe it. And her backstory was told. The alliances she'd made. Learning from anyone who could teach her. She didn't simply arrive ready made.
I’ll add that it was her mothering instincts that motivated the transformation. She’s grows tough as nails because that’s what it takes to protect her child. It’s very feminine at its core.
Her transformation from T1 to T2 was the worst thing. Her change from the beginning of T1 to the end was good, but jumping from that to the ugly lunatic in T2 was a huge disservice to that character.
@@mattstorm6568 Why? She had terrible knowledge of Judgement Day, and got locked in an asylum, and essentially tortured. Her change is precisely what happens to people in the system.
And then she got killed of and has disappeared from 3.
@@thomasbecker9676 exactly. She sublimated her traumatic experiences and continued to develop into an absolute badass to protect her son.
Glad sb finally said it. Also i hate when they take already good established male leads & all of sudden throw a random female lead in there to takeover & now shes suddenly better than every male we seen on the show/movie 😭
A big problem with "strong female characters" I find to be that they often don't have a journey of solving your problems and self improving, but often times let men crash in their problems only for the "strong female caracter" to solve their problems because she is STRONG.
This is not building a strong and well developed character, but forcing strength at the cost of men.
To be better than men, rather than be good yourself.
That ending clip where Sarah Connor is comforting her son is the most badass womanly scene I can imagine. After John's idealized father figure, The Terminator, sacrifices himself to prevent the future from repeating itself, John is grieving because of his feelings towards the inanimate machine. John's mother provides him a shoulder to experience and release that emotion, an astounding feat given her personal animus against all things Skynet.
The character of Sarah Connor isn't tough because she says "I AM WAMEN HEAR ME ROAR'. Sarah Connor is tough because she HAS to be to protect her only child from a deadly threat in the future. Yet, at the end of the movie, she turns that all off because the threat is over, and she returns to being a mother who needs to comfort her own son in his deep sadness.
A loving mother--there's nothing more badass and feminine than that.
Well said
Agreed... although I would add that she was tough and strong because at the end of the movie the t1000 was no more and she was still standing (barely) .... she outlasted the machine. Anyone else would have broken, run, died, pick your poison. Because she was a trained operator AND a mum... take away either of those ingredients and that cake dont bake
Good chat
It turns out that there is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with women being feminine and men being masculine.
Modern strong female movies make me appreciate Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley even more 🙌
Leeloo was good too even if she was supposed to be the strongest
Or some anime characters like nami from one piece she is one of the weakest physically but mentally strong
@@sarov7658 anime characters rarely have this problem, if a show has a well written male cast, then the female characters will also be well written.
@@takeuchi5760 Though Nami is really annoying most of the time, which is a shame cause the mugiwara's background is often interesting
Fun fact: Ripley was originally written as a male character, but was changed to female for I think shock value
Great video! When I see 'Strong female character' in a movie review, I avoid the movie like the plague. Modern society has in some ways overcompensated for historic and contemporary gender-based discrimination; one example being efforts of the movie industry to depict female characters as perfect and infallible. This files in the face of human nature - yes, even female. If the intent is to get young men and women to watch these movies and be awed, its failing miserably. We'd (I know there are more people like me) watch a low budget realistic real-life drama where men are men and women are women any day over an action-packed female superhero lead costume-and-cape flick!
Some of Aragorn's most powerful scenes were when he displayed utter humility: closing Frodo's hand around the ring and telling him he would have followed him into the very fires of Mordor, consoling Boromir on his deathbed, and bowing to the hobbits.
Then after showing signs of humility and superiority over Bomori who had been overcome of his "white man's greed"... His skin turned black. Now she is Aragon the black.
Pretty sure that is how it will go in next lotr movie when progressives make it.
@@Tespri exactly, my grandmother told me that Aragorn was a powerful black queen, and noone can tell me otherwise
Yo I've never cried so much in a movie than the first time I saw everyone in Gordor bowing to those Hobbits.
I saw it in IMax the first time and it was unreal.
@@MrHungrySimon 🤣
@@MrHungrySimon wow, my granny told me your grandma is a lair. She's dyslexic so I think she meant liar. That is, of course, if she isn't a rail.
Can someone tell Hollywood that the ‘monkeys on typewriters' idea was a thought experiment, not a plan.
And then, pray tell, what will they do with all those monkeys? 🤣
They must have dozens of rooms full of them, where will they put them?
What they did to our classic Luke Skywalker was atrocious, another casualty of the side effect known as the strong female lead.
If I were an actress I’d be VERY careful about the work I take because being the next Rey or Captain Marvel could kill your career and cause audiences to dislike the actress instead of dislike the ones who truly destroyed that character: the writers.
To be fair, Brie Larson being a racist and sexist bitch who lashes out at white men in real life didn't help.
Maybe, they choose to actively antagonize potentially paying customers off the screen. They could have just said that yeah, "maybe my character is a bit OP" and taken some flak for it. Instead they go out very publicly saying "this movie wasn't made for you". These roles aren't killing their careers (though certainly not helping), their behavior off screen is.
@@TravisHi_YT true however many of them don’t know what the final product is going to be until right before it release. The writers and producers are directly responsible for the story. The actors go out and do their best to make a believable character. Bree Larson and the Charlie’s Angels crew is kinda the exception. I’m not sticking up for the actors per say but instead just want to put the blame where it really belongs.
@@TravisHi_YT yep in those cases 100% agree with you.
It could also provide you with enough money to never have to work again. Lol
I think agent Clarice Starling from "Silence of the Lambs" is a really good example of strong character. The way she fights and overcome her inner demons to save the hostage in the final sequence makes her strong in a very credible way.
My favourite female character in cinema
She's also based on an ancient European storytelling trope: The virgin offered to the demon sealed in the cave to appease its hunger. MAN I love that movie...
She canonically ends up Hannibal's lover and they dine on brains together.
@@bitwize that’s the book serious, not the movies.
@@bitwize Good point. But not in the movie.
If a character (or person) has to repeatedly tell you how strong/smart/good they are... they aren't.
Aliens pulled off both Ripley and Vasquez in ways that worked and were believable.
Vasquez arrived with enormous physical capability and supreme confidence who up until the events of Aliens had never faced a challenge she couldn't overcome with her own power. Then she's freaked out with just how over her head she's in once she realizes Ripley was right all along, whom she arrogantly dismissed beforehand. But once she knows exactly what she's up against, she uses her capabilities to the utmost even knowing she's likely going to die to save the others. Dying Moment of Awesome at its finest.
Ripley had nowhere near Vasquez's capabilities to start. She was a space miner beforehand. But what she did have was prior horrifying experiences with an Alien, knowing exactly what they're capable of, and a grim determination to spare humanity from that horror to the extent she could. And she picks up just enough from the marines along the way, digs down deep with that grim determination, and manages to pull through.
And both characters were terrified out of their minds, and showed their vulnerability. Ripley admitted to Newt she was just as terrified as Newt.
The other thing was, the male characters showed vulnerability too. Hicks', yeah, chances are one of the Marines is going to react like that. Wish Hollywood could take notes from the classics.
Emily Blunt has portrayed probably the most actually true "strong female characters" in the last decade between Rita Vrataski, Kate Macer, and Evelyn Abbott, all flawed characters dedicated and relentless in the pursuit of their duties in the face of massive challenges.
And, ironically considering 'the message', her character arc in Edge of Tomorrow is that she softens/opens up more as the movie goes along and the challenges increase, never not being a badass as a result.
She's also fantastic in Looper. Play's the typical "strong female character" at the start, but we quickly realise that it's an act the character herself is putting on as a bluff to survive, and she is actually far more vulnerable and complex and relatable than she appears at first, while still being a badass.
It's really mind boggling to me that there are weirdos who are so obsessed with stahng whamen that they don't seem to judge a movie by any other standard than that.
Like imagine someone being that obsessed with strog male characters in movies. Literally what does the sex of a character has to do with anything? Grow up.
DON'T GO IN THE BANK KATE
Not familiar with the other ones, but her performance in Sicario is one of my favorites by any actress ever. Glad to see her speaking out against this nonsense.
@@candide1065 It is even more mind blowing that you don't realize that the depiction of a character is tied to the narrative, and thus impacts the quality of a production, its reach, and the story.
Remember when literally no one complained about Brienne of Tarth in GoT ? That's because someone was smart enough to hire a 191 cm tall woman for the role. Shocking stuff
She is such a good example! Yes, she is physically big and strong and trained enough to believably defeat most of the men she faces. But what I find so interesting about her is that she is also still very pointedly a woman. She suffers lifelong insecurities and regrets surrounding those ostensible "strengths", with a significant part of her just wishing she could be smaller, more feminine, more traditionally attractive. Contending with these self-doubts and conflicting feelings around her literal physical equality with/superiority over men makes her a million times more interesting and genuinely strong a character than if she had just been another generic flawless woman
Brienne is a well done character. Aside from having the size and skill to back up her claim, she was written to still be human, and though she tries to hide it, feminine. She was strong and very skilled, but she was also deeply vulnerable while being deeply committed. And to me, that was her greatest strength. An arrow to the face can take down the strongest warrior. But her undying commitment to try to protect those she’s charged to protect shows conviction. We see her vulnerability when she’s faced with rejection of her services… twice. Jaime Lannister is obvious, but he doesn’t have a choice. It’s when after searching long and hard for Aria and thinking that she’ll come running to her arms, only for Aria to basically tell her to f**k off. The rejection from men she expected, but to come from a woman not even half her size took Brienne aback. And back to Jaime, she formed an unlikely bond to someone she clearly despised, then became attracted to him… only to be rejected again. The “strong female character” would not work here. Brienne DID work, and worked because we saw her pain in these moments, and the fact that she never gave up. I ended up liking her character way more than I initially thought, and her scenes were definitely a bright spot.
She was completely believable in that role. A great example of a strong woman in a good role. She was well written.
because she was really ugly and believable as a woman on a path of knight ignoring female things...
Even show Brienne got a Hollywood gloss over as she was vastly different from the books. I know they weren't going to make her ugly like in the books and the actress did do a fine job. However, the scene in the books where she gets into her first real fight is just amazing. Previous to her encounter with the trained assassin cutthroats, she had only been in tourney fights, so she didn't actually know if she could do real life and death combat. And from what I recall she was crying as she defeated them. It was a very powerful moment for her character in the books. She never got that moment in the show as she came off as a skilled combat vet from the get go and that was a big disappointment for me. Hence, even Brienne suffered a bit from the "strong female character" of Hollywood now a days.