[mmm, girl!anti-heroes....]

Man... I'm rewatching my BtVS Faith vids on a whim, and of course it's reminding me how awesome Faith is, so I'm trying to think of women that I think are hardcore as much as she is [in fandom]. And. It's difficult -.-

All I'm coming up with is Scully (don't laugh!!), Arya (well, there's a GRRM fandom), and well, there's Willow & Buffy in BtVS too (as well as other 'solid' female characters), but I'm less thinking of 'good strong female characters' & more... really COOL, hardcore female characters that are totally as badass, selfish & violent as the guys (or as coolly rational & competent, whatever). Y'know, girls that make you starry-eyed. Uh. Not the most objective measure in the world, I realize ^^;; Buffy herself is sort of like that in my head. Ginny in HBP is sort of a bad parody of a girl like that :)) I love the type, though, when they're more like Faith (more honest about being hardass, I mean) and less like Ginny, I guess. Though I like Ginny. -.- I used to make my Pansy like that, but people have told me she's OOC enough times that I'm like 'uh... oh well' :))
    Oooh, McGonagall is like that :D :D :D She doesn't make me starry-eyed (most of the time), though -.-

( ...heh. )

...In other news, I finally watched ep 1 of The Sentinel today. And MAN. I can't believe I actually enjoy the show almost as much as the fic. I mean, they're pretty, but it's so cheesy & lame but I CAN'T HELP IT 'cause it's like... you can already tell it's About Jim & Blair-- like if Brian/Justin is sex-without-commitment, here you have aaaaall the platonic commitment EVER, just no sex. I think I actually prefer the latter :D Though if you know me, you know I only mean 'in small doses', y'know, ahahah.

[PS]

The thing I couldn't quite articulate yesterday when talking about the lack of badass-yet-flawed women characters (like Faith) is what I meant by them being 'romantic'. I thought about what it is that Faith (and Catwoman, etc) has and characters like Buffy or Arya don't, quite, and what 6th Season!Willow does (somewhat) and I think it's... it's that 'going bad' factor.
    This is largely a male-dominated style of 'romanticism' in that the badass hero darkens, becomes not only flawed but tainted, struggling against themselves. Here's this strong character not only challenged but nearly defeated by the inner demons they're struggling against. Their chances of even being anti-heroes successfully (and not just dead or completely lost) are in question; they are on a darker Hero's Journey than a character like Buffy, who is strong and flawed and heavily conflicted but always basically 'in the safe zone'.

I think I totally got distracted talking about Femme Fatales, because the important thing there is the darkness-- though it helps if it's a sexually tinged sort of thing, but that's just natural with a grown female (which is why Arya is out of the running for now). I guess it's the difference between 'flawed' and 'tainted', but it's also important they're conflicted-- lots of tainted/strong villain-type women, I guess, but that's not my thing either, because their types of weakness tends to be too obviously fatal, if that makes sense. Thinking of Drusilla, I guess.

Hm. This is sort of a noir sensibility, but the thing is that in that genre, you mostly have men of that type and Femme Fatale women that are just objects of the male hero's gaze. I also think that noir-style 'dark' women aren't typically fleshed out that much, right. Maybe it's more that if there -are- strong women, they tend to be portrayed positively, even if they're 'flawed'; this is about walking the line between the hardass selfish arrogance and genuine, conflicted attempts at being a decent human being. I'm always a sucker for that story in guys, and it's just delicious when it's (rarely) about girls. *sigh*