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In my opinion, what separates a warrior woman from a "girl boss" is the responsibility and duty. Warrior Women aren't fighting for themselves but for their family or kingdom. Mulan doesn't join the army because she doesn't want to be a wife but because she wants to save her father and even turns down power in order to return to her family. Atalantia challenges her suitors to a race in exchange for her hand in marriage and doesn't take the offer back or run off to join the Artemis hunt, she accepts that those are the conditions she set. Meanwhile the "girl boss" only has this duty in the meta of "role model for little girls" but their actions and stories are mostly selfish or hollow. Carol and Jennifer stories are them literally going "nah ah" to thier supervisors. You talking about maturity kinda reminds of C.S. Lewis and Susan. (Spoilers for Narnia) Susan isn't brought back to Narnia in the end because she's wrapped up in what she thinks is being mature but is really a child's view of it. She rejects fantasy like modern girl bosses reject traditional femininity.

I really appreciate your nuanced approach to gender in media, Pilgrim. You appeal to tradition in the true sense, which does not exclude what’s good about our current cultural expression of timeless truth. I haven’t seen any other mainstream commentaries deal with these things quite as well as you. Subscribed.

Honestly a very fair and balanced take on woman's betrayal in media.

Loved the use of Tangled at 5:40 and beyond as examples of a maiden done right. The last truly great Disney movie IMO, and one that deserves a lot more praise than it got.

I'm a woman and I approve of this message. I hate how women are being represented, because women aren't like that. We're not Mary Sues and arrogant insane feminists. We're flawed and we have maternity ingrained in us. Those insane elite are extremely out of us. And I am tired of women saying that we didn't have strong female characters before the 2020s. The disrespect with final girls we've had since the 70s, the strong mothers and so on.

"Please save me from my crippling debt mr. Richman" that was too funny Pilgrim

I love how whene well written Lois Lane, is strong independent woman, and fair maiden inb the best way possible. She is strong and virtuous and that is often what put's her in danger so often. She is fiary, and ambitious as well as dedicated to truth and justice, which is what makes Clark to find her attractive, and many of his villains find her insufferable, or even intimidating. Which combined with her willingness to alway's do the right thing even if it means dying in the process, (as well as her big mouth) often places her in danger. She need's superman not beceause she is week but beceause her spirit is so strong it writes checks her body can't cash.

Disney: we love strong independent womans! Also Disney: Gina carano is fired for beeing to strong and independent!

Woke women: "Men are terrible." Everyone else: "Then why do you want to be like men?" Woke women: "Oh look who is a hater!" Everyone else: 🤨🤔😑😒🙄😮‍💨😵‍💫🤯😩

My wife and daughters are strong women, but they do not belittle, demean, blame, sabotage or want to replace men. They know their strength and their worth, so they don't compete against men, but only against their yesterday's selves.

I never understood why people feel the need demonize cooking and cleaning. Does it suck to do sometimes? Oh yes absolutely but the result are worth it. The results being you live in a clean house and are eating hot homecooked meals that are nutritious, made to your liking, and are more valuable than anything that a fast food or take out place could hope to offer. If you don't want to clean or cook for yourself then you'll end up blowing hundreds of hard-earned dollars at McDonalds a month and live in a complete and utter dumpster, with only roaches and other pests to keep you company and only stained clothing to wear that smells like last months fish tacos and a dash of BO. Not to mention the long term ailments from consuming fast food like obesity, lack of energy, etc.

I think the perfect icon to talk about on this topic is Brienne from the ASOIAF books (not the show). She was written in about 1998 (?), and she seems so modern and ahead of her time. She's unattractive and physically strong, but her personality is so sensitive and introverted and shy. Her femininty runs so strongly through her, even as she has to deny and mask it. Yet, the message is that, yes, her femaleness does make her unlike the other warriors, but overall that is her strength, in that she has different desires, she actually dislikes violence, and is guiltridden about killing, and would never rape etc. She is inspired by stories of knightly heros, which she wants to imitate. You'd love it actually, as the theme is what knighthood means, and what seperates it from other warriors.

One issue isn't the characters, it is that we've become overly focused on characters. The real question is this character or story to match. In a comedy like Shrek, people enjoyed it because it was taking all the tropes and inverting them. The evil ogre is the good guy, the princess kicks ass in combat, etc. This is then compounded by the Post-Modern desire to avoid Narratives. So instead of a Girl-boss in a setting and story where the type can thrive and move around it is locked into place. Scene 1, girlboss. Final Scene, same girlboss. And if Girlboss is so ideal, shouldn't that be everyone? So you wind up with movies of Girlbosses floating in the ether without being fit to purpose for the narrative. It takes 2 seconds in anime to find out there are many thriving Girl-boss types. But they are often fit into their own stories. Whats wrong with Marvel these days? Every heroine is a "Strong Independent Ass Kicker". So...in this entire MCU they're all going to be in the same movies and are all going to have the same character arc or lackthereof? Boring. You COULD do it right where a former Girlboss mellows out and then takes a younger girlboss hero under their wings and such. Just need to be willing to have the characters serve the story.

You know who's a really great female character that is sometimes a damsel, sometimes a warrior, sometimes a "boss," sometimes mature and sometimes not? Kagome. Talk about a series with well written female characters, Inuyasha just takes the cake in that department. And that's saying something considering a massive cultural divide....

I’ve gotten to where I’m not much of a fan of warrior women not because I hate the concept but because I’ve seen it badly done often enough that its now an immediate red flag the work has to overcome to convince me to give it a try.

I am Nigerian and i remember growing up in the 2000s watching shows like Clone Wars, Powerpuff girls, Juniper Lee, As told by Ginger etc. Even other shows geared towards boys, like me, featured strong, well written and developed and likable female and diverse characters like Kids Next Door or Megas XLR. What happened in the west that caused the weird social change to nake female and diverse characters so terrible and unlikable and with toxic identity politics?! Thank goodness for anime and manga or we might have forgotten good female and diverse characters exist

Kill Bill was done correctly. Beatrix starts off as the femme fatale/dommy mummy killer. But the start is about how she transforms from killer to mummy. In the first film, it opens up the style of the film, sets the motivations, and she goes on a brutal rampage, killing hundreds, then finds out her daughter is alive at the end. Then, in the second film, she doesn't actually kill any one. Bud is by Elle, Beatrix leaves Elle to die. Then she sees Bills father, leaves him alive and goes to get her daughter back. She sneaks in, and there is Bill, playing with BB, who pretends to shoot her, and she pretends to die. She then spends a nice evening with her ex with their child. Then they talk. She then apparently kills him with the five point palm killer touch. Except, she hits him six times, and he takes six steps before he dies. She pretends to kill him, he pretends to die.

The Woke had it coming. It's about time critiquing the woke became mainstream. Thank you our Brazilian Pilgrim Brother. God be with you.

My only complaint is these videos are so short! Feels like we're just getting warmed up and then it's over already 😢 But seriously great work man. You have a real talent for making people think more critically about what's around us

The princess locked in the castle tower is being punished. That is, she is resisting. This is a direct analogue to the man’s struggle for recognition.

10:23 Very good argument, pointing out the Athenians who had a very patriarchal society named themselves and their city-state after the warrior goddess Athena. Also it's not only Atalanta and other mythological female warriors but like you showed previously on the wikipedia page there have been women in REAL history. Some of the most famous and impactful female warriors or army commanders are: Boudica, Tomoe Gozen, Zheng Yi Sao, Shammuramat/Semiramis, Lady Fu Hao, Queen Tomyris, Artemisia I of Caria, Lagertha, Queen Tamar of Georgia etc.

sometimes it feels like you can read my mind

I believe there is a book called, "Maiden, Mother, Matriarch" that encapsulates the ideas you are talking about pretty well. However, since I have not personally read it I am not able to judge just how good it actually is. I can only speak of the second hand accounts of women reading it and a decent number of them actually changing their minds on modern tropes. As for your quip on the early 2000's I'm gonna be honest ALL the guys and I in my household love deadly women. Part of it being horn dogs and the other part owing to the old military family traditions we still hold onto. Deadly parents means deadly children. Alcohol and repair bill issues notwithstanding...

Thank you for mentioning the iteration of the badass female characters from late 90s and early 2000s. My generation (Gen X) did a lot of the things the woke brigade are begging society to do

Great analysis. One point that I think isn't exactly right is the reason for why the traditional, medieval stories had the maiden and a knight trope. You said this was a good story to teach the children so the women grow up knowing their worth, while men grow up and are taught to not be a loser. I think it's the other way around, where the reality formed the stories. Back then the women were valued for their amazing ability to give birth, and men were actually expendable and protected the women. Both were seen as valuable, where the woman would nurture a family while the man protected it from enemies.

Excellent video. The flip side of the grrlboss is the stupid/incompetent/cucked males that she’s inevitably paired with these days, including males who used to be competent but who must be made incompetent in order to elevate their grrlboss companions - Thor in Love and Thunder, Indy in Dial of Destiny, and Ezra in the Ahsoka series, just to name three recent examples.

Ellen Ripley: Strong female protagonist with everything that makes them a good person Captain Marvel: "Physically" strong female protagonist of questionable morals, stripped of everything that makes them feminine

I'd argue that we're seeing the eventual conclusion of the feminist ideal as set forth by Simone De Beauvoir, even down to the point where in order for women to succeed, they must become men. Hence the nigh endless female characters not only acting in a more masculine way, but appearing more masculine as well. You posted a few video game characters, where the character in question had been modeled after a real actress then intentionally made unappealing afterwards on purpose. Which is something else I have to get into, many of the new designs, especially for women, are being designed to be as ugly and uninteresting on purpose. Take as 2 examples a Nurgle Plague Marine from Warhammer 40k....and Abby from the Last of Us 2. The Plague Marine is large and imposing, intestines and other organs bursting not just from his body but from his armor as well, a deathly miasma follows him about. He looks like you'd expect a follower of a God of disease and decay to look like in the setting from which he originates. Now look at Abby. "She" has the body and shape of a man, but not one that would be reasonably expected to be surviving in a post-apocalyptic US where resources like even food are scarce and hard to come by. She's noticeably bulkier then even some of the men almost to the point of parody. She doesn't fit, and it's rather obvious. Such as it is with a lot of these new characters, that not only do they not look believable in the setting, they don't even sell the idea of the character at all. Anyone can believe in a super heroine because she has powers of some kind to compete with men. No one is going to believe Phoebe Waller-Bridge as an action hero, even if the person she's out-staging is an octogenarian Indiana Jones. No sir, I don't agree that these new female characters are the result of just rejecting traditional feminine ideals and roles, but a rejection of what it is to be a woman entirely. These characters all share the same aspect of either acting like men, down to outright replacing their male counterparts. It's not a good stance to take, as it leaves both girls and boys without positive figures for masculinity and femininity.

A series that foes this in a very interesting manner is black lagoon with a majority of its female cast. Balalaika acts like a mother to the Russian mafia, Revy is a deconstruction of the girlboss trope, etc.

From those early 2000's examples, I still love The Bride from Kill Bill. The rest of those are pretty dumb. Trinity (in the first film) isn't dumb so much as third or fourth fiddle in the film--so she walks the line. She kind of tumbles over it in the sequels, but so does the films.

Another banger as always, Pilgrim!

Part of me wants to see a Deconstruction of the girlboss, where the "Strong Independent Woman who doesn't need men" is actually a facade covering a self-loathing emotional wreck, who built up her masculine persona as a shield against her own femininity, and who is constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown. Or a woman who wants to be the archetypal beautiful maiden who empowers others, but society forced her to be a "Strong Independent Woman who doesn't need men" in order to gain social acceptance, and needing to wear the Girlboss Mask in public is forcing her into a Mental Breakdown.

Tohru Honda from the manga Fruits Basket is still to this day one of my personal favorite feminine and strong female characters.

On seeing the use of imagery from D!sney's take on Rapunzel, I think that version is the last movie we see truly exceptional takes on both positive and negative feminine traits from D!sney

This is hands-down the best video you've ever made. The depth & care of analysis is striking. Even for someone (that is, even for me) who has studied story for a decade or more, you've shown me parts of the female-archetypes I've never seen. Damn well done! And thank you. (P.S. I've just followed you on Twitter. I hope we can have many fruitful conversations about storytelling and society. God bless.)

Right on the money. They can't make their message stick or become popular because it's synthesized. There's no natural rhythm in us, no chord that resonates with that or ever has. It reminds me of the opening of the Silmarillion. Where the deities were all singing and that one just sounded...discordant. And that one wound up being the ebil. 'Course I believe there's good places for discordant voices, but leadership isn't one of them.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you talked about virtues. All the writers focus on are superficial traits rather than true virtues. I think this reflects a general trend in our society. People can't even agree on the virtues anymore because of relativism and emotivism (e.g. virtue itself is subjective or whatever you feel like it is). This often results in ignoring virtue altogether, resulting in just god awfull characters (and people).

This woke crap can't die soon enough.

on my way to make this man got 6 digits on his bank account

Nice analysis, I always appreciate the amount of research you do for these videos!

I really think you should do a video on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. She's a really interesting character, specifically as a princess and her story has a really great environmentalist message in a similar vein to Princess Mononoke. There's just so much to talk about for that movie it'd be an amazing video essay. A

This is why I'm subbed. I'm making a horror game atm with a female protag and these videos have huge influences on her character (and gameplay). I want to portray her as someone that's intelligent and resourceful not physically strong. So combat mostly relies on the use of traps and lures to get away and a knife as a last resort. She's a powerful medium that's still getting the hang of her powers. Her power is her high level of empathy and ability to inspire hope. (She would make a great therapist)

As a woman who loves the princess trope, I think it reveals a desire for a Rescuer who isn't actually a normal human man. A Rescuer who is The Man, the only one who can really save us or love us unconditionally. I'm still up in the air about whether that representation ultimately adds up to a sign-post pointing to Christ or to idolatry. Maybe it depends on the story. I'd definitely toss Twilight onto the idolatry heap. But the average princess-rescuing fairy tale? I'd want to put that on the Christian symbolism shelf.

Tomura Shigaraki and his LoV friends are the perfect representation of a group founded by benevolence and acceptance although initially the LoV has no such representation when it was founded by AfO the narcissistic villain who is truly the only pure evil and cartoonish villain in MHA.

1:19 "Jacob Geller and it's consequences , have been disaster for the video essay genre" Or "The truth is , the game was biased from the start"

I really like your perspective on this topic Pilgrims Pass. You really know how to explain the domino affected of the many problems people face. On top of, your very good in showing that most average folk tend to be cogs in machines, and don't even realize it from the entertainment they watch.

Pilgrim, each of your videos gets better and better and I'm consistently impressed with how you manage to outdo yourself. Well done!

I find the Warrior woman a very interestig archetype, for women has also the right to take their bodies to their maxium capabilities for the protection of their families and themselves. When mature enough, female fighters don't show that weird girl-boss attitude we see in media.

Nord VPN ad? My man had made it. Congratulations

Shout out to Ripley, the OG female lead. Dude Sigourney Weaver played that part so well, talk about legendary acting.

Rather than poor writing, it’s more like writers don’t really believe in what they are actually writing. You can sense the passion in crude works where creators really believe in what they are writing, but not in the mass produced commodities. Gender aside, badass characters are way more fun when they Fail. Everyone expected the badass to kick ass so it’s boring and unsurprising when they actually do.

Great essay as always!

Man i love you, thx for this content, its gold, keep it up

I have never heard anyone talk about the damsel in distress trope and put a positive spin on it. I never really understood why the Zelda games where named after the princess and not the warrior but damn you really made me think.

The best example I can think of a fem fatale with a heart of gold is Irina Yellavitch from Assassination Classroom.

The point that south park Made was that the problem is that the characters where LAME!! You can make your character what ever You want, they just need to well written (AKA Not Lame)

Still waiting for the benegeserit video Thanks for this one Fr

I would argue that the Domi-Mommy predates Trinity by a few years at least. Gina Davis in the grossly underrated The Long Kiss Goodnight has all the characteristics sans the spandex.

90s also had underworlds girl boss, Tom raider, Mrs Smith, and so on. It wasn't just the damsel in distress... But funny thing is, I loved them all. Today, a girl boss has to be a man or god

Dragon Pilot Hisone has a very interesting twist on the fair maiden archetype. The main character Hisone starts out as the stereotypical blank slate, but finds that only through her femininity can she tame the dragon and gain an identity.

That was a pretty cool analysis.

Mountains are clearly a symbol for boobs, so shooting a rocket at a mountain which causes everything to be covered in snow means that it's... hmm, you know, I started this sentence thinking I was joking, now I'm not so sure anymore.

GREAT VIDEO as always!

A fellow member of the "Nord's are the greatest" club. Personally though, the older version of Elder Scrolls lore, like what was potrayed in the Pocket Guide of the Empire, First Edition.

Wow! your videos are so amazing. You deserve more views and subscribers.

Good work again, son!

"The best ones were always a Nord." - Truth, that is pure and simple truth RIGHT THERE! (Don't discount Dunmer women though). More seriously though, well spoken. I've mentioned him before, but you really should check out the works of George MacDonald, who was basically the first fantasy writer and a huge influence on Tolkien, Chesterton, and especially C.S. Lewis. There is a really strong female presence in a lot of his stories. He has the traditional princess in a lot, such as 'Princess and the Goblin' and 'The Light Princess' whom oftentimes also have a very strong or willful personality. 'Phantastes,' which I consider the first fantasy novel for an adult audience, also has some interesting musings on the archetype of men fighting for damsels in distress within fairy tales that culminates in a profound meditation on what love is. And then you have his final fantastical work, the morbid story of 'Lilith,' that in addition to having THE evil queen also has an enigmatic woman named 'Mara' who is, at once, incredible and very frightening.

You want a "strong female character"?: BEREN & LUTHIEN.

Thank you for this video. It is exactly what I thought about how i feel about the female characters that are written today. Immaturity at its finest.

I have to recommend "Long Kiss Goodnight" with Geena Davis and Samuel Jackson. Just on the action and interactions between the two. Early '90s.

4:25 ouch. Please say that once again and louder. That’s something that needs to be heard!

I like making characters a lot and I'm proud to say I've never had a character that fell into either trop or if she did she was well written. I'll use my danganronpa OCs for an example. My character Momo was the ultimate Assassin (was because she died) Her family business was as assassins (specifically for the government I think?) Momo started at a young age ended up separating herself from others after an incident when she had to assassinate a friend's father. At the end of her story in her killing game she ended up bonding with a gentle giant who ended up sacrificing himself so the others would die of this illness. During the trial Momo was completely aware we should easily get away with it but in a moment of realization she understood that if she got away with it everyone would die and would be the opposite of what her friend wanted. So she exposed herself by shooting the robot in charge of the game, explained some questions and then died when the replacement came. I have another character who like the damsel in distress trope she thinks she is ugly undeserving of love, and this is because in middle school (aka hell) she was bullied because of her allergic rashes, and acne. But like a princess she kept her kindness and grace. She might have felt ugly but she didn't need to behave ugly in fact she wanted to be the kindness she needed at her lowest point. And because she was so willing to be kind she gained many friends. And she actually played a role in figuring out what was going on along with some of her friends.

Fantastic video. Keep up the great work. Peace ✌🏻 P.S. Do you think you could talk about The Orville and its depiction of a future society? I think that would be interesting.

You make me chuckle.

In my opinion, those "strong female characters" only cause harm to gender equality. First, they sort of imply that a woman needs to be just like a man to be equally powerful, capable and overall have similar qualities. This plays straight into the hands of "alpha males" who think that true woman should be submissive, belongs just to the kitchen and to the bed… (I’m not gonna talk about it more). Second, those girl bosses don’t have any weaknesses, bad qualities, they don’t need to improve and grow as a character. This feels like a cheating, considering the fact that a good character needs some development, or at least, he needs to adapt to harsh conditions or to learn to live with them. Since those girl bosses won’t undergo that process, it feels like they wouldn’t withstand it. Which, once again, plays in the hand of "alpha males" who think that real women can withstand or endure less than men.

Holy shit Ana really is going through a redemption arc

Coming back to this video after commenting when it was new; another issue is we use the word strong as a morality judgement. For instance, we use Strong interchangably with "Good" which is improperly used as well. The old joke being that a nun asks you how you are, and you say 'good' and she then asks you what moral thing you've done, or corrects you and says "God is Good, you mean well." That's the jist of it. Unpacking it, Good is supposed to be a moral position. But we've meshed it into the discourse. "We want Good stories! We want Good Characters." Its a bit of illiteracy and not even knowing what we want. We want masterfully crafted stories and inspirational characters, etc. Saying Good is just us being a bit lazy which used to work fine when we were all offline. Strong has the same kind of semantic overload. Strong tends to take on a physical dimension. A strong wall is unyielding. A strong sword does not bend or break. A strong horse can pull a heavy load. Strong morals cannot be fudged, as well. But we have other words to use in each situation. A strong wall is a stout wall. A strong sword is a durable sword. A strong horse is vigorous. Strong morals are virtuous. A When we say we want Strong characters, we can look at these examples and extrapolate outwards that these are all tasks these things were seemingly designed for. A hunting dog is what kind of dog? A hunter. If it is a strong hunter it will excel at things it is meant to do. If I say my dog is a strong hunting dog you imagine it has muscles capable of it jumping off quickly and plowing through brush to track and tackle game - or its a retrieving type. If the dog is a retrieving type of hunting dog, if I say my retrieving dog is strong we don't assume raw physical strength. The dog that is strong at hunting actually has a gentle bite. The opposite of powerful, but still strongly suited to his task. Looping this around to Female Characters, a strong female character thusly should have attributes and traits that enhance whatever it is. Females have access to many traits that they excel at. A "strong" character can have humility. What we're experiencing is type mismatches in addition to this. What makes a hunting dog good include a soft bite. Other kinds of working dogs require a hard bite. 3rd waveism was assigning traits to women that they envy in other things. Strong Men are workaholics? Let's grab that and apply it! Doesn't work.

Heeeey! I totally viewed dommy mommies of 2000s as role models as a girl! I loved how hot and badass they were. Made me do martial arts for a while actually :D

Looking forward to the eventual inevitable Frieren video.

I like this take. It didn't come off as diving into the center "cause that's where the truth is most likely." It's thoughtful analysis and teasing out the truth, and it happened to land in the center.

You are my favorite philosipher

I think Mikasa is a great example - she certainly draws inspiration from the femme fatales - but shes is never sexualised - and her femaleness in the personality is retained alot - in that shes very emotionally fragile but guarded, never dominating, and is defined by her holding on for erins love or friendship, and wanting to protect erin, and feeling betrayed. Her devotion to erin defines her, which struck me as the sort of writing that would NOT be tolerated by western feminists, but i liked becuase it rang true for how damaged women act, traumatised girls, and female criminals, for instance.

9/10. My only unironic gripe is with the making-out scene in the elevator in Fifty Shades of Grey. I'll still share the video, but it's a concern that I feel like I should make a disclaimer to friends I share it with who might have difficulties with potentially scandalizing scenes like that. I mean this with utmost sincerity and charity, Pilgrim, as I do love your work and the grim pills you're putting out! Godspeed to you!

One girlboss I absolutely love is Alita Battle Angel

He's 6'2 and has a six pack? goddamn

Cooking and cleaning are 2 skills you need to have if you want to be independent. I lived on my own for 7 years now and this statement is so true. There are so many old infants out there, it is baffeling.

I am always having awkward conversations with my mum when she recommends these stories of historical events about feminism she sees on tv shows, movies etc and the annoying thing, is that all those stories of empowering women are now in every bloody thing you look at so i don't want to watch it even if its good or interesting because I'm so exhausted by feminism that i can't absorb anymore of it lol😊

Have you ever seen the anime Yona of the Dawn? I've been thinking about it a lot as a positive example of a good female character.

8:05 Marinette Du-Peng Cheng is a QUEEN and I will not tolerate this slander.

What I think is interesting is that the male has still never gotten to swap roles with the female yet. We've never seen a mystical male who is the center of the plot, fair and morally pristine but needing to be recued by a woman who was once a loser but had to develop the strength to save and be worthy of the male. Women have been given the power and prestige of men. But men are never given the grace and inherent value of women. The only reversal of men thats ever made is to make them pathetic and usless

10:50 She didn’t begin with Trinity, she began with Leeloo in the Fifth Element (also Milla Jovovich). Although Leeloo doesn’t have the dominatrix vibe, she’s a feminine killing machine that has an outfit meant to excite men.

Good rant . much thought

My personal favorite strong female character is the bride from kill bill she’s nether moral or a prodigy

Again, further reinforcing why Furiosa might be the greatest female hero ever written. In a world where being feminine and choosing to exist in the “society” means being subjected to BRUTAL slavery and oppression….the facade of modern roles falls away. All that matters is survival, and you don’t rise up the ranks to an Imperator without being very VERY good at surviving. And yet, she chooses to use her ability, position and influence to try and save those who are trapped and dominated by that very society that she had to effectively lose her femininity to rise through. I love Fury Road, and Furiosa shows that you can make a competent and equal character that just so happens to be a woman, without resorting to tropes or pandering.

Up until now, I've only seen grace under a religious context, but thanks to you I can see it in another different light. As a writer, I'll have to keep grace being a trait often found in females in mind when writing my female characters.

please make a video about ser gawain and the green knight. i've been facinated by that story since i saw the green knight movie in the beginning of the year. cheers!

I recently reread Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mina Harker should be included in the discussion of strong (i.e., well-written, well-developed) characters more often. Without her, the mystery around Dracula doesn't get solved and the villain is defeated, even though she is technically the damsel in distress. Amusingly, it's largely due to her note-taking and organizational skills.

I agree, except at the end where you make the claim girls like stories about romantic relationships better. But you are onto something. Men and women write character differently. I just wouldn't conclude it's the romance women always prefer, but dynamics and personality while men tend to prefer macguffins and quests. The dwarves in The Hobbit don't have many dynamics, for instance, but girls on DeviantArt will often draw them bantering so you'd think they had personalities. Girls tend to add more nuance to the people. (I watched the Hunger Games with my family last night by coincidence, and remembered the r threads romance were very tedious. These threads are shoehorned into YA novels, I think, to make them 'more marketable' though most could do without them for the quality of the whole story.) I was surprised you made so many good points!

More subs. Let's make it happen!!