TO WRITERS, FROM READERS: FEMALE CHARACTERS

Hello friends for today's video we're back with another from readers and I'm sure most of you here know what this video series is but if you're new the idea is that I post some kind of question related to publishing to writing to books in general character types and I ask my patrons as well as all of you on my community tab your thoughts on these topics and for today we're doing two writers from readers female main characters we will do this exact same thing for male main characters and so if you want to have a chance to contribute to the conversation just check out the community tab as the day this goes up I will have that new question posed over there and then if you want to guarantee that your your response gets read I do always as a thank you to my patrons for being so supportive continuing to support me I always try to get through all of their responses but I will try to get through as many of the ones that I saw on the community tab as possible if I don't get around to your response it's either because I didn't get to see it or because maybe what you articulated was similar to what someone else articulated and so I want to get through as many Concepts as possible and also prevent from just the same thing being said over and over again and I just as a general thank you uh I can't do this video series if not for your contributions and your willingness to express your thoughts so just right off the bat thank you so much for engaging in those Community tab posts and I am really excited to jump into this one I think there's going to be a lot of interesting things to discuss so all that said Brandon says less female characters that have all of their accomplishments and skills on some kind of messed up wow it's so surprising she's just as good as men wow what a Wonder scale from the wow look how strong she's got muscles like a man Trope to the look how ruthless that's not very ladylike why she's as bad as men all these stereotypes of physical strength being immediately associated with some kind of manly trait and any empathy or nurturing qualities being feminine just needs to chill I agree and I I did see a lot of other thoughts expressed that were similar to this and so much of what I think we're seeing as Trends in stories right now is a result of what we have been told and I I think talking about female main characters and male main characters is inevitably going to potentially touch on some topics that might make people feel like a little uncomfortable or they might think like oh man I'm tired of seeing everybody on the internet trying to talk about what it means to be a man and what is that new thing that you see for women like that like a high quality woman a high quality woman would do this an elegant woman would do this they wouldn't wear certain colors or they wouldn't wear darker lip liner and just like the dumbest things that apparently it's like this is how you are supposed to be a lady and this is how you're supposed to be a man and what I think books do often by the way if some of you haven't seen those kinds of like that kind of video or those sorts of uh messages I don't know if what I just said if you're like what what does that what does it have to do with anything the point is that I think that we collectively have been told for so long this is how men are supposed to be and this is how women are supposed to be and instead of recognizing people are people and that there are certain things that across the board maybe one group is more likely to experience than another and thus there might be some generalizations we can make at the end of the day people are individuals and thus how we are treated should be based off of us as individuals and we should see that in our stories as well however when we've been seeing generation after generation told what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man and our books often are a reflection of society and often pushing back on those things retaliating against those things then you're going to see almost like the reverse so as an example and I'm coming through the lens of an American girl so I recognize that there are different things that are instilled in people depending on where you live but to just give you that little uh that little thing I'm uh I'm a lady who grew up in America in a really conservative religious section of uh the state I live in so what I was always sort of seeing and hearing is that girls are what Brandon is saying girls are just more emotional and more nurturing and where I grew up given how religious it is a lot of the girls it was kind of guaranteed that After High School got married pretty much right after high school and that they started families right away and so there's this idea that you need to be gentle and calm and learn to be motherly you need to know how to cook if you have any wants outside of those things that's not feminine that's kind of the message a lot of girls in the area I grew up in were told and I know while this isn't true for everyone I know it was true for a fair amount of people maybe not so much in your generation depending on your age but maybe a generation or two before you so I think in books we have seen characters that are going against that we're pushing back against this idea of what the parameters are for femininity and you have these characters that instead of being individuals and maybe exhibiting some of those traits because it's just how the character is it's like can't have any of those things because look women can be all these other things that men are we can be just like men instead of saying women can be people and here are all the different sections that we typically associate with girls or we typ typically associate with boys that they have different facets of their personality their motivations and their traumas and things like that instead of piecing them together as a person we start from how can I push back against what we've always been told so I think that that's where that comes from and while maybe it served its purpose for a while and can still serve its purpose I think that publishing I feel bad I feel like everything always comes back around where I'm like it's publishing's fault but publishing has a tendency to see something that does well because initially this would make sense that this would do well it would be eye opening it would create empathy it would make people realize like maybe maybe I don't actually want to be like this maybe I've just always been told that this is how I'm supposed to be while it might serve a purpose initially that is is groundbreaking after a while publishing's like that made money people like that and then they just look for more of that and then they present the same thing to you over and over again and sometimes those depictions of those types of characters fall really flat and they start to become cliches they're not nuanced whatsoever the thing that initially pulled us to those kinds of characters new generations don't have that same thing so maybe it's dated not to say that it's not worthwhile but that we have to keep moving forward we can't just rely on what made money once upon a time because then stories aren't really interesting anymore and again you're not actually exploring people as people you are ironically still now pigeon huling what it means to be a woman or feminine when you say well if you want to be a strong female character because I know that's a big thing a lot of you are frustrated by what does this even mean but uh in order to be that you can't be any of those things that were typically associated with ladies you have to be all these things typically associated with men and yes I'm just agreeing I just spent probably at least five minutes I was looking at how much time has passed probably at least five minutes just agreeing with you yes anyway moving on Damon exactly what so many people have already said women who are women strong women tough women gentle women feminine women moms daughters sisters friends actual friends not just there to eventually shack up with little girls elderly gals there are so many things women can be that have nothing to do with the stereotypes writers pigeon hole gals into I don't want to read the story of a character who is a woman with the only definition of that word being she doesn't have you know male uh Parts holy holy crow that is that a phrase or did you have a typo is holy crow a phrase instead of holy cow anyway holy crow just stop women can be tough and feminine at the same time they can be strong and still gentle they can have emotions without being a crybaby Damsel in Distress who will only overcome the challenges in her life because some dude showed up ghh I also completely agree with this I know a lot of what I said is similar to what you just expressed Damon I do want to touch on the crybaby Dam damsel as that is still a character type and it is sort of different from what I was just describing about the character who's always strong and masculine um I'm using air quotes for anybody that's watching and um not or excuse me is listening but not watching but anyway so so there is that character that's just like oh my I have to be rescued she's just there to be kind of an insert so that people can imagine themselves being taken care of and swept off their feet by a fella and I understand wish fulfillment is a thing in all genres I know for a lot of what I'm talking about it's pretty fantasy specific but these things are true in other genres as well but the that character type can often be so empty when it's coming from a place of wish fulfillment I think um that there are a lot of um from just talking you know to other generations of ladies I'll use like family members um as an example they were expected to take care of the kids as if that wasn't a job in and of itself that's just like a thing that comes naturally to them they're expected to take care of all the kids they're expected to do all the cooking all the cleaning then you get to a point where you need a two income household so now they have to also have a separate job unrelated to taking care of the kids and so now they're working and they're supposed to take care of everything at the house and so I think there's this idea of like wouldn't it be nice if someone just came along and took care of everything for me and I think that's where this empty damsel character can be really appealing I'm going to tone down the air quotes cuz I feel like it's going to be the whole video of me doing this um but I think that's where that character type came to be potentially and why it can be appealing sometimes just the wish fulfillment being just like can somebody else take out the trash and like change the kid diaper for me please that's sort of what it's like and throw into the mix that a lot of times you see this character type I would say in romances fantasy romances so then there's the added element of wait a second you're telling me they're taking care of my emotional needs and physical needs sign me up there's like certain people that I feel like they really would app appreciate getting to imagine that because they don't get it in their own life and that's actually uh really sad and really tragic and hopefully there are things in their life that can change in the future and then their life won't be as um difficult I'm not saying that your your life has to be in the box that I described in order for you to like those kinds of stories sometimes it's just fun to read a silly little Adventure where somebody gets rescued and we have our reasons why certain things why we gravitate toward them and enjoy them however to have these extremes of either I'm going to exhibit the traits that are stereotypically associated with men thus I'm a strong lady or I have nothing going for me and I'm completely helpless and I need somebody to come along and do everything for me I just think it would be nice if we can continue to have more in between I think we do and I think publishing has I know I was poking at them a little bit before but I think publishing has really done a lot over the years of trying to find different kinds of stories different kinds of characters and I am really excited about that as I feel like the pro if I had asked this question I don't know five years ago even I I think that I would have maybe felt more like it was hard to find I do feel like it's less difficult to find these days so while I don't disagree I completely agree that I I'm tired of there being these extremes I do think that there is new in books these days which is good Becky stop it with the female characters who can't decide between two or more men as love interests when you know you know I um I'm not saying I disagree with the idea that there's it feels like in so many stories we have to throw a love triangle into the equation and sometimes what's annoying and maybe this is what you were getting at or maybe you were getting at real life I'm not sure but in stories often times it's pretty obvious who the end person is what is the phrase like um oh it's escaping me whatever but whoever the person is that it's really obvious that that's the person this other person's just kind of thrown into the story because the plot is suffering there's not much of a plot so we need to throw something in the mix to make it a little more exciting I'm I'm tired of that as a reader it is frustrating when you're like I know this person isn't going to matter in the long run so why are we doing this um I don't know if I agree if this is what you're saying that every person knows if they're dating and they're just kind or or not even dating sometimes just casually talking with people and they're interested in somebody and they're spending time with them and there's somebody else they know and they're spending time with them maybe they don't know between those individuals and so they're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place I suppose um that could be what you're relating to and you can be saying oh no you know and maybe I would disagree with that if that's what you're at but in a fictional setting I do think that it's really frustrating when there is a couple that is clearly the couple and somebody else shows up I'm actually going to use the example of um missor even though I love Miss boor The Well of Ascension was anybody ever like is this actually going to be the the person they end up with everybody's like obviously not no and I used it was so extreme that I used to think that's not actually love triangle right and then apparently words of Brandon wob has said like oh it wasn't he doesn't sound like that but apparently it was supposed to kind of sort of be a potential love interest and I'm like is it though really it doesn't feel like it at all I don't want to say character names in case you haven't read I don't want to spoil things but anywh who I would would not mind two things as a result of your comment one either there's a character and this got touched on in the the romance editions of this style video there's a character they meet somebody they fall in love they work through life together as partners they get together they continue to work through life together and they persevere they support each other they sometimes bicker but it's like a realistic relationship that builds throughout the story I would like to see more of that and I think it's also possible to see characters who meet somebody they like them but there are problems and it doesn't work out and that's okay and then maybe they end up meeting someone else that happens that's also realistic wouldn't mind seeing that and then I suppose there's a third option which is just there's no love interests and sometimes characters what do you know can exist and have interesting lives and have interesting plots and maybe it has nothing to do with falling in love with somebody Jamie says I like the idea of a female character who doesn't have to focus on the fact that they are a woman unless it is relevant to the plot men don't usually have to focus on their gender for the story to work this is a great point I think that the Nuance of unless it's relevant to the story is significant there are certain fantasy worlds that are obviously reflections of our world in certain times I think a good example of a character who it makes sense for them to think about their gender is in a little hatred in the age of Madness series if you know this character you know why it's significant that they think as a woman I have to navigate the situation differently otherwise people are going to immediately jump to this conclusion and I have to work this much harder at establishing my reputation and fill in the blank you know you can go on and on and on that makes sense because you're looking at a woman who has a lot of business prowess we'll call it in a setting where women previously have not and she has to learn how to navigate that situation because there's really never been somebody before her and she does get judged based off of the fact that she is a woman that makes sense but there are instances where characters there's literally no reason for the fact they're a woman to come up and then it does and you're like what especially because there are certain fantasy worlds where the idea of women being mistreated purely because they're women isn't actually a thing and in those fantasy worlds it comes out of nowhere when suddenly I don't want to bash a certain series but there was one book I read from a series and I didn't continue on with the series so maybe this changes but it didn't feel like there was really sexism in in this world until you needed it to further the character's uh development and then for her to be shown as strong it was always in opposition to sexism that felt as though it came up out of nowhere and part of the reason I don't want to say the series it's just because there's plenty of series that do this and I think that if it's not established in the world it doesn't really make any sense what it ends up feeling like is that you can't imagine the author meaning like they can't imagine women being uh able to overcome anything except for sexism so then they write sexism in in places where it doesn't really make sense to their world and that's uh unfortunate when that happens and you don't usually see that to Jim's point you don't really see that you don't see men suddenly having to deal with problems that like a guy can't show his emotions in a world where nobody cares if you cry or something like that you don't really see that as much of like how can we possibly show that Bob is strong how about we show that he can have a vulnerable side and that's strength and will'll have it you know you don't you're that's not really a thing so at least not from what I've seen I don't see out of nowhere situations that maybe are more often applicable to men than women coming up out of nowhere in a way that doesn't make any sense and you get what I'm saying I probably don't need to elaborate Jason says I feel like it's come up on the romance thread but I'm tired of seeing otherwise strong and capable female characters break down and be completely undone or submissive when dealing with a bad boy they're using quotes I'm not just out of nowhere using quot this time when dealing with the bad boy main characters or love interests it's like sure she can ride or slay a dragon but she can't put some jerk in his place come on if I talk to my wife or generally acted like some kind of some of these male characters do she'd punch me in the face rightly so I'd be sleeping on the couch instead of having fun that night at the very least in a day and age when we are correcting such behaviors it really sends the wrong message to guys who read these books I know we're not the target audience for a lot of these but some of us do enjoy and read them too I don't get it and always brings me out of the story I I really like it's weird to say I like this comment because it's kind of about some pretty serious things um I'm trying to imagine why I think this ties back to the idea of this character who can do everything but then suddenly becomes submissive I think it's still in some ways related to that uh fantasy we'll call it of the woman that feels like she has to do everything she has to do everything in her life whether it be around the house with kids maybe not even with kids but other family members Things fall on them a lot they have to really push at their career they're dealing with maybe sexism in certain ways so then they have to push back against that they're just tired basically and so the idea of they're being this guy that comes along that they can just be like you know what I'll just leave everything to him and he can be capable and you feel like I can rely on them I think that's where this stems from however I don't know why it can't just be where the person is respectful and kind and maybe they have certain things that are a certain way certain Dynamics in intimate moments or in private maybe they have a certain Dynamic that they enjoy okay but when it's like the guy is just awful for for what I don't really know I don't know what I I can't identify that's what I'm trying to say I like to usually try to dissect and pinpoint and find the origin of certain things but I can't understand why this male character type that shows up in these situations and stories why can't they just be friendly and their own kind of a person where they have depth and nuance and they have their own goals in life and they have nice reasons why they're attracted to the woman and they want to be there for her and support her and she wants to be there for them and they have their own Hobbies like why can't they just be their own well flashed out character why is it that so often they are the bad boy i' I'd love to turn that over to all of you if you have your theories as to why that character can't just be a nice fella a good guy I'm trying not to use language that's like you know that we see so like what's that that phrase the like nice guys finished last or whatever I'm trying to avoid that um but I'm just saying like genuine nice human beings if we're talking about in this situation a couple where there's a lady and a guy why is he like that so often I don't really know is it have to do with like certain characters that we saw growing up in certain shows and we were like but what if I made him change this is my theory as to where this maybe stems from there is the idea of women that fix men which I think a lot of us don't really like that that in stories or in real life uh but I think there's like this wish fulfillment almost that if you just if if you can rely on this guy like he's if you submit and you trust to submit MIT to his will or whatever uh that he will not only take care of everything for you but he will also it's like a warped version of The Protector where all that negativity and anger like you somehow are the one person that he's soft toward and he can direct all of that anger at other people who might be a threat to you or something I don't know I've never seen 50 Shades of Gray I've never read the books but I have watched people react to and I'm pretty sure there's an element of that where he gets very protective of her in areas where other people are being awful to her but then she submits to him in the bedroom and in all things basically I don't know I haven't watched the movie but that's the what I've gathered so maybe it's kind of like that it's like I changed him but only with me therefore I'm special I don't know I don't like it though just to be clear just cuz I'm trying to find the origin doesn't mean I love this Trope or appreciate this Trope sorry I'm squiring around cuz my foot was tucked under me and it's falling asleep and also I kind of want to take my socks off the reading stray wrote please know quote male female characters why female can why can females only be strong if they act like men yeah what is what is it even we went over this right I think anyway that women and men are human beings and I don't think there's as many differ between us as sometimes we see in stories I know I'm distinguishing in these videos female and male characters and by the way I just feel gross every time I say female just because I think of those weird videos where they're like females if you don't understand the female mind and those weird like you have to understand females are always going to be way more and I just like but I think in fictional when we're having fictional discussions we say female characters and male characters and we know we're not like trying to degrade anybody anyway uh so I I think that there's I know that in distinguishing the two maybe there is this uh contributing to this idea that we are so drastically different the reason for distinguishing is just because I think there are certain things that pop up more often with one type than the other and thus I wanted to ensure we got to discuss a lot of those things uh and I think as I said at the beginning a lot of what we see in fiction is a reflection and a push back against what we see in real life which in real life there are a lot of people who have certain experiences as a result of their gender they get told different things and they are they have certain expectations placed on them as a result of their gender and again you'll see that in fiction reflected um but yeah I agree I don't know I guess it's just this I think it's a let's not tell everybody that girls have to be in this box but on accident we have now said to be strong you have to go in this box that is typically associated with men Dan hi Dan more female MC's who exist with a story and motive that's not wrapped up in or interrupted by a guy it seems like some of the best written most realistic female characters become one-dimensional swooning idiots idiots once hot guy enters the scene and suddenly their purpose becomes about him here's where I think this could be a really interesting story if that is kind of the point if the point is to show that there are some people and you can reverse it and it can be uh in a queer relationship it can be a guy being this way with a woman but I think it'd be really interesting if you dissected characters who otherwise are very strong capable they speak up for themselves they speak up for other people however because of certain patterns because of things that happened when they were growing up when they have a partner they acques they become mush they don't stand up for themselves and why that is that would be a great story to explore but when it's just because well the plot is now about hot guy as you said Dan um that's boring I don't think that's interesting it makes whoever the character is that we're following in this case we're talking about a female character it makes her seem stupid when there's no no additional let's peel back the layers and ask the question of why I will extend if it happens in a first book and then in future books we explore that okay maybe it feels irritating at first but it's like there was a point but if that's not the case it's just one single book and that character is just dumb as soon as um good-looking person shows up then I start to dislike that character I'm thirsty I'm going to take a sip Josie has a really interesting comment I'm so sorry if pronounced this wrong cuz I think this is a French word and I looked at the pronunciation and I'm like oh I'm probably going to say it wrong the AA new there's no limit to the number of words to describe how much I hate her firstly if a female character is wholesome or naive that can be fine if it's well written however they cannot be the main character without going through some sort of growth or change four books into a fantasy series that same female character simply cannot be naive anymore secondly nine times out of 10 the aanu is used as a device for and by men to have a sexual and romantic itic Target who has no feelings thoughts or opinions for themselves and will bow down to the more experienced male in the story thirdly and lastly women are people all women whether they be young and innocent or old and worldly have thoughts and desires they want things out of life and want to make something of themselves even if what they want is to be a housewife they still have opinions about that life and a desire to make it good and worthwhile you captured so much of what I think we've already talked about and I'll zero in on the naive character as I think that's a slightly different avenue than some of the others that we've gone down so the idea of there being this super naive character that stays naive again if that character if there's like an intentional blocking of things right in front of them and we explore why that is why do they keep letting certain things go why do they act as though there's not a problem when there's clearly a problem what is the source of that what's the reason if that's the intent or one of the intents in a multi-layered interesting story if that's one of the points and one of the plots to explore all right let's go there let's explore why is this character like this however when they just stay naive it feels as though there's this idea that basically women are stupid and that we aren't going to learn from what is transpiring around us that we are not going to grow as individuals and I think the problem is that some people don't know how to write a character grow without changing their personality I think there can be that naive character let's let's give her a little bit more of a personality let's say she's naive but she's very sweet and she's really lovely and very docile and okay that's how that character is they go through some things their eyes are opened and I think some individuals don't know how to write that character where they have changed however maybe they're still really sweet maybe they are still a little bit more timid but they also are more aware of how the world works I think some people have this impression that that character can only then turn into the cynical mean character who's hardened by everything now and you're like you can still have characters who are inclined toward sweetness who are inclined toward kindness however they also now are going to maybe notice when there are other people out there who might be predatory in nature who might harm other people or them and they have to learn how to navigate that while not sacrificing who they are as a person that would be another interesting character to explore but because there is this sort of I think limited view of how individuals change and grow but keep their General personalities I think that we just decide to keep them the same and that's unfortunate uh but I don't I don't know if I've seen that character type in too many modern fantasy stories if you want to elaborate uh Josie uh on maybe if you want to give some examples of some books that you've seen that in I'm trying to think of ones but I don't know if I've come across that as of late to me that character sounds like a side character or it sounds like a character that existed as a very vague unimportant love interest in maybe older fantasy stories but maybe it's just escaping me right now Artemis says I want to see female protagonists who are older than say 20 I'm getting older myself and would love to see myself reflected in the characters I'm reading I love the MC and nettle and Bone and am loving one of the main characters and race the Sands they are just in a different point in their lives and I'd love to see more of that even Emily wild is closer to my age and I like that I don't know that I need to expand on this too much because I just can say I agree I think that what it comes down to is we would like to see cuz this came up in romances as well we would just like to see human beings in all stages reflected in our stories um I'm so sorry if I pronounce your name wrong uh zup um it's uh spelled z y n e p less female characters that are always clean and smell like spring Sunshine even if they should technically stink authors please start to include gross stuff about women when they're traveling for weeks on end and they can't properly clean themselves brush their teeth all of that I liked how RF Quang did that with Ren Ren is from the poppy War if you don't know especially if they're actively participating in a war let them be grimy and smelly and frustrated because of all that also I hate when authors make female characters fight but barely sustain injuries long enough for it to make sense or it's never mentioned one example of an author who actually did that well is Julet Juliet meler in dreamers pool the main character has lost a tooth she's been beaten and ever since then she's got one tooth missing it's logical her tooth will not grow back I liked that also in a fantasy setting I think people expect the main characters to be a certain way usually conventionally attractive and all of their teeth perfect and white a female main character with one tooth missing is not what you'd picture side note while I appreciate this detail about dreamers pool I don't think the book was amazing LOL just a heads up it was a nice read but that's it if you want to check out Juliet Mar I's works you need to read her seven water series though do check for trigger warnings I have not read any of that author's works but I definitely really want to so I'll have to keep in mind seven Waters series uh but I've heard good things in general so I've um not seen this movie I think it's Mary Queen of Scots um it's got Margot Robbie and it's where she's portraying a real person in history who was known to be in in a position of power but I think she um had issues with her skin and thus would wear a lot of makeup and a lot of people really praised the way in which she they genuinely made her skin look as you would expect she wasn't like she's has a tiny little Scar and suddenly she's hideous it wasn't like that however she smiles and her teeth are gorgeous Perfect Teeth and you're like that's okay hold on though you put all this effort into try I get I get that the teeth weren't the focus but also maybe make them look a little less perfect and that's something I think is common in movies and TV shows because we can see it so we think about it more in books if it's pretty fair and normal for everybody in this world to have kind of strange teeth then they might not comment on it because for them it's not strange it would be strange if their teeth were perfect in white that could be an interesting thing like wow they have great teeth sorry I don't know how many of you have seen Love is Blind but now I'm just thinking about Jimmy being like you have really nice teeth like no I mean like they're like big and perfect and white like you have nice teeth the injuries component I do think that's frustrating no matter what and that's not always just applicable to female characters that's just a thing that's annoying I think we talked about this in another two writers from readers um I think it was just a very general like please stop and one of the things was stop giving characters injuries if they're going to be magically better with no with no literal magical intervention or healing done just all of a sudden and I might have brought this up at the time but I swear in powder Mage which has been years since I've read it and I'm so sorry if I'm repeating myself but I swear a character got shot and then was up and about the next day I swear that happened and if I'm wrong feel free to correct me I don't think they were healed healed I think it was just like ah oh no I got shot and then the next day they're like I'm coming with you injuries in general yes very much agree it would be nice if characters circumstances were reflected I will say sort of going back to a little hatred there is a character who is a lady who experiences bleeding because that's a thing that people experience ah what do you know and that character I guess people have complained about that being a thing that happens on page there are reviews that are like GH about it and uh I think that's kind of weird because in that series like that that's a grim dark Series where bodily fluids are mentioned and talked about and they're not uh hidden in any capacity so to complain about that and not all the other times kind of just comes across a certain way I just fed my dog Luna bear so if you hear noises it's probably her eating her food or at some point inevitably drinking some water but anyway moving on on Taylor says I think we need more female Mentor menty relationships we need more strong uh not sure if you can swear on YouTube so insert strong if you can't LOL for the record I could swear on YouTube I just know some people listen with their kids around because they've grown accustomed to me not saying things that they're like oh no I can't listen to this with you know little suie here um so I just don't but it's not a thing you can't do on YouTube anyway we need more Mentor menty relationships we need more strong women teaching women to be awesome it just seems like this is much less prevalent than the wise old man Mentor figures probably due to the fact that sexism is still alive and well in a lot of fantasy worlds leading our female MC being the one to break the chains and therefore no Elder women in positions of power but this is getting old especially in fantasy when the possibilities are endless why do we continue to just write these familial familial sorry familiar old themes it seems like we are still much more complacent and reading about women being oppressed than we are of the opposite I really liked this uh because you're incorporating an element that I don't know if I saw too many other people mention the whole idea of mentor mentee and how again the concept of the origin why is it that the old wise Mentor tends to not be a woman and the breaking down of these systems in fantasy these systems of Oppression and how it's almost always against women and I am not opposed to watching women break the chains I think is how you put it yeah break the chains uh I'm not opposed to continuing to see that in stories especially because so much of fantasy is still inspired by older time periods and I think for a lot of people they associate older time periods with women not being in positions of power as often or if they are they have a whole other list of things they have to deal with kind of again going back to that example of the character from age of Madness but I think uh another detail to what you're saying is even if we're looking at a world that's like that and I'll clarify awesome if we look at Worlds that aren't that would be great too it'd be unique it'd be different uh or at least it's less common I should say but let's say we are looking at a world where women are trying to gain more uh agency and they have more control over their lives so even if that is the setting we're looking at that doesn't mean that women before them have just sat around and been like I'm fine with my place in life and I'm fine being oppressed it's not like we go from generations and generations of people before being like everything's fine the way it is and then all of a sudden there's character is like no it's not and then they push back against everything and break the glass ceiling that's not how it works there's almost always people pushing against and those people what's really sad is they don't get to see the fruits of their labor so often Luna has now finished eating so she's here so she might walk past if you see a little white fluffy tail a big white fluffy tail because she's enormous but anyway so it's it's there's often so many times that there are women who and and no matter the case not always women but in systems of Oppression there are people pushing back doing what they can and they might have their own advice to those who come later they might uh encourage them they might teach them how to navigate certain situations how to get by they might introduce them to other people and what you can explore a lot of things with that you can have that character finally see let's say the example is like they've never been able to vote that's a probably dumb example but now Luna went outside she's probably going to the bathroom I don't know why I'm giving you a play byplay of like Luna's day but anyway let's say they've never had the ability to vote and you finally at the end of the series that is accomplished to have have that old she can be really old and she can still remember pushing and fighting and never getting to see it and maybe the main character is the one that really led the charge and it finally happened and then they get to say guess what grandma or great grandma or old lady that is my neighbor who I'm really close to I don't know they get to finally say we can vote and it ends oh my gosh can you imagine it ending with like going to vote together now I'm thinking about Nelson Mandela's Memoir uh anyway how emotional of a story would that be it would be fantastic and it would incorporate like you're talking about Mentor mentee there being these complex relationships across generations and it's still go talking about there being oppression and then of course we can talk about worlds where there's not you can have worlds where there's magic and dragons and everybody's equal and everybody is treated exactly the same as far as with what they're able to do what the law permits all those sorts of things so it's really about like who's skilled and they're learning cool skills and the person they're learning a cool skill from is a lady yeah that'd be great I think the book The Art of Prophecy if you haven't checked that one out um Taylor uh the art of Prophecy has a really awesome Mentor who is a woman she is a mentor to a young man however she's an awesome Mentor character but anyway I really appreciate your comment I think there was so much there that was really interesting similarly the next comment says I just want to see more female characters that have positive relationships with their parents most of them don't have parents or their parents are abusive or absent supportive attentive parents exist and then someone said I second this and the reason I'm kind of grouping these together is just because they both are related to their being some kind of connection to likely an older character obviously if they're parents they're most definitely older um but they're just being some kind of Mentor like individual and their lives parental like individual and I'm not like a lot of these things things I'm not opposed to exploring their being absent parents abusive parents and seeing how that affects a person or or parents that loved their child but they still made mistakes that have affected the child that's a lot of people's situations but yeah we still rarely see uh characters with parents that I think this is across the board whether it's a no matter the gender of the character just parents in general would be nice to see I think there should be less of equating strength in female characters to masculinity there are a lot of ways to be strong this is what I came to say I second this also less not like the other girls characters so obviously this is an exchange between a few different individuals and the not likee other girls I think is um dying down because it got so bad for a while and it often was in relation to relationships where a character would be like I love you because you're not like other girls and you're like that's the only reason though I mean there's a lot of women that exist and there are certainly some that I'm kind of like and who do you think what do you think of my friends and anyway we're just really tired of that and yeah I agree and I I'm glad that I don't think we see as much of it Ally says more friendships with male characters that are normalized and don't always end in Romance and always more healthy female female friendships happy to see the awful trend of women hate each other finally dying down in media basically happy healthy friendships all around yeah I agree I think that uh Skyward by Brandon serson actually has a really great relationship a friendship between a girl and a boy and then she has friendships with other people as well ironically uh as much as I love Miss born touching on some things that I think are pretty valid criticisms you see hardly any other women in Miss borne and when you do Vin's immediately like I don't trust them but I don't think she distrusts them because they're women I think it's kind of just like I trust no one which is why I think it doesn't bother me quite as much because a big thing for her is just learning to trust people however there are so few female characters in that series besides Vin that I think you know tind Will's there and she's a very complex character but anyway um I I think that there could definitely still be more friendships with two girls and girls with gu just friendships right I think friendships in general we could use a lot more of those in stories and then also um less of describing every female character's uh chests in detail although this is usually older books it's still feels like it warrants a mention yeah I think maybe what we can say is please don't bring this back I think that's fair um next up Mel says um female main characters who are allowed to be weak there is such a trend of strong female character and down with the patriarchy female main characters are not allowed to be emotionally vulnerable and cry sometimes strength can come from overcoming weakness and sadness and books should showcase that more sorry for double posting totally fine to post more than once uh especially if you have multiple things to say obviously um but I think another thing to add to what you're saying about like vulnerability and weakness is that if it's a lot of what I've been saying so I'm a little bit on repeat if the reason the character feels they cannot show vulnerability or weakness is tied in some fashion to their past I'll use the example from Avatar it's not a female character it's a boy Zuko um I have just started watching this series for the first time in my entire life I'm not I haven't just started I've been watching it and I have um on my side Channel full meta analysis I've been doing reactions to it but uh most of you know the characters and I won't give spoilers but there is a character named Zuko who feels that he cannot show any vulnerabilities or any weakness and that reasoning is explored so if we do the same thing with female characters which I know has been done before but I I feel with what you're describing is that we have these characters that are I'm strong because literally I can beat people up and I have no emotions other than anger and rage that's not strength and if we're going to have a character that's like that why are they like that I'm always open to exploring the why and I think that's where a lot of us get frustrated it's the same thing with any Trope you know Fay for example okay yeah we've seen a lot of Fay stories but if you give us a really amazing amazing book with really interesting characters and a really fascinating plot and a amazing unique creative world and there's Fay that happened to be in it okay so there's Fay yeah we've seen him before but everything else was amazing so why does it matter if we've seen it before most of us are I think anyway I shouldn't speak for everybody but I think a lot of readers that's the whole distinction between tropes and cliches it's just such a cliche to have the quote unquote strong female character like you mentioned and that strength is evidently just because she doesn't really cry or show that she's ever sad and also it can actually be a strength to show vulnerability because it's there's a reason we think we can't cry or there's a reason we think we can't show sadness it's actually a form of trying to protect ourselves so when you can open that and show that you have these other emotions and you know that puts you at risk of being hurt even more that's pretty commendable I think and I say that as somebody who hates crying in front of other people I refuse I hate it I I really shut it off as much as possible sometimes I can't help it I both simultaneously cry all the time and never cry meaning if I see like some really I don't know sweet like somebody comes home and it's been years and their dog gets all excited and makes cute noises and the dog is like whimpering and stuff I'm just like No And it's like a little tier you know but as far as sobbing I'm just like nope I don't want to do it it gives me a headache I don't want anybody to see me like this so pretty much nobody ever does and it's usually those kinds like in relation to really serious stuff like my father passing away and things like that I'm just like nope shut off shut off shut off my grandma when she passed away um she was about to die and my mom had the phone and had me on speaker and I was talking to my grandma and that was just like man that was really difficult but then I just was like okay okay and then I'm just like let's move on with my day now and so I'm admitting that it is really difficult for me to want to show that and I think that's true for a lot of characters so let's see those things in characters let's explore like that as opposed to just like I don't even feel the feelings that would make me want to cry that's what I'm trying to get across if that wasn't clear and then u m your other comment was female main characters who the male main characters aren't romantically interested in I am sick of reading stories where all the men are all inexplicable inexplicably sorry in love with the female main character and I am a female myself for once I want to see her rejected by the guy instead of having to choose between multiple men or see them all be platonic friends nothing more I am also sick of the overly beautiful woman and would like to see some pler ones where appearance is not key to their personality I'm not going to expand on this not cuz I disagree but because I agree I just don't think there was much else for me to add to that but hopefully that doesn't come across like I don't value what you just said I do Weaver says less women who find themselves in a situation where a skill in Weaponry or magic are necessary to complete the story but it's okay because she just so happens to be proficient in that skill that she never knew she had and then more women like carrian from Green Rider she is she had no business being on that journey and it showed she had struggles we could see her learned skills to survive Etc along the way it made for better character growth and a more realistic Adventure I have read the first book in green writer I really need to keep going it and I completely agree about that character and I also really liked her when you learned about her personality and her standing up for people even when it put her reputation and put her future at risk she was willing to stand up for what she thought was right however that didn't mean she was good at everything which I really appreciated now getting to the comments from the community tab so big thank you to all of my patrons for all those really thoughtful responses and now on to community Tab and like I said before I'm going to try and get to ones where maybe there are not a lot of similar things Express just so we can get through as many Concepts as possible so first I want I'm going to start saying women instead of female main characters because that's kind of long I want more women who listen to others around them and really acknowledge that they don't know everything and actually could use some help that is such a great point there are certain characters that are initially the I have to do everything myself kind of characters and then they learn to accept help they learn they can't do everything on their own and I really appreciate that I also appreciate when the character is already aware of that and they recognize like I can't do this on my own but we do see so often the character that never wants to ask for help that never wants to rely on anybody and then if there is anybody it's their male love interest to's the bad boy like we were talking about before or it's that's the only person they'll ever go to and they never learn to go to their friends or they never learn to go to a mentor or just a person who might know what they're talking about so completely agree less busting us in the head with how much of a feminist the female character is but in reality her whole personality is attached to her love interest here's what I would love to see first off love this comment because yeah there are some books subtlety is nice you know you can have characters that stand up for people and who believe like hey if you're a boy and you like pink who cares if you're a girl and you like mud who cares I'm just taking like the most basic of like stereotypes about men and women but the point is if you have a character that's like whatever live how you want to live be who you are don't harm other people try to learn how to become a better person great um as opposed to being like like did you know women are oppressed women are oppressed and I don't stand for it I don't stand for it by the way I don't stand for it you're just like oh my gosh I get it I know I know you don't and then all of a sudden like they're saying the fow comes around they're like but anything you want it's fine however I would love to see a struggle in certain characters who they believe in this idea that I don't want to be this person who crumbles the second there's a guy around because again we're talking about Ladies as the main characters and in this example it's a guy who is a love interest and that's usually the dynamic as far as the like I submit to you I think it'd be really interesting to find a character who does fall in love but then has to ask themselves the question of well am I that they kind of they've had it built into their head that to fall in love and to be compromising they get that mixed up with the idea that that's somehow being submissive and having no agency so they have to ask themselves like is that what's happening to me because maybe they've seen it before or maybe because we're kind of almost pushing back on the trend we've seen in fiction of that character that is constantly like no you don't of basically like men are trash and then so this character is like but I love one so uh what do I do I think that could be an interesting thing to explore is the I am having all these mushy gushy feelings I am thinking about this person all the time even though I have really important other things that I should be thinking about does this make me stupid and they have to ask themselves those questions and I think that's realistic in real life because often times we fall in love not outside of the rest of life we have school we have school like if you're like I met my husband when we were in college so I had finals I worked through school so I had work and I would still try to find time to drive out to see my dad and when I could I'd hang out with my mom we lived I lived at home with my mom but we didn't get to see each other cuz we were constantly crossing paths so it's like I want to make sure I spend time with my mom and then what do you know I fell in love through all of that so then there's the the The Balancing Act of okay I don't want to sacrifice school time to be with at the time obviously my boyfriend but like I also really need to practice my violin because I have my jury coming up that's what they were called um not like jury duty um I have this coming up and I really need to practice but also I have seen Sean all week and so am I just like a flaky dumb girl because uh those sorts of things are things people think about of the am I am I not spending enough time with my friends anymore am I not spending enough time and then I think you could feel that in a character in a story but so often it doesn't it doesn't go that way it's just either I'm a strong lady except for in this case I am not because this guy's hot or I don't need any man and to fall in love with for stupid women why can't people be more nuanced in stories since the stabby female main character is trending I'd love to see more negative character arcs I love this comment I'd love to see the hero everyone loves slowly descend into evil or Madness doing what she thinks is right I don't have anything to contribute other than someone write that story I would love to see and I know that there have been some stories that are written kind of that way it's a hard thing to write though because when you write characters like that if it's done poorly then throughout the story you're just like okay but this character's clearly evil or it feels rushed like one like one event will happen and suddenly a character you've been building up for seasons and Seasons just becomes awful because that's how Madness works right you know the if it's not done well it's very frustrating but if it's done really well then you the entire time as the reader you feel like all the side characters in the story who were once enthralled by this character and their reasons for doing what they're doing and you used to agree with them but you're like I think we're going too far now and then you're like okay but is this just Nuance is this just a character flaw or are we starting to see patterns and you question the whole time by the end you're like I think they were the villain that would be great I feel like I got way too excited about that prompt so thanks cuz it was really I really like that idea something I want to see more of is different types of strength I think sometimes writers get bogged down and having female characters be one type of strong powerful fighter a leader Etc I'd love to see more gentle forms of strength as well a quiet healer a loving daughter Etc don't be afraid to write soft female characters this is similar to what we were talking about before but I wanted to mention it because I really appreciate the examples that you gave of the girl can still be the healer in the group and she can be this really loving daughter and I think those examples are fantastic because I am trying to remember the last time I saw that kind of character because we saw this character type one we see it all the time in gaming like RPGs a lot of healers are the girl characters but we don't see that in stories as much anymore in books I should say because I think we're trying to push back on the character types that we saw before and thus we have gone away from showing characters in those roles I think we're almost afraid that it's regressive in some fashion but it all comes down to the lexity in how you write write the characters um by the way can I just say Yuna is like such a good character from Final Fantasy 10 since I mentioned RPGs she's the best she's so sweet and so lovely she's maybe a little naive at first T tying back to our previous comment and then she grows and she's resilient and she perseveres and she's just great she's so nice anyway I would like to see more seasoned female characters that have layers to them I want to see gritty moms who know what it's like to sacrifice for their family um and play bigger roles and then someone else said more mothers as main characters I recently read a book where a mom was the MC and seeing her love for her children and how it drove her decisions was amazing so I really lik that those were back to back and yes I agree I would like to see more Mothers and Fathers as the main characters and I actually think maybe I can be it's possible I'm completely incorrect about this but I actually think we see more often mother main characters than father main characters and I actually think that's tied to sort of in a weird way us kind of deciding women are evitably going to be mothers but we like we see women in that role even before they have children and then in Stories We if we do get a parental character it's usually a woman the fact that we don't see it in men as often I think is kind of sad because there's a lot of men who really love their children and who love being fathers or who really want to be fathers and I think that would be really nice to see in general just but all around more parental figures and what that's like oh that would be so great I know anytime I have friends who are moms and they read a fantasy story CU this is usually fantasy we're talking about um they read a fantasy story where there is a mother main character it means so much to them so I I agree that we need to see more of that and I imagine the same can be said for for a lot of men who are fathers I'm sure they would love to see that reflected my biggest one would have to be including women in their late 20s onwards as main characters it builds a depth and a realism to their actions plus women don't disappear after 20 we can have Adventures at 30 too and I know we talked about the uh concept of having older characters but I just really appreciated the additional element that you don't stop existing or being interesting once you're no longer in your 20s I do think there's something to be said of people who are older when they're and older than their 20s I don't mean older like we're all so old now but when you're past your 20s I think of course you have gone through a lot of the firsts in life but it's still fun to read about the first you know the character That's Falling in Love or the character that's discovering how the world really is or the character that has the energy to fight against you know the evil dark lord um and then though there are certain things that occur more often for certain age groups that it's just like okay but that's still an interesting thing to explore and then people who are younger can still find Value in those stories and find those stories interesting so how about we explore those I need more Amina alafi characters an awesome Mom who has a past but protects her family she also listens to her crew found family she is single in the beginning and is single at the end she is older has flaws and struggles I need more yeah I really liked the character and I wanted to read these two close together because I think that that book is such a great example of what was being said in the comment right before more positive and upbeat characters like tress I think making your female dark and edgy to add depth tends to backfire same with making them overly snarky and confrontational I suppose this goes for you guys too I I agree I would have added that if you had not that the idea that snarkiness and being cynical is somehow it's like there's a comedian that talks about how um they are attracted to depressed women because they always think that there must be something else there and then they start dating them and they realize that there's not I don't know why we just it's like artists we're like oh well the best artists are the ones that are the most miserable and depressed and you're like that's not necessarily true so I think that that is unfortunately prevalent in fiction and I agree that it'd be nice to get a break from that some authors seem to think that the only trauma women experience is assault let's have a lot less of that I think that it is important that we have stories where we are very careful about exploring that but that we have stories also where it does not occur for it to feel like every time you pick up a story you're going to have to read about that especially if you yourself have experienced it if you are if you've almost experienced it you know people who have experienced it and you are now looking to read a story that's a fun adventure and that's there and it feels like every time you turn around that's there we need to have stories where that's not always a situation however I think it's important to also have the other area uh because it is a realistic part of being a person a lot of people do experience this and it can be I know it sounds strange it all depends on the individual but it can be uh cathartic and helpful to see a character still be resilient strong kind compassionate funny silly to still have life beyond that event because it reminds them that they're not defined by that that's why it's so important I think to be very careful about how that's written I think if it happens in for example a first book in a series and then it gets explored later maybe you won't see it in that first book I was saying this about a different thing as well you won't see it in the first book maybe but to explore the long-term effects I think that can be really powerful I get very frustrated though when it happens and then the character never thinks about it again because in that instance it's like okay so can you not imagine women existing without that happening it must have it must happen but then what we just carry on and and again this doesn't just happen to women but it's like oh well that horrible thing happened but I never think about it ever that's not realistic and it's like why would you make your why would you have the reader read about that for for no reason I it's very aggravating when that occurs so I don't disagree though that we need more stories where we can read and not see that I think we are definitely coming away from it um but I I think I might just elaborate and extend this to say that when we do see it I want there to be a lot of care with it I need more women who are the monsters villains aliens and beasts I think that would be a lot of fun I don't know if I have a whole lot else to add I really want them as the main strategists of the story and calm and uh cold not hot-headed who insults everyone around them let's accept the fact that average women tend to be weaker than guys and in every book we don't want them to be a bodybuilder I would love to see them with wellc composure Mastermind mad scientist courageous but have weakness too and knows and accepts that and I think this is just similar to a lot of what we were saying before is that we just want to see all different kinds of character types and not put them into boxes would love to see a Noto strong character become strong over time in a series emotionally and physically look if you want to have a good cry just have a cry and then uh loved your romance one oh thank you um I thought you were just elaborating um but yeah I think we got into this that the the whole concept of crying there's a lot to that but I wanted to still single this comment out as I really like the idea of them becoming stronger over time emotionally and physically so you have that character who needs to train we see training sequences so often in stories for male characters we see them get stronger we see them level up and I think for some reason we either have the girls be like they're soft and they stay soft or they're awesome they've always been awesome and then there's a third option which is they were soft and then now they're awesome but we don't explore that in between we don't see the struggle and maybe it's tied to what another the other comment earlier about like we can't imagine imagine women smelling and working out and wanting to build muscle and get stronger and getting hit and beat and having injuries and having to come maybe we don't want to think about that or something but we like for some reason when guys and stories are going through that it's like if you're attracted to guys then like that's kind of an attractive thing to like see them getting stronger or if you are not attracted to guys but you're a guy or something you're like yeah there's like something cool but I don't know am I the only one that's thinking about that training sequence in Mulan and she's getting stronger and it's awesome it's not like we need to spend tons of time on it but there's like the fun like yeah come on you can do it this is why Mulan was great I loved that movie as a kid it was my favorite and she's awesome and she starts man this is why she's such a great character still she starts in a certain place she grows she loves her family she has parents it's a big part of her motivation she is she's a very strong willed person but she's not physically strong yet so she has to work at it and then she has yes she kind of has to like be like the guys you know I know there's that element not everybody loves to like the woman has to be disguised as a guy in order to show she's amazing I think in that story they gave you reasons why it's applicable to the plot but anyway I'm not going to go on and on on about why Mulan is great but I think it's great mulan's great I feel like we need more Mulan types you know and she's not awful and mean to people she's nice anyway very specific but I would love to see a female character in the role of the fun quirky Wise Old master that is secretly one of the most powerful people in existence and then they give some examples from what I've read so far even when a book has a female protagonist her wise teacher is still quite often male and we touched on this before but I just liked the inclusion of them being like fun and quirky cuz that adds an extra additional specification is you don't want just the cuz I will say I know I mentioned the art of Prophecy and you do get a mentor in that they're not exactly fun they're very rough around the edges I've seen some things in life I don't have patience anymore kind of a character but I think the sort of silly iro type that you mentioned that would be a lot of fun to see I completely agree more ladies that are healers Librarians merchants or have specialized skills that aren't centered around stabbing people or disrespecting all the people around them agreed no more declaring a woman a strong female character by making her hate feminine coated things you can be awesome and wear a pink dress which just makes me think of this I I completely agree with you you can be awesome and wear a pretty pink dress there's this thing I saw I don't know who the person is I don't care but she was just like I'm not a feminist I wear dresses or I'm not a feminist I like pink I'm just like some feminists like pink and wear dresses too it just is very similar to what you were saying and yeah I this the idea that that we're all supposed to exist in these certain boxes kind of tying everything full circle no people are more complex than that somehow getting a skin tight and perfectly form-fitting outfit that another character somehow guessed their size perfectly what a very specific thing to mention but yeah I have man there are so many times where a character will be like I'll get you some clothes and they show up and it like fits amazing and I'm like okay I can go to the store and you have jeans that come in so many sizes and so many different cuts and I can try so many of them on and I'm like all these suck none of them fit and somehow in fantasy lands it's like a superpower I don't know how they do it good Mothers should be used more often they can model healthy relationships boundar sacrifice and self-improvement moms can go from being gentle to Steely in the blink of an eye they aren't perfect characters which is ultimately more relatable for the reader a seasoned mom would have a relatively good head on her shoulders and authors could focus on World building plot and character development instead of drama I know we talked about the inclusion of more parents in stories but I really liked the details that you provided here with one why mother characters are so fascinating and the ways in which they can be really really relatable that's relatable not just for moms but for anybody with a relationship with their mother I think that they would really enjoy seeing that kind of jumping off a different comment I saw but more villainous monstrous female characters who are not villainous monsters because they got their heartbroken on a different note this might not necessarily apply to female characters or maybe it does but I would just love to see a female character start off the book as single and then end the book or series as single they don't need to be asexual but I just feel like I never see a female character stay single women like to have fun and not be in committed relationships too and I think the fact that you put two at the end and maybe there's this this idea that men in stories can exist and have interesting compelling plots centered around their character that don't necessarily include falling in love and it feels like women have to have that element in there and perhaps I'm reading too much into the two part of that statement but yeah I think that somebody using the example of Amina Al sarafi was a good one as there are plent of characters whose plots don't revolve around them falling in love and then as far as the villainous monstrous without it being because they got their heartbroken I do think that would be interesting to explore do they have a curse put on them do they transform into that because of the magic of their world I mean what's the reason besides just basically like heartless Off With Their Heads I fell in love something sad happened now I hate everybody would like to see more Butch female characters it also be interesting to see specifically a Butch GNC female character who presents and dresses more masculine but still can't fight but speaking of weapons I do love me some warrior ladies but swords daggers and Bows aren't the only weapons out there let her wield an axe spear Javelin crossbow Etc I'd also love to see more female characters written in archetypes traditionally associate with male characters like the SW swashbuckler the mad scientist the trickster the wise old wizard Etc and in general give them depth and complexity and write them like people and I really like this comment for a number of reasons one I do think that you get the character that is is utilizing stere stereotypically masculine traits as we've gone over it doesn't necessarily mean that literally those can only be applied to men but I think we all know what we're talking about yet those women are still they still show up as stereotypically feminine and it would be kind of cool to have more of the um there's a certain character in Game of Thrones you know that uh she is well in this case she's not the character that presents a certain way but then can't fight she can fight but she's not the most beautiful woman in all the land on top of also being able to fight um so there's Brianna Tarth is who I'm referring to I'm sure you put that together um but yeah I think it would be awesome to see more characters that have a certain look because they like that look for themselves because they like to dress a certain way and it has nothing to do with their ability to fight and then also I like the idea of there being other weapons and the other types cuz you're right that when we do see them fulfilling certain roles that aren't generally associated with female characters it is almost always the warrior character but we don't often see the swashbuckler the mad scientist the trickster and that would be fun I think we get a little bit of the trickster cuz you kind of get the like the street Thief character from time to time but I I'm trying to think think if we've seen I think someone else mentioned Merchant which you see here and there the Stardust Thief is an example of a character that has that but I don't really think of swashbuckler very often Amina kind of has that again she really ticks a lot of the boxes for being different and then I thought it'd be great to end this with this comment because it's succinct and it gets the point across out with strong female characters in with well-rounded female characters because yes a character can be a strong character and well-rounded and I think that is what a lot of us feel is lacking a little bit is that they are strong but that's their whole identity and what a lot of us are really craving and I think this encompasses so much of what we've discussed is we just want to see more nuan real people different experiences than what we're given over and over and over again different character types personality traits we just want to see something new but that is still ction of us but anyway thanks so much for all of your comments thank you so much for continuing to participate in these I really enjoy doing this I really enjoy getting to hear your thoughts on things to feel like I get to actually respond a little bit more than just a brief you know heart in the comments or reading your comment but maybe I don't get the chance to reply I just feel like it allows me to see your perspective on things and feel like there's a little bit more of a connection in that that way so thank you so much a reminder that the prompt for male main characters is officially up when this goes up so if you'd like to participate in that you can leave a comment over on the community tab post if you'd like to guarantee it gets R I'll have my patreon linked but anyway thanks so much for watching let me know your thoughts if there's anything you'd like to add to any of these I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll see you later bye [Music]

Channel: Elliot Brooks

Views: 33,875

Keywords: elliot brooks, elliot, brooks, booktube, booktuber, fantasy, fantasy books, adult fantasy

Id: B94zEIMsxUE

Length: 78min 40sec (4720 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2024