Ophelia's Mind Went Wandering

Literary Lads We Love: Ser Jaime Lannister

2013-10-20T06:06:40Z

Let's get a few things out of the way up front. In most cases, it would be pretty hard to stan for a character that in the first few chapters on the first book alone has sex with his twin sister and throws a 7-year-old off a tower, paralyzing him for life, for catching him having said sex with his sister. In fact, until the third book in the series "A Storm of Swords," it's downright impossible to really find anything to like about Jaime. He's an unrepentant asshole who killed the king he was swore to protect, has a lifelong affair with his twin, fathered three children on her that she's been passing off as the king's, tried to kill Bran, and is just generally the kind of guy you want to punch in the face.

But the beauty of Jaime's character is that we form all of these opinions based off of the first two books ("A Game of Thrones" and "A Clash of Kings") when we see him in other characters' POV chapters. It isn't until the third book that we actually get inside Jaime's head and when we do, everything we thought we knew about Jaime gets turned on its head.

(Okay, yes, he still does all the sister humping and trying to kill Bran, and there's not really an excuse for those, but stay with me here.)

First, to understand Jaime, you have to understand the Lannisters.

The Lannisters of Casterly Rock are one of the richest families in Westeros, and when Jaime is born, his father is Hand to King Aerys. Needless to say, wealth plus power leads to a certain level of entitlement. On top of that, Jaime is gifted as a swordsman, so gifted that he earns a knighthood young and becomes the youngest member ever of the Kingsguard - the most elite of knights who protect the king - at age fifteen. He takes the white cloak in a bid to stay close to his sister Cersei, who is also his lover, because for Jaime, there is only Cersei and will only ever be Cersei.

When Robert's Rebellion happens, his father Tywin, who quit as Hand of the King when Aerys took his heir (Jaime) for the Kingsguard (members of the Kingsguard cannot marry or hold land/titles), refuses to pick a side, waiting to see how things shake out. Jaime essentially becomes a prisoner in the Red Keep, remaining at Aerys's side so he cannot join his father and forced to witness the unraveling of the king. We learn in Jaime's POV that he was often forced to stand by silently as Aerys raped his wife and would literally burn his enemies to death. It is only when his father's men sack the city of King's Landing Jaime acts, skewering the Mad King through the back, clearing the way for Robert Baratheon to become king and earning himself the moniker "Kingslayer."

This is a defining act for Jaime. Prior to this, he had a place of honor on the Kingsguard as its youngest member; now he was seen as having no honor for breaking the single most important vow a knight of the kingsguard makes. Though Jaime occasionally tells the story of that day in a detached manner, we hear his account of it at his most vulnerable in the third book.

Jaime remains in the Kingsguard during Robert's reign, staying close to Cersei and fathering her third children: Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. Jaime isn't particularly interested in parenting them, and everyone thinks they're Robert's children. That is, until certain people start to notice that Robert's children look nothing like him.

When the rumors of the incest begin, Jaime is indisposed, having been captured by Robb Stark and his men. It is during this time Jaime gives one of the speeches that I think best exemplifies Jaime's mindset throughout the series (start at 1:38).

Jaime's speech on vows and how it is impossible to honor them all lets us know that he honors the vows that he thinks are important. He loves Cersei, so his first priority is always to her. He has spent his life taking orders from Tywin above any other, which explains why he lied to his brother Tyrion about Tysha, Tyrion's first wife, being a whore who only wanted him for money. In many ways, Jaime is a simple soldier who has spent his life taking orders. When Tyrion tells Jaime of Cersei's affairs with Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack, it upends Jaime's world. His entire life has been built upon a single truth, and that is destroyed by Tyrion's revelation. Coupled with the loss of his hand, the man Jaime thought himself to be changes completely.

We see this through many ways. When Jaime arrives at King's Landing after Joffrey's death, he literally fucks his sister in the church where their dead son's body lies a few feet away while his sister has her period. I mean...obviously this is not a man whose moral compass is pointing north. But by the end of "A Feast for Crows," he has sent Brienne out to find Sansa Stark because "Sansa Stark is (his) last chance for honor," became serious about writing down the history of the Kingsguard in the white book, and even shown some tenderness to Tommen where before he ignored him. Stripping Jaime of his sword hand strips him of his power; his place as the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard is purely ceremonial and he knows it. Though he has Ilyn Payne training him with his left hand, Jaime knows he'll never be what he was. And with discovering Cersei has slept with other men, Jaime denies his sister's call for the first time in his life. For all Jaime knows, Cersei could be killed if he does not come but still he refuses.

Compare this to the man who threw a child from a tower to protect her only a few years earlier.

There's a large argument amongst fans of the series as to whether or not Jaime has a redemption arc, and I think the piece of the argument that gets missed so often isn't whether or not Jaime deserves redemption for the things he's done - crippling Bran, threatening to launch a baby in a trebuchet, having an affair with his sister, killing his king - but whether or not he wants redemption. I can't imagine Jaime ever consciously thinking, "Oh, I'm going to do this and it will save my soul" because that's not who Jaime is. But in his repetition of "Sansa Stark is my last chance for honor," we do see a different Jaime. Prior to losing his hand and essentially losing Cersei, Jaime could have cared less what happened to Sansa. But the more he writes in the White Book, which contains the stories that are told about the Kingsguard for years to come, the more we see Jaime thinking about honor. I don't necessarily think Jaime wants to be remembered as the Kingslayer or any of the other things he's done. As the world goes to hell around him, even as he's fulfilling his duties, I think there's still a part of him who wants it recognized that he's not without honor.

Jaime views killing Aerys as honorable. It saved the city, it saved thousands of lives, but he gets no real credit for it. He threw Bran from the tower to save Cersei and, by extension, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. It's totally fucked up logic, but Jaime truly believes it. I think it's interesting that all of the Lannister children want recognition they don't receive: Cersei for being as good as any man, Jaime for not being the honorless monster he's thought to be, Tyrion for being just as worthy of respect as anyone else. They all pursue their fruitless goals in different ways, and Jaime's is trying to save Sansa by sending Brienne after her.

Jaime is one of, if not the most complex character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and that alone should be the reason we love him.

And so I leave you with a fanvid that is pure perfection and sums up Jaime much more succinctly than this rambling entry did.

Fic Year in Review: 2012

2012-12-27T00:37:21Z

It's that time of year again, the time where I wonder how I can write 8 jillion words of a fic and can't write 500 words of original stuff.

Total fics written: 41

Vampire Diaries

She Paints Me Blue: (Alaric/Elena) Outside of Mystic Falls, Elena and Alaric realize what they feel for each other is more than platonic. However, life in Mystic Falls is never far behind, and it's incredibly hard to outrun your past.

And It's Hard To Dance With A Devil on Your Back: (Damon/Elena, Damon/Katherine, Damon/Rebekah) I am done with my graceless heart so tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart

Damon and Elena's Adventures in Dating: (Damon/Elena) For a guy who's approaching his bicentennial, he should really be better at this dating thing. Note: Sequel to And It's Hard to Dance

The Beast They Made of Me: (Rebekah-centric) It was hard, being the only daughter. Warning: incest, sexual abuse

The Ghosts That We Knew: (Elijah/Elena, Elijah/Katherine, Elijah/Tatia) How many times can he watch a woman he loves destroyed?

Those Hard Faced Queens of Misadventure: (Klaus/Rebekah, Klaus/Caroline) Loneliness is a terrible thing.

I Am Going Down (I Am Taking You With Me): (Alaric/Elena) They are both so broken and the lines so blurred, everything which shouldn't happen just keeps happening

Our Road is Long (Your Hold is Strong) : (Damon/Elena) Everyone's self-control has a breaking point.

Game of Thrones/ASOIAF

5 Times Gendry Treated Arya Like a Girl: (Arya/Gendry) Arya Stark is his best friend, and she has never wanted to be treated like a lady. But sometimes Gendry forgets.

I'd Tell You That I Miss You (But I'm Sure It Doesn't Matter At All: (Robb/Jeyne) Jeyne knows what people will accuse her of some day, but she loved Robb Stark with her whole heart.

Tame The Ghosts in My Head: (Jon/Val) This was all supposed to be Robb's, but somehow it has fallen to Jon to be the Stark in Winterfell.

The Wildling Way: (Jon/Val) knife-play, woman on top, just something playing on how Jon seems to like how lethal and dangerous she is.

Maggie and Milly and Molly and May: (Sansa/Gendry) All the women she has been crowd her marriage bed.

Give Me Hope in the Darkness: (Sansa/Gendry) "If the gods are good, she'll forget she was a Stark. She'll wed some burly blacksmith or fat-faced innkeep, fill his house with children, and never need to fear that some knight might come along to smash their heads against a wall."

No Featherbed for Me: (Arya-centric) Arya Stark wanted to be a knight; she wanted to find glory and adventure with Needle in her hand. But that is not an appropriate life for a highborn lady, and that was all Arya of House Stark was allowed to be.

If This was the Cold War, We Could Keep Each Other Warm: (Robb/Sansa) Robb survives the Red Wedding, escaping to the Free Cities with Sansa

Lead Me Not Into Temptation: (Robb/Myrcella) The last thing Robb Stark should do is fall for his boss's teenage daughter, but that's exactly what's happening.

Together We Can See What We Can Find: (Sansa/Quentyn Martell) Quentyn Martell is not exactly the prince Sansa had in mind.

And The Keys to the Kingdom Got Locked Inside the Kingdom: (Robb/Sansa) How do you tell a king to stop sleeping with his sister?

We Stole Our New Lives Through Blood and Pain: (Jaime/Catelyn) His father gives Jaime a choice: pick a queen or one will be picked for him. Jaime says the first name which comes to mind, and, just like that, Catelyn Tully becomes his wife.

You're Not A Good Shot But I'm Worse: (Robb/Sansa) Just because they survived the war doesn't mean the fighting is over.

And All This Devotion I Never Knew At All: (Jon/Sansa) Jon doesn't realize just how much he loves Sansa until their son is born.

Here We Stand: (Robb/Dacey) Dacey Mormont loves her king. That is the problem.

Random Comment Fics: (Multiple Pairings) A collection of responses to comment ficathons

And It Swallows Me Whole: (Robb/Dacey) After a hard fought battle, Robb turns to Dacey to burn off some energy.

The Lies We Tell Ourselves: (Robb/Dacey) The stupidest thing Dacey Mormont ever did was forget that, underneath his armor, Robb Stark is just a teenage boy.

A Pair of Dull Scissors in the Yellow Light: (Robb/Dacey) "And the history books forgot about us, and The Bible didn't mention us, not even once."

Practice Makes Perfect: (Sansa/Jeyne Poole) It's just practice for their future husbands, or, at least, that's what Sansa and Jeyne say it is.

Drag Your Teeth Across My Chest: (Robb/Dacey) In the wake of battle, the King of the North wishes to thank his guard for saving his life.

Your Favorite Year: (Robb/Dacey) The first lesson Robb Stark learns as king is the hardest: kings do not always get what they want.

We're Only Taking Turns Holding This World: (Ned/Cersei) Tywin Lannister promised her she'd be queen; instead Cersei finds herself Lady of Winterfell

Goodbye Means Going Away (And Going Away Means Forgetting): (Rickon-centric) Memory is unreliable. No one understands this better than Rickon Stark.

The Evening Star: (Ashara-centric) Some day people will tell tale of Ashara Dayne, the tragic and beautiful sister of the great Ser Arthur Dayne, who flung herself from the Palestone Sword with a broken heart. They will whisper about the man who dishonored her at Harrenhal, the man who got a bastard on her. But they will never get the story right.

The Slow Dance of the Infinite Stars: (Val-centric) The crow who killed the Halfhand was a pretty thing. She could see why Ygritte liked him even if he was so obviously green. Ygritte told them that the boy stole her, but Val could not imagine him so much as raising his voice, let alone stealing a free woman.

No Featherbed For Me Ficlets: (various) A collection of ficlets set in the same universe as No Featherbed For Me which fill in the blanks from different characters POVs

100 ASOIAF Fairytales (16 Completed): (various) A collection of fills for the 100 Fairy Tales Fic Table

Howling Ghosts They Reappear: (Stark-centric) Ned Stark had six children. His enemies should have remembered that.

I'll Never Wear Your Broken Crown: (Baratheon-centric) No one ever truly thought of them as Baratheons. That's fine. It just makes things easier.

You Can't Break That Which Isn't Yours: (Lannister-centric) In this world, in this family, all they have is each other.

The Boys Keep Swinging, The Girls Keep Bringing: (Martell-centric) On his death bed, they promised their father they'd avenge what has been done to their family. The problem is, they might kill each other in the process.

Hurricane Sandy Auction

2012-10-31T17:40:33Z

waltzmatildah is hosting another wonderful fandom aid auction, so head on over, offer your services, and bid on what I'm sure are going to be great fics, icons, and fanart.

And if you want to bid on me, my thread is here.

Literary Ladies We Love: Jessica Darling

2012-10-18T20:59:53Z

“Right now I feel guilty to be alive. Why? Because I’m wasting it. I’ve been given this life and all I do is mope it away.

What’s worse is, I am totally aware of how ridiculous I am. It would be a lot easier if I believed I was the center of the universe, because then I wouldn’t know any better NOT to make a big deal out of everything. I know how small my problems are, yet that doesn’t stop me from obsessing about them.

I have to stop doing this.

How do other people get happy? I look at people laughing and smiling and enjoying themselves and try to get inside their heads. How do Bridget, Manda, and Sara do it? Or Pepe? Or EVERYONE but me?
Why does everything I see bother me? Why can’t I just get over these daily wrongdoings? Why can’t I just move on and make the best of what I’ve got?

I wish I knew.” - Sloppy Firsts

Is there anything worse than being a teenage girl? (The answer is no, and, if you don't agree, these books are obviously not the right books for you.) For Jessica Darling, adolescence is the bane of her existence. A girl who is likely too smart for her own good and now trapped in Pineville, New Jersey, without her best friend Hope, who has just moved to Tennessee, Jessica hates everything. Everything. Despite being relatively popular, Jessica simultaneously despises her social circle but doesn't want to end the friendships and be alone. She is the complete opposite of big sister Bethany (11 years her senior and her mother's favorite) and no one in the family ever mentions her brother Matthew, who died in infancy. Her mother is determined to make Jessica into another Bethany and her father, who constantly calls her "Notso" (as in Not-So-Darling,) is obsessed with Jessica's track career. It is downright overwhelming for Jess, who really just wants to be left alone (but not too alone because such is the life of a 16-year-old girl.)

Enter Marcus Flutie. A known drug addict who slowly works his way into Jess's life following a series of hilarious events, Marcus provides Jess the outlet she needs - someone to talk to who cares about something more than the banalities of high school - while also driving her nuts because she doesn't know how to define what they have (and she also doesn't want the friends she doesn't really like to judge her for hanging with someone like Marcus.) What comes to a head on New Year's Eve sets the tone for the person Jessica is going to become: a girl who puts herself first even when it breaks her heart to do so.

“As much as I don't care about those things, I think it's human nature to not want to feel totally insignificant.” - Second Helpings

The second book in the series finds Jessica nearly a year later. Now a rising senior, Jess is still desperately hung up on Marcus and trying just as desperately to pretend like she isn't. While she still misses Hope, she has rekindled her friendship with childhood best friend Bridget and is eagerly planning her escape to college. Though it has never truly occurred to her before, Mac, the instructor of Jess's summer enrichment program, encourages her to consider writing and writes her a letter of recommendation to Columbia. Jess is all set to flee Pineville for Morningside Heights...and then 9/11 happens. Now terrified of the city, Jess decides to apply to schools she doesn't particularly want to go to in order to feel safer but Columbia is still constantly in her head.

Jess has her first real relationship with Len, the other class brainiac and Marcus's best friend. Marcus explains he wants Jess to be happy and has been pushing Len to be with Jess, thinking it will be good for both of them. Like many teenage girls, Jess is a bit obsessed with being "the last virgin" at school and her thoughts on sex and relationships are explored in detail, particularly how eager she was to lose her virginity to Marcus and her reticence to lose it to Len. Unlike so many teen heroines, Jess never worries or slut shames herself; she is clear in her desire to have sex and isn't ashamed of it. If anything, in her relationship with Len, it is she who initiates sexually, and it is she who gets painted as being "sex crazed."

The end of the second book finds Jessica realizing she needs to do what makes her happy and not rely on what makes her parents/friends/anyone else wants her to do. Jess loses her virginity to Marcus, gets accepted to Columbia, and makes peace with high school, which is something I think everyone has to do at some point.

"Why is it that the most fundamental life lesson — LIVE! — is the one I continually forget to put into practice?” Charmed Thirds

College changes who you are. But what's more, college changes who you think you are. And for Jessica, she finds that maybe Pineville and high school weren't the source of her problems, which opens up a whole other host of problems. At college, Jess is finally confronted with the incredible amount of privilege she has grown up; while always considering herself to be an outcast, her dorm mates point out she was popular, involved in everything, had 2 boyfriends and was wanted by the most popular guy in school, and was a track star. It startles Jess to realize the image she has painted of herself doesn't necessarily fit what other people see of her. Jess also starts to do what a lot of people do: she starts to conform her personality to those around her. We see this when her best friend from college visits Pineville and Jess begins to mimic Jane's traits.

Jessica also realizes, despite all of her proclamations that she and Marcus would last and not be one of those high school couples who break up over distance, her experience with men is pretty limited. One slip with a guy she didn't even particularly like ends her relationship with Marcus, but Jess spends the majority of the book (which spans all 4 years of college) obsessed with him even as she pursues other options. She flirts with an affair with a married classmate, she engages in a truly terrible relationship with an emo philosophy major two years her junior, she has a one-night stand with Len, but through it all, Jess thinks of Marcus.

But even for all of her romantic angst, Jess is also unsure of what it is she wants to do with her life. A psychology major who chose her major without any real thought of a career (much like so many of us) and now looking down the barrel of a huge amount of debt, Jess realizes she has no desire to become a clinical psychologist. Though she continues to write in her journals, she was too intimidated to go out for the Columbia newspaper and her one attempt at writing - an internship with a Brooklyn hipster mag that ends in hilarious disaster - was a single article her editor tried to pass off to her former nemesis Hy. It is only through Mac's intervention she thinks of writing again.

This book is easily the least liked by most fans, but Jess's quest to find herself in college, at times, rings painfully realistic. Jess is self-involved and arrogant and thoughtless, wrapped up in her own bubble, but I can hardly think of anyone who wasn't like that at some point. Being away from home and trying to navigate everything is overwhelming, and Jess is nowhere close to perfect. By the end of the book, she is trying to fix things with Marcus and hoping to handle the future with a bit more grace.

“Most of my friends from Columbia are going on to get advanced degrees. And why not? A Ph.D. is the new M.A., a master's is the new bachelor's, a B.A. is the new high school diploma, and a high school diploma is the new smiley-face sticker on your first-grade spelling test.” Fourth Comings

Taking place over the course of a week, this is the first journal of Jessica's which is written to someone, specifically Marcus, who proposes at the start of the book. For Jess, who is trying to start her life in New York City, the idea of being engaged to Marcus, now a freshman at Princeton, is not an option. What's becoming even more clear is Jess has outgrown Marcus and coming to terms with that is the least of her problems.

This is my favorite of the series because it shows how shitty and difficult life after college really can be. Jess is now sharing a basement apartment in Brooklyn with Hope, who is a master's student by day and a wedding photography by night, Manda, the high school classmate she hated, and Manda's girlfriend Shea. Jess is working part-time writing for a psychology journal and part-time babysitting her niece, and her quest to find full-time employment with benefits is downright impossible. She quickly realizes a bachelor's degree in psychology gets you nowhere, and Jess does not want to go even deeper in debt for a graduate degree when she isn't even sure what she wants to do. Jess feels adrift for the first time in her life without a goal to work towards, and, for an uber-achiever like her, it's an entirely disheartening feeling, especially when everyone around her is going to grad school, getting engaged, and having children. Jess is also starting to realize her perceptions of her parents are still skewed, and, now that she's older, she recognizes there are far more complicated dynamics at play than she originally thought.

Perhaps the best part of this novel and Jess's narrative is everyone's reactions to Marcus's proposal. Jess is unsure what to say; she doesn't want to get married but she's afraid a refusal means the end of their relationship. While Bridget, Bethany, her father, and nearly everyone else seems to support it, it is only Hope who has the guts to tell her the truth: she shouldn't marry Marcus, she shouldn't be with Marcus, and their relationship has always been unhealthy. Jess recognizes the truth in what Hope says and politely refuses Marcus's proposal and ends the relationship, putting herself first and finally moving beyond their relationship.

“Gone for a while
Hoping, always, to return
If you will let me” Perfect Fifths

This book is the only one not written as a journal of Jessica's, and it is also the only one to have Marcus's POV as well. But though there is an argument that could be made about how this series has always been about Jessica and Marcus, this is still Jessica's story. Set four years after the end of Fourth Comings, Marcus is about to graduate from Princeton and Jess is in charge of a storytelling project funded by Hy. They are simultaneously the people they have always been and people the other doesn't know.

What's so wonderful about this book (and man people don't like this volume) is it emphasizes how much of a stranger the person who once knew you best can become. Though Jess ostensibly has it all together now (out of debt, money in the bank, a successful career, about to enter Teacher's College at Columbia), she still feels 16-years-old when it comes to Marcus. We find out she and Marcus have had zero contact since she turned down his proposal, but plenty of gossip has reached her ears. Her success professionally has come at the cost of losing touch with many of her friends, and she is feeling like a failure for missing the flight which will take her to Bridget's wedding. The conversations she has with Marcus are oddly polite, unsure how she's supposed to act with him now.

There's no handbook for adulthood. And while it's great to finally see Marcus's POV and see how he has struggled as well in the wake of their separation, it is Jessica's evolution (and, in some cases, lack thereof) from the sarcastic 16-year-old we first met to the 26-year-old we end with that is the true focus here. Jessica was able to recognize in the fourth book that being with Marcus was what was stopping her from moving forward; they needed the separation to figure out who they were without each other. It is only when they are both who they are meant to be that they can be together again. And when Jessica wakes up at the end of the fifth book, happy, successful, and hopeful for the future, you can truly see that Jessica has grown up, not necessarily how she thought she would but in a way that has made her a strong, capable woman.

“Excuse our appearances. We are taking apart yesterday, to make way for tomorrow” Perfect Fifths

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #100

2012-09-05T22:56:18Z

100. Thunder Heart Woman, as seen in the miniseries Into the West, portrayed by Tonantzin Carmelo

I'm fascinated by Native stories. I don't think there are any groups of people who are more marginalized and treated deplorably, especially in the US. I live in Pennsylvania, a little over an hour away from the Seneca reservation in Salamanca. Most people I know go up there to go to the casino or to buy cigarettes, but one year, we were returning from visiting my uncle in New York when we happened to be passing by reservation during their annual Pow Wow. They open it up to the public so people can see their crafts and dances, and I remember being fascinated by how beautiful everything seemed. I was still in elementary school, and I didn't fully understand the depth of what had been done to the tribes then. It wasn't until I was older I saw how terribly the people who went to the reservation for cigarettes and gambling really treated those who lived on the reservation, and it became clear to me why they didn't like us either. I think it's so easy to romanticize the Native experience because generally, when we see it depicted in books and movies, it's all Dances With Wolves and Pocahontas and not the ugly reality of what was really done.

Into the West, by no means, is a perfectly accurate representation of the Native experience (especially since it was written and directed by white people), but it showed in gritty, bloody detail what happened in the last 19th century. The miniseries follows the lives of 2 families: that of Jacob Wheeler, a white wheelwright who travels West for adventure, and that of Loved by the Buffalo, a Lakota medicine man who forsees the end of his people. Told in 5 2-hour installments, it tracks the lives of Jacob and Loved by the Buffalo from the 1820s through Wounded Knee. Involved in both sets of stories is Thunder Heart Woman, the sister of Loved by the Buffalo and Jacob's wife.

When we first meet Thunder Heart Woman, she is essentially being traded by her father to a fur trapper in exchange for goods. She appears happy with her husband and daughter until a night raid by the Crow kills her husband, takes her daughter, and leads to rape and abuse for Thunder Heart Woman. Eventually she ends up being auctioned off to a collection of mountain men, and Jacob "wins" her with the sole goal to returning her to her family. She and Jacob fall in love and wed, eventually having 3 children: Margaret Light Shines, Abraham High Wolf, and Jacob Junior High Cloud. Jacob brings Thunder Heart Woman home to Virginia, but Jacob's family is nowhere near as accepting of Thunder Heart Woman as her family was of Jacob. They decide to return West, this time with Jacob's brother Jethro and his three female cousins. Jacob falls ill with cholera, and they have to leave him behind. With three children and without real protection, Thunder Heart Woman marries Jethro and has another daughter Corn Flower before eventually being reunited with Jacob. The miniseries eventually begins to follow the children of Jacob and Thunder Heart Woman as well as her brothers, but Thunder Heart Woman is frequently at the heart of the story.

What I love about Thunder Heart Woman is her resilience. Throughout her life, she experiences incredible challenges: being separated from her family and culture, abused by men, her infant daughter stolen from her, her first husband murdered in front of her eyes, having to navigate Jacob's world in Virginia and being discriminated against, trying to raise her children with little help from Jethro, Abraham running away and never seeing him again, Jacob Junior's death, a long separation from Margaret; we also see the way she aches for her children's struggles, being biracial at a time when to be so meant being ostracized. For Margaret, who appears more Native than white, and Abraham, who embraces his Native heritage, it makes life difficult for them; it is only Jacob Junior who can "pass" for white who has any degree of success and it gets him killed by his own Native relatives. Thunder Heart Woman understands this far better than Jacob ever does, and it is she who holds together the Wheeler family. Without Thunder Heart Woman's perseverance and strong will, the Wheelers would not have survived so long as they did, and she managed to maintain her culture and pass it down to her children in the process.

And that's wonderfully kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #99

2012-09-05T21:27:30Z

99. Anita “Needy” Lesnicki, as seen in the film Jennifer's Body, portrayed by Amanda Seyfried

I feel like Diablo Cody movies are one of those things which people either love or hate. There are those who find her movies (Juno, Jennifer's Body, and Young Adult) to be pretentious and try-hard while others think they're hilarious and insightful. I love Diablo Cody because I think she does a great job of discussing issues women experience in a witty, not always entirely true to life way. Jennifer's Body is my favorite of Cody's movies because it's very tongue-in-cheek and manages to show a real friendship between teenage girls while satirizing the whole idea of a maneater.

Needy is the best friend of the titular Jennifer. Since they were children, Needy has always been the sidekick to popular Jennifer, and no one seems to understand why Needy wants to remain friends with her. Jennifer is selfish, prone to being incredibly judgmental of Needy and deliberately flirting with a guy she knows Needy has some interest in. When Jennifer becomes a succubus, it is Needy who notices the changes and vows to stop her. It is only when Jennifer becomes an actual demon that Needy is able to find her own voice and finally stand up to Jennifer.

What I love about Needy is you can see how much Needy changes throughout the film. At the start of Needy's story (not the mental institution framing device), she is the very definition of mousy and and unassuming; Needy has no voice because Jennifer is her voice. By the time Needy finally stops Jennifer, she is angry, vocal, and able to assert herself in ways she never before was. Even though this movie is obviously a horror movie where the girl's best friend becomes a man-eating demon, I think it works really well as a study in teenage friendships, which can be pretty predatory. By the end of the film, Needy no longer lives up to her nickname; she is her own person, independent of Jennifer.

And that's pretty kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #98

2012-08-24T20:51:00Z

98. J, as seen in the web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, portrayed by Issa Rae

I read a lot of blogs, some of substance (what's up, Feministing?) and some ridiculous (looking at you, ONTD.) But both were up in arms earlier this year when a web series called Awkward Black Girl won a Shorty Award and was promptly the recipient of an incredible amount of racist attacks via Twitter, spearheaded by the white, male shock jock who lost to her. At the time I was disgusted but not particularly shocked; a black female winning what is the highest award for the medium beating out white males inevitably leads to straight up bullshit and cries of political correctness "robbing" more "deserving" people of awards. If it was not for the outrage over what was said to Issa Rae, I might never have watched Awkward Black Girl, which is sad because it is easily one of the funniest things I've seen.

Awkward Black Girl tells the story of J, the titular awkward black girl. She works at Gutbusters, a weight loss company, and hates pretty much everyone she works with, especially (in the first season) her racially insensitive boss and co-worker Nina. This all starts to change when CeCe starts working for the company, quickly becoming J's best friend, as well as the arrival of Fred, the handsome co-worker J has a crush on but is too awkward to pursue. The series tracks J's awkward misadventures, her passive-aggressive antics, the dilemma of choosing between Fred and White J, her white male counterpart who is equally awkward, and life in general.

What I love about J is her internal monologue is my internal monologue. Though race is addressed (particularly in a hilarious episode where J and White J go on their first date and realize they both aren't quite sure how interracial dating works), J's issues are universal. She doesn't know how to stand up for herself at work, she isn't sure how to act at parties, she goes home and writes angry rap lyrics to get out her aggression which she doesn't really share with anyone; for all the shows claiming to depict "real life," Awkward Black Girl is the one which shows the life I live and most of my friends live. J's life isn't about these huge defining moments of great significance; it is a string of humorous, painful, banal, exciting, frustrating, and awkward moments that J tries to navigate in order to have the best life she can.

And that's refreshingly kick-ass.

I encourage you all to watch the first episode (episodes are between 3-12 minutes a piece) and see if you don't want to keep watching.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #97

2012-08-22T20:04:17Z

97. Sloan Sabbith, as seen on The Newsroom, portrayed by Olivia Munn

I really love "The West Wing." I think it's one of the best shows in terms of powerful women who know who they are and what they're not willing to compromise on, and, as a result, I became a fan of Aaron Sorkin. But the problem with liking Aaron Sorkin is that, in real life, Sorkin is a douchebag. He says incredibly offensive, paternalistic things, laments when "men were men" with absolutely no sense of irony, and condescendingly calls women in press conferences "hey, internet girl." The Newsroom has suffered a lot of criticism because of Sorkin's douchebaggery, and, while I can only repeatedly roll my eyes at the Will/MacKenzie subplot entwined throughout the series, there are also characters like Jim and Maggie and Neal who feel real and well-rounded. But I was genuinely surprised to find my favorite female character to be Sloan, and it's because it challenges my own prejudices.

A little background: I irrationally dislike Olivia Munn. I'm sure there's something wildly anti-feminist about it, but something about her just bothers me. It's the same irrational dislike I have of Zooey Deschanel and Scarlett Johansson; there isn't a real reason behind it but something about her irks me. And it wasn't until I started really thinking about it that I realized, in regards to Olivia Munn, I was irritated that her whole shtick seems to be "I'm totally outraged people judge me by my looks, but check out how I look in this Princess Leia cosplay!" The more I thought on it, the more I realized it was ridiculous because why should I care what Olivia Munn does? I could argue that when women trade on their looks, it makes it that much harder for women unwilling to do it, but Munn is in show business; everyone does that. Why does it bother me if Olivia Munn wears a gold bikini but doesn't bother me when male celebs "get caught" by the paparazzi while shirtless and showing off their abs?

The character of Sloan Sabbith is a play on this idea. Munn was famously derided after being hired at The Daily Show for being hired only for her works and none of her qualifications. When we first meet Sloan, she is an on-air correspondent concerning financial matters and MacKenzie, the executive producer for News Night, wants her to join their show because, while a lot of people can discuss economics, "not all of them have your (Munn's) legs." Sloan is eminently qualified for her job; she holds two doctorates in economics and is frequently the smartest person in a room full of smart people. But by putting it out there - Sloan is qualified but essentially hired for her looks - the show begins to play with the idea of eye candy and intelligence. This comes to the forefront when Sloan bungles a news report with a Japanese representative on-air, switching to fluent Japanese mid-broadcast and repeating something the rep said off the record. When confronted by the head of broadcast news - a man old enough to be her grandfather, shouting as loud as he can in front of all of her coworkers, calling her to the carpet and being wholly condescending - Sloan not only stands up for herself, refuses to apologize for what she did, and, when her boss refers to her as "girl," shouts back, "Do not call me girl!" Put in direct contrast with Maggie, who it is said "would not complain if her head was on fire," Sloan is a woman who is used to being talked down to by older men and she is having none of their shit.

What I love about Sloan is she does not apologize for her intelligence. She truly believes in what she does - reporting on financial issues the average person doesn't understand - when she could be making millions by working in the financial district. She doesn't seem to have any particular broadcast aspirations; she did not want to do the 10 o'clock broadcast which lead to such trouble for her, and she refused to do the RNC debate after they denied it to Will. She is also well-aware of what people say about her and think about her; when Neal begins his investigation into online trolls and asks Sloan if he can use her for a subject, she's more bothered by the assertion her ass is fat than by claims she is unqualified because she knows it's not true and she does not care what others think. Any woman in a position of power inevitably ends up getting hit with the "sleeping to the top" accusation or some other equally misogynistic assertion. It's offensive and disgusting, and I love that there's this meta quality to Sloan's story line, which also calls to the carpet Munn's detractors. You can be beautiful and feminine and qualified, and you shouldn't have to explain or apologize for it, which Sloan doesn't.

And that's wildly kick-ass.

lit_chick08 @ 2012-08-21T23:44:00

2012-08-22T03:44:17Z

So I have a lot of free time. And, because I have a lot of free time, I end up spending a lot of time online, where I encounter a lot of fandom stuff and a lot of sexism/racism/general douchebaggery. I occasionally rant in my LJ and I sometimes do it on tumblr, but I decided to make it a little more formal.

So I started a blog about Feminism and Pop Culture.

Not specifically fandom related (though some things are) but more woman-focused than anything. And since I know a lot of my flist likes to meta/has seen some pretty shitty things in fandom, I figured I'd extend the offer:

Want to talk about the consent/nonconsent argument on "The Vampire Diaries?" Want to rage against the TWOP forums? Want to discuss the fuckery that happened in the wake of Kristen Stewart cheating? If you want to write it and send it to me, I'll put it up on the blog. I can't guarantee anyone will read it (outside of me, of course), but the way I see it, there are a lot of blogs about feminism, a lot of blogs about pop culture, and a lot of blogs about fandom, but not a lot which combine everything (and, no, I am not counting Jezebel.)

I have a lot of feelings, guys, and I know a lot of you guys do too. And even if you don't want to do it, if you know someone who might, send 'em the link. You can either sent it to me via PM or my email me at lit.chick86@gmail.com.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #96

2012-08-16T17:12:54Z

96. Eva Rodriguez, as seen in the film Center Stage, portrayed by Zoe Saldana

I love dancing. I feel about dancing the way other people feel about organized sports. I could watch dance, especially ballet, every day and never get sick of it. There's such beauty and control required to be a prima ballerina, and that which looks effortless to the audience requires literally years of training, rehearsal, and painful injuries. My friends and I used to joke that ballet was a contact sport, especially as you get older and you begin to realize not everyone is going to end up dancing with an actual company, and that is something Center Stage demonstrates perfectly.

Center Stage follows several ballet dancers at the American Ballet Academy (which is based on the real School of American Ballet), one of the most selective places in the world in hopes of eventually making the American Ballet Company. From the beginning, the director of the company explains he will, at most, be able to take 3 boys and 3 girls from a pool of hundreds. These are the odds, and every dancer lives with constant anxiety over failing. Some, like Emily, are cut due to weight concerns (though ballet companies will insist there's no "ideal" weight, I've known girls who, at 5'7 and 115 pounds, were told they were "too big"), while others, like Jodi, are in danger of being cut for a bad turnout. Ballet is about looking uniform, not drawing undue attention to yourself and performing every movement the same as your fellow dancers. So it's no wonder Eva stands out.

Unlike the other dancers at ABA, Eva Rodriguez does not come from a privileged background; she is also the only woman of color we see in a world that is predominantly white. Unlike Jodi or even Maureen, Eva is not focused on what part she is going to get; having angered the company director and the teachers since day one, she knows her time at ABA is short and just plans on having fun. But what differentiates Eva from Maureen is Eva genuinely loves ballet. For all of her thumbing her nose at the rules and disdain for the process, Eva is a beautiful dancer with limitless potential, and Juliet, their instructor, recognizes this. When Eva takes Maureen's place during the student showcase, you not only see the shock of the company director who expected nothing of her but you see the genuine joy on Eva's face, a joy even more pure than her excitement at being selected for ABC.

What I love about Eva is her energy. It's easy to write her off as the rebellious one, but it isn't rebellion which drives Eva. Eva is the one who is able to recognize there is more to the world than ballet and refuses to give up her entire life to dance in the corps. She's smart and talented, and, yes, she has a chip on her shoulder, but it's how she has to survive in the snake pit of ABA. More importantly, Eva is able to recognize that rebellion is not going to get her anywhere but sent home; she is able to make the corrections and become a stronger dancer, one of the very select few to make ABA. Eva is much like a lot of teenagers: certain she knows everything until life kicks her ass a little bit, but once she sees the error of her ways, able to become the person she was meant to be.

And that's pretty kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #95

2012-08-14T22:47:15Z

95. Nicolette "Nicki" Grant, as seen on Big Love, portrayed by Chloe Sevigny

It is amazing how many times in my life I have been asked how many mothers I have. The moment anyone hears Mormon, their mind frequently goes to "polygamist," and, where I once got super offended, now I just roll my eyes and explain the difference between LDS and FDLS. That being said, I'm fascinated by polygamy. The structure of it, how it works, people who choose it, I can't get enough. Thus, when Big Love came on, I had to tune in. As expected, I love it; all of the characters are fascinating in their own ways, but the one I love the most is Nicki.

Unlike first wife Barb and third wife Margene, Nicki is the only one of Bill Henrickson's wives who grew up in polygamy; what's more, she grew up in Juniper Creek on a compound of FDLS where her father Roman is the "prophet." Nicki grew up with a certain amount of cache and, with a father who is the very definition of manipulative, she learned at an early age how to play people to get what she wants. When we first meet Nicki, she is certainly the most unlikable of the wives. Despite her adherence to certain FDLS principles, like modest clothing and keeping her hair long, Nicki is incredibly materialistic and manages to get herself into $50,000 worth of credit card debt she hides from the family. She is also secretly taking birth control for much of the series, already having two young sons and not wanting any more. Nicki resents being the second wife and being unable to control the family, but she also deeply loves and respects Barb, who has been more of a mother to her than her own mother Adalene. It is Nicki who is able to understand the complex politics of Juniper Creek better than the others, and, when her closeted brother Albie assumes the role of prophet, it is Nicki who frequently keeps him in line. It is not until the fourth season we learn that Nicki was married off at 14 to a cruel man and the only way she was allowed to escape the marriage was to leave her daughter Cara Lynn behind. With her father's death and Bill "outting" them as polygamists, Nicki finally begins to break away from the compound, assuming custody of Cara Lynn, cutting her hair, and venturing out more into the "real" world.

What I love about Nicki is the inherent contradictions about her. She has been taught to be self-sacrificing and non-materialistic but grew up in the biggest house in Juniper Creek and loves to indulge in the earthly pleasures denied to her as a child. She loves her sister wives but resents the attention Bill pays them as well as the easy way they seem to have with people. She loves Bill but also resents that she lives in a subculture where the man controls everything. But most of all, Nicki believes in her father, Juniper Creek, and FDLS even after being essentially sold to her first husband, her innocence stolen from her, her education effectively over at 8th grade. There is a frequent undertone between Nicki and her brother Albie which hints that, if Nicki had been born a boy, it would have been she who became their father's right hand, and we see the deft intelligence in Nicki, which she frequently uses for bad rather than good. But what I love most about Nicki is, for all of her strength and ability to survive, she is incredibly fragile. We see this in the first season when she panics that the family is going to be split up when Barb is outted during the Mother of the Year competition; we see it when she desperately tries to hide her first marriage from the family so they don't know what was done to her. Nicki is one of the most flawed characters I've ever come across, and it is her flaws which make her fascinating.

And I wish more people recognized how kick-ass that is.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #94

2012-08-13T22:19:57Z

94. Ramona Quimby, as seen in the The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary and the film Ramona and Beezue, portrayed by Joey King

Being the super awesome kid that I was, I despised being outside. I much preferred sitting in the air conditioning and reading books. When my parents finally gave up on getting me to go outside, where I might sweat and get dirty, they admitted defeat. Since they didn't want to be put into the poor house by buying me books every other day, my parents signed me up for this reading group at the public library. As it happened, they were running a competition that summer for who could read the most books, and, being the uber-competitive person I am, I accepted the challenge. In my desperate 7-year-old desire to win the prize (pool tickets and a Dairy Queen coupon), I cleared out every chapter book I could find, including an entire row of Beverly Cleary books.

For those who haven't read them, the Ramona series - Beezus and Ramona, Ramona the Pest, Ramona the Brave, Ramona and Her Father, Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona Quimby Age 8, Ramona Forever, and Ramona's World - follows a little girl named Ramona, her older sister Beezus (Beatrice), her parents, her aunt, her friends, and her teacher. Ramona is a mischievous little girl who always has the best intentions but frequently finds herself in trouble. She is equal parts in awe of her sister and frustrated by her, and she worships her Aunt Bea. The series starts with Ramona starting school and continues on through Ramona's 4th grade year.

What I love about Ramona is how she encapsulates everything awesome and awful about being a kid. On the one hand, she's not self-conscious, she charges into everything with enthusiasm and excitement, and she never allows herself to be told she can't do something. On the other, she is usually in trouble, often finds herself embarrassed, and occasionally doesn't understand why people react the way they do. No matter what, Ramona finds a way to succeed in a situation, no matter how crazy it may be, and she does it without ever hiding how intelligent she is.

And, for a little girl, that is delightfully kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #93

2012-08-06T19:23:34Z

93. Candice "Cannie" Shapiro, as seen in the novel Good in Bed and Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

I think the most complicated relationship a woman has is with herself, and self-image plays a very large role in that. You can be the most "successful" woman in the world (great career, great relationships, money in the bank) but none of that seems to matter if the woman's weight is not what she wants. I know beautiful, wonderful women who are enslaved to unnecessary diets and bizarre exercise plans in order to fit some arbitrary definition of beauty; these are the same women who lose massive amounts of weight and, even when they hit their goal weight, think they still need to lose more weight because they aren't as thin as they thought they'd be or their life didn't magically improve the way they thought it would. And it isn't as if I'm immune to it; having gained a great deal of weight in a short period of time, I am deeply involved in a love/hate relationship with my body, and half of the reason I love Jennifer Weiner's books so much is because of the way she describes this struggle with yourself.

When we first meet Cannie in Good in Bed, she has recently gone on a break from her loser, do-nothing boyfriend only to have him turn around and get a job writing a sex column for a Cosmo-like magazine, making Cannie the subject of his first article. Titled "Loving a Larger Woman," Bruce recounts his relationship with Cannie. Understandably upset, Cannie is ready to murder him when everyone begins to point out that the article isn't really insulting of Cannie; if anything, the article emphasizes that Bruce was always more comfortable with Cannie's weight and body than Cannie was. Cannie decides to enroll in a weight loss study where she meets Peter, a doctor who has a soft spot for her, especially when she has to drop out of the program due to an unplanned pregnancy, where she gets no help from Bruce. Cannie also ends up befriending one of the biggest movie stars in the world when she is sent to interview her, and that opens up some career doors for her. When Cannie finally does lose weight (following the premature birth of her daughter Joy, a total hysterectomy, and crippling depression) her life doesn't magically get better; Cannie begins to realize her weight has very little to do with her life and the person she is, and the only people who are making it an issue are herself and terrible people.

In Certain Girls, we pick up with Cannie 12 years after Good in Bed, now the mother of a teenage daughter who is embarrassed by her. After writing a book about her life, Cannie has retreated to ghostwriting a sci-fi series and trying to be the kind of solid parent she lacked growing up. Her decision to have a child with Peter via surrogate once again leads to Cannie raising a child under less-than-ideal circumstances, and we see that, while Cannie has become more comfortable in some respects, she still has insecurities when it comes to her body and her attractiveness in comparison to her husband's.

What I love about Cannie is, she is a strong, independent person who has the same insecurities of every woman but especially of "larger" women. When Bruce moves on with a new (slimmer) girlfriend, even though Cannie thinks he's a loser (gets all of his money from his parents, a grad student in permanent limbo, has a long ponytail), she panics and wonders if she made a mistake because what if no one else ever wants her? She frequently over-analyzes herself into panic, and, even when she knows she's doing the right thing, she wonders if people will hate her for it. One of the largest issues for Cannie is her father, who walked out on the family never to return and was unbelievably cruel to Cannie before he left; even when she meets again in Los Angeles, he does not recognize her or care to know her. Cannie often wonders if this is going to color all of her relationships with men, and it's something I think a lot of women can relate to. Cannie is smart, capable, a little neurotic, and frequently insecure, but she always keep moving forward, determined to have the life she wants.

And that's admirably kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #92

2012-08-04T21:20:16Z

92. Shoshanna Shapiro, as seen on Girls, portrayed by Zosia Mamet

To say that Girls is polarizing would be a massive understatement. Anyone who spent any time on the internet when it premiered knows it was heralded in equal measures as being "brilliant" and "racist" for not including women of color (or, really, any people of color) outside stereotypical roles in the first season. Is the race criticism fair? Absolutely. The show is set in New York City (Brooklyn specifically) and it is definitely not a lily white city. But is it shocking that a group of rich, privileged white people are only friends with other rich, privileged white people? Not at all. I'm white, so obviously I can find a lot of racial representation in any media, and I absolutely think there should be more people of color (especially women of color) in media; but I also think Girls caught most of the racial backlash because it was being heaped with such praise. How I Met Your Mother is also set in New York and features no racial minorities, but there are no boycotts being organized; Two Broke Girls does feature racial minorities in highly offensive stereotypes, and it has literally gotten only a sliver of the criticism. I guess my point is: every show/network/movie is failing across the board in racial and ethnic diversity and it should be addressed and offending media called out, but Girls isn't any more deserving of criticism than other shows.

Girls is about a set of friends in Brooklyn who are living incredibly privileged existences and somehow also incredibly blind to that fact. Hannah, the main character, has been financially supported for 2 full years by her parents before getting cut off; Marnie, Hannah's roommate and best friend from college, is the only one who works full-time but is passive-aggressive and privileged; Jessa, another friend from college, is a bohemian world traveler who now has to work as a nanny and un-ironically tells a group of immigrant nannies being paid much less than she is, "I'm just like all of you,"; and Shoshanna, Jessa's cousin and roommate, who is still a student at NYU and a virgin in a world of non-virgins. These are not always likable characters; in fact, most of the time they're incredibly unlikable. But they are also some of the best examples of the complicated dynamics of female friendship, especially in a post-collegiate world where all the rules have suddenly changed.

Shoshanna is easily the "Charlotte" of the group. Perky, well-intentioned, and the very definition of a JAP, she is the member of the group who is there because Jessa brought her. Beyond being spoiled by her parents, Shoshanna does not have much in common with the core three, but she desperately wants to be. I mean, this is a girl who stopped at a candy shop so everyone could have snacks while Jessa gets an abortion. But Shoshanna frequently feels panicked at being a 22-year-old virgin. Her early attempts to get rid of her virginity ends awkwardly because no one wants to be the first; by the time she loses her virginity in the season finale, Shoshanna has started to become cynical about relationships. While all of the girls in the show are growing up and becoming adults, Shoshanna is the one who is starting to realize the idealization of adulthood is nowhere near what you imagine and Prince Charming isn't necessarily going to come in and sweep you off your feet.

What I love about Shoshanna is she's genuinely a sweet person. Easily the most likable of the characters, Shoshanna is equal parts confused, disgusted, amazed, and in awe of her friends. She is hungry for female friendship and acceptance, and it leads to situations she certainly never expected (such as accidentally smoking crack at a party in Bushwick.) I hope that we see more of Shoshanna next season, not only because she's hysterically funny, but because it's so rare we see female characters in media who aren't super comfortable with their sexuality but really want to be. So often women end up as the Madonna or the whore, but Shoshanna is neither; she is the Madonna who wants to be the whore but only wants to be the whore because she thinks that what society expects. Shoshanna is an excellent example of societal pressures an expectations boiled down into one neurotic undergrad.

And that's pretty kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #91

2012-07-29T21:10:59Z

91. Marianne Mulvaney, as seen in the novel We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates and the film We Were the Mulvaneys, portrayed by Tammy Blanchard

I have a love/hate relationship with Joyce Carol Oates. There are books of hers which I love and recommend to everyone, and there are books of hers I despise and don't understand why they're so revered. And then there is We Were the Mulvaneys, which breaks my heart in every possible way and does it beautifully.

We Were the Mulvaneys tells the tale of an upper-middle-class family in Mt. Ephraim, New York who is known throughout town for their perfection. Michael runs a successful roofing company while Corinne is a stay-at-home mother. Michael Junior is a star football player who joins the marines, Marianne is a popular student, her twin brother Patrick is a genius headed to college on a scholarship, and Judd is the youngest, in awe of his siblings. And then everything goes wrong on Valentine's Day when Marianne is date raped after prom. Michael doesn't understand why Marianne won't press charges against her attacker and slowly descends into alcoholism, losing his business and the Mulvaney family home. Patrick drops out of school and starts a vigilante quest to get revenge on Marianne's rapist. Mike Junior stays far away, wanting nothing to do with the dissolution of his family, and Judd bears witness to his mother's refusal to accept anything while he struggles to stay afloat. But the true sadness is Marianne, whom Michael sends away to Salamanca to live with family members because he is unable to handle her rape, and Marianne spends the next 15 years bouncing around without roots, desperately waiting for her father to invite her back home, an invitation that never comes.

What I love about Marianne is, even for the genuine sadness of her story, she is one of the most hopeful characters I've ever read, played especially to perfection by Tammy Blanchard in the film. She genuinely believes the best in her family, even though they essentially abandon her in the wake of her rape, and she thinks if she just stays away long enough, they will be able to come to terms with her rape, she can return to the farm, and all will be as it was. The only companion Marianne has throughout this is her cat, who leads her to the veterinarian she eventually builds a life with; he is wonderfully understanding of everything Marianne has been through and she begins to truly heal when she finds acceptance with him. Marianne's own thoughts and feelings over her rape are deeply conflicted; she partially blames herself for being intoxicated and she desperately wishes everyone would forget it, not wanting to be defined by it. Marianne's story is genuinely sad, but she is also one of the strongest characters I've ever come across.

And that's an inspiring kind of kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #90

2012-07-28T22:50:36Z

90. Gillian Owens, as seen in the novel Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman and the film Practical Magic, portrayed by Nicole Kidman

I have a lot of siblings, none of whom I have anything in common with; in fact, there are often times where I find myself looking at them and wondering how we are remotely related. I go through life spending about 75% of my time wanting to strangle one of them and trying to convince myself I was switched at birth. However, the other 25% of the time, they are the only people in the world I want to be around and the only people who really understand me. It is a tricky balance, and I don't think there's any relationship which is as complicated as the ones you have with your siblings. Practical Magic does a great job with this dichotomy.

In the film, there is a great deal of emphasis placed on the magic of the Owens family, but, in the book which is considerably different on every level, the emphasis is on the differences between big sister Sally and little sister Gillian. Born only 11 months apart, Sally and Gilly are best friends, especially in the wake of their parents' deaths and moving in with their elderly great-aunts. Sally is the one who never breaks the rules, and Gillian is the sister who has never found a rule she didn't want to break. While Sally marries and settles into a "traditional" lifestyle, Gillian sets out to live an exciting life. This becomes a string of brief, failed marriages, a string of messes Sally has to clean up for her, and, ultimately, an abusive relationship which ends in murder. Whereas in the film Gillian becomes possessed by the ghost of her murdered lover, in the book it is much simpler. Gillian begins to move on, trying to cobble together a normal life for herself with a high school science teacher it is something she chafes at from time to time, her wanderlust frequently kicking in, and it often leads to clashes with Sally over the mess Gillian continues to leave at Sally's door.

What I love about Gillian is her fearlessness. Most people would not hurtle themselves into the situations Gillian does, but, for better or worse, Gillian refuses to restrict herself to a life she does not want simply because other people tell her that's what she should want. Bad relationships and her inability to hold jobs do not define Gilly; she is defined only by herself, and so much of the friction between herself and Sally is over Sally's attempt to put her in a box and dictate to her. Gillian is a mess and a woman who would drive you nuts if she was actually your sister, but she's also wonderfully creative and exciting and unapologetic for not wanting to settle.

And that's kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #89

2012-07-27T20:45:25Z

89. Bliss Cavender, as seen in the novel Derby Girl by Shauna Cross and the film Whip It, portrayed by Ellen Page

I have a slight fascination with the South. Having spent several years living in Louisiana, it was seriously like witnessing a different culture altogether. Certain things which are more of a Southern phenomenon (like beauty pageants) aren't nearly as big in Pennsylvania, and having your daughter be a beauty queen around here is an interesting anecdote but more likely setting yourself up for some jokes. It wasn't until a friend of mine explained what a gigantic deal pageants are in some Southern enclaves that I realized what a subversive choice Bliss makes in her story. (Full disclosure: I've never read the book, only seen the movie, so that's what I'll be talking about.)

In Whip It, Bliss Cavender is the eldest of two girls who is relatively mousy. Her mother marches her through beauty pageant after beauty pageant for her "future," and her mother was also a beauty queen. She sees her pushing of Bliss into such competitions as the chance to have a better future while Bliss views it as torture. While the other girls are fawning over their custom dresses, Bliss is having her best friend dye her hair blue right before going onstage. Bliss and her mother are on two different planets when it comes to the vision they have for Bliss's future, and a chance encounter Bliss has with some roller derby players at a shop in the mall changes Bliss's life. Bliss is in awe of these women, who seem so ballsy and take charge, and Bliss wants to be more like that. Lying to her mother about SAT prep courses, Bliss joins the Hurl Scouts, the hottest new jammer in the their league, and in the process becomes more assertive at home, at work, and in her relationships. Where once she avoided conflict with her mother, happy to go along, Bliss begins to stand up for herself with varying results. Even when she tries to placate her mother by competing in the biggest pageant of the year, her father sees how unhappy Bliss is when she isn't playing roller derby and gives her permission to play in the finals. The Hurl Scouts don't win, but Bliss (aka Babe Ruthless) becomes a stronger person by the end of the film.

What I love about Bliss is she is one of the few teenage girls who feel real. She's sarcastic and doesn't like her mother while simultaneously wanting to please her; she doesn't have perfect friendships with her friends and she makes really stupid decisions that everyone is telling her are stupid. The hero worship she has for the older women on her team is quickly put in check by Kristen Wiig's character, who tells her that roller derby should not be her entire life. Teenagers tend to have tunnel vision without an understanding of gray space, and Bliss is a great example of that. And yet, for all of her flaws, Bliss becomes a girl who is self-assured, confident, and more mature than when she started. Bliss isn't a superhero or over-the-top; she's just a girl trying to find her way and knocking girls on rollerskates out of the way to make that happen.

And that's delightfully kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #88

2012-07-26T18:54:30Z

88. Astrid Magnusson, as seen in the novel White Oleander by Janet Finch and the film White Oleander, portrayed by Alison Lohman

I am fascinated by the concept of family. Maybe it's because mine is highly dysfunctional and I prefer friends to family, maybe it's because no two families are alike, but either way, I devour books about the family dynamic. White Oleander asks questions about what is a family, how easy is it to adapt into a family not of your birth, and how do you become the adult you want to be when your past is weighting you down.

White Oleander is the tale of Astrid and Ingrid Magnusson. Astrid has grown up with her mother, a poet with delusions of grandeur who never speaks of Astrid's father. Ingrid begins to date a man named Barry, whom ends up cheating on Ingrid. Enraged, she poisons him with white oleander and is sent to jail for murder, leaving Astrid to be shuttled from foster home to foster home. At the first (an alcoholic stripper turned born-again Christian) Astrid ends up shot after Starr relapses with alcohol after figuring out Astrid and Starr's boyfriend are having an affair. At the second (a home with two small children who use her as a babysitting service) she ends up exchanging oral sex for pot in the park and getting sent away. At the third (a woman who only feeds the girls dinner but locks up the food the rest of the day) Astrid has to resort to eating out of the school garbage cans. At the fourth (a never-quite-made-it actress and her philandering husband) Astrid finally feels at home only for her foster mother to kill herself. This leads to Astrid being sent to a group placement, where she meets Paul, another foster kid with artistic talent. Her last foster home (a Russian immigrant whose boyfriend Astrid also sleeps with) leads her to remember a woman named Annie, whom Astrid comes to find out took care of her for over a year when her mother abandoned her as a child. The book/film ends with Ingrid asking Astrid to lie to get her out of jail; finally having power over her mother, Astrid gives her an ultimatum: make her lie on the stand and Ingrid will lose Astrid completely. She lets Astrid go, and Astrid goes to Berlin with Paul to become an artist.

What I love about Astrid is she is the very definition of resilient. She experiences more pain than most people can ever fathom, and, while it scars her both physically and emotionally, she keeps moving forward. By the end of the book/film, Astrid has some form of peace with Paul, but she never feels entirely free of her mother and her influence. Astrid learns to navigate the world by making increasingly poor choices, but she also has no one to teach her differently. She is a girl who has to find her way with no guidance, and, given the end result, she does find her path. Astrid is intelligent, insightful, and hungry for a happier life but also wary of any offer to one. At the end of the day, Astrid is a woman who is shaped by her past but choosing her future rather than let her mother choose it for her.

And that's a great kind of kick-ass.

Got a Second Interview! May not have to be a hooker after all!

2012-07-26T17:41:06Z

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #87

2012-07-25T20:28:26Z

87. Vivianne “Vivi” Abbott Walker, as seen in the novels The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, and Ya-Yas in Bloom and the film Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, portrayed by Ashley Judd and Ellen Burstyn

I love books and movies about mother/daughter relationships. I think it's one of the relationships which most define women, for better or worse, and there are very few novels or films which accurately depict just how complicated a relationship it can be. The Ya-Ya saga does a wonderful job showing the love/hate relationship between Vivi and her eldest daughter Siddalee, and how even as much as Sidda wants to remove Vivi for her life, she also can't resist the pull of her mother.

Vivi is easily the most dynamic character in the series. Dramatic, effervescent, over-the-top, and fiercely loyal to her fellow Ya-Yas, Vivi is the sort of woman everyone watches when she enters the room. Through a series of flashbacks we learn Vivi grew up with a mother who was fiercely jealous of the attention Vivi's father gave to Vivi and treated her terribly, even sending her to a convent school where she was effectively shut away. The man she loved and hoped to marry was killed in World War Two, and she married Shep Walker, a man who loved her far more than she loved him. Four children in quick succession plunges Vivi (whom it is repeatedly hinted at throughout the series suffers from bipolar disorder) deeper into alcoholism and depression, culminating a vicious public beating of the children. In Little Altars Everywhere, which is told from alternating POVs of the Ya-Yas and their children, we learn Vivi sexually abused her eldest son in a quest to find some sort of affection in the wake of her and Shep's de facto separation. Vivi is manipulative and harmful to all of her children, and she does not understand why people see her as a villain. Even her own children, who document her sins and bear the scars of it, do not wholly hate their mother; they remember her wonderfulness, her zany schemes and the excitement of being caught up in her whirlwind, and, even when they hate her, they desperately crave her approval.

What I love about Vivi is just how unlovable she is. Vivi is an alcoholic child abuser who lacks self-awareness and insight; she is the type of woman who believes the world revolves around her, and she has no time for those who would contradict it. But even for all her terribleness, there is still something sad and fragile to Vivi, something which makes you want to root for her even as you want to punch her. So much of Vivi's bitterness comes from feeling as if she was cheated out of the life she wanted and thought she deserved: Jack as her husband, a career as an actress, a life away from Louisiana. She never wanted to be Shep's wife, to be the wife of a farmer raising children just as her own reviled mother did. And while the argument can always be made Vivi made her choices, how many choices did a woman really have in the 1940s? Vivi is easily one of the most unlikable choices on this list, but Vivi isn't about being likable; Vivi is a reflection of her times, a reflection of a society who chose to pretend she wasn't mentally ill and was just "quirky," who excused her behaviors time and time again rather than confront her on them. Vivi is so many women's mothers and grandmothers, and it is a type of woman which has been all but chased out of pop culture. Vivi is neither heroine nor villain; she is just pathetically human.

And that's a kind of kick-ass which should be talked about more.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #86

2012-07-24T21:28:35Z

86. Claudia, as seen in the book Interview With a Vampire by Anne Rice and in the film Interview With a Vampire, portrayed by Kirsten Dunst

I've always been obsessed with monsters. Even when I was little, I never wanted princess stories; I wanted stories about vampires and werewolves and ghosts. Like a lot of kids, after reading pretty much everything RL Stine and Christopher Pike wrote, I was ready to read something a little more adult. After being deeply traumatized by It (seriously, Stephen King, what the fuck?) and well into my obsession with vampires, my aunt recommended I read Anne Rice. And while I've read several of her books, the only one I really liked was Interview With a Vampire, which became a film which is remarkably how I pictured the book.

Though Interview With a Vampire is technically about Louis and his relationship with his maker Lestat, from the moment she enters the story, Claudia steals the show. Louis has always refused to feed on humans, and, when he finally cracks, he feeds upon Claudia, a six-year-old girl whose mother has just died. In order to keep Louis from leaving him, Lestat turns Claudia, giving them a "daughter." For years, things go well; they spoil Claudia endlessly with dolls and dresses, and she positively adores Louis. But as Claudia ages, she realizes she will always be six-years-old. She is now an intelligent, assertive woman with a woman's needs eternally cursed to be a child, and she begins to resent Lestat for turning her. It is Claudia who lays the trap which "kills" Lestat, and it is Claudia who frequently pulls the strings in regard to Louis. Her death destroys Louis, and he never quite forgives himself for it.

What I love about Claudia is, she is the one who bests Lestat. Her existence is the worst kind of torture; she longs for all the things a woman should have but can never have them because Lestat turned her so young, and it makes her incredibly bitter. Her trap to kill Lestat is brilliant in its execution; he has always been so certain he is above her and Louis, he never perceived them as threats. Claudia exhibits more cunning than Louis ever does, and there is a level of cruelty in her that Louis remarks upon several times. In a land of monsters, Claudia is the one they never see coming, so bewitched by her innocent appearance they do not realize what lies underneath. Even Claudia's "release" of Louis is calculated, forcing him to break his own rule and turn Madeline into a vampire so she has a keeper so he can be with Armand; even at her most "kind," Claudia is manipulative and dark. Claudia is the sort of character which has often been imitated but never quite replicated, and what makes her so extraordinary is Anne Rice found the balance a "child monster" needs: Claudia is both to be feared and pitied, but, should you pity her, she'll tear your throat out.

And that's a cool kind of kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #85

2012-07-23T18:49:38Z

85. Birdee Calvert, as seen in the film Hope Floats, portrayed by Sandra Bullock

I am a person who unashamedly loves romantic comedies, but I also love what could be labeled "romantic dramas" more. As much as I love a good rom-com, I think movies that explore all the aspects of a woman's life beyond her romantic relationships are much more important, and Hope Floats is a perfect example of how to do that.

Hope Floats tells the story of Birdee Calvert, a Chicago housewife who finds out her husband is cheating o her with her best friend on a daytime talk show. Humiliated and now in the process of divorcing her high school sweetheart-turned-husband, Birdee and her daughter Bernice move back to Texas to live with eccentric mother and her nephew, whom was abandoned by Birdee's sister while she pursues an acting career. What Birdee quickly learns is that the hometown she remembers in not the same one she returns to; having been a popular cheerleader and Homecoming queen, Birdee learns she treated people pretty terribly and they are reveling in her car crash of a life. Having been a housewife following school, Birdee has no job skills and, as a result, ends up a clerk at a photo place. Her relationship with her mother, which has always been strained, continues to be such as her mother berates her for wallowing in self-pity, and her relationship with her daughter Bernice suffers as Bernice hates Texas, hates being away from her father, and blames Birdee for everything. The only friend Birdee has is a man named Justin, whom she knew as a child and who is obviously romantically interested in her. Birdee learns to navigate her new life, her relationships, and comes to terms with who she really is without her husband there to define her.

What I love about Birdee is she literally has to rebuild her life from the ground up. Birdee has lived her life being defined by other people: she became pleasing in high school to make up for her parents' eccentricities, she followed her husband wherever he went to make him happy, and she let everyone else tell her who she was. With the divorce, Birdee has to do what most people have to do after high school: figure out who she is when stripped of everyone else. Birdee isn't necessarily the most likable person at the start of the film; even though she is obviously the wronged party, she is also someone who languishes in her pain and is blind to what it's doing to Bernice. But Birdee begins to pick herself up and cobble together a new life for herself and her daughter. Birdee can be an idiot (as her mother is quick to point out) and she can do things which hurt people (particularly Justin), but the story of her evolution is wonderful to watch. Birdee literally transforms from a Stepford Wife who is always carefully put together and eager to please into a woman who begins to eschew the superficial trappings of her former life and embrace a more grounded way of living. By the film's end, she is not just Bernice's mother but her nephew Travis's as well, and she is doing her best to raise them alongside Justin, a man who appreciates who she is and doesn't try to change her. The deeply unhappy woman we meet in the beginning of the film is worlds away from the happy, satisfied woman at the film's end.

And that's delightfully kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #84

2012-07-22T20:38:58Z

84. Novalee Nation, as seen in the novel Where the Heart Is by Billie Leeds and the film Where the Heart Is, portrayed by Natalie Portman

I might have a slight obsession with Natalie Portman. And by slight I mean I see everything she's in, think she's fabulous, want to marry her, and have her babies. As a result of said affection, I have seen a lot of movies I probably wouldn't have watched otherwise, which has also lead to me reading books I might not have otherwise read if said movies hadn't been based upon those books. Where the Heart Is is one of those examples.

Where the Heart Is tells the story of Novalee Nation, a pregnant teenager who, when riding west to California with her idiot boyfriend, finds herself abandoned Oklahoma with no money and no place to go. On her first night there, she accidentally gets locked inside Wal-Mart and, when no one notices, continues to live there. It is only after she goes into labor and is rescued by the town librarian Forney that people are aware of her situation, dubbing her daughter Americus "the Wal-Mart baby." While in the hospital she befriends her nurse Lexie (played perfectly by Ashley Judd), has what money has been sent to her stolen by her own mother, and finds herself taken in by Sister Husband, a kind woman who had earlier mistaken Novalee for a long lost relative. The book/film tracks Novalee growing up, learning to take care of herself, navigating the complicated relationship she has with Forney, having a mother figure in Sister and losing her, and learning to be a mother herself. Novalee ends up building a wonderful life for herself in Sequoyah, but it is not without considerable expense. She loses people she loves, sees terrible things happen to Lexie and her children, and she makes the same mistakes every girl makes growing up, but the Novalee at the end of the story is vastly different from the one at the beginning, transforming from a flaky teenager to a put together woman with a career she loves, a daughter she adores, a home of her own, and a man she loves.

What I love about Novalee (and this book/film) is Novalee builds a family of her own making. There is nothing but acceptance in Novalee; she collects people who don't have anyone and welcomes them into her life. Even when she stumbles, Novalee works constantly to make sure Americus has a better, kinder life than she did, and she surrounds her daughter with people who love her. Novalee works her ass off to fulfill her dream of becoming a photographer and building a home in the wake of disaster, all the while raising a happy child and offering support to her friends.

And that's a great kind of kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #83

2012-07-21T19:51:13Z

83. Selina "Catwoman" Kyle, as seen in the Batman comics, the television series Batman portrayed by Julie Newmar, Lee Merryweather, and Eartha Kitt, the film Batman Returns portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, the film Catwoman portrayed by Halle Berry, and the film The Dark Knight Rises portrayed by Anne Hathaway

I've mentioned before that I really love comics. Of course, for anyone who is even minimally interested in comics, you know it's hard to come by awesome female characters who aren't damsels in distress or featured in every panel with their tits out. For a genre that does a great job in so respects, it's treatment of women isn't always top notch. And while Catwoman often gets written off as a catsuit wearing sexpot, I think there's so much more to her than that.

Part of what's great about comics is that, depending on the writer, canon is always changing. Usually Catwoman is depicted as a cat burglar villain who has a love/hate relationship with Batman. In later canon, she has transitioned from villain to anti-heroine, but the bones of the story are usually the same. However, I'm a big fan of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One which revises Selina's origin story. In Miller's retelling, Selina is a prostitute who wants to get away from her pimp and begins to study martial arts. She wears the catsuit her former pimp gave her to keep her hidden when she begins to perform Robin Hood-esque robberies, which is when she encounters Batman. It is then she decides to keep wearing the suit because, if Gotham can have a Batman, it can also have a Catwoman.

What I love about Catwoman is there is nothing magical about her; she is just a woman in a catsuit, albeit one trained to fight. Unlike Batman, she doesn't have any grand ideals about changing the world; she does what she wants when she wants it, and she never feels the need to justify herself to anyone. She loves Batman but never at the expense of herself, and, while there are many alternate canons for her, the one thing Selina Kyle never is, is the eyecandy who stands around, looks pretty, and lets the boys do the fighting.

And that's a great kind of kick-ass.

100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #82

2012-07-19T20:19:16Z

82. Pamela Abbott, as seen in the short story collection Inventing the Abbotts and Other Stories by Sue Miller and the film Inventing the Abbotts, portrayed by Liv Tyler

I love Sue Miller. She's one of the few writers I've read who consistently manage to capture what it is to be a woman and be trapped in complicated family dynamics. I cannot recommend her books enough (The Good Mother and Family Pictures especially), but Inventing the Abbotts was my introduction to her. When I saw the movie on television late at night, I noticed it was based on a short story by Sue Miller, which inspired me to read her books. And even after reading most of her works, Inventing the Abbotts is still my favorite.

Inventing the Abbotts tells the story of two families - the Abbotts and the Holts - in a Haley, Illinois during the 50s. The Abbotts are rich and one of the most respected families in town; Lloyd Abbott was business partners with the Holts' father and, after the accident which killed Mr. Holt, the Holts were allegedly cut out of the business. The Holt sons - Jacey and Doug - and the Abbott daughters - Alice, Eleanor, and Pamela - are aware of each other but do not socialize. Jacey decides he is going to get revenge on the Abbotts by seducing the Abbott girls, initially succeeding with Eleanor, who gets sent to stewardess school after getting caught having sex with Jacey, and Alice, who is in an unhappy marriage. Doug initially idolizes Jacey but he slowly falls in love with Pamela, who is a virgin and wants to remain that way. Pamela and Doug form a close bond, equal parts friendship and romance, and, when they encounter each other in Philadelphia where the both end up at college, Doug wants to resume a relationship with Pamela. It is there he finds out Jacey slept with Pamela before Doug arrived in Pennsylvania, causing a rift between the brothers that isn't fully healed until they return to Haley after their mother's death and discover a piece of paper which proves their father signed over his share in the business for the car he drove into a lake. Jacey still believes they were cheated, but Doug wants to move on once and for all, going to Lloyd Abbott and asking for his blessing to pursue a relationship with Pamela.

What I love about Pamela is, for the vast majority of the story, she is seen as the moral center. Unlike Jacey, who is vengeful, and Eleanor, who just loves to stir shit, Pamela never wavers from who she is and what she wants from life. To Doug's frustration, Pamela does not sleep with him, especially after seeing what transpired with Eleanor, but Pamela does not deny what it is she wants. When the viewer/reader discovers she slept with Jacey, it adds an entirely new facet to Pamela's personality, which I think speaks to what many women experience: who she was in Haley, Illinois, is not who she is in Philadelphia, and being away from home has changed her. Pamela is genuinely regretful for hurting Doug, and, while the ending is ambiguous, you also know Pamela has always wanted Doug. Pamela is neither Madonna or whore; she is just a woman trying to figure out who she is and what she wants.

And that's pretty kick-ass.