Well Written Female Characters - in your opinion, what/who is a well written female character?

[averagejane]

(i was gonna ask this in the mary sue thread but i think this extends beyond mary sues)

who do you think is a good female character?
what would you like to see in a female character that makes her well written?
what should writers avoid when writing female characters?

i ask, because there seems to be a lot of autistic slapfights debates (be it sjw harpies or comicbook neckbeards) about what makes a female character 'good'.

 

[Octopuff in kumquat]

Check out any series of Shakugan no Shana. (Even though all 3 are one story)

Not only is it fantastic characters all around, male or female, a detailed story, but the cast of women vs men is usually around 4/1, which is the exact reverse of almost every show, ever, yet it's an action show that both males and females can enjoy. And an anime. Talk about rare.
(FYI, it's my avatar, one of them)

I'd say this is how to do it; male characters and female characters will always act a little different, but don't confine them to set 'roles'. You can have any role in the story regardless of gender, big or small, and that's how you write a good female character to me: you put 'character' before 'female'.

 

[Ravenor]

Tonna Crid from the Gaunt's Ghost series was well written, Started off as a slightly mixed up gang girl during a civil war, ended up taking care of two kid's to save them from getting killed she went out scavenging and stealing, ended up sharing her and the kid's hidey hole with an Imperial Guardsman during a battle and she ended up with him after the war, she didn't become a camp follower she became a fucking kick arse soldier in her own right and kept the kids in tow because their family had been killed (well mostly) and they had nobody else. She wound up earning her rank of Leutannent in one of the most famous IG regiments in the Sabbat World's cluster, not by dint of the fact she was a woman but because she took the worst the galaxy could throw at her including the murder of her husband, literal fucking demons, and the hopelessness that come as seeing several worlds die.

 

[Tlazolli]

Rika Nonaka from Digimon season 3, her character subverts archetypes for female anime characters, starts as the rival of the lead character, becomes the unofficial leader of the team more or less, with the main kid being more of a figure head as he's passive while Rika is assertive and more straightforward.

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

In written fiction? I can think of a few.

Roberta Draper from the Expanse books is the most recent example of a good one in my mind. I normally don't like the Tuff Gurl commando archetype because it always feels like the writer has some weird snu-snu fantasy going on. But she's actually pretty normal and while she's described as a big, muscular muh-reen she has more depth to her than you might assume. Im behind on the show so I don't know it's take on her. I hope they didn't ruin her.

I thought Julianna Fink in The Man In the High Castle was pretty interesting. Every bit as neurotic as the book itself. She's one of the better characters on the TV show as well, but for different reasons.

The title character in Podkayne of Mars is an amusing narrator. She oozes personality. I'd rate her above Juan Rico but still far below Manny O'Kelly in terms of best Heinlein protagonist.

People give Crichton shit and say he couldn't write women. But Sarah Harding was honestly one of the most human and likable portrayal of a badass woman I've seen. I think more feminists should read her lecture to Kelly where she says girls shouldn't give a shit what anyone says and just do what they want.

Bella Swan could've been an amazing protagonist if she wasn't written by a boring Mormon virgin with a poor understanding of healthy relationships.

Overall though there's kind of a dearth of good female characters in genre fiction. My theory is it's because female protagonists and even antagonists are often the author's pet character. So they treat her with kid gloves and don't let her act in any interesting way because God forbid something bad happen to your fake girlfriend. Or it's the opposite they torture the poor girl because they have a domination fetish, sincerely hate women, or both.

 

[Octopuff in kumquat]

Bella Swan could've been an amazing protagonist if she wasn't written by a boring Mormon virgin with a poor understanding of healthy relationships.

IE, if it were intentional.

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

IE, if it were intentional.

If I had written it, I would've made Bella a neurotic self-centered loser who latches onto Edward because he's the first guy who doesn't pump and dump her. Then she gets clingy and starts the suicide-baiting because she wants to hold onto him. All the while we find out he's horrendously damaged in his own way.

So yeah basically exactly what we see in the books but on purpose.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Personally, I don't care if the character is male or female as long as they can stand on their own two feet and feel like they could be actual people making their own personal decisions. So like in the right hands and right execution, a female character who is the embodiment of femininity and the stereotypical housewife can still be three-dimensional, likewise so can a staunch feminazi or butch lesbian without hitting the audience over the head with it. (Because what works for the character in their story doesn't necessarily mean they can be the same in a different one. That doesn't mean they're badly-written, it just means their character/personality can't be the same to work just as well, so they end up turning into someone else entirely.)

Whether you agree or not (especially these days), Hermione Granger is someone I would consider to be a fleshed out female character. I mean, think about it: Could you describe who she is as a person if she were to exist, both the good and the bad side of her? And could you see how she progresses as a person (character) especially since you see her first as an eleven-year-old growing into a young woman? I can't think of too many female characters in the same boat as she, especially someone who got to grow up. There's a reason she was quite the role model for young girls growing up with the books/movies. 'Course, could she work as Hermione Granger in someplace outside of Harry Potter? Maybe, maybe not, but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say she could work well in many different environments.

Outside of literature and on the flip side of the coin, I like to look towards the character Nagisa Furukawa from CLANNAD as well-written. Again, she's someone whom you could legitimately see exist in real life, or maybe even know personally. She's weak in stature and rather meek, but on the inside once you got to know her, she is brave, wise, determined (or stubborn), and a little quirky (her whole family's like that), she's just not one to show it off. Those hidden depths were revealed because she was given a small push in the right direction when she needed it most--which was in the beginning of the story, but it's still a steady progression. Strangely enough, though, she works better as a character thanks to the main male character, but even he gets better as a character thanks to her. They're both characters who can stand on their own, but they work very well off of each other and help each other grow, which isn't too unusual in romances, but it does stand out.

 

[JimmyHill'sBlarms]

A good female character is one that's allowed to be an actual person. She's allowed to have personality flaws and fail, to have strong points and be better than the male characters at things without the men feeling threatened or making her out to be a bitch, to contribute to the plot beyond token chick or eye candy, to have physical imperfections like scars or wrinkles.

Basically, if a trait is good enough for a male character, it's good enough for a female character.

 

[NeverHappened]

I've seen enough bad male character that might as well be aliens. People don't care if you screw up men, even if they are gay or something.

There's this idea that if you can write good characters if you discuss it enough on the internet, but an earnest attempt in a vacuum is sadly destined to fail. Archetypal writing will typically take over where experience is in short supply. The best advice I can give is to watch real life people. Of course, real life doesn't defy stereotypes as much as critics would demand, but the variation is to die for.

 

[DangerousGas]

Triumvir Ilia Volyova in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation space book. Borderline sociopath that just happens to be female - the fact that Reynolds really doesn't seem to give much of a damn about character gender (insofar as it drives personality quirks) makes them much easier to relate to when reading.

 

[Muttnik]

Ellen Ripley set the standard for what an ideally good and compelling female character should be. A human being before a woman. She's tough and resourceful and takes shit from no one but at the same time, she's also shown to have a strong protective and motherly side. She manages to be both vulnerable and badass at the same time, which ideally endears her more to the audience. Definitely the first thing that comes to mind for me when I think of a solid female character in film.

Azula from Avatar is also a really neat female character, especially as a villain. Mostly because she's such a complete bitch but there's an interesting amount of layers to her that hints at why she became that way--that is to say a shitty relationship with her mother. She's this incredible force of nature and is an overall nasty person but she's also at the same time a vulnerable 14 year old girl which puts a lot into perspective on why she's so desperate for power and the need to exert herself over others. I think the psychology behind her motives alone is fascinating.

Ashi from the recent Samurai Jack reboot, while not being perfect and suffering from a semi-rushed season, is also pretty good. At least in how selfless she ends up being and how much she's willing to give up in order to do the right thing. It's admirable, even if the execution could have been better.

 

[Pikimon]

Amy Elliot Dunne from Gone Girl was basically one of the most frustratingly evil female antagonists I've ever read. She's up there with Umbridge.

Her inner machinations are completely fucked as she describes the relationship between her and her husband as him being a "man of a thousand wounds" and herself as a "bristly thornbush" and described their relationship as her "thorns" fitting perfectly into his "wounds".

The most frustrating part of the book is that she fucking wins

 

[OtterParty]

i think she'll do great as long as she knows that the only appropriate response to being stared at by a group of preps is to put up her middle finger at them

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

Thing is if a female character sucks is it because she's a poorly-written character or a poorly-written woman? I don't like accusing people of sexism but I do honestly believe a lot of nerds have hang-ups with women and judge female genre fiction characters harsher.

 

[FatFuckingClown]

I got a twofer: A number of great female characters AND a fantastic story for kids.

Picked these up for a bad-ass little 8 year-old on a whim at a book sale once, and she ate them the fuck up. For weeks after, she kept insisting that I read them, that they were "really, really great!" Well, I did, and I got hooked. There's mystery, action, humor, massive character development, and lots of other good stuff. Really cleverly written.

I might even be so bold as to say that if I were a parent trying to get my kids into serious reading, the Skulduggery Pleasant series would be my first choice. Even over Harry Potter.

 

[Lorento]

Thing is if a female character sucks is it because she's a poorly-written character or a poorly-written woman? I don't like accusing people of sexism but I do honestly believe a lot of nerds have hang-ups with women and judge female genre fiction characters harsher.

This is a good point. If there's a book which has hundreds and hundreds of brutal rapes, murders and savage maulings of women, you start to question the motives of the author.

Authors, the audience of your book are not your therapist. If you put in a character cleverly titled 'Tonald Dump' it isn't subtle. If you kill loads of women, and have all the women in your story be treacherous, evil bitches, it isn't subtle. We get it, some girl didn't want to touch your pickle in college, the rest of us don't give a damn.

 

[Sperglord Dante]

Netflix's Club de Cuervos is a surprising well thought drama masked as a sports dramedy. It also a good example of how to write a female lead.

Isabel Iglesias has to deal with a lot of shit because she's a female trying (first to take over and then) to run a proffesional soccer club. She's competent but doesn't have testicles, so her narcissistic manchild of a brother becomes the president of the club. She's continuously belittled and faces sexism for being an overtly ambitious woman. Even her own overbearing mother treats her like shit for not fitting the mold (their unhealthy relationship is very interesting on its own). Thing is, it doesn't feel like IN YOUR FACE feminism because for all the things that would make her as a sympathetic character she's also shown as deeply flawed. She fucks up, and she fucks other people over. Her pettiness and selfishness are called out often, and while her ambitious manipulative nature is good for the team, it's shown to be bad for her marriage. At one point her husband starts cucking her, but it framed in a way that you actually sympathize with him.

 

[Cripple]

If you want way far back the Austen and Bronte heroines. A little more modern and Woolf's females.

I like animation though so the females on Bob's Burgers, Sue from "F is for Family", and Beth from "Rick and Morty". In that they're allowed to have character arcs, flaws, and their own motivations beyond being a hugbox for their partners/children.

I also think the "Handmaid's Tale" is doing great at fleshing out their cast. "Harlots" is very refreshing in not using sex workers as moraliry tales nor making them the "hooker with the heart of gold" stereotype.

Just let women be people not your or society's expectations and you'll be fine.

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

This is a good point. If there's a book which has hundreds and hundreds of brutal rapes, murders and savage maulings of women, you start to question the motives of the author.

Authors, the audience of your book are not your therapist. If you put in a character cleverly titled 'Tonald Dump' it isn't subtle. If you kill loads of women, and have all the women in your story be treacherous, evil bitches, it isn't subtle. We get it, some girl didn't want to touch your pickle in college, the rest of us don't give a damn.

I'm not sure which is worse. Guys who turn the story into a guro fetish fic or guys who are just using the story as a vehicle for their waifu/female self-insert.

Weirdly enough I've seen someone do both and somehow make it work. Joe Haldeman wrote his actual IRL wife into his book name and all and featured a scene where she got critically injured. Yet it wasn't weird or cringeworthy at all.