30 Days of Awesome Ladies: Day 2
Day 2: Favorite supporting female character
Winry Rockbell (Fullmetal Alchemist manga)
...You didn't drink your milk.
Winry is my favorite character from pretty much any canon ever; she's my favorite character to write, she's my favorite character to find good fic for, and seriously, I was okay with the manga ending almost any way as long as she got a happy ending out of it. Because when the series creator herself says that Winry has a more tragic story than the two boys whose mother died and they tried to resurrect and made a monster instead? I NEEDED HER TO BE OKAY IN THE END, MAYBE MORE THAN I NEEDED ED TO BE OKAY. I mean, I needed Ed to be okay because I was pretty sure Winry wouldn't be okay without him, but you know what I mean right?
I love her because she both makes and breaks tropes: she's the Girl Next Door, and she's the Gadgeteer Genius and shes the Healer - Ed even goes so far as to tell her in one scene "Your hands are for healing/creation, not death/destruction" (depending on what translation you read), but she's also so much more than that. Even though she says her goal is for her automail to help Ed, she was already good at automail before Ed even needed her - she's a prodigy with the mail just as much as Ed is with the alchemy.
I love that she's best friends with Ed and Al, even though there are parts of her that they don't know - the whole scene with Scar, when Ed remarks just how she'd hid her grief for her parents for all those years, I see that in so many health care workers, and it just makes so much sense to me. Knowing she's used to working with sick people, performing dangerous surgeries on them, it makes sense that there's a part of her that internalizes and shoves away her grief - you have to, just to survive in the field, and yeah, that carries over into your personal life too. I love that that doesn't mean she doesn't TRUST Ed and Al though, or even that she didn't want to burden them, just that her grief wasn't necessarily anything productive and there was so much more she could do, like reading her parents medical texts and learning automail mechanics and performing surgeries.
And ugh. Her total faith in Ed to keep his promise, her refusal to leave the country when he asks her to be safe, giving him her earrings (that were originally presents FROM him) as a sign that they'll meet again, just basically EVERYTHING in regards to Ed and Winry and how she trusts him, I love so much. And I love that she won't allow herself to be used as a hostage, that Ed has faith in her to be able to handle this because he can't lie to her, and I love that she basically orchestrates her own escape from the hostage situation (even if I think her returning home to hide in her basement is the DUMBEST. HIDING PLACE. EVER.)
And basically, my favorite thing about her character, ever? EVER? When she realizes she's in love with Ed. "Oh gee, I guess it is love. Huh, I think I've felt this way for a long time. OKAY BACK TO BEING AWESOME WITH AUTOMAIL THEN." Her realization that she's in love with Ed isn't a life shattering epiphany, and it doesn't make her weird about Ed whenever she sees him again. It was ALWAYS there. It's ALWAYS been a part of her. It's not a new thing she has to make room for because it's been there as part of their dynamic almost from the beginning. She's okay with it, and it doesn't change who she is at a base level.
Girlfriend is smart and sweet and refuses to put up with dumb people, loves with her whole heart and guards her hurts carefully. She's awesome.
Don't expect all of these to be this long, but Winry happens to be someone that I feel particularly passionate about. When I first got into fandom (which I will discuss in another entry) it was like the Dark Ages as far as people appreciating her, which has made me a little protective of her. I'm so glad that the end of the manga and the appearance of Brotherhood has helped a lot of fandom come around in regards to her character. She's positively my favorite.
FIC RECS:
Prostheses by kittu9.
She wants to be capable of creating that, and because of her work-the visual puzzle of affixing tiny screws and wire into their rightful positions-she understands what this kind of miracle would take.
It's a fic about Winry and automail, with some very important implications about Ed and alchemy. I adore it. I ADORE it. I love the idea of exploring Ed and Winry's separate passions. It's lovely and simple and so so her.
AND ALSO ALSO ALSO
a date for tea by 42number
`What a waste,´ he mutters, but loud enough so that Winry can't possibly miss a word. `Such beauty, and brains, to have to resigned herself to that brat... The world has gone mad indeed.´
First of all: 42number writes some of my favorite FMA fic out there. Second of all, it's ROY AND WINRY HAVING TEA. OMG YOU GUYS. ROY AND WINRY HAVE TEA. It includes canon couplings, but it's really a lovely gen fic about Winry and Roy interacting and getting to know each other a little better. Roy and Winry only interact in canon, like, ONCE (when he hits on her, coincidentally) and it's not just OTP stuff I like to see in fic, it's stuff like this, where it's ALMOST canon filler but it's really just taking two characters who finally have TIME to get to know each other and giving them the chance to do so. SO I LOVE IT FOREVER.
THE MEME:
Day One: Favorite lead female character
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: Favorite female character in a canon you gave up on
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Thre: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you’d like!
Winry Rockbell (Fullmetal Alchemist manga)
...You didn't drink your milk.
Winry is my favorite character from pretty much any canon ever; she's my favorite character to write, she's my favorite character to find good fic for, and seriously, I was okay with the manga ending almost any way as long as she got a happy ending out of it. Because when the series creator herself says that Winry has a more tragic story than the two boys whose mother died and they tried to resurrect and made a monster instead? I NEEDED HER TO BE OKAY IN THE END, MAYBE MORE THAN I NEEDED ED TO BE OKAY. I mean, I needed Ed to be okay because I was pretty sure Winry wouldn't be okay without him, but you know what I mean right?
I love her because she both makes and breaks tropes: she's the Girl Next Door, and she's the Gadgeteer Genius and shes the Healer - Ed even goes so far as to tell her in one scene "Your hands are for healing/creation, not death/destruction" (depending on what translation you read), but she's also so much more than that. Even though she says her goal is for her automail to help Ed, she was already good at automail before Ed even needed her - she's a prodigy with the mail just as much as Ed is with the alchemy.
I love that she's best friends with Ed and Al, even though there are parts of her that they don't know - the whole scene with Scar, when Ed remarks just how she'd hid her grief for her parents for all those years, I see that in so many health care workers, and it just makes so much sense to me. Knowing she's used to working with sick people, performing dangerous surgeries on them, it makes sense that there's a part of her that internalizes and shoves away her grief - you have to, just to survive in the field, and yeah, that carries over into your personal life too. I love that that doesn't mean she doesn't TRUST Ed and Al though, or even that she didn't want to burden them, just that her grief wasn't necessarily anything productive and there was so much more she could do, like reading her parents medical texts and learning automail mechanics and performing surgeries.
And ugh. Her total faith in Ed to keep his promise, her refusal to leave the country when he asks her to be safe, giving him her earrings (that were originally presents FROM him) as a sign that they'll meet again, just basically EVERYTHING in regards to Ed and Winry and how she trusts him, I love so much. And I love that she won't allow herself to be used as a hostage, that Ed has faith in her to be able to handle this because he can't lie to her, and I love that she basically orchestrates her own escape from the hostage situation (even if I think her returning home to hide in her basement is the DUMBEST. HIDING PLACE. EVER.)
And basically, my favorite thing about her character, ever? EVER? When she realizes she's in love with Ed. "Oh gee, I guess it is love. Huh, I think I've felt this way for a long time. OKAY BACK TO BEING AWESOME WITH AUTOMAIL THEN." Her realization that she's in love with Ed isn't a life shattering epiphany, and it doesn't make her weird about Ed whenever she sees him again. It was ALWAYS there. It's ALWAYS been a part of her. It's not a new thing she has to make room for because it's been there as part of their dynamic almost from the beginning. She's okay with it, and it doesn't change who she is at a base level.
Girlfriend is smart and sweet and refuses to put up with dumb people, loves with her whole heart and guards her hurts carefully. She's awesome.
Don't expect all of these to be this long, but Winry happens to be someone that I feel particularly passionate about. When I first got into fandom (which I will discuss in another entry) it was like the Dark Ages as far as people appreciating her, which has made me a little protective of her. I'm so glad that the end of the manga and the appearance of Brotherhood has helped a lot of fandom come around in regards to her character. She's positively my favorite.
FIC RECS:
Prostheses by kittu9.
She wants to be capable of creating that, and because of her work-the visual puzzle of affixing tiny screws and wire into their rightful positions-she understands what this kind of miracle would take.
It's a fic about Winry and automail, with some very important implications about Ed and alchemy. I adore it. I ADORE it. I love the idea of exploring Ed and Winry's separate passions. It's lovely and simple and so so her.
AND ALSO ALSO ALSO
a date for tea by 42number
`What a waste,´ he mutters, but loud enough so that Winry can't possibly miss a word. `Such beauty, and brains, to have to resigned herself to that brat... The world has gone mad indeed.´
First of all: 42number writes some of my favorite FMA fic out there. Second of all, it's ROY AND WINRY HAVING TEA. OMG YOU GUYS. ROY AND WINRY HAVE TEA. It includes canon couplings, but it's really a lovely gen fic about Winry and Roy interacting and getting to know each other a little better. Roy and Winry only interact in canon, like, ONCE (when he hits on her, coincidentally) and it's not just OTP stuff I like to see in fic, it's stuff like this, where it's ALMOST canon filler but it's really just taking two characters who finally have TIME to get to know each other and giving them the chance to do so. SO I LOVE IT FOREVER.
THE MEME:
Day One: Favorite lead female character
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: Favorite female character in a canon you gave up on
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Thre: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you’d like!