30 Days of Awesome Ladies - Day 15
I feel a lot like journalling at the moment, so apologies for the surprise influx of posts! But whilst I'm in the mood I thought I'd dig this out again. HALFWAY THROUGH THE MEME IN 11 MONTHS! I'll try and get in finished by 27th March so I can say it didn't take longer than a year :)
Question List
Day 15: Favourite NON-HUMAN female character
Anya Jenkins (Buffy)
Born in 862AD, Anya was the oldest main character in Buffy, and the one who had least concept of what it was to be human, because it was so long since she'd been anything other than a Vengeance Demon. But as soon as she joins the show, that identity is taken from her, and she has to learn how to be a person again: how to have friends, how to love, how to be vulnerable, how to deal with death and loss. For a lot of the time this learning process is used as purely light relief, but Anya is so much more than a tactless, capitalism-appreciating comic character. She is a girl whose instinct, developed over hundreds of years, is to be selfish and vengeful and not to fight for good or for love; she is a girl who overcomes those instincts and becomes a heroine. The great thing about Buffy is that the characters grow and change, and Anya is one of the best examples of that. She makes mistakes along the way, big mistakes, but she doesn't give up.
I know most people's favourite speech of Anya's is in The Body, but mine is in End of Days, when she manages to sum up the human spirit in typical Anya fashion:
[End of Days quote]
Anya: There was this other apocalypse this one time. And, well, I took off. But this time, I don't... I don't know.
Andrew: Well, what's different?
Anya: Well, I guess I was kinda new to being around humans before. And now I've seen a lot more, gotten to know people, seen what they're capable of and I guess I just realize how amazingly... screwed up they all are. I mean, really, really screwed up in a monumental fashion.
Andrew: Oh.
Anya: And they have no purpose that unites them, so they just drift around, blundering through life until they die. Which they know is coming, yet every single one of them is surprised when it happens to them. They're incapable of thinking about what they want beyond the moment. They kill each other, which is clearly insane, and yet, here's the thing. When it's something that really matters, they fight. I mean, they're lame morons for fighting. But they do. They never... They never quit. And so I guess I will keep fighting, too.
Question List
Day 15: Favourite NON-HUMAN female character
Anya Jenkins (Buffy)
Born in 862AD, Anya was the oldest main character in Buffy, and the one who had least concept of what it was to be human, because it was so long since she'd been anything other than a Vengeance Demon. But as soon as she joins the show, that identity is taken from her, and she has to learn how to be a person again: how to have friends, how to love, how to be vulnerable, how to deal with death and loss. For a lot of the time this learning process is used as purely light relief, but Anya is so much more than a tactless, capitalism-appreciating comic character. She is a girl whose instinct, developed over hundreds of years, is to be selfish and vengeful and not to fight for good or for love; she is a girl who overcomes those instincts and becomes a heroine. The great thing about Buffy is that the characters grow and change, and Anya is one of the best examples of that. She makes mistakes along the way, big mistakes, but she doesn't give up.
I know most people's favourite speech of Anya's is in The Body, but mine is in End of Days, when she manages to sum up the human spirit in typical Anya fashion:
[End of Days quote]
Anya: There was this other apocalypse this one time. And, well, I took off. But this time, I don't... I don't know.
Andrew: Well, what's different?
Anya: Well, I guess I was kinda new to being around humans before. And now I've seen a lot more, gotten to know people, seen what they're capable of and I guess I just realize how amazingly... screwed up they all are. I mean, really, really screwed up in a monumental fashion.
Andrew: Oh.
Anya: And they have no purpose that unites them, so they just drift around, blundering through life until they die. Which they know is coming, yet every single one of them is surprised when it happens to them. They're incapable of thinking about what they want beyond the moment. They kill each other, which is clearly insane, and yet, here's the thing. When it's something that really matters, they fight. I mean, they're lame morons for fighting. But they do. They never... They never quit. And so I guess I will keep fighting, too.