I have niggling issues with LotF on a number of counts, but one of the more disturbing ones is something that I've only put my finger on recently. ( Read more... )
I think one of the reasons this phenomenon hasn't bothered me much in the EU overall is that my very favorite books are by Zahn and Allston, both of whom tend to be quite good about including a fair number of female characters and portraying them realistically, without sidelining them. Many books by other authors irritate me on so many other levels that it's hard to pick out just one reason; as well, I often read those books once, say "Meh", and only look at them again for research, so I forget some of their worst aspects.
With LotF, though, it's been kind of hard to avoid specifically because the three arguably strongest women in the EU, Leia, Mara, and Jaina, have all been sidelined - and have been written pretty OOC in order to do so. Leia's done very little in this series. Mara's been written as so OOC gullible and passive that it's nauseating. Jaina's hardly even been mentioned until Revelation, and then it's only to point out time and time again how unqualified she supposedly is, despite a lifetime of Jedi training and having spent her entire adult life as a frontline fighter pilot. When you add Tahiri's bizarre and unfounded characterization changes, it gets pretty hard to avoid recognizing the trend.
I'll give Allston credit for at least mentioning characters like Iella, Syal, Myri, and Mirax, but when Denning and Traviss don't touch that subplot, it's hard for those characters to accomplish much. Practically the only female character who's been written almost entirely as strong and admirable is Mirta, but that's somewhat sullied because A) she's a Mandalorian written by Traviss; she couldn't possibly be anything but strong and admirable, and B) aside from her, how many female Mandos have we seen? Her mother, who was beaten to death during an interrogation? If there were others, they weren't especially memorable.
I hadn't even thought of Mirta. Probably because the Mando plotline is so gratuitous it feels like it could be out of another series completely. Granted I haven't read Revelation yet, but the long Mando sections in Sacrifice were so out of place it was laughable. Boba sitting down to dinner with his Mando buddies - yeah, I can really see how that relates to what's going on in the rest of the book. /sarcasm
With LotF, though, it's been kind of hard to avoid specifically because the three arguably strongest women in the EU, Leia, Mara, and Jaina, have all been sidelined - and have been written pretty OOC in order to do so. Leia's done very little in this series. Mara's been written as so OOC gullible and passive that it's nauseating. Jaina's hardly even been mentioned until Revelation, and then it's only to point out time and time again how unqualified she supposedly is, despite a lifetime of Jedi training and having spent her entire adult life as a frontline fighter pilot. When you add Tahiri's bizarre and unfounded characterization changes, it gets pretty hard to avoid recognizing the trend.
I'll give Allston credit for at least mentioning characters like Iella, Syal, Myri, and Mirax, but when Denning and Traviss don't touch that subplot, it's hard for those characters to accomplish much. Practically the only female character who's been written almost entirely as strong and admirable is Mirta, but that's somewhat sullied because A) she's a Mandalorian written by Traviss; she couldn't possibly be anything but strong and admirable, and B) aside from her, how many female Mandos have we seen? Her mother, who was beaten to death during an interrogation? If there were others, they weren't especially memorable.
It annoys me so very much.
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