In Defense of the YJ Ladies
Ohhhh animated Young Justice fandom, I have SUCH a bone to pick with you.
Dear Young Justice fandom:
Why do you hate the ladies so much? No really, given how individual and unique the female characters on this show are and how they're just as competent and powerful as the boys, the amount of hate you lob at these girls is freaking ridiculous and petty. And pretty much all of it is tremendously gross and sexist too. Artemis is a "bitch" and Miss Martian is a "Mary Sue" and Zatanna is "useless" and so on. I'd like to take a minute to look over the most common accusations you fling at each of these three badass ladies and explain why they are hilariously wrong.
Artemis:
1. "She's such a bitch! She's rude to everyone!"
Um, not true. If you actually watch her interactions with the rest of the team, Artemis gets along well with pretty much all of them. She's respectful towards Aqualad. She and Miss Martian have friendly chats about boys. She and Zatanna clearly like hanging out and are shaping up to be BFFs. She and Robin held together well during the stressful situation they shared in "Homefront".
Really, the only one she's the least bit verbally prickly towards is Kid Flash who 1) is pretty clearly being set up to have a Slap Slap Kiss kind of UST with her and 2) she wasn't even rude to in her intro episode until he was rude and confrontational to her first.
2. "She's obviously the mole and she's going to betray them all! The traitor!"
Admittedly, if you're only going by what the show has told us about her and her backstory, you might justifiably be led to think this. Two things, however. First, we saw Artemis's clear, raw, and very panicky reaction to the possibility of losing the team in "Homefront". You remember "Homefront" right? Where Artemis had a little mini-breakdown when she wound up being the only one not captured and told herself, "I've found a new family, and here we're all for one"? Not exactly the reaction someone planning on eventually betraying them would have, especially out of sight of anyone who could be suspicious of her actions. Second, Green Arrow and freaking Batman let her on the team, in spite of the mysteries she's hiding from the rest of Young Justice. If the Goddamn Batman trusts her, then I'd say she's pretty trustworthy.
And that's only taking what we're given in the show. The tie-in comics reveal her backstory in full and reveal that, even though she's the daughter and sister of villains, she chose not to take that path herself, that Green Arrow and Batman approached her after she secretly helped out the team, and offered her a place on it. I think that's pretty strong evidence that she's not the mole, don't you?
3. "She gets in the way of Kid Flash/Robin!"
She and Wally don't even like each other that way yet. Yeah they have a little love/hate bickering kind of thing going on and it's hinted they do really care about each other but that does not in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER impede you from writing or enjoying KF/Rob. Hell, Wally and Artemis being in-denial about their feelings for each other lends itself perfectly to you writing them with other people.
Hating on a character just because they're a perceived "threat" to your preferred pairing is pointless, useless, irritating, and dumb.
Miss Martian:
1. "She's such a Mary Sue!"
Ha ha ha no she's not. She fits absolutely none of the criteria for Suedom whatsoever. No, not even the fact that she's a really superfreaking powerful telepath, more powerful than Martian Manhunter in fact, makes her a Sue. That's something we didn't even learn until episode 16, "Failsafe", and you were already calling Sue on her long before then. Hell, you started calling her a Sue the minute she showed up in the pilot, when all we knew about her was that she was sweet, attracted to Superboy, and Kid Flash dug her. (But he digs pretty much anything female and moving so really, it's not a big deal.)
Listen up YJ fandom: M'gann is not a Sue just because she's feminine, attractive, and very capable in battle. She has flaws. She is rash and impulsive and sometimes makes bad decisions based on her emotions. She makes mistakes and errors in judgement. Did you forget that her entire first episode was about her screwing up and then figuring out how to fix things? Oh wait, that's right, even when M'gann does make mistakes and demonstrates her flaws, proving that she's not a Sue, you guys still hate her. The poor girl just can't win.
Speaking of...
2. "She left Aqualad to die in "Bereft" the bitch!"
That is a gross misrepresentation of the facts and you know it. M'gann did not abandon Kaldur to die. She left him in the hands of three very capable teammates who could get him to medical attention while she went to rescue another teammate who was mindless, captured, and currently being tortured. (Something she could literally feel happening inside her head by the way.) Could she have taken the extra hour or so to get Kaldur to the Bioship before going off to save Superboy? Sure, but in that time, the bad guys could have done worse to Superboy than electrocute him. They could have moved him, killed him, or brainwashed him back into being a Light operative. There was a lot of uncertainty to Superboy's predicament, and there were literally no good choices to be made in that situation. Whichever way any of them moved, someone was going to have to wait to be taken out of danger. M'gann just chose the one who seemed to be in more immediate peril. She was the only one who could find Superboy and restore his memories. Robin, Artemis, and Kid Flash were well capable of getting Aqualad to the Bioship, even with Kid Flash being low on energy and Artemis running short on arrows. M'gann made the best decision she could, given the circumstances. Was it rash and foolish to go off half-cocked and unprepared to face who or whatever had erased their memories? Yes. Again, M'gann is a flawed character who makes mistakes. And she would have faced Psimon unprepared even if she had taken Aqualad to safety first. Since it all worked out okay in the end, arguably M'gann made the right choice.
And a lot of you don't even give a shit about Kaldur the rest of the time unless you can use him to bash M'gann. Like in "Homefront" with that whole, "How DARE Superboy and Artemis not ask about Kaldur's well-being, even though M'gann is the one who's unconscious and unresponsive and Superboy and Artemis are closer to M'gann than Kaldur anyway!" thing. That was nice.
3. "She's a slut!"
Oh goody, I can't wait to hear the flimsy unjustifiable reasons for this one. Is it her skirt? Is it the fact that she wears pink and is a feminine, girly, sweet character? Is it because more than one guy finds her attractive? Said guys, by the way, being Wally (who flirts with all the girls), Conner (who is her canon love interest), and Icicle Jr. (who was only attracted to her in her Tipper Terror disguise so really he doesn't count)? Guess what fandom, more than one guy being interested in you does not make you a slut. Or a Sue either.
Or is it because she likes Superboy and isn't shy about demonstrating it and getting her icky girl cooties all over him? Oh no, she likes a boy who likes her back and actively pursues him! How horrifying! Some of you go so far as to claim Superboy doesn't really love her back, she just brainwashed him into loving her back in "Bereft" when she restored his memories.
That is laughable and stupid and you should be ashamed of yourselves.
4. "HER CATCHPRASE IS ANNOYING AND MUST DIE!"
Tough noogies. It doesn't look like "Hello Megan!" is going away anytime soon so if you really can't handle her saying it once every three episodes (seriously she doesn't say it nearly as often as you make it out to be), then I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you. Except to point out that Robin mangles English and Wally says, "Souvenier!" way more often than M'gann says, "Hello Megan!" and yet you give them absolutely no grief about it. Ah, lovely double-standards.
5. "She's the mole and she's going to betray them all!"
Jeebers people, what's with lobbing the mole accusation at the characters you hate? "I hate them, therefore they MUST be the mole!" Even when it makes absolutely no sense I guess.
Okay, so Miss Martian is lying about being a White Martian. Because, it's implied, White Martians are a persecuted minority in this continuity. Even if the White Martians are evil in this universe like they are in the comics, what does that have anything to do with the Light's mole? How was M'gann supposed to have any contact with the Light, you know, FROM MARS? And if you're going to have a mole, wouldn't you pick someone who doesn't easily form emotional attatchments to the people they'd be spying on? You know, like M'gann? And like Artemis, we've seen firsthand how she'd react to the possibility of losing the team. ("Failsafe")
You guys just want her to be the mole so you can be justified in hating her.
6. "She gets in the way of Kid Flash/Robin!"
...Because Wally flirts with her and finds her attractive but she doesn't reciprocate and is pretty obviously crushing on Superboy? What?
M'gann is not a threat to KF/Rob. M'gann doesn't like Wally. She likes Conner. Conner likes her. They are a very happy couple together. Shouldn't y'all be getting on Wally's case for flirting with M'gann and pursuing her even though she's clearly not interested instead?
7. "She gets in the way of Superboy/Wonder Girl!"
Great. Now she obstructs a pairing from a completely different medium and continuity than animated Young Justice.
If we are getting Wonder Girl in Season Two, fandom, it will probably be Donna and not Cassie. And there's no rule that says Cassie and Conner have to be romantically involved in all continuites and universes and incarnations all the time forever. If Cassie does appear, she doesn't have to immediately get with Conner.
And again, M'gann being with Conner in this universe does not in any way impede your ability to enjoy Conner/Cassie. There is no need whatsoever to pit the ladies against each other.
8. "She's weak and a damsel in distress!"
Okay, now we're just making things up. Clearly we aren't watching the same show. Either she's too powerful or she's "weak". Make up your mind fandom.
Zatanna:
1. "She's a useless love interest!"
Really? Because it seemed to me like she's been pretty darn useful to the team so far, despite her mild flirtations with Robin. (Which have only been in one of the two episodes she's been in, come on.) Since her first appearence she has:
In conclusion, Young Justice fandom, the ladies are awesome.
Dear Young Justice fandom:
Why do you hate the ladies so much? No really, given how individual and unique the female characters on this show are and how they're just as competent and powerful as the boys, the amount of hate you lob at these girls is freaking ridiculous and petty. And pretty much all of it is tremendously gross and sexist too. Artemis is a "bitch" and Miss Martian is a "Mary Sue" and Zatanna is "useless" and so on. I'd like to take a minute to look over the most common accusations you fling at each of these three badass ladies and explain why they are hilariously wrong.
Artemis:
1. "She's such a bitch! She's rude to everyone!"
Um, not true. If you actually watch her interactions with the rest of the team, Artemis gets along well with pretty much all of them. She's respectful towards Aqualad. She and Miss Martian have friendly chats about boys. She and Zatanna clearly like hanging out and are shaping up to be BFFs. She and Robin held together well during the stressful situation they shared in "Homefront".
Really, the only one she's the least bit verbally prickly towards is Kid Flash who 1) is pretty clearly being set up to have a Slap Slap Kiss kind of UST with her and 2) she wasn't even rude to in her intro episode until he was rude and confrontational to her first.
2. "She's obviously the mole and she's going to betray them all! The traitor!"
Admittedly, if you're only going by what the show has told us about her and her backstory, you might justifiably be led to think this. Two things, however. First, we saw Artemis's clear, raw, and very panicky reaction to the possibility of losing the team in "Homefront". You remember "Homefront" right? Where Artemis had a little mini-breakdown when she wound up being the only one not captured and told herself, "I've found a new family, and here we're all for one"? Not exactly the reaction someone planning on eventually betraying them would have, especially out of sight of anyone who could be suspicious of her actions. Second, Green Arrow and freaking Batman let her on the team, in spite of the mysteries she's hiding from the rest of Young Justice. If the Goddamn Batman trusts her, then I'd say she's pretty trustworthy.
And that's only taking what we're given in the show. The tie-in comics reveal her backstory in full and reveal that, even though she's the daughter and sister of villains, she chose not to take that path herself, that Green Arrow and Batman approached her after she secretly helped out the team, and offered her a place on it. I think that's pretty strong evidence that she's not the mole, don't you?
3. "She gets in the way of Kid Flash/Robin!"
She and Wally don't even like each other that way yet. Yeah they have a little love/hate bickering kind of thing going on and it's hinted they do really care about each other but that does not in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER impede you from writing or enjoying KF/Rob. Hell, Wally and Artemis being in-denial about their feelings for each other lends itself perfectly to you writing them with other people.
Hating on a character just because they're a perceived "threat" to your preferred pairing is pointless, useless, irritating, and dumb.
Miss Martian:
1. "She's such a Mary Sue!"
Ha ha ha no she's not. She fits absolutely none of the criteria for Suedom whatsoever. No, not even the fact that she's a really superfreaking powerful telepath, more powerful than Martian Manhunter in fact, makes her a Sue. That's something we didn't even learn until episode 16, "Failsafe", and you were already calling Sue on her long before then. Hell, you started calling her a Sue the minute she showed up in the pilot, when all we knew about her was that she was sweet, attracted to Superboy, and Kid Flash dug her. (But he digs pretty much anything female and moving so really, it's not a big deal.)
Listen up YJ fandom: M'gann is not a Sue just because she's feminine, attractive, and very capable in battle. She has flaws. She is rash and impulsive and sometimes makes bad decisions based on her emotions. She makes mistakes and errors in judgement. Did you forget that her entire first episode was about her screwing up and then figuring out how to fix things? Oh wait, that's right, even when M'gann does make mistakes and demonstrates her flaws, proving that she's not a Sue, you guys still hate her. The poor girl just can't win.
Speaking of...
2. "She left Aqualad to die in "Bereft" the bitch!"
That is a gross misrepresentation of the facts and you know it. M'gann did not abandon Kaldur to die. She left him in the hands of three very capable teammates who could get him to medical attention while she went to rescue another teammate who was mindless, captured, and currently being tortured. (Something she could literally feel happening inside her head by the way.) Could she have taken the extra hour or so to get Kaldur to the Bioship before going off to save Superboy? Sure, but in that time, the bad guys could have done worse to Superboy than electrocute him. They could have moved him, killed him, or brainwashed him back into being a Light operative. There was a lot of uncertainty to Superboy's predicament, and there were literally no good choices to be made in that situation. Whichever way any of them moved, someone was going to have to wait to be taken out of danger. M'gann just chose the one who seemed to be in more immediate peril. She was the only one who could find Superboy and restore his memories. Robin, Artemis, and Kid Flash were well capable of getting Aqualad to the Bioship, even with Kid Flash being low on energy and Artemis running short on arrows. M'gann made the best decision she could, given the circumstances. Was it rash and foolish to go off half-cocked and unprepared to face who or whatever had erased their memories? Yes. Again, M'gann is a flawed character who makes mistakes. And she would have faced Psimon unprepared even if she had taken Aqualad to safety first. Since it all worked out okay in the end, arguably M'gann made the right choice.
And a lot of you don't even give a shit about Kaldur the rest of the time unless you can use him to bash M'gann. Like in "Homefront" with that whole, "How DARE Superboy and Artemis not ask about Kaldur's well-being, even though M'gann is the one who's unconscious and unresponsive and Superboy and Artemis are closer to M'gann than Kaldur anyway!" thing. That was nice.
3. "She's a slut!"
Oh goody, I can't wait to hear the flimsy unjustifiable reasons for this one. Is it her skirt? Is it the fact that she wears pink and is a feminine, girly, sweet character? Is it because more than one guy finds her attractive? Said guys, by the way, being Wally (who flirts with all the girls), Conner (who is her canon love interest), and Icicle Jr. (who was only attracted to her in her Tipper Terror disguise so really he doesn't count)? Guess what fandom, more than one guy being interested in you does not make you a slut. Or a Sue either.
Or is it because she likes Superboy and isn't shy about demonstrating it and getting her icky girl cooties all over him? Oh no, she likes a boy who likes her back and actively pursues him! How horrifying! Some of you go so far as to claim Superboy doesn't really love her back, she just brainwashed him into loving her back in "Bereft" when she restored his memories.
That is laughable and stupid and you should be ashamed of yourselves.
4. "HER CATCHPRASE IS ANNOYING AND MUST DIE!"
Tough noogies. It doesn't look like "Hello Megan!" is going away anytime soon so if you really can't handle her saying it once every three episodes (seriously she doesn't say it nearly as often as you make it out to be), then I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you. Except to point out that Robin mangles English and Wally says, "Souvenier!" way more often than M'gann says, "Hello Megan!" and yet you give them absolutely no grief about it. Ah, lovely double-standards.
5. "She's the mole and she's going to betray them all!"
Jeebers people, what's with lobbing the mole accusation at the characters you hate? "I hate them, therefore they MUST be the mole!" Even when it makes absolutely no sense I guess.
Okay, so Miss Martian is lying about being a White Martian. Because, it's implied, White Martians are a persecuted minority in this continuity. Even if the White Martians are evil in this universe like they are in the comics, what does that have anything to do with the Light's mole? How was M'gann supposed to have any contact with the Light, you know, FROM MARS? And if you're going to have a mole, wouldn't you pick someone who doesn't easily form emotional attatchments to the people they'd be spying on? You know, like M'gann? And like Artemis, we've seen firsthand how she'd react to the possibility of losing the team. ("Failsafe")
You guys just want her to be the mole so you can be justified in hating her.
6. "She gets in the way of Kid Flash/Robin!"
...Because Wally flirts with her and finds her attractive but she doesn't reciprocate and is pretty obviously crushing on Superboy? What?
M'gann is not a threat to KF/Rob. M'gann doesn't like Wally. She likes Conner. Conner likes her. They are a very happy couple together. Shouldn't y'all be getting on Wally's case for flirting with M'gann and pursuing her even though she's clearly not interested instead?
7. "She gets in the way of Superboy/Wonder Girl!"
Great. Now she obstructs a pairing from a completely different medium and continuity than animated Young Justice.
If we are getting Wonder Girl in Season Two, fandom, it will probably be Donna and not Cassie. And there's no rule that says Cassie and Conner have to be romantically involved in all continuites and universes and incarnations all the time forever. If Cassie does appear, she doesn't have to immediately get with Conner.
And again, M'gann being with Conner in this universe does not in any way impede your ability to enjoy Conner/Cassie. There is no need whatsoever to pit the ladies against each other.
8. "She's weak and a damsel in distress!"
Okay, now we're just making things up. Clearly we aren't watching the same show. Either she's too powerful or she's "weak". Make up your mind fandom.
Zatanna:
1. "She's a useless love interest!"
Really? Because it seemed to me like she's been pretty darn useful to the team so far, despite her mild flirtations with Robin. (Which have only been in one of the two episodes she's been in, come on.) Since her first appearence she has:
- Gotten Dr. Ivo to reveal Dr. T.O. Morrow's location, after he resisted Miss Martian's mind probe.
- Helped fight off a powerful genocidal robot trying to blow up a volcano and conquer the world.
- Stopped several thefts, muggings, burglaries, and one potential assault, with her BFF Artemis.
- Kicked major ass against Harm and helped solve the mystery of Secret's murder.
In conclusion, Young Justice fandom, the ladies are awesome.