*does dance*
Okay, I might be slow, but I would like to take this time to celebrate the fact that I am HALFWAY THROUGH the Ronon xover ficlet requests. That's NOTEWORTHY, my friends, it truly is. As is the fact that it caused me to pop my Bandom cherry ahead of time. And, really, the awesome factor when one considers Bob Bryar in connection with Ronon Dex just goes through the roof.
Also, I'm actually glad that these requests are taking longer than I wanted them to, because they've provided me with a much needed distraction. Which I need. You know what I did last night, after sketching out yet another Bob/Ronon scenario that I discarded and deciding I should step away for the night? I opened the John/Ronon and poked at it. After leaving it alone for several days in a row.
Anyway, let's move on to my TV Girlfriends, shall we?
The women who make me ridiculously happy:
Fiona Glenanne [burn notice]
She is just badass and hardcore, and yet still so wholly and unabashedly feminine. I love strong female characters in general, but I really love that they left Fi's softer side in, that she wasn't made into a butch caricature. She's well-rounded and deadly and sweet on Michael, and stands up for herself.
JJ Jareau [criminal minds]
I think I once said that if JJ were real, I'd totally be all over her. I would. She's got this whole tomboy thing going, and she was an athlete, and she just broke when Reid was taken on her watch. She is competent, capable, and polished, but she's also rough-and-tumble, and has things that she's not good at, and she will let things become personal to her. I really adore her in pretty much every way, and I wish we'd get more screen time.
Vickie Nelson [blood ties]
I've raved about Vickie before, I think in Pt's journal. What I love about Vickie is just how realistically flawed she is. She is smart and good at what she does, yes, but she's also stubborn, refuses to acknowledge limitations, and doesn't seem to want to figure out what she wants. I like how subtly conflicted she is about Henry, and how comfortable she is with Mike, and how she probably imagines mashing them into one person so that things would be easier and she wouldn't have to choose.
I'm fascinated by how she so very much resists giving in and compromising, like she thinks it's a weakness, like she sees it as the giving over of herself.
Abby Sciuto [ncis]
Oh, ABBY! The dichotomy of Abby fascinates me. I love that she knows about and is plugged into so much alternative lifestyle stuff, that she is punked out and dyed and tattooed, but is also so very charmingly sweet and soft and unknowing in some ways. Abby is kind and she isn't ashamed to be that, doesn't feel like she needs to be tougher. She puts herself out there, different and subversive and normal all at once, and never tries to be one thing or another.
Ziva David [ncis]
I was half-hearted about Ziva for a while, until this season. I really think there was a softer side brought out in her that rounded her out, and I just sort of lost it for her. She is disturbingly fierce and her mentality is so stark and pragmatic, so very military. But even still there's always been a wickedness to her that was sly and somewhat playful even when it was sharply edged. Recently she's grown comfortable enough to be softer, more open, more vulnerable, and it should seem awkward and odd, but it instead makes me think that she's been very lonely for so long, and I just want to buy her, like, knives and lace shirts. *hands* Don't ask, I can't explain.
Lisa Cuddy [house]
I cannot even properly articulate my love of Cuddy. I disagree with some things the show did, and I feel like they didn't keep her as strong as they opened her as being, but she doesn't back down in the face of House because of his personality. She holds her motherfucking own, okay? If she gives in it's for a reason. She has House's back not because she's sentimental and weak, but because as much as she sometimes literally can't stand the man, she also thinks that he does something no one else can. She'll stand up for that, yeah, no matter to whom. That takes a core of steel, given how often she's called in to answer to his actions.
And it's not all about House, he's just the easiest foil to use to explain what I love about Cuddy.
Samantha Carter [sg1]
I'm pulling this from something I posted about Carter previously:
I think that character has suffered for being written by men who apparently have never interacted with a woman other than their mothers (yes, lots of snark), but I lovelovelove her. Regardless of writing quality for her character, there is no one who can't tell me that the character itself is not worthy of some love/respect for being a damn good example of a strong female character: she's brilliant, is respected and admired for being brilliant, and is also an Air Force officer and soldier who is competent and qualified 21C for SG1.
Beyond that...my god. I might not have watched the show in real time over the course of ten years, but I have watched all ten seasons, and I have seen her go on with dignity and grace and sadness after having her heart broken, I've watched her cry for her lost teammate, I've seen her save the day over and over again and never apologize for being a smart girl or for being able to kick most guys' asses. She's kind of one of my favorite female characters ever thanks to all of that.
Vala Mal Doran [sg1]
My unholy adoration of Vala started when she gave Daniel the biggest, toothiest grin I ever did see and chirped, "Let's make babies!"
No, wait! I lie! It started when SHE KICKED THE EVERY LOVING SHIT OUT OF DANIEL AND USED A GODDAMN THIGH HOLD ON HIS NECK! How could I not love her right then and there? It was impossible!
While I enjoyed the progression of Vala, how she discovered her conscience and got all up the face of ethics and whatnot, what always gets to me is the girlishness to her. The pigtails and the grins and the bouncing and the TOSSING HERSELF AT TEAL'C AND BEING CAUGHT BY HIM. *ahem* And I know that girlishness is a façade, that she wields it and uses it for her own purposes, and that under it she is just...solitary and isolated.
Cordelia Chase [buffy/angel]
Okay, look. A lot of people don't like where they took Cordy. And I could talk about that for a while, but I won't. Because I adored her overall arc to little bits and pieces. I love her maturation, her evolution, her progression. I loved that even when she was a softer, kinder, gentler Cordy she was still blunt and ballsy and always called people on their shit. I respected that, I loved that it became something that the people around her depended on, and more than anything else I love that she came back for one last mission.
Tara Maclay [buffy]
I just...she's just...you guys. Okay. I wrote this fic called Elysium, and it was huge, and there were sequels, and Tara was so very much at the core of it. So I think in some ways it's hard for me to think of Tara and think only of canon Tara, because I spent damn near 81000 words telling a story involving a mentally fragile Tara who's just been broken all to hell, and then follow it up with a damn near 60000 word sequel told in the first person from her POV.
So it's all entangled for me, you know? I think what it boils down to is that not only did I love the Tara we saw--soft and rounded and so very open and plain in her emotions--but I loved the potential in her. And it maybe wasn't great and meaningful potential....it was real and down home and quiet and steadfast. She loved, she loved deeply and with all of herself, but when that relationship cut her off at the knees she didn't just take it, she gathered herself and left.
I like to think she was a corner stone that summer after Buffy died, and I like to think that maybe she could have continued being that and so very much more in the brave new slayer world.
Fred Burkle [angel]
And, huh, I find myself once again feeling the need to preface my squee with a disclaimer about how I know people had issues with her arc and where she was taken. *facepalm*
I loved how Fred broke on Pylea. It was delicate and maybe the only way she could have broken and been able to fix herself. She cracked in precise lines, and she tossed away only as much reality as would have crushed her to pieces, and kept enough to give her hope at an escape, and even in the midst of it all she could mesh herself together even just briefly.
I love how she came into her own, found herself within her mind and skin once again, and made conscious and deliberate choices about her world and life. I loved that she shook Dennis' party hat when she met him, and the way she would try to guess what Gunn wore, and I pretty much adored every single thing about her and Gunn's relationship because it was honest and simple and real and dorky.
Also, I'm actually glad that these requests are taking longer than I wanted them to, because they've provided me with a much needed distraction. Which I need. You know what I did last night, after sketching out yet another Bob/Ronon scenario that I discarded and deciding I should step away for the night? I opened the John/Ronon and poked at it. After leaving it alone for several days in a row.
Anyway, let's move on to my TV Girlfriends, shall we?
The women who make me ridiculously happy:
Fiona Glenanne [burn notice]
She is just badass and hardcore, and yet still so wholly and unabashedly feminine. I love strong female characters in general, but I really love that they left Fi's softer side in, that she wasn't made into a butch caricature. She's well-rounded and deadly and sweet on Michael, and stands up for herself.
JJ Jareau [criminal minds]
I think I once said that if JJ were real, I'd totally be all over her. I would. She's got this whole tomboy thing going, and she was an athlete, and she just broke when Reid was taken on her watch. She is competent, capable, and polished, but she's also rough-and-tumble, and has things that she's not good at, and she will let things become personal to her. I really adore her in pretty much every way, and I wish we'd get more screen time.
Vickie Nelson [blood ties]
I've raved about Vickie before, I think in Pt's journal. What I love about Vickie is just how realistically flawed she is. She is smart and good at what she does, yes, but she's also stubborn, refuses to acknowledge limitations, and doesn't seem to want to figure out what she wants. I like how subtly conflicted she is about Henry, and how comfortable she is with Mike, and how she probably imagines mashing them into one person so that things would be easier and she wouldn't have to choose.
I'm fascinated by how she so very much resists giving in and compromising, like she thinks it's a weakness, like she sees it as the giving over of herself.
Abby Sciuto [ncis]
Oh, ABBY! The dichotomy of Abby fascinates me. I love that she knows about and is plugged into so much alternative lifestyle stuff, that she is punked out and dyed and tattooed, but is also so very charmingly sweet and soft and unknowing in some ways. Abby is kind and she isn't ashamed to be that, doesn't feel like she needs to be tougher. She puts herself out there, different and subversive and normal all at once, and never tries to be one thing or another.
Ziva David [ncis]
I was half-hearted about Ziva for a while, until this season. I really think there was a softer side brought out in her that rounded her out, and I just sort of lost it for her. She is disturbingly fierce and her mentality is so stark and pragmatic, so very military. But even still there's always been a wickedness to her that was sly and somewhat playful even when it was sharply edged. Recently she's grown comfortable enough to be softer, more open, more vulnerable, and it should seem awkward and odd, but it instead makes me think that she's been very lonely for so long, and I just want to buy her, like, knives and lace shirts. *hands* Don't ask, I can't explain.
Lisa Cuddy [house]
I cannot even properly articulate my love of Cuddy. I disagree with some things the show did, and I feel like they didn't keep her as strong as they opened her as being, but she doesn't back down in the face of House because of his personality. She holds her motherfucking own, okay? If she gives in it's for a reason. She has House's back not because she's sentimental and weak, but because as much as she sometimes literally can't stand the man, she also thinks that he does something no one else can. She'll stand up for that, yeah, no matter to whom. That takes a core of steel, given how often she's called in to answer to his actions.
And it's not all about House, he's just the easiest foil to use to explain what I love about Cuddy.
Samantha Carter [sg1]
I'm pulling this from something I posted about Carter previously:
I think that character has suffered for being written by men who apparently have never interacted with a woman other than their mothers (yes, lots of snark), but I lovelovelove her. Regardless of writing quality for her character, there is no one who can't tell me that the character itself is not worthy of some love/respect for being a damn good example of a strong female character: she's brilliant, is respected and admired for being brilliant, and is also an Air Force officer and soldier who is competent and qualified 21C for SG1.
Beyond that...my god. I might not have watched the show in real time over the course of ten years, but I have watched all ten seasons, and I have seen her go on with dignity and grace and sadness after having her heart broken, I've watched her cry for her lost teammate, I've seen her save the day over and over again and never apologize for being a smart girl or for being able to kick most guys' asses. She's kind of one of my favorite female characters ever thanks to all of that.
Vala Mal Doran [sg1]
My unholy adoration of Vala started when she gave Daniel the biggest, toothiest grin I ever did see and chirped, "Let's make babies!"
No, wait! I lie! It started when SHE KICKED THE EVERY LOVING SHIT OUT OF DANIEL AND USED A GODDAMN THIGH HOLD ON HIS NECK! How could I not love her right then and there? It was impossible!
While I enjoyed the progression of Vala, how she discovered her conscience and got all up the face of ethics and whatnot, what always gets to me is the girlishness to her. The pigtails and the grins and the bouncing and the TOSSING HERSELF AT TEAL'C AND BEING CAUGHT BY HIM. *ahem* And I know that girlishness is a façade, that she wields it and uses it for her own purposes, and that under it she is just...solitary and isolated.
Cordelia Chase [buffy/angel]
Okay, look. A lot of people don't like where they took Cordy. And I could talk about that for a while, but I won't. Because I adored her overall arc to little bits and pieces. I love her maturation, her evolution, her progression. I loved that even when she was a softer, kinder, gentler Cordy she was still blunt and ballsy and always called people on their shit. I respected that, I loved that it became something that the people around her depended on, and more than anything else I love that she came back for one last mission.
Tara Maclay [buffy]
I just...she's just...you guys. Okay. I wrote this fic called Elysium, and it was huge, and there were sequels, and Tara was so very much at the core of it. So I think in some ways it's hard for me to think of Tara and think only of canon Tara, because I spent damn near 81000 words telling a story involving a mentally fragile Tara who's just been broken all to hell, and then follow it up with a damn near 60000 word sequel told in the first person from her POV.
So it's all entangled for me, you know? I think what it boils down to is that not only did I love the Tara we saw--soft and rounded and so very open and plain in her emotions--but I loved the potential in her. And it maybe wasn't great and meaningful potential....it was real and down home and quiet and steadfast. She loved, she loved deeply and with all of herself, but when that relationship cut her off at the knees she didn't just take it, she gathered herself and left.
I like to think she was a corner stone that summer after Buffy died, and I like to think that maybe she could have continued being that and so very much more in the brave new slayer world.
Fred Burkle [angel]
And, huh, I find myself once again feeling the need to preface my squee with a disclaimer about how I know people had issues with her arc and where she was taken. *facepalm*
I loved how Fred broke on Pylea. It was delicate and maybe the only way she could have broken and been able to fix herself. She cracked in precise lines, and she tossed away only as much reality as would have crushed her to pieces, and kept enough to give her hope at an escape, and even in the midst of it all she could mesh herself together even just briefly.
I love how she came into her own, found herself within her mind and skin once again, and made conscious and deliberate choices about her world and life. I loved that she shook Dennis' party hat when she met him, and the way she would try to guess what Gunn wore, and I pretty much adored every single thing about her and Gunn's relationship because it was honest and simple and real and dorky.