30 days of female awesome: Day Nine
30 days of female awesome, Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
There's an obvious answer to this one - but I'm actually saving the obvious for later, because I only want to use each character once. So I'll go with someone slightly less obvious, but who still had a powerful impact on my life:
Angela Chase from My So-Called Life
I have talked - often, at length - about how things that are "realistic" rarely feel any more real to me than SFF does - it's still just characters in settings, not people I feel I could know in real life, and certainly not people I feel could be me.
MSCL was about people, and Angela Chase was a large reason for that, embodying the turmoils of teen years better than any other character I've seen, ever. Point-of-view characters can easily become bland, since they're required to be nonspecific enough for different viewers to see themselves in, but Angela wasn't bland - she was just unsure of herself, unsure of her place in the world, with high dreams and no practical ambitions, wanting to break out of her shell but terrified of finding out what kind of bird she really was.
There are other awesome characters in MSCL as well, but I really feel that Angela is the anchor, that by being real she forces everyone else to become real as well. We believe that Rayanne would simultaneously mentor her and envy her, that each would feed off the need to be like the other - rauncy daredevil vs. innocent dreamer. We believe that Jordan Catalano would not at first notice this little mouse, but that he'd grow to care, that he'd dump her, and that he wouldn't be able to get her out of his head. We believe that her parents worry about her, not knowing what the hell their daughter is growing into, that Danielle is torn between little-sister frustration and admiration, that Rickie (oh Rickie!) feels a kinship to her even while he thinks of her as "Rayanne's friend"... and so on.
Of course, it helps that Claire Danes, unlike most young Hollywood actresses cast as "the girl next door", really could be that girl. In an industry where, as someone put it "'plain' is Sandra Bullock in a knitted cap", Danes has the kind of looks that fit right between plain and pretty. Angela can look in the mirror and see an ugly girl, with the harshness teenagers have towards themselves, and for once it doesn't seem fake - but at the same time, she's easily someone we can see Brian, and eventually Jordan, fall in love with.
She can be mean, and petty, and shortsighted, and cowardly, and so melodramatic and pecoralistic it makes me cringe, and even so, she's beautiful, because I look at the screen - as I did all those years ago - and I think, "Yup, that's it. That's being a teenager." (Which, the show even uses Shakespeare to make this particular point. Subtle it ain't - but teenhood isn't.)
I just want everyone to WATCH THE WHOLE SHOW, but for starters, let me point you to the video someone made called "The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase":
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-Three: 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!
***
In other news,
isagel is having a picspam to point out that The Good Wife has no clue what actual Swedes actually look like. Lots of pretty, go look!
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/532783.html and has
comments there.
There's an obvious answer to this one - but I'm actually saving the obvious for later, because I only want to use each character once. So I'll go with someone slightly less obvious, but who still had a powerful impact on my life:
Angela Chase from My So-Called Life
I have talked - often, at length - about how things that are "realistic" rarely feel any more real to me than SFF does - it's still just characters in settings, not people I feel I could know in real life, and certainly not people I feel could be me.
MSCL was about people, and Angela Chase was a large reason for that, embodying the turmoils of teen years better than any other character I've seen, ever. Point-of-view characters can easily become bland, since they're required to be nonspecific enough for different viewers to see themselves in, but Angela wasn't bland - she was just unsure of herself, unsure of her place in the world, with high dreams and no practical ambitions, wanting to break out of her shell but terrified of finding out what kind of bird she really was.
There are other awesome characters in MSCL as well, but I really feel that Angela is the anchor, that by being real she forces everyone else to become real as well. We believe that Rayanne would simultaneously mentor her and envy her, that each would feed off the need to be like the other - rauncy daredevil vs. innocent dreamer. We believe that Jordan Catalano would not at first notice this little mouse, but that he'd grow to care, that he'd dump her, and that he wouldn't be able to get her out of his head. We believe that her parents worry about her, not knowing what the hell their daughter is growing into, that Danielle is torn between little-sister frustration and admiration, that Rickie (oh Rickie!) feels a kinship to her even while he thinks of her as "Rayanne's friend"... and so on.
Of course, it helps that Claire Danes, unlike most young Hollywood actresses cast as "the girl next door", really could be that girl. In an industry where, as someone put it "'plain' is Sandra Bullock in a knitted cap", Danes has the kind of looks that fit right between plain and pretty. Angela can look in the mirror and see an ugly girl, with the harshness teenagers have towards themselves, and for once it doesn't seem fake - but at the same time, she's easily someone we can see Brian, and eventually Jordan, fall in love with.
She can be mean, and petty, and shortsighted, and cowardly, and so melodramatic and pecoralistic it makes me cringe, and even so, she's beautiful, because I look at the screen - as I did all those years ago - and I think, "Yup, that's it. That's being a teenager." (Which, the show even uses Shakespeare to make this particular point. Subtle it ain't - but teenhood isn't.)
I just want everyone to WATCH THE WHOLE SHOW, but for starters, let me point you to the video someone made called "The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase":
Click to viewDay 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-Three: 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!
***
In other news,
isagel is having a picspam to point out that The Good Wife has no clue what actual Swedes actually look like. Lots of pretty, go look!
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/532783.html and has
comments there.