"Ignore him, Sheila, he's just having one of his days..."
Okay, stay with me while I take this meme to places it oughtn't to go... like some old 1980s cartoon... (we'll return to relative normality afterwards).
Day Eighteen: Diana (Dungeons & Dragons; voiced by Tonia Gayle Smith)
Eric: We're outnumbered ten to one!
Diana: Okay, you take two, I'll take eighteen...
So she's a cartoon character, but the children who are the heroes of this 1980s action cartoon are not, atypically, superheroes at all, or even grown-up. If Diana can do amazing things, that's because she's a trained athlete in her real life, not because of the magical weapon she's given. (Eric claims, "She's got enough gold medals to start her own bank for you to rob!") Diana is real enough to count; she's also brave, witty, warm, generous and handy with a javelin. Her first reaction to many of the strange creatures they meet is whether or not she can learn to ride them. She's something of an enabler, too: it's her belief in them that allow the cowardly Sir John, the young Nazi pilot Josef, and even Eric to become better than they thought they were. And when Diana triumphs in Child of the Stargazer, despite all the cartoon dramatics, there's no side-stepping that the victory came at a cost and that 'we won' doesn't always make everything better. It doesn't take much scratching of the cartoon surface to find out this show has heart - and so does Diana.
Here's the ending to 'Child of the Stargazer' so you can agree, or just laugh at the 1980s cartoon-ness, and my ridiculous liking for it.
General show tribute, that's sweet (and features Diana with Eric, Kosar & Sir John):
There's so little around, I thought the best I could do was a picspam, so here goes (these are mostly taken from the Diana-centric ep Child of the Stargazer:
This what Diana looks like in rl. And she dresses in a t-shirt and jeans. For her realm outfit, one can only yet again question the motives of the seemingly benign Dungeon Master.
There is trouble, as ever. Diana prepares to be awesome yet again.
Diana has found a love interest, called Kosar. Like Leela, she seems to take to the slightly helpless sort. (So maybe Eric has a chance, after all?) Lots of people say he seems to look very like Michael Jackson, but I find this a mildly disturbing thought. (D&D is very good at pulling off love-interest-of-the-week, something that rarely works elsewhere, but turns out incredibly sweet each time here. Presto + Varla = cutest thing ever.)
What did I say? The helpless sort. After this, Diana stands up and tries to fight off a magical tornado. She doesn't win, but, you know, she tries.
She and Kosar escape, and then Diana is awesome, probably more in a cartoon way than realistic, but still awesome, and lands standing up. Unlike Kosar, who is, btw (this is a fantasy cartoon) the subject of a prophecy, and has a nasty demon queen after him.
Kosar is hurt in the attempt to complete the prohecy. This is what Diana looks like when she is really upset and mad.
So, she decides to do something about said demony queen herself.
... Fulfilling the prophecy, because her Dad is an astronomer; therefore she is also the Child of the Stargazer. The show's 'bible' states they should go somewhere that people think Diana is so awesome she must be a goddess. This is the nearest the show ever actually gets to this.
Sheila has just worked out Dungeon Master's riddle of the week (Sheila tends to be the one to do this. She thinks about things.) "Dungeon Master said one of us would have to choose between home and the heart. If we go home, Kosar will die. It's you Diana, it's you!"
Much to Eric's dismay (he can smell those hotdogs yet again), Diana chooses the heart and swaps places with Kosar.
Everyone else is all 'hurray, the evil witch is dead' but Diana is too upset and hurt to care. So Dungeon Master tries to cheer her up with a bit of homespun twaddle. ("But what does that mean?" she asks.) Then he adds, "Diana, do you hear? Do you hear what you have done? Listen, Diana, listen to the people you have set free!"
Plus, Diana is good friends with Sheila, which is a nice thing.
She has been known to hide.
But mostly she fights eighteen orcs, while Eric runs away from two.
Also, because I was going to give Sheila an entry, too, I should mention her:
Sheila (voiced by Katie Leigh) is, on the face of it, the typical girly girl. And if the weapons they are given relate to their characters and abilities, it's telling again that Sheila's given a cloak of invisibility. However, Sheila's not 'just' the sweet, caring, pretty girl who desperately wants to go home (although she's that, too); she's the thief, the trickster, with an impish sense of humour - and a fiery temper when it's roused. And while she's usually the last to make trouble, when the group's leader, Hank, makes a big mistake, she's the one who's prepared to stand up and challenge him.
I may be mad, of course, but everyone is aware of that by now. :-)
30 days of Awesome TV Female Characters:
Day One: Soolin (B7)
Day Two: Dayna Mellanby (B7)
Day Three: Michelle of the Resistance (Allo Allo)
Day Four: Beatrice Eliott (House of Eliott)
Day Five: Captain Kathryn Janeway (ST:V)
Day Six: Maddy Magellan (Jonathan Creek)
Day Seven: Lady Mary Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Day Eight: Ros Myers (Spooks)
Day Nine: Servalan (B7)
Day Ten: Anna Thornton-Wilson (Hotel Babylon)
Day Eleven: Winifred Burkle (Angel)
Day Twelve: Isobel Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Day Thirteen: Rani Chandra (SJA)
Day Fourteen: Donna Moss (WW)
Day Fifteen: Lynda Day (Press Gang)
Day Sixteen: Cally (B7)
Day Seventeen: Laura Lancing (Brittas Empire)
Day Eighteen: Diana (Dungeons & Dragons; voiced by Tonia Gayle Smith)
Eric: We're outnumbered ten to one!
Diana: Okay, you take two, I'll take eighteen...
So she's a cartoon character, but the children who are the heroes of this 1980s action cartoon are not, atypically, superheroes at all, or even grown-up. If Diana can do amazing things, that's because she's a trained athlete in her real life, not because of the magical weapon she's given. (Eric claims, "She's got enough gold medals to start her own bank for you to rob!") Diana is real enough to count; she's also brave, witty, warm, generous and handy with a javelin. Her first reaction to many of the strange creatures they meet is whether or not she can learn to ride them. She's something of an enabler, too: it's her belief in them that allow the cowardly Sir John, the young Nazi pilot Josef, and even Eric to become better than they thought they were. And when Diana triumphs in Child of the Stargazer, despite all the cartoon dramatics, there's no side-stepping that the victory came at a cost and that 'we won' doesn't always make everything better. It doesn't take much scratching of the cartoon surface to find out this show has heart - and so does Diana.
Here's the ending to 'Child of the Stargazer' so you can agree, or just laugh at the 1980s cartoon-ness, and my ridiculous liking for it.
General show tribute, that's sweet (and features Diana with Eric, Kosar & Sir John):
Click to viewThere's so little around, I thought the best I could do was a picspam, so here goes (these are mostly taken from the Diana-centric ep Child of the Stargazer:
This what Diana looks like in rl. And she dresses in a t-shirt and jeans. For her realm outfit, one can only yet again question the motives of the seemingly benign Dungeon Master.
There is trouble, as ever. Diana prepares to be awesome yet again.
Diana has found a love interest, called Kosar. Like Leela, she seems to take to the slightly helpless sort. (So maybe Eric has a chance, after all?) Lots of people say he seems to look very like Michael Jackson, but I find this a mildly disturbing thought. (D&D is very good at pulling off love-interest-of-the-week, something that rarely works elsewhere, but turns out incredibly sweet each time here. Presto + Varla = cutest thing ever.)
What did I say? The helpless sort. After this, Diana stands up and tries to fight off a magical tornado. She doesn't win, but, you know, she tries.
She and Kosar escape, and then Diana is awesome, probably more in a cartoon way than realistic, but still awesome, and lands standing up. Unlike Kosar, who is, btw (this is a fantasy cartoon) the subject of a prophecy, and has a nasty demon queen after him.
Kosar is hurt in the attempt to complete the prohecy. This is what Diana looks like when she is really upset and mad.
So, she decides to do something about said demony queen herself.
... Fulfilling the prophecy, because her Dad is an astronomer; therefore she is also the Child of the Stargazer. The show's 'bible' states they should go somewhere that people think Diana is so awesome she must be a goddess. This is the nearest the show ever actually gets to this.
Sheila has just worked out Dungeon Master's riddle of the week (Sheila tends to be the one to do this. She thinks about things.) "Dungeon Master said one of us would have to choose between home and the heart. If we go home, Kosar will die. It's you Diana, it's you!"
Much to Eric's dismay (he can smell those hotdogs yet again), Diana chooses the heart and swaps places with Kosar.
Everyone else is all 'hurray, the evil witch is dead' but Diana is too upset and hurt to care. So Dungeon Master tries to cheer her up with a bit of homespun twaddle. ("But what does that mean?" she asks.) Then he adds, "Diana, do you hear? Do you hear what you have done? Listen, Diana, listen to the people you have set free!"
Plus, Diana is good friends with Sheila, which is a nice thing.
She has been known to hide.
But mostly she fights eighteen orcs, while Eric runs away from two.
Also, because I was going to give Sheila an entry, too, I should mention her:
Sheila (voiced by Katie Leigh) is, on the face of it, the typical girly girl. And if the weapons they are given relate to their characters and abilities, it's telling again that Sheila's given a cloak of invisibility. However, Sheila's not 'just' the sweet, caring, pretty girl who desperately wants to go home (although she's that, too); she's the thief, the trickster, with an impish sense of humour - and a fiery temper when it's roused. And while she's usually the last to make trouble, when the group's leader, Hank, makes a big mistake, she's the one who's prepared to stand up and challenge him.
I may be mad, of course, but everyone is aware of that by now. :-)
30 days of Awesome TV Female Characters:
Day One: Soolin (B7)
Day Two: Dayna Mellanby (B7)
Day Three: Michelle of the Resistance (Allo Allo)
Day Four: Beatrice Eliott (House of Eliott)
Day Five: Captain Kathryn Janeway (ST:V)
Day Six: Maddy Magellan (Jonathan Creek)
Day Seven: Lady Mary Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Day Eight: Ros Myers (Spooks)
Day Nine: Servalan (B7)
Day Ten: Anna Thornton-Wilson (Hotel Babylon)
Day Eleven: Winifred Burkle (Angel)
Day Twelve: Isobel Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Day Thirteen: Rani Chandra (SJA)
Day Fourteen: Donna Moss (WW)
Day Fifteen: Lynda Day (Press Gang)
Day Sixteen: Cally (B7)
Day Seventeen: Laura Lancing (Brittas Empire)