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[sharkcowsheep]

Aigh. If Harry Dresden whines even once more about how being touched by a woman in the most trivial capacity is SOOOOO NIIIIICE and how it's been SOOOO LOOOOONG, I'm going to mail Jim Butcher a goddamn fleshlight

Comments

[grymor]

I don't suppose Thomas and Lara are valid counter points to the Force vs Finesse issue (at least with regards to physicals. with regards to politics, it's a bit of a glaring example)?

[sharkcowsheep]

Not so much, at least not that I've noticed. I just finished White Night and wasn't struck by much of a difference in their ass-kicking modes: I suppose that COULD be taken as an avoidance of the trope, but it seems a pretty mild one.

[grymor]

Fair enough.

[sharkcowsheep]

That's not to say it doesn't count, only that I think it doesn't count ENOUGH. The force vs. finesse has been enough of a Thing that it needs a full-on subversion. And I suppose that's another reason why Lara (and Charity) being able to kick ass doesn't count as a subversion, because there's a distinct bit of lady-pedestalling that goes on and they're both stuck up there in Beautiful Avenging Goddess drag while they're doing it. Still a shorthand copout, just a different kind.

So. To show that he CAN avoid it, he really is going to have to make a low-powered guy who gets by on brains. Marcone might be a candidate, but to answer the multiple times he's done it with lady magic-users I'd much rather see it done with a male wizard.

[grymor]

I think part of the issue is that everyone gets compared to Harry, and lets face it, Harry is a freak. Since he is the apparent yardstick, it skews every other description/comparison. It's hard to say where Lucio sits on the finesse vs power curve as we don't really have any peers for her, the only comparison we have makes her look like a finesse caster because her fire conjuration is compared to Harry's, but as far as I can tell, in that comparison, everyone looks like a finesse caster compared to Harry.

Oh! Just thought of a counter among the changelings (whose names I forget), we have half troll/ogre girl and guy who survives to be summer knight.

I think we would need some male apprentices that don't get eaten for this to be shown. Or we need something like Ancient Mai throwing down with one of the other council members... (If she's already been shown in combat, I don't recall it in any detail).

[grymor]

On further consideration, it's more insidious than that. Outside of Murphy, we don't really see the women fight all that much. Elain may be stronger than Ramirez, but we may never know as we barely see her do anything beyond over the top sucker punches.