Clearly I need MOAR NARUTO.
So I often think outloud when I'm by myself, trying out dialogue and prose for stories. And I just absentmindedly ended up with a line of dialogue describing Nari: "She's a good man." ...but it's actually totally accurate. XD
I also read a great post today on chuunin about gender and the roles of women in Naruto. Which was really interesting. And it got me thinking about gender issues in my own writing. Since this started with Naruto, I'm thinking mostly about alterna-verse.
Well, I actually have rather a lot of front-and-center female characters. Like...way more than male characters. Maybe because I'm a woman, I tend to create more female characters...even in Roninsha-verse, where the setting is meant to be quite sexist, there are a number of notable women.
Izumi--the only woman on the detective team. She's actually a spy from a different Ronin House, is a sharpshooter, and ended up having a rather cold personality. Rasha--a somewhat more feminine character, but takes no crap from anyone. Seegrn--leader of the demon detective group (the demons are pretty evenly split in gender...but then their society is intended to have less gender distinction). Jonathan's wife...well, she's in a stereotypically female role--she's a nurse, and she's a caring mother. However, I think that one can have female characters who are very 'feminine', very 'masculine', whatever. It's when all your female (or male, for that matter) characters are alike that there's a problem. But anyway. Svyrnn...she's very special. *laughs* Anika--top-ranked demon hunter. I have a lot of women in authority positions here, actually...^_^;;; Arista--high-ranking assassin. Yeah, lots of female characters all around. Oh, and Alan's mother--she was a shaman. Although she's a more 'feminine' character as well.
In alterna-verse...well, sadly the Naruto-verse convention of 'women are medics' (with the single exception of Kabuto, but he's a villain. Villains seem to be allowed to bend the established gender roles, possibly because that makes them seem more deviant or something. But he is the ONLY male medical ninja) is still in effect. Kind of. Nari is technically female. And so is Amri. There was originally a male medic, but he got edited into this other character who wasn't actually a medic later on.
Ibiki's double is female, definitely taking a non-gender-typical role as head of torture and interrogation. And Lady Gocho is pretty badass. Poor Tsunade...we're informed of her badassery, but she doesn't really get to show it much. I mean, sure, she blows up a big stone wall with her finger, but then she gets beaten up by Kabuto and rescued by Naruto. PATHETIC. We're outright told that Kabuto is supposed to be only at Kakashi's level, so that is just sad. And then she's emotionally healed by a twelve-year-old idiot who thinks orange is a good color for a ninja to wear. Seriously, it is TEH BAD. Although, really, none of the legendary sannin ever does anything very legend-worthy. Even the fight when they get their title, which we never see onscreen--they don't win it. They fought this guy, and he randomly decided they were legendary. And then they all proceed to lead lives of dissipation. Seriously.
Actually, now that I think of it, it's a mixed bag of which characters got gender-swapped. Kakashi's double didn't, Jiraiya's double didn't, Tsunade's double was originally going to be but then I changed my mind, Shizune's double isn't, Sakura's double isn't, Naruto's double isn't...the Sound Four plus Kimimaro got mostly gender-swapped, though. Jiroubo's double didn't, but all the others did, including Tayuya's double, who is male. The Hyuuga's didn't get swapped...Sasuke did. Itachi didn't. Kabuto and Orochimaru did, Ino and Chouji didn't...so it's a mix. On a side note, there's no particular logic as to why some characters are gender-swapped and others aren't; it was just however they popped into my head and hung around longest. *laughs*
Let's see, other women in my writing...Ray is pretty badass. But she's also feminine. She's kind of like...an elegant warrior, I guess. ...now that I think of it, alterna-verse Death Note had only one gender swap. The others mostly had very different personalities, though, whereas the Naruto alterna-verse characters line up a bit more. Like twisted versions of themselves. Yeah, that appeals to me I guess. *laughs*
So, I have rather a lot of female characters. Well, I have a lot of male characters too. *laughs* I guess I just have a lot of characters. But anyway, the issue of gender roles is an interesting and important one.
Also, minute rice is a crock, it takes 30 minutes. Just thought I'd get that out there.
Also also, I didn't do my laundry again today. I'm shooting for Wednesday--it's Ruhlman conferences, so I'll have all day to do laundry and maybe clean my desk a bit. I did some cleaning tonight, but still, there's stuff all over it as usual. I did get rid of some random papers and stuff, though. Also I need to look for my fan. And change the sheets. damn, I have things I need to do...it's only nine o'clock, but I'm so freaking tired. Also I kind of feel like crying, but am unable to. Which is annoying. Hmph.
So, those were some rambling thoughts...well, more like a random list of female characters. Oh, I was thinking about Svyrnn earlier, though!
See, my acting professor was telling one of my classmates, Dorian, about this character he wanted her to play, who was a hooker and, he said, had always been thought of only for her body, but was now discovering that she had a mind. Which reminded me of Svyrnn, sort of. Because until she's 20, she is basically used for her body--that is, for her combat skills and her athletic abilities. But then, after a period of crisis, she starts to realize that she has thoughts and ideas and opinions, which are worthwhile and valid. So, she starts to recognize her own mind, and is finally bothered by the way she was treated, how she was treated as if she had no mind or 'self' of her own.
And yes, everything reminds me of my characters. *laughs* My professor then mentioned this other character in Annaliese's...damn, I think I misspelled that. Anyway. In her piece, this character is in love with the other character, but they insult each other really badly. My professor was saying how some people do that to someone the like because they don't want to admit their liking. which made me think of Liert, who has a severe case of that. Not just with Ray, with Sir Wakar, too, who he's basically been doing this to since he was four. Oh, Liert...^_^;;;; But what I like about Liert is that he's eventually called on his crap. Ray is basically like 'cut that the hell out', but politely because she has this whole set of etiquette rules because she was an aristocrat. Sir Wakar was kind of an enabler. However, if he hadn't been, Liert would never have trusted him at all, and would never have become a better person in the long run. So Liert is...complicated. He's a horrible person who manages to become slightly less horrible. But he's also a miserable person who hates himself. He's interesting to write, but not someone I'd want to hang out with.
Of the three toughest characters of mine to write--Liert, Nari, and Svyrnn--I think Nari is the only one I'd want to hang out with, if I had to pick one. If she was in a good mood. Svyrnn would be second, as long as she was in a stable mood. All three of them are so moody...but I wouldn't want to hang out with Liert. He'd probably make me cry, and then make fun of me for it. *laughs*
So...yeah...need sleep now. Sleep makes everything better, except not really.
I also read a great post today on chuunin about gender and the roles of women in Naruto. Which was really interesting. And it got me thinking about gender issues in my own writing. Since this started with Naruto, I'm thinking mostly about alterna-verse.
Well, I actually have rather a lot of front-and-center female characters. Like...way more than male characters. Maybe because I'm a woman, I tend to create more female characters...even in Roninsha-verse, where the setting is meant to be quite sexist, there are a number of notable women.
Izumi--the only woman on the detective team. She's actually a spy from a different Ronin House, is a sharpshooter, and ended up having a rather cold personality. Rasha--a somewhat more feminine character, but takes no crap from anyone. Seegrn--leader of the demon detective group (the demons are pretty evenly split in gender...but then their society is intended to have less gender distinction). Jonathan's wife...well, she's in a stereotypically female role--she's a nurse, and she's a caring mother. However, I think that one can have female characters who are very 'feminine', very 'masculine', whatever. It's when all your female (or male, for that matter) characters are alike that there's a problem. But anyway. Svyrnn...she's very special. *laughs* Anika--top-ranked demon hunter. I have a lot of women in authority positions here, actually...^_^;;; Arista--high-ranking assassin. Yeah, lots of female characters all around. Oh, and Alan's mother--she was a shaman. Although she's a more 'feminine' character as well.
In alterna-verse...well, sadly the Naruto-verse convention of 'women are medics' (with the single exception of Kabuto, but he's a villain. Villains seem to be allowed to bend the established gender roles, possibly because that makes them seem more deviant or something. But he is the ONLY male medical ninja) is still in effect. Kind of. Nari is technically female. And so is Amri. There was originally a male medic, but he got edited into this other character who wasn't actually a medic later on.
Ibiki's double is female, definitely taking a non-gender-typical role as head of torture and interrogation. And Lady Gocho is pretty badass. Poor Tsunade...we're informed of her badassery, but she doesn't really get to show it much. I mean, sure, she blows up a big stone wall with her finger, but then she gets beaten up by Kabuto and rescued by Naruto. PATHETIC. We're outright told that Kabuto is supposed to be only at Kakashi's level, so that is just sad. And then she's emotionally healed by a twelve-year-old idiot who thinks orange is a good color for a ninja to wear. Seriously, it is TEH BAD. Although, really, none of the legendary sannin ever does anything very legend-worthy. Even the fight when they get their title, which we never see onscreen--they don't win it. They fought this guy, and he randomly decided they were legendary. And then they all proceed to lead lives of dissipation. Seriously.
Actually, now that I think of it, it's a mixed bag of which characters got gender-swapped. Kakashi's double didn't, Jiraiya's double didn't, Tsunade's double was originally going to be but then I changed my mind, Shizune's double isn't, Sakura's double isn't, Naruto's double isn't...the Sound Four plus Kimimaro got mostly gender-swapped, though. Jiroubo's double didn't, but all the others did, including Tayuya's double, who is male. The Hyuuga's didn't get swapped...Sasuke did. Itachi didn't. Kabuto and Orochimaru did, Ino and Chouji didn't...so it's a mix. On a side note, there's no particular logic as to why some characters are gender-swapped and others aren't; it was just however they popped into my head and hung around longest. *laughs*
Let's see, other women in my writing...Ray is pretty badass. But she's also feminine. She's kind of like...an elegant warrior, I guess. ...now that I think of it, alterna-verse Death Note had only one gender swap. The others mostly had very different personalities, though, whereas the Naruto alterna-verse characters line up a bit more. Like twisted versions of themselves. Yeah, that appeals to me I guess. *laughs*
So, I have rather a lot of female characters. Well, I have a lot of male characters too. *laughs* I guess I just have a lot of characters. But anyway, the issue of gender roles is an interesting and important one.
Also, minute rice is a crock, it takes 30 minutes. Just thought I'd get that out there.
Also also, I didn't do my laundry again today. I'm shooting for Wednesday--it's Ruhlman conferences, so I'll have all day to do laundry and maybe clean my desk a bit. I did some cleaning tonight, but still, there's stuff all over it as usual. I did get rid of some random papers and stuff, though. Also I need to look for my fan. And change the sheets. damn, I have things I need to do...it's only nine o'clock, but I'm so freaking tired. Also I kind of feel like crying, but am unable to. Which is annoying. Hmph.
So, those were some rambling thoughts...well, more like a random list of female characters. Oh, I was thinking about Svyrnn earlier, though!
See, my acting professor was telling one of my classmates, Dorian, about this character he wanted her to play, who was a hooker and, he said, had always been thought of only for her body, but was now discovering that she had a mind. Which reminded me of Svyrnn, sort of. Because until she's 20, she is basically used for her body--that is, for her combat skills and her athletic abilities. But then, after a period of crisis, she starts to realize that she has thoughts and ideas and opinions, which are worthwhile and valid. So, she starts to recognize her own mind, and is finally bothered by the way she was treated, how she was treated as if she had no mind or 'self' of her own.
And yes, everything reminds me of my characters. *laughs* My professor then mentioned this other character in Annaliese's...damn, I think I misspelled that. Anyway. In her piece, this character is in love with the other character, but they insult each other really badly. My professor was saying how some people do that to someone the like because they don't want to admit their liking. which made me think of Liert, who has a severe case of that. Not just with Ray, with Sir Wakar, too, who he's basically been doing this to since he was four. Oh, Liert...^_^;;;; But what I like about Liert is that he's eventually called on his crap. Ray is basically like 'cut that the hell out', but politely because she has this whole set of etiquette rules because she was an aristocrat. Sir Wakar was kind of an enabler. However, if he hadn't been, Liert would never have trusted him at all, and would never have become a better person in the long run. So Liert is...complicated. He's a horrible person who manages to become slightly less horrible. But he's also a miserable person who hates himself. He's interesting to write, but not someone I'd want to hang out with.
Of the three toughest characters of mine to write--Liert, Nari, and Svyrnn--I think Nari is the only one I'd want to hang out with, if I had to pick one. If she was in a good mood. Svyrnn would be second, as long as she was in a stable mood. All three of them are so moody...but I wouldn't want to hang out with Liert. He'd probably make me cry, and then make fun of me for it. *laughs*
So...yeah...need sleep now. Sleep makes everything better, except not really.