Day Thirteen: Female Character Meme

Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book: Hermione Granger




Hermione was the first character I loved from the books on my first read (mid-2002, I believe). Almost a decade later and after being in HP fandom for what feels forever, she's still one of my favourites.

Given that so much of the theme of the books seems to be value “bravery and heart” above all other traits and the danger of certain kind of knowledge (but the central themes of the book are subject to a whole other post, that I'm not up to writing at 1AM), it's good that one of the central characters actually places a great value on curiosity, knowledge and overthinking things. Because, let's face it, for all that Hermione's often single-minded attitude towards academics and swottiness gets mocked by the other characters (and frequently the narrative), the fact remains that those traits save the day more often than not, even if they're less flashy than Harry's heroics. In fact, if Harry had stuck to the “Just listen to Hermione” motto at all times, a signicant percentage of classic Harry Potter blunders could have been avoided.

Not that Hermione is defined by that one aspect. She's brave and loyal to her friends to a fault, more so, I could argue, than they can be to her. She's also kind of a control-freak, single-minded in her pursuits to the point of throwing her customary perceptiveness out of the window and being wilfully unaware of when her help is absolutely not wanted (S.P.E.W., anyone?) and can be chillingly ruthless when she feels her actions are justified for a greater good. She's the girl who spent hours looking up legal texts to save Buckbeak's life while in the midst of an exhaustion and emotion-induced breakdown , the girl who thought nothing of permanently disfiguring a schoolmate for essentially being a tattle-tale and the girl who wanted to protect her parents so badly she actually messed with their very memories. It's the complexity of the character that makes her fascinating to me, even if the official philosophy of the books tends to downplay those flaws among the authorialy-approved characters. I loved that Hermione's book-long feud against Umbridge wasn't just about her understanding the danger of the Ministry's restriction of knowledge, her reading of the political subtext and the actual physical abuse heaped upon Hermione's friends, but the fact that Umbridge's very philosophy and tactics deeply offended Hermione on a personal level.

( Days 1-30 )

Day Fourteen: Female Character Meme

Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character: Captain Kathryn Janeway




While DS9 is my favourite Trek by a mile, Janeway will always be my captain (though Sisko comes a close second). Voyager has had its issues over its run: missed character opportunities, cracky one-shots over a coherent arc, and its infamous abuse of the reset button. However, one truth remained constant during its seven year run: You Do Not Fuck With Kathryn Janeway.

There is plenty to love about the character: her dogged determination to get her crew home despite insurmountable odds, her wry sense of humour, her out of the box thinking and willingness to bend Starfleet regulations, the relationships she builds with her crew, her legendary caffeine addiction (“There's coffee in that nebula” remains the best random Trek line ever) and the way she drawls “Battlestations”, which never fails to give me *chills*. Janeway also had some major flaws, which tended to be as big scale as everything she did: she often fell prey to hubris in her grandiose plans, disregarding both danger and Starfleet principles, she could isolate herself from her crew and refuse to accept any criticism, and she was without a doubt the Department of Temporal Investigation's single biggest headache. And on a Doylist level, it's rage-inducing that Star Trek's first female Captain was essentially rendered sexless, and the most action she got over seven years being a relationship while she suffered amnesia, a flirtation with an adversary (the thing with the guy looking for the fugitives that one time, not her UST with the Borg Queen) and a fling with a freakin' hologram.

Writing issues aside however (which should be the unofficial motto to maximize one's enjoyment during Voyager viewings), nothing can ever temper my Janeway squee. The woman went head-to-head with the freakin' Borg without even blinking, and the final showdown between her and the Queen was pure concentrated EPICNESS and a more satisfying payoff than even the other major event of the finale.




( Days 1-30 )