Female Characters

I get as sick as everyone else when a weak, predictable female character is thrown into a script in order to fulfil a boobs quota, but recently I’ve started to notice that a lot of people are actually reading too far into scripts. Saying that a female character is weak, or predictable because she falls in love and this changes her, or defines her actions…Now, regardless of how the character is written – she may be full of flaws in other respects – I just want to say that having a female character’s arc revolve around a man does not make her any less of a strong character. Especially if her actions are driven by love of him, then she is no different from the millions of male characters who are defined by their love for female characters.

Because I mean, come on – tell me this plot isn’t familiar to you –

A guy loses the woman of his dreams and goes on a spree for revenge, becoming a killing machine in order to get his vengeance.

Or perhaps

The love of a man’s life is kidnapped, and he forgoes all other aspects of his life in order to get her safely back.

Or even

A man suffers a loss of love which turns him bitter and guarded, and goes on a long journey of self discovery where he’s given a second chance.

The fact of the matter is that people affect other people. The presence of a male in a female arc will often have a different result to another female character – that is because women and men are different! And that is ok! So stop hating on that, there are plenty of other things you could be picking at.