are you in the mood for a fandom discussion?

[chibichan]

I feel like writing an entry today, even though nothing new has happened. The only news I have is that I'm going to the physiotherapist today for my tight psoas muscles (which are so tight, they actually hurt). I know the session is going to be painful, but it'll make me feel better in the long run. So I'm half looking forward to it and half fearing it.

I've been taking 10mg of medicine for the past few days and I've been feeling okay, which is good. :D

If you like or even hate The Hunger Games, I found a couple of interesting articles about how Katniss appears to be a strong female character, but ultimately isn't. Here they are: one and two. Do read them in order, as the second article is a response to the comments on the first one.

I agree with both articles, but then again I never really liked Katniss and consider THG to be an okay series (completely ruined by the last book, imo) which is somewhat over-hyped. But I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts! :) I'm really in the mood for a bit of fandom discussion!

Comments

[chibichan]

I can see why a character without flaws would be annoying. To be fair to the author of the article, though, she did say that Alice is a superhero (in her words, "you go with Alice, which is also why she isn't popular among women: There's no aspiration, no wish fulfillment, it's too fantastic, too impossible because Alice is, in fact, a superhero. It's not real"). Resident Evil doesn't strike me as a particular deep film, so it only seems obvious to me that its superheroes are not very "deep" people either. But I haven't seen the films (and I don't plan to, as I can't stand the gore), so maybe it's just me.

That kind of male character is practically expected in action movies, but when those exact same traits are seen in a 16-year-old girl, it throws a lot of people for a loop.

You bring up a good point and whoever hates Katniss for those reasons, but would be perfectly okay with a male protagonist in her place (without any change of personality) is being a bit sexist, imo.

Personally, I don't hate Katniss because she has PTSD, I think that's quite realistic (perhaps even too realistic in Mockingjay; Katniss does very little in that book and I get it that it's because the stress of the war and of the two games she's been through is catching up with her, but it's still a fictional book with Katniss being somewhat the hero of the story. Heroes can go through horrible moments in their lives, but at the end they overcome their fears and decide to do the right thing, it's the moment where they have an epiphany and decide to fight back; that never happened with Katniss, imo). I dislike Katniss for different reasons. I do like other female characters in the story though (Johanna and Prim). I also hate Gale, who is a male character. I don't care if the characters are male or female, if they give me reasons to hate them, I probably will, haha.