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| Re: Feminist Analysis of Halo Wars | |
| Posted By: Quirel <I_am_quirel@hotmail.com> | Date: 9/27/11 7:52 p.m. |
In Response To: Feminist Analysis of Halo Wars (Dragonclaws) Heh. Kinda nice to see that I influenced some of the video. Although I pronounce my name like 'Squirrel', minus the 'S' Overall, it's a pretty good analysis. Just have a few thoughts that were kindled when you mused about the Halo Wars writers being aware of sexism. On average, I don't think a lot of authors sit down and wonder "Is this a strong female character"? I find that writing a story is a process where characterization, plot, and 'cool ideas' coalesce and built upon each other. What a character is is interdependent on what they are expected to do and react to the planned events. When hack writers sit down to write a story, however, they don't think the story through, and the characters never grow past archetypes and stereotypes. There is a caveat: Genre savvy authors who are nevertheless crappy writers will attempt to subvert the -types by changing surface details without addressing the cause of the -types. -"So, having one black guy on the team who never wins the victories is tokenism? Well, I'll have three out of seven of the characters be black!"
-"So, making my character beautiful beyond all measure, making her a friend to all living things, making it so that she doesn't make mistakes and everyone who isn't evil listens to her, and then completely burying her in purple prose makes her a Mary Sue? Ok, she looks average, is afraid of dogs, and is clumsy. In fact, she has few redeeming qualities whatsoever."
-"So, a girl needing the guy to come rescue her is sexist? Alright, let's have her escape the Covenant. I dunno... let's use that portal right there, and beam her down to Forge's position. So, she ends up here, those little Flood things leap at her, and Forge blasts them. A'right, call it a day!"
I worked with a writing workshop at the local library, during and after NaNoWriMo '09. It was interesting, because these people had a bunch of neat ideas, but they definitely had a lot to learn.
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