What does your female lead do that's different from how female leads are usually portrayed? (How does she break away from the mold)

Leyelle 2024-01-10 00:34:07 UTC #1

I feel like because in general, Alicia was so shy, it would be easy to assume she would never break away from that, while at the same time it's not the typical shy girl to popular/bad girl transformation. It's more that she's reserved, but despite being shy, she actually has an attitude that she shows and is even willing to yell at people when she's tired of them acting up. She breaks away from her character mold I feel like, by not crying or snapping, but deciding to comfort her crush when she realized WHY he was kind of being an idiot

GamerPrincessXI 2024-01-10 00:37:58 UTC #2

My female lead, I'm not particularly sure. Luna is shy but more toward her crush. I guess. She's more in her head about things like work.

Leyelle 2024-01-10 00:40:36 UTC #3

Unrelated but I love the name Luna an irrational amount

Leyelle 2024-01-10 00:42:03 UTC #4

Eliza breaks away from the cliche powerful black woman and even business woman in general mood by being a generally bubbly, slightly crazy and chaotic, highstrung person, a bit more like a child with big ideas that you have to wrangle than the black female cliche.

GodbreakerComic 2024-01-10 00:52:15 UTC #5

OK so I decided to have 3 female leads. It was important for me as a writer to depict a spectrum of women, rather than just one. I wanted to show different personalities, flaws, strengths, body types, etc.

Ragna is 5 feet tall, built like a jacked little rectangle, dumb as dirt, but cares deeply for the people in her life and would do anything for them... to a fault.

Randy is 6 feet tall, gangly, sweet, kind, hyper intelligent, but extremely naive and compared to the other cast members is by far the least experienced at combat.

Ravening is 5'4", built like a bowling pin, is intelligent, talented, witty/funny, extremely charming. She is "the best" of the three. However she is also the most immature and BY FAR the laziest. She's selfish, a liar, and often deflects blame to others (again, the immaturity).

GamerPrincessXI 2024-01-10 00:56:03 UTC #6

Thank you for the lovely compliment.

First Chapter POV for Luna

Luna was the name my older brother Lucas gave me after his obsession with the moon from Bear in the Big Blue House. My parents thought the name was cute as well and decorated my bedroom with starry stickers and a moon lamp.

Leyelle 2024-01-10 00:57:22 UTC #7

I'm assuming them all having 'R' names was also intentional?

I definitely have some other interesting female cast members I wrote to reflect not just the diversity of women, but people in general, specifically a spin on the single mom. Though Mrs. Moon is a duteragonist rather than the MC, she's smart, business savvy, in control of her life, and intentionally a single mom, to the point that is an actual character flaw. So I definitely get showing a spectrum of women, not only who look different but have different personalities and flaws. Alicia and Mrs. Moon's flaws are basically polar opposites despite the fact that Alicia Practically worships Mrs. Moon.

GodbreakerComic 2024-01-10 01:03:51 UTC #8

It was intentional, but not for any deep meaning. It's more for jokes/misunderstandings.

Yeah I agree about the diversity of people in general. What bugs me is when a cast is all male and the writer just goes "oh crap I need a girl character" so they plop in 1 of 2 characters. It's either 1 the wife who died/dies or 2 someone who is super hot and way too good at everything. Either the male heroes call to action or the mary sue, and both are super lame.

I guess my point is media that shows diversity among men is much more common. Just as valid, but more common for sure.

Leyelle 2024-01-10 01:13:05 UTC #9

I definitely agree, I hate female characters who are just there to be saved or are just unreasonably talented and feel like the writer was just trying to make them 'cool.' there are definitely a few female characters that I think we're a really good balance though.
1. Roxane Richie - Megamind
2. Yamato Rinko - Ore Monegatari
3. Madame Defarge (and Miss Pross) - A tale of two cities

To name a few. These women are all very different from each other but have depth beyond tropes. Roxanne is sarcastic not just a damsel in distress. Yamato despite being cute and tiny is willing to risk her life to try to save her crush/bf or help herself be saved not just sit there waiting to be rescued. Madame Defarge, despite being super evil, is incredibly smart, and no less of a mastermind than any of the male villains.

These are the sort of female characters I try to write. Who have as much depth and complexity as my male characters and can't fall into a simple trope category.

Yes, the novel is called "Damsel in the Red Dress," but kind of the point is that Alicia is moving beyond just the role of a timid person waiting to be saved because she won't speak up for herself, because when her 'prince charming' is paralyzed, she realizes she can't be passive anymore. At the same time Mrs. Moon is both the mum who babies her son and kind of the biggest cause of his trauma at the same time, because characters can have and NEED to have complexity. I don't just want a whiny girl waiting to be rescued or a cliche tomboy prodigy.

joannekwan 2024-01-10 01:16:12 UTC #10

The first thing I wanted to set my female protagonist aside from others was to make her not conventionally attractive. One of the lines I kept in my head while formulating my story was "Beauty and the Beast, but she's not quite a beauty and he's 100% beast"
And I had come across a lot of monster x human art at the time where the girls were all blonde or generally white and I really wanted not that haha.

Leyelle 2024-01-10 01:21:09 UTC #11

Ooh I like that, are those scars on her head? That's another thing I'm pretty sick of. Don't get me wrong I don't mind a female lead being pretty, of we can just redefine what pretty means and not (JUST) make it blonde, blue eyes, skinny and yet curvy, with flawless hair and skin.

I've long wanted to see (maybe because of my scars and autoimmune disease) leads with disabilities, diseases (especially skin diseases and things that effect how you physically look) different heights and ethnicities. This one isn't about the boys but my male lead is paralyzed, and my female lead has scars, and is extremely short (maybe cute, but still not the American beauty standard since it makes you look less than), she's also Navajo, so no blonde hair and blue eyes for her.

When you say your male lead is 100% a beast do you mean he's not secretly a human, and is actually an animal?

Leyelle 2024-01-10 01:23:10 UTC #12

Thinking about it, how many other people keep a line of dialog or a sentence in their minds that represents their whole story? I feel like I do it for some, especially for poems, and @JoanneKwan just mentioned it now.

For "Damsel in the Red Dress" it's 'After the tragedy, can there truly be an "after?"'

joannekwan 2024-01-10 01:26:43 UTC #13

Thanks! And yep, they are burn scars tthat she got at a young age, and they continue to give her headaches/pain which comes up in the story.

And by 100% beast I mean he's a sapient monster. One that doesn't turn into a human at the end

Chronomel 2024-01-10 02:08:09 UTC #14

thinking about it, my story has almost exclusively female characters...anyway, going with the 3 main girls, I have Tart and Treat, who break away from the mold in a very specific way, in that they are adult magical girls who live up to that title 100%. I feel like there are never proper adult magical girls, and if there are, it's almost always a weird parody that make fun of magical girls for being what they are as if they aren't just traditional superheros with glitter and bows. And even in classic magical girl shows, adult magical girls never get cool transformation sequences or anything, which really annoyed me when I was younger (still does tbh). It also completely solves the "kids with guns" issue (although I don't mind it too much)

Then there's also Strawberry, who is kind of a subversion of a subversion, basically I never liked how the "answer" to damsel in distress characters is to just make the character invincible or imply it makes them weak to be in danger or something, because in real life, tons of people (especially women) get into serious danger and absolutely need someone to help them. So I've planned a character arc for her where she realizes she doesn't have to always just get out of danger on her own. For a phrase that represents my story, it's definitely "Teamwork makes the dreamwork" it's a bit cliche, but that's because it's really true!

morganicfoods 2024-01-10 02:21:34 UTC #15

I try to ignore what tropes are trendy and just write my own thing, rather than trying to follow or subvert them. There's nothing really many opportunities for my characters to actively subvert any tropes about them.

I'll try to explain the uniqueness, but it's hard to be accurate.

One of my main characters, Hrann, is the only prominent religious character. Her religiousness is a major part of her character, but it's a very personal thing, rather than trying to impose it on someone else. I don't usually see religion written the way I do, and I'm not super able to describe why that is.

skidiggy 2024-01-10 03:20:54 UTC #16

Iris is timid and shy at work, but really comes out of her shell when her friends are under threat or she can get out of her comfort zone. She has an amazing adaptability to adversity, is a somewhat unreliable character (due to memory lapses), and has abilities I haven't seen in a female lead before.

lexenrandom09 2024-01-10 10:33:43 UTC #17

That’s a very interesting topic !

Hm, I would say for my main character that its the fact that she is the « popular blond dumb girl » archetype that is usually write as the « side best friends character » or fall in the « mean girl » trope when it comes to romance.
The « dumb blonde » type of character who is usually mocked for its hyper feminine woman and makes them appear as superficial with no complexity or feelings. ( not always, but I saw a lot of movie/series who do that especially in horror or romance)

I don’t know if I’m explaining my point well here sorry

lexenrandom09 2024-01-10 10:36:03 UTC #18

I love it, the chaotic but bubbly personality, it sure contrast with the stereotype we can see around

KevinReijnders 2024-01-10 10:53:56 UTC #19

I've been racking my brain over this question, I honestly find it difficult to say. Not that I think Kyara is just a bog standard female protagonist you could find a dime in a dozen. Rather, I really think about how she compares to other characters, putting all my thought and energy in realizing her to her fullest potential as a character.

That being said, I think that on the surface you could argue she is just another strong female character that is super mega talented and can do no wrong. But that would be a mistake. In fact one of her core character traits, her impulsiveness, is what causes most if not all the conflict that she finds herself in. And while at the start of the story she manages to luck her way out of the trouble she causes, as the story progresses her mischief will catch up on her, forcing her to finally stop and think for once.

On a side note, I also like to think her design stands out from typical female protagonists.

CarltonIsaac 2024-01-10 11:21:38 UTC #20

Fem-lead Char Delphine from my main webcomic series here on Tapas has absolutely no inhibitions, and doesn’t miss a beat even when she’s changed into a child or a male version of herself from time to time by dark magic.