I want to take this opportunity to talk about a few of my favorite fictional female characters who embody traits that I value - Courage, Leadership, Hope, Perseverance, Kindness, Grit, and - most of all - the ability to embrace change and grow through hardship. Y'all know I love Harry Potter, but I will not be talking about Hermione today - I have rants for days about Hermione and I'm sure I'll get to her in due time. But today, the characters I want to focus on have endured the absolute definition of hardship and have become so much stronger as a result. They realized at some point that the only way to get through the shit that they've been through was to trust themselves and their own inner knowing that they can endure.
But you won't burn out this starfire
This feeling is dancin' in my flames
Throw me and I'll just burn brighter
Oh, you can't burn out this starfire
No matter what you say
Julia is my favorite character on "The Magicians." I feel like she gets so much undeserved hate because people view her as the cause of all the crazy shit that happened to the core group from Brakebills University. What those people don't realize is that she's the catalyst - nothing can happen without her. Full disclaimer - I have not watched Season 3 yet and I don't have cable, so I have no idea where the show is now, so my perceptions are based on the first two season. However, according to Eliza, the only way that the characters could survive the beast was to reject Julia from Brakebills. It's not that she's not talented with magic. Quite the contrary - in previous timelines, Julia is shown to be a veritable magical prodigy, way better than anyone in the core group, which is why she had to be rejected. Because she was the only one who would be able to find her way back to the magic, the only one who would seek it out even after her memory was erased. And, when the Old Gods turn off the magic spigot, she's the only one who can make magic happen at the end of Season 2. Having not seen more recent seasons, I posit that it's because she's discovered something that is fundamental to magic - magic is not an end or a means. Magic just exists and it's a part of you, if you know it's there. Julia is the only character with enough hope and faith to go searching - again, after all the bad shit that has happened to her on her journey - when everyone just accepts that things just are the way they are. Lesson 1 - Complacency with the status quo is the enemy of excellence.
 |
| Stella Maeve as Julia Wicker |
Let's move onto Captain Sara Lance, the White Canary, from "Legends of Tomorrow." Black Canary is my favorite DC hero but I love that the CW introduced Sara Lance as the original Canary, before Laurel took up the mantel on "Arrow." Sara started out as the wild child, the black sheep who could never measure up to her older sister (a role I am very familiar with). Her journey starts with one of her shenanigans - going on a yacht trip to hook up with her older sister's boyfriend, just because she could. She ended up getting much more than she bargained for - after surviving the ship wreck, she ends up stranded on the island with Oliver, fighting against criminals. Then, somehow, she ends up at Nanda Parbat, where she is given the name of Ta-er al-Sahfer (roughly translated as canary in Arabic) and is trained as a member of the League of Assassins. Throughout both the "Arrow" and "Legends of Tomorrow," her story gets crazier and more tragic, to include being raised from the dead, having to allow her sister to stay dead in order to preserve the timeline, and making tough choices in order to save the lives of her team on the Wave Rider. However, when time came to appoint a new Captain for the Wave Rider, Rip Hunter doesn't hesitate to leave Sara in command. Even though she is younger than most of her team mates, the wisdom she has gained from her experience and her dedication to the mission makes her the obvious choice. As one of the few bisexual characters on TV, it should also be noted that her sexuality isn't a main plot point. If anything, they kind of underplay it and her current romance with Time Bureau Director Ava Sharpe is probably one of the sweetest and most normal relationships I've seen on TV in a long time. Lesson #2 - Your checkered past can always be an asset, as long as you walked away having learned from your mistakes.
 |
| Caity Lotz as Captain Sara Lance |
Finally, let's talk about Vanessa Ives from "Penny Dreadful." My favorite thing about Vanessa Ives is that - in an ensemble that consists of mostly men - not only does she hold her own, she holds a place of respect from all the other characters and commands fierce loyalty, even though she has not asked it of them. On the contrary, she understands that the mission she's asking them to undertake is extremely dangerous and can accept if they can't stomach the darkness they'll be facing. And while often she is portrayed as a bit cold at first, there are many moments throughout the series where she's displays genuine kindness for everyone she meets. She's the only person who meets John Clare (Frankenstein's Monster) and does not pull away in fear. In fact, she befriends him and treats him with respect, as everyone should do upon meeting another soul. When she dies at the end (spoiler alert - I have not finished the series myself but peeked ahead), it is a blow to everyone, because she means so much to them - as their friend, as their leader, and as someone who helped them find their purpose. And she did this while being possessed by a demon and sought by Dracula to become the Mother of Darkness. Lesson #3 - No matter how dark things get, you can transform it into light by reaching within yourself to be kind to others. Taking the time to understand another's story allows you to put things into perspective.
 |
| Eva Green as Vanessa Ives |
I won't ever be perfection, ever be your golden child
I'm not spinnin' on this planet just for me to make you smile
I love my crooked halo, hell, I won't apologize
You can touch it all you want, but no matter how hard you try
Last week, I was thinking of going back to my old bad habits and doing the same thing I always do when things get hard to handle - limp back to the safety of a familiar situation, accepting that things are just the way they are. The Universe had other plans. It literally made it physically impossible to get back to my old tricks. For my job, I was sent to a literal sanctuary in the middle of flyover country and the message was simple - you need time to focus on yourself and forget about the world a little bit. On top of that, I'm going to put you in a situation where you shine your brightest - where you can be Business Jess, which is just Regular Jess with fewer cuss words and inappropriate stories. Although I'm not in the most exciting of places, I am going to have plenty of time to do things that make me feel great. A lot of solitude to devote to journaling, meditation, working out, a lot of reading, a lot more sleep, and - as if that wasn't enough - the weather is surprisingly nice here, contrary to what I was expecting. And I'm getting some time to have adventures with one of my work bros, one of the few people I know who is as intense about music as I am (he knows a lot more about rap music than I ever will).
Yesterday, I found myself at the same gate I was waiting at about a year ago, in May 2018. But the girl sitting by the window last year is very different from who I am now. Still the same, fundamentally, but about a dozen layers of fear and doubt stripped away. And yet again, this week, I find myself one of the few women in a room full of "important people" (the only WOC, at that) and I feel quite strongly that I - due to my experience, intelligence, and "street cred" - very much belong there. And, at the moment, only one true sentence comes to mind...
This ain't even my final form.
"Starfire" Video
No comments:
Post a Comment