Why Hollywood Fails with New Heroine Characters and the Rise of Reluctant Heroines

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Now you can take this as a funny clap-back; The only problem is that you give the audience this struggle also takes away the opportunity to identify with these characters. Where viewers feel neither fear nor pity because the heroine is never in serious danger, no catharsis can follow. Symbolic strength is either translated into direct physical inviolability – Captain Marvel is vastly superior to any superhero in the Marvel Universe – or interpreted as complete emotional coldness.

This new trend for… strong female lead culminates in the Amazon series Rings of power. The most expensive series production in history elevates the elf Galadriel to the central figure of the event. This is promising, because Galadriel from Tolkien’s books is an ambivalent character and by no means just the embodiment of beauty and purity, as Peter Jackson’s trilogy suggests.

While Galadriel is in the Lord of the rings-Film version is a wise and gentle figure whose physical appearance dazzles and intimidates in equal measure, the Galadriel of the series is a ruthless, manipulative, unpleasant and cold, essentially robotic person. Some critics claim that Galadriel has no feminine characteristics. That is absolutely not true. In fact, she seems like a defiant, angry girl, but she has the powers of the Hulk and the fighting skills of ninjas.

The viewer is probably supposed to see Galadriel as an Elvish
badass feel; but you only experience it as ass. Her opponent Halbrand, who, spoiler, turns out to be the embodiment of the super-evil Sauron, seems downright likeable. The same goes for the orc leader Adar. In Tolkien mythology, he is one of the elves mistreated by Morgoth, who then become the first orcs. He therefore embodies the perverted good and is both a victim and a perpetrator.

This reveals a well-established pattern for male heroes in recent years: Most directors create their male (super) heroes as traumatized, abused, suffering characters. Twice in recent film adaptations, the Joker, Batman’s opponent, has become an allegory for the devastation of man or man. Even Deadpool, the Marvel anti-hero par excellence, is a broken man beneath all his cynicism.

While the male hero in films of the eighties and nineties was often an emotionally mutilated guy who was looking for sex, adventure and revenge, but certainly did not suffer from his lack of emotions, today the viewer witnesses the hero as he battles his inner demons . They always seem much more intimidating than their actual, physical opponents.

But why does Hollywood succeed in writing new male heroes who also function as interesting characters outside of the superhero and action genre, while it fails so badly when it comes to the heroine, who is just a prepotent cardboard companion?

Now you can take this as a funny clap-back; The only problem is that you give the audience this struggle also takes away the opportunity to identify with these characters. Where viewers feel neither fear nor pity because the heroine is never in serious danger, no catharsis can follow. Symbolic strength is either translated into direct physical inviolability – Captain Marvel is vastly superior to any superhero in the Marvel Universe – or interpreted as complete emotional coldness.

This new trend for… strong female lead culminates in the Amazon series Rings of power. The most expensive series production in history elevates the elf Galadriel to the central figure of the event. This is promising, because Galadriel from Tolkien’s books is an ambivalent character and by no means just the embodiment of beauty and purity, as Peter Jackson’s trilogy suggests.

2023-12-13 00:06:13
#Women #film #reluctant #heroines