How to Write a Strong Female Character...who isn't toxic and annoying

Honestly, if we just rephrased “Strong Female Characters” as “Compelling Female Characters” I think we would eliminate a lot of the confusion right off the bat.

I heard a really good quote for this a while back: "A good strong female character is a good character who happens to be a woman, not a character who is strong because they are a woman"

i think Carol's flaw is actually being emotionless. if they had set that up as her fatal flaw from the beginning (instead of trying to say shes "too emotional" when she actually doesn't show any emotion) and then had her develop into a character who embraces her emotions and uses them to become stronger, it would have made her a much more likeable character and fit with the overall theme of the movie that they were trying to achieve

For some reason, women with a caring heart and motherly instincts seem to be looked at as weak, because I hardly ever see "strong female characters" with those traits. One of the reasons Galadriel (the original galadriel) left such an impact in such short screen time is because she is so comforting and motherly while also being one of the most powerful people in middle earth

something i’ve always noticed is that “strong female characters” entire personality are just stereotypical toxic male traits. a strong female character should be a strong character first, female second.

Step one: Write a character with goals, flaws, ideals and so on. Step two: Flip a coin for the gender, heads for male, tails for female.

I guess a good example would be old Mulan VS the new one. In the old one she struggles, builds new skills, overcomes things she can't do by pure physical strength with new strategies etc In the new movie she can do stuff because she is special and a magicly skilled chosen one... The first one teaches that things are approachable by having the courage to try it, by practice and smart thinking. The new one has a hero that is the way she is naturally. No motivation for people to fight for their goals or to put effort in becoming better at something or in finding a way to overcome a hurdle. New Mulan is just gifzet her goal because she is special... Quite discouraging as in reality no one just gifts you a life skill. While you might be able to learn something quick, it's not that you are an expert by default and therefore can become anything just by wanting it without any practice, efford, tests and hurdle whatsoever.

There’s one line in Little Women that stands out to me when I think of the erasure of femininity within the trope of strong female characters. Meg to Jo about wanting a family instead of an acting career: “Just because my dreams are different than yours doesn't mean they're unimportant.” They’re each strong characters in the true sense of the meaning.

In an interview with Game of Thrones writer George R R Martin, the interviewer asked “I noticed you write women really well and really different, where does that come from?” His answer was “You know, I’ve always considered women to be people.” Writer’s should try to start with that.

I actually sincerely think Cinderella is a strong female character. She's growing up in a horrible situation, bereaved of both parents who loved her, abused by those she lives with....and she remains positive, tries her best to do what's asked of her, and when she gets out of there (depending on what version you read) she doesn't even exact revenge. Honestly, that's an incredible human being. I hate when people cite Cinderella as a "weak woman" example. She's not. She's tougher than most.

I think another of Natasha's flaws that we see in Avengers is that she is a solo agent who has a need to be in control of situations. She was calm and efficient during her "interrogation" with the Russians because she knew everything was going the way she wanted and that she could take them all down if things went wrong, but she got nervous when she was told that she was bringing in "the Big Guy" because she wasn't sure she could handle the situation if Banner turned into the Hulk. It's never stated, but I think she grows to become more comfortable with chaotic situations because she grew to trust her team, and their collective ability to solve problems.

"You need to be flawless to be strong. You can't ask for help. You can't show emotions." I believe this is exactly what our society has been doing to men which has made a lot of them suffer. Bringing the exact same toxicity to women is not "empowering" anyone 😮‍💨

"Being strong isn't about overpowering others." Well said.

I like to think Natasha's flaw of not being able to forgive herself and her desire for redemption is the reason why she decided to sacrifice herself in endgame. It makes sense that she would gladly die to help save half of the universe as she still probably thinks her ledger is red and she choose to wipe off all that blood, using her own.

Back when I made (and over the years, further developed) my first DnD character, I had fun giving her the "can't ask for help", "can't show emotions", and "always in 'fight mode'" traits, except making those her flaws that she needed to work past in order to grow (and then actually having her succeed in that)

Literally, a good example of this Merida, she doesn't care about the consequences of her actions. On the other side we have Mulan, she is strong and brave but also loveable.

One thing I hate about strong female characters is how some people will say “finally, a strong female character” no matter how badly written their character actually is. When she finished watching Captain Marvel, my mother was immediately talking about how strong she is, because that really is the only thing that Captain Marvel has, Strength. People who think that, to make a real strong female character, all they need is be physically powerful are stupid.

another female character i love in marvel is nebula. she went from being the most absolute loyal daughter of thanos, to eventually recognizing her bond with gamora, then finally rebelling against thanos and joining the forces of the avengers.

One thing that I think could have made Captain Marvel just a little bit better is if they used the flaw established in the animated series. Carol is so powerful compared to most others that she starts feeling alone, and thinks that if she's not using her power to help people as often as possible then she's being a terrible superhero. Just a slight change like this would have made her so much more compelling.

15 years ago, female characters generally weren't written as "strong females", they were just strong people who happened to be female. Take Jill Valentine, who was dragged into the Spencer Mansion incident in Resident Evil 1. She was part of an elite team who were sent to investigate what they had no idea was a cover for a secret bio weapon laboratory built to engineer and test various bio organisms for nefarious purposes. Jill from the start was a main character, one of two that you could play. Throughout the story, she literally fights her way through the same horrors that her male peers would fight. Many of her teammates would actually die in this incident, with only her and a few others surviving. She never belittled her peers, she never proclaimed she was stronger or better than them. She was just a strong person who helped and was helped by her male peers. Even Rebecca, who was a medic and considered objectively physically weaker in the story clearly could hold her own, as the prequel to the first RE portrayed her fighting her way through her own game. We had many great female leads in both film and video games. There is no reason to portray them as basically men nowadays.