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Er...not...legally? >_>; Well, my friend gets BBC America. I feel like that is cheating. :D

And yes, you're thinking about what I am talking about. Or something.

And I hear from Amanda that they've cast a female lead opposite Robin for S3. *rage*

Okay, I'm not going to bother to put this in white text, so everyone STOP READING NOW if you don't want further spoilers:

Please explain how the show can even continue without the strong female lead character?

Honestly, I wonder if the writers realize how offensive the whole thing is, unless it's a fakeout comic book-type not-really-death.

I have no clue. None. And plus now Djaq's gone too, so I'm irritated about that still. At least she has Will.

*sigh* I'm getting Alias-ed all over again.

Hey, I'm in COMICS FANDOM, where we so frequently endure the pointless deaths of female characters in order to lend depth and purpose to male characters to the point that said phenomenon now has a name: Women in Refrigerators, Refrigerating, and Refrigeration.

As in, Big Barda, one of the most asskicking women in the entire DC universe, was Refrigerated in a recent issue of the mini event Death of the New Gods. Killed for no reason, and even worse, shown going down without an epic fight, which offended fans of both genders to the point that the series is universally panned. Fanboy and fangirl rage was dialed up to ELEVEN over that. Barda? Dead without almost killing her enemy first? Dying without clutching her enemy's viscera in her hands? Impossible.

So I've been seeing lots of internet anger over the recent plot development in Robin Hood, and I have to wonder this: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Why strip a show of its female core? Or is this a thing where the show's producers want Robin swinging and single?

/obligatory One More Day snark

I'm not sure what it is they're going for, because I'm one of those people that will watch the show but not really investigate the surrounding fandom? But god I hope not. I can vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaguely see a purpose in getting Robin back to Robin-Much-Soldiering for Justice!!1! but to do so in this way is unnecessary.

As a fan of literature, television, film, animation, and comics with strong and vibrant female characters, whenever the DVDs/online episodes are available for viewing, I'll probably quit watching in disgust as soon as the events that you're referring to occur. I feel no compunction or desire to continue supporting a work when women characters are gotten rid of for no discernible reason.

Fair enough.

Is this the point where I say that I don't actually pay for any of the less respectable shows that I do watch, or am I going to get in trouble for that as well? :(?

You're not in trouble! I'm just voicing my Feminist Fangirl Anger™ at the Sinister Gynocracy's failure to Stick It To The Man vis a vis popular entertainment. I just couldn't abide watching the show after that and not get pissed, so why bother, you know? I agree with you wholeheartedly!

As for watching shows and not paying for them...well, I do it all the time with British shows and stuff that's not on the air anymore. I have no compunction about that, either!

Edited 2008-01-11 16:17 (UTC)

Sweet. *also highly amused at 'Sinister Gynocracy'*

It's like iTunes, in a way. Sure, I'll buy a song I like if I have the money for it instead of downloading. I have no problem getting artists paid. If their shit is decent.

Exactly. I'm with my friend K. that constantly reminds me that we don't owe artists any money if they put out absolute crap. With so many artists now throwing up their hands at DRM and selling/distributing DRM-free music, iTunes almost seems out of date to me! :-)

"Sinister Gynocracy" comes from Chris Sims over at The Invincible Super Blog! (http://www.the-isb.com) AKA one of the most consistently hilarious blogs on the Great Electronic Plains of the Internets.

I'd actually like to watch the Robin Hood series more - I watched 1.5 episodes, and I don't get BBC America, so I shall investigate other environs.

Robin Hood does indeed have its high points! I can recommend some places later if you'd like.

Please do, madame!

Why does it have to be about women? If it wouldn't piss you off equally if it had been a male character, or if Marian had been recast as Marty, I don't really understand.

What baffles me is the fact that they just effectively undid THE basis for Robin Hood myth. Robin Hood has Marian. That's... how it works. It's practically an archtype.

I think there'd be just as much outrage if they'd killed off any of the main male characters associated with the legend. The problem gets compounded, though, when you only have two regular female characters to begin with and you kill one of them off, and then have a replacement lined up immediately. It sort of perpetuates the perception that female characters aren't as important and essentially interchangeable, in that it becomes less about who the character is and more about having a token woman on the cast.

I think with this series they could pretty much kill off anyone apart from Robin and Marian and people would be ok.

I've been geared up for Guy getting offed for like... months now. Only to be SORELY DISAPPOINTED THAT HE DIDN'T DIE. Omg.

Amanda and I even...milli-ficced some of that.

What

canadabear said.

I'm not defending DC, but before it's over, all the New Gods will be dead. Which doesn't excuse how they killed Barda, but I hate the idea that DC is giving up on the New Gods as it is.

Also, we need a term for how DC is killing or otherwise harming all the younger heroes to make sure we keep the older ones, but with issues. (I am fuming about this week's issue of Green Awful...Arrow. And I don't even read it.) I am sure that every time a younger hero is shoved aside for an older one, DC loses some readers, too.

Ah, yes, DC's new strategy for avoiding angering people over the death of a character of color - we won't kill them, we'll just make them brain dead!

Poor Connor. I love Roy, but I love Connor more.

I hadn't even thought about Connor's color. I was just adding him to the list with Bart, Kon, and Steph.

Thus I must add YEESH.

Thing is, I love Ollie. He was and is one of my faves. But sometimes I wish DC had left him dead, and let Connor be Green Arrow for good. Connor is without a doubt the best "Gen X" DC hero (IMHO). He was always interesting and different and not what you expected. And now he's....

GRRRRR.

Exactly. I love Ollie, too! I'm so glad that someone else loves him - he has so many haters in the younger comics crowd around LJ, and it befuddles me. How can someone resist Oliver Queen?

Connor was magnificient. And as a vegan, it's always wonderful to see vegetarian Buddhist superheroes. I cannot emphasize this enough!

I think some people see Ollie as a throwback to the Dark Ages, even more than Hal. And it doesn't help that Ollie is still seen as a very vocal 70s liberal (though I think most younger readers are not put off by his opinions as much as by that he has them.)

Ollie's leftism is what drew me to him in the first place. I forget which writer it was that said that Ollie is, in most respects, the most complex character in the entire DC verse, and I happen to agree with that. He's full of incredible contradictions, but when you think about them, they all logically parse.

In the right hands - O'Neil, Grell on a good day, even Dixon despite his own conservatism - that is true. In the wrong hands - which includes Winick - he gets to be an angst bunny.

On Hoodie season 2 finale:

Marian getting killed off...may be due to the actress wanting to leave to do other stuff. I mean, Robin aside? Marian and Guy were having AWESOME scenes together and then in the finale it's like... Marian's had some kind of bizarro personality transplant, Guy's kind of OOC too. Like the writers totally gave up/took crazy pills/had to do an incredibly hasty rewrite.

Yeah. There was a lot of anger about it. A lot of shock. And there are rumours of some kind of love interest for Robin in season 3.

Um. On the subject of Djaq

Apparently Will and Djaq return in episode 5 of season 3. Maybe they have a message from the king!

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