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| Re: What makes a good heroine? [message #38552 is a reply to message #38508 ] |
Sun, 23 January 2011 22:42   |
 Catlady
Messages: 230
Registered: December 2008
Location: Aurora, Colorado |
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I've always liked Harry too, (she's probably my second favorite) but I think my very favorite is probably Peony. I know she's not the one with the sword and everything, and it is true that she sleeps through the climax, but I can't help feeling admiration for someone who's willing to just do whatever needs to be done, even if it's things like watching children and cleaning house, even if it's not exciting. Of course, if that's all she did, she would be a good person but probably not an interesting character, but on top of that she's also brave enough to volunteer to be bait. Just because somebody has to be. She doesn't go looking for trouble, she just copes. There's really something to be said for that.
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| Re: What makes a good heroine? [message #39011 is a reply to message #38508 ] |
Thu, 03 February 2011 23:32 |
libby.gorman
Messages: 70
Registered: June 2009
Location: Durham, NC |
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I like that Robin's heroines (and good supporting female characters) can still be very feminine even though they are doing amazing things (Rae likes to bake, a stereotypically feminine activity, there are often pretty dresses, etc.). And that they are not superheroes.
I tend to be a "love the sidekick" reader anyway, so I really like Beauty's sisters (and that Robin made them nice and not evil!) in Beauty, for example. I love Katriona doing her best to care for baby Rosie (Spindle's End) by giving her the baby magic of speaking to animals--she's very nurturing, mothering, but she manages to get wild animals to feed the baby milk!
Libby
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| Re: What makes a good heroine? [message #39572 is a reply to message #38508 ] |
Mon, 21 February 2011 01:46 |
Mismatched Socks
Messages: 24
Registered: May 2010
Location: well, that depends. . . |
Junior Member |
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I think the thing I love most about all Robin's heroines is that they not only do impossible things, they know they're impossible. They acknowledge the difficulty and usually (but not always) the scale of what they're trying to do, and then they do it anyway.
My favorite, if I had to pick one, is Katriona in Spindle's End. But maybe that's because Spindle's End was my first Robin McKinley book. Or because she's not, technically speaking, "the heroine," and so it's easier to separate her out.
The real answer that I like them all, and have identified with most of them at some point or another.
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| Re: What makes a good heroine? [message #39678 is a reply to message #38508 ] |
Thu, 24 February 2011 13:24 |
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I have to say that my favorite of them all is Sunshine, for the amazing realism of her. She's also the first strong heroine of a story that *I* didn't identify with--in fact, I felt the entire time as if I was finally reading a story where my best friend Milly would have been the hero of the story. I loved how the entire time that she has to do these impossible-but-still-has-to-happen-anyway tasks that she relates to us how scared witless she is most of the time, and yet, you know as a Reader Of Stories that if a third person narrator had related these deeds, they would have come off as brave, valiant, and stubborn. That's what so wonderful about the way Robin writes--she really always seems to write from the perfect perspective that makes the novel what it is, and not some other story.
But, the heroine I've always felt I could identify the most is Beauty from Beauty (though not from Rose Daughter oddly enough). I think that the strong resonances with my own (recent haha) childhood is what makes me feel like I've read the story when I was much younger, even though I'm almost positive I did not.
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| Re: What makes a good heroine? [message #42564 is a reply to message #38508 ] |
Wed, 08 June 2011 04:27 |
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patochan
Messages: 5
Registered: June 2011
Location: Alaska |
Junior Member |
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Reading this post has really made me think and I'm thankful for that! I have loved reading these books for so long that I feel they're a part of me and now I wonder how much of them truly are? I think I yearn to be like Aerin - strong and quiet and oh so brave. Yet I think that the part of me that moved to another country all alone and was forced to learn a new language and culture was always comparing myself to Harry, always thinking "I can do it, with or without the kelar." How funny that now I'm thinking of this, and wondering if in a new stage of my life I'm more like a different character, or if the central force of all the characters is their strength - which draws me in and makes the books both believable and attractive to me - and is the aspect of myself I'm either most proud of or most want to build on, or both at once. Anyway, having first read the Damar books at a young age spoiled me in a very good way, adding a requirement for books I read to have the main character be strong, honest, self-deprecating, and likable. Huh, and has made me be that way too (although I always hoped I'd turn soft-spoken as well. Maybe Ms. McKinley can write about a bossy know-it-all next and I'll feel better represented!!!)
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| Re: What makes a good heroine? [message #47231 is a reply to message #38508 ] |
Sun, 01 January 2012 17:51 |
Ithilien
Messages: 701
Registered: September 2008 |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
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Lissar, I think. Because she keeps going and going with the puppies even when there's no hope.
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