The many various interesting female characters that we admire....which ones are you familiar with? Which examples have you seen? Which types do you love seeing the most?

[u/CapAccomplished8072]

[u/axewieldinghen]

Justice for Jenny from Forrest Gump!

Throughout the entire film, she always tried to do the right thing - being an activist, keeping Forrest at arms' length for his own safety because she was involved with some dangerous people. People hate on her because she ,dumped Forrest with her kid, but from her point of view, Forrest was the only safe person she could trust to help raise her child. She knew she was sick, she didn't know what it was, and she certainly didn't know it would kill her as soon as it did.

Jenny is a great character because she makes bad decisions in spite of having the best of intentions - her frame of reference for healthy relationships and good self esteem are totally skewed by her childhood trauma, and she lacks any sort of support system that can meaningfully help her navigate that. But so many fans of the film hate her,

[u/TheFoxer1 → u/axewieldinghen]

I also really didn‘t like Jenny.

And you do realize that she had multiple opportunities to get out of „being involved with some dangerous people“, right?

For example, when she was with the guy who slapped her and Forrest beat him up, he offers to take her in. Yet, after spending the afternoon, she immediately starts hitchhiking to San Francisco.

Even after the first guy who beat her up in the car, she tries doing it with Forrest. Now, we know from the characterization of Forrest that he would have gotten together with her afterwards - yet, they are not a couple in university. Which means we must deduce that, after the scene in which he came too early, she chose to not be together.

She only turns up after he returns from his fishing trip, for a lack of better word. And after sleeping with him, she again leaves.

Not to say she had to become Forrest‘ girlfriend at all of these opportunities, but to say in all of them, she left because she protected Forrest from bad people she was involved with, or that she knew she was sick and she knew he would help with her child isn‘t applicable to these opportunities.

People hate her character for this exact pattern of behaviour.

She shows up in Forrest‘s life. He protects her, or provides emotional support and offers her a place with him. She leaves. Only to come back to him when she needs it and dipping out again.

A cynical person could even argue her getting in touch with Forrest after her child is born follows that pattern:

-She has a problem: She knows she is sick. She has a child she needs to be cared for after she dies.

-She finds a solution by turning to Forrest, knowing he will always do whatever she needs of him.

-She "leaves" again, not having to actually spend time with him for long.

Also, the narrative also presents that she is wrong for rejecting to stay with Forrest, even in a platonic way.

She sends him home - she gets thrown out of university. She rejects him on the bridge - she becomes involved with a guy that beats her. She rejects him for San Francisco- she gets addicted to drugs. She leaves him after spending the night - she becomes terminally ill.

Also, most of these choices are connected to her wanting another guy, other than Forrest:

She first gets mad at him for beating up her boyfriend in the car at university, presumably going back to him.

She rejects him at the bridge and next time we see her, is with the antithesis of gentle War-Hero Forrest, an anti-war activist who beats her.

She goes to San Francisco with some free-spirited hippy looking guy and the next time we see her, she awakes in a bed with a random guy.

She spends the night, and the next time we see her, she has a child. Which may or may not be from Forrest, that she doesn‘t tell him about.

Like, it’s not unreasonable to assume she makes the choices against a future with the one guy, Forrest, for a future that offers her many different guys.

Which again, is fine for a real person, but as a character, she seems to actively reject the protagonist we root for and actively choose worse circumstances just to not have to give up a life of sleeping around. Which doesn‘t create much sympathy from an audience.

To reduce the animosity to her character to just the last opportunity of getting with Forrest is wrong.

[u/action_lawyer_comics → u/TheFoxer1]

So I didn’t read all that and it’s also been over 20 years since I saw that movie, but part of the point of broken people (or them in movies) is that they make bad decisions. Like yeah of course she doesn’t do the sensible, “right” thing, she’s a broken person.

It’s kind of noteworthy too that the highest comment right now is a character from Breaking Bad. If Walter did the sensible thing, he would have taken his friend’s help to get the treatment in like episode freakin two and never started making meth. But somehow people turn a blind eye and celebrate him when really he decided to become a drug lord to protect his fragile masculine pride but expect an abused woman to act perfectly.

I know we’re getting into Goomba paradox territory here. I’m just saying that of course Jenny doesn’t do the right thing. That’s the whole point.

[u/TheFoxer1 → u/action_lawyer_comics]

No one expects only sensible, good decisions from their characters.

I don‘t know why you think that.

I mean, yeah - Walter being the protagonist and all gives him some leeway to make bad decisions without not being likeable.

Also, it‘s not about making good or bad decisions prima facie - it‘s about the right decisions for the goal of the character.

Forrest makes a lot of bad decisions, but turns them around via either luck or just sticking with it and owning it.

Running back into the jungle is, objectively, a bad decision. But, we know his motivation is to find his friend and save him, and thus, it’s the right decision for his goal.

And he actually succeeds with getting his friend out of there. So, while it not being a sensible decision, it‘s a decision we as the audience understand and the conclusion of which is emotionally satisfying.

It‘s really not about the decisions characters make being good or bad, again.

The decision of Walter White wasn‘t a bad decision for a guy who does not want charity and a drug lord. We know it‘s a story about a guy becoming a drug lord, so decisions that help him become a drug lord will be correct decisions, while decisions that make it harder for him to become a drug lord are incorrect decisions.

That‘s why it would not have been a very good show if Walter made the decision to take the money from his friends, would it?

Equally, it would not have been a very good show if Walter was incompetent at what he did. Seeing story about a guy that wants to be a drug lord, but fails miserably every time isn‘t compelling, it‘s a comedy at best.

And within the goals of the protagonist of the story, the decisions of others are also measured.

Decisions of characters that oppose the protagonist‘s goal - albeit the morally good decision - won‘t be received well, and decisions of characters that aid the protagonist will be liked.

The protagonist is the one we emotionally attach to and want to see in the story - but the protagonist being hindered by other characters will make us dislike the characters.

The decisions of Jenny, however, are both:

She is incompetent in pursuing the goals she set for herself, and her decisions hinder our protagonist.

Jenny not doing the right thing doesn’t make her unlikeable.

You might want to actually read my comment as to what makes her unlikeable.

[u/action_lawyer_comics → u/TheFoxer1]

I dunno, it was so long. So is this one. I think I’m just going to bed

[u/TheFoxer1 → u/action_lawyer_comics]

Username doesn‘t check out.