Almost as much as I used to love Anita - because she was kickass, and human, and flawed, and didn't think the solution to all problems involving men was to take them to bed.
This is why, as BtVS was sitting on the edge of cancellation (thank you, Fox network), before UPN picked it up, a number of people told me to read the Anita Blake series: an adult Buffy, in a lot of ways. Same archetype, of which there are so few in any genre, really.
However, the bookstore never had the first book in the series, I could never seem to be bothered to order it via Amazon, so I never read it. The only thing I have to go on is an outsider's observation of the compliments given in the first part of the series (with a huge, huge emphasis on "Anita is such a strong, conflicted, kickass, rounded character with dark and light"), and the complaints in the more recent books ("Anita's become a bed-hopping Mary Sue who's ultimately perfect, stronger than anyone, and everyone loves her and wants to have sex with her").
What I find most interesting about that, in some ways, is that female fans do not, it seems, want a superhero female character -- unlike James Bond. They don't want someone who's absolutely powerful, absolutely sexxxxy, absolutely whatever. They do want conflicted and thrashed and thrashing and questioning and imperfect.
It reminds me of the fact that it seemed the fandom -- specifically the female part of the BtVS fandom -- seemed to love Buffy the most when she'd been kicked down. Not because we want, as women, to see a strong woman taken down. But we want to see her question whether it's worth it, decide it is, pick herself up again, and kick ass anyway.
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Date: 4 Jan 2007 10:20 pm (UTC)This is why, as BtVS was sitting on the edge of cancellation (thank you, Fox network), before UPN picked it up, a number of people told me to read the Anita Blake series: an adult Buffy, in a lot of ways. Same archetype, of which there are so few in any genre, really.
However, the bookstore never had the first book in the series, I could never seem to be bothered to order it via Amazon, so I never read it. The only thing I have to go on is an outsider's observation of the compliments given in the first part of the series (with a huge, huge emphasis on "Anita is such a strong, conflicted, kickass, rounded character with dark and light"), and the complaints in the more recent books ("Anita's become a bed-hopping Mary Sue who's ultimately perfect, stronger than anyone, and everyone loves her and wants to have sex with her").
What I find most interesting about that, in some ways, is that female fans do not, it seems, want a superhero female character -- unlike James Bond. They don't want someone who's absolutely powerful, absolutely sexxxxy, absolutely whatever. They do want conflicted and thrashed and thrashing and questioning and imperfect.
It reminds me of the fact that it seemed the fandom -- specifically the female part of the BtVS fandom -- seemed to love Buffy the most when she'd been kicked down. Not because we want, as women, to see a strong woman taken down. But we want to see her question whether it's worth it, decide it is, pick herself up again, and kick ass anyway.
I think that's a big part of it, at least.