I think that novel was from 2015 and actually the first of the novels I'd read about the character even though I'd been watching the shows. I think the only LaPlante novel I'd read before that was Civvies and I didn't enjoy that one.
That would explain it. I’d have been out of my ‘consume every piece of crime fiction’ phase by then. Spoilers: I read so much of it, that I actually ruined large swathes of the genre for myself. I am a stupid glutton.
It wasn't entirely the fault of Marvel as a company, it was one of the head honchos Ike Permulter, who refused to let them do anything that didn't have a white male lead. Pretty much as soon as he left, we got Black Panther and Capt. Marvel, that can't be a coincidence.
I actually think Trek wasn't really following the pack when it came strong women in Sci-Fi tv. Their was more progressive stuff out their outside of Sci-Fi like "Murphy Brown" for example but "DS9" had maybe Trek's first real strong female characters and a black series lead.. That came out I think before "Babylon 5","X-Files""Xenia","Buffy","Stargate." and "Farscape." I mean think of it. DS9's top two leads was a black male and a strong female character. What else out their at the time in Sci-FI looked like that? "Voyager" then had a middle aged women and a Native American at the top. Jason
I think there has always been strong women in fantasy, where they need to be a Goddess or a comic book powered up impossibility (like their male counterparts) or a warrior princess. It's when the character is more humanised it counts more (to me). I know there is still a healthy dose of fiction and all that comes with it regards Trek, but a female captain who didn't have a chip on her shoulder, is like an entitled male character. Just do it, don't apologise or preach - that's equality. I liked Ripley as well.
The strength of female characters varies in the same way as the males. Dale Arden was very often a victim but Princess Aura always had some balls. Ripley was relatively unimpressive in Alien but she was barely more than a civilian in charge of tow truck and her ordinariness is what makes her a great character. I think some modern movies too often make heroes extra-ordinary and less relatable.
When it comes to superheroes a writer/creator assigning power levels makes for a great leveller. Or one-upmanship/one-upwomanship. This super hero/heroine just may have more oomph than another one. However, I also like examples of strong female characters to be less 'easy' if I want to relate to a character rather than just going along for the ride. (Captain Marvel topic relevant, is a 'ride' to me ) It may be sexist but I admit that I like specific qualities that I see as defining a woman that might be slightly different than defining a male. I really like Ripley taking on the alien saying "Get away from her, you bitch". That is raw and maternal. Not saying that men can't be paternal but Ripley is female and she owned it in that scene in a way a male character wouldn't. That's why I (personally) like Janeway as a captain not because she happened to be a generic female or has to be homogenised to be an equal but because she is a strong woman. She related to her crew like the female head of a family as well as their designated leader.
Sounds like you need to do a re-watch of Ent. We see crew members slathering decontaminate all over each other's bodies. In the episode where T'Pol and Trip "do it", T'Pol drops her robe and her entire naked butt is shown on camera. In another episode, we see Acrher and Hoshi in bed together. Maybe you never watched the entire Ent run. Because of the Xindi attack, humans are shown to be mostly xenophobic and ready to kick all aliens off earth. Peter Weller's villain shows humans proof that they can procreate with Vulcans which is presented as proof that humans could be bred out of existence. This was all to facilitate an uprising against aliens on earth by humans. The aliens were basically "immigrants", so Ent, once again, ahead of the curve. Ent was as un-Rodenberry as a Trek show can could be, at least back in the early 00's.
To me the decon scenes aren't sexy. It's just kind of soft core porn that is even softer than most soft core porn. Sexy to me in movies and tv is usually more about personality and if were talking about the actual act it's usually either kinky or dangerous or feels almost wrong or it feels very intimate and the characters are kind of open with their sexual desires or romantic. To me the movie "Secretary" and the show "Pushing Daisies" are both very sexy shows/movies but in different ways. All Enterprise had was a few characters oiling each other up and half of the time they weren't feeling arroused with each other or even partaking in sexual foreplay or banter. When I watched the pilot I got to admit I wasn't exactly horrified to see Blaylock in that scene but it was just because it was partial nudity. What she and Trip was talking about was so non-sexy I didn't even pay attention to what they were talking about. It seems it was about going back to try and rescue Archer. I mean sort of offering eye candy, someone likes to look at is different than making them kind of turned on by it in any way or to get all mushy because you just love seeing the characters in love with each other. As for the Xindi stuff I did like that but they did kind of wait until the final season and the racists were none of the regulars. We have seen racist humans before in Trek even in the so called perfect version of the future in Berman era. I mean I am not saying the show wasn't somewhat more modern. It to me just felt more surface level modern where people talked more like we do instead of the kind or Pillar speak were the characters seem to love to go all theasaus on you with all the fancy ways to say something in a way we would never do it. Instead of saying, the alien ate a steak and seems happy, they would say,the pollyomic lifeform consumed 20 centimeters of protein and seems to be in good spirits. Jason
If you don’t want extraordinary heroes, you don’t watch superhero movies. You watch something like Isn’t It Romantic, or Annihilation, or Bumblebee, or Widows, or Tomb Raider, or What Men Want, or The Favourite, or Alien Covenant, or...any slasher movie ever. Women don’t lack for ‘normal’ female characters in cinema. They lack for any wish fufillment outside of ‘But what if a hot guy notices you?’ Something dudes don’t. ——— Also, it’s kinda established early in that Ripley is not considered ‘normal.’ The first act basically has a 10 minute sequence where (after she refuses to let Kane in, and is trying to organise a response) everyone else takes turns complaining about the very survival-focused ‘grit’ that ends up saving her. She’s meant to be so ‘cold blooded’, that the murderous robot is ‘friendlier’ in a lot of ways. Hyuk hyuk. I’m not actually critiquing Alien Ripley for this. It’s revealed that’s just a layer to her (yes, she was willing to quarantine and possibly kill Kane. But if she thinks it’s possible to rescue the crew, she goes above and beyond), and it’s nice for a movie to celebrate characteristics in a woman outside of ‘very protective mum,’ ‘cleans up well,’ and ‘being the most boring guest at a party.’ Ripley’s ‘difficult’...and that’s good.
Two opposing queen's Facehuggers... Can they impregnate each other? Sure they die as quickly as they shoot their load, but it's probably a luke warm corpse for a couple hours after that. Which might be enough to carry a xenomorph to term?
If future humans were smart, they would genetically modify at least their soldiers with new birthing canals, so that a human/xenomorph pregnancy is no longer the imposition it used to be. Failing that, what about a puncture repair kit, similar to what we saw in Prometheus, except it's on purpose and not magic macgyvered bullshit. Lucus Till is pretty.
Winter Soldier ticked all the boxes for me and that was a super hero movie. It's all about degrees of super for me.
Steve is picked for the super soldier program, and is therefore our protagonist, because he’s basically the most flawless man alive. And he gets the ability to basically be as strong as he needs to be! Seriously. His only flaw is...that he was once short. Not ugly (skinny Chris Evans is still Chris Evans). Just short. Also, he’s just too good of a friend, gosh darn it. Now, I personally love movie!Steve for exactly those reasons (See also: my undying love for Adam West’s Batman.) But he’s probably the last Marvel character I ever expected see anyone describe as ‘normal.’ If he were a female character, there’s a certain phrase that internet denizens would love to throw at him.
Yep. Ripley was more than ordinary. She was a stickler for the rules, in particular the quarantine rules, more so than even the Captain of the Nostromo, but her primary concern was the safety of the crew. She took the initiative and figured out that the beacon looked like a warning. When she was the most senior officer left standing, she pressed for answers from the computer. She was a leader, even in the original film.