Discussion- The Heroine Lameness Factor

And thusly begins our first discussion post.

I don't know exactly how this is going to work between the two of us, but I'm going to start in one color, and then Wendy Pan will respond in another color. Or something.

Let the Great Experiment Begin!

To open, I give a little background: This blog is largely inspired by another, more famous blog, nd the genius creators/writers of said blog recently published a book, from which our beginning discussions will originate.

So, one of the major breakdown/critical assaults (with love!) is about Trashy Romance Heroines, their archetypes, and how generally helpless they can be (except for a select few of our more mod ladies).

That said, here I am opening the discussion. Ready, steady, GO!

KATE:

I have two current paranormal series obsessions, one of them the aforementioned Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward, the other the Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole. Ward's prose is more heavy, the characters better developed, the drama more wraught. Cole's is lighter, fluffier, and just plain more fun. But I digress.

I prefer Cole's series for a number of reasons, the most important of which being that the women kick ass. Like, seriously. Kaderin the Cold Hearted is a badass warlord who collects the teeth of all the vampires she's killed. Mariketa the Awaited is the most powerful witch in a millenia who manages to fend of otherworldly threats just fine before her lykae shows up, thank you very much. Sabine the Sorceress of Illusions is a tormentor and torturer of epic proportions, and continues to be even after she is comfortably mated to the King of the Rage Demons.

By contrast Ward's heroines are always the secondary members of the book, they have identities of their own, but they don't really do anything... they have their moments of glory and then very quickly fade into the background at the Brotherhood takes precedence.

Now there is a time and a place for a complacent heroine (mostly in historicals), but if I'm talking about personal preference, I want my ass-kicking heroes to have ass-kicking femmes. Who's with me?