Tag: fantasy book

Ugly Badass Girls Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

A very specific list of books and movies with unconventional looking/conventionally unattractive heroines

Some good examples for ugly heroines are featured in this article (x)

“Ever notice how most heroines in novels just happen to also be devastatingly gorgeous? As if their long, flowing hair or sparkling eyes somehow make them more worthy of the title of heroine? Of course, given that so many classic popular novels about women were written about [sic] men, it kind of makes sense that literature would be so full of idealized versions of women that dude authors kind of wish they could hook up with.

It’d be nice if the occasional lady in literature was just, you know, a person, rather than some silk-skinned goddess or one of the other many adjectives that plague the women of literature who are just trying to go about their business of surviving whatever cruel plots the author has devised for them. I mean, there are plenty of male heroes in literature who get by with the looks of Cyrano de Bergerac, or Quasimodo, or Oscar Wao, or, more often than not, with no idea at all as to their general attractiveness. So, where are all the “ugly” ladies in literature?”

This article also makes some good points about the importance of ugly heroines. (x)

And here is my personal list (in no particular order):

Books 

The mother of all ugly heroines.

The heroine perceives herself as unattractive. After being cursed
she spends the majority of the book as an old woman.

The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line. 

  • The
    Darkangel     (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce

The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.

This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.

Very masculine looking heroine (hairy).

She’s plain.

Other characters in this book are baffled by the interest of
the very attractive male protagonist in the heroine. 

  • Radiance (Wraith
    Kings, #1) – Grace Draven

This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.

The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.

The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.

  • Herb-Witch (Lord
    Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy

Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.

The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development. 

The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.

This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married. 

Books I haven’t read yet:


Movies / TV series

I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.

TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.

Weiterlesen

Update:

@dasfeministmermaid suggested:

suggested for Brienne and Jaime (I haven’t read ASOIAF, so I don’t know how they are described in the book but Brienne and Aria from the TV series are certainly great unconventional looking female characters.)

Written by the wonderful @liberlibelulaart. I think everbody in the Reylo fandom knows her beautiful and often hilarious art.

Booktrailer:

Very cool to also have a manga on the list of unattrative heroines!

@amamymayer suggested:

Features a heavily scarred heroine.

Thank you for your suggestions. I hope there are still more books, movies and comics out there with conventionally unattractive heroines. 

FIRE & HEMLOCK by Diana Wynne Jones

One is normal: school, home, friends. The other, stranger memories begin nine years ago, when she was ten and gate-crashed an odd funeral in the mansion near her grandmother’s house. Polly’s just beginning to recall the sometimes marvelous, sometimes frightening adventures she embarked on with Tom Lynn after that. And then she did something terrible, and everything changed.

But what did she do? Why can’t she remember? Polly must uncover the secret, or her true love — and perhaps Polly herself — will be lost.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Fire and Hemlock https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/367158.Fire_and_Hemlock
_________________________________________

Modern day adaption of the folktale Tam Lin by the author of How’s Moving Castle.

Do you have a REYLO VIBE recommendation? Submit or contact me! 💙💙💙

wreckitmaedhroslovesreylo:

I sensed a pattern..

Rey and Kylo (Star Wars)

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Han and Leia (Star Wars)

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Anakin and Padme (Star Wars)

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Rhaegar and Lyanna (Game of Thrones)

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Bai Qian (Si Yin, Su Su) and Ye Hua (Zhao Ge) (Ten Miles of Peach Blossom)

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Hae Soo and Wang So ( Scarlet Heart Ryeo)

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Darcy and Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice)

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Jane and Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre)

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John Thornton and Margaret Hale (North and South)

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Heathcliff and Catherine (Wuthering Heights)

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Nice outfits…( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

DELUSION’S MASTER (Tales from the Flat Earth, #3) by Tanith Lee

When the world was flat and the gods had not yet restructured the universe, the cities and hopes of mankind hung upon the whims of the immortal lords of all diabolical powers.

For these, such as Azhrarn, Night’s Master, and Uhlume, Death’s Master, the world was a flesh-and-blood playground for all their strangest desires. But among those demonic lords, the strangest was the master of madness, Chuz.

The game that Chuz played with a beautiful woman, with an ambitious king, with an ancient imperial city, was a webwork of good and evil, of hope and horror.

But there was always Azhrarn to interfere–to bend delusion to a different outcome–and it was a century-long conflict between two vain immortals with women and men as their terrified pawns.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Delusion’s Master (Flat Earth, #3) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/669030.Delusion_s_Master
__________________________________________

Reylo vibe recommendation by @k10c2

There are heavy Reylo vibes in the third volume of the wonderful Flat Earth series.
Azhrarn, beautiful Prince of demons, falls in love with the mortal woman Dunizel, who was infused at conception with the magical energy of the sun itself. The have a daughter who may or may not be the incarnation of love and who has her own story full of Reylo vibes told in the next books of the series.

Do you have a REYLO VIBE recommendation? Submit or contact me! 💙💙💙

Ugly Badass Girls Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction

A very specific list of books and movies with unconventional looking/conventionally unattractive heroines

Some good examples for ugly heroines are featured in this article (x)

“Ever notice how most heroines in novels just happen to also be devastatingly gorgeous? As if their long, flowing hair or sparkling eyes somehow make them more worthy of the title of heroine? Of course, given that so many classic popular novels about women were written about [sic] men, it kind of makes sense that literature would be so full of idealized versions of women that dude authors kind of wish they could hook up with.

It’d be nice if the occasional lady in literature was just, you know, a person, rather than some silk-skinned goddess or one of the other many adjectives that plague the women of literature who are just trying to go about their business of surviving whatever cruel plots the author has devised for them. I mean, there are plenty of male heroes in literature who get by with the looks of Cyrano de Bergerac, or Quasimodo, or Oscar Wao, or, more often than not, with no idea at all as to their general attractiveness. So, where are all the “ugly” ladies in literature?”

This article also makes some good points about the importance of ugly heroines. (x)

And here is my personal list (in no particular order):

Books 

The mother of all ugly heroines.

The heroine perceives herself as unattractive. After being cursed
she spends the majority of the book as an old woman.

The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line. 

  • The
    Darkangel     (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce

The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.

This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.

Very masculine looking heroine (hairy).

She’s plain.

Other characters in this book are baffled by the interest of
the very attractive male protagonist in the heroine. 

  • Radiance (Wraith
    Kings, #1) – Grace Draven

This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.

The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.

The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.

  • Herb-Witch (Lord
    Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy

Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.

The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development. 

The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.

This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married. 

Books I haven’t read yet:


Movies / TV series

I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.

TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.

What? It’s not realistic to have an attractive male protagonist fall in love with an unattractive/flawed heroine???? No way!!!???!

Ok, first of all you can fuck off with your realism in my escapism. And secondly what about all the boring, average and often even annoying male self insert characters? Nobody bats an eye at some Gary Stu getting the gorgeous girl in the end. That was actually pretty much the standard plot line for a long time in mainstream media. And I’m sick and tired of it.

I’m also sick and tired of over-abundance of stunningly beautiful girls and women in genre fiction. As if being unattractive or even only average looking makes you undeserving of being the heroine and falling in love. Oh wait, I’m being unfair. The romance genre actually offers a wealth of books with flawed heroines. Just google it! There are book lists on amazon and goodreads for every bodily imperfection (including disabilities) imaginable.

The romance genre in general is great in catering to the female
gaze. There is just one problem. I’m not into it. This is my
personal preference. In no way do I think that one genre is superior
to another. I love romance in my fantasy and science fiction but I
don’t want it to be the main focus of the story. I’m picky like
that.

On a personal level the reason for the wish to read about
unattractive, flawed or just average looking heroines is certainly
the identification factor. Do I think I’m ugly? No, but I’m also
not devastatingly beautiful and I’m totally ok with that. But there
was a time in my life when I wasn’t so confident, when I felt
unattractive. Some part of me will always feel like an awkward,
insecure teenager. That part of me needs to be stroked from time to
time. But I guess I’ve always been this way even before the crippling
effects of puberty. Even when I was I little girl I imagined stories
with normal (=like me) looking girls who were smart and capable and
often had to help some beautiful but useless princess. Guess who the
prince fell in love with at the end.

Apart from using an unattractive heroine as my self insert I just
think a hot guy falling in love with a girl or woman for her
character rather than her physical appearance is THE MOST ROMANTIC
THING EVER!!! It’s not that deep. Or is it? Beauty is worshipped in
our society. The pressure to be beautiful and therefore lovable is
much higher for girls and women than for men. As if a woman is only worthwhile if she is also considered physically attractive. The fact that there are
so few conventionally unattractive heroines in fiction actually
proves the point.

I’m talking strictly as a reader here but I guess having someone
fall for an unconventional looking woman is certainly more difficult
to write convincingly. Explaining and describing why someone would
fall for an average looking or conventionally unattractive woman
demands that the focus is on love rather than lust (I don’t mean
that it can’t or shouldn’t be sexy). The pay-off is also so much
sweeter. A declaration of love where the male protagonist says
something original instead of just stammering about the heroine’s
beauty is also much more satisfying.  Making the woman beautiful
often feels like a shortcut to me. Actually I’m now at point where I
need exceptional characterization to make me still care about a
beautiful heroine. That sounds petty and maybe it is but look at the
above list. It’s quite short compared to the tons of media
featuring physically flawless girls and women.

Oh, and as I’m already bitter let me talk about two tropes that I
hate with a passion: “The Makeover”. It’s most often found in movies
and goes as following. Unattractive coded (think glasses and
comfortable clothes) girl or woman played by a beautiful actress
learns how to use make-up and dons a skimpy dress and suddenly the
male love interest deems her worthy of his affection. Boom, true
love. NO, THANKS.

Yes, I’m aware that sometimes heroines undergo a physical
transformation that mark a turning point in their spiritual journey.
If that’s the case I’m usually okay with the beautifying effects of
character development.

The other trope is having a heroine that is described as unattractive within her world but is actually conforming to beauty standards of our world. For example the poor girl is ostracized because she’s a little bit too tall and rather thin. Tragic. She’d be a supermodel in our world. Or the heroine’s breasts are too round and her hips are too pronounced. So ugly. What a terrible fate to look like Nicky Minaj.

I want my heroines to be real woman. I love it when they are fat, extremely short/tall, have plain faces, have saggy breasts and huge thighs, when they are truly imperfect, when they are like me. Those fictional girls and women helped me learn to love myself.  

Why We Need “Ugly” Heroines

“I want something better than this for women. Intelligence, compassion, integrity, persistence, the ability to look beyond oneself — these are qualities that we should encourage all genders to value and embrace, both in themselves and others, from a young age. But the assumption that heroines need to be good-looking creates a corresponding assumption about women who are not. Books have the power to combat the idea of appearance as defining currency. Books can show us that admirable and interesting women come in all shapes and sizes.“

Very good article on female beauty standards in genre fiction. This topic is very close to my heart and I agree with most of it. The author is unfortunately a bit dismissive of women having romantic plot lines and I get where she’s coming from. Still, I don’t agree with her.

Of course we need to see heroines who have other worries besides their love interest but she makes it sound as if a romantic love diminishes the female protagonist and takes away from the realistic depiction of a character. Romantic love is for most people a very important part of our daily life and I love to read about it in my fantasy and science fiction novels. 

Why We Need “Ugly” Heroines

Hello Ohtze! Could you recommend other media that features the Usurper and the Holy Mother/Queen trope? I mean specifically stuff that you really like for one reason or another and/or caters to the female gaze. I’d really love to see similar narratives play out in different settings. Also thank you for your fantastic meta. IT BLEW MY MIND – intellectually AND emotionally.

ohtze:

Top one I’m gonna recommend right now is Crown of Stars series by Kate Elliot. High Fantasy/Romance, heavy, heavy Usurper/Holy Mother, and pretty blatant about the tropes it’s using.

Like Sanglant (the Usurper) literally gets chained up with the war dogs and straight-up kidnaps Liath from his father (mutual kidnapping? fake kidnapping? IDK those two crazy kids are really into each other). Sanglant is hot af I still have dreams about this dude, man, like fuckin’ wild ass bastard prince whose mamma was some sort of fairy demon who seduced the king then abandoned both of them once she popped him out. Sanglant is always getting in trouble with daddy but daddy can’t bear to put him aside because he’s still in love with Sanglant’s mom, and Sanglant is just MAD CRAZY about Liath, like he straight up loses his shit and almost wrecks the entire kingdom it’s GREAT.

Anyways, very long series, very good, haven’t read it for awhile. It’s at least seven books and each book is over 500 pages? Me and the gals should probably cover it on @metamashina cuz it’s right up our alley.

Ohhh, thank you! That sounds just perfect. To my shame I have to add that I’ve never even heard about it but this seems to be exactly the kind of book I try to find when I need a certain itch scratched. 🙂

STOLEN SONGBIRD (Malediction Trilogy, #1) by Danielle L. Jensen

For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the mountain. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she realises that the trolls are relying on her to break the curse.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind: escape. But the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time…

But the more time she spends with the trolls, the more she understands their plight. There is a rebellion brewing. And she just might be the one the trolls were looking for…

Check out this book on Goodreads: Stolen Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy, #1) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17926775-stolen-songbird
_______________________________

Very romance driven YA fantasy book that features an Usurper as the male main protagonist and a heroine that comes close to the Holy Mother/Queen archetype as described by @ohtze in her fantastic Kill the King and take the Crown meta ( https://fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains.tumblr.com/post/169112732992/kill-the-king-and-take-the-crown-kylo-ren-rey ) about the Reylo dynamic in TLJ.

The book itself is not my favourite as it’s a little bit too teen oriented (mostly character descriptions) for someone as ancient as myself. The premise is fantastic though and being a sucker for the good old girl going underground trope I still enjoyed it.

SUNSHINE by Robin McKinley

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it’s unwise to walk. But there hadn’t been any trouble out at the lake for years, and Sunshine just needed a spot where she could be alone with her thoughts. Vampires never entered her mind.

Until they found her…

Check out this book on Goodreads: Sunshine https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8088.Sunshine

This book is very hard to describe. At the beginning everything seems mundane, even boring. We meet Sunshine who is mostly occupied with cinnamon rolls and follow her everyday life for a while. That is until Robin McKinley pulls the rug from under one’s feet and the world the book is set in is revealed to be alien, dangerous and magical. She does this by casually mentioning things that happened prior to the plot. It’s as if the bubble the reader was in bursts and all of a sudden a larger, more intruiging but also more frightening reality can be perceived. This is done so well that I experienced a moment of disorientation and had to check if I was still reading the same book or if I had overlooked some hints. McKinley does this a couple of times in this wonderful and strange story.
The plot starts moving more straightforward once the reader gets acquainted with the characters and the world they inhabit. The mysterious bond formed between the heroine and the truly inhuman vampire is fascinating til the end.

Here is a review by Sherwood Smith:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35623171

Do you have a REYLO VIBE recommendation? Submit or contact me!💙💙💙

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE by Diana Wynne Jones

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6294.Howl_s_Moving_Castle

Occasional self reblog.