A female character suffering the exact same torments, and responding in almost the same way, is still going to have a different *meaning* for a lot of people, just because she's female.
YES. And I think when fandom does get a strong female character of whatever kind, a large number of us are reluctant to do anything to diminish her strength but particularly so if bad shit is already happening to her. Maybe, show that a female soldier-stoic type like Zoe from Firefly or Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist* is capable of emotional softness toward one or two people she's very close to; but less likely that you'll see them tortured, etc. Heh, in Firefly, it's *canonical* that (imo) the best candidate for woobie-hood, Mal, gets tortured and Zoe who saves him.
*ppl here seem most familiar with US/British TV, but Riza and Zoe are very similar - stoic soldiers, indispensable seconds to their (male) commander.
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YES. And I think when fandom does get a strong female character of whatever kind, a large number of us are reluctant to do anything to diminish her strength but particularly so if bad shit is already happening to her. Maybe, show that a female soldier-stoic type like Zoe from Firefly or Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist* is capable of emotional softness toward one or two people she's very close to; but less likely that you'll see them tortured, etc. Heh, in Firefly, it's *canonical* that (imo) the best candidate for woobie-hood, Mal, gets tortured and Zoe who saves him.
*ppl here seem most familiar with US/British TV, but Riza and Zoe are very similar - stoic soldiers, indispensable seconds to their (male) commander.