Which female Chinese protagonist is better-written, in your view? Please leave a comment below, to pick your preferred Chinese action heroine.
Zize Choi, from Dozerfleet's The Tale of Plum Bixie (2018) |
Mulan Fa, from Disney's Mulan (2020) |
Origin Lowly sex slave / honeypot / assassin, working as a spy for a government she hates, and ideology that disgusts her. |
Origin Started off loving a similarly-oppressive regime, in spite being a victim of that oppression herself. |
Reaction to origin Rebels and pursues freedom and a new life, identity, etc., at the first given opportunity. Joins a liberty-loving band of hillbillies. Libertarian. |
Reaction to origin Becomes a willing stooge of said regime later, to spread more of that oppression to others. Fascist. |
Views on individualism Believes in the individual as something of value, and that without that, a collective is not worth having. |
Views on individualism Views the collective's leaders as more important than anything or anyone else, and otherwise, values the collective above the individual (except for herself), until the individual is nothing (unless they're part of the elite.) |
Emotional state Initially motivated by jealousy, pain, resentment, victimhood, and an insatiable bloodlust. Later motivated by love, and even later motivated by pain and guilt. The Implacable Woman. |
Emotional state Initially motivated by pride, arrogance, resentment, jealousy, and insatiable bloodlust. Later motivated by pride. The Mary Sue. |
Arrogance Becomes arrogant at one point, faces heavy consequences. |
Arrogance Is constantly arrogant. Rarely faces any serious personal consequences. |
Empathy Witnessing the loss of everyone she grew to care about, as she proves helpless to stop the onslaught, filling her with survivor's guilt. |
Empathy Her becoming the emperor's eager stooge, feeling nothing about the hundreds of her own men she killed with her own recklessness. |
Preferred weaponry Guns, knives, arrows, bazookas, any modern weapon. |
Preferred weaponry Swords, spears. |
Phlebotinum Wolverine-like healing |
Pheblotinum Magic kung-fu that runs on Chinese Midichlorians |
Meta origin Injected against her will. |
Meta origin Born awesome. |
Experience and training Trained for years to be a honeypot / asssassin under MSS tutelage, in spite being the butt monkey for her boss. Was given no choice. Only friend for years was Mingmei, who was also being given credit for most of her kills. Thrust into the Idaho situation against her will. But chooses to side with the locals. While a quick learner, she still has some weapons taught to her by locals. |
Experience and training Joins the military with almost zero prior training, is already better than everyone else at everything. Everything cool was her choice. |
Inspiration The Deputy / Judge from Far Cry 5 and Far Cry New Dawn. |
Inspiration Skin swap of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel. |
Peers A fellow spy, one of the few that isn't a total jerk to her. They get separated, and this friend gets assigned to other adventures. |
Peers A witch, who envies her for being accepted for the same reasons the witch was made an outcast from society. Who has a change of heart and dies to help Mulan. |
Call to adventure Resigned to the call. Didn't ask for it; but accepted it, begrudgingly. |
Call to adventure Jumped at the call. |
Inner moral conflict Am I doing the right thing for the right reason? Am I really a hero, or just a bitter mass murderer? Yes, they had it coming. But did that justify me being the executioner? Is being a violent killing machine really all I'm worth? Is this really my only way to prove to the world that I'm not just some stupid whore, like my supervisor tried to paint me? That asshole! |
Inner moral conflict Why can't everyone already see how awesome I am? |
Mental health PTSD, PTED, selective mutism, develops split personality / schizophrenia. |
Mental health Narccissist |
Huli Jing Gets a mask of one, but keeps her "Plum Bixie" spy alias, in spite the bixie and huli jing being two very different mythological animals. In spite this, she develops a mindset when on missions more in common with that of a nu gui, similar to the Japanese onryo. However, she doesn't dress the part of one. She leaves that to the onryo impersonator Anda Hirano, known in the west as the "Extirwraith," the female counterpart to Extirpon. Who, while less powerful overall, is Tug-immune, something Extirpon cannot claim. |
Huli Jing Would more likely have been called one of these, rather than a "witch," if locals wished to demonize her. Gets an unexplained phoenix spirit familiar out of nowhere, without concrete explanation, presumably as a stand-in for Mushu the Dragon. |
Christianity Converts eventually. Becomes more serious about it after marrying Amado Marcones. Is healed emotionally by devotion, but still struggles with guilt over her history of murder sprees. |
Christianity Lived in a time when missionaries to China were almost unheard of. Would've had little chance to exposure to much outside Confuscianism. Played by an actress that celebrates the CCP's sadistic mistreatment of ethnic and religious minorities. |
Outcome Lives tolerably ever after, some time after having to be hospitalized for her deteriorating mental state. |
Outcome Lives happily ever after, logic be damned. |
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