Happy Halo-ween

Hello, and welcome to the week of Halloween! It’s that time of year, where there’s a mad rush on the costume stores (been there, done that) and everyone’s planning where they’re going to get their drank on, this year on a Thursday night. Or, if you’re me, you’re just getting your Rocky Horror Picture Show outfit ready for a showing tonight and are honest-to-god hoping to get to stay inside sick tomorrow evening and watch Tucker and Dale vs. Evil on Netflix (I highly recommend it, plus Alan Tudyk is one of my favorite actors). So, on this Halloween Eve, I’m going to discuss a subject very near and dear to me: Halo.

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I’ve referenced (albeit sometimes subtly) Halo in just about every post I’ve made so far. But for those of you that aren’t as obsessed as I am, the Halo storyline takes place roughly 500 years in the future. The main characters in the games are a Spartan super-soldier (Master Chief John-117) and an Artificial Intelligence (Cortana). I’d highly suggest playing the games, or reading the books if you don’t have an Xbox. The main conflict revolves around the humans fighting against an alien conglomeration known as the Covenant that wants to destroy humanity. It’s a really great series, and will always be my one true fandom.

My OTP.

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(Apologies for the deviantart link, this is actually an in-game cutscene)

As with a lot of video games (I’ll discuss women in video games in general at some later point), there aren’t an overabundance of women in the Halo series. To be fair, one of the two main characters is a woman, but even Master Chief and Cortana reinforce typical stereotypes—she’s the brains and he’s the brawn of the operation. Cortana is also overly sexualized, like many women in video games. While other AIs in the Halo world look like normal, clothed human beings (or wild other things, such as boxes), Cortana is a naked blue woman with lines of data her only covering. I read somewhere that part of the reason she chose to make her hologram look that way was to throw people off, so she could better control conversations, but as I can’t remember my source, I can’t say that’s fact. Over all, Cortana is a very competent woman and surpasses the Chief in her humanity sometimes (irony, yes, because she’s an Artificial Intelligence).

God, graphics have gotten amazing.

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There aren’t nearly as many women in Halo as men, but that could be due to the fact that all of the characters are tied to the military (United Nations Space Command). The books have a large number of female characters (some in very powerful positions), but the games just don’t. The only other recurring female character in Halo: Combat Evolved (or Halo 1) is Foehammer, the nickname for the pilot who brings supplies and transports soldiers. Spoiler alert: she dies at the end. I still totally want to be her.

This is the reflective visor of awesomeness (Spartan John 117).

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Halo 2 probably has the most well-adjusted video game women. Miranda Keyes (daughter of Jacob Keys from Halo: CE) is in command of her own ship. She holds a position of power, and while she makes some terrible (stupid) decisions trying to live up to her father’s legacy, she’s a developed female character. Halo 2 is the only Halo game to follow that rule of thumb applied to movies about two female characters having a conversation about anything other than a man. Miranda and Cortana exchange tactical information—good enough to qualify for me. Miranda is also important in Halo 3, where she spoiler alert: meets her end being super badass.

Too legit to quit. (...too soon?)

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Halo: Reach has another female character in a lead role. Kat, Noble-2, is the only woman on a six person squad called Noble Team. There are more female characters in Halo: Reach than probably any of the other Halo games. There’s another female AI (Dot), the woman behind the Spartan program (Dr. Halsey), a minor female character that needs to be rescued (typical), and an early version of Cortana. Kat has one of the main roles in the game, and while she spoiler alert dies, she’s an important member of the squad and a developed character.

She has a super cool robot arm, too.

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Halo 4 also has Cortana as a main character. In addition, it has a female in charge of the latest series of Spartans (Sarah Palmer), and while I personally can’t stand her, she’s becoming (unfortunately) an important character in the franchise.

Bossy bitch.

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The Halo novels have a lot more important female characters, such as the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence and her successor (in Karen Traviss’s Kilo-5 trilogy). They’re very good and give a lot of backstory to an incredible universe. Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx, Contact Harvest, The ColeProtocol, Cryptum, Primordium, Silentium, Glasslands, The Thursday War, and Mortal Dictata (which is coming out in January 2014) (and I totally listed all but two of those from memory). I’d recommend reading them. They’re all great books and have great female characters.

This is probably the most amazing fan-art thing I've seen in a long time.

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So, that’s a brief (well, for me, anyway) discussion of women in the Halo universe! I hope you enjoyed me talking about my favorite thing as much as I did. Have a wonderful week!

Women of Warcraft

And I'm back, now with more action-packed excitement! As promised, this week I'm going to be discussing the more traditional roles of women in war. Instead of the ones that broke the rules, the women of this week were those who did what they could while wearing a skirt. I'll start with the American Civil War and then go to World War 1.

A Civil War nurse, a profession that will be discussed to death.

Get it??

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The American Civil War (referred to just as the Civil War throughout this) was fought from 1861-1865. As it was very close to home for all those involved (considering it was a civil war), I figured women must have had some important part in it. I completely forgot, however, what large roles women played. As with any war, the role of a nurse is a given, and is self-explanatory. The Southern Confederate Army also used women as spies. Women could go places that men couldn't, and were often overlooked. Women were also used as vivandières (I tried to plug the word into Google translate, but alas, it was stumped). These women were attached to a unit, often one including someone they loved, and worked as basically the honorary mother/wife figure for the men. Nearly 20,000 women worked directly for the war effort, and 3,000 worked as nurses, including writer Louisa May Alcott. Also, as this site from which the previous statistics originated states, "More than 400 women disguised themselves as men and fought in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War."

It's funny because the picture of the girl is in black and white.

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You can read about one in Ann Rinaldi's Girl in Blue. While the main character dresses up as a man, she does so to become a nurse (which she totally could have done as a female, although possibly not at her age as the famous Dorothea Dix wanted her nurses "past 30 years of age, healthy, plain almost to repulsion in dress and devoid of personal attractions." Source.) The Civil War changed American women, taking them out of the Victorian ways of the past and pushing them to do more.

See, there's a uniform that's actually blue.

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World War 1 was the next to shake up the world of women. Before WW1, women were expected to stay at home or were limited to traditional "women's work," such as the clothing industry in Great Britain. Women at home were called to take previously male jobs as the men all went off to fight. Women were also nurses. 13,000 American women were also enlisted in the armed forces, mostly in clerical positions. Canadian women were also used as nurses, but they were also given some military training in order to protect the home front. Russia (somehow unsurprisingly) had numerous female combatants. There were still more examples of women who disguised themselves as men, such as England's Dorothy Lawrence and Russia's Olga Krasilnikov and Natalie Tychmini. Milunka Savic of Serbia, the most decorated female fighter in history, also started off disguised as a man and apparently had one of the best one-liners in history. If you have nothing better to do, you should definitely read about this incredible woman, who single-handedly captured 23 Bulgarians.

The face of the most decorated woman in combat ever, of all time.

So much awesome, the color of the uniform doesn't even matter.

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A less badass woman in literature from this time period would be Hemingway's Catherine Barkley from A Farewell to Arms (even if you read the book, you probably didn't remember her name because she was so boring). She was a military nurse, he was a soldier boy, it was bound to happen. If you like your books with a plot, I suggest you find something else to read. However, it does give a bit of insight to WW1 nurses in Barkley's life and SPOILER ALERT death. Although, apparently Hemingway's use of the word cocksucker had to be edited out of most versions, so at least it's got that going for it (teehee). 

Don't click. Just say farewell to it and don't look back, ever.

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Well, that turned out longer than I expected. I'll save World War 2 and the present state of things for a future post. Next week (read, tomorrow) I'll hopefully post about either Tamora Pierce or if I'm ready to open my favorite can of worms, video games.

The Wonderful World of Westerfeld

I’m a terrible liar. Although I had good intentions, really, I did. I thought about writing this on Tuesday, but I thought, eh, I’ve got time. And then last night was a Princess Diaries double feature with a tube of cookie dough in my room, so nothing was accomplished. I apologize profusely.

I want to be Julie Andrews when I grow up.

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Last week, I said I’d talk about either Scott Westerfeld or Tamora Pierce, and I didn’t lie about that at least. We’re going to talk about Westerfeld, especially his Leviathan trilogy. He’s totally my favorite writer, by the way, and you should check out his totally cool blog. Specials is probably my favorite book of his (possibly ever, of all time), but that’s a different trilogy. I’m just a sucker for fighting superhuman women (yeah, it’s that epic).

Unpopular opinion, but I love super badass facial tattoos.

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Let’s start with a little summary. The Leviathan trilogy takes place in what’s called an alternate history, or to use the more common form, something similar to steam punk (which, while overused, does look kickass, I think we all have to agree). This is a retelling of World War 1, only it takes place between the Darwinist and Clanker powers, over-evolved mixed-species animals against ships, zepplins, and mech walkers. Tesla (one of the Internet’s many gods) is also involved in the third book, which is super legit and which I just finished rereading for about the hundredth time. Deryn, a girl from Darwinist Britain, wants to join the Air Service, so she disguises herself as a boy and through a delightfully fun series of events, she ends up stuck with Prince Alek from Clanker Austria-Hungary throughout the war. WARNING: Spoilers ahead, sweetie.

I really hope you understand why this picture is here.

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It’s pretty accurate that women in WW1 wouldn’t be allowed to fight. Hell, even in America, women were just recently cleared to fight on the front lines with men, and we’re known for being gun-toting people. Previously, women were only allowed to indirectly accompany men, which, in my opinion, is a little ridiculous. If a woman can physically do the same things as a man (which I understand that isn’t always possible), she should be able to fight alongside him. Which, I realize, brings up a whole entire debate, but that’s not the point. Anyway…

This is the inside jacket of Goliath. The super legit illustrations are by Keith Thompson.

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So the girl dresses up as a boy and runs off to war. Deryn has the help of her brother, unlike many cross-dressing warriors (although Tamora Pierce’s Alanna also has her brother’s help, I just realized that). He helps her with the initial deception, but isn’t heard from more than maybe a mention once a book after that. Deryn is probably one of my heroes (on the same level as Red vs. Blue’s Tex and Westerfeld’s Tally, but a step below Halo’s Master Chief (because, really, who can compete with that?)). You can tell that Westerfeld writes from a time of more equality between the sexes. There are many important and powerful female characters in the books, such as the scientist (“boffin”) Dr. Barlow (who wields enormous power on the ship) and Lilit, a key player in the Ottoman Revolution. What I find most interesting and telling, however, is the juxtaposition (I love that word) of the main male and female. WARNING: Bigger spoilers ahead.

So much awesome. Mechs are the best, no matter what you call them.

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The relationship between Alek and Deryn is great. They have an awesome friendship from the start, which, as Deryn predicted, turns into an equally perfect romance when he finds out she’s a girl. Their roles are almost reverse of what you’d traditionally expect. While Alek is a prince, he’s shunned from his family. Deryn, while not with her family, is still on decent terms with them, even though she was a mad woman who joined the Air Service. No one who finds out her secret seems to think that Deryn is mad, as used to be the case with women who acted outside the sociological norms. Deryn has more power on the ship than Alek. She climbs ropes and ties knots, while Alek often feels like a useless prince. Deryn saves the ship on more than one occasion, and, giving due credit, Alek does too. Deryn is even taller than him. And at the end of the day, instead of the woman giving up her life to be with the man, Alek is the one who throws away the scroll declaring his destiny to rule, all to be with a girl. Which is romantic, but stupid, at least for a man. It’s often expected that a woman give up everything for her man, but not the other way around. I heard a really interesting idea that I’ve been chewing over lately: how different stories would be if the main character was female instead of male. The Leviathan trilogy would be much more traditional in that regard. I like it just as it is, though. Someday I want to be Deryn Sharp.

You have no idea how much fan art I had to wade through to find one of the illustrations from the freaking book.

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TL;DR—Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy is progressive for the time in which it was set, but not that in which it was written. The whole story just awesome all around, and you should read the books. (That's three separate links, by the way. You're welcome.)

We love cats here.

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The ones with the romantic endings are my favorite. After all, just because someone’s a badass doesn't mean they can’t get a happily ever after.

The best kind of ending to any story.

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Next week, join me to go beyond the cross dressers to check out a book that I have yet to find about women who followed the rules! The week after that, I'll either go to Tamora Pierce, Shakespeare, or Halo. So many choices!

All of my images are pulled from the lovely Google image search, and I do not own any of them. Please don’t sue me.