Wonder Woman remains an excellent example of intelligent female characters becoming strong leaders. One fellow viewer described this film as being rather Harry Potter-like, but to me, this film is just a bit more subversive than that: it describes the Human Potential of love, as a driving reason to see hope for and invest energy in the Human Race.
The Ugly: I personally found it amazing for several reasons to see women and children in the trenches of World War I, something I’d never heard had happened.
The Cool: I suspect that this was part of the theme of innocence, and the idea of the human race as a whole not necessarily having earned a chance at existence, but deserving at least the opportunity to continue becoming better than we are. Also, this film has better characterization than many novels I have read!
The Hopeful: For that reason, this film went far beyond the simple idea of good vs. evil, in that it contrasts human weakness with the human capacity for self-sacrifice.
Updated the 22nd of August, 12017 HE
Having lost my first review of Wonder Woman, this was the short version: An independent-minded girl learns to trust herself and becomes a hero willing to sacrifice herself if necessary, but smart and strong enough to make the right impression on her team-mates that gets the difficult work done! Like Amelia, Hermione, Ivanova, Eda and Nazlı, all strong young women who had to grow into their own, and inspire us to do likewise. ShiraDestinie
(Ok, the reblog feature seems to have kept my comment, but replaced my earlier post with a related video clip! Here is the post I meant to reblog: from June 3rd, 2016…)
I’m still emotionally buzzing from the end of episode 21 of El Ministerio del Tiempo and Amelia’s incredible courage, and character arc !!
More than just one protagonist, though, she stands in a line of female main characters (not always lead or protag, actually) who start off as just intelligent, and develop into both intelligent and strong female characters, a bit like Hermione Granger from the HP series: these ladies began with some kind of growing to do, and did that growing through painful events, but grew, emotionally and personally (courage, committment, etc) to become much stronger than they started off the books or series, like:
Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5, or Eda from Sihirli Annem, or Nazli from Yabanci Damat all began as less than fully confident, but all very promising, intelligent, and self-directed young ladies, who had to learn to be more assertive, culminating in either marrying the person whom they chose (rather than their families chose), or by snatching victory from the jaws of death, or in the case of Amelia, deliberately walking into the possibility of the worst death known (an Auto-da-Fe) in history, for the purpose of making her point. (ok, yes, you could argue that Delenn does this in B5’s Circle of Fire, but watch the Ministerio del Tiempo episode, and you will see that it is rather different, and also Delenn arrived on B5 as a mature leader, where Amelia began as a novice leader).
These are the examples of critical thinking, emotional growth, and self-confidence that young girls need to see as early and as often as possible to grow into leaders able and willing to stand alongside men and make this world a more just and humane place for all. Read, Write, Dream, Teach ! ShiraDest, 3rd of June, 2016
(9th of June edit: these ladies all learned to use cooperation with their allies, and even understanding and forms of NonViolent Communication with their enemies, to accomplish seemingly impossible goals: worth learning in various languages to share with others as I aspire to become an excellent teacher, like all of these role models!) -Shira, 9 June, 2016
update: Wonder Woman post-edit: July 7th, 12017 HE (2017, Gregorian) Read, Write, Dream, Walk ! ShiraDest my resume: JonesPolicyResumePublic
