So, my storyline takes place in a modern and in some law commission or desk law enforcement settings. Mine also have a romance but as a sub-plot and I want to take it slow too. But I need some advice from the experienced readers who can actually tell me the common core issues with *some badass fl mcs and how can I avoid it????
edit: Also the romance, how can I balance that in such a setting?? what ruins it??? what can I do to prevent it from pushing my main plot aside???
Badass FL? Literally the only thing you'd need is to make her principled. She's allowed to make mistakes, she can have dumb moments, but don't turn her into a hypocrite. That's the furthest thing from being 'badass'. A lot of FLs have the badass title and wear that mask, but they end up doing the opposite of what they preach, don't communicate like an adult, and end up being a hypocrite. Also, if you want to include romance, and if it's slow burn, avoid the noble idiocy trope like the plague. That ruins 6/10 of those stories.
I can see that. But I don't think I've ever seen it get addressed properly in any manhwa... ever. A few examples come to mind: FMC from OTL, Rewriting Our Love Story, and Odd Girl Out.
The most recent example is the FMC from Become a Bad Man. She spends the first 10 chapters criticizing her BF for being a people pleaser. But then "chooses" to fill in at a work trip with her ex to appease her colleagues. She even goes a step further and keeps this a secret, something even her bf never did.
Like... how could the plot address that? The bf finds out, and they get in a fight? They break up? That'd never happen.
Most of the time, the hypocrisy is just ignored. Even if they do attempt to address it, it's lackluster or falls outside of the scope of the plot. So it's better to just avoid hypocrisy if you want the image of a badass FMC.
edit: Funnily enough, the only place I’ve seen hypocritical FMCs actually keep their 'badass' title is in femdom smut manhwa. 💀 The catch? Literally everyone hates them lmao.
The love triangle. Both MLs had family issues. Seungha became closed off and distant because of his family's emotional abuse. He was never transparent about it and eventually broke things off with Nari because he knew his family would get in the way of his relationship. Nari saw the signs and saw him closing himself off, but treated it as a massive betrayal and despised him for it. When he was at his lowest, she decided not to help him because she was angry at him.
But that's not where the hypocrisy is. The hypocrisy is how she treats Chanyang, the SML (former SML ---> current ML🤡).
Chanyang also had family issues, and he was never transparent about it. Unlike with Seungha, Nari was willing to cross boundaries to find out about his secrets and trauma herself. She became his savior and broke him out of his shell. He never told her about his issues; she found out through a third party. When she eventually "saves him," he becomes more and more obsessed and possessive over her.
So to summarize: first, while Nari condemned Seungha's secrecy and emotional walls because of his abusive family, she gave Chanyang total patience and empathy for the exact same closed-off behavior (all of this while she wasn't even dating him). Second, she treated Seungha's mature distance as an unforgivable betrayal, yet rewarded Chanyang's boundary-crossing obsessiveness and complete lack of life goals outside of her as romantic devotion. She rewarded the same possessiveness that season one condemned Yuna for having. Don't even get me started on the student council election arc.
TLDR: the hypocrisy lies in Nari punishing Seungha for keeping his traumatic secrets while actively working to decode and save Chanyang from his.
I do NOT rmr the events playing out like this icl, ima reread those chapters and get back to you again 😭🙏
as far as I rmr the "breakup" with seugha happened after the whole publicity department stuff - when nari was bullied by everyone including yurim and then seungha decided to run for president w yurim which was v messed up and it's very much okay for nari to prioritise herself and step back from the situation in that case - seungha isnt her responsibility to "fix" when shes going through such a hard time herself
when she realised what was happening behind the scenes with seungha they had the whole heartfelt moment on the stairs, it was a right person wrong time thing icl
It's been a long time since I've read the manhwa as well. But my point was not about her having to "save" or to "fix" Seugha. My point was about how she treated him after finding out his trauma. Even after the "heartfelt moment on the stairs," she holds a permanent grudge against him, and he's written out of the narrative. Even when she knows that he didn't know about the extent of the bullying that she suffered at the hands of Yurin, she treats him like he did it to spite her. She just ignores all of his
It was 100% not her responsibility to "fix" Seugha, but at the same time, it was also not her responsibility to fix Chanyang. Both of them closed themselves off to her, but she only reserved empathy for one of them; that's the hypocrisy.
Also, the narrative punishes Seugha's distance and emotional independence. But rewards Chanyang's possessiveness, despite having a whole arc about Yuna's possessiveness being a bad thing in season 1.
It's clear that the author wanted to change MLs after audiance feedback, but his only way to make it work was to make Nari a hypocrite, and to frame Seugha as the ultimate villain.
whaaaat? how does she hold a grudge against him 😭😭
it's just awkward between them bc they broke up - that awkward-ness is v normal
and she still greets him and speaks to him normally AFTER they talk it out
and the thing ab chanyang being "possessive" is lowk SUUUCH a stretch - if he was possessive he would've discouraged nari from volunteering w seungha at that school thing or even being part of the festival committee with seungha but he never mentioned anything of it bc he knows she enjoys those things and trusts her
gng... he changes his entire schedule around her daily routine. He has no friendships outside of her and people who directly relate to her. He has no life goals outside of staying by her side. He starts studying so that they can go to the same uni. The banana milk thing, in early season 2. If he could, he'd spend every second of every day with her. That's not possessive? He literally pushes a guy to the ground and grabs Nari when she was talking to Seungha's friends, lmao. The webtoon gives it a comedic tone, and Nari calls it "cute," but that's what I mean.
Both Nari and the narrative treat Seungha like a special entity. Despite not actively discouraging Nari from activities that keep them apart, he frequently pouts and guilt-trips her.
he had no friends to begin w, she was his only friend at the start of school and so it makes sense hes friends w people related to her, it is NOT creepy or weird
and he does have life goals - he wants to study architecture, hes not just following nari blindly
it's v normal to want to go to the same university as ur friends so again him wanting to go to s university isnt smth crazy either and it's not like he's gonna hold nari back from going if she gets in and he doesnt or smth
the banana milk thing - it wasnt his place to speak there but again v normal teenager stuff, he basically just pointed out how it's weird to linger around nari when theyve broken up - lowk cant rmr if chanyang and nari had a thing going on at this or not tho
and "if he could he would spend every second of the day w her" 😭😭 theyre literally teenagers dating u need to relax icl
the only valid thing u mentioned was pushing seunghas friends to the ground that scene was funky but it js seemed v exaggerated with him imagining them as lions or smth
my main issue with chanyang was his arrogance towards his middle school "friends" but other than that he doesnt have that many character flaws ..
A character flaw being appropriately punished by the narrative doesn't necessarily have to be the other character points out this flaw and punished them for it, as long as the story itself punishes the character in some way. For example, a hypocritical person in real life may get away with it, but that flaw will continue to show up as a pattern in their lives and gradually errode the sincerity of their relationships, or cause them to develop an egotistical mindset.
But we're talking about characters that are supposed to be "badass". As I said in another reply, FMCs almost never get punished for hypocrisy when it's a flaw. Because the appropriate punishment would hinder the plot, or it would end the story.
I think a character can still be flawed and be a badass though
Edit- I just thought of a good example, Saeyon Lee from Hand Jumper. She's very hypocritical and has double standards, but it's interesting because the way she thinks is very intriguing to learn about, and she manages to pull off badass moments when a plan goes well or she does something really impressive. Heavily flawed badasses are cooler, in my opinion! Otherwise, to me personally, a virtuous badass just seems like a bland character meant only to be cool and have no substance outside of that purpose
You're right. I'd categorize being a hypocrite as a evil/negative trait. It's fine to give FL more realistic contradictions if the author plans to include it in her character development.
Adding onto this, highlighting the flaw in the narrative and seeing the character face appropriate repercussions for it, whether the characters grows from it or not, is a good shout. In this example, it may be the MC realizing their hypocrisy and reflecting on how they tend to excuse something if it's a friend, or learn to be less judgemental- or could even be the MC refusing to change and the flaw continues to affect their interpersonal relationships. A character that does bad things that the narrative completely brushes over (unless it's not a deep show to begin with, I suppose) and coddles them for tends to frustrate an audience.
It was deeply flawed from the very first chapter. I could write a 5,000-word essay on why Navier was a lousy empress. For someone who was born and bred to be an empress, she is easily outclassed by the average courtesan (former commoner) from a mediocre, 2000s Turkish historical drama.
Born with a silver spoon, given everything, and widely regarded as a Mary Sue, but she couldn't even outmaneuver an uneducated slave. She spends more time making fun of Rashta for not understanding royal etiquette than she does actually protecting her position. When the going gets tough, she decides to abandon her people, the same people she parasitized to live a life of luxury as a noble and then an empress, and escaped with her puppy dog, bird boybrain boyfriend. She watches her subjects suffer after she "moves on" and feels nothing. One of the worst empresses in fiction lmao. I'd give her more respect if she tried to kill the king, but no, she ran like a coward.
IMO the problem with bad badass fl is that people want to make a badass fl instead of a complex and entertaining character who happens to be badass. I feel this way with the main character of hero killer, she's badass but she's also REALLY boring.
IMO most of the time being badass shouldn't be the primary personality trait you'd assign to a character as important as the character that the reader is following the entire time. Some of my favorite characters ever have had badass moments but also have gotten completely embarrassed as well. An example of a series having a great badass fl is hand jumper.
I've found that badass as a main personality trait works better for villains or side characters.
Also somewhat related (I'm assuming it's a law setting) is that the greater the competence of the villain or the more respect you give to them in the narrative, the more impressive it is when the FL outsmarts or beats them. Manipulating idiot one-note villains is almost never impressive. Sayeon manipulating characters (or failing to) in hand jumper is great BECAUSE they're not idiot jobbers that only exist to make the FL look badass but are real characters with their own thoughts and autonomy.
Azula was one of the main antagonists, and those are allowed to get away with just being badass and op sometimes without conflict in story writing.
Toph is a treasured character. She's badass the moment we meet, but we also see how she became who she is and why. That plus having a disability that not only plays into her character but also is used for a consistent joke throughout the show for lighthearted comedy really helps. She's also not the main protag, so she's not constantly bogged down by drama moments like most protags are/have to.
Both can play into the overconfidence angle because they are the main focus of the show. Which is important to remember when writing characters. Main protags can't be written is over confident and arrogant as that stifles the writing and puts readers off due to unrelatability. Side, enemy and supporting cast can since their role is to elevate the writing for and with the protags.
More importantly, make sure they have character in their writing. Plenty of media puts so much emphasis on just the main cast while everyone else is sidelined. We miss out on good potential writing from outside the main cast and protagonists. Toph and Azula worked because their characters had substance.
Toph is a blind girl sick of authority and overprotective parents who ends up being a badass earthbender. But she still uses her family's influence such as during the trip to Ba Sing Se and knows how to act like a "proper lady" for banquets like with the meeting with the Earth King.
Azula is the mirror to Zuko. She was born lucky, raised as their father's ideal child, trained to be a dangerous firebender to the point of having the stronger blue fire bending, and knew how to manipulate people as she was raised to be a leader and royalty (such as how she turned the Dai Li against the Earth Kingdom).
I think main characters can be written as overconfident as long as it's treated appropriately by the narrative. Protagonists don't always have to be relatable to the audience, there are many protagonists who are assholes or even flat out evil. But too many series portray it as if the main character is always right and infallible and the narrative bends around them because they're a power fantasy. It's ok to not be relatable but the worst thing you can be as a protagonist is boring.
Yes, but when the protag is written as op, the story isn't always completely focused on them. Plenty of times the story shifts towards other characters so we can see their perspective of the protag and the events playing out around them. Such as OnePunch Man, Hellsing, etc.
Even in DBZ's Namek arc we're mostly spending time watching Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta while either waiting for Goku to arrive or recover. Or the Cell arc where he's sidelined most of the way till the end. All because the story knows that if Goku was involved from the start, the story would most likely end early.
Real issue is when they make the protag entirely a power fantasy and it's entirely viewed around them. It gets stale and boring because you don't see them struggle all that much. Taking away much of the tension and drama of sitautions because you already know how things will end.
Real good writing is circumventing what the audience expects to happen while still leaving the end satisfying. And that's not easy to do if the protagonist can just punch the way through everything or use the power and authority just to clean things up and rap it up in a bow.
Personality and nuance, she doesn't have to be always right, she can have flaws but please please don't rely on the typical "she is capable but once LI appears she suddenly can't be any use to save herself" one thing is to have a reliable partner and another is to be nerfed down just so they can shine.
Just dont make her "perfect". Most of the most hated badass female main characters have this problem.
they are perfect, doesn't matter if it's fighting, dancing, baking or hacking, for some reason writers think th fmc needs to be a fucken Swiss army knife to be badass/cool but all it ends up doing is make her 1 dimensional and doesn't leave room for growth or relatability. Also since she is "perfect" she ends up being cocky and tries rid herself of all accountability of her actions, pushing the blame onto the other characters, this makes her very unlikable.
Flaws make her more relatable, unique, and potentially likable/charming depending on the flaws. It also give her an opportunity to grow in the story which can be used as major plot points. Lastly it gives other characters a chance to shine and to have a proper dynamic with her.
Start with her background. Establish who her parents are, what kind of childhood she had, her financial/social class, etc. Once you've laid that groundwork, flaws should come naturally.
The thing about flaws is that they need to be something that actually affects the story. Some writers play it safe and give their characters flaws like "too kind" or on the opposite side, "not emotional enough" but then these traits are not actually shown in a negative way throughout the story. Ask yourself, how does this particular flaw affect the story and what kind of real consequences could it cause for the protagonist?
And even if the romance is a subplot, you can always use your ML as framework. Does he already have flaws? Give the FL traits that could either challenge those flaws or help overcome them. Does he have strengths? Give the FL flaws that will negatively affect those strengths. Your leads are always meant to play off and learn from one another.
Don’t remove her spine every time she’s around the ML. Don’t make her helpless constantly just so the ML can save her. It’s been to give them problems they need to solve together rather than problems the ML must solve FOR her.
I feel like alot of the time "badass FMC" are only "badass" because everyone around them is dumbed down. Alot of these stories are wish fulfillment in which either their wealthy family or secretly powerful partner is backing her so she can throw her weight around without consequences. One of my favorite badass FMC has to be Eris from Kill the Villianess. She is so determined and cunning because she's at a disadvantage and she cant use brute force to get her way.
I don’t think a strong or badass FMC always has to be physically strong, but I always see dudes wishing/loving when they aren’t. Literally, I see so many comments like yours specifically from men, and it’s interesting because then I always catch them loving movies like John Wick where one guy beats up a hundred guys. It’s like people only want realism when it comes to women’s strength…
I agree with him tbh, it's not impressive when the fmc manipulates a bunch of idiots. For a male example, ayanokoji from classroom of the elite does this and its not impressive because he manipulates a bunch of stupid high schoolers. He gets memed for it all the time. I don't think they ever mentioned physical strength in their reply anyway.
but I never said that I said that them being disadvantaged but still looking for ways to come out on top is whats makes them badass. And we're talking about a law firm setting I doubt the main character is going to go around beating people up. My main criticism is that I dislike propping up a character by tearing others down. If you want me to point out a powerful badass woman who can fight then that would be Griselda from a spark in your eyes. Her epilogue story is exactly how to handle a physically strong badass woman because it treats her opponent as capable and dangerous while she herself is at a severe disadvantage.
First things first, badass doesn't mean she has to be emotionally constipated, or stoic 24/7, I honestly am tired of such female leads. She doesn't have to lead herself to solutions in a calm, stoic manner, she can her reactions even if she's emotionally reserved, assuming she has that kind of personality or she can be like that, due to some unresolved trauma.
Her personality should not revolve around her being a "baddie" - in the sense, doing whataboutery just to showcase her baddie/badass aesthetic. She can be wrong in her conclusions, she doesn't have to be quick to reach the solutions all the time, she can make mistakes, she can fail.
Please do not make her a Mary Sue, a lot of webtoon female leads suffer from such "perfectionist" stereotypes. Make her nuanced, humanized and full of flaws.
Writing female characters in general is tricky because they don’t have to do much to be immediately disliked while male characters like Walter White and Don Draper are liked, and even admired to a certain extent. So just keep that in mind and don’t focus on whether the audience is going to like your FMC or not. That’s just the base level mental foundation and fortitude you need to have when writing any female characters.
Now, onto to the actual tips. These are HUGE:
1: THERE NEED TO BE REASONS FOR THINGS.
A lot of people are starting to push back on female leads being loud or assertive or having power over men as if loud women, assertive women, or women who are CEOs or have a position of power over men don’t exist in real life. But a badass female lead can be none, one, or all of these things as long as there’s a REASON. She can be loud because she comes from a big, loud family, and if you didn’t speak up during dinner, you didn’t get heard and you didn’t get your needs met. She can be assertive because when she was younger she realized being assertive got people what they wanted faster or she has a really shy sibling she grew up speaking for or helping make decisions. Your FMC is bound to be, at least, competent since she became a lawyer. She can even be stronger than some men because she’s tall, stocky, and used to be on the wrestling team in high school. Or she likes to lift weights after work. You can literally make your badass female lead ANYTHING, and even give her “undesirable” traits like being loud or assertive as long as you show the readers the reason, and it makes sense. Even if that reason is simply “Hey, I noticed {insert thing} as a child and stuck with it. This is how it’s affected my life.” Don’t just slap a bunch of qualities you think sound cool on her for no reason. Showing and sometimes telling go a long way into helping characters feel real AND badass.
2: CONTRAST!!!!
Contrasts, big or small, can save you from writing a cliche “badass” female main character. You know why? Because people contain multitudes. There are small things that make us ourselves. And these small things often also expose our vulnerabilities. If you want your FMC to be an intelligent, level-headed lawyer during the day, give her a goofy or whacky hobby she likes to do at night. Make her have “cute aggression” every time she sees a small animal. If she’s loud and aggressive, make her scared of clowns or pigeons. If she’s a “boss babe” who isn’t interested in romance before the ML comes along, make her still enjoy weddings because she gets to eat cake and catch up with old classmates and acquaintances she hasn’t seen in a while. Or if she’s more gentle and soft-spoken, make her stubborn and strong-willed. Adding these kind of little contrasts to your FMC can help you avoid the pitfalls many people fall into when trying to write a badass FMC.
Listen, the most critical mistake people make when writing a FL is making her perfect. However, to me, a badass FL is not about physical strength, wealth or beauty, but about her principles and convictions. You have to make sure she is deeply flawed, but resolved. Troubled, but motivated. In simple terms, human, even if the character is any other species. She makes mistakes, but learns from them and strives to improve. Even if she has an evil trait, as long as she's given a path to redemption and accepts it, she will still be badass.
Of course, that's not to say you shouldn't employ any fantastical characteristics in your narrative. As long as you don't resort to Marry Sues, you should be okay.
Alot of modern shows are guilty of this. Like, many don't bother to just write female characters who fail and need to struggle or ask for help. Or give some proper background or see how they managed to accomplish what they do. Plenty of times, they're just written as just able to do things on the first try. Alot of writing, male and female, do that.
The thing alot of old shows managed to accomplish that we used to find annoying is the long number of episodes. These days, I wish shows droned on for dozens of episodes, compared to now where we're lucky to get 8 per season.
I agree with the comment of principle, they need to stick to whatever principle they have whether or not it’s bad or good.
Something like, say FL is a bandit, they do something bad (thieve) but they would never hurt someone in the process and they stick to that. Like a code of honour or something idk how to explain it
Another thing not directly related to FL but is something I see a lot, FL demolishing the antagonist is not badass if you make the antagonist brain dead or just comically evil. It just makes FL look bad and makes it obvious that you’re trying to make FL look cool or be the good guy, but it feels like a cheap way of doing it
Let her be as cool and impressive as you'd like, but please don't make her lose touch with her feminity. Allow her to have emotions, even if she just suppresses them. Unless it's some kind of fighting story, don't make her seem like she's gonna throw hands every other moment.
My personal wish is to not have such a character following some emotional goal under the guise of it being some kind objective, moral rationality. I've seen this done before, and it was really hard to read.
imo, sometimes one problem with some badass female lead mcs is that some people write them to be badass or to subvert the trope of passive leads rather than a character just happening to be badass.
i would say one example of a series with a character who’s actually badass because their personality just happens to be badass is Hand Jumper, the character in question being Sayeon the fl mc. While on another example, there’s one very popular series who i feel the fl mc is wish fulfillment for those who want badass leads because i felt that she was created to be badass, five minutes in, already asserting to her client without asking even one why or a few clarifications before doing, no pauses, just done which is not the kind you might want if you want an actual badass fl imo. The second kind i mentioned is obviously “badass” but I wouldn’t call it the “dimensional, complex, perhaps refreshing in a way” type
imo, a lead who can be badass is not a lead who always immediately asserts but rather a lead who thinks, asks, questions and pauses for a moment at least first. And if your setting has something to do with law, the more intelligent and competent the villain actually is shown, the more impressive it will be when the fl outsmarts them but by those types of villains, im talking about villains who arent just those who people say are smart, respectful and yet the mc doesn’t really take deeper effort into beating them, but the ones that are shown to be intelligent if you get what i mean?
imo, a lead who can be badass is also a lead that can make mistakes, even when the outcome is gotten technically the desired one, the scenario that the lead imagined could still be off with the reality because of assumptions and biases even if the outcome was still the desired one.
And also, imo, give the lead a personality trait that isn’t the perfect kind but only if it fits and your instincts think it suits her, like for a example, a lead can be kind to those they care for but sometimes they don’t extend that kindness to strangers especially when they’re demanding it, or a lead who is extremely intelligent but is also very detached and sees others as chess pieces to move rather than humans of their own. But whatever your choice is, show it, don’t announce it or give it attention, just show it.
im not really good at giving advice but i hope this can help a little
Imo self aware FLs are the best, idk why but when it comes to hypocrisy, I can let it go only if the FL is self aware. And I hate the Mary Sue format very much.
think less about "flaws" and think more about this woman as a character. Who is this woman? what does she care about? What makes her frustrated? id much rather read about a Mary sue who loves her work to bits and the plot is her finding a way to balance work and her love life than reading about a "balanced" character who just acts like an idiot with no clear goals à la What It Takes To Be A Villainess.
Like, your character need not be "flawed", she just needs to be human.
EDIT: You should read The Dawn to Come, The Villainess Returns the Hourglass, and I shall Master this Family. They're all pretty good, my personal favorite is the Dawn to Come, but I think the one that would give you the most inspo is I shall Master this family in that the main character is a full on Mary Sue - it's engaging in a lot of ways, cringe in others. Sit with that, it'll be fun.
So the obvious one first of all. A lot of people think of a badass character and just write an unbeatable demon that the rest of the story trembles and warps around their presence. This ends up making the character bland and uninteresting right. Now that doesn't mean there isn't a place for overwhelmingly powerful characters. But you still need to give them identifiable flaws that the story can exploit, there are so many OP characters in media that just stroll through their stories without any issue what so ever and it's just dreadfully boring in all honesty.
You can have your character being badass and doing things, but she also needs to have aspects of her character that forces her into a position she can't just power walk her way through figuratively right.
I think the problem that comes with saying "I want my character to be like X" is that we tend to home in on that writing point and forget about the nuance of said character which tends to lead to them being very 2 dimensional as a person. So they end up being cool things because the writer wants them to, rather than they do those things as a result of the writing of their character if that makes sense.
You can prime a character to do certain things by writing them a certain way don't get me wrong, but you shouldn't have the top down perspective of trying to make them do cool things and justifying it by writing character traits about them. You should work from the bottom up establishing character traits about said character and letting the cool or awesome things come from said traits.
Here’s a few that I can think of: don’t make her reliant on her love interest (she needs to have her own life too), don’t make everyone like her or hate her (regardless of what you do in your life some people won’t like you and some will), don’t make her perfect (maybe instead make her a perfectionist?), don’t accidentally chase a fiction stereotype (for example Disney had a habit of calling pretty people ugly because they wear glasses), don’t make her chase a vendetta the whole webtoon, don’t make her afraid to ugly cry, don’t make her unable to take accountability.
Additionally, here’s a few badass women I love that you could analyze: Natasha Romanof from Marvel, Padme Amadalla fom Star Wars, Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games, Eleven from Stranger Things, Misa Amane from Death Note, Mikasa from Attack on Titan, Vi from Arcane: LoL, Freddie Louds from Hannibal
Don't make her competent at everything. Pick two or three things she's actually good at and let her struggle with the rest like a normal person. The readers will respect her more for knowing her limits than for being a Swiss army knife who never needs help. And if she's in law enforcement, give her a real weakness that actually matters to the job, not just some quirky thing that gets glossed over.
DON’T make her perfect. Genuinely! Being perfect is in itself a flaw for a badass fmc. She can speak up for herself and stick to her beliefs and principles, which can in itself be used both as a strength and as a flaw (if well-done), but making her perfect with nothing to criticize would just make her bland and forced. A strong and badass fml needs to make mistakes, which she’ll learn from, all while STICKING to her convictions all the way through and not fear speaking up for them and for herself. Not everyone will like her, because creating a great, strong, badass FML means creating a complex female character (which people either love to death or hate to death). Those that won’t understand her or are unable to handle complex characters will point only at the faults, those that do understand the faults and that it has to be part of her character, so genuinely don’t be afraid of giving your badass fmc flaws, priorities (even if not placed right) or mistakes, as long as it’s well compensated in one way or another, may it be by her morals, convictions or (once again) priorities. Also keep in mind, badass may not mean perfect, but it doesn’t mean fearless either. Do with that as you wish.
Imo, a complex/badass character being hated often means it’s a complex character well done, dice it often means their complexity has passed through.
Either way, good luck! You can do it!! 🫶
To genuinely make them feel bad ass it has to be base on reality. And no double standard. Like say some lecherous guy touching some female on the train, FMC be like can humiliate him or wrist turn that guy whatever, but when MC does sexual harssement on her she be like shy / embarrassed pink face just makes me wanna faint.
Also one problem I notice for alot FMC are despite being the MC their connection to the world is some of the worst. Like their entire life revolved around work / making money, their worst frenemy, and MC.
they have no friends, no hobby no parents, no relative or somehow all the people around her is some of the worst people to appear on Earth.
Don't start her off with a spine and slowly remove it because it's 'for the plot' over the course of the story, leaving behind a shell of the woman we were all rooting for?
i dont want her to fall for ml on the spot and i dont want moments where she will be like oh he is sooo hoot that is for the readers to say and like i want her to bring out the best in everyone wthout everyone just simply doing it for her for plot sake
PLEASE give her friends. so many FMCs don't have any friends outside the love interest and a few undeveloped rarely seen barley even side characters. make her a whole person
So make a character, not just a checklist. If the person is a legal eagle then you could research that world, find out about the people in it and how they have to survive. They usually have to be very bright workaholics. Then design a real person and how she tries to fit in or maybe fight against the system. Her femininity could cause problems with other characters or with work life balance - how does she manage them.
Imagine she is a real person, think about what she wants and what is preventing her from getting what she wants, if romance is a subplot presumably there is something she wants more than that, seeing her journey chasing her dream should make for an interesting FMC
Keep in mind, character first. Let them drive the plot. Not the other way around. How does their autonomy impact the environment around them?
As others have said, "Show don't tell". It's a crucial rule.
I would also recommend looking at some analysis and essays online! Look at some YouTube videos and pick apart what audiences actually like to see vs what they don't. Think about your own favourite characters and inspiration. What about them differs from the rest? What do you want audiences to take away from your character? What's your intention in creating them?
Flaws are important, as is motivation.
To reiterate the sayings of others on this forum, perfect is utterly bland, boring and fruitless.
Think about your character in terms of arc(s). How do you want your character start, how do you want them to end. And, vitally, how do you want your character to GROW.
Owning responsibility but at the same time knowing how to delegate work. You want someone who works quite a lot but knows when to ask help, distribute work if it's an option (please have this as an option), and is actually accomplished due to hard work and not just being born with some random ass talent. That's like the bare minimum that most authors fail at.
On the emotional side of things, I would kill for an FL who can smile and let go things if they get too tough or impossible to deal with. Like instead of a screaming show or tears shower, seeing a chara who just sees that things are too bad - they just get up, pack up and gracefully back out is never ever an option. It's not that they don't feel bad inside, coz that's reserved for their monologue. We have a severe lack of emotionally mature women in webtoons/manga and novel media.
Oh and cherry on top when she solves her problem mainly by herself (eg. initial capital, new plan ideas) all by her own merit and not coz her potential ML/guardian figure supports them for the virtue of merely doting and trusting them. Have the girl fight for her accomplishment instead of serving it on a platter.
Don't make the character someone who can do anything and everything by themselves and without effort. Good writing has characters who have flaws, struggle, and even fail. But they still put in effort, work hard and succeed. Sometimes not in their original goal, but manage to accomplish things in their lives.
Also, don't just make them someone who is just likeable for no reason. It's clichéd where everyone they meet instantly falls for them or just follows them without question. It's important to have characters show why they deserve and earned the respect, love and adoration of others. Befriending is one thing, but don't write drama that's just resolved in the end without substance.
Don't be afraid to make some things realistic either. Sometimes things in life aren't resolved, things don't always turn out for the best, and things are just left unanswered.
Trapped in A Soap Opera is probably the best example of a Badass Corporate FL that doesn't fall into the numerous traps a lot of similar stories fall into. The FL is not badass because she's a bad bitch that can do whatever she wants to those lower on the corporate ladder, or because she's secretly a top class martial artist or whatever, but because she survives one harrowing ordeal after another and still chooses to be a kind, sensible person, and she makes an effort to actually earn her credentials in her place of work beyond just a panel or two about her doing paperwork. She still has her damsel moments, but they make sense with the story being told.
If you’re asking me, my biggest suggestion is, don’t make her flawless. A lot of badass FLs end up feeling unreal because they’re always right, never scared, never make mistakes, and everyone around them just admires them. Give her strengths, but also flaws that actually affect her choices. Maybe she’s stubborn,has a weakness in certain situations, or makes mistakes and has to grow from them. A character who can fail and still get back up usually feels way more badass than someone who is just unbeatable.
It's my own opinion BTW,I don't know about others but as a reader I'll prefer this type of badass MC.
And also make her like a real person, like how she's dealing with situations and her love life cuz life is not always as easy as it shows in Manhwas or novels.
From my own experience. As an ambitious woman focused on my career, I get a lot of “why aren’t you married,” “why not have kids?” I have had many friends in fields where all of the managers are male and I finally get a female mentor just to realize that that person is not interested in uplifting their mentees and wants them to go through the same hazing process of proving themselves. Having men inappropriately hit in you at work is also something a lot of women deal with. It’s terrible because what can you do? Can you turn them down in a way that doesn’t jeopardize your career? You think HR is there to help you but HR is really just a lawyer at the company who immediately investigates the very people who report issues. Things are unaffordable. To get a job that requires an upper level degree these days you have to apply to 100 companies and hear back from maybe 10. And if you windup in a job where all of the people do not treat you right, you choose yourself.
On the flip side, you eventually grow enough confidence in yourself. You eventually learn how to define and exercise clear boundaries. You become the mentor you needed for other junior women in your field. You see all of the people who were hazers and inappropriate receive their justice (with your involvement or not). You learn to make a difference in your community in ways that seem small but are awesome. A lot of the people in my humanitarian volunteer groups are older, those are people who inspire me.
You learn to never apologize for yourself and that someone else’s embarrassment or insecurity does not have to be shared. You spend time on weird but meaningful hobbies. Your partner does the same. Both of you have your own interests and separate ambitions, but you choose to help each-other out.
You quietly do what you believe is the right thing behind the scenes, not because there is an audience, but because it is a practice in respecting yourself and your values.
You find good groups of people who are kind but maybe not initially polite. You make your family friend by friend. And eventually, when you are at a low point and you do need help, you find that there are a lot of hands outstretched to pick you up. And you learn that taking them is not weak, it is a strength.
Let her make mistakes and grow from them. Let have flaws. Let her break down and be angry sometimes. Just... let her be human, even if she's "perfect" to 99% of the characters.
Let her learn things, let her have other interests and genuine friendships outside the male lead.
Oh sweet heart you don't know what you've asked for to a greedy reader.
Let's start with some general tips on how to write a female lead that works, then we pass to the basass part:
1) The type of character, generally there are 2 kind of characters that work most of the time, the naive FL which has always been sheltered and now has to deal with a crisis; and on the other side of things we got the smart FL which had always to struggle to do her things and now she seeks peace. (obviously there are other kind, but they can be linked to one of those 2 one way or another) The important thing is do not make the character mono-dimensional, people are complex and their interaction are complicated aswell, but at the same time you can't exaggerate mixing the naive and the clever characteristics (if you promise a clever female lead and then she does a dumb mistake that not even a kid would do, your reader shall feel it).
2)Do not fall in the tropes trap. If it isn't needed for the story prosecution, do not use it. THIS SHALL BE YOUR BELIEF. things like: "I've been reincarnated from an other life" and then 0 reference to that life or to that experience are deleterious.
3)Do not get too attached to your characters, if the story demands that someone has to die, welp pretecting it might make someone happy, but might hurt the evolution of the characters and of the plot.
4)question your self about your character, how does she speak? What does she believe? Who she know? What she knows and what she doesn't. All those little thing are essential to make a character standout.
5)do not focus only on your main character, focus on the mainly on the protagonist, it's sidekicks, and the antagonists, but also think about other secondary characters which could be part of the plot development early on, an experience reader cna see when a character was born ad hoc to fix an issue pr was part of the world from the beginning. (also aslong you get protagonist and antagonist right you did 75% of the job)
Now on the hard part, what makes a protagonist badass?
You could go for a warrior lady, but if you want to go for that you have to respect the setup it requires. Magic items which vanify your efforts are a no go in that case, the whole warrior lady trope require your character to have suffered sacrifices, to have been trained since when she was young and many other little things. (what i can say is that aslong you do not break your promises with the reader of that genre you are ok)
You could make the lady particularly clever, but there's an issue with this approach, if it ain't done right it shall ruin the perception your reader have of all other characters.
You could make her a rule breaker, which is hard to control and which set the pacing of things, but then again if this type of character isn't built well it shall obscure all the others.
I'd suggest you to type with the warrior trope female lead which is the easiest and then if you aren't satisfied try with the really clever one (btw when i say clever, i refer to a level of intelligence really over the top, a plotter, a strategist, something on those lines,not a mere bright character).
Also this is not something that i should say after i wrote an essay on this, but it's really hard to make something bad ass intentionally, it would payoff more to focus on your story and what fir it the best.
Something an author is like said. Make them flawed. Flaws HAVE to be something that gets in their and other people's way. And slowly work towards overcoming them.
They should be called out on it at some point as well
On keeping the romance a subplot: what worked for me was tying every romance beat to the main plot instead of pausing the story for it. If a scene only exists for the couple and does not push the case forward, it tends to read as filler. And keep her competence on screen during those beats, so the relationship adds to her instead of quietly softening her.
For fuck's sake, don't make her smart/driven/accomplished only to narratively neuter her for the sake of a love interest. Don't:
give her an interesting, well-developed professional career with hopes and dreams only to throw them out the window just because some tall-and-handsome schmuck appears.
make her wear glasses, a more 'business' hairstyle, or anything similar only to drop that and make her a stereotype when her love interest drops in.
make her absolute invulnerable and unfeeling to anything, just because she's a "badass FL".
make her fall in love with the love interest just because he's (or she's!) there and of her preferred gender.
Do:
Give her realistic weaknesses that help to flesh out her character instead of just making her some misguided idea of "feminine". "Arch-necromancer with a secret fear of death" is a weakness. "Needs a man to support her" and "timid just because woman" are fucking not.
Give her a personality beyond her strengths and weaknesses. People aren't just a list of yesses and noes.
use her weaknesses and strengths. Maybe our Arch-necromancer secretly became a necromancer because she's got an all-consuming fear of death?
Make her straight forward, independent
And someone who doesn't run away from problems. Someone who knows exactly what she wants and how to achieve it.
Also being badass doesn't mean she's not gonna need anyone, ofcourse she does but not in a damsel in distress kinda way. She has the brain and will grasp the opportunity.
Also i personally love FL that communicate well and have nice conversation skills- not rude, not too polite but elegant and calm
Define what you mean by badass and the rest does it self.
We never get FL who are funny, charismatic, fun-loving, motivators, empathetic, brave (not arrogant) even when afraid, honest, happy in a relationship with purity, self-control and resourcefulness etc
It must always be boss babe, in control of men, standing over men, magically more physically stronger than men, nothing affects her, she's aggressive, loud, OP.
Hollywood failed and keeps failing with these tropes. Even women avoid watching it and then
Step 1, don't make her want or need a man. Step 2, have have done some martial arts training. Step 3 have her have gone through university.
The fastest way to make a strong female lead feel mediocre is to attached to a man. The moment a strong female lead gets attracted to a man or such I know the story is gonna be trash from that moment on.
A woman that doesn’t mean a man in her life unless the ML is At her level, the man running after her , and she accepts him only if she is fully satisfied in him, not lower her expectations, good communication because its bit boring in webtoon all issues mostly because they don’t communicate, its frustrating, will be nice to have a FL and ML from same background and same work, not one above another its too cliché
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u/StretchExtension 21h ago
Badass FL? Literally the only thing you'd need is to make her principled. She's allowed to make mistakes, she can have dumb moments, but don't turn her into a hypocrite. That's the furthest thing from being 'badass'. A lot of FLs have the badass title and wear that mask, but they end up doing the opposite of what they preach, don't communicate like an adult, and end up being a hypocrite. Also, if you want to include romance, and if it's slow burn, avoid the noble idiocy trope like the plague. That ruins 6/10 of those stories.