When I saw the thread title, I immediately thought of Milady from The Three Musketeers. She's just so...conniving and interesting....and runs circles around the gents .

Hmmm, I found myself interested in Scarlett's youngest sister, but I only made it to page 600 of Gone with the Wind, so I don't know what became of her. I thought it interesting that she went through a "world turned upside down" even more than the rest of them. But she is a very minor character, so not all that developed.

I think that Orson Scott Card's Patience (in Wyrms) and CS Lewis' Orual (in Till We Have Faces) are both interesting 'tough' women. They are very similar, actually...women (written by men) who are very caught up in political intrigue. There is something very trained and calculated about them, so that they come across as a bit masculine, but still very much women. I like them

Charles de Lint writes women as if he were a woman. I do not know how he does it, but I have found all of his characters convincing. Some of them are pretty extreme, too, and he still pulls it off....

I don't think evil characters are most interesting...I think conflicted ones are. Not the ones that you want to slap some sense into, but the ones who struggle with what they ought to do. Tension is very realistic, and much more engaging than just floating by on a cloud of virtue.

So what about G.R.R. Martin's women? Any takers?
(I gave up after book 3, so I don't know where he is going with some of them)

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‘There’s no greys, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’
‘It’s a lot more complicated than that -’
‘No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.’
Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

The women of GRRM are on a pretty steep character arc, past Book 3, 4, and 5. I'm partial to Arya, but also like Brienne. The rest of them are a little too flawed for me.

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In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.

~ Albert Camus

Having played the role opposite Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, I must say she is my favorite woman from Shakespeare and I would love to find a similarly fiesty and sharp witted woman to capture my heart and mind.

But I need her blended with Éowyn. I need someone who can stand being with someone who wears body armor to work and is armed every day without flinching...

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"Ut Prosim"
"There are some things that it is better to begin than refuse, even though the end may be dark" Aragorn
"Those who commit honorable acts need no forgiveness"
http://killology.com/sheep_dog.htm