Geek Girl Witter: Does Every Main Character Need To Be Strong?

These days, one of the biggest compliments we can dole out upon female protagonists is how strong they are. How ballsy, brave and bold they are. How they kick asses with male-shaming strength and how they don't show their fear when their or their loved ones lives are on the line. At the same time, we mention a weak character as a drawback to a book. Something that shouldn't be prevalent in stories. At this point I must ask, do we really want every FMC to be like that?

We, real life people, are differ from one another. There are ones among us that indeed serve in the military with incredible braveness and devotion. And then there are the ones that would speed away if they saw a muggler mug an elderly person in the street. But that's alright. It creates balance in the world. Without it, we would have an awfully dull and boring society.

Furthermore, when we read a book, we expect realistic depictions of the basic things like society, people, life as a whole up to some point. In fantasies, paranormals and sci-fis this reality may be tempered with, but there are aspects you can't change because otherwise your world will collapse in on itself. Diversity is such. We very much like diversity as in nationality, sexuality, etc. SO why not in terms of how we each deal with grief. Also, if we take away a quality - in this case feebleness - we limit ourselves in terms of creating fresh, distinct characters. If every single protagonist is the hero of their century, we will soon run out of new patterns of traits. 

Of course, I do agree that snarky, bold characters are more fun to read. But I also believe that in a good environment, under the right circumstances less feisty characters can be just as entertaining.

Who do you prefer to read about; feisty or feeble characters? Does a weak character ruin the book for you? Do you dislike weaker characters just because they are weaker?