Wonder Women: Mission: Impossible Franchise

If Ethan Hunt is considered the quintessential American spy opposite MI6 British royalty James Bond, then his female counterparts are presumably bad-asses in their own right. Throughout the Mission: Impossible franchise led by Tom Cruise, Hunt's squad has offered actresses a wide range of love interests and agents. With the series's sixth installment Fallout hitting theaters, I thought it was about time to take a look at how the women fare throughout the franchise. Here's another edition of Wonder Women featuring Mission: Impossible. (Note: this list is in chronological order of the movies' release date and contains spoilers). Which is your favorite Mission: Impossible female character? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

What A Strong Female Character Means To Me

Women are more than cardboard cut-outs. But that's not how they are portrayed in pop culture. One term comes up a lot when the media or a fandom want to describe them, and that's Strong Female Character. In fact, that label comes up so much, I'm at a point where I don't know what it means anymore except that if there's a poster of a heroine wielding a weapon "she's a bad-ass and I'm automatically supposed to love her".

Recently I started thinking about SFCs, and how they're stuck with a copy-and-paste-personality of one part brawns and two parts boobs, measured by a standard that keeps moving and yet stands still. If a heroine dismantles the system, she's automatically more interesting than the ones who stay behind to serve in politics or keep their families safe. If an independent bosslady falls in love, that's the only aspect of their life that matters. If the girl-next-door doesn't want anything to do with a guy, he'll convince her until she gives in. And so it goes. Too often SFCs are experts at falling into one trope or having one mission, but fail hopelessly at everything else in their lives. 

When I think of my favorite female characters, they come from all walks of life in fandom:  Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Okoye/Shuri/Nakia from Black Panther, all of the women from The Walking Dead, Uhara from Star Trek, Princess Leia, Rey, and Rose from Star Wars. And the list goes on and on. They take on unique roles, sometimes the hardest ones if the writing is deplorable, and explore different arcs of a story. But they have a few traits in common: they're personable, layered, and multi-faceted. And that's why I started figuring out - what is a strong female character anyways. How do you define Strong Female Character? Who are some of your favorites? I'd love to know in the comments below!

Wonder Women: Lisa Freemont in Rear Window (1964)

When one thinks about the intriguing elements of Alfred Hitchcock's filmography, the abundance of "icy blondes" he utilized throughout his career is hard to ignore. He worked with a myriad of starlets like Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh, and Kim Novak, establishing them as femme fatales and victims on-screen. In celebrating Halloween by watching Rear Window, Grace Kelly's role as Lisa Freemont felt like a great character to highlight for my Wonder Women series.

Elegant and tenacious Grace Kelly dazzles in the classic thriller about an injured photographer L.B "Jeff" Jeffries (played by James Stewart) who's cocooned in his apartment and starts spying on his neighbors. Getting caught up in their own imaginations and theories, they suspect a grizzly murdered took place just across the street and try to prove their accusations to the authorities.

Throughout his career Hitchcock examined the themes of a seemingly perfect crime, and the morals that came along with the act in question. Like similar suspenseful films Marnie, Vertigo and Dial M for Murder, he also dabbled in the complications of marriage, singlehood, and the sexual tension between men and women. More prominently Rear Window, a tale of voyeurism and murder, offers a switch of gender roles where its independent and undaunted leading lady becomes the hero.

A Merry Fictional Blog Challenge

'Tis the season to be jolly and ponder about our feels from the past year. I thought it'd be fun to make a challenge to chat about the holiday season and include some of our favorite (or least) fictional characters in on the fun. Below is A Merry Fictional Blog Challenge! 

You're invited to join in on the fun! Simply copy & paste the questions to your blog for you to answer. Feel free to use the banner above or make your own. This is an open challenge - so no deadline to participate!

Advent Calendar: What traditions you celebrate during December? Are you starting new traditions this year?
Carols: What's your favorite song(s)?
Coal: A naughty character you'd send coal to?
Fireplace: Favorite Christmas movie that melts your heart?
Gingerbread: What's your favorite holiday snack?
Hot Cocoa: What's your favorite drink?
Lights: A character has had the brightest or most positive impact for you this year?
Mistletoe: Character you'd like to meet under the mistletoe?
Mittens: A cozy outfit that keeps you warm during winter?
Naughty: Three characters who'd make the Naughty list.
Nice: Three characters who'd make the Nice list.
North Pole: If you could spend Christmas anywhere (even fictional), where would you go?
Presents: A book or movie on your wishlist?
Rudolph: What's your favorite TV holiday special?
Santa: A character you'd love to exchange presents with? What would you get them?
Scrooge: A villain you'd help see life in a different way?
Snowflake: A special fandom or movie moment that made 2017 awesome.
Tree: What do you decorate your house with for the season?
Yuletide: The top 3 things in your life that make you the most happy?
BONUS: Ugly Christmas Sweater: Would you wear a sweater Molly Weasley made you or avoid it like the plague?

❄️ Tag! You’re it! ❄️
I welcome anyone who would like to do this challenge and add a little holiday cheer to their blog. My answers will be coming along in a separate post as well. Comment below or  tweet me your post for a re-tweet and so I can add you to a master list of entries - I'd love to see your answers!

Thanks for joining in! Check out these awesome participants so far: Nikkipedia, Princess Deia, Layla Wrote, Live Love Random, DePepi, Her Geekery, PrimaGeek, OftenOffTopic, BizarreBrunette, Epicfied, My Open Sketchbook

5 Signs Your Favorite Character Might Die

From Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Pretty Little Liars to Lost and True Blood, a character's death is something all fans have experienced.

Episode after episode we tune into where our favorite hero or baddie is headed next, or we're interested in an extra floating around in the background. Our love and curiosity beckon us to ask: What will become of them?

Unfortunately, most of the time it's an inevitable death. One day a television show writer is playing Pin-A-Plot on a Character. An intriguing anti-hero or conflicted sidekick or mysterious henchman faces something more terrifying than the True Death, a machete, or a stray bullet: it's the stroke of a pen or a tapping of the keyboard. Through the power of Lady UnLuck and the writers' trying to drive us crazy, someone we love/love-to-hate has gotta say good-bye, au revoir, adiós, sayonara!

To save geeks some heartbreak, here are five signs our favorite characters might die. 

1. They Have an Opinion
A conflict arises. The good guys or baddies deliberate what to do next. Our favorite character suddenly has a minimal vote and gives an opinion. It lasts for more than one line of dialogue, gradually moves into logic reasoning and pleading for their voice to be heard. Oh my gosh, we realize: he or she walks, talks, is actually a human being and not an ignored extra. Well, they might as well not have spoken at all. They're not disposable but not immortal either. As they ride off into the sunset, the writers usually just wrote off their amazing storytelling potential.

2. They are Given a Monologue
Every once in a while our chosen favorite interacts with a main cast member. It may be to swap a joke or two. Until they suddenly have a monolog. We learn about how they were raised and if they were a single child, or how to load a weapon (before said character is hit with a 'stray' bullet'). For five minutes they may actually have a human-to-human connection with someone; we start shipping and thinking of meta, and is that the sound of canon? Next thing we know, all hell breaks loose - the bad guys invade the good guy's territories. Our favorite gets stranded in the wild to be pigeonholed into their demise. That monolog sends our feels into a tizzy and makes us wonder what could've been.

3. They Want to Contribute
The story is heading into a dark zone. Characters are threatened by outside forces or their own personal inner demons. A light's gotta come through their bleak future somehow. Enter our character, and he or she wants to contribute - they want to be a respite from emotional turmoil and create positivity in the collective miserable whole. ADIOS, happy helper. Thanks for your kindness and generosity, but no thanks - sadly, you're not gonna be around long enough to see how much you had an impact on your friend's journeys.

4. Their role is actually reduced
Very few and rare reasons call for a character's involvement to suddenly lessen. Some reasons include an actress is pregnant or a personal emergency for the actor arises. But also, there is just a plain and simple truth that the writers or actors lose interest. A character pops up time and time again. We may even know a thing or two about their actual personal history. But suddenly they'll re-emerge in a flash and do one or a combination of the things above. Try not to get too attached; the writers could just be setting us up for a dose of reality - nobody is safe.

5. Foreshadowing comes a knockin'
So our peeps are hanging out with the main crew. They speak their minds. They've had monologs. Their own arcs progress and they contribute to the progression of other arcs. Then we're watching an episode, and flashbacks are a central part of their story. It's like a whole episode is just for them.OUR DREAM COME TRUE. Then, we notice all the little details we've cataloged over the years coming back at full force. It's almost like a visual obituary of their time on the show, how the character's guilty conscience is trying to teach a lesson of reflection or change. Like a redeemed jerk or a good guy treading to the dark side (they have cookies after all). It's called foreshadowing. The pavement of their arc is gonna end at the edge of a cliff and the only thing we'll have left is Memory Lane. Good-bye awesome person. We love you.

*sobs wildly into the void where my beloved favorite characters have died*
The list is far too long.