Tu étais formidable, j'étais fort minable.

I really like sci-fi but honestly I am so BORED of these two very specific tropes

a. A hooded/disguised/darkened/masked character appears out of the blue, unknown to the protagonist. They are very good at either fighting or technology. Probably both. During a struggle, the obscuring factor comes off and this character is a WOMAN. Which is STRANGE. Because this character is GOOD at THINGS. The male protagonist is stunned, as the reader/watcher is also clearly supposed to be. She is just edgy enough not to be considered completely conventionally attractive, but is of course white, skinny, whatever colour her eyes are they’re extremely bright, and her hair isn’t a natural colour. God what surprising, good, original writing.

b. A group of huge, burly men make up a unit in some military force. They are very casual but then become very formal and reverent at the mention or entry of their senior. This senior is a woman. She has short hair. She says the exact words ‘Alright ladies’ to belittle them and often reminds them they fight like girls. You can practically hear the writer patting themselves on the back for the amazing, unusual idea of making a woman important.

I just cringe so much at either of these clichés and they’re in so many sci-fi films/books that it just blows my mind that writers are so unable to write female characters well that so many of them resort to this. Oh and this woman either dies with no character development or is a love interest, nothing else

A contrived photo but I like it a lot. Mont Veyrier in Annecy, France.