9th Musing: Female Protagonists (especially in YA)

As I am an avid reader, I obviously come across many female characters (as that is our topic of today's midnight), but rarely are they ever satisfactory! Ironically I've noticed they're least annoying, which is to say, lovely, in the average middle grade book and only semi annoying in the average "adult" book. As for the YA (young adult) section, they are absolute book-ruiners. In teen books there are generally a select few personality types authors choose to use:

1. The melodramatic "I'm just so in love with him" type. Instead of giving you examples, I'll tell you to look at any romance, especially that of the paranormal subgenre. Bella Swann is our captain here.

2. The girl who tries to be tough and "badass" but just ends being a #1 (see above). I'll say that Tris Prior from Divergent is the poster child for this. (Though I admit I feel bad, as I couldn't decide whether I liked the book or not and I really liked the idea, it just seemed like it was written in the tone of every other teen book, and I wasn't a fan of Tris, though I really loved the guy that came in (go figure), and a few other characters as well, though I think she killed off too many people, run-on sentence, run-on sentence, run-on sentence....)

3. The girl who must be snarky at every moment and find some smart-ass comment at any given time. I mean, I love snarky/sassy!--but when it's done CORRECTLY! For example, Diana Ladris from the Gone series does it perfectly and she's a wonderful three-dimensional character. However, Sophie Mercer was great in the first book Hex Hall but in Demonglass, she was a little too much.

4. They're just meek and blend in with the wall paper. Usually they end up becoming brave and do stand up for themselves, but their personalities are still quite plain to me.

Now I feel a little bad because I did like those books (excluding Twilight--that one is a literary shame, which I probably will continue to reiterate when it comes up). In high fantasy, however, the women are all just sort of these boring, maternal blobs! We need more Hermiones and Diana Ladrises (as far as grey characters go) and Kate DeVrieses (oh what a brilliant character she is <3 ) and etc.
Does anyone agree with me? (As not many people read this I don't expect actual comments but mental concurrence is nice too).

8th Musing: Religion

(Hello, I'm back! Did my followers miss me? All two of you? Actually I'm back here because my friend reminded me to write, so I'm writing! I just lack good subject material in general lol)

On to the main topic...

For me, this whole subject of religion has become quite ironic recently. I was possibly as cynical as anyone could be about religion, especially Christianity (and I'm very sorry if that offends anyone reading this, but it's true). I tended to ridicule most religions, finding them stupid, irrelevant, wrong, a waste of time, the list could go on. However, as I watch 7th Heaven (middle of fourth season!) while I continue to work on an Aerith cosplay :3 I feel like I'm slowly being converted. It's really weird actually because my opinions are slowly shifting all the way to the other side. No matter what religion they talk about on that show (in the rare occasion they discuss one other than Christianity), it always sounds wonderful. Judaism, Buddhism, etc. (though I've always liked Buddhism even if I couldn't agree with it on some points). My views on Catholicism haven't changed a bit, but the show put everything else in a new light. I realize that it isn't the religion I couldn't stand, it was the corruption made by people willing to use it for war, amassing wealth, blaming others, etc. In its purest form, the reason for its creation, Christianity seemed far more loving and accepting than it does now. (And of course, good old Reverend Camden sticks to those ideals). I think about everyone I know will find it weird if I suddenly decide to join a church. I've been the furthest thing from atheistic, though I've also been the furthest from religious. I have a more spiritual mindset. Perhaps it is the spirituality I hold in my beliefs that first crafted the religions in their incorrupted form.

Just some thoughts that passed through my mind.