Neutral Female characters in Western Animation.
- Played with in the episode "Jet", of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Male protagonist Aang goes one-on-one with the also male titular character Jet, while Aang's female friend Katara watches from the sidelines. However, after the initial realization that Jet is attacking Aang, most of the action takes place in the treetops, well above Katara's head. The instant the combatants come back to earth, with Aang clearly getting the worst of it, Katara steps in and proceeds to kick Jet's ass, blasting him back with water before he can blink, and freezing him to a tree! He is essentially defeated after that.
- While the ladies of The Legend of Korra mostly avert this, this is played straight with (the now 84 year old) Katara. Unlike Zuko or Toph, Katara stays on the sidelines all the time, becoming essentially a background character, and doesn't do anything of importance except for the very beginning of the series, when she lets Korra to leave for Republic City. In Season 2, she doesn't even mediate her children's bickering over Aang's Parental Favoritism, only expressing regret instead.
- Batman: The Animated Series:
- A subversion happens in the episode "Two Face Part Two": An employee of the mob boss Thorne was a neutral female up until she tries to hit Two Face over the head with a container, when she is tackled by Two Face's fiancée (another previously neutral female, and a Face, believe it or not). Making it also a straight example of a whole different trope, Designated Girl Fight. Played with in the first part, where Thorne's moll sits out a fight between Harvey Dent (Pre-Two-Face) and Batman vs. Thorne's men, not because she was scared or ineffectual, she was just enjoying the show, describing it as "Wild!", disturbingly excitedly.
- Joker and Harley both avert and play this straight. Often Joker will tell Harley to sit out and let him handle "Batsy" on his own, in which case she will merrily cheer him on, as if she was watching a TV show. Other times she will help in the fight, often bringing out bigger weapons than the Joker himself (although Joker tends to stay more of the threat since he's a better fighter than she is). In the comics, however, Harley is a much better and stronger fighter than Joker (after getting low level superstrength and agility from one of Poison Ivy's chemicals), although Joker usually carries more lethal weaponry. Regardless, he most often uses her as his strong arm while he stays behind, not bothering to fight unless he is facing Batman himself.
- An inversion comes in the Batman/Superman crossover World's Finest, where Harley and Mercy, Luthor's assistant, take an instant dislike to one another, and have an all out brawl in the background while Joker and Lex talk business.
- Played Straight for Talia al Ghul, daughter of the infamous Ra's al Ghul and on-again-off-again Love Interest for Batman. Whenever her daddy and her beau fight, she refuses to take a side. The best she'll do is prevent Batman from actually capturing and imprisoning Ra's after winning said fight. Probably justified, as they are her father and the man she professes to love, which would make choosing a side somewhat awkward.
- Justified and averted by Dana in Batman Beyond. She's more of an Innocent Bystander than an Action Girl, so when the action comes close to her, she usually focuses on staying out of the way. But when she can't get out of the way, she fights back. She actually successfully protected Batman at one point.
- Aelita used to be like this in the early seasons of Code Lyoko. After spending some time at the boarding school with her friends, she gains a little more confidence, and when she gains an energy attack near the start of Season 3 (actually more powerful than her friends' attacks), she becomes able to kick ass alongside the others. Justified because her powers are mostly defensive and she's the only one who needs to "survive" the fight.
- In another example of Kim Possible playing with gender dynamics, in a number of fights between Kim and Shego, the "neutral female" role is filled by Ron. This is because his role is "distraction" or some other non-combat thing. He doesn't do combat unless his Mystical Monkey Powers decide to kick in (which is rare).
