If a character exhibits many traits of the Dark Action Girl, but was never an antagonist or villain to begin with, does the character count as a Dark Action Girl? The trope description implies that they would have to be a villain at least once, but some of the examples listed don't fit with this so I can't tell which is supposed to be correct.
Edited by 111.68.32.189 Hide / Show Replies
This is definitively a trope for villainous/antagonistic action girls. So "shares many traits" would not fit.
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Sorcerer in training
- The White Witch, Jadis, from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe. Extra points in that she's supposed to represent Satan.
I don't think Jadis qualifies as a Dark Action Girl. In neither of her incarnations (the other being The Magician's Nephew) is she a fighter of any stripe, preferring magic and zapping people to going toe to toe. The only times she pulls her stone dagger is to kill a bound Edmund (who can't fight back), a bound and willing Aslan and after Edmund shatters her wand. Otherwise, she is shown having others battle for her as she turns people to stone. That's sorceress work, not the action girl.
As for The Magician's Nephew, she tries magic in the mundane world first, only resorting to a bar of iron from a lamp post when her magic won't work. She was originally a queen who commanded armies and 'won', not by a one-on-one duel with her sister, but with that world's spell-magic equivalent of an all-out nuclear barrage. She's inhumanely strong, but she isn't human, so that's not particularly a qualifier.
She's a magic user and a tough and vicious woman, but the 'action' part is completely lacking. Nor does her record reflect the trope's description.
- NCIS: Ziva's connection to the Mossad hints that she used to be a dark action girl - the few images we get of her past show her shooting a guy from the back of a motorbike. She used to be a professional killer. It's okay, though. Now, she never kills anyone! ...Well, hardly ever.
- That doesn't make her this trope though. She is shown repeatedly to have had friends and people she cared about. She was killing people to protect her country, not for profit. Especially since Gibbs is shown to have been involved in assassinations as well.
I don't know ''NCIS that well. Who's right here?
Edited by 69.172.221.8 Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
I want to question how true the "Dark Action Girls almost never change sides" thing is. It's definitely true that they're not nearly as vulnerable to it as a Dark Magical Girl, but the prevalence of High-Heel–Face Turn and Sex–Face Turn means that they do end up changing sides more than their male action-y counterparts do. On the page alone, we have Faith, Jinx, Cheshire, Mai, Mara Jade, Selene, Catwoman, and probably more from works I'm not familiar with who are noted to change sides permanently. I just think the "Dark Action Girls NEVER change sides, are you crazy?" tone of the article should be amended.
Edited by StarryEyed Hide / Show Replies
I for one question whether someone needs to be Villainous at all to qualify as a Dark Action Girl (people forget Dark Is Not Evil), many aspects of the described difference here are not innate to being villainous, and I'd also have say there are some Villainous Aciton Girls who I can't consider Dark Action Girls at all.
It's certainly acknowledged that The Dark Chick can sometimes be heroic. Why not have a Dark Action Girl as The Lancer to a normal Action Girl or the other way around.
Example, I don't think Selene was ever truly a villain, she was just on the wrong side out of ignorance. And Faith was heroic to start with, she was almost a Face–Heel Revolving Door.
Any female Anti-Hero who's a fighter can be a Dark Action Girl. And certainly many a Designated Hero and Token Evil Team Mate have been Dark Action Girls putting them at least nominally on the Heroic side, and perhaps also a Sociopathic Hero.
But I don't believe Catwoman actually qualifies as a Dark Action Girl. Catwoman wasn't an Aciton Girl at all till the 80s.
Edited by MithrandirOlorin
How is Kat in Halo: Reach a Dark Action Girl? She's listed under video games. I've played the game myself and never found anything particularly nefarious about her. I didn't collect any of the datapads or have read any of the expanded universe material she's in, admittedly, but I don't really understand why she's here.
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