Welcome back! It’s Monday, and we’re about to embark on a week of really harsh decisions. To make the pain of having to pick a little less, we’ll only be voting on two pairs each day this week, with the Elite Eight revealed on Friday. Next week, we’ll create the Final Four on Monday and Tuesday, vote on the two Final Four pairs on Wednesday and we’ll have our final, GRAND CHAMPION OF ALL THE LADYHEROES vote on Thursday.
This means the winner will be declared on April 1, and I promise whatever our plans may be for April Fool’s Day, we won’t fuck with Middlemarch.
Here’s a link to the most recent Middlemarch Bracket, in case you need it.
And here’s a recap of the ladies in the Sweet Sixteen:
Kate, Offred, Lady Macbeth and Jo March in Adult Fiction
Anathema Device, Vivianne, Esmerelda Weatherwax and Morgaine in Adult Sci-fi/Fantasy/Dystopia
Lyra Belaqua, Katniss Everdeen, Meg Murray and Hermione Granger in YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Dystopia
Scout Finch, Jessica “not so” Darling, Anne of Green Gables and Harriet the Spy for YA Fiction.
And finally…
15 replies on “Middlemarch Madness: Sweet Sixteen Voting, Day One”
Did I name my daughter Hermione? No, I did not. Here’s the thing, folks. Hermione’s pretty great, but if she were all that, she’d be the lead character instead of playing second fiddle (let’s face it) to a pretty dull protagonist. Also, she goes through some rough times, but ultimately she gets her happily ever after, right?
Whereas LYRA is the heroine of her own tale, and has to make a major sacrifice in order to save the world. And is far more resourceful than Ms. Granger, since she doesn’t exactly just have “alohomora” on which to fall back. And is just more interesting and spunky and awesome.
I don’t even really feel like dignifying any Pratchett character with an argument, but really? A minor character in a slightly humorous but mostly messy novel is competition for a woman of incredible strength and power like Viviane? Never mind that Viviane appears in a feminist retelling of the Arthurian legend, which ought to give her a pass straightaway. Sigh.
I’m new to Pratchett, but I think I’m going to applaud his messiness (and writing funny women) in the long run.
On Lyra, I agree that in the first 2 books and a chunk of the third, she’s a badass. My issue, and it’s with the series, not with the character herself, is that the sacrifice she had to make to save the world was to have sex, then never see the boy fate made her sleep with again.
My problems with The Hunger Games were similar, the first two and a third books were great, then the whole thing fell apart by getting wrapped up too neatly. So Katniss’ happy ending is getting married and having babies?
I totally need to be writing my next article, but I’ve been stewing on the YA fantasy, etc. ladies for a while now.
I suppose it depends on your perspective or your .. cynicism? I guess maybe I just preferred to interpret Will & Lyra’s relationship as something very profound and dare I say pure? I’m not completely a hopeless romantic, but I guess I have my moments.
Oh dear, I just realized that I will definitely have to choose between Meg and Hermione. But…they’re both my supersmart and kickass but awkward and relatable childhood ladyheroes!
I just realized the same thing. No fair!
Easy peasy. But I’m not telling who I voted for :D
HERMIONE AND ANATHEMA FOR THE WIN.
I agree!
SECONDED!
TEAM LYRA FOREVER. Seriously, if she loses, I’ll cry.
No way. Lyra and Katniss are going to take it all the way to the final two and battle it out against each other. (Instead of forming an all-woman army and taking over the world, bringing about the end of the patriarchy and starting a new golden age in which humanity lives in communion with itself and the rest of earth’s creatures, which is what I would like them to do.)
Oh my god, we could stop the bracket at the final two and THE WHOLE WORLD WOULD CHANGE! This is the best idea ever.
Oh dear, I just realized how cruel it is to put Katniss back into a winner takes all battle to the death.
No way is Katniss beating Meg!
But I’m with you: TEAM LYRA FOREVER! Lyra has been my role model for 16 years. I read the Golden Compass before I read A Wrinkle in Time, before I read To Kill A Mockingbird, before Harry Potter…not before Harriet the Spy but as much influence as Harriet had on my life, I wanted to BE Lyra. If she loses, I will be in serious mourning.
Puh-lease. Even if this Lyra person can make it past Hermione, she’ll still have Offred to deal with in the finals. No contest.