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Notes -
I've recently been blown away by Better Call Saul and specifically how compelling the character of Kim Wexler felt in that it so completely ridiculed 99% of recently written female lead characters.
And yeah it seems it just comes down to this, Kim actually has character development, her entire arc revolves around a real struggle with honesty and playing with the truth, which is thematically appropriate for a lawyer show, and she actually has a legitimate hard time with failures and losses, and falls and trials before she can redeem herself in whatever ways she still can.
In other words, she's actually human and not mere propaganda as Orwell would put it.
Notice that Kim is also a very competent lawyer and likeable person, and this is recognized and remarked upon by almost everyone that encounters her.
If that was all there was to her then she'd be Mary Sue-ish. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with depicting your characters as competent and well-liked! That's not the issue! First it helps that you show their competence rather than having everyone else gush about it, and second they have to struggle with actual problems and even make mistakes, even if said struggles and mistakes are invisible to all but the audience.
I loved that in BCS the only people that knew Kim's personal struggles and demons was herself and Jimmy (and us, the viewers), as far as everyone else was concerned Kim never did anything wrong and rarely made mistakes.
One thing I loved about Kim was a sort of "uncanny valley" about her that made her so close to being a Mary Sue and appear as one to so many characters within the show. It was to the extent that even I as an audience member who got to watch her darker parts felt confused as to why someone like her was with someone like Jimmy, and I had to constantly remind myself that she really wasn't the perfect hyper-competent well-put-together lawyer that her image made her out to be. Her flaws were huge and significant for the impact it had on so many lives, but also subtle due to her presentation, which I suppose was a common theme with most of the main characters in that show.
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