Scene Stealing: Making Sure Women in Fiction Aren’t Robbed of Awesome Moments

Note: Includes spoilers for Rogue One, Moana, Wonder Woman, and Snow White (if it’s possible to spoil an 80-year old movie)

As someone who primarily features women as my protagonists, I try to be conscious of how I represent my characters in stories. I also strive to learn lessons from other stories and to see what they do well or not so well.

Something that is unfortunately too common in fiction featuring a woman as the protagonist is a male supporting character who “steals” important moments from the lead character. Many Disney films, especially the early ones, are examples of this. In Snow White, the title character is rendered unconscious by a poisoned apple, then is uninvolved in the entire climax of the film. Instead of Snow White getting to have a final confrontation with the Queen, the villain dies after being pursued by the dwarves and she relies on a prince to revive her from her poisoned state. I realize that the story is somewhat beholden to the source material, but I would much rather see Snow White get the chance to defeat the Queen by herself. Another far more recent movie that is guilty of this is Rogue One. In the final moments of the movie, the protagonist Jyn Erso is confronted by the main antagonist. However, instead of letting Jyn figure out how to resolve the conflict on her own, Cassian gets the kill for himself. In either of these cases, it would be much more satisfying if the main protagonist had the opportunity to deal with their antagonist once and for all.

Two recent films that have handled this well are Wonder Woman and Moana. In each of those movies, there is a male sidekick who gets his own moments of awesome, but he never takes anything away from the lead. Wonder Woman faces Ares, the main antagonist, while Steve Trevor deals with a secondary protagonist in his own heroic way. In Moana, while Maui helps Moana get to Te Fiti’s island, Moana is the one who confronts Te Ka, then resolves the conflict with kindness rather than violence.  In both of these examples, while the sidekick still has the opportunity to shine, the protagonist is the character who resolves the climax. This creates a much more satisfying ending since the lead is directly responsible for ending the main conflict in the story.

What are some example of stories where a woman protagonist hasn’t gotten the final confrontation she deserved? Do you have any favorite examples of stories that have done this well? I’d love to hear your thoughts!