Leshawna is low key so hard to write as a main character in a fic, but for a slightly weird reason if I'm being honest.
(Post talks a bit about what I have planned for my fic, but is mainly about Leshawna as a stereotype and working around that)
Warning: a bit rambly, will take a bit to get to the main point
For a bit of context: I was trying to figure out what professions/adult lives the survivors in SoW would have, mainly for the epilogue which would show how they are doing much longer down the road after the timeline of the main fic has passed. This was to both show the characters' when they have mostly recovered and bring a fulfilling end to their arcs.
I already know what I want to accomplish for Leshawna's arc: Black women are often expected to act like the stereotypical "Strong Black Woman" or at least take on some of those traits, even/especially in the face of trauma. In the fic, she and the others have gone through something incredibly and horrifically traumatic as teenagers. She proceeds to cope with this experience by refusing to cope with it and instead further building up the persona of being a SBW.
She already fulfilled this stereotype (among other such stereotypes) in the show, and I thought it would be interesting to explore that as being a bit more of a facade. Or at the very least, she was legitimately confident before the massacre, but post-Island, it becomes a facade because she feels the social pressures to keep up an image of not being affected by traumatic experiences. It's a really fun arc to deconstruct and write, especially since I am half-Black and have a lot to say about stuff like this.
BUT! When I was trying to decide her profession, I had a hard time figuring out something that would fit with her arc: specifically, not having a profession that is high stress or requires her to put others' needs and feelings before her own. A job that she legitimately enjoys where she doesn't have to be the SBW. But I also wanted it to be in character.
And that's where I ran into a problem. You see, we don't completely know every characters' interests or ambitions for the future. And this is kinda the case for Leshawna, as I was only able to really find one specific interest of hers on the wiki: dancing. But most dancing jobs are honestly really stressful. I thought of a dance job that seemed pretty fun and like something she might like, but it would like involve working with kids, and I didn't want her to fit into the few stereotypes she didn't already embody (at the time, I thought that she didn't seem like she would take care of kids outside of paid babysitting. So then at least she wouldn't fulfill the Mammy stereotype!).
Then, when I was re-looking on the character page, I saw something interesting:
"While not on Total Drama, she volunteers to better the lives of other teenagers less fortunate than she is. A goal of hers is to one day open her own community center."
And this made me realize something.
You see, basically the whole fandom is aware that she is a walking stereotype (but we still love her), and I wanted to make her a bit less stereotypical (I just don't like the feeling of writing stereotypical characters) and explore any and all potential depth she has to offer. But I also really wanted to do this without completely leaving out the most significant aspects of her personality, and more importantly, the parts of her that make her such a great and likable character.
Unfortunately for me, the more I thought about her as a character and generally reread her personality description (because I need those as a reminder sometimes), I realized that the large majority of her most key traits are those stereotypes. One of the hardest ones to avoid was her more caring side, because a (overthinking everything) part of me was worried that it might be fitting with some of the stereotypes related to taking care of others. But that's something I like about her! So then I tried to excuse it with "she's only like that with her friends! She just mainly cares about her friends."
And these the quote from the wiki came along and slapped me in the face with a cold, hard truth. And that truth was this:
Leshawna is, at the core, a caring person who wants to help and comfort others. Yes, she can hate certain people with a passion and show it. Yes, she did what she did in Action. Yes, she can be selfish sometimes. But at the end of the day, when all is said and done, she is a kind and loyal person who will go out of her way to help people, as long as they aren't a-holes. She is a supportive friend who stands up for others and helps them when they are feeling low. And that is one of the most key parts of what makes her such a likable and amazing character. Some of those traits can be described as caring and nurturing and endlessly supportive and putting others first all in a way that would fit into various harmful tropes.
But those are the traits that make her so beloved. In fact, many of her other more stereotypical traits are part of what make her so likable. She has moments of outward aggression more frequently than other characters, thus being an "Angry Black Woman", but that is often due to reasons that the audience can sympathize with. It can even be cathartic to see her be unafraid to openly yell at people who honestly deserve it, and even more so when she just straight up beats the crap out of characters like Heather. We respect her for it.
She is sassy, but again, she is mostly sassy towards characters who deserve it, and at the end of the day, people just straight up like sassy and snarky characters a lot of the time. I mean, Noah is a fan favorite. Heck, he's my favorite (besides Leshawna, obviously).
She could be seen as a "sassy loyal Black bestie" to Gwen and other characters, but the fact that she is such a good friend is one of her best qualities and is actually one of her biggest advantages, because people become loyal to her in turn.
To put it simply, you cannot easily take away many of Leshawna's stereotypical traits, because the combination of those traits are not only key elements of her character, but they are a major reason why she is such a well written and likable character.
It is practically impossible to make her "not fit into ANY stereotypical tropes." I guess the only ways you can change about her in terms of stereotypical-ness is through the role she plays in the story rather than who she is as a character. You can give her the spotlight and insecurities and an arc.
You cannot change her core. You just need to change the presentation of that core.
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Just so random food for though, lol
(Small edit I would like to add since I didn’t clarify this in the main post: The main point I make throughout this post is that you cannot write Leshawna accurately without keeping many of her most stereotypical traits because they are essential to her core and even likability as a character. However, I would also like to clarify that I do not think this is a good thing. One of my main points that I wanted to make in this post is that that is the main reason she can be so frustrating to write.
i don’t like writing stereotypical characters, but in order to write her in a way that isn’t OOC and/or doesn’t lose what makes her memorable, she will always need to end up fitting into at least one stereotype. Because her core as a character is made up of tropes.
And as a half-Black writer who wants to write nuanced Black characters, that’s really fucking annoying)
