okay but what about a FEMALE podcast protagonist who whimpers throughout the whole thing and is always on the brink of death and thinks she's a monster for the things she's done and saves so many people and hurts so many people and fucks up and tries again and has so so so many scars. could you be normal about her or would the misogyny prevail
#pls someone recommend me podcasts like this
GLADLY
The one I tagged is The Silt Verses, starring Sister Carpenter who is one of my favorite protagonists in anything EVER. The Silt Verses is fantasy-horror tragedy set in a world where gods are very present, very active, and very hungry. Human sacrifice is what powers this world and all of society is structured around this fact. In this world of gods and laws and sacrifices and late-stage capitalism, Carpenter is a worshipper of an illegal river god, who she has done so many terrible things in the name of, and who she is losing her faith in. Carpenter is a stubborn survivor, grouchy and standoffish and carrying the weight of so much doubt and pride and regret and she CANNOT catch a break—she’s not the whimpering type but everything else fits her to a T and I love her.
Another one that absolutely fits the bill is The Pasithea Powder, a sci-fi space opera about the aftermath of a devastating space war. Captain Sophie Green is now a war hero, and Dr. Jane Gonzalez is now a war criminal, and they used to be best friends, and they are… not anymore. The story starts with Sophie on a “friendship tour” after her planet lost the war and has to make nice (she is very bad at making nice) and Jane in prison (for the Unethical Science she was doing, the horror when it was revealed which led to her planet losing the war). They are also both wrecked and haunted by the death in the war of Sophie’s boyfriend and Jane’s best friend, who is haunting the narrative more than just about anyone ever. Jane and Sophie are both A MESS and unfortunately they are the only ones who seem to notice or care that Jane’s unethical science is still being used and there is another war brewing on the horizon. Politics, aliens, slowburn F/F with the most disaster bisexuals you have ever seen. REALLY good.
Talking about women who whimper and fuck up and go to prison and try so so so hard and are hurt and sad and angry and everything: NICA STAMATIS HOW COULD I FORGET MY GIRL NICA from Greater Boston. Greater Boston doesn’t really have a protagonist—it is joyously and deliberately a great big ensemble cast—but the Stamatis siblings Leon, Nica, and Dimitri are where it all started. It’s a magical realism/slipstream story, a mosaic of people interacting in this strange and alternate Boston, centering around the political campaign for the Red Line subway to secede and become its own underground train city. I love every character, even the awful ones, but if you want a woman who whimpers throughout the whole thing and is always on the brink of death (more metaphorical than literal, but still) and thinks she's a monster for the things she's done and saves so many people and hurts so many people and fucks up and tries again and has so so so many scars (again metaphorical, but oh boy her metaphorical scars) That’s Nica.
Drifting slightly farther from the prompt but women who are complete and total emotional disasters who have decided to bottle that all up until they someday die in space and then it won’t be their problem anymore, I also sing the praises of Nova NoStar from InCo. Nova is an information courier, an InCo, an interstellar messenger/spy-for-hire selling secrets between planets, who lives alone on her spaceship with only her therapy android for company and she is NOT doing her therapy homework Even Slightly. She’s fine. She’s Fine. (She’s not fine.) But when she rescues a boy from getting spaced—a boy who claims to be the prince of a planet that shouldn’t exist—Nova realizes she’s stumbled on the secret of a lifetime. And maybe she might start to make some real friends along the way. She also gets a nasty bloody abdominal gunshot wound along the way and has to let herself get taken care of by her not-yet-exactly-a-friend-but-getting there. if you’re looking for that. Which on this post you probably are.
