Red Sonja

From wikipedia, underlining mine.

In this story, Red Sonja lived with her family in a humble house in the Western Hyrkanian steppes (modern Ukraine/Russia). When she had just turned 17 years old, a group of mercenaries killed her family and burned down their house. Sonja survived but she had been brutally raped by the leader of the group, leaving her in shame. Answering her cry for revenge, the red goddess Scathach appeared to her, and instilled in her incredible skill in the handling of swords and other weapons on the condition that she would never lie with a man unless he defeated her in fair combat.

So, this character has always interested me, though I've never stayed interested for long in anything about her.  At least partly because I look at her outfit and cringe in an "OMG THAT HAS TO HURT!" way.

Anyway, I have two schools of thought on the character.

1)  Though not the first of the sort, she probably has a lot to do with action heroines becoming more prominent.  Even more, with action heroines who could actually beat the guys and save themselves, not girls with swords who weren't actually much good.

2)  Also even though she wasn't the first of the sort, she's a very well known contributor to the "a strong woman will be raped for invading a man's world, or she had to be raped to become strong" trope.  

With Red Sonja, the trope is taken even farther by saying she'll only ever be with a man who can defeat her in battle.  In other words, she'll only have sex with a man who recreates the most traumatic event in her life, to at least some degree.

Interestingly, from wikipedia's page, this is an aspect of her character that became more and more exaggerated  in terms of how her strength was tied into sexuality and sexual trauma (look at the "possible prototypes" section of the wikipedia page...from woman fleeing abusive father who learns to fight to a skilled but temperamental swordswoman to the version above) with each incarnation, with the best known version being the one defined by sexual trauma that resulted in her being gifted with skills by a goddess.

Wikipedia page.
TVTropes page.
scans_daily's tag with various comic book versions.

So, opinions?  Given the context of when she was created(Robert Howard's Red Sonya appeared in 1934, with the better known version-with the spelling change-appearing in comics in 1973) and female character types at the time, do you think she helps or hurts the portrayal of the "strong female character" as a warrior archetype?  As she remains a relative constant in comic books, and I think even has a new movie in the works, should these parts of the character remain the same, or change with the times (or revert to the original, less known versions)? 

ETA:  Ran out of time before work.

One of the things I've noticed is that while most people don't seem to know many details about the character off the top of their heads, she's one of those where there's a "vague cultural awareness."   A character people can't remember much about, but who they know is one of the old fantasy heroines with a sword, or Conan's girlfriend with the metal bikini.  Even though people may not always be aware of it, there seems to be some automatic connection to something like the "idea" of Red Sonja when people think of fantasy heroines and swordswomen.

Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle

1837, teen twin witches, a missing governess, an Evil Plot, and a handsome neighbor smouldering “I like you! Let’s get married!” at a clueless bookworm. I’m so happy such things are difficult for me to resist.

Persephone and Penelope are 17 and getting ready for their London debut. Since they’re the first females born to their father’s family in a couple hundred years, and twins at that, their scholarly father wanted to give them Extra Speshul names to celebrate. Their much wiser and more practical (and awesome in a “There must be a prequel!” way) mother, who happens to be saddled with the name Parthenope herself, tries to save them from this fate, but doesn’t quite succeed. I like to think her objections curbed the extravagance a bit, though. Also running in their father’s family, and only for females, is the ability to use magic. Fortunately, their governess, Miss Allardyce, is a witch herself (this stroke of convenience does get explained well, btw) and teaches them to use and hide their powers.

But then, just as the girls are ready to go to London for their first season, Miss Allardyce disappears, leaving a note saying she has to take care of a sick relative. The twins, though, think something’s wrong, and are determined to find out what really happened. Reappearing in their lives is Lochinvar Seton, their neighbor who has been away at school for years, and who Persy has always had a crush on, but who she’s also determined could never like her back.

Persy and Pen very much fall into the typical twins dichotomy: Persy is shy and studious and (she thinks) socially awkward, convinced no one could ever be interested in her. She hopes everyone will pay attention to Pen and not notice her, and would rather not go to London at all and just stay home and study magic. Pen, of course, is bright and outgoing and can’t wait for her London season. It doesn’t however, ever really feel like the well path with them, because they’re so well characterized and their relationship so well done. This, actually, is true of much of the book.

And the romance! You know, I have this thing about UST in fiction (and no, I’m not talking about the “this means UST” that fandom is so fond of, but rather when authors choose to use that route in their romances.) In theory, I like UST as a storytelling device, especially in terms of one person projecting it and the other not quite getting what's being sent their way, but so often (not always, just often) it feels like authors are going “Look! Look! UST! Do you see it?!?” and I get irritated. Reading YA this year, though, I’ve noticed that the genre tends to be really good at it. While the UST between Lochinvar and Persy isn’t quite as good as that in Crown Duel, it’s pretty high up there, with Lochinvar spending the whole book sending “You! I like you! Let’s get married!” at Persy, while Persy, despite her huge crush on him, studiously not noticing and even trying to avoid him (why on that in a moment) convinced that he could never really like her because she’s not the kind of girl guys like, while Pen is. Which, of course, makes her fearful that Lochinvar and Pen do like each other.

Again, fairly normal tropes, but done so well that I don’t feel like I’m reading the same thing yet again. Pen, for her part, does like Lochinvar just fine, and is really all for his joining the family. Just not as her husband, and she spends a good chunk of the book clearly repressing her desire to shake her clueless sister.

( mild spoilers for two subplots: one I liked and one I didn't )