The beast from beauty and the beast cartoon imagery Arrived while closing my eyes just now & the idea “you are not a scary person.”

“She didn’t cheat. She’d just been caught up in (life altering) altercations with jealous & envious people. Pity them: your attackers” I’d just been thinking

Final Girl is self-reliant, and any attempts to lean on anybody else for help will usually end in catastrophe; if anything, her relationships will be built on abandoning her loner status in order to help whomever's deemed less capable.

Because Final Girl is aware of something about the darkness of the world, she’s also resourceful. She doesn’t wait to be saved, perhaps because she already figures that no one is coming.

and recognized that the world b@ck there is dangerous. This pain is what allows her to adapt to the terrible circumstances of the new world.

The modern final girl doesn’t demand this level of purity. She does, however, tend to come onto the scene damaged in some way. The final girl is worldly in a way that her peers are not; she has glimpsed behind the curtain of the status quo

Classic Traits of the Final Girl Traditionally, purity was a crucial part of the final girl’s makeup -- she was a virgin, didn’t drink, didn’t do drugs, didn’t take unnecessary risks.

Sometimes, in different words, you want to remind the audience “Hey - this could happen to you, too.”

Sometimes, you want characters who do the correct things yet die anyway. Sometimes you want characters to die suddenly, with no provocation.

'ARSEHOLES LIVE FOREVER'

{how about too stup!d to die: where the punishment is sitting with it in an intermediary state}

Here, character is not TSTL(too stup!d to live {or die}). Your character is home alone and sees on the news that a highly dangerous escaped convict was last seen close to his area. He hears a strange noise downstairs and goes to investigate it.

who are aware that the killer is down there – yet it’s a good kind of screaming, the kind we’re only doing because we’re invested.

For example: Your character is home alone during a storm. The power goes out. He goes down into the basement to flip the breakers. This is a perfectly rational thing to do, even if it will make us scream “don’t go down there, the killer is in the basement!” since we are the only ones

Even if a choice is wrong, it should seem as if it's a good idea to the characters - or, at least, the character should be so oblivious that they have no idea what the trouble is.

, they will tear the reader out of the story.

You can have characters make dumb choices, but if those choices seem unbelievable

Traditionally, purity was a crucial part of the final girl's makeup -- she was a virgin, didn't drink, didn't do drugs, didn't take unnecessary risks. The modern final girl doesn't demand this level of purity.

While the final girl is "always female, usually a virgin, and is the lone survivor of the slasher villain able to confront him by virtue of her purity" (Clover, 1992), the analysis below suggests that in the case of “Scream” the “final girl” subverts these features and triumphs.

The concept evolved from early, often terrified "damsels in distress" to more capable, self-reliant survivors.

Subversion: Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) flips the trope by being popular, sexually active, and a cheerleader while still being the monster-slayer.

The "Death by Sex" Penalty: A staple in 1980s slasher films where characters who have sex are killed soon after, a fate the final girl avoids.

Key tropes include the "death by sex" penalty for the rest and "phallic appropriation" where she utilizes a weapon to fight back.

"Final girl" is a horror film trope coined by Carol J. Clover (1992) for the last surviving woman who confronts the killer. Often intelligent, virginal, or "good," she serves as the "investigating consciousness" who survives by not engaging in vices such as irresponsible drugs or sex.

"Final girl" is a horror film trope coined by Carol J. Clover (1992) for the last surviving woman who confronts the killer. Often intelligent, virginal, or "good," she serves as the "investigating consciousness" who survives by not engaging in vices such as irresponsible drugs or sex.

Synonyms and Related Terms: Survivor Girl Last Woman Standing Final Girl/Survivor

A "final girl" is a trope in horror films—particularly slashers—referring to the last woman alive to confront the killer and survive the movie's events. She is typically characterized as intelligent, watchful, and level-headed, acting as the protagonist who escapes or defeats the antagonist.

Unisex Names: In classic horror, she may be given a more masculine or neutral name such as Sidney, Chris, or Avery.

Confronting the Killer: Instead of merely fleeing, she is often the one to directly face and battle the villain. "Phallic Appropriation": She often takes up a weapon (knife, gun, etc.) to combat the killer, turning the tables on him.

Resourcefulness & Survival: She is the sole or primary survivor who uses her wits and strength to survive the movie, frequently enduring trauma.

Moral Propriety: She is often depicted as the "good" one, staying away from drugs, alcohol, and sex, wh!ch sets her apart from characters who are killed.

Key Characteristics of a Final Girl: Intelligence & Observation: She is smart, observant, and often the first to notice that something is amiss, making her better prepared than her peers.

Key Characteristics of a Final Girl: Intelligence & Observation: She is smart, observant, and often the first to notice that something is amiss, making her better prepared than her peers.

A final girl is the last surviving woman in a horror film, often defined by her intelligence, resourcefulness, and morality—avoiding drugs, alcohol, and sex. She is typically the one to first realize a threat exists and survives by directly confronting the killer, often in a final showdown.

You're definitely a final girl.

The dead cheerleader archetype, then, takes the living cheerleader trope to extreme lengths, carrying out the natural ending for a whoring villain by, in some cases, rendering her psychotic, possessed, or murderous and, in the rest, killing her outright.

jealousy, longing for acceptance, fear of rejection, whorephobia, and fatphobia—then weaponizes it, inflicting even more pain at an extremely vulnerable time in their lives.

While Costas was brunette in real life, she was made to be blonde in the adaptation, played by Tori Spelling. Fictionalized or otherwise, it’s a perfect narrative that metastasizes the anxieties and insecurities of teenage girls—

And of course, there’s Death of a Cheerleader—a film loosely based on the real-life slaying of 15-year-old cheerleader Kirsten Costas. Her murderer was a fellow classmate who tried out for cheerleading because Costas was on the team, only to later stab her to death out of jealousy.

There’s a whole slew of cheerleading slashers from the ‘70s to the early 2000s, including Satan’s Cheerleaders, Cheerleader Camp (also known as Bloody Pom Poms), Head Cheerleader Dead Cheerleader, and Cheerleader Massacre.

MY REACTION TO THIS LAST LINE is who hadn't been respecting these characters in the first place? the movie director? the production team? are we supposed to collectively agree uniformly?

And still, we kill these women because it’s easiest to get rid of someone we never respected in the first place.