When two Action Girls are featured in the same film, invariably the tougher, more competent, more aggressive and less feminine character will die, despite being better equipped for the situation at hand. This can range from appearance (if one woman is wearing sensible shoes, and the other is wearing high heels), personality, or other traits. As with the Trope Namer, the Vasquez has a tendency to be a Twofer Token Minority.
One of the reasons is the belief that the femininity and sex appeal of a female character determines their usefulness as Love Interest or Fanservice or, in the most insulting cases, their reason to bein the story at all. Which often means uncompromisingly Badass females are more disposable. Thus, the Vasquez character may be depicted as a Butch, regardless of the actual attractiveness of the two women. No Guy Wants an Amazon is often the cause of this.
A more charitable explanation would be that there's much more shock value in killing the tough, competent warrior; leaving the less competent one around thus increases suspense, since her survival isn't as assured, especially if Anyone Can Die. It's easier for an audience to feel fear if the Final Girl is less battle savvy and thus more vulnerable — a hardened Vasquez left alone wouldn't be as terrifying. The death of the Vasquez character is thus a form of Worf Effect or Sacrificial Lion. Alternatively, the Vasquez may have been made an honorary man. Alternately, or conjunctively with any of the above charitable explanations, the trope may be justified in that Vasquez is simply much more likely to be doing something that gets her killed, whether or not she's an honorary man as part of the story.
A third option would be: The Vasquez acts like the female equivalent of a gung-ho action guy, who's all brawn and no brain.
Writers will sometimes compensate by making the more attractive woman some sort of mysterious secret agent, thus relegating the Vasquez character to a Mook or Red Shirt by comparison. This may also be a byproduct of filmmakers' insistence that the female lead (who is likely to outlive her supporting cast in an action movie) be significantly more attractive than anyone else.
Compare Bury Your Gays, Faux Action Girl, Final Girl (the weakest and most innocent girl is the only one to live), The Worf Effect, Death By Pragmatism. Overlaps with The World's Expert on Getting Killed, where the most qualified person in the whole cast, male or female, is killed by the Big Bad early, often with humiliating ease. Read more: Cracked.com: 5 Old-Timey Prejudices That Still Show Up in Every Movie
Note: Vasquez is a very common surname of the Basque Ethnicity in Spain and Latin America.
As a Death Trope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
Played with in Shinkon Gattai Godannar!!, where the rather tomboyish action girl Shadow is almost killed by The Virus, BECAUSE she's not feminine.
Countless times, the Gundam protagonists fell in love with female Ace Pilots only to invoke the Love Hurts trope to Earth-shattering levels. This is not always the case.
In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED we have the maternal, long-haired, Murrue Ramius and her stern and short-haired XO Natarle Badguriel. Later on, when Natarle gets her own ship, she and her former commander face off. Guess which one didn't make it to the sequel.
Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still: out of the two female members of Experts of Justice, Yoshi, the blue-skinned, muscular one dies halfway through the series, while the very feminine Ginrei survives to the last episode - and dies too.
In the Halo Legends mini movies, the survival rate of female Spartans is 0%. To be fair, that's the survival rate of almost all Spartans who are not Master Chief Petty Officers.
Death Note has the death of Naomi Misora, the cool Biker BabeFBI agent and the most Badass female character on the show who was literally killed off for being too competent. The author said in an interview that if she hadn't been written out she would have solved the case and the manga would have ended after only three volumes.
Comic Books
In the The Punisher: MAX arc "Man of Stone," the ex-CIA killer O'Brien. She's hot, smart, and highly skilled at violence and mayhem, and her panties get wet whenever Frank is murdering the fuck out of people who deserve it. They have a brutal, joyless whirlwind romance. So she steps on a mine at the end of the story. Then again, if you don't want dying to be on the agenda, you shouldn't be in a Punisher: MAX arc.
Interestingly enough, the trope is inverted in the first Alien film: the easily scared and very feminine ship navigator Lambert gets killed off in the film's latter half (the original shooting script implied that the Xenomorph actually raped her to death), while cynical, butch, chain-smoking Warrant Officer Ripley survives and becomes the lynchpin for the entire franchise.
The Trope Namer is from Aliens, in which the chinup-pulling, smartgun-wielding Colonial Marine Vasquez dies, while the maternal, civilian Ripley lives. Several other female marines also die, but are given less characterization and attention. James Cameron likes his Action Girls, but they apparently need to be acting on maternal instincts.
In Resident Evil the SWAT team member Rain Ocampo (Michelle Rodriguez) becomes a Zombie Infectee a third of the way through, survives almost all the way through the rest of the film, and then dies on a tram a few minutes away from a cure. Blonde, minidress-wearing Alice (Milla Jovovich) becomes the Final Girl. The franchise lasted long enough that they brought her back via cloning for the fifth film, only to die again...twice!
Subverted in Machete: we're meant to think her character dies when she's shot through the eye, but she reappears at the climax of the movie with an Eyepatch of Power.
In The Matrix, the gruff, spikey-headed Switch is killed, but Trinity, the love-interest, lives.
In The Matrix Revolutions, a female character named Charra with a crew-cut, a tanktop, and big ol' biceps is introduced right before the battle against the machines to help out Zee, who is just trying to hold the line until her husband Link shows up. Guess what happens.
In the first film, Dizzy Flores, the QB of the football team and tough marine dies while the feminine starship pilot survives. Interestingly, Dizzy was a man in the novel, but died in the first chapter, so at least she lasted longer than her book counterpart.
The novel avoids the trope by the expedient of simply not having women in the Mobile Infantry (not even in support positions, because it argues that jobs that can be done by civilians should be done by civilians; the MI is there to fight, and every MI takes part in combat). There are plenty of women in the armed forces, but they're all in the Navy (they're explicitly stated to be better pilots than men are).
Applies to the Roughnecks' original Corporal, who gets fried by the gigantic lava-spewing bug before Rico grenades it.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors has Taryn, whose dream powers are having a ridiculously large mohawk and a gang outfit. She doesn't fare as well as the notably more feminine Kristen.
Holly from The Descent is a curious example. While she fits the "least feminine" part of the description, she was an impulsive and reckless amateur who obviously saw herself as an Action Girl but ended up getting herself injured through her carelessness which led to her getting killed off first. In the sequel, which has four Action Girls, Cath the trained cave diver is killed first while Juno and Sarah being average outdoor enthusiasts die last and the cop Rios is left alive.
Carnosaur 2 features a tough female clearly modeled on Vasquez who is killed pretty gruesomely during the finale.
Played straight in Lake Placid 3, where Yancy Butler's character takes down two giant crocodiles with a hunting knife after being both bitten and shot, and then just... lies down and dies.
In 28 Weeks Later, Scarlet is killed by Dom, and that leaves Tammy to take Doyle's rifle and become the new Action Girl.
The Action Girl is the first contestant killed in Slashers, just after she had killed one the eponymous psychos.
In Rambo: First Blood Part II, Co-Bau the machine gun Asian girl is shot dead by Captain Vinh, just after she rescues Rambo.
Inverted in Leviathan which has two women on the team. Ditzy and more feminine Bowman dies (she actually kills herself when she finds out she has the parasite inside her) while the no-nonsense Olympic runner Williams is one of two survivors.
Sue Shiomi has fallen victim to this no less than five times:
In The Streetfighter, she portrays Nachi Shikenbaru, brother of Anti-Villain Junjo. She actually puts up some resistance against Terry Tsurugi when he attacks her brother Gijun for welching on him, as well as the pimps who swarm her after Terry prostitutes her through Mutaguchi. Also, in the end, she winds up coming closer to killing Terry than her brother (or Miss Yang) ever did... and she actually dies trying!
In The Streetfighter's Last Revenge, she portrays Kaho Huo Feng, a defector from Owada's gang and one of three women set up as potential love interests for Terry, the other two being Femme Fatale Aya Owada and her light feminine counterpart, telephone operator Kimiko Nakayama. Guess which two die.
In Golgo 13: Kowloon Assignment, she portrays an undercover policewoman who comes close to busting a drug operation before being killed in a shootout.
In Shogun's Ninja, she's a Chinese martial artist who's killed in a confrontation against Shogun's forces.
In Legend of Eight Samurai, she's one of the eight dog brothers (who in this film is biologically female) who made a living as an assassin before she was discovered to be one of the eight. During the climactic final showdown, she's pitted against snake demon Yonosuke; they kill each other in combat.
Literature
The two main Action Girl characters in the South Seas Treasure Game (Dream Park) are the sexy Acacia and the indefatiguable Mary-Martha. Both acquit themselves well, but only one of them makes it to the end of the Game, and it's not the middle-aged, 4'1" veteran with the battleax.
Inverted in the second sequel, The California Voodoo Game. Mary-Em makes it out alive and with a massive experience boost, while Acacia's character is Killed Off for Real, causing her to go through a Heroic BSOD.
Dayna Jurgens in The Stand is Vasquez. Never send this character alone into a high risk infiltration; they're guaranteed to go out in a blaze of glory.
Played with in the short story Assumption (scroll down) by Desmond Warzel. Belasco proves to be more effective in combat than the men or the unnamed female narrator, and, although she isn't killed, she's the only one seriously injured.
In the Shane Schofield series of novels by Matthew Reilly, there are two women who fit the Vasquez model. First there's Mother (short for motherfucker) who is over six-feet tall, shaven headed and has a bionic leg. Also the ability to kill several men with her bare hands. Then there's Elizabeth 'Fox' Gant, who is slightly more ladylike, but has the short hair and the ass kicking ability. This trope is averted - but not for lack of the universe trying - up until the book Scarecrow, where Gant is beheaded by the asshole of the novel.
In The Two Princesses Of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine, tomboyish older sister Meryl is the one who becomes ill with the Gray Death, while delicate younger sister Addie survives and must carry on Meryl's mission.
While the heroines of Spy High are all Action Girls, it's Jennifer who gets killed off in the third book, with Lori (the most stereotypically feminine) and Cally (the least focused and devoted to her training) surviving. Despite this, Jen's replacement Bex is a bigger Action Girl than any of them.
In the last Animorphs book, Rachel dies while Cassie lives. Sort of more obvious since all the male protagonists are given an ambiguous ending, making Cassie the only one who definitively survived.
Live Action TV
Ana Lucia (played by Michelle Rodriguez)and Juliet on LOST, Kate's only true competition for Alpha Female of the island or the affections of Jack and Sawyer.
Power Rangers RPM features this, as the trigger happy Silver Ranger gets "deleted" in the finale (alongside the Gold Ranger, her equally trigger happy twin brother), while the girlier Yellow Ranger does not. However, the series also has a character named Vasquez who doesn't appear to die. And the Gold and Silver Rangers get brought back quickly anyway.
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy has an inversion. Due to Real Life Writes the Plot issues (the actress had to be written out after she was diagnosed with lukemia), the kind, friendly scientist girl was killed off while the athletic Jungle Princess remained. She was resurrected in the finale though.
Played straight in Star Trek: The Next Generation with Natasha Yar. Notably, the character was originally designed as a Vasquez Expy. In this case it wasn't the writer's idea to kill off the character, but the actor's.
In Choudenshi Bioman, Mika, the more tomboyish and aggressive of the two female Rangers, is killed off in episode 10 (necessary, because her actress had quit) while The Chick, Hikaru, survives. However, Mika's replacement on the team was very much an Action Girl and did many of her own stunts.
If any female character shows signs of being an Action Girl on 24, then you'd better not get too attached to her. In fact, the only recurring female characters to survive to the end of the series were the Voice with an Internet Connection, the president and The Scrappy.
In the fourth series finale of Merlin, Arthur has two women on his team: Guinevere and Isolde. Though their skill in combat varied wildly from episode to episode, Gwen was definitely the more passive and feminine of the two, whilst Isolde was tougher and had a more difficult lifestyle. Gwen makes it through the battle, Isolde is killed.
Inverted in Primeval where tomboy Abby has survived the series while the more feminine Claudia Brown and Sarah Page get killed off.
Roleplay
Dino Attack RPG, there were a number of action girls but among those present in the end the closest to The Vasquez was probably Cabin (who even drew inspiration from Michelle Rodriguez), who was even a Twofer Token Minority (being female and Latino). Averted when she makes it through, albeit developing PTSD later on. Meanwhile the equally tough but slightly more feminine Action Girl Amanda Claw met a rather nasty end. On the other hand the definitely not Action Girl Kate Bishop and Mary Rose also made it through in one piece, at least physically.
Theater
Cafe Nordo's Smoked! has Maddie Withers, a hard-drinking, masculinely dressed Lad-ette, who is gunned down in the final showdown, opposite Clara Still, the prim and proper saloon keeper.
Video Games
In Red Faction 2, the team's sexual-innuendo-dropping stealth operative in a Spy Catsuit not only survives the game, but is your main ally for the 2nd half. The tough redhead sniper with an Amazonian build and butch haircut is the first of The Squad to die.
In Phantasy Star IV, Alys is built up as the best action girl. She is very popular in the game, because of her fighting ability and beauty. However, she ends up dying off early and other action girls later reveal themselves.
Played straight in the Neverwinter Nights mod "The Bastard of Kosigan", in which (as far as the story has been written, at least) the only female character who doesn't disappear after the Optional Sexual Encounter or die automatically is Ernie, who is much more feminine than Alex, whose Plotline Death was very frustrating.
Mass Effect 2: During the game's suicide run, it's far more likely for the tough, angry Jack to die than The Baroness Miranda.
Played with in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. Mhairi will always die, and of the two female companions who can make it to the end, both the tough, dagger-wielding Sigrun and the long-distance mage Velanna can die...but Sigrun is killed in a decisive way, while in Velanna's case, they Never Found the Body.
Inverted in Dragon Age II, where if you make a choice your party members disagree with during the ending and don't have a high enough Friendship or Rivalry score, they will turn against you and force you to kill them... except for Aveline, who merely gives you a brief rant before leaving.
In the first Clock Tower game, playable character Jennifer's friends Ann and Laura have a chance of surviving to the end, depending on your actions. Her best friend, the tomboyish Lotte, has no such chance.
Played straight in The Orion Conspiracy. Brooks, who is definitely the Vasquez in this game, gets killed off trying to stop Ward after he had gone berserk. LaPaz, who is easily more feminine compared to Brooks, survives.
Inverted in Final Fantasy VII, with mysterious waifAerith dying early in the game, while the tough Action Girl Tifa survives all the way through. That being said, a deeper look at their characterization shows that Tifa and Aerith subvert the typical Tomboy and Girly Girl dynamic (Tifa looking the part of the Tomboy, but playing the role of Girly Girl to Aerith's Tomboy). In subsequent installments of the Compilation, however, they mostly swap roles, with Tifa being portrayed as more tomboyish compared to a now girlier Aerith. In a sense, FFVII actually plays around a bit with this convention.
In SAS: Zombie Assault 3 players who aren't logged in are given somewhat degrading names, one of which is Anonymous Vaskes.
Exo Squad almost does this in episode "Martian Luck" where the tough-female-trooper Torres is believed to be KIA while the other two more chick-ish female members of The Squad survive.
Note: Vasquez is a very common surname of the Basque Ethnicity in Spain and Latin America.
