Why does this include individual girls with guns?: Girls With Guns

If I'm understanding things correctly this trope is supposed to be about a genre not just any female character who uses a gun. Don't we have The Gunslinger for those cases?

You're right, but I think the Elephant in the Room for the trope is that it isn't necessarily any different than the ISO Standard Action Movie, except that it makes the distressed damsel the hero and the men the side-characters (well, hopefully), all in the name of Fanservice.

I would say we should just clean up the examples, but I don't know whether the trope should expand or not to meet the above definition, or stick with its status as a (presumably) well-defined genre...

Edit: I can't believe Action Movie is a red link...

edited 21st Aug '11 12:01:40 PM by USAF713

Well, Girls with Guns has a individual section on it. Maybe there could a trope like Girl With a Gun for single characters who are female and The Gunslinger and Girls with Guns could be renamed "Girls with Guns Genre"? Then again, Girl With A Gun sounds like The Gunslinger...but female!

Some sort of split with an "Armed Fanservice" for the individuals?

That was my idea, make this and similar tropes (like Hot Chick with a Sword) fanservice tropes. It didn't really catch on in the Hot Chick with a Sword thread, though.

Girls with Guns is a genre, it should not list characters from works that don't fit.

Then I suggest changing it to Girls with Guns Genre and putting the individual section into The Gunslinger.

Also, Armed Fanservice implies that it is being played for Fanservice and Fetish Fuel. I'm sure it could but it depends on how each individual is portrayed. For example, if a girl is shooting the bad guys because she's The Hero or something, then it is probably just the story (though someone will probably find it Fetish Fuel). But if the girl is using guns to cover up her naughty bits while orgasming over killing the bad guys then she is probably "Armed Fanservice" in my opinion, as she is being played obviously for both Fetish Fuel and Fanservice. Okay, that last one was an extreme example but you all know what I mean by this. ...Damn in that last one she also sounds like a Heroic Sociopath...but I'm getting off-topic.

I argue the other way. Girls With Guns is about individual females with guns and isnt a genre. I know the description implies the other way. Thats because the description is wrong. Since when has 'Action flick with a female lead who uses guns' ever been its own subgenre? Rewrite the description and leave the examples.

Is it possible it's a style? I could argue it's a style like how some people say Film Noir is a style, not genre, since it can be applied to so many things from romance to steampunk.

It's a style of action movie: Girl has gun. Girl kicks ass. Various elements can but do not always come into play like fanservice or gorn (but usually not to the heroine) or whatever.

i'm shocked that this is a article at all, Do we have a Boys With Guns page? Why are the genders separated from everything? Serious question. Also if its fans service do you consider those heroic blood shed films with chow yun fat fanservice too, but with a handsome male lead? and if they are nobody refers to them as that. seriously people lol

edited 17th Sep '11 4:18:16 PM by TheUrbanPrince

Actually, we're working on a Guys With Gun page. We're just calling it Hollywood Action Hero. The male version tends to be a lot less sexualized and they tend to have different personality types.

The individual character type tends to be towards Small Girl, Big Gun.

Bump, so we are dealing with a genre or character type?

Whatever it is it definitley isn't a genre.

Oh really? Based on what?

I'd say it's a subset of Action Movie With Fanservice type of movie.

More genre than character - there's nothing wrong with the description, this is something that exists. Read the description - yeah, it's a pretty narrow genre, but it's there and so we document it.

Sure, we could have a trope for the characters, but there's no good reason to change this page into that trope.

But this is a little bit like Magical Girl - it is a genre, but it's a genre defined by having a certain character type as the main character.

Yeah there are a few genres and subgenres that are defined by the lead or leads Magical Girl, Magical Girlfriend, Buddy Cop Show etc (and borderline with Unlucky Everydude.) They all come with expected tropes to follow but all come to the centerpoint of the main character and his or her role.

If a side character gets the character type it just isn't the same.

Look, 'Movie or show with Female lead that uses a gun' isn't a genre. That's like saying Hot Chick with a Sword is a genre. It isn't used as a defining stylistic element, it's just ' hey, this chick uses guns and is badass.' It isnt the same thing as say, Revenge Thrillers, or Film Noir, or Magical Girl Anime. Some works just have female gunslingers feature heavily. That isn't what a Genre is.

If the point of the movie is to show chicks with big guns, then that's effectively its genre. And yes, it's a stock type of B-Movie. Spike TV used to feature them regularly when they first got started.

The fact that some people here may not be interested in the genre doesn't mean it's not a genre.

I can think of one movie where the whole point is to have a bunch of women shooting people in stylish ways, that being Sucker Punch. Every other movie I've seen with gunslinging women was just an Action Movie that happened to have gunslinging women in it. And a genre is defined by more than simply its protagonist. There are a lot more tropes that go into the general setting and theme of the work in order for it to be a genre. An action movie with gunslinging women is just an action movie with gunslinging women.

Movies in the genre usually feature a whole bevy of buxom babes. They're usually women united seeking revenge, or members of some elite secret squad. The plot is usually nonsense, since the whole point is to show off hot chicks in camo or cat-suits with big guns. Tropical islands may feature. I think Troma made a few — and those are probably the good ones. Most of them lack even Troma's minimal budgets.

If they don't meet the above description, they're probably not examples.

Sucker Punch, that one where the girl had a machine gun leg, DEBS... It's not a big genre, but it's still very formulaic.

^^ Wouldn't those just be B Movies though?

^ That was Planet Terror. And that had more to it than 'This chick has a gun for a leg!' Also it was hilarious.

Somebody mentioned that Girls with Guns could maybe be seen as a stylistic element, and that's true, I won't argue with that. But a full blown Genre of it's own? I don't think so. I say again, by that logic, Hot Chick with a Sword is a Genre. I can think of at least a few dozen movies that focus on female characters driven by a single goal that use swords.

Hmmm..... now that I think about it, by saying it's a stylistic element, I kinda just shot my own argument that it's about individual characters in the foot. Blast! Foiled by my own counter argument!

Fair enough then, since I've managed to out argue myself, we probably should remove examples of individual Girls with Guns and stick them in their own trope.

It's still not a genre though :p

edited 30th Sep '11 7:27:12 PM by OmegaKross

No, Hot Chick with a Sword isn't a genre, because movies and TV shows don't get made with the main point of showing hot girls who use guns. If they did, it would be a genre. You may not have seen any of them, or only one or two, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Incidentally, the fact the genre is called "Girls with Guns" doesn't mean that's all that sets them apart, either, it's just the most obvious trait and the easiest one to describe. These girls tend to have certain types of personalities, backstories, motives (as noted, often revenge), etc., and since they're the leads, this affects the plot.

Do note it's a subgenre, naturally, so it's bound to be more narrow than, say, Action Movie. That still doesn't make it not a genre, though.