that's a good idesa. i, too, evolve my characters as the swtory develops. The main character for the first book in my series is originaqlly very shy and introverted. By the end, however, due to a combination of the efforts of the heroine, and the heroine's parents, he end up heading a rebve;lion against the Kingdom, and therefore against his own father.

Awesome. I can't wait to read some of it. Do you have it posted yet?

unfortunately, no. I'm a paranoid little man who has had stories stolen before. So this one is under strictest lock and key.

Well I have copyright to mine. I am only posting bits here and there. I am sorry to hear that. It is a shame that such pitiful people exist only by stealing from others.

I don't necessarily see Mina as a character to be saved by the men. I kind of see her 'perfect woman' image as more of tool to make the vampire and his type all the more evil.

I've never read that book (is it Dracula?), but what you say about Mina reminds me of a lot of anime, in which a sexy evil man defiles or tries to defile an extremely hot and pure woman regardless of her strength, and in some shows she needs her boyfriend to help her way too often. I'm very careful about the anime and manga I expose myself to, because so much of it is sexist. My point is that work like this is still around and popular in the modern world.

Yeah, it's Dracula. 

Well, basically the idea is to make your villain look like the biggest scumbag you can, while making your hero(ine) look as good as you can. ^^ No better way to do that than to defile/rescue a pretty virgin type.

Dracula is a VERY tough read, but keep in mind that Mina is the ideal woman of VICTORIAN England. The standard has changed somewhat over the past 150 years or so. And in terms of anime being sexist? Ha ha... Welcome to the mind of the Japanese male... That's like saying you think water is wet.

Maybe if you want a really shallow villian yuo do that. I think sympathetic villians where you understand, even if you don't agree with their motivations, are more interesting.

Note that I said easiest, not most effective. Thanks.

True enough... Although I think Dracula is actually deeper than that, particularly in the Movie version. Althoughh, I must agree that such insight is more lacking in the actual book.

And in terms of anime being sexist? Ha ha... Welcome to the mind of the Japanese male... That's like saying you think water is wet.

That makes me sad. :(