Sadie Adler: Moving Beyond the “Strong Female Lead”
Has the concept of the “strong female lead” been beneficial to representations of women in video games, or does the concept box gaming companies in when it comes to women character stereotypes? In this blog, a gameHER explores the limits of the “strong female lead” trope by comparing the complexity of Sadie Adler from Red Dead Redemption 2 to other female game characters. How can characters like Sadie Adler lead the way when it comes to the future of women characters in video games?
Arthur Morgan & Sadie Adler in Red Dead Redemption 2, screenshot courtesy of Rockstar Games
By Holly Hughes-Rowlands
“Being in a game with an all-male cast but having a strong female lead, what was that like?”
This was the question asked to actress Alex McKenna, who plays Sadie Adler in Red Dead Redemption 2, in a panel at Great Philadelphia Comic Con in 2019. I, having just finished playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time, had just spent the last four hours or so binge-watching every interview I could possibly find. And I found myself slightly annoyed.
Recently, I feel like there has been an increased focus on the idea of the “strong female character,” and what exactly that is, both in video games and wider media. It is a very vague definition, what makes a character “strong” is different depending on who you ask. It’s also a descriptor I have never heard applied to a male character. A strong male character is simply a good character.
To be fair, Sadie is easily my favourite character in Red Dead 2, aside from perhaps Arthur Morgan himself. And I would be lying if I said her being a cool, badass woman in a man’s world has nothing to do with it. Watching her hold her own amongst the men brings some of the best moments of the game. But her being female is only a very small part of what makes her so brilliant.
Many video games seek to create “strong female characters,” and “strong female leads,” but the way in which Rockstar has realized the character of Sadie Adler in Red Dead Redemption 2 shows us where other attempts have fallen short. The question the panellist asked that reduces Sadie to the concept of a “strong female lead” reveals much about where we are in the gaming industry and where we could be going from here.
In the past female characters in video games were often either absent, there to be a love interest or saved by the protagonist, with no real depth to them. Princess Peach is a classic example of the standard for female video game characters – a damsel in distress whom Mario and Luigi need to save.
As part of the modern pushback against these attitudes toward female characters in wider fiction, video games began to see a change in their female characters, and there was an increase in female side characters and (a few) protagonists who played an active part in the action and plot of games, rather than objects to be protected by male characters. Given the focus of media on combat in action films and video games, this essentially meant adding in women that could fight, shoot a gun, and keep up physically with the male characters around them. I think that this is why the idea of the “strong female character” being a woman that can keep up with men in “masculine” activities (i.e. fighting), has become so prominent in fiction today.
Because of the rise of feminism in mainstream culture, and the desire of gaming companies to attract an audience of women looking for and expecting good female characters, we have seen a rise of characters that are so desperate to be feminist they become the opposite. By this I mean characters who have been thrown into games and had so-called “feminist traits” attached to them to attract a certain audience. They have very little depth or thought behind them. Their existence implies that to be strong, female characters need to act more like men. “Look,” you can almost hear the studios shout, “we have a woman who’s strong and can stand up for herself! What more do you want?”
A lot more, as it turns out. As much as I love seeing female characters who can fight just as well as men, I do think the prevalence of this trope across literature, film and video games can have the effect of devaluing female characters who aren’t strong in the traditional masculine sense.
In her study “Violent Female Action Characters in Contemporary American Cinema” Katy Gilbatric, as quoted in Fan Phenomena: Hunger Games by Nicola Balkind, argued:
“The majority of female action characters shown in American cinema are not empowering images, they do not draw on their femininity as a source of power.”
Though she is referring to film, I believe Gilbatric’s statement can be just as easily applied to video game stories, especially in games that are more focused on narrative, such as the Red Dead series, the Dragon Age series, and the Assassin’s Creed series.
The fact that the question at the convention was asked shows that we haven’t improved as much as game companies may think. It suggests that the interviewer saw a female character dressed in male clothes, fighting and acting in a more traditionally masculine way and assumed, “Ah yes, here is the obligatory strong female character.” It implies that female characters are either “strong” and fight like men or are just there as set dressing. Instead of taking the chance to ask for more insight into Sadie’s motivations, or her character arc, as all of the male actors were asked about their characters, the question instead focuses on her fulfilling the role of a “a strong female character.” Rather than being just another member of the Van Der Linde Gang, it makes Sadie the female member of the Van der Linde gang. This label, while technically accurate, comes with the danger of marking her out as different from Hosea, Javier, Charles, Arthur and the rest purely because she is female.
Sadie Adler and the Van Der Linde Gang in Red Dead Redemption 2, screenshot courtesy of Rockstar Games
In complexity, Sadie is no different to any of them. The writing doesn’t view her or any of its female characters solely through their gender, it views them as people affected, hurt, inspired, broken and built by the world that they live in, just as the men are. Sadie is given just as much depth and attention by the narrative as every single one of her male counterparts. She wasn’t just shoved in there for the sake of having a “strong female character” who could fight alongside the men, but rather is an integral and natural part of the story. As the player, you watch as her pain and grief from the loss of her husband hardens and transforms her from a victim who relies on the Van der Linde gang for survival to the person who saves them after the San Denis bank robbery goes so terribly wrong.
Her painful past also feeds into one of her most interesting traits, the extent to which she excels at and more specifically, enjoys violence. Bloodlust is still quite uncommon in female characters, who, if they are violent at all, generally do it because they have to be, often in self-defence, not because they want to be. Sadie very clearly relishes in violence, especially against the gang that killed her husband, the O’Driscolls, and she latches on to it as an outlet for all of her pain and anger. The game goes into depth here too, showing her internal conflict between the desire to hurt those responsible and the knowledge that, as she says to Arthur, “they’ve turned me into a monster.” Her motivations for riding with the gang make sense; the player can understand why she makes the choices she does and why she ended up on a path that differs from what women were expected to do at the time in which the game is set.
These motivations and characteristics are also tied to her identity as a woman living in a time when women did not really have their own voices. Upon the death of her husband and the destruction of her farm, it is likely Sadie felt she had no options to get justice other than chasing it herself as an outlaw. As a woman alone in a time when women were belittled and generally not taken seriously, Sadie realises she cannot trust this society to let her lead her life the way she wants to, which drives her down her path towards being a bounty hunter by the end of the game. This complexity and depth is, in my opinion, what makes her a great character. A great character that happens to be female. The allusions to the real-life female gunslingers of the old West like Laura Bullion and sharpshooters like Annie Oakley are also very visible. There were real women who embarked on journeys just like Sadie’s, and Rockstar took the time to pay homage to these women through their portrayal of Sadie.
To contrast, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (in my opinion) failed at building a complex character with its female protagonist, Kassandra. The Assassin’s Creed series had always been good at telling stories with its games, and although female characters in the series were often few and far between, especially playable characters (which, regardless of what I’m about to say, was an issue when the game first came out, and remains one to this day) the female characters the series had always felt well written to me, shaped by the historical setting of the game, with interesting motivations and personalities. (Examples include Evie Frye, Claudia Auditore and Mary Read). Odyssey however, in response to requests for a full female protagonist, changed things by allowing the player to choose either a male player character (Alexios) or a female player character (Kassandra). The game does not allow the player to create their own character, rather it gives one defined character and a number of different endings. The issue is that Kassandra fails to feel like a character in the same way as say, Sadie Adler or Evie Frye. She has no defined personality traits, and she certainly isn’t a product of her environment or background given that she can, quite literally, be replaced by a man with no changes to personality (there is no real difference between Alexios and Kassandra beyond the aesthetic and the odd throw-away line) or the story. This is not good writing. I want female characters who feel real, who are varied, whose lives and personalities are connected to the fact that they live and identify as female but are not controlled by it. I want female characters who are written as people with all of these things taken into account. What I don’t want is an empty slate that can be replaced by a completely different person and yet nothing changes. In a game that has always been narratively driven, this was not the way to engage the people who wanted a well-written female player character. None of Rockstar’s female characters in Red Dead 2 could be replaced by men because their gender and the attitudes of the time towards their gender have shaped who they are as people.
This leads me to the second thing that annoyed me about that question, which is that is implies Sadie Adler is the only strong female character in the game, which is so far from true it’s almost funny. Red Dead Redemption 2 is full to the brim of interesting and complex female characters, all with their own backstories, plotlines, and motivations. Just within the camp we have tough yet caring Susan Grimshaw, resilient and kind Tilly Jackson, the spirited Karen Jones, sweetheart Mary-Beth Gaskill, and of course the fierce mother Abigail Marston. Moving outside of the camp, it is fascinating to watch Mary Linton move between the pressures of her upper-class family and her love for Arthur. Most of these women live in ways we might consider to be more traditionally feminine for the time in which the game is set, and none of them partake in much fighting or gunplay, but they are all still strong and interesting.
I think the best examples of how Rockstar made Red Dead’s women so wonderful are the missions you do with Charlotte Balfour, a new widow. Arthur teaches Charlotte how to hunt, shoot, and take care of herself in the wild. Charlotte is the opposite of what I earlier described as the “strong female character” stereotype. Not only can she not fight, but she depends on a man, Arthur, to teach her skills. And that’s okay. It’s okay if women need help to achieve things. It doesn’t make them any less complex or interesting. Just like Sadie, Charlotte is a product of her environment. She is upper-class, so of course, she doesn’t know how to hunt. But she wants to learn to honour her late husband and make a new life for herself. And I, a young woman myself, could relate more to her than I could to say, Black Belle or Sadie. The idea being, of course, that a single “strong female character” type does not exist. Women are varied; our characters should be too.
In addition to its brilliant female characters, Red Dead 2 also challenges quite a few old Western stereotypes in its male characters, most specifically Arthur Morgan. Initially, he appears to be a traditional masculine protagonist, tough, stoic, and Clint Eastwood-esque, with very little underneath that exterior. There is, of course, much more to Arthur Morgan than that, including a soft side that comes through in his journal. The player can flick through his worries, thoughts, hopes dreams, and best of all, sketches. Arthur’s journal suggests a man who is, despite what he might think, is deeply reflective, thoughtful, and (as the plot progresses) in touch with his emotions and opinions. Arthur is also given the space to be vulnerable, another trait often absent in male main characters. His conversation with Sister Calderon in which he admits his fear of dying remains one of the game’s best and most heartbreaking moments.
Although many people wanted a romance to develop between Sadie and Arthur, I think her not being a love interest is one of the strongest choices for her character’s story arc. It allows her to stand completely on her own, rather than being defined by her relationship to any one man. In addition to that, her friendship with Arthur – completely platonic from start to end -- is lovely to watch develop throughout the game. They are, as Arthur points out late into the game, somewhat alike, and bounce off each other wonderfully.
An easy counterargument to all this discussion of characterization and plot, of course, that video games are games first and stories second. The plot (if it exists) is there to tie together sections of gameplay. In many games, particularly first-person shooters, a lot of the male characters are underdeveloped and combat-focused. It is my opinion, however, that video games can be incredibly powerful as storytelling devices in how they tie players and main characters together. Red Dead, Assassin’s Creed, GTA, Dragon Age, The Last of Us, and the Uncharted series are just a few examples of games that have genuinely compelling narratives. The same kinds of critiques of movies and books can absolutely be applied to the writing of a video game.
Though other games and stories may focus on a female character’s physical strength or destructive nature in order to chase the ideal of a “strong female character,” in Red Dead Redemption 2 a “strong female character” is just a well written female character, as it should be. And just like women in real life, the women characters in games should be varied. Rockstar is consistently creating deep and relatable characters, regardless of their gender, and their example should be an inspiration to all video game writers seeking to add more women (as player characters and side characters) to their games.
About the Author:
Holly Hughes-Rowlands is a 19-year-old student and writer from the United Kingdom. Her love of gaming began when she was given Pippa Funnell Ranch Rescue on the Wii for her seventh birthday, which she quickly went on to complete several times over. She is now a lover of fantasy and historical fiction, especially in video games, and her current favourites include Assassin’s Creed 2 and anything from the Dragon Age series. She is a firm believer that video games are just as worthy a medium for storytelling as books and films.
Holly is currently taking a gap year and intends to do a degree in History at university. In the meantime, she plans to continue writing about games, books, and as much nerdy stuff as possible.
For more Sadie Adler content, check out an exclusive interview with actor Alex McKenna (who plays Sadie in Red Dead Redemption 2) on The Let’s Play Podcast hosted by Kaili Vernoff, who plays Susan Grimshaw in the same game.
For more blogs on Red Dead Redemption 2, check out:
Looking in the Mirror with Arthur Morgan: A Study in Complexity
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Holly Hughes-Rowlands, photo courtesy of the author
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