Finally, another person who sees Sophie Gray for the Mary Sue she is! It’s not that I strongly dislike her or anything, but her character is extremely overrated and has been hyped up continuously both in series and by fans for the sole purpose that she is Scott Malkinson’s space alien queen love interest. She literally did not do anything particularly remarkable or noteworthy in the episode she appeared in other than show confidence in standing up to the boys and offering to become Scott’s friend, yet fans will still place her on a pedestal simply because she has a fancy design that was intended to be “pretty”. I mean this as no offense to fans who like her by the way. I just don’t think Sophie Gray deserves the hype she has been getting for no reason. She seems almost too perfect at times, as the fact that she managed to win over the affection of 10 other boys besides Scott the very moment she showed up as the new girl seemed unrealistic to me. She almost felt like a badly written self-insert that was created by a fan. I honestly wouldn’t care if she were to never appear again.
I agree for the most part, though I don't really dislike Wendy. Definitely agree about Sophie Gray, though.
If Sophie came back, the only way she would be a good character is if she was ripped on by the girls like the boys did to pip
You know what, I think I’m gonna do this. And despite my ramblings, no it will not be a hate post.
Interesting chart, I agree with a couple, but in my opinion I don't think Bebe and Red are the best girls (I still respect your opinion though).
First, I don't think Bebe is all that good of a character, due to the lack of substance brought to her character. As @Peregrina and @IdkAUsernameIGuess have mentioned before me, the creators seemed to have forgotten about Bebe's likable characterization in "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society" and turned her into a stereotypical popular blonde girl. She's catty, two-faced, and behaves much like a high school popular girl rather than a nine year old. But that's my problem with all the South Park children, a majority of them act unrealistically mature for their age, and for me, part of good writing is characterizing your characters in a manner that is appropriate for their age, but I know a lot of people may disagree with that.
Sorry for getting off-topic, now let's get to Red. I honestly do not really have anything against Red, other than the fact that she's a really underdeveloped character whose pretty hard to rank. But based on all the times where she is characterized, she seems to be no more than a stereotypical popular girl, and like I've mentioned several times before, all the girls seemed to be the same person who act like clones of one another, and that problem doesn't seem to present with the boy characters, as they have been shown to have their own individual personalities.
Finally, someone who agrees with me on Heidi. I never did understand why so many people like her, she's a terribly bland character who didn't add anything to the show. Part of the reason why I hated Cartman and Heidi's relationship, was because Heidi wasn't even a good character. She's a largely two-dimensional and one-note character who only served as a plot device to showcase Cartman's negative traits, not to mention that she's inconsistent from her previous characterization. Prior to season twenty, she hardly had any development, but from the times where she did get characterized, she had a cheeky attitude and had a strong personality. I'm usually down for character development, but it has to be coherent to the story and be gradual, this drastic shift from Heidi's bitchy attitude and having utter disdain for someone like Cartman, to a nice girl who allows herself to be a punching bag totally comes out of nowhere. So yeah, if they ever give Heidi a role again, I think she could certainly use some improvement by actually giving her a personality or adding depth to her character.
While I do believe that Wendy is a middling character, I don't think she's the worst. In earlier seasons, Wendy was mostly only Stan's one-note love interest, but grew to be more. While I do like how they gave Wendy more of a personality, the problem is that the writers can't seem to make up their minds with what kind of direction they want to go with Wendy's character. But I do find her more tolerable than Heidi, because yes, Wendy is a very inconsistent character, but at least she has character, Heidi on the other hand straight-up has zero personality, she's more bland than Craig and Clyde's voices combined (yes I stole this concept from Diesel Patches' "Why I don't like Pokimane" video, but my point is still relevant).
I don't really have much an opinion on Sophie Gray, but like you said she seems like a Mary Sue, and she doesn't really have much to her character other than Scott's love interest and that one girl all the boys want to woo. She also seems like she has no flaws, which is very unrealistic. And it is a shame they killed of Leslie so soon.
So yeah, as I've mentioned multiple times before there is a big problem with the way the female characters are written on the show. I've seen some people say that the female characters are very well-written and accurate, I couldn't disagree more. Those people are basically saying that all girls are the same with inconsistent personalities, and that's just not true. They're still human and just like us guys, we are not all the same. The girls are all one-dimensional and act like clones of one another, and the adult females behave similarly. I have mixed feelings about the main boys' mothers and I'll explain why:
Liane is a very shitty mother who doesn't know how to take care of her son. While she may come off as sweet and humble, she is full of issues herself and seems to have narcissism of her own. For one, she relies on her child for self-approval, and she is way too lenient, as she hardly ever puts her foot down and treats Cartman more like a friend rather than a son. That has to be one of the worst parenting styles imaginable, because Cartman has no positive role models in his life and has no proper or moral guidance, and a crucial part of a child's character and personality is discipline, respect, self-confidence, and humility. Cartman was never taught about right and wrong and was never exposed to positive moral values, and with all that said, I think Liane is definitely to blame for much of Cartman's behavior. But that's not all, she's also extremely promiscuous and does a terrible job at hiding it. She brings all these strange men in the house to have sex with, often when Cartman's present, and considering his young age, that can definitely scar him for life. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe it's been implied that Cartman has been sexually abused, possibly by one of Liane's lovers.
I don't really have a problem with Sharon, but she does come off as a bit one-dimensional, as she has no more to her character other than to stand in with Randy's stupidity. Hell, this very own wiki has no personality written for Sharon, simply because she does not have one.
Sheila is also extremely overprotective, but that does not appear to be as prominent in recent seasons.
Carol barely gets any screen time so it's hard to make any crucial judgements on her character, although she does seem to neglectful.
With all of this said, I don't think any of the female characters are particularly well-written. And one major problem I have with characters, not just in South Park but lots of different media I've seen, is that they let a character's race, gender, sexuality, or religion be their defining trait. They have no layers or substance to their characters other than a couple of traits, and that's not how you properly write for any character, as anything or anyone should have a distinctive personality. I get that the writers are predominantly male, so they may have a harder time writer for girls, but I really don't see the problem. In fact, I know how to solve this problem. Just write a great character who happens to be a girl, bam, problem solved. And as I mentioned above, I really wish the writers can be more accurate with the mannerisms and behaviors of child characters, because they all act like adults in children's bodies, and it's just not fun to watch, for me at least, because don't get me wrong, I'll take storylines with children over the adults any day, but I think it's funnier when the kids actually act their age, because that's what gives them charm. Like @BlackGiro has mentioned, I think South Park would be better if the storylines were driven more by character and more of a mature version of Peanuts, because nowadays a lot of the storylines revolve around current events, and I would like to see some originality.
Those are my thoughts, sorry for mentioning some irrelevant opinions, but since we were talking about female characters I thought that would be appropriate to this discussion.