30 Days of Hogan's Heroes - Day 2

[belphegor1982]

I’m thrilled to see other people do this - granted, not on LJ (as far as I'm aware) but it's so cool to be able to share :o) If you aren't, please feel free to jump on the bandwagon! And if you're reading this and you're not in the fandom, I seriously love you :o]

Day 2 - Favourite female character.

There are very few recurring female characters: Helga, Hilda, Frau Linkmeyer, Marya and Tiger – and that’s it. Well, my favourite is Tiger, aka Marie-Louise Monet.

The first time we see her, she’s volunteered for the “steal a Tiger tank” mission because she was curious about Hogan and his outfit; the fact that she is here, and not a male agent, rather complicates things and Hogan gets quite short with her. Tiger is a no-nonsense woman, and answers right back every time, in a professional, “we’re-all-in-this-together” way. It’s one of the only times in 168 episodes that the show openly deals with the sexism of the time (the 1940s and, to a lesser extent, the 1960s) while clearly showing Hogan’s “crap, they sent us a woman” reaction as being in the wrong. Hogan falls for her because she’s not afraid of calling him out on his assumption that, because she’s a woman, she’s unfit for this mission and isn’t aware of the danger they’re all in.

Hogan: Do the best you can. We got to get her out of here tonight looking like a German civilian. Some kind of a bulky uniform to carry these blueprints.
Tiger: Colonel, women work as crew on German trains.
Hogan: I don’t care if you put on a kimono and go as Tokyo Rose! Let’s just ad lib the whole thing, huh?
Tiger: Why not? The worst that can happen to you is you get one week in solitary. All I can get is shot! (“Hold That Tiger”)

Tiger is passionate, but not hot-headed. She knows what she wants, and she is the one who kisses Hogan at the end of the episode on the grounds that they probably won’t “see each other again”.

Her portrayal in this episode frankly makes me wish the script writers had known what to do with her, because if you don’t count “Heil Klink” where she has little more than a cameo, the other two episodes featuring her have her be the damsel in distress Hogan and the guys (but especially Hogan) set out to save (“A Tiger Hunt in Paris” and “Operation Tiger”). It’s great to see her again - she's obviously quite scared, but deals with bad situations very well - and to confirm the extent Hogan is willing to go to save her (notably go against direct orders), but she’s not really a character any more so much as a McGuffin (“a motivating element in a story that is used to drive the plot”, dixit TV Tropes) there. I wish the writers had made her out to be more than the girl of the week :-/

Comments

[ivybramble.livejournal.com]

She sounds like an interesting gal. I so *hate* when characters like that get wasted in 'Girl of the Week' roles. (Lily Fortune dammit!)

[belphegor1982.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! The format of the series has a lot to do about it, but still it's a shame. Fortunately, we have fanfiction to develop one-time characters :o)

[ivybramble.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for fanfiction! ;D

[debriswoman]

Quite a feisty lady, then, with a lot more potential than the show allowed.

[belphegor1982.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, and that's what makes it so frustrating. Truth is, I don't know whether her character would be handled better now (the show completely lacked internal continuity and chronology, and scriptwriters are better these days with narrative and character arcs), but she's an interesting character who deserved more than what she got :-/

[debriswoman]

Have you expanded on her role, set things to right, in your fics?

[belphegor1982.livejournal.com]

Not yet, unfortunately :S I've got starters for a story or two that would feature her, but nothing solid in terms of plot. But I haven't lost hope :o)