Hester is
pretty what the hell.You know what? No.
I'm sorry, but this
grates. It is a personal peeve of mine and I'm not arguing that anyone else should feel the same way, but when an integral part of a character's physical and mental landscape is the fact that they're disfigured and ugly, then I expect them to be depicted as such. The fact that Hollywood seems unable to divorce the 'hero' concept from the 'looks pretty, maybe a bit rugged' concept is pissing me off, perhaps more than it should. When the character goes 'but I am ugly and people are horrified and that has made me bitter and angry', the audience's response should
not be 'why is everyone horrified, she looks so badass', the audience's response should be
the exact same horror that has led the character to be bitter and angry at others.
What makes it even worse is that Philip Reeve actually discusses this matter in the books, when Hester watches a play based on her life and the lead actor has this teeny cute scar and it
pisses Hester off. It's like Reeve saw the future and snarked about it pre-emptively.