The reason I brought up those examples is to show how the writers, instead of giving the characters their own sense of identity and character, end up making the female the typical love interest character which is ALWAYS downright boring and predictable.
I'm not really talking about the "actions" of the character here or whether they have some major fights since neither Nami or Winry are fighters. The difference is that Winry has ALWAYS been that annoying one-note love interest character who ONLY exist in the series to give Edward and Scar's conflict some personal weight. But even without Winry, think about FMA's female cast. Notice how they have strict stereotypical roles that restrict character writing. Armstrong's sister is supposedly this great leader that people will follow but there is literally no real exploration or moments given to that. Instead, it's just a cheap "SHE STRONG" that the writer consistently beats over your head. Strong female fighter doesn't make for a good or great character. It can be part of the character amongst other aspects but simply that aspect alone doesn't make for good female characters. Otherwise, FT would be one of the finest examples of female fights were the only thing that you needed to make interesting and diverse female characters.
If you have seen ANY Hayao Miyazaki films then I think you might understand my point.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
@Robby:
Winry had a ton of personal agency and contributed to the story constantly. She was't a fighter, and that wasn't her role, and it never was. She didn't go from a fighter to a sideliner…. she went from an emotional support and a mechanic, to.... an emotional support and a mechanic. There's no betrayal of her character there. Other girls WERE fighters though, and they fought plenty. Hawkeye and Armstrong and Mei are all fighters and got constant chances to show it. Plus one of the main villains was Lust.
None of them are interesting characters though. They are different in terms of "concept" or idea but the approach is still the same. They are all stereotypical one-note characters. They don't have much of a personality, identity or their own stories. They aren't interesting characters that I personally would like to see or learn about because there isn't much thought.
Nami didn't fight in Arlong Park arc yet her character, her behavior, her backstory, and the general story was interesting, emotional and had weight to it. Whereas Winry also didn't fight but her character was never interesting so even giving her fights wouldn't have made the character any less piss poor. Hell Winry and Nami even have similar types of stories except Winry lacks any real sort of impact and weight to it.
I only brought up FMA because it's written by a female writer, who more than any male writer, could've created multifaceted female characters with their own individual stuff and broken established cliches.
This ignores that Nami's boobs keep getting bigger and bigger and her current default outfit style is a bikini with low drooping pants.
Or that in the first part of the series Nami got plenty of action. She wasn't a monster in East Blue and the early grandline, but she held her own, got fights, was crucial to winning some, got a 1 on 1 fight against a tough opponent in Alabasta and Water 7. Robin easily manhandled Pell and fought Yama and went for the kill on guys like Moria and Crocodile and Spandam.
But post time skip? For the last ten years? Not a single named fight for either of them. A little bit of assisting, but no spotlight. Even during the Fishman Island entire crew showcase Nami got… three fodder guys. After Luffy had taken out 50,000.
I'm not really denying any of that. Nor am I saying that Oda doesn't have sexist views and the series doesn't have sexist outlook. It's been discussed to death and I agree with most of it.
It's easily One Piece's greatest weakness. And you would think that Oda might question his own views given that the dude has daughters.
My point is also that Oda, while being bad at creating a diverse female cast, STILL has managed to avoid the worst shonen female trope which is to simply make them love interest and have girls talk about the boys while the male characters have a crap ton of other stuff going on personal or otherwise.
