Very excited to have Emii on the blog today as part of our celebration of SFR heroines and nerdy girls. In addition to being a recording and performing artist, Emii, with her No More anti-violence campaign and plenty of SF and gamer girl interests, is one pretty awesome geek girl herself. Lets all make her feel welcome!

Why Leeloo is the Ultimate Sci-Fi Heroine

by Emii

I first saw “The Fifth Element” when I was in the 7th grade. And in all seriousness… I wanted to grow up to be Leeloo.

That might sound funny considering she’s a character in a sci fi film, but my thirteen year-old brain saw the epitome of “strong woman” wrapped up in those orange cheese-grated plastic suspenders and that spectacularly orange hair. Aside from the fact that Leeloo was indeed a “Supreme Being” sent to save the world (although hey, aren’t all women? 😛 ), her determination, her intelligence, and her badass martial arts skills just screamed perfection to me. She did everything and anything she could to make sure she wouldn’t fail. And I know, I know… the film itself went to great lengths to describe her specifically as “perfect”, but the awesome-ness of her character was far more than just cleverly scripted brainwashing. Instead of the typical “strong man saves damsel in distress”, it was Leeloo who was sent to protect the world from total annihilation, despite Corbin Dallas’ (Bruce Willis) assumption that he needed to protect her the entire time. Of course, it ended up being quite the team effort, but ultimately without Leeloo everyone would have perished horribly. And the fact that Leeloo was able to remain compassionate, vulnerable, and understandably emotional without playing the helpless victim the whole movie just made her character even more empowering. That being said, Leeloo IS the Ultimate Sci-Fi Heroine!

Additionally, I was so obsessed with this movie in the 7th grade that I learned all of Leeloo’s non-English dialogue. And I STILL remember most of it. How’s that for being inspired?

Be sure to check out her new hit Heart in a Box. She has generously donated a copy of the EP for our giveaway.