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First Published: July 8, 2025 Paul W. Romero
Preface: This was originally written on December 6, 2022 for a discussion for my MFA program.
Sarah Connor is one of my favorite characters. What makes her so compelling is seeing her as not the typical action hero (at least not for her time). She was this young innocent girl going up against a massive killing machine from another time. Kyle Reese said it best in his exchange with her around the midpoint of the movie, “It [the Terminator] can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop ever until you are dead” (TERMINATOR UNIVERSE 1:40 – 1:56).
First introduced in The Terminator, her opening scene shows her as an average young girl on her way to work. She is a waitress with an ordinary life, dealing with the chaos of customer service. Throughout the first part of the film, she is the typical damsel in distress who Kyle Reese, the main hero, comes to save from the villain, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
As we move into the sequel to the franchise, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, we see the growth of Sarah Connor’s character. What makes her unique is that she’s a flawed character suffering from the PTSD of surviving the first Terminator sent to kill her. She gave birth to an only son, John Connor, who doesn’t have the best relationship with her. She doesn’t know how to express her love to him with the trauma she continues to face. She shows him love, by ensuring that he survives not only for her but for humanity.
It’s a messed-up relationship and that’s one of the many characteristics that makes her unique and intriguing. On top of that she becomes a complete bad*** having defeated one Terminator, she is clever, resourceful, and courageous in life-or-death situations.
She is a female character who never once has to remind the audience that she is a female character. This is the essence of writing a strong character who also happens to be female. This is what makes her resonate more with audiences in my opinion.
What I love about Sarah Connor’s character arc is that she defies conventional female tropes as she goes from the damsel in distress to the hero at the end. When her savior, Kyle Reese, is killed by the Terminator, she is alone to defend herself and she succeeds (a character arc similarly found in Ellen Ripley’s character from Alien). When we first see her as a waitress, she is all over the place, polite and a pushover. By the end, she destroys an unstoppable killing machine.
Characterization is vital to storytelling because it makes the reader care about the story. If the reader doesn’t feel fully engaged with the characters, then the story risks becoming dull and forgettable. Characterization makes the fictional world more believable and creates a far more immersive reading experience for the reader.
When fans go to events to celebrate their favorite works of fiction, they don’t gather to discuss specific events as much as they do the characters that lived the events. Author and BookTuber, Abbie Emmons states, “…Guess what, your plot doesn’t matter, only your characters do” (Emmons 0:36 – 0:39). Emmons also states, “Story is not about what happens it’s about how what happens affects and transforms the characters. This is the backbone of story. This is the foundation. It’s the life blood: characters. How they affect the plot and how they change as a result of their journey (Emmons 1:54 – 2:13).
Works Cited:
Emmons, Abbie. “Your book’s plot DOESN’T MATTER!!” YouTube, uploaded by Abbie Emmons, 05 Sept. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE4aOrnTD8c&list=PLV6pMftb_QTmu8v1NALV8chfJyZGLxX9o&index=1
“The Terminator 1984 ‘That Terminator is out there’ HD Clip 11 23.” YouTube, uploaded by TERMINATOR UNIVERSE, 11 Nov. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ntksk9SpPs
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Paul W Romero 