Furiosa

Character
Name:	Furiosa
Occupation:
Relationships:
Fandom:	Mad Max: Fury Road
Other:
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Furiosa is a main character in 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road. Due to her importance in the plot and action of the movie, some fans consider her, and not Max Rockatansky, to be the film's protagonist.

In Canon

Originally one of The Vuvalini, a community that lived in a lush environment called the Green Place, Furiosa was "stolen" as a child and forced to live under Immortan Joe in his Citadel. At some point she was enslaved as one of his Wives before joining his War Boy army. Furiosa becomes an imperator, a high-ranking general, and with this power frees the other women who Joe had imprisoned.

Physically strong, despite her handicap, Furiosa is able to overpower most of the enemies in her way and eventually faces and kills Joe.

Feminism

Furiosa isn’t the female action hero we’re used to. Furiosa doesn’t have a dad who taught her boxing or five brothers who taught her how to fix cars. Furiosa wasn’t a tomboy growing up, who preferred to play with the boys. Furiosa isn’t avenging the murder of her husband/brother/father or hunting down a rapist.

Furiosa comes from a community of women. She was raised by women. She works her way up through enemy ranks until she’s in a position to rescue women. Furiosa is here for women, she is here with women, and she is here because of women. Her rage, her ruthlessness, her courage – these are all things she learned from women, and from being a woman.

Furiosa’s popularity shows how starved we are for images of women who are actually powerful and physical in the same ways that men get to be in blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster. It’s not that all the images of women in action have to look like this–it’s just that we hardly ever see a female fighter who looks this way. Furiosa reminds us that there is so much more out there than we’re getting in terms of what women can do and look like on screen.

She’s the hero of the show, the warrior queen, the one with the grit and fortitude to bust out five women from prison and go riding off into the desert in search of a hazy half-memory of a place. She is the one who must ultimately make the decision whether to ride across the desert or to turn back and fight Immortan Joe. All Max can do is suggest it. The entire agency of this entire film rests entirely in her hands.

And it’s that agency that really makes this such a fine film for me, and one I’d call feminist waaaaay before I’d call something like Jupiter Ascending feminist. Because the entire story isn’t about things that happen to Furiosa. It’s about what Furiosa does with what has happened to her. I have heard all sorts of ideas about Furiosa’s back story, but listen – Furiosa is in this because she, too, needs redemption. She has propped up this guy’s patriarchy her whole life. She was been complicit in letting these other women act as breeders, a fate that for whatever reason she was able to avoid – whether because she could not get pregnant or because she was just too valuable as an imperator, or both. And in taking on the role she did, she was part of the problem. She upheld Immortan Joe’s rule. It was time for her to earn her redemption. She drives this narrative hard and fast, and nothing happens without her having to make a decision about it. She’s in charge of her own story.

In Fandom

Ships

• Furiosa/Max
• Furiosa/Valkyrie

Fanworks

Fanart

• Furiosa by CaityHallArt
• We Can Do It (Furiously) by hugohugo
• Furiosa - MAD MAX by RodrigoICO
• Furiosa study by obywatelsowa
• Imperator Furiosa by linxo
• Valhalla by RalphNiese
• Art Nouveau Furiosa by Helen Mask

Fanfic

• Fire and Blood by lufthexe

See also

• Furiosa Test

Archives & Resources

• Furiosa (Mad Max) tag on the Ao3
• Wikipedia:Imperator Furiosa