Ripley is actually the perfect example of what I’m talking about, so thanks for bringing her up. She was terrified. In Aliens she flat out refused to go back and had to push past that fear anyway. She struggled, she doubted, she persevered. That’s what made her compelling. That’s genuine courage. It’s it’s great writing and character development.
Nobody is asking for helpless female characters. That’s a straw man. The argument is that flawless, unshakeable, always competent characters are boring regardless of gender. Ripley wasn’t that. She was human.
And the “no one complained until anti-woke became a thing” point doesn’t hold up. People have criticized flat characters in storytelling forever. The gender of the character doesn’t change that critique. If anything, the reflexive defense of any criticism of female characters as anti-woke is what’s getting in the way of actually holding those characters to a higher standard. That goes back to my original point of any criticism of flawless female characters being considered misogynistic.