Willie Scott

Wilhelmina "Willie" Scott is a central character in the second Indiana Jones film, mh:greatestmovies:Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. She's an American singer working at Club Obi Wan in Shanghai who accompanies Henry Jones Jr. and Short Round on his journey.

Why She's The Worst Damsel In Distress Ever

 * 1) Unlike other female leads from the Indiana Jones franchise such as Marion Ravenwood from the first movie and Elsa Schneider from the third movie, she contributes nothing to the story, and doesn't help Indy in any way whatsoever, meaning that she serves absolutely no purpose in the film aside being Indy's love interest. You could replace her and it wouldn't make a difference.
 * 2) *Because of that, she serves more of a plot device than a character.
 * 3) *She is also the only female lead whom is reluctant to go on the adventure with Indy, hence proving why she and Indy are not right for each other as a romantic couple. And given that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark set in 1935, one year before the events of the first film, it can be clearly concluded that she and Indy had broken up in-between the events of both films, which proves this point further.
 * 4) She screams way too often and way too high-pitched, enough to make other similar "screaming damsels" from previous films like Ann Darrow from King Kong (1933) seem more tolerable in comparison. There's also her constant crying and whining.
 * 5) *In fact, she screams for a grand total of 71 times throughout the movie.
 * 6) She is incredibly immature, annoying and won’t shut up every minute she's onscreen, even more so than Short Round.
 * 7) She has little to no character development.
 * 8) She could barely even survive in the outside world for one bit, including even the worst odors of animals. Like how she applied perfume on the elephant she's riding on, which consequently irritated the elephant she riding on that it threw her off into the river in retaliation.
 * 9) She is a spoiled brat, as she always whines and throws fits whenever something doesn’t go her way, like when she threw a massive strop on how she hated being outside when an elephant threw her into the river even though it was her own fault to begin with.
 * 10) She constantly get kidnapped by various enemies and is pretty helpless whenever she's captured.
 * 11) Another thing, is that she's not very good with priorities. During the scene where a firefight had erupted in a large crowded room with you right in the middle, she chose focus on chasing down a large diamond instead of getting to safety. Plus she ended up in a car that was being shot but she chose to obsess over the fact that she chipped one of her nails.
 * 12) *On that topic, in one scene, she even complains about losing her voice from screaming way too much which is harmful for her singing career, even though in many instances throughout the movie maintaining the quality of her voice isn't really that important compared to getting to safety due to how dangerous they really are, not helping is how she screams way too frequently throughout the entire film despite herself knowing how that her incessant screaming will clearly damage her vocal chords.
 * 13) During the scene where she is about to be sacrificed by Mola Ram, how she managed to survive from getting killed in the lava made absolutely zero sense, even for Indiana Jones standards, as in real life she would've died due to all that lava heat since she was close to hitting the target, though the only presumed reason why she survived in the film is because she is Indy's love interest.
 * 14) Most of her dialogue is very stupid and laughable, such as her infamous "I burned by fingers and I cracked a nail!" line.
 * 15) She gets rewarded as being Indy's romantic love interest, even though she's done nothing to actually deserve it. Marion Ravenwood from the first movie and Elsa Schneider from the third movie had at least shown to be strong developed characters.
 * 16) Kate Capshaw also did a rather poor job portraying the character as well, mainly due to her non-stop screaming and her cartoonish over-the-top acting ability which is mainly intended for the Willie Scott character to serve as comic relief in the film but failed miserably due to how annoying her character comes off to be.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Despite her poor portrayal, it can be argued that she is pretty attractive, much like Indiana Jones' other love interests.
 * 2) Her reactions towards various perils she goes through is understandable to some audiences, as she basically represents what a normal person would've felt experiencing all the exact same dangerous adventures she had with Indiana Jones.
 * 3) Her reactions during the infamous Indian palace dinner scene are funny.
 * 4) Despite her irritable nature, she does have a motive for her selfish and conceited manners: she was born in poverty and her beloved grandfather died penniless despite bringing happiness everywhere as a stage magician, hence why she desires to be successful.
 * 5) Near the end of the film, she develops some minor forms of courage such as throwing rocks and punching a thugee off an active speeding minecart by the film's climax, though that isn't saying much.

Trivia

 * Willie Scott's full forename as Wilhelmina is both a nod to the Wilhelm scream, the stock sound effect used in all four theatrical Indiana Jones films, and the character's piercing cries.
 * During production of the film, Kate Capshaw had to be taught how to scream to a satisfactory level for the character by the filmmakers.
 * Kate Capshaw admitted to have regretted portraying Willie, having called her character "not much more than a dumb screaming blonde."