Awesome Female Characters

[sulwen]

I felt the need to make a post about this, since I just had a bit of a wank-fest about my dislike for my gender in general and feminism in particular. Must restore some semblance of balance to the universe!



Phèdre nó Delaunay - the Kushiel's Legacy series



Phèdre is my favorite female character ever, period. She's made of awesome. She's all the things that usually draw me to male characters: intelligent, competent, realistic, and fully developed. She's also a prostitute (for parts of the series) and a born masochist (for the duration). She strikes a lovely balance between romance, motherhood, and adventure. She spends much of the first trilogy being dominated by both men and women (usually willingly), and yet manages through luck and skill to come out on top in the end. I love her to death. I want to be her.

River Tam - Firefly/Serenity



River is crazy awesome. Literally. I love her because she's brilliant, because she kicks total ass, and most of all because she's herself. She puts up no facade, no false face, no shield. She is who she is. She's wonderfully weird. She's also incredibly insightful, which I love. Did I mention kicking total ass? Yeah. Rock on, River.

Also, I totally have a girlcrush on Summer Glau. She's so tiny - I just want to cuddle her.

Kaylee Frye - Firefly/Serenity



Kaylee is sweet and adorable. However, she's also really incredibly smart and great at what she does (noticing a pattern here?). I love that she's girly without being a total waste of space.

Buffy Summers - BtVS



Yeah, I love me some Buffy. You really do have to love a character to watch seven seasons of a show that centers around them, no matter how hot the supporting cast may be. Buffy is just ridiculously competent - kudos for that. She's also quick-witted and wonderfully sarcastic, definite signs of intelligence. But probably my favorite thing about her is how well her character is developed. I loved watching her grow and change through the years. I also love how we get to see all the sides of her - she's not just the "strong woman," nor is she just the "damsel in distress." She's both, and more besides.

Willow Rosenburg - BtVS



Last Joss character, I promise! He's just good at this, ok? Now, I never really disliked Willow like some people did, but I am partial to early-season Willow, the terrible dresser and complete nerd that she was. Yeah. That's me, only I'm less cute. Again, big on the intelligence, big on the competence, big on the honesty - no pretense here. Love it.

Wendy Darling - Peter Pan



I'll admit it freely - I wanted to be Wendy when I was little, and I still do. She's just amazing. She's a storyteller, which I LOVE, and she's absolutely ready to take on the world. I also love how she's a little bit of everything - a mother, a child, a woman, a fighter, a sister, an adventurer. For such a short novel, she's brilliantly developed. I love that she's charmed by Hook, seeing deeper into him than any of the other character seem to - save for maybe Peter, but that doesn't count as he wouldn't remember it anyway.

Ellen Harvelle - Supernatural



To those who say fandom hates all the women on SPN, here's part of my answer to you. I loved Ellen, thought she was tough and smart and awesome, and I wish she hadn't disappeared. She really had the potential to be just as sweet as Bobby.

Mary Winchester - Supernatural





Yep. Part two of SPN Women I Don't Hate. Actually, I really don't mind most of the others, I just don't particularly care about them either...but that's another discussion. Mary's been in three episodes (I think), and I loved her in all of them, short though some of those appearances may have been. I love the twist they threw at us in "In the Beginning," showing Mary to have been the hunter originally rather than John. She's very cool. I love how she knows that she should let John die rather than give the demon what he wants, but she simply can't. I sympathize - I would do just the same thing in her position.

Allison Cameron - House, MD



You know what I'm going to say. Brilliant. Competent. Also, I love her because she's attracted to House. The girl gets it. However, I did like her much better as a brunette. I wish she'd change her hair back.

Lisa Cuddy - House, MD



You know the words! Intelligent and competent. She can also go toe-to-toe with House, which is just fantastic. Possibly the best thing about her, though, is that she enjoys it. You know she does.

Hermione Granger - Harry Potter



A note, though - only book-Hermione. I think that movie-Hermione has just been mangled. I'm just going to keep repeating it, people. Brilliant + competent = loving it! However, she does have regrettable taste in friends - I hate Harry and Ron.

Haruhi Fujioka - Ouran High School Host Club





My very, very, very favorite thing about Haruhi - she doesn't let her gender define her. In fact, she doesn't really care about it at all. I really get where she's coming from. I can count on one hand the times I've made a decision about something based on my gender (aside from the obvious physical differences, of course). Just a fantastic character.





And probably my most hated female character ever:

Lana Lang - Smallville



Lana is absolutely the definition of terrible female character. She's presented as smart, but she shows no evidence of this at any point. Every male character falls in love with her. She's constantly needing rescuing because she can't do a damn thing for herself. She likes to take up time with long, pointless conversations about her feelings. She's very poorly developed, and I don't think the writers even gave her a personality to show. I HATE HER AND WANT HER TO DIE A PAINFUL, PAINFUL DEATH.



So have I made my point? Some women are awesome. They have to have a few key qualities, which sadly seem to be very rare, but that's all.

There. *balance restored*