The best fictional female of all time.

Okay, so this is a project I've been working on for a few months now. Basically, in the lead-up to International Women's Day I'm going to start a blog about the best women in fiction. I started up a poll to see who people thought it should be. Unfortunately, I've hit a bit of a snag. The problem basically boils down to this: I wasn't expecting so many of the women near the top of the list to be ones I knew so little about. Now, I started this thing in August so that I'd have about six months so I could read/watch/play the book/movies/shows/games these people are from, but I'm now realising that won't be enough time. So...time for me to resort to Plan B: asking for people to help write it. What I need is a short write-up of each of the characters on the list. My original aim was for 100, though I'll decrease that if necessary. I will gladly credit your contributions (unless you want to be anonymous). You can view (and vote on) the list here: http://www.ranker.com/list/the-greatest-fictional-female-of-all-time/kierandell1409 Your help will be greatly appreciated.

What are your criteria supposed to be?

You mean for the write-ups? Well, other than obviously being in the top 100, basically just write about why they're so well liked, maybe with a few examples/quotes to that effect. Doesn't have to be too long. Fifty words or so would be plenty.

I'm sure I could help with a bunch of these descriptions, but first I need to know what you want for a "description." Is it about their character traits? How they're written in the scope of the story? Stuff that makes them empowering as female characters?

Also, which characters on this list do you know about? 'Cause it's probably best if the contributors' writeups don't overlap with yours. — Also because I don't want this to be your "lazy" option.

So yeah. If you can help us out with more specifics, that'd be great.

If it helps, the characters I feel confident enough about to write a description include: Buffy, Eowyn, Hermione, Arya, Mc Gonagall, Leia, Daenerys, Galadriel, Mulan, Ygritte, Luna Lovegood, Korra, Amy Pond, Padme, River Song, Faith, Riza Hawkeye, and Molly Weasley.

Also, a couple quick things to note: EVE isn't technically female, being a genderless robot. Laura Ingalls Wilder was a real person who wrote a series of autobiographical books, so doesn't count. "Queenie" is apparently based on Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was a real monarch, which means she wouldn't count.

edited 31st Dec '14 4:25:17 PM by AwSamWeston

The description can be a bit of all of those. Really, just make it a quick rundown of why they're awesome. Feel free to add specific moments or quotes that back up your reasons as well.

I don't mind if there's some overlap in the write-ups. I'll put all of them up if there's more than one. As for the characters I know about, that's a fairly long list. These are the ones just in the top 100 (as of this writing):

Eowyn, Buffy, Hermione, Mc Gonagall, Leia, Galadriel, Mulan, Willow, Alice, Katniss, Mary Poppins, Leela, Jean Grey, Luna, Merida, Susan Pevensie, Lady Macbeth, Arwen, Storm, Lucy Pevensie, Elsa, Leeloo, Holly Short, Tigress, Belle, Rogue, Tonks, Elizabeth Bennet, Padme, Annabeth, Faith, Alice Cullen, Bernadette, Riza, Juliet, Lola, Miss Piggy, Amy Farrah Fowler, Sabriel, Princess Bubblegum, Carly, Tris, Chi-Chi, Molly Weasley, Thalia, Anna, Marceline, Chloe, Beca, Angelina, Snow White, and Annie Cresta.

As I said though, if you want to write something for one (or more) of these, feel free.

Have you got a week? I could write up about half that list if you're interested from Metroid to The Last of Us.

Your area of research here seems...really limited. Like it's all super mainstream videogames, classics and what's popular now. The fact that you have multiple characters from the same series kinda just emphasizes that. Like why in the world is Chichi in this list when there are anime/manga written by women, for women, with far better characters?

=/

edited 1st Jan '15 8:39:32 PM by MrAHR

@ tsstevens: I'm not starting it until late February, so you've got plenty of time.

@ Mr AHR: Honestly, I just led who was popular and had them on the default list, then a bunch of other people added other characters to the list...or are you referring to my own list of characters I know about? Because I can say that I am working my way through several of the characters as quickly as I can. I'm three seasons into the X Files, and have borrowed the fourth from the library. Same goes for the first half of the first season of Xena. I own Firefly and the Millennium Trilogy (of which I've read the first book and have started the second). I've read the first Song of Ice and Fire book, and will read the second when Mum finishes it. As for why some of these characters are where they are on the list, your guess is as good as mine. People voted, and that's where they ended up.

Right, well I had a look at the list and there are in my view a few omissions that would take me a week to write them all in loving detail. Some are my own personal faves while others really do have a place on the list, at least over Clove (WTF?!?!?!) Any objection to these additions?

Cammy

Jun

Aerith

Rei

Kasumi

Jill

Spirit

Revan

Exile

Mara Jade

Kim Possible

[[Series/{{24}} Teri Bauer]]

Shepard

Go ahead, although I'm sure Cammy, Aerith, Jill, Kim and Shepard are on there somewhere.

Oh, there's more than a hundred? And Shepard isn't there? Well just as well I didn't suggest Xian Mei then. I'll have another look and see what I can do.

There's a couple I'd contest, there. I'm pretty sure Revan and Shepard are canonically male. Yes, you can select female character models, but...

Wasn't Lara Croft going to be male as well? Wait, a male thought up the idea of Buffy, should that count?

Besides, Revan was intended to be female based on dialogue.

Going to be male or being thought up by a male doesn't change the fact that she's female. It would be questionable if the character's gender is changeable. I guess Revan and Shepard counting are up to the OP.

Still really doesn't matter. I don't know much the behind the scenes stuff there, but the reality is that Revan is canonically a guy. No wishful thinking or debate can change that.

So we're back to whether Lara Croft should count because she was intended to be male, or even if we should only have those who were created by women. We're going past Anita Sarkissian territory here. Anita. [[Sarkissian.

It sounds like this is getting way more complicated than need be. I'd just do this: Is the character female? Yep. Then they count.

Revan is canonically Light Side Female. See also: your conversations with Carth on the subject in the second game. TOR's Revan being male apparently didn't count, at least before it all became the Expanded Garbage Can.

We'll have to wait for ME4 to see who Shepard was canonically, but I'd argue that the essential facts of Shepard as a character are without gender. The choices you make for a background in the first game don't really matter to their personality; what is essentially Shepard is being a product of the N7 training program, which didn't make a gender distinction. Whatever Shepard was before they were N7, personality or genderwise, doesn't really matter. N7 and Spectre are who Shepard is now.

edited 7th Jan '15 6:01:56 PM by Night

I really like your list, and think this is a great idea (I'm currently going through and voting), but I noticed that there are some problems with duplicates. There are multiple versions of characters on the list, and I'm not sure whether this is due to their different representations in media (Morgana and Morgan le Fay and Morgana Pendragon) or just accidentally (in the case of Anne Shirley and Anne of Green Gables.) This may make it harder to get an accurate list.

edited 10th Jan '15 9:27:47 AM by Blueotterkitty

This Star Wars universe stuff is becoming far too confusing to understand. >_> Anyway, until I see real proof that they are female as opposed to someone's word on the matter based on interpretations and not the material look at that keeps outright saying it was a male human, not going to worry about it.

edited 10th Jan '15 3:11:32 PM by Prime_of_Perfection

I'd have to say it's a toss-up between Bella Swan and Sakura Haruno.

Edit: Holy shit, they're both actually on that list. That's hilarious.

edited 11th Jan '15 8:36:50 AM by Eagal

I was pretty surprised/disappointed not to find Lyra Silvertongue/Belacqua on that list.

Also, Buffy at/so near #1? Sure, she's realistic and has good traits, but she's such a self-absorbed anti-intellectual pain in the ass. I feel like not many people notice that the reason she's so relatable is that she accurately represents some really common, really dumb flaws.

edited 14th Jan '15 3:02:11 AM by Nymue

Are there any female characters out there who saved the world from the forces of darkness?

Korra in season two of The Legend of Korra?

edited 14th Jan '15 12:01:25 PM by Paradisesnake

Buffy. It's kinda her job description.