We Think The Women Should Be Allowed To Fight.

[rionaleonhart]

A while ago, misscam posted an entry about the hard time female characters get in fandom and invited everyone to talk about female characters they loved in the comments. I thought that this was a lovely idea, and so I am completely stealing it. Because I do tend to talk about male characters far more than I talk about female ones, and that's not right. There are plenty of female characters I adore. Here are some of them.

I love the women of House. I love poor adorable Cameron and her tendency to become attached to patients and her emotional masochism. I love longsuffering, sarcastic, awesome Cuddy. I LOVE THE BUDDY COP DUO THAT CAMERON AND CUDDY HAVE FORMED IN MY MIND. I love Thirteen when she is vulnerable and when she has that ridiculously cute grin or that little smile and when she is rolling her eyes and when she is going 'THESE ARE NOT THE CORRECT DRUGS; THEY ARE INSUFFICIENTLY CRAP' and when she is saying words and when she is on the screen.

I love Donna of Doctor Who. I love that she could so easily have been a shallow, exaggerated comic character, but that the writers instead took her and made something wonderful. I love that she made me emotionally invested in Doctor Who again; I cared about what happened to her, which was something I hadn't felt about any Doctor Who character (with the possible exception of the Master) since Eccleston's regeneration. I love that she will stand up to the Doctor, and she won't take 'I AM A TIME LORD AND THEREFORE MORALLY SUPERIOR' for an answer. She is compassionate and awesome and ridiculous and amazing and I adore her.

I love Toph of Avatar. She is mocking and hilarious and kicks arse, and the way she uses Earthbending to see is utterly fascinating. Katara, meanwhile, is lovely and awesome in equal measures, and Ty Lee is just the most adorable antagonist ever, bless her. I also love the fact that Toph and Katara both have very real flaws, and that these flaws in no way stop them from being wonderful.

I love Annie of Being Human, because she is adorable. I love her inept attempts to conform to the cultural image of what a ghost should be like. I love that she wants to be in Hufflepuff and make glittery cards. I love the little things she does for Owen, and her little smile when he notices them (even if he does not deserve them. Why don't you adorably haunt my house, Annie?). I love her friendship with Mitchell and George, and the ridiculous amounts of chemistry they all have.

These certainly aren't all the female characters I love (Carla, Elliot, Tosh, Sharpay, Fran, Celes, Selphie, Quistis, Freya, Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, Paine, Larxene, Ruby, Bela, Pamela, Ellen, Gwen, Morgana, Rose Tyler, Alex Drake, Samantha Carter, Luna Lovegood, Sara Tancredi...), but it's a start. Who are your favourite female characters? I'd love to hear about why you love them in the comments.

Comments

[thrennion.livejournal.com]

Ooh, let's see. First of all, I love Katara, because she's just so likeable, and as you said, both lovely and awesome in equal measures. She's a really well-rounded character and is the first one I really fell in love with on Avatar.
Kaylee and Zoe from Firefly are quite possibly my two favourite female characters ever. Kaylee just because she is so incredibly sweet and cute while still being an incredibly proficient mechanic. The episode where she goes to a fancy ball in a pink frilly dress - happy as a clam - and starts talking to these men about the ship is fantastic. As for Zoe, well Zoe kicks arse on so many levels, it's unhealthy. She's got a fantastically deadpan sense of humour and she's like the character that... I dunno, *grounds* Serenity, if that makes any sense. You don't watch Firefly, do you? That paragraph probably went right over your head, then.
ANNIE! Pretty much for all the reasons you mentioned. She is just adorable, and I want her to haunt my new house.
Shiki, from The World Ends With You. I didn't like Shiki at first, but then as the game progressed, her bond with Neku (the main character) strengthened and you hear more and more about her Very Tragic Backstory. I never really sympathised with a game character until I got to a certain point in TWEWY and felt so sorry for what happened to Shiki.
Geeky awkward first-season Willow. I haven't seen the rest of Buffy yet (because I'm a terrible person) but first-season Willow is ADORABLE. And she gets some fantastic lines, and she's just perfect! Even though I know she changes, I don't want her to! Can't she just stay how she was in the first season? We need more adorably awkward geeky female characters in the world.
I could go on and on for even longer than the length of this comment, but I'd better stop now. There are so many female characters who I think are fantastic and wonderful and all kinds of awesome. I've probably neglected some of my favourites, but I'd better finish this comment off.

[vzg.livejournal.com]

YES THE CAKE DRESS. And Kaylee's all, "I want to fit in!" and then she realizes that the girls at that ball are no fun whatsoever. (And Serenity is not luh suh.) And Zoe and her amazing relationship with Wash, and her ability to make Jayne shut up (although I do love Jayne). Yeeesss.

And Willow is really always geeky, even when she is not so much computer geeky.

[emmarrrrr.livejournal.com]

KAYLEE'S DRESS. I LOVE IT SO.

Also, Shiki is my favourite protagonist. Her and Josh, because he's all upper-class and irritating and a bit gay.

my favourite character is totally sho, though.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

Kaylee and Zoe are both so much win!