Media with Interesting Female Characters

[AnsemSoD1]

2B is phenomenally beautiful and has a reason to exist in the story to boot.

 

[NoReturn]

I don't like how she was married off so young, though. The show made her 16 when she was wedded to Khal Drogo when she was 13 in the books.

iirc Martin once said something about being inspired both by his pet turtles and the War of the Roses. In the case of the latter, Margaret Beaufort was married at 12 to Edmond Tudor. That said, it doesn't quite make sense because the Dothraki were supposed to be Hun-like people and not British-like people.

 

[Chandelier]

iirc Martin once said something about being inspired both by his pet turtles and the War of the Roses. In the case of the latter, Margaret Beaufort was married at 12 to Edmond Tudor. That said, it doesn't quite make sense because the Dothraki were supposed to be Hun-like people and not British-like people.

I should add one of my favourite Targs of all time is Visenya. She started the Kingsguard, basically ruled the Seven (six, really) Kingdoms with an iron fist, and outlived all of her siblings. The irony is that her dragon, Vhagar, outlived Balerion and Meraxes, too.

 

[8reallybigbirds]

Mega autism incoming say hello to the baddest bitch that ever lived.

 

[Safir]

Bontenmaru my waifu

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Gotta mention the Widows miniseries from ITV. A crime thriller heist series that works.

 

[Shakira Flabbergasted]

Some good female vidya gayme characters:

• Samus from Metroid
• Midna from Zelda
• Jill Valentine and Ada Wong from Resident Evil
• Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4
• Alice from American McGee's Alice/Alice: Madness Returns
• SHODAN from System Shock
• GlaDOS and Chell from Portal (GlaDOS is a parody of SHODAN but she also counts)
• Senua from Hellblade

Good female book characters:

• All the female characters from Butter by Asako Yuzuki
• Robin Ellacott from the Cormoran Strike series
• Every Gillian Flynn character
• Keiko Furukura from Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Good female movie/TV characters:

• Helly from Severance
• Marge Gunderson from Fargo
• Temperance Brennan from Bones

 

[Gianfranco Pizzaballa]

A couple from books:

Smilla, from Smilla's Sense of Snow
Jane Doe, from Tropic of Night

 

[Elysian]

Misty Quigley from Yellowjackets

 

[Valstrax]

Paul W.S Andersen didn't add Rathian to his fucking garbage Monster Hunter movie because he didn't want a real queen to overtake his wife.

 

[crazedaze]

The reimagined Battlestar Galactica has female characters that were gender swapped from the original, and people were so outraged about this that Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) even got death threats. She was great.

Fans opposed to the casting of a female in the popular role expressed their discontent during production on the miniseries, and Sackhoff even received a death threat before the start of filming. During the 2004 San Diego Comic Con, the actress was booed:

I was booed. It was lovely. At that point, I'd seen the miniseries and I knew I'd done a good job. I had my confidence back. I didn't care anymore.

 

[Kojikurac]

Can't believe nobody mentioned Lisbeth Salander from The girl with the dragon tattoo/Millenium trilogy, she is one of the most well fleshed-out characters I've ever read.
The og swedish movies are also pretty damn good, the american version is slightly worse but stil amazing compared to anything even somewhat recent.

(The writer died writing the 4th book and some dude "continued" it for him and it's fucking terrible, don't bother reading after the 3rd book)

Notable mention: the mother from We need to talk about Kevin, the book version is just, wow.
She's credibly imperfect but so painfully real& honest it's sometimes hard to read bc shit is incredibly thunk-provoking.
(And also tilda swinton can do no wrong in my eyes, so the movie is still pretty good but sooo much shallower + you gotta suffer that annoying degen faggot Ezra miller)

 

[DeeNaMeeTay]

obligatory

 

[Smoltine Kiminal]

farnese from berserk is pretty interesting
she starts out as a spoiled girlboss that got her position as knight commander handed to her simply because her parents are rich bankers
shes very struck up with rigid preconceptions, and overall a horrible person, basically a psychopath but everyone has to dance after her whims anyways.
then she has a complete mental breakdown induced by a rapehorse realizes how weak she truly was, learns to see the world in a new light away from status and hierarchy, and becomes truly strong from inside out

i liked her plot so much because a lot of women truly are so focused on rigid social rules & status
i also hate the vapidly written current year girlboss, dunno what it is exactly, but strong female characters in anime, or in movies from the last century dont have this problem at all
maybe its the smugness & millenial humor? riply or sarah connor never where smug about being a strong women, they simply where strong because they had to be

 

[dcss]

Twin Peaks

 

[SoberHeart]

Tranime, but anything written by Inio Asano usually has a really strong female lead (e.g. Solanin or Girl on the Shore) Given he wrote Goodnight Punpun most of the girls and their story purpose revolve around the men in their lives but usually stand just fine on their own.

 

[Shakira Flabbergasted]

Can't believe nobody mentioned Lisbeth Salander from The girl with the dragon tattoo/Millenium trilogy, she is one of the most well fleshed-out characters I've ever read.

She's controversial because of Larsson's reasons for creating her, the way she's described as "anorexic" and looking prepubescent, how her rape is described in detail, and the fact that she has sex with a teenager in the third book. I think they're valid criticisms but that she's well-written regardless.

farnese from berserk is pretty interesting

You can tell she's a great character by how many Berserk fans fucking hate her guts and start malding whenever she's mentioned.

 

[Arbiter]

Just saw Conjuring: Last Rites, and I think as sappy as they are, the Conjurverse movies do female characters respectfully. Most of the movies are centered around loving families with daughters, women with psychic sensitivities, mothers protecting their children. Lorainne, Sister Irene, Judy. They might not be super deep characters, but I enjoy them. The movies in general celebrate female intuition and spirituality.

 

[Blazeuser56]

Shatele Shan from SWTOR and Ahsoka from TCW and SWR

 

[long waters]

An interesting thread. Thinking about it, I usually do not remember female characters that well... But the more I think about it, there are plenty that I liked, for more than just their looks I mean.

Definitely agree with @Smoltine Kiminal about Farnese. One of my favorite characters from Berserk. For some reason I love the theme(?) of insufferable character growing and turning into an admirable, respectable person. (Kind of off-topic, but for the same reason Kurono Kei from Gantz is one of my favorite male characters.)

I recently read the manga Claymore and enjoyed it. It has a large cast of female characters. I am not sure I would say most of the characters have much depth to them, it is a shonen manga after all. I liked Teresa's story, she is the strongest and most respected of her organization, yet she throws it all away to protect Clare, out of an awakened sense of motherhood. I found it rather bittersweet...

This year I have also started reading the Apothecary Diaries novels. The series has quite a lot of female characters too. The main character, Maomao, is my favorite, mostly because she is a smart and capable autistic weirdo. I am about 7 books in and I am really enjoying the series so far. I also really liked Loulan, although I won't elaborate right now for spoilery reasons. (I could spoiler mark but I'm lazy right now.)

Currently I am also reading the Lord of Mysteries web novel, I have a long way to go with reading the series, but so far Audrey Hall and Melissa Moretti are the two ladies I find most interesting from this story. Melissa, despite being only a teen, seems quite well versed in managing household finances, she's very frugal and calculating in how she spends money. A consequence of growing up very poor I suppose. At the start of the story she definitely has a rough life, deceased parents, living with her two older brothers, one of whom is the household provider. She also seems quite a capable mechanical engineer in the making. I guess I'll see where she ends up throughout the story. Audrey is rather the opposite, she is born into wealth and her interests are more in the realm of mysticism. I like that even though she's a wealthy noble who could live her whole life without a worry, she is not complacent and seeks power and knowledge through her own means so that she may make an impact in the world.

Ah, this next one will sound retarded, especially since it is a visual novel "game", a furfag one at that (mind you, there's no nsfw stuff in it). It is Fang from Snoot Game. At the start of the story, she is a angsty nonbinary weirdo highschooler, basically, she's on the path to having a messed up life/future. In the good ending, she becomes a normal woman pursuing her artistic dreams and after some years ends up marrying the mc. The bad endings are very, very sad... I dunno, kiwi-bros and kiwi-sisters, it just hits me in the feels you know.

Another manga I read somewhat recently was Oshi no Ko. I think Kana and Akane were my favorite female characters from that. The whole "entertainment business" is not something I know much about or care about much, but I think it was an interesting setting. Having all these characters trying to make it in show-biz, dealing with their insecurities and struggles.

Anyway, my last one for now is just an action-hero but female type of character. Shelly from the game Ion Fury. Ignore the other two games staring her, Bombshell and Phantom Fury, from what I know they're ass. But in Ion Fury she's like a badass female version of Duke Nukem or something, kicking ass and not having any bubble gum, I find it cool.

PS:

Can't believe nobody mentioned Lisbeth Salander from The girl with the dragon tattoo/Millenium trilogy, she is one of the most well fleshed-out characters I've ever read.
The og swedish movies are also pretty damn good, the american version is slightly worse but stil amazing compared to anything even somewhat recent.

I actually read the trilogy and watched the og movies too, but it was over a decade ago and I don't remember anything at all. I think I enjoyed them back then, but if you asked me anything about them today I wouldn't know what to say.