A few years ago, there was a questionnaire circling about who would you chose as your bodyguard (including fictional). The three choices that kept coming back were Sarah Conner, Ellen Ripley and Vasquez. So I’m going to put a feminist twist on it: choose three women you would choose to fight side-by-side with. It can be book, film, tv, anime, manga, any other media that’s there. If she exists outside your imagination and you can justify it , she counts.
The Rules: No-one from the Terminator or Alien series. Sorry, but too obvious.
My pick:
1. Ellie Linton from John Marsden’s Tomorrow series. The girl is a teenage MacGyver. She makes bombs out of the bits and pieces she finds lying around.
2. Minerva McGonagall from the Harry Potter series. I know it sounds odd, but at one point in Deathly Hallows, she’s all ‘get your shit together, Voldemort is coming’.
3. Gina ‘Mother’ Newman, from Matthew Reilly’s Scarecrow series. Mother is short for motherfucker. She’s faced killer whales, rats to her face, terrorists from pretty much every country in the world. (Apart from Reilly’s Australia. We have no terrorists, no sireee.) They all died. She lived.
So let me know what you think. I’d love to compile a list of kick-ass females that doesn’t involve Aliens or Terminator.
{ 65 comments… read them below or add one }
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Absolutely! It’s nice to be reminded of all of these awesome female characters.
Here’s my 3:
Annie Walker from Covert Affairs: She’s a CIA agent who’s good at her job (and she loves it; can I mention how much I LOVE hearing a female character assert that she’s skilled at and enjoys a job that’s not considered feminine – in this case, a spy – but not the sexy kind). Also, if, after completing an assignment, she feels as if something is not right, she will make it right, even if that means going against orders.
I’m going to second Balsa from Seirei no Moribito: I think the youtube link Copper posted says plenty about her fighting abilities and a lot about her courage and commitment to seeing her job through to the end (in that scene, she purposely takes the shot to the stomach so she can deliver an even more lethal blow to her opponent.). She’s also incredibly intelligent and also has a wealth of experience that she relies on; what’s more, she is not about needless slaughter or violence for violence’s sake. And, like others have mentioned, seeing a female lead who’s ripped is awesome
Yoko from The 12 Kingdoms: She goes through a lot throughout the course of the series, and not only has to fight her way through a lot of situations, but has to learn empathy, the meaning of justice, and the value of asserting herself and not being a puppet. She starts out as the ultimate people-pleaser and becomes an Empress with the potential to be one of the greatest rulers in all of the 12 Kingdoms. She is also a good strategist, and knows when to bide her time and when to fight.
Dani(Quote) (Reply)
I’d want… Rifkind — she’s blessed by the goddess, peeps!
http://thehathorlegacy.com/lynn-abbey-daughter-of-the-bright-moon/
Sinderian from A Dark Star Rising
”When you meet Sinderian Faelloneos, observe her well, for then you will be privileged to see the most gifted young wizard of her generation… [Her teachers] let her go off at an early age to break her heart on the battlefields of Rhethun, leaving all her other talents lying fallow.”
And Camilla n’ha Kyria –> she won’t use her magic, but she’s a brave, dedicated fighter
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Lots of the choices that pop into my head have already been mentioned: Aeryn Sun, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, Buffy Summers, Ziva David, Wonder Woman…
So in the interests of adding to the discussion, I’ll pick three that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter from Elizabeth Moon’s The Deed of Paksenarrion series. Paks is very driven, bright, and compassionate, and will not stand for injustice. She’s a great hero well before she becomes a paladin.
Hawkgirl (Shayera Hol) from the DCAU. She’s an amazing tactician and fighter, and she’s also very snarky and good company.
Scarlett (Shana O’Hara) from G.I. Joe (the Marvel comics continuity). She’s a counter-intelligence officer who became one of the most effective members of an elite team drawn from the best the entire US military has to offer. Plus, she has ninja training. You always need someone with ninja training.
Patrick McGraw(Quote) (Reply)
M.C.,
Aren’t you afraid River would abandon you and let you die as soon as her Only Reason For Existence (aka the Doctor) calls her away?
Younger River, yes. Older River of Forest of the Dead and Time of Angels, I’d personally say no. You do have a point about the Doctor being Her Only Reason For Existence, which I did rant about. I do think who she matures to become is someone I want to fight on my team, but you’re right, River from Let’s Kill Hitler to The Wedding of River Song isn’t someone I want on my side.
I admit, she is a contraversial choice, especially since Moffatt decided to Mary Sue the hell out of her and make her entire life revolve completely around the doctor, but the way her character came off the screen and particularly the intelligence and assurance Alex Kingston protrays her with is still enough for me to say that Older River from the earlier episode kicks ass and I’d fight with that River any day.
Lika(Quote) (Reply)
Okay, in light of the fact that River is an iffy choice, I’ll choose Izumi Curtis from Fullmetal Alchemist instead. She’s a more solid choice ^_^ (It was a hard choice between Izumi and Olivia Armstrong, I tell you. FMA has awesome female characters.)
Lika(Quote) (Reply)
Can I second Helen Magnus especially if I swing Ashley as well as a two for one
I’d also want Ro Laren competent tough all sorts of courage and would tell me if I was being stupid.
I’d also want Storm.
(You’re making me greedy now but I really wish there had been more than one Doctor Who story with Brigadier Winifred Bambera as head of the British section of unit because she must have had a story worth hearing as well as being incredibly tough)
katymol(Quote) (Reply)
Lika,
I think you did a nice job explaining how you chose River Song. It’s like Sam Carter on SG-1 – she was written very inconsistently, and sometimes the writers made her look very foolish, but I would second the choice to have her on my team because overall she’s awesome in many many ways.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Lika,
I guess I know what you’re saying, but I still wouldn’t trust River to have my back. I mean, it’s not her fault. Obviously her parents are to blame, who are some of the worst parents imaginable – who the fuck lets their kid be raised by terrorists thinking “She’ll probably turn out alright”?!
Anyway, if I had to choose a bodyguard from the Whoverse, that would be Sarah Jane Smith. She’s smart, trustworthy, resourceful, has alot of cool useful gadgets and knows many powerful people.
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
I keep getting River Song mixed up with Firefly River, and was really confused — why would Simon call River away from a job? If anything he’d be proud of her.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Oh, I’m becoming greedy as well! I want Marguerite Krux (sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World) on my team as well! She isn’t a strong hand-to-hand fighter but is well trained in gun, rifle and whip and manages pretty well with sword and or any weapon handy (pots and pans if need be). She is hella smart, was a triple agent in WWI and speaks and reads every language she has come across so far. And, though she professes to be greedy and disloyal, her actions have actually proven her to be very loyal (and greedy).
And I want B’Elanna Torres, she’s good as a fighter on account of her training and strength, very smart and dedicated… But well, mostly I would want her on my team so I could have a good conversation with her. She was featured waaaaaay too little even though she was one of the most interesting characters on that ship.
Oh! And Chris Kelly (Pacific Blue), even in a mostly t&a show she still impressed me as a very capable woman who can fight, shoot, stand for justice etc she was loyal, didn’t put up with crap and didn’t stick around waiting for her One True Love, but dated around and generally had her own life aside from men (which is an accomplishment in any show, let alone a t&a show!)
Maartje(Quote) (Reply)
M.C.,
Ooooh, Sarah Jane!!! I just watched S4, and it was so sad. There was more death stuff and less exploding slime alien stuff, and combined with Elisabeth Sladen’s real life death, it was just very bittersweet for me.
But I’d totally rely on her to have my back.
Maria,
Thank god it wasn’t just me, HAHAHA! I did the same thing!
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Maria, Jennifer Kesler,
Too funny! If I hadn’t had Doctor Who on my mind, I’d be wondering why why Simon would call River away too.
M.C.,
I mean, it’s not her fault. Obviously her parents are to blame, who are some of the worst parents imaginable – who the fuck lets their kid be raised by terrorists thinking “She’ll probably turn out alright”?!
Her parents did not let her be raised by terrorists. There no “letting” of any kind. River was very clearly kidnapped from them, and from the breathless way Amy asked the doctor at the beginning of “Let’s Kill Hitler” if he found her daughter, she wanted to find and get her baby back. She certainly wasn’t thinking that “my baby will probably turn out alright.” Don’t forget her little speech to Madame K. where Amy succinctly said, “you took my baby away and you hurt her.”
I don’t blame Rory or Amy at all for what happened to River. I blame the terrorists who stole her away from her parents and tried to control and fashion her into a tool for them to use. Rory and Amy were just as much victims as River was.
And I actually do think every questionable decision or poor reasoning for her decisions is River‘s own fault, regardless of her upbringing, and I’m aware of why it’s not the best idea to have someone who would sacrifice her regenerations and the universe for man to have my back. But she matured from that shallow and narrow-minded person into the knowledgeable and capable ass-kicker who I adored, and IMO, never showed signs she’d flake out and leave me to die if we were in fight after that.
I haven’t seen much of Sarah Jane Smith except from the new Who series, where she kicked butt, but I heard she’s awesome
I’ll definitely have to check out the Sarah Jane Smith Adventures!
Jennifer Kesler,
I know what you mean about a character being written inconsistently and the writers making her make foolish mistakes. It’s interesting how some characters seem to have a separate, uh, “self” for lack of a better word, from what their writers/creators, and I’ll attribute certain actions and decision to the writer(s) and not the character. River Song is exactly like that for me. As much I say that all her questionable decisions and reasoning are her own fault, I’m more annoyed with the writer than the character. I’m not yelling, “River, why are you being so dense?” at the TV, but rather, “Moffatt (the writer/creator), why are you making her so dense?”
I’ve seen about a season and half of SG-1, and I want Sam Carter on my team as well, even with the inconsistent character writing I know is coming up. There are indeed many, many awesome things about her, and they all seem to manage to rise above gobs of dubious writing. I also think the acting helps a lot. Amanda Tapping and Alex Kingston are both able to embue the characters with a lot of a lot of admirable traits and strengths are is separate from the writing and makes me wish for better things for the characters when I’m shaking my head at what they’re doing.
Lika(Quote) (Reply)
Lika,
Oh, I agree. The thing with SG-1 was, thanks to mediocre writing, everybody got to look foolish at least a few times by the end. It just felt like Sam got the worst of it, but maybe that’s because I was so enamored of her at first. I loved that she was a nerd, that she wasn’t a nurturer (and this wasn’t treated as something that needed to be fixed), that she LOVED her work… her combat skills were icing on the cake for me.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Of course they did. They had a space/time-machine at their disposal. After the events of LKH they could have used it to go back, rewrite history and rescue their daughter – just like the Doctor did in “The Girl Who Waited” or a million other times. But no, they just went on their way, having some fun adventures while their poor kid was being brainwashed somewhere in time.
I’m sorry, but Rory and Amy are some of the worst fictional parents ever – even Darth Vader was a better father because he actually saved his son from being tortured.
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
M.C.,
No, Vader saw his chance to kill the Emperor and took it. Luke was just convenient. And then his narcissism led him to sucker Luke in during his dying moments so he’d feel/seem like a good guy in the end.
That’s my genuine interpretation, and has been ever since I first saw the movie on opening day at the age of 10 and thought, “Rubbish – if only!” But it also serves to demonstrate that more than one interpretation of character motives is valid.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
1st) No Avatar yet? Fine, then I will pick Katara. Or Toph. I’d even take Korra and the series isn’t even out yet! These girls know their magic martial arts!
2nd) Currently rewatching DS9 and Kira is also on top of my list. Dax is a close second. Speaking of space operas I’d also take Susan Ivanova from B5 to intimidate the shit out of my enemies:
“Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova, Commander. Daughter of Andre and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you will ever see. God sent me. “
3rd) Dana Scully cause she’s awesome and I kinda grew up with her as my heroine. Alternatively Temperance Brennan from Bones. Both are very intelligent women who can also kick some ass if the situation requires it (though admittedly Brennan would probably better in the ass-kicking department).
Sabrina(Quote) (Reply)
Spoiler Warning: Contain spoilers for Doctor Who’s episode from “A Good Man Goes to War” onwards. I’m not sure the spoiler policy is here O.o but it just struck me that maybe I should have put a spoiler alert in my previous post.
M.C.,
They had a space/time-machine at their disposal.
Which they could have used to stop the Holocaust, The Killing Fields, and other atrocities. Would you say they were responsibility for not stopping mass genocide just because they had a space/time-machine? I guess you could argue fixed point in time, but how do you know that River/Melody’s abduction wasn’t a fixed point in time? It may have well been.
Plus it was in LKH that they realized that their daughter Melody had grown up into River Song, and to go back to get Melody would be killing River (which was the whole point of The Girl Who waited. You can’t make a rescue in the past without killing the person of the present/future who wasn’t rescued. Unrescued!Amy of “The Girl Who Waited” even said that what they would be doing to her is murder if they made her and the 30+ years she suffered never existed.) I personally think Melody/River’s abduction was a fixed point in time that couldn’t be undone, so I’m relieved they were spared the dilemma of having to choose between rescuing Melody or killing the very human and very real person that is River Song.
Her parents were in a shit spot and if they had any choices, which I don’t think they did, they were shit choices. Erasing River Song is was a shit choice. I refuse believe that being a shit spot with shit choices is “letting” of any kind.
Lika(Quote) (Reply)
I wasn’t a fan of the ‘Tomorrow’ stories because they were basically paranoid invasion literature that acted as right wing comfort food to Australian survivalists who think Indonesia is going to invade them.
Acid Queen(Quote) (Reply)
Jennifer Kesler,
That is an interesting interpretation. But why did Vader choose that particular moment to kill the Emperor? Why not smother him with a pillow while he’s asleep? At least that way Vader wouldn’t have died too…
I mean, I’m not saying Vader was a good father. He was not James from Once Upon A Time, who willingly sacrificed himself so that his daughter may live and actually smiled while bleeding to death because he knew he had managed to get his child to safety.
I’m just saying that Vader was a better father than Rory Pond, who would rather go for vacation on Apalapucia than take his baby daughter away from a bunch of terrorists who are brainwashing her to become a human weapon…
Hey, I just saw the similarity between River Song and River Tam: both girls were brainwashed to become human weapons. But River Tam had someone who loved and saved her (Simon). River Song didn’t.
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
Oh, someone already took Katara? (Also, hooray for the person who thought of Cordelia). Anyway,
1) Cimorene, from “Talking to Dragons” and the rest of the series. Swordfighting, magic, investigating skills, a possible alliance with dragons, and I think we could get along.
2)Daine, from Tamora Pierce’s Immortals series. She’s kept armies from being able to go into battle in the first place, she’s a shapeshifter and a wild mage, and she’s also personally an awesome person.
3) I’m ridiculously tempted to want to take Azula, also from Avatar. Which would be a terrible idea, because she’s the villain, but if for whatever reason we’re on the same side- she’d be a very *effective* ally.
Cassandra Davis(Quote) (Reply)
1) Xena-That one is pretty obvious.
2) Elektra-ninja assassin who would come in handy in a fight.
3) She-Hulk-Green, strong, fun-what’s not to love?
Anna M(Quote) (Reply)
Acid Queen,
Yeah, fair enough, I can see that logic. I didn’t like them much when they first came out – I was a teenager, so I suspect I was the target demographic – but I reread them all when the movie came out. You have to overlook, as you said, the whole ‘yellow peril’ mentality (I was reading an article which basically refuted any plausibility of it actually happening as, at best, poetic licence and at worse scaremongering – I can dig it up if you’re interested) but I really loved the characterisations. I thought Ellie was a plausible character and I liked her friendships with the other girls (and to a lesser extent Homer, though her relationship with Lee was problematic, especially in the Ellie Chronicals) and how Robyn and Fi grow and adapt as they’re thrust into circumstacnes they weren’t raised for.
Gabriella(Quote) (Reply)
1) Dana Scully – a crack shot and a medical doctor who could save your life in a pinch. She’s also brave and resourceful enough to rescue you from the Arctic Circle.
2) Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan. Tough, compassionate, takes no shit from anyone.
3) Buffy Summers – super-strength and quick with the wise-cracks. Would also benefit from a bit of motherly tough love from Cordelia.
Crass(Quote) (Reply)
My three:
1. The ‘artificial’ human Catlin from C.J. Cherryh’s Cyteen series (alright, only two books so far, but still…). Has been trained almost from birth to know guns and knives and other sneaky ways to kill/disable someone, and is good at observing targets.
2. Lan Fan from Fullmetal Alchemist. Has the usual (fictional) ninja skills, plus can sense the lifeforce of others in her vicinity, useful when fighting someone in total darkness.
3. Tomoe Ame from Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo comic. A very good samurai swordswoman, and a good battle tactician and adviser.
Looking over my choices, I’ve got bodyguards who are trained to be such, with two of them older teens (1 & 2). Not sure what that says about this group, though.
Cloudtigress(Quote) (Reply)
Anita Blake would be my first choice, from the Anita Blake novel series. Anita is not only good in a fight with humans, but what with being a Vampire Executioner and all, she pretty good with supernatural predator types.
And Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace from Battletar Galactica and Xena, Princess Warrior jumped to mind first.
Love all these tough girls.
cy(Quote) (Reply)
cy,
Both Anita and Kara are grown-ass women. I don’t think either would be thrilled at being referred to as girls.
Maria(Quote) (Reply)
Zoë Washburne from Serenity
Aeryn Sun from Farscape
Susan Ivanova from B5
wondering(Quote) (Reply)
Late to the party, so most of my obvious choices have already been mentioned.
I’ll try to add a few new names to the list.
* Sarah Walker from Chuck — I’m surprised no one’s picked her yet, especially after the most recent episode. She’s skilled in hand-to-hand, firearms, throwing weapons, and infiltration.
* Maya from the Fourth Realm trilogy by John Twelve Hawks — Not the most personable gal, but she’s been trained in combat and evasion since birth. Where Sarah is confrontational, Maya can find or create an exit strategy and a hiding place to regroup in a heartbeat.
* Kahlan Amnell from Legend of the Seeker — She might look like a typical fantasy priestess, but the Mother Confessor is no pushover. She’s handy with bladed weapons, hand-to-hand, and when all else fails, she can use her mojo to turn enemies to her own side.
–
Honorable mentions — Parker from Leverage for her martial arts, sneakiness, and taser skills; Jo Lupo from Eureka, an Army Ranger with access to cutting edge weaponry; Claudia Donovan and/or H.G. Wells from Warehouse 13 if there’s hacking or MacGyvering to be done.
Robin(Quote) (Reply)
I can’t really think of three specific ones but I’d love to have the Kiyoshi warriors from Avatar: The Last Airbender to protect me.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
1) The Major. – Ghost in the Shell — manga, not anime
2) Katara – Avatar the Last Airbender, season 3
3) Khu Lon – Ranma 1/2
I would hope to be adopted as a protege by Khu Lon, and all three of these amazing ladies are strong, smart and dauntless.
Tchang(Quote) (Reply)
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