100 (or so) awesome (fictional) women

[be_themoon]

My (inarticulate) response to the feminism!fail discussion running around recently.

1. Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice)
2. Tiffany Aching (Discworld)
3. Elizabeth Burke (White Collar)
4. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)
5. Emily Prentiss
6. Elle Greenaway
7. Jennifer Jareau
8. Penelope Garcia (all Criminal Minds)
9. Jo Harvelle (Supernatural)
10. Macy Queen (The Truth About Forever)
11. Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)
12. Esmerelda Weatherwax
13. Magrat Garlick
14. Nanny Ogg (all Discworld)
15. Keladry (Protector of the Small)
16. Beka Cooper (The Provost's Dog)
17. Jane Bennett (Pride and Prejudice)
18. Nyota Uhura (Star Trek) (oh xenolinguistics lady, you are awesome)
19. Pippi Longstocking (from same) (I grew up loving her, and she is made of sunshine and puppies and lab grade awesome)
20. Susan Pevensie
21. Lucy Pevensie
22. Polly Plummer (Chronicles of Narnia)
23. Miri (Princess Academy)
24. Rose Tyler
25. Martha Jones
26. Donna Noble
27. Sarah Jane Smith
28. Rani Chandra
29. Maria Jackson & her mum (all Doctor Who or SJA)
30. Cho Chang (Harry Potter)
31. BELLE (Beauty and the Beast)
32. Mulan (Mulan!)
33. Parker (Leverage) (<33333PARKER)
34. Kara Thrace
35. Laura Roslin
36. Sharon "Athena" Valerii
37. D'Anna Biers
38. N. 6 Caprica (all BSG)
39. Katara
40. Toph
41. Suki
42. Mai
43. Ty Lee
44. Azula
45. Jun
46. Ursa (all Avatar) (I never said they would all be good, just AWESOME)
47. River Tam
48. Kaylee Frye
49. Inara (all Firefly)
50. Willow Rosenberg (B:tVS) (Willow in Season 7 was the single awesomest thing in the world)
51. Pepper (Good Omens)
52. Eowyn
53. Luthien
54. Galadriel (all Middle Earth) (man, Galadriel's backstory is fabulous)
55. Elizabeth Swann (PotC)
56. Mary Lennox (The Secret Garden)
57. Jane Drew (The Dark Is Rising)
58. Nancy Drew
59. George Fayne and Bess Marvin (Nancy Drew)
60. Nan Bobbsey (The Bobbsey Twins)
61. Toshiko Sato (Torchwood)
62. The Girl Who Stole The Hat (xkcd)
63. Evanlyn/Cassandra
64. Lady Pauline
65. Alyss (all The Ranger's Apprentice)
66. Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)
67. about half the victims/almost victims/female family of victims on Criminal Minds
68. Betsy Ray
69. Tacy Kelly
70. Tib Muller
71. Winona Root
72. Julia Ray
73. Maida Bartlett
74. Mrs. Main-Whittaker all Betsy-Tacy-Tib)
75. and every other lady ever in the entire Betsy-Tacy-Tib series
76. Temperance Brennan
77. Angela Montenegro (both Bones)
78. Sophie Devereaux (Leverage)
79. Morgana
80. Guinevere
81. Morgause
82. Hunith (Merlin)
83. Mary (Sherlock Holmes)
84. Angua
85. Cheery Littlebottom
86. Sybil Ramkin (later Vimes) (all Discworld)
87. Jadis & the Green Witch (Narnia) (okay, okay, evil, but. AWESOME.)
88. Nimueh (Merlin) (see above)
89. Harriet Vane (The Lord Peter Whimsy Mysteries)
90. Kate (The Good Master & The Singing Tree)
91. Charlotte (Sanditon: by Jane Austen and Another Lady)
92. Lauren Cruz (White Collar)
93. Ellen Harvelle (Supernatural)
94. Harriet Jones (Doctor Who)
95. Padme Amidala
96. Queen Jamillia
97. All handmaidens of the queens
98. Leia Organa (all Star Wars)
99. Anne Elliot (Persuasion)
100. Augusta Longbottom (Harry Potter)

Comments

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

Who's been saying women aren't awesome?

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

*waves hands about* there has been ongoing discussion of slash for several weeks at meta_fandom, with attendant girl-bashing. I disapproved and stopped following the discussion, and then I did this. :P

[electricmoxie.livejournal.com]

People I am amazed that you put on here (not that I disagree but just :DDDD):

Tiffany Aching/Weatherwax/Ogg
Augusta Longbottom
STARWARS CHICKS
Nancy Drew
Galadriel/all ME. (but no Undomiel?)

Basically, this whole list is A++, even though I don't know some of them but clearly since the rest of them are awesome the ones I don't know must be awesome too. :D

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

the Discworld witches are made of beauty and win and fabulousness! and omg Augusta, how cool is she? AND YES, STARWARS CHICKS. I have this deep love for Queen Jamillia, despite having only seen her for, uh, maybe a minute or two? and those handmaidens! that took some guts. and Nancy Drew, omg. I grew up with her and the Hardy Boys, alternately beaming with joy and laughing at some of the more ridiculous things they did. OH MIDDLE EARTH LADIES. aw man! I knew I'd forgotten one. mmm, I dunno about Arwen. she's cool, but she's like a powered-down version of Luthien, without the going out and doing something.

[electricmoxie.livejournal.com]

That is a point of Arwen, especially if you're only considering her book version. In the movies she did a lot more than in the books. :/ Which is a shame, because I rather liked her in the movie. I'm calmed by the fact that at least the books have EOWYN, who wins at life, the universe, everything. I've never read The Silmarillon (which I probably spelled wrong) though I've read about it. I cannot recall, though - does it include the tale of Beren and Luthien, or not?

[marycontraire.livejournal.com]

...GIRLS RULE, BOYS SMELL.

(Maturity is overrated.)

< SEE ICON

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

I find myself agreeingn with you. :D

[lettersandliars.livejournal.com]

BESS AND GEORGE, YES PLEASE. Also, Mulan! Have recently renewed my love for her.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

BESS AND GEORGE. they, uh, were actually my favorites, more so than Nancy. I loved them both endlessly for their patience and bickering and endless awesomeness. plus. GEORGE. why so awesome, George?

[sagee-x3.livejournal.com]

Amazing list! I'm surprised Cho Chang is on your list, since people tend to dislike her very much.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

I loved Cho Chang, because she really had some guts. she knowingly put herself at risk, she played a guy's sport as one of the most important team members and was clearly good at it, she was a Ravenclaw (oh smart girls!), and she knew when to not put up with something. I think she is very underrated.

[makinhistory.livejournal.com]

1, 4, 11, 17-22, 31, 32, 52, 53, 54, 58, 59, 87, 96, 98, and 99!

SO THIS.

(Of course, the others are good, too, but I just particularly like these. :3)

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

heeee. :) I love awesome girls. they are just too much fun.

[redsilverchains.livejournal.com]

Macy! I always loved The Truth About Forever best of all.
Sarah Dessen women are always awesome.
(Except the beeyotch ones of course. I would NOT want to run into any of her bitchy girls)

*hyperventilates * Holy crap, Nan Bobbsey! It's weird, I was just thinking it would be super cool to revive the Bobbsey Twins for fic/new novels.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

Sarah Dessen! The Truth About Forever is, for some reason, ridiculously amazingly good. MACY. darling! oh man.

BOBBSEY'S. they were so adorable. and Nan was so practical! she was like a mini-Susan or something, only with a twin. oh man.

[redsilverchains.livejournal.com]

I know! I love all her books (and I'm envious of the way she writes) but Forever is just special.
(Did you know that Sarah got intrigued by the Twilight craze in a YA-author-to-YA-author way? Brrr...I'm just relieved she stayed neutral, upon watching the movie.)

Haha, Bobbseys <3 I always thought of Bert as who Peter would have been if Narnia hadn't come along.
(Am I the only one who liked them better, characterwise, in the modernized version? They actually bickered there and not everyone coddled Flossie XD Plus Bert and Nan were in a tweeny 'is it just me or is the opposite sex confusing' phase which was so cute.)

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

my sister and I are both completely addicted to Forever. :)

I have not read the modernized version! what is this?

[redsilverchains.livejournal.com]

These books?They ran from 1987 to 1992; pretty much adventure-lite compared to the original hardbacks (only about a third of their length) and the cases were more basic (mostly set around Lakeport).

I guess that’s why they didn’t click much with the old fans though I always found the twins more realistic in them! Like, Freddie and Flossie had interests outside of dolls and fire engines (hee!)-- ice-skating and juggling and ventriloquism to name a few—and they bickered like crazy (Bert always had to referee) but were also insanely protective of each other when it counted. And Bert and Nan were more daring when it came to cases—I remember at least three books where Nan forced a confession out of a suspect—and they had a more teenager feel to them. Like, I remember this one scene where Bert is complaining to Freddie that he just doesn’t get why Nan's friends gossip about him all the time. XD Plus, I think the older twins played in a band at some point and were established to be great scuba divers.

I'd still read them! They didn't have much room for all the shenanigans from the old books, but they were fun in their own way.

[grim-lupine.livejournal.com]

SO MUCH YES TO ALL OF THIS. :D YOU MENTIONED BEKA COOPER. ILU. ♥

Also, this: 67. about half the victims/almost victims/female family of victims on Criminal Minds

ABSOLUTELY.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

BEKA COOPER. I haven't been able to read the second book yet, and it's been a while since I read the first, but I remain blissfully in love with Beka. also with her cat, and I need to reread it because I remember her having some absolutely awesome lady-thief friends. :P

Criminal Minds: giving victims agency. WOOT!

[grim-lupine.livejournal.com]

I HAVE SUCH A HUGE LOVE FOR ANYTHING TAMORA PIERCE WRITES, YOU HAVE NO IDEA. :D I think Tamora Pierce is the definitive writer of my childhood. I read one of her books at age 9, and devoured the rest soon after; I remember being so enthralled by all of her female characters, and I still am.

THE SECOND BOOK IS AWESOME, BTW. :D

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

BETSY I SAW THIS AND THOUGHT OF YOU

http://community.livejournal.com/zstar_fanworks/2147.html

IT IS A KYOSHI DRABBLE-REQUEST MEME :D

apparently you have not been around lj for a bit! I hope you're doing well! :)

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

KYOSHIIIII. I approve, thank you!

and I am fine, thanks! I've been very busy, mostly. :P

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

YES TO THIS TIMES 10000.

I never understand people who are all "ew there are no good girls" because I SEE THEM EVERYWHERE, I DO.

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

ME TOO ME TOO. and there are many women not on this list! WOMEN ARE AWESOME.