Your favorite Characters....*catch*

[Muspelheim]

Hmm, that's tricky... Well, I've got a soft spot for scheeming masterminds.

Magatha Grimtotem & Administrator from World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2, respectively.

Those two will just have to share the throne, presumably locked in an eternal struggle to oust the other, like each other's respected and admired Nemesis.

 

[Legion]

Books:

Sonea from the Black Magician Trilogy et al (Although not so much the latest book).
Lyanna Stark from a Song of Ice and Fire, although not much is known about her.
Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, despite her faults.
Susan Sto Helit from Discworld.

Films:

I actually cannot think of any off the top of my head. Films don't tend to have many decent female characters really (although there are great actresses).

Games:

Liara T'Soni, despite Bioware trying to force the player to like her.
Tali Zorah, despite her obsession with her ungrateful people.
Alyx Vance from Half Life of course.
Leliana from Dragon Age: Origins despite her craziness.
Merrill from Dragon Age 2 despite her derpiness.
Anya Stroud from Gears of War.
Sarah Kerrigan/The Queen of Blades.
Veronica from Fallout New Vegas, although some of her phrases get tiresome.
Rayne from BloodRayne, if you ignore the cheesy lines.
Hanako from Katawa Shoujo.

TV Shows/Anime:

Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, although her character portrayal is sometimes contradictory.
Kallen Statdfeld from Code Geass, despite her having that clichéd neediness of anime girls.
C.C from Code Geass.
Lucy from Elfen Lied. I despise her alter ego Nyuu, though.
Raven from Teen Titans.

I have not included A.I/synthetic characters such as Cortana, SHODAN, GlaDOS, and Nagato Yuki as they don't truly have a gender, as much as a personality and appearance based upon one.

 

[Frokane]

Ayame-Tenchu
Tifa- FF7
O-Ren Ishi-ii-Kill Bill
Vanessa Lewis-Virtua Fighter
Alicia- Bullet Witch

 

[Blunderboy]

This is supposed to be a challenge?
You will probably notice a pattern. I like my female characters to be confident in themselves.

Spoiler: Aveline from Dragon Age 2

She's strong and yet feminine.

Spoiler: Imoen

This lady always gets a mention from me on these lists.

Spoiler: Susan Sto Helit

She's Death's granddaughter. How awesome is that?

Spoiler: Angua von überwald

Not only is she the first woman in the City Watch, she's the first werewolf too.

Spoiler: Polgara the Sorceress

 

[bossfight1]

5. Sylvanas Windrunner
4. FemShep
3. Alma Wade
2. GLaDOS
1. Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya

 

[TheKruzdawg]

In no particular order:

Tali from Mass Effect. She's always so chipper and I always liked having her in my party. Some of that probably has to do with being the "geek girl" archetype (at least in my mind) for the series.

Morrigan from Dragon Age: Origins. Even though she's borderline bitchy to everyone and she's a lot less compassionate than I am, I can't help but like her. Damn useful in a fight and I loved her banter with the rest of the party, particularly with Alistair.

Bastila from KotOR. Although she can be a bit preachy at times, I still like her. She always felt more like a real person, especially when she struggled with the real world outside of her sheltered Jedi training. Plus, voiced by Jennifer Hale.

Herald Talia from the Heralds of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey.

Spoiler: Cover of the trilogy she's the main character of.

I like her because she's good at reading people (part of her Empathy Gift) and seems like someone who would always have your back.

And that's about all I can think of off the top of my head that stand out.

EDIT: Saw someone another post and it reminded me of Kaylee from Firefly. I don't know how I could forget about her! I love that she's almost always cheerful and upbeat, something that I've always tried to be.

 

[Krantos]

Spoiler: Vin

She could kick your ass from here to next Tuesday without breaking a sweat.

And about 50 more like you. And that's without Atium.

Oh, AND she's a well developed character with flaws, personality, and fears? Well damn.

And obviously Tali, Femshep, and the others, but Vin takes the cake.

 

[Lugbzurg]

Oh, boy... err... "girl". So many choices, aren't there?

Kazooie (Banjo-Kazooie)
http://images.wikia.com/banjokazooie/images/4/48/KazooieTooie1.png
Kazooie is capable of working as a team or literally "flying solo". She can manipulate the strangest objects into tools for her own use, or even strangely become various types of tools for Banjo's use. She tells it like it is, be in positive or negative (though, she would prefer that it be negative).

GLaDOS (Portal)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/Glados.png
I think she counts. Robots count, right? Frankly, I could totally see her getting along well with Kazooie. She's also very manipulative, yet wants to give you exactly what you want, while it's something you don't want, somehow. I dunno. She might plant the desire for something (notably, cake) in one's mind, and along the way, they really want and really don't want what she has to offer. She's also got multiple personalities in her subconscious, has so much fun with life, yet finds killing to be a most useful tool, she's very professional, yet unprofessional, at the same time and... Gee. GLaDOS is just a paradoxial genius, isn't she?

Talwyn Apogee (Ratchet & Clank)
http://en.ratchet-galaxy.com/images/racod/personnages/Talwyn.png
She's become very much like her father, yet isn't what you would call a "Daddy's girl". She tends to be somehow calm, yet fierce. She'll make sure everything about a situation is understood by everyone present. She also users her head in conflict, yet easily slicks right into combat. Oddly enough, for the longest time, I didn't even notice she had a tail. In fact, just typing this up and finding her picture, I happened to notice her tail has a bit of a spear shape, rather than resembling a rats' tail, like I'd previously thought. Totally weird.

Toph (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/319/2/2/toph_by_angel624626-d32xat3.png
She has been my favorite character in this series for quite some time. She's the smallest drill sargent I've ever seen. She tends to mess with your mind to get you to learn something important, and she she sees to it that she makes you stay "learned"! She tries to come off as simple, but when she really opens up, becomes a much deeper, more complicated person. She doesn't discriminate. She won't hate you for ethnicity, age, gender, or anything like that. If she hates you, it's because you did something stupid. Really stupid. As such, If someone does something stupid, she'll let them know it the most sudden, blunt, (and slightly violent) way possible, without warning, regardless on any such status of ethnicity, age, gender, or any of that stuff. She's totally smooth with change; constantly expanding her horizons on anything she understands. Ironically, she's blind.

Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
http://media.animevice.com/uploads/0/69/512625-void_0_.png
Now, how could I forget my most favorite female character of all? She's intelligent, modest, geeky, wise, and full of integrity. Twilight researches various topics almost constantly. She has a wide variety of friends who are little-to-nothing like her or each other. She tries to keep things positive, yet doesn't resort to fudging it up. So, in a sense, she's actually a lot like me... except for the parts about her being a quadrupedal, magical talking unicorn-pony-girl. She's gentle in most scenarios, but when serious times call for serious business, she'll jumps at the chance. She's a completionist, and keeps very organized. She makes an effort to meet deadlines, while leaving no detail undone. But she may freak out more over something being incomplete and on time than something complete and late. She strives to understand as much as she can, both terms of practical knowledge and social involvement. She thoroughly understands common sense, and would like for everything to make sense. She'd rather be in a group than to be alone, and spends her time trying to learn and understand anything and everything.

I have some honorable mentions; some of which I haven't explored all that much yet, such as Samas Aran from the Metroid series, Major Motoko from Ghost in the Shell, Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, Laura Croft from either incarnation of Tomb Raider, and this relatively-new character out there, who is known as "Bayonetta".

Samas Aran
http://samus101.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/samus_aran_hires11.jpg
Major Motoko
http://www.ucandaire.org/imaj/mnc/kusanagi.jpg
Alyx Vance
http://borderhouseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/alyx_vance.jpg
Laura Croft
http://www.lyricis.fr/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Tomb-Raider-Lara-Croft.jpg
Bayonetta
http://animestuff.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bayonetta.jpg

 

[Canadamus Prime]

EDIT: *sees all the Teen Titans*

Spoiler: DAMN IT! HOW COULD I FORGET STARFIRE?!

Badass warrior princess. Whats not to love about that.

Yes, Starfire. I adore her because she's clumsy and awkward in social situations much like myself, and unbelievably adorable (unlike myself).

Others favorites of mine inc.
- Videl Satan (DBZ):

Spoiler: Videl

She was esp. gorgeous with short hair. Gohan you are one lucky SOB.

- Lina Inverse (Slayers): I just found her inexplicably loveable, if psychotic.
- Colette Brunel: What can I say? I'm a sucker for the shy, kind-hearted type.
- Lucy (Fairy Tail): There's something inexplicably loveable about her, although I can't put my finger on it. Although there is one thing that bugs me, is it my imagination or do her breasts keep getting bigger with each episode?

...Augh my brain is failing me again. It always does that when it comes to threads like this.
Oh yeah!

- Winry Rockbell (FMA/FMA: Brotherhood): Another lovable if slightly psychotic woman. Ed you are one lucky bastard!
- Chihiro Fushim (Persona 3)i: Again, I love the cute and shy types.
- Velma Dinkly (Scooby Doo): I also love the brainy types, esp. in glasses.

EDIT: Shit! I forgot to mention Terra Branford from Final Fantasy VI. Same reason as Colette.

 

[Collegeboy21]

I named my daughter Leliana. I think that answers this question.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Anime: Radical Ed
Books: Lúthien, Hermione
Movies: Mathilda (Léon)
Series: Robin Scherbatsky, Joan Harris

 

[Bernzz]

No question.

Spoiler: Samus.

Samus.

Spoiler: Fucking.

Fucking.

Spoiler: Aran.

Aran.

[sub][sub][sub]I really like Metroid, okay?[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[kurupt87]

Elmindreda Farshaw, from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.

Not much other than her to be honest, though I do have fond memories of Leesha from Peter V Brett's The Painted Man.

 

[Strain42]

I like the She-Hulks, is it obvious? lol

 

[Vigormortis]

What I got instead was a long string of exaggerations, misdirections, and pointless bitching. (I really laughed at the "remain unbiased and object" bit at the start, which was followed by nothing but vitriolic disgust and insults" He seemed, throughout, to be reaching desperately for things to criticize. I'm not sure I found even a single valid point in the lot. And I actually tried to find one. (Loved the bit when he essentially said: Alyx Vance is an affable, likeable, believable, human character. And that makes her a bad character." lolwut. XD )

I'm . . . honestly not sure we watched the same video. Because I came a way from it with a completely different take.

Spoiler: For the sake of plot points

To be specific - around 5:24-30, where he says: "My problem with calling Alyx a great female character in games is not her character itself but her role in facilitating Gordon Freeman as a masturbatory aid for the player."

Because it isn't that Alyx is a 'bad' character, or even a 'flat' character - it is that she is exists purely in relation to Gordon. Which is true of every character in that universe, which orbits around Gordon Freeman's miraculously perfect Van Dyke (twenty years in limbo, not a single chin-hair out of place). But Alyx's role - and sort of her whole persona - is kinda that of a 'combat girlfriend' - she exists only as a female counterpart to Gordon, and ultimately becomes a cliffhanger-bait MacGuffin by the end of Episode 2, dropping the entirety of her character's presence in order to fill out the prototypical 'Damsel In Distress' for the never-to-be-released Half-Life 3.

Yes yes, just made an argument about a game that doesn't exist outside of Valvespace - but 'captured by aliens' doesn't leave much to the imagination. I feel justified in the conclusion given the current evidence. Moving on.

But the devolution from sidekick to mission goal isn't really the problem - we expect that in most action-oriented narratives. The problem is that Alyx Vance has no story arc. Her role is tightly regulated to companion throughout Half-Life 2. She is fully fleshed out, yes, and a fine example of how a real woman might act or behave (leaving aside that the stressess of the post-apocalypse seem to leave her psychologically unscathed - which is a valid argument but one that extends to every named character you meet with the exception of Breen and Father Grigori and possibly Mossman). But she has no character development. She doesn't really undergo any transformative action, she doesn't have a Hero's Journey of her own, she's just tagging along for the ride with Gordon. Gordon's presence - and her sidekick status - lessen her role in the narrative, which is why it's hardly surprising that she turns into another princess to be rescued.

To present an example of a similar dynamic worked in a different way: Chrono and Lucca from Chrono Trigger.

The trial-and-prison sequence early in the game gives you the Damsel-in-distress worked in reverse, with Crono awaiting his death sentence, and the choice to either face it quietly or bust out of jail. No matter which you choose, Lucca rides to the rescue, literally guns blazing, and the two of you proceed to kick ass so hard you tear a hole in spacetime. (I'm paraphrasing, of course). As the game moves on, you see Lucca's reactions to the events around you, and you learn more about her history - why she loves - and possibly hates - machines so much, why she's estranged from (and reconciles with) her father, what happened to her mother and what it meant to her. You see how she reacts to these things and how they change her.

But Alyx doesn't change, really - she isn't given an opportunity to change. She's just kinda there. She kicks ass while she's there, and I'm not taking anything away from that. She's a perfectly normal, believable (if somehow detached) individual, with individual mannerisms and motivations to the extent that her role lets her have them. I can't take away from that, either. But her role restricts her severely, and it prevents her from having much character growth at all, and that is the real problem. And it's something I likely never would have noticed if I hadn't watched the video.

EDIT: Incidentally, Gordon doesn't really have a story arc, either - he's really just following events around. This is an easy pitfall for a character like Gordon, who exists as a player-surrogate (which, if you remember from the video, is the essence of the Mary Sue). It's a criticism of this kind of character in general - but, other games handle this problem by giving us a measure of progression that we can attribute to the character to give some context to all the scenery we're passing; in Chrono Trigger, it was the stories and personalities of Crono's companions, in Super Metroid it was the steady increase of available skills and firepower, and so on. Also, note that in Super Metroid the story was reinforced at the climactic Mother Brain battle by stripping Samus of all her weaponry, leaving her utterly defenseless, which made the baby metroid's sacrifice all the more poignant and the resulting hyper-beam vengeance so viscerally satisfying. A much different feeling from giving Gordon a sniper crossbow and a slapdash dune-buggy ride every few levels.

Supplanting the normal character progression one sees in a narrative with another form of progression readily tangible to the player, a character that exists purely as audience-surrogate can be seen as an active participant in the story, rather than a figure moving through it. And here, Alyx represents a bit of wasted potential - the static nature of her character progression indicates wasted plot potential on Valve's part.

Edit 2: I have a feeling that nobody's ever gonna read my game-design essay.

I must thoroughly disagree.

Spoiler

Alyx does grow, as a character, throughout the series. If you look at the character; her actions, mannerisms, motivations, reactions; at the beginning of Half-Life 2 and compare them to what she is like by the end of Episode 2, you'll see quite a few striking differences.

For example, when you first meet her, she is very amiable yet brash and hap-hazard with her actions. Likewise, when she first meets Gordon, she acts both flirtatious and reserved. Like how someone often acts when they first meet their child-hood idol or crush. That was one point in the video, as he brought up as if it were a sign of bad character design, that made no sense.

Anyway, over the course of the game, that amiable almost child-like demeanor is stripped away. Due to the events she plays witness to, both with and without Gordon, and due to the "shocking revelations" that come to light, like Mossman's betrayal.

These changes aren't instantaneous, but by the end of Episode 2 we see a much darker, angrier, near-hopeless woman who's lost virtually everything she had; as little as it was.

You can see the same sorts of changes in Eli's character, as well as Mossman and Breen.

The one character I would argue that doesn't really change over the course of the series is Kleiner. He does become enthralled at the discovery of the Borealis, showing an almost removed sense of enthusiasm, but he still remains the classic "absent-minded professor".

............

Regardless of ones views on Alyx's character, I have to submit this: I honestly believe that, had Valve written her character in any other way (especially in an open-ended form like the man in the video seems to wish for(I'm guessing he's an avid fan of Skyrim and it's ilk, but that's a discussion for another day)), it would have made for both a far worse narrative flow and would have created a large disconnect between the player and the story experience. And, breaking immersion would be the death of a game like Half-Life as the series relies heavily on it.

I will admit that that "Campster" fellow did articulate his points quite well, for the most part. Still, I had a tough time regarding much of what he said in that video with any level of credulity when some of his biggest complaints and criticisms were that Half-Life is "overrated" because it's a linear narrative with a lot of variety and a "show, don't tell" design philosophy.

It almost seemed like he was saying, "It's not like an open-ended RPG, therefore it's overrated."

 

[Aprilgold]

Jill Valentine will always be my favorite.

Too bad she was almost a Jill sandwich. [laughter]

 

[Lunar Templar]

funny >.> your added twist changes nothing about my list

Tera Brandford
Aya Brea
Samus Aran
Lilly Satou
Princess Luna
Lenneth Valkyrie
Yoko Linter
Rias Gremony

and the list goes on ....

 

[Quinadin]

Favorite "love interest"? Asa Shigure from Shuffle

Favorite girl in general?
1. Tali'Zorah from Mass Effect

2. Riza Hawkeye from Full Metal Alchemist

3. Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender

 

[pipsiscool]

To me, there is only Daenerys Targaryen, blood of the dragon...