Once again, this week I’m having a hard time coming up with 600 words worth writing. Some might say that I have yet to accomplish that feat in the entirety of my time on this column, but those people are cruel and should not be acknowledged. They’re more afraid of me than I am of them. Etc.
Yet again, I am turning to that old standby source of inspiration, Matt Jones. In his post yesterday, he asked his readers to pick the best female protagonist in geek media. The problem is I’m actually having a hard time narrowing it down.
First off, I’m going to eliminate any and all video game characters. In most cases, video game characters owe a lot to your choices and to what you bring to the character. I’m sure there will be people you can make convincing arguments for Lara Croft, Joanna Dark, and Fem Shep, I’m just not one of them.
That just leaves us with movies, novels, TV shows, and comic books. Easy answers are Xena, Ripley and Scully, but I’m not a huge fan of Xena, the Alien franchise, or X-Files so those are out. I love me some Battlestar and I seriously considered Six or Starbuck, but their character arcs get a little wonky as the show goes on. (Trying to avoid spoilers…) I think of all the women on BSG, Laura Roslin has the strongest case for being a great female protagonist. She is a strong leader, she bravely deals with cancer, and is incredibly compassionate. I would vote for her in a heartbeat.
Everyone knows my love of Star Trek, so you might think I’d turn to the Federation for my pick. Unfortunately, there aren’t a heck of a lot of good female characters on those shows. Captain Janeway is probably the first one that comes to mind, but she was on that franchise killer Voyager so it disqualifies her immediately. Same goes for Seven of Nine, B’Elanna Torres, and Kes. I’m also extending the disqualifications to Enterprise, so T’Pol and Hoshi. Finally, anyone who thinks Uhura and Nurse Chapel from the original series still qualify as strong female protagonists needs to get their warp core breached.
That leaves The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Troi ended up being a decent character, but she started off pretty weak sauce. Dr. Crusher is fine, but doesn’t have much going on. Major Kira, I think, is the only one who stands a chance against the other women on this blog. She has a really interesting back story, she’s tough, and she has a great progression throughout the series. But, she still doesn’t quite make the top of the list.
Comic books are probably the first place that you expected me to turn to for strong female protagonists. Not because the medium is known for them, but because that’s what my columns are usually about. And, there are certainly some great female leads in superhero books – Wonder Woman, Storm, Batwoman, The Invisible Woman, Power Girl, and The Black Widow to name a few. But, because of the ever changing creative teams of comic books it’s often hard to pin a character down. Wonder Woman in particular is an ever changing character. Every creative team seems to have a whole new take on her. So, I guess I’m excluding comics too.
Well, superhero comics anyway. The character I’ve decided to go with does have her own comic book. But, she’s probably best known for her TV series – Buffy: The Vamprie Slayer. I know, not exactly a bold choice. The thing is, she is too great a character not to pick her. She’s funny, and strong, and very relatable. But, she also fights weird shit like zombies, demons and, obviously, vampires. She has a great collection of friends and enemies that come together and make her an even stronger character. I don’t know how anyone could consistently watch the show and not love her.
Anyway Matt, that’s my pick. She could kick your pick’s ass.
Graham Becksted likes the ladies. He is the author of Graham’s Grumbles the second blog by that name that is listed in Google results when you search for Graham’s Grumbles. If you would like to be his 71st follower (thank you, bots), he can be followed on Twitter @GrahamBecksted.
I’m just gonna reply in order:
I really don’t want to rule out all female protagonists in computer games but I can’t really think of one. Wait! No, I got one! Samara from Mass Effect 2 was always one of the most interesting characters in the game for me, even if she isn’t a leading character. Very compassionate towards others but utterly ruthless in her convictions, certain that she is doing the right thing. It’s sort of like “I’m very sorry you stole that loaf of bread and that I now have to pull your lungs out and beat you to death with them but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop.”
Whole heartedly agree with BSGs president Roslin.
I agree with most of what you said about Star Trek (except for your utterly incorrect dislike of Voyager and Enterprise). I think DS9 is the best series for well developed female characters although bizarrely, I think it did a lot better job with its female villains.
Ahhhgg damn you Graham, you know I don’t know enough about comics to comment. The one female comic character that I might be able to say (and this is based entirely on the Iron-Man movies) is Pepper Pots. If Gwyneth Paltrow’s portrayal is anywhere close to the original character then I love the fact that she can match a superhero in terms of presence without that whole pesky ‘being a superhero’ thing.
I don’t think I can say anything about Buffy that isn’t already known. Joss Whedon knows his shit when it comes to writing female characters. End of
And just to clarify, at the end of the last series, Olivia Dunham had psychic powers, guns and an Olympic gold medal in marksmanship so she could totally kick Buffy ass. We probably shouldn’t let this ‘who would win’ line of conversation continue lest we fall into the lowest form of geeky forum debate.