Encore! 10 More Non-Costumed, Non-Powered Female Heroines

“Wiggle your big toe.”  One of the better lines that sounds like little but means a lot!

We never saw Beatrix kill Elle. Yes, she plucked out her eye and left her flailing about in Bud’s trailer with the black mamba, but we never saw Elle die…

Can I put in a vote for Delenn of Babylon 5? She’s a powerful leader in her own right (that scene when her fleet defends B5? “Only one man has ever lived through an encounter with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else!”), she undergoes a crazy transformation that alienates her from her own kind in a gambit to save many races, and builds a lasting relationship with a good man based on respect, not sexay hawtness. 

Awesome list!!! This definitely covered the ones I missed from the first go-around… love it :D Scully all the way!! 

Still no Tank Girl..:sigh: Well at least you mention Kiddo and Scully.

Hooray for Mulan. I’d like to see Cobra from “Rip Haywire” added to this list. She’s a total badass.

Yup. I may not be the biggest fan of Kiddo (honestly I’d rather have had an O-Ren movie and I completely fell for Elle Driver in the second film) but that was freaking epic. Wiggle your big toe. Wiggle your goddamn toe.

Yes!! Excellent choices.

Ahh! Mariel! And her Gullwhacker. I named my first character in a novel after her. (Never did finish that novel… not that I want anyone to see it ever!)

Yay Scully!!!! But still no Aeryn Sun?!

Fantastic list! So glad for the encore.

Mmm I like me some Lee Adama as well… 

I believe Quentin Tarantino’s planned sequel is supposed to be about Nikki being trained by Sophie Fatale and Elle Driver to go on a mission of revenge. Or at least, that was the cryptic statement he had made.

That would be amazing. I knew he was planning to have Niki come back, but with Elle and Sophie as her mentors? I would love to see that. 

Kiddo!!!  Daenerys!! Scully!! Xena!!!  I’m so loving this list.  If I had one minor gripe it would be that I still think Olivia Dunham deserves a spot too.

Daenerys. It is known.

By what metric is Mulan not “costumed?” She has a secret identity and everything.

Great list, but I want to see some Lisbeth Salander!

Except she has crazy Cortexiphan universe-crossing fire-starting powers. Solution: Just have a 10 Reasons Olivia Dunham Is Awesome list.

Integra Hellsing’s probably a long shot, but I just gotta mention her.

I’d forgotten it was called Gullwhacker! Oh Redwall, I swear I spent ninety percent of my childhood in there.

MARIEL! This makes my inner 11-year-old immensely happy.

Unless I’ve missed it, I’m a little surprised no has pointed out yet that “La Femme Nikita” was a (French-?)Canadian production, not American.

For that matter, Xena wears the same armour for most of the series.

Thank you! I was just about to post that (Not French, I don’t think, though there were French Canadian actors). 

I was a bit annoyed it was called American, probably just because it was broadcast in the US and was in English.FYI, it was also called just “Nikita” when it was aired in Canada.Peta Wilson was awesome as the title character, a total badass. But Birkoff will forever remain in my heart as the the geekiest of geeks.

Yeah, but that’s just practical attire for her. Mulan is pretending to be someone else, using a disguise.

But Birkoff will forever remain in my heart as the the geekiest of geeks.

Heh, Madeline was always my favourite.  I admired what she chose to do to catch that one genius leader behind Red Cell or whatever the communist terrorist group was called.  Love that ep; think of it all the time.  Also, whoever chose the music for that show had the best damn taste in music of anyone, ever.  I was thinking it might have been French-Canadian, not just because of Dupuis, but also I thought the end credits said something about it being produced in Montreal.

Agreeeee.

Oh man, totally my bad on that one guys. I always forget it was a Canadian production!

Still no Gwen Cooper on the list? What gives?

But, like Xena she had to wear that for protection. She couldn’t show up in a dress for battle. Plus, Mulan has no super powers she dressed as a boy so she could fight in the place of her father.

That’s what I’m saying. For Xena, it was everyday wear. For Mulan, it was a costume. A necessary costume, but then, so is Iron Man’s.

La Femme Nikita is filmed, produced and post-produced in Toronto, Canada. Roy Dupuis (Michael), Alberta Watson (Madeline), Matthew Ferguson (Birkoff) and Don Francks (Walter) are all Canadian actors/actress.

But disguise does not equal costume.

I hope the daughter of Ares things was taken out because one of the things I remember from watching when I was a kid was that Xena had this on-and-off relationship with Ares and they had a kid together. And there was this promo they kept showing of Xena going to Ares and being all “I’m offering you my sword…and the body that wields this.”
This is probably why I read so many novels where the hero is a bad, bad boy.

When I read that part about growing up with Xena, I suddenly felt old.  As for BSG, what about Sheba from the original show?

Great list! I missed the first one — was Elisa Maza from Gargoyles on it? :) How about Mira, from Spartacus? 

This list is actually better than the first list to me because it includes some of the women that come to mind straight away for me:

Lois Lane, Scully, Nikita, Veronica Mars.  They would have all been first on my list.

I’m glad to see Lois included because I think we forget sometimes that female strength does not have to be rooted in the physical.

The sexism that was directed at Lois in the Silver Age was a product of the post-war culture in which women were shoved back into their “roles” after taking up arms at home for the men while the men were away at war.   It’s so fascinating because women did so much for our country during World War II and they were basically “thanked” for it by being shoved back in the kitchen. 

But the Golden Age Lois Lane as a badass. 

I’ve also never really understood why people use Lois’s role as Superman’s lover or sometimes wife against her.  She’s a civilian.  She doesn’t have superpowers nor does she need them.  Often, she is the voice of reason in the story.  She is no more “weak” for not being able to physically do the things Superman can do than the people who rely on firefighters or police officers to do what they are trained to do and protect them.  Her role as a reporter and as a career woman is equally as important.

And honestly, women are allowed to have love and be in love with a man and still be indepedent.  Lois can and is a career woman and she is involved in a love story with Superman.  Those roles don’t conflict and she can have both just as all working women are entitled to have both without it lessening them.

Also, just an FYI,  Lois and Superman had been together since 1990 in the modern books.  They were officially married in 1996 but they were engaged/she was in on the secret from 1990.

They were also married in the 70′s in the Golden Age continuity on Earth 2 and in the Superman Family books.

Thanks for the post!

Mulan isn’t wearing a costume though anymore than the MEN who fight wearing the same thing are wearing costumes.  She is forced to conceal her gender due to the sexism in her culture but she is wearing clothing that any standard solider would wear.  She isn’t taking on another identity as a hero—she is exercising the right that she should have period.

What about Colonel/Dr. Sam Carter? I know StarGate doesn’t get much respect, but I love her character. The only thing I didn’t like was them taking her scenes and giving them to Mitchel.

Having reviewed the original list, I guess she fits in with Eowyn and Sidney. Point conceded.

Still no Sarah from Legend of Mother Sarah.
 http://unixmanga.com/onlinereading/Legend_of_Mother_Sarah.html

Um, River Tam? Zoe Washburn? Lisbeth Salander?? Alice (Resident Evil)??
Y’all are missing a few names….
;-)

Mariel, Lois Lane, and Mulan! Woo!

However, I don’t know if I’d ever consider Daenarys a heroine (especially after this last book), OR consider her without superpowers (surviving burning flames).

Mulan is my favorite Disney girl but I can’t say princess I am sorry she’s not Royalty they just call her a princess because Disney refuses to do an asian fairytale with a princess in it

those books ruled I’ve never read such violent books for children

So happy.  I must have texted my bf like 15 times when I read the first book, telling him how much I loved Dany.

In other news, I’ve now used the phrase “texted my bf like 15 times” and must now commit ritual suicide to preserve my honor…

Dany.  Dany Dany Dany.  

Thus ends my rebuttal.To be fair, I haven’t finished the last book.  But she’s been my favorite character ever, and I’m not excited for him to ruin that for me :(

Fair warning, I’m biased as one of the biggest Discworld geeks alive, obviously. But one of the reasons I’m a huge Discworld geek is the way the female characters are written. Virtually all of them.

Certainly not disputing any of the ones on the lists I’m familiar with, but next go-around, can we get some Pratchett love on the list? You can barely crack any of his books, Discworld or not, without tripping over female characters that prod buttock left and right, usually without any superhuman abilities and quite often without resorting to the default “Oh, let’s give her a sword/gun/weapon and have her go off and be awesome with a weapon just like a guy would be” position for “strong female character”. Even the ones with extraordinary abilities often rely more on being sensible, brave, practical and clever to get themselves (and others) out of jams.

Not that there’s anything wrong with giving a woman a weapon and having her be awesome with it, but it’s refreshing to see female characters be strong more ways than one. I get the same rush from realizing the Discworld equivalent of Machiavelli has just more or less admitted he’s been politically outmaneuvered by a woman who can deploy a cunningly planned tactical soiree that I get when I see Aeryn Sun wield a massive gun and blow something up.

Even the secondary recurring female characters like Cheery Littlebottom are fantastic. And dear heavens, Monstrous Regiment. Nation, though not a DW book, is an excellent example of Strong Female Character out the wazoo, too.

There will be a next time, right? These are too fun.
 

I love that, even with a second list, people are still coming up with other strong, non-costumed, non-powered female characters. It just makes me feel better about the state of fantasy/sci-fi in general after all the messy New 52 stuff.

Also, were any of the characters from Dollhouse on the earlier list? If not, I think a good case could be made for Adele AKA “she who regularly gives the viewer empathy whiplash and boggles their minds.” Unless, of course, she develops powers in the last two episodes, which I’ve yet to watch (stupid term papers). I’d say Echo, but I’m not sure whether to categorize her as “powered” or not.

River could technically be construed as having powers because her of her supernaturally obtained fighting skills and precognition. Zoe, however, needs to be all over these lists. Lisbeth too, though the books kind of make me nauseous (I’m just really sensitive to violence. The mutts in the Hunger Games book actually gave me nightmares for three days.) 

I’m amazed that you would put a Martin character up there. Dany mighty be a slightly less revolting character than most of the females in Game of Thrones but that entire series….just..really? Have you actually read it? and missed the heavy misogyny and explicit rape (like…Dany being a 13 year old child and being raped on her ‘wedding’ night?).  Just really amazed you would include this in a pro-woman list.

I have to say, I’m wondering why Daenerys Targaryen is on this list. To be fair, I have not read the books, and the second season isn’t out yet, so maybe she turns herself around. But the by the end of season 1 she’s going the same path Arthas Menethil was. I saw that scene with the villagers coming from a mile away and I’m guessing similar scenes are going to play out across the land as she goes to conquer Westerose.

It gets really confusing and difficult to truly judge “fake Geek” versus “genuine geek” because on a certain level every1 wants attention. How could you not? Its human nature to want to share interests. So in that case the only “true Geeks” are the completely anti social nerds that are basically just typing to themselves or talking to be heard, and not to be part of a conversation. But why would any1 ever take pride in being such a deviant creature?

Both great choices, but, both are in a grey line
Alice became inhanced because of the T-Virus (plus depending on what we are talking about she was a clone and I would think that totally takes at least the clone out of the running).

With River, the Alliance messed with her head because they wanted to turn the gifted children from ‘The Academy’ into assassins (which may provide the background for the fighting skill). And if you read R. Tam sessions it implyies that she may have been injected with G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate (‘Pax’).

But, I agree Zoe needs to be on this list (and Tank Girl).

Some have suggested that River Tam and Olivier Dunham may not fit in here on account of their scientifically altered minds which, I guess, puts their abilities in the Peter Parker category (though River’s are probably closer to something like imposed savant syndrome). However, it could be argued that Daenerys has a born power that the others in the story have not, that being her “blood of the dragon” fire retardant skin (and hair in the T.V series).

Thank you for listing many of the reasons why Lois Lane remains my favorite. :)