Meme: 100 Female Characters

[retsuko]

For this entry, I've got a double meme theme going on. I meant to do the semi-meme that was going around a while back: Name 100 favorite female fictional characters. And, I'm trying to keep up with the "Happy Things in February Meme". In general, thinking of my favorite characters makes me very happy! So, without further ado, the list:

I've grouped these roughly chronologically, and then into genre.

Books/Movies/TV associated with my childhood:

1) Scout Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
2) Ramona Geraldine Quimby (The Ramona books, by Beverly Cleary)
3) Eilonwy (The Chronicles of Prydain)
4) Vesper Holly (Lloyd Alexander)
5) Harriet the Spy (by the redoudtable Louise Fitzhurg)
6) Melissa Woodbury (of the wonderful book Invisible Lissa)
7) Lucy Pevensie (Chronicles of Narnia)
8) Susan Pevensie (Chronicles of Narnia)
9) She-ra, Princess of Power! (Masters of the Universe)
10) Dr. Beverly Crusher (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
11) Dana Scully (The X-Files)
12) Gadget (of "Rescue Rangers"; how I loved that show and that character!)
13) Rebecca Cunningham (Tale Spin)
14) Princess Cimorene (Enchanted Forest Chronicles)
15) Morwen the Witch (EFC)
16) Julie of the Wolves (from the book of the same title by Jean Craighead George)
17) Sheeta (from Tenko no Shiro no Laputa)
18) Wonder Woman (Comics)
19) Akane Tendo (from Ranma 1/2)
20) Jessica Fletcher (I know, I know, she's not a paragon of feminism, or good writing, or anything much, really, but I LOVED that show for about six months when I was in fifth grade or so and she made a real impression on me at the time.)
21) Anastasia Krupnik (of the series)
22) Nausicaae (of "Nausicaae of the Valley of the Wind")

Recent Fannish Activity, Comic Books/Manga:

23) Francine Peters (Strangers in Paradise)
24) Faiza Hussein (of "Captain Britain")
25) Thorn (of "Bone")
26) Ichihara Yuuko (XXXHolic/Tsubasa)
27) Tanyu (of "Mushishi")
28) Deena Pilgrim (Powers)
29) Mo (Monica) of "Dykes to Watch Out For"; add to this list 30) Lois, 31) Ginger, and 32) Sparrow
33) Molly Hayes, a.k.a. "Princess Powerful!" (Runaways)
34) Thessaly (Sandman)
35) Death (Sandman)
36) Hothead Paisan (of the series)
37) Arashi Kishyuu (of "X/1999")
38) Gertrude Yorkes (Runaways)
39) Kiri Koshiba (of "Beauty Pop")

Recent Fannish Activity, Books:

40) Kiki Strike (Kiki Strike)
41) Anaka Fishbein (Kiki Strike)
42) Violet Baudelaire (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
43) Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)
44) Luna Lovegood (HP)
45) Ginny Weasley (HP)
46) Minerva McGonagall (HP)
47) Nymphadora Tonks(HP)
48) Thursday Next (The Erye Affair)
49) Tricia MacMillan/Trillian (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
50) Karrin Murphy (The Dresden Files)
51) Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)
52) Reiko Sano (of Laura Joh Rowland's wonderful novels)
53) Annabeth Chase (Percy Jackson)
54) Rachel Elizabeth Dare (of the Percy Jackson novels)
55) Gilda Joyce (of the same series)

Recent Fannish Activity, TV/Movies:

56) Toshiko Sato (Torchwood)
57) Gwen Cooper (Torchwood)
58) Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)
59) Martha Jones (DW)
60) Donna Noble (DW)
61) Sarah Jane Smith (DW)
62) Sun Hwa-Kwon (Lost)
63) Juliet Burke (Lost)
64) Liz Lemon (30 Rock)
65) Phoebe Buffay (Friends)
66) Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
67) Willow Rosenburg (BtVS)
68) Dawn Summers (BtVS)
69) Joyce Summers (BtVS)
70) Cordelia Chase (BtVS & Angel: The Series)
71) Lilah Morgan (Angel)
72) Detective Kima Greggs (from "The Wire")
73) Paprika/Dr. Atsuko Chiba (Since one is the alter ego of the other, I'm counting them as one character, although I'm they would both protest this treatment.)
74) Chihiro (of "Spirited Away")
75) San, a.k.a. Princess Mononoke
76) Chiyoko Fujiwara (of "Millennium Actress")
77) Deborah Morgan (of "Dexter")
78) Leela Turanga (Futurama)
79) Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons)
80) Amy Wong (Futurama)
81) Diana Skouris (The 4400)
82) Inara Serra (Firefly)
83) Zoe Alleyne Washburne (Firefly)
84) River Tam (Firefly)
85) Kaylee Frye (Firefly)

Wow, assembling that list was harder than I thought it would be, and I didn't make it all the way to 100! I have a sneaking suspicion I've forgotten a lot of important people, too, but no matter. I didn't include characters who was I merely "meh" about; hence, Fred from "Angel" doesn't make the list. (Amy Acker is a lovely actress, but I don't entirely buy the character and I resist the "scientists can do all types of science!!" stereotype the writers went with for her in the end.)

Looking at this list, it's an interesting mix. I would have included several characters from autobiographies I read (like Persepolis, for example), but I'm reluctant to include real life people as "fictional characters". (Theories about performativity must be set aside, or this entry will become considerably less interesting!) I'm somewhat sad to see that only one of the characters is Muslim, which highlights how little I know about this religion and its believers. My list also skews towards Asian characters, mainly because of the manga and anime I watch/read. I think I'd really like to change the makeup of the list in the future, to more accurately reflect diversity in authorship/characters.

A side note: I was highly tempted to include my own fictional characters in this list, but thought that would be presumptuous.