Favourite female lead...

[fajrdrako]

February 28, 2008:
Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

Difficult choice. Off the top of my head, my first thought was of Lady Katherine Samantha Campion Talbert from Ellen Kushner's Privilege of the Sword. I also thought of Kate Somerville from the Lymond novels by Dorothy Dunnett, but Kate can't be called the female lead, even if I wish she had been. Who else? I'm quite fond of Kinsey Milhone, and Leonie from Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades, and Heyer's Venetia as well. From Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia Naismaith, and Fawn.

There are a number of action-hero women I particularly love: Renee Montoya, Dani Reese, Bridget Logan, Zoe Washburne, Kara Thrace, Sharon Agathon.

Then there's Leo from The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault - it isn't, unfortunately, a good book, but Leo really made an impression on me.

In most of my favourite books, its the male protagonists who make an impression. There are not as many strong women in fiction as I would like. In Jane Eyre, for example, I like Rochester much more than Jane; in Pride and Prejudice, I like Mr. Darcy more than Elizabeth.

In comics, there are more. Elektra was a favourite, back in her Daredevil days. Jean Grey, Sue Storm-Richards, Domino, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Rachel Summers, Natasha Romanov, Catwoman in the hands of a good writer, Saturn Girl, the team of Ayla and Vi from vol.4 of Legion of Super-Heroes. Maggie and Hopey, Omaha the Cat Dancer, Thorn from Bone, and Red Sonja from the days of Barry Windsor-Smith. And always, always, always, Supergirl.

Is that enough of a list? I'm bound to think of more.

And - why? The women I like have courage and individuality, integrity and a strong personality. They are independent, smart, and distinctive. They respect others and themelves - okay, with some lapses.

basically, they have the same qualities I look for in a male protagonist.

Comments

[elebridith]

I didn't realize until last year that there were different WW versions - I stumbled over the "Ultimate WW Guide" (Dorling Kindersley) and was like O_O !! I've heard that George Perez did the best drawings, though - but those comics are hard to get. Oh well.
Ah, Dawnstar! Her german name is "Sternschwinge", something like "Star Wings" roughly translated. Yup, beautiful. And not always nice - she could be haughty sometimes, that was new!

The Timothy Zahn books practically started the SW Expanded Universe. The "Heirs to the empire"-trilogy where Mara showed up first is legend - and still one of the best-written ones. Thankfully the era of the let's call them the less-good-writers :-) seems over... and Zahn is really great. Some time I'll check out his other writings.

Oh, and another fascinating female lead IMO is Xenia from "Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood. The book is not told from her point of view, but she's described as absolute evil - but very smart and could play people like puppets. I read her with a kind of morbid fascination as I could find some treats in her that I recalled from girls I knew, that gave me creeps. Great book nonetheless.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize until last year that there were different WW versions

Oh, yes - quite a few of them, now! What with reboots and revisions and alternate universes. George Perez's art is incredibly beautiful, but a lot of people have done a superb job on Wonder Woman - I love the way John Deodato drew her, and Art Adams. And though I'm not a huge fan of animation and have hardly watched the Justice League TV show, I love the way it portrays Wonder Woman.

"Sternschwinge" - oh, lovely name!

Margaret Atwood is good for giving me the creeps.