Who is the most badass fictional female character?

~ Veselin

Found this writing prompt on Reddit and liked it more than our daily prompt here. I wrote a list and then filtered it out by removing most superheroes. I personally believe superheroes undermine people’s faith in their own future and are just bad taste. You can rebel, learn how to shoot with a bow, endure a lot but you can’t possibly ever be Wonder Woman, Starlight, or Captain Marvel, so they were disqualified. So here’s the list.

16. Samara Morgan / Sadako (The Ring)

She’s a nightmare coming to reality and one who could make the Alien run in screams. However, being a demigod supervillain and not a positive example gives her the honorary number 16 spot on my chart. One of the few characters with superpowers I considered worthy. Don’t tell her she’s 16th.

15. Trinity (The Matrix)

Trinity stood up to the agents and helped Neo ascend. She radiated strength in every moment of her presence. Being Neo’s second rather than Neo herself gives us 15th spot.

14. Renee Ballard (Michael Connelly’s novels)

A relentless detective who stops at nothing to capture the next serial killer, often multiple at a time. Debra Morgan could’ve been on that spot but she’s Dexter’s second. Renee Ballard is independent and has to navigate difficult politics to score her wins.

13. Bones (Bones TV series)

Brilliant scientist who grows a team of unorthodox wizards around her. Her mind is her weapon and she’s not shy of touching weapons.

12. Nebula (MCU/Marvel)

Nebula survived Thanos’ parenting. She has mental endurance unmatched in the MCU by anyone other than maybe Loki.

11. Acid Burn (Hackers movie)

A teenage hacker from a time when we didn’t yet have PCs. She and Zero Cool were an inspiration for my generation. I was torn between Acid Burn and Lara Croft and decided Acid Burn is the more skillful character played by Angelina Jolie.

10. Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games)

She volunteered as a tribute to risk her own life for her sister Prim. Deadly with the bow and a symbol of the rebellion.

9. Esmerelda “Esme” Weatherwax (Discworld)

Granny Weatherwax is the only witch in the known universe who has ever mind controlled a bee hive. She cannot be seen when you don’t expect to see her because the brain refuses to acknowledge her presence. Could’ve easily been number one on the list but loses point due to having magical superpowers. Wednesday Adams, Galadriel from Scholomance, and Yennefer from the Witcher are, IMO, inferior to Esme. If not in power, at least in badassery.

8. Harley Quinn (DC Comics, Margot Robbie Version)

Chaotic and dangerous, Harley with a bat is more than most superheroes can handle.

7. Livia Lone (Livia Lone series by Barry Eisler)

Livia Lone is tiny but determined. She’s brings down traffickers with brutal efficiency that makes Dexter Morgan look juvenile.

6. Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)

She’s a modern hero with unbreakable optimism and strong work ethics. She would be crushed in a physical fight with any of the others but I believe she deserves a spot, even if not a top one.

5. Savine dan Glokta (The First Law by Joe Abercrombie)

Born into wealth but remained in power due to her ruthlessness and skill. She bends the world with the force of her will. Her superpower is similar to Batman’s. She knows how to make money and use them but doesn’t shy away from getting her hands dirty.

4. Adjunct Tavore Paran (Malazan Book of the Fallen)

Adjunct Tavore is a mortal commander who leads armies against gods, ascendants, and mages. Unbreakable and underrated, she resists the will of gods.

3. Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica)

Fighter pilot, rebel, drinker, loudmouth—she kills Cylons and leads the humans to salvation by example. I also consider her a combined character with Bo-Katan, who is a bit less genuine than Starbuck but still very cool.

2. Makri (Thraxas series by Martin Scott)

A fierce quarter-ork-quarter-elf warrior who crawled out of the gladiator pit after massacring her captors with their own weapons to pursue career in science. In an university that forbids the admittance of women.

1. Ellen Ripley (Alien)

Facing the Alien and surviving. Who does that? Outwits, outlasts, and takes on the perfect organism with nothing but brains.

I feel like the final 5 can be shuffled and any order would still be fair.

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28 thoughts on “Who is the most badass fictional female character?”

    1. Abercrombie has other powerful women in his books but one is half-demon and the other has I mostly forgot.

      Arya Stark is nowhere near that, so fake in the later books. The movie Daenerys is badass but way too sexualised. Had no other contestants.

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      1. Arya started strong, but then… I don’t know what happened. Daenerys got… crazy… in the show. We’ll never know what she was like in the final books at the current rate of release.

        Monza Murcatto from “Best Served Cold” is one of my favorite badass women, but she is a flawed badass. Still, she has her moments where I greatly admired her and wish I was responsible for her creation. 🙂

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      2. Good point. I decided to only select one witch and Esme was the strongest character (compared to Galadriel “El” Higgins, Yennefer of Vengerberg, and Wednesday Adams). But Hermione Granger is a wizard, not a witch. I could see her somewhere around 10th to 15th place. She’s also not a sidekick, the whole Harry Potter thing could’ve been named “Hermione”.

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    2. Oh, Greg Rucka has another series. I read some books from the one about Atticus Kodiak and they were good.

      In the area of spies and conspiracies, I considered a similar character – Delilah by Barry Eisler and ended up including Livia Lone.

      I might check Greg Rucka again this year, thanks for the suggestion!

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  10. Somehow missed this post of yours, Veselin. Angharad “Harry” Crewe from Robin McKinley’s Damar series has a special place in my heart, but I’m a sucker for strong heroines in the realm of older YA fantasy fiction. Lloyd Alexander’s heroines are also faves of mine, and any of Anne McCaffrey’s dragonriding gals. For me there has to be a strong sense of being a vulnerable human being, along with all the troubles that come with that, not just superpowers.

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      1. I don’t know if you can find “The Blue Sword” or “The Hero and the Crown” by Robin McKinley but it would be worth the search. They were published in the US in 1982 and 1984 respectively.

        Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series is one of my faves for sure; the two original novellas that were combined into the first book of the Pern series Dragonflight made Anne McCaffrey the first female writer to ever win both a Hugo and Nebula award. Her female characters were not as strongly drawn at that point (1967) but she really began to excel with the young adult books. The female protagonist Menolly in Dragonsong is one of my all time favorites. Menolly was created with the express intent of introducing more female readers to the fantasy genre, and (although I’m not a girl) she was the character that first got me interested in sci-fi/fantasy reading and writing. I’ve been interested in writing strong female characters and young adult fantasy ever since. Great post from you Veselin and thanks for bringing back some fond memories!

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