She's Got It: Favorite Female Characters

[Dancingjaneway]

I have SO many. 

Annalise Keating (HTGAWM): Is she perfect? No. But she is kick ass, smart, sexy, an out and proud Black woman & one of the best t.v characters out there.  Also it doesn't hurt that she is portrayed by the brilliant Viola Davis. 

Dorothy Zbornak (Golden Girls): While I loved all the girls Dorothy is my favorite. I love that she doesn't apologize for being smart, she's witty, caring, a good daughter, & strong willed. Once again it helps that she is being portrayed by the incredible Bea Arthur. 

Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek Voyager): She broke a lot of boundaries for women especially in the sci fi world. She was warm, smart, stubborn, brave, not perfect, witty, logical & kick ass. She hands down had the most difficult journey. She didn't have the luxury of being able to contact and seek help from starfleet. She & the crew had to make it on their own. In the end she managed to get most of them back home safe and sound. 

Fran Fine (The Nanny): While her voice & laugh made some people flinch I happened to love her. She was fun, funny, smart, kind & relatable. The way that she was with the kids was so wonderful and her outlook on life was refreshing. I know a lot of people call Deborah Messing Lucille Ball 2.0 but I think that title should go to Fran Drescher. She was hilarious whether she was using physical comedy or a facial expression. 

Carmen Wade aka Machu Pichu (GLOW): Once again I love the whole cast but for me Carmen just stands out. She's the glue of the group,  the heart of the group. She's incredibly brave, a great friend/confidant, smart. It was so wonderful watching her get over her stage fright and seeing her forge her own path instead of having to take a backseat to her brothers. 

LT Anita Van Buren (Law & Order): She is my favorite female character in the L&O universe. She tough, smart, loyal, honest, always backs up her detectives & has a fast wit. I always appreciated that she would side eye the jerks that were higher up & question the system at times. 

 

Honorable Mentions:  Rosa Diaz(Brooklyn 99), Dee Dee McCall(Hunter), Miranda Hart (Miranda), Patty Hewes(Damages), Julia Sugarbaker(Designing Women), Tegan Price (HTGAWM), & Lisa Simpson(The Simpsons).

 

 

 

[Blergh]

On 1/2/2020 at 3:51 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Here's an oldie but a goodie: Penny from Inspector Gadget. She was smart, tech savvy, took down Dr. Claw on a regular basis, and never cared about not getting credit for any of it. She also had more patience than I would have to put up with an pompous idiot like Gadget for an uncle.

Great post! Yet, it needs to be said that Penny seemed to have been an orphan with no other living relatives so she seemed to have had no choice but to at least have Uncle Gadget nominally care for her or be put in foster care or orphanages. However, rather than bemoan her orphaned status, she not only did her best put her brains (and Brains) to the best use possible but also wound up probably giving Inspector Gadget a purpose in life to want to watch out and do his best for her (even though she was the one who did that for him). Without her presence even without Dr. Claw around his life   likely would have gone nowhere fast had he have to constantly contend with that helicopter shooting past his brain through his skull on a regular basis! 

[Spartan Girl]

18 hours ago, Blergh said:

Great post! Yet, it needs to be said that Penny seemed to have been an orphan with no other living relatives so she seemed to have had no choice but to at least have Uncle Gadget nominally care for her or be put in foster care or orphanages. However, rather than bemoan her orphaned status, she not only did her best put her brains (and Brains) to the best use possible but also wound up probably giving Inspector Gadget a purpose in life to want to watch out and do his best for her (even though she was the one who did that for him). Without her presence even without Dr. Claw around his life   likely would have gone nowhere fast had he have to constantly contend with that helicopter shooting past his brain through his skull on a regular basis! 

Good insight! I do feel like even though Gadget cared for her, he was quick to overlook and dismiss her help to the point where it was condescending -- see also my recent post in the Hell Yeah TV Moments. 

 Maybe that's why despite how, ahem, flawed  (to put it mildly) the Disney live action movie version was -- like how they shorted out Penny's role -- I do give them credit for not only establishing how close LA Penny and Gadget were, but also having him he recognize and appreciate how smart she really was in a way he never did in the cartoon.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[Ambrosefolly]

While I love all and I do mean all of the female characters on Derry Girls, I really love that Orla truly doesn't care what people think about her to an almost absurd degree. Whether she has a mild form of autism, I enjoy that she doesn't get bogged down in trying to be the most popular or getting the guy. I was completely charmed when it was revealed she asked her grandfather to prom because he was the guy she liked to most. While other girls will only remember the anxiety of that dance at the present date, she will have a memory with her grandfather that she will truly treasure. 

[roamyn]

I love Amy Farrah Fowler from TBBT.  She’s smart, got the man she loves, is incredibly successful, and the best friend anyone can have.

Brienne of Tarth from GOT is a beautiful badass Amazon, who rose to the top of her male dominated profession, as Leader of the Knight’s Guard.

Mary a Tyler Moore from TMMS was a smart, empathetic, beautiful human who made mistakes like the rest of us, but still preservered.

Phoebe Bouffet from Friends is ditzy, lovely, a great friend, and happy with life and her role in it.

Mrs. Garrett from Different Strokes/Facts of Life  was the best mother figure.  She always had the right answer and was good at consoling, cheering you on, or scolding w/o anger.

I’m sure there are more, but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

[Danny Franks]

4 hours ago, Ambrosefolly said:

While I love all and I do mean all of the female characters on Derry Girls, I really love that Orla truly doesn't care what people think about her to an almost absurd degree. Whether she has a mild form of autism, I enjoy that she doesn't get bogged down in trying to be the most popular or getting the guy. I was completely charmed when it was revealed she asked her grandfather to prom because he was the guy she liked to most. While other girls will only remember the anxiety of that dance at the present date, she will have a memory with her grandfather that she will truly treasure. 

I like that Orla doesn't care what other people think about her, but she clearly cares about her friends and family. She's always with the other girls, and never seems to be a hanger on, or just there because she's Erin's cousin. And I loved that little moment when she was holding James' hand after he decided to stay.

I think all the Derry Girls, and Sister Michael, are among my favourite female characters at the moment. 

[bijoux]

6 hours ago, Ambrosefolly said:

While I love all and I do mean all of the female characters on Derry Girls, I really love that Orla truly doesn't care what people think about her to an almost absurd degree. Whether she has a mild form of autism, I enjoy that she doesn't get bogged down in trying to be the most popular or getting the guy. I was completely charmed when it was revealed she asked her grandfather to prom because he was the guy she liked to most. While other girls will only remember the anxiety of that dance at the present date, she will have a memory with her grandfather that she will truly treasure. 

That'sso sweet. 

[Spartan Girl]

Leela on Futurama was a great female cartoon character.

[Spartan Girl]

Sorry for the doublepost but another cartoon girl I am fond of is Mandy from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.  I really miss that show.  Mandy was awesome: biting, sarcastic, tough as nails, took crap from no one...and yeah, she was kind of evil, but for her it worked.

[Danielg342]

I know professional wrestling can blur the lines between "real" and "fake" at times, but the characters are technically fictional characters and, besides, they are on TV.

I say this because I'm convinced there is no better character- male or female- than Becky Lynch. Maybe she's not the greatest athlete, but Lynch can tell a story and command the stage like no other. The character development too is off the charts- she has this smug confidence about her that makes her overachieve (and bite off more than she can chew), and you get the sense her bravado and brashness is a front for her many insecurities. It's one of those rare instances where you have the mixture of strengths and weaknesses just right to create someone you don't just like and root for, but find compelling enough to follow as well.

It's one of the rare times I can praise WWE's writers. More often than not they're pure garbage (though, admittedly, less garbage than what you typically get in the indies), but I have to give credit where credit's due and they hit a massive home run with Becky Lynch.

There's a few Oscars and Emmy's in the future of Rebecca Quin, the one who plays Lynch. I hope she gets them sooner rather than later because she deserves it.

...and, besides, I think the wider world deserves a "wrestler-turned-actor" who actually can act, as opposed to what John Cena and The Rock are doing.

Yeesh.

Anyway...now that my rant is over, here are my other favourite TV female characters:

• Alara Kitan (The Orville)- Here's another actress who deserves more than she's getting, because Halston Sage really brought to life a character that, while having her moments, wasn't particularly written very well. Don't get me wrong- Alara had some pretty good stories and was at least somewhat rounded as a character, but what really brought it home and gave the character some real, compelling complexity was Sage's portrayal. We often talk about actors and actresses that elevate their material- I don't think anyone did it better than Sage did (who's repeating this performance on Prodigal Son).
• Selina Kyle (Gotham)- Gotham's two teenage leads, David Mazouz and Camren Bincondova, were consistent bright spots on a show that had so much promise but really failed to deliver on it. Selina is a special case because she had a lot to do and I think her love story with Mazouz's Bruce Wayne was one of the better love stories I've ever seen. It wasn't particularly well-developed but what we did get was a story of two seemingly polar opposites who were more similar beneath the surface, as the "bad girl" Selina just wanted to do good and contribute to society while "good guy" Bruce had a dark side he struggled to contain, and Selina brought it out. What stuck out more for me was that Selina was the dominant partner in this relationship, and, despite times where Bruce tried to assert himself, Selina's dominance was never challenged and even accepted by Bruce. I still hold out hope that Mazouz and Bicondova can revive their partnership because those two would be electric together, but I also think Bicondova proved with the role of Selina that she could be a top dog all on her own- and I hope she gets it.
• Teresa Lisbon (The Mentalist)- Moreso in the earlier seasons than the later seasons, because the later years of The Mentalist made her a pushover despite the best attempts of Robin Tunney, who played Lisbon. The early seasons gave us a Lisbon that was true to Tunney's portrayal, as we had a Lisbon who was tough, confident and wouldn't put up with Patrick Jane's shenanigans, all while having that veneer of warmth, respect and maybe even a little admiration for Jane. Yes, the "tough but warm female cop" is a worn and tired trope, but there are a few times when it worked, and Lisbon- largely through the work of Tunney- really made it work.
• Zoe Hawkes (Criminal Minds)- She only had a few scenes in one episode (Episode 4.15 "Zoe's Reprise") where she was unceremoniously killed (and essentially just a plot device for CM's actual main characters), but Hawkes- played by Amy Davidson- left such an impression on me that her death was one of the few times I was actually angry the show went there. Davidson's Hawkes was cute, adorable, vulnerable, but iron-willed and headstrong, the kind of character you would want to develop and expand upon and want to watch for years and years on end. The good part is that her untimely death led me to create my CM fanfics so I could revive her, with those fanfics later spurring my own original stories down the line. So it wasn't a complete loss.
• The Mother (How I Met Your Mother)- Speaking of adorable characters that should have been used a lot better than they did, there's Mere Mosby. I'm not going to get into the details of how the show used her because that's spoilerish and you can read about it a lot elsewhere online. What I will say is that when you talk about characters you fall in love with, the kinds of characters you could picture yourself going out on a date with, I think there were few that struck me quite like Cristina Milioti's rendition of Mere Mosby. It's easy to misfire on the "cute" character because it's easy to "overcorrect" or "undercorrect" on the right amount of "cuteness" needed, but Milioti just hit it right out of the park. Mere Mosby was the kind of woman you could see yourself cuddling and hugging all day and you'd be content with that- but, don't take just my word for it: Milioti herself said she sensed she was going to get the role when Neil Patrick Harris gave her a hug and said "she's the one". Well, I guess if you can make Barney Stinson fall in love with you then you can make anyone fall in love with you.

[kathyk2]

19 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I know professional wrestling can blur the lines between "real" and "fake" at times, but the characters are technically fictional characters and, besides, they are on TV.

I say this because I'm convinced there is no better character- male or female- than Becky Lynch. Maybe she's not the greatest athlete, but Lynch can tell a story and command the stage like no other. The character development too is off the charts- she has this smug confidence about her that makes her overachieve (and bite off more than she can chew), and you get the sense her bravado and brashness is a front for her many insecurities. It's one of those rare instances where you have the mixture of strengths and weaknesses just right to create someone you don't just like and root for, but find compelling enough to follow as well.

It's one of the rare times I can praise WWE's writers. More often than not they're pure garbage (though, admittedly, less garbage than what you typically get in the indies), but I have to give credit where credit's due and they hit a massive home run with Becky Lynch.

There's a few Oscars and Emmy's in the future of Rebecca Quin, the one who plays Lynch. I hope she gets them sooner rather than later because she deserves it.

...and, besides, I think the wider world deserves a "wrestler-turned-actor" who actually can act, as opposed to what John Cena and The Rock are doing.

Yeesh.

Anyway...now that my rant is over, here are my other favourite TV female characters:

• Alara Kitan (The Orville)- Here's another actress who deserves more than she's getting, because Halston Sage really brought to life a character that, while having her moments, wasn't particularly written very well. Don't get me wrong- Alara had some pretty good stories and was at least somewhat rounded as a character, but what really brought it home and gave the character some real, compelling complexity was Sage's portrayal. We often talk about actors and actresses that elevate their material- I don't think anyone did it better than Sage did (who's repeating this performance on Prodigal Son).
• Selina Kyle (Gotham)- Gotham's two teenage leads, David Mazouz and Camren Bincondova, were consistent bright spots on a show that had so much promise but really failed to deliver on it. Selina is a special case because she had a lot to do and I think her love story with Mazouz's Bruce Wayne was one of the better love stories I've ever seen. It wasn't particularly well-developed but what we did get was a story of two seemingly polar opposites who were more similar beneath the surface, as the "bad girl" Selina just wanted to do good and contribute to society while "good guy" Bruce had a dark side he struggled to contain, and Selina brought it out. What stuck out more for me was that Selina was the dominant partner in this relationship, and, despite times where Bruce tried to assert himself, Selina's dominance was never challenged and even accepted by Bruce. I still hold out hope that Mazouz and Bicondova can revive their partnership because those two would be electric together, but I also think Bicondova proved with the role of Selina that she could be a top dog all on her own- and I hope she gets it.
• Teresa Lisbon (The Mentalist)- Moreso in the earlier seasons than the later seasons, because the later years of The Mentalist made her a pushover despite the best attempts of Robin Tunney, who played Lisbon. The early seasons gave us a Lisbon that was true to Tunney's portrayal, as we had a Lisbon who was tough, confident and wouldn't put up with Patrick Jane's shenanigans, all while having that veneer of warmth, respect and maybe even a little admiration for Jane. Yes, the "tough but warm female cop" is a worn and tired trope, but there are a few times when it worked, and Lisbon- largely through the work of Tunney- really made it work.
• Zoe Hawkes (Criminal Minds)- She only had a few scenes in one episode (Episode 4.15 "Zoe's Reprise") where she was unceremoniously killed (and essentially just a plot device for CM's actual main characters), but Hawkes- played by Amy Davidson- left such an impression on me that her death was one of the few times I was actually angry the show went there. Davidson's Hawkes was cute, adorable, vulnerable, but iron-willed and headstrong, the kind of character you would want to develop and expand upon and want to watch for years and years on end. The good part is that her untimely death led me to create my CM fanfics so I could revive her, with those fanfics later spurring my own original stories down the line. So it wasn't a complete loss.
• The Mother (How I Met Your Mother)- Speaking of adorable characters that should have been used a lot better than they did, there's Mere Mosby. I'm not going to get into the details of how the show used her because that's spoilerish and you can read about it a lot elsewhere online. What I will say is that when you talk about characters you fall in love with, the kinds of characters you could picture yourself going out on a date with, I think there were few that struck me quite like Cristina Milioti's rendition of Mere Mosby. It's easy to misfire on the "cute" character because it's easy to "overcorrect" or "undercorrect" on the right amount of "cuteness" needed, but Milioti just hit it right out of the park. Mere Mosby was the kind of woman you could see yourself cuddling and hugging all day and you'd be content with that- but, don't take just my word for it: Milioti herself said she sensed she was going to get the role when Neil Patrick Harris gave her a hug and said "she's the one". Well, I guess if you can make Barney Stinson fall in love with you then you can make anyone fall in love with you.

I loved Tracy too. Her death made me hate the How I met your mother finale. She was interesting and everyone liked her so of course she had to die.

[Danielg342]

1 hour ago, kathyk2 said:

I loved Tracy too. Her death made me hate the How I met your mother finale. She was interesting and everyone liked her so of course she had to die.

I suppose the most diplomatic explanation is that Carter Bays and Craig Thomas thought the emotional impact of Tracy McConnell's death would be even greater if the audience liked her and didn't want her to die, because they wanted the audience to mourn her like they would a member of their own family.

In principle, it's not a bad idea, but in practice they erred on two fronts.

First, they built her up too much and made her too likeable. For a character who was only meant to be a plot device- being the "Lost Lenore" that spurs Ted to move on with his life and finally pursue Robin- they sure did give her a lot of depth and nuance, and Cristin Milioti's landmark performance made Tracy resonate with the audience that much more. We may have only seen her for what was, in effect, one season, but Tracy felt like she was always there and we got to rooting for her and supporting her just like we did with the rest of the How I Met Your Mother cast.

(Heck, we could probably argue that since Tracy didn't develop all the baggage the other HIMYM characters got that Tracy was even more likeable than those other characters)

Secondly, the way they dispatched of Tracy. After building her up for 24 episodes and establishing her as a firm part of the HIMYM family, the show devoted one line to say that she died. Not one episode, not even one scene- one measly line. If you want to talk about writing faux pas, this would be one of the big ones. If you're going to kill off an important character, unless you have a good reason (like the actor left the show unexpectedly in between seasons), you need to devote the proper amount of time to describe that death and actually show the impact of that death. You don't have an episode where the character acts all fine and normal and then- boom!- in one split second, you declare them dead.

It just feels callous and cruel. Killing Tracy off like they did was like they treated her like a bug that needed to be squashed or trash that needed to be thrown out- in other words, without the care and thought that a character the audience invested so much in needs. Killing Traci off with barely a mention made me think, "why did I care so much about this character if the writers were going to discard her like she's nothing?" and that's where I think Bays and Thomas really failed.

Like I said before, the idea of The Mother dying tragically isn't a bad idea, but it has to be properly done. At the very least, they should have devoted the finale to deciding her ultimate fate. Perhaps we find out that Ted is telling the story to his kids the night before Tracy's big operation that will determine if she will live or not- it would explain why he spent so much time telling that story because it'd be believable that both he and his kids wouldn't be able to sleep in a situation like that. Ted would then conclude his story, with perhaps the purpose of the story to teach his kids about tragedy- never take your loved ones for granted, because they can be gone before you know it.

We then learn it's morning and Ted decides to go to the hospital, forgoing sleep. He and his kids arrive, and the rest of the gang is there too. Then we learn Tracy's fate and, of course, it's not good. Cue the weeping and the grieving, with Ted just about inconsolable even though his friends- themselves shaken up- try their hardest to console him anyway.

Then Robin- who we learn in a previous episode decided not to wed Barney- offers to take Ted out to dinner or for a walk to ease his mind and the last scene is Ted and Robin on their date. We're then left to decide, in our own minds, whether or not the date worked and the two cemented their relationship.

Yeah, it still reduces Tracy to that "Lost Lenore" status, but I think it better takes into account the impact of the tragedy and it better explains why Ted is telling this story in the first place.

In short, it corrects the biggest blunder that Bays and Thomas made- that they forgot just what The Mother would mean to not just Ted and his gang, but to us as an audience as well.

[Ohiopirate02]

6 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I suppose the most diplomatic explanation is that Carter Bays and Craig Thomas thought the emotional impact of Tracy McConnell's death would be even greater if the audience liked her and didn't want her to die, because they wanted the audience to mourn her like they would a member of their own family.

In principle, it's not a bad idea, but in practice they erred on two fronts.

First, they built her up too much and made her too likeable. For a character who was only meant to be a plot device- being the "Lost Lenore" that spurs Ted to move on with his life and finally pursue Robin- they sure did give her a lot of depth and nuance, and Cristin Milioti's landmark performance made Tracy resonate with the audience that much more. We may have only seen her for what was, in effect, one season, but Tracy felt like she was always there and we got to rooting for her and supporting her just like we did with the rest of the How I Met Your Mother cast.

(Heck, we could probably argue that since Tracy didn't develop all the baggage the other HIMYM characters got that Tracy was even more likeable than those other characters)

Secondly, the way they dispatched of Tracy. After building her up for 24 episodes and establishing her as a firm part of the HIMYM family, the show devoted one line to say that she died. Not one episode, not even one scene- one measly line. If you want to talk about writing faux pas, this would be one of the big ones. If you're going to kill off an important character, unless you have a good reason (like the actor left the show unexpectedly in between seasons), you need to devote the proper amount of time to describe that death and actually show the impact of that death. You don't have an episode where the character acts all fine and normal and then- boom!- in one split second, you declare them dead.

It just feels callous and cruel. Killing Tracy off like they did was like they treated her like a bug that needed to be squashed or trash that needed to be thrown out- in other words, without the care and thought that a character the audience invested so much in needs. Killing Traci off with barely a mention made me think, "why did I care so much about this character if the writers were going to discard her like she's nothing?" and that's where I think Bays and Thomas really failed.

Like I said before, the idea of The Mother dying tragically isn't a bad idea, but it has to be properly done. At the very least, they should have devoted the finale to deciding her ultimate fate. Perhaps we find out that Ted is telling the story to his kids the night before Tracy's big operation that will determine if she will live or not- it would explain why he spent so much time telling that story because it'd be believable that both he and his kids wouldn't be able to sleep in a situation like that. Ted would then conclude his story, with perhaps the purpose of the story to teach his kids about tragedy- never take your loved ones for granted, because they can be gone before you know it.

We then learn it's morning and Ted decides to go to the hospital, forgoing sleep. He and his kids arrive, and the rest of the gang is there too. Then we learn Tracy's fate and, of course, it's not good. Cue the weeping and the grieving, with Ted just about inconsolable even though his friends- themselves shaken up- try their hardest to console him anyway.

Then Robin- who we learn in a previous episode decided not to wed Barney- offers to take Ted out to dinner or for a walk to ease his mind and the last scene is Ted and Robin on their date. We're then left to decide, in our own minds, whether or not the date worked and the two cemented their relationship.

Yeah, it still reduces Tracy to that "Lost Lenore" status, but I think it better takes into account the impact of the tragedy and it better explains why Ted is telling this story in the first place.

In short, it corrects the biggest blunder that Bays and Thomas made- that they forgot just what The Mother would mean to not just Ted and his gang, but to us as an audience as well.

I will also add, the pacing of the final season was off.  They wasted too much time dragging out Robin and Barney's wedding knowing that they were going to implode shortly thereafter.  I know the finale spanned years, but to the audience they just got married last week after spending the entire season getting to the actual ceremony.  The writers spent too much time on an event that was not supposed to matter overall.  

[doodlebug]

1 hour ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I will also add, the pacing of the final season was off.  They wasted too much time dragging out Robin and Barney's wedding knowing that they were going to implode shortly thereafter.  I know the finale spanned years, but to the audience they just got married last week after spending the entire season getting to the actual ceremony.  The writers spent too much time on an event that was not supposed to matter overall.  

There was also the fact that they’d spent years demonstrating why Ted and Robin would be incompatible over the long haul, only to throw it all away for an ending that most of the audience didn’t want.

Robin was devoted to her career which involved far flung travel and didn’t want kids. Ted was a homebody who wanted a wife and family and the whole picket fence fantasy.  By the end of the last season, neither one had changed their position on what they wanted in life, but we were supposed to think they were OTP, fated tone together.  Nope, not buyin’ it.

[Spartan Girl]

Princess Jasmine in the Aladdin animated series. She was great in the movies but she really got to unleash her full awesomeness in the TV show.

[ParadoxLost]

11 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I will also add, the pacing of the final season was off.  They wasted too much time dragging out Robin and Barney's wedding knowing that they were going to implode shortly thereafter.  I know the finale spanned years, but to the audience they just got married last week after spending the entire season getting to the actual ceremony.  The writers spent too much time on an event that was not supposed to matter overall.  

If memory serves,  there were lots of issues in season 8 about whether Jason Segel would return for season 9, if there would be a season 9 without him, and how much flexibility they'd need to give him to get him to come back.  I think that this turmoil likely sparked the idea of a season focused on a wedding because it made it easier to handle Lily/Marshal if Segel wasn't available for all or parts of the season.  And you know how those writers were.  Could never let go of an idea even if it no longer made sense.

[Danny Franks]

Maeve Wiley, in Sex Education. She hits a lot of tropes - poverty-stricken background, lack of parental figures, tough and spiky, considered a slut because people started rumours about her. But it's the way she's handled all that that's so admirable. 

She's come up with ways that a sixteen/seventeen year old girl can make money to pay rent, using her brains rather than having to do anything sleazy. In a nice inversion of the pretty-but-poor girl trope, she meets a guy in the abandoned toilet block at school and asks "have you got the money?" He hands some cash over and she... produces the essay she's written for him. We later learn she's written stacks of them for money, letting other people claim the credit for her intellectual positions.

The more you learn about her, the more you like her. When her chief antagonist is about to have a compromising photo sent around school, Maeve goes out of her way to prevent it, reasoning that "nobody deserves to be shamed" not even the girl who has repeatedly shamed her for something that wasn't even true.

But she's not perfect, either. She is selfish sometimes, and she's too quick to be rude and drive people away, she's insecure enough about her background and who she is that she's happy to accept being Aimee's secret friend, because Aimee's other friends don't like her. 

In her own words, "complex female characters" are what does it for her.

[Spartan Girl]

Xena and Gabrielle. Thank you, SyFy for bringing back this show during this horrible year and reminding us why they were one of the best damn heroines of all time.

[Haleth]

I'm doing a rewatch of The Expanse and am loving all the strong, take charge women - Avasarala, Bobbie, Drummer...  No one should question their authority and God help anyone who does.

[Spartan Girl]

I'm rewatching A Series of Unfortunate Events and it had a lot of great female characters: Violet, Kit Snicket, Jacqueline, and Olivia the most awesome librarian ever.