"Who is your favorite heroine?" Topic

It could be from a book, a film, a tv show, or from history. Which woman is your favorite hero?

I really like Rosa Parks, Rosa Luxembourg, Emma Goldman, and Ms. Roosevelt for historic figures. I also like Imperator Furiosa, Tank Girl, Lucy Van Pelt, Wonder Woman, and Hopey and Maggie (comic book characters from Love and Rockets) from the world of fiction and film.

Ripley always comes to mind. I am sure there are many more though.

Ripley here too.

Caterina Sforza
Maria Theresa of Austria
Nell Gwynn

While an unlikely choice, I have always liked Maria Theresa as a historical heroine – while Frederick the Great just had to bully his neighbours, smoke and banter with Voltaire Maria Theresa had 16 kids, had to manage a huge multi-nationality empire and deal with pesky neighbours like those nasty Prussians

Ripley

Agatha Heterodyne.

"I really like Rosa Parks, Rosa Luxembourg, Emma Goldman, and Ms. Roosevelt for historic figures"

Excellent list and totally agree with you.

Any female SOE operative, and nurse Edith Cavell

Arwen Evening Star

Honor Harrington

Fictional:
Ripley and Honor Harrington

Real:
Madame Currie
Rosa Parks
and Mrs. Adams and Mrs.McGuire

Fictional: Anne Elliott
Real: ?

Leeloo
Orphan Black 'sisters'
Ripley
Emma Peel
Mrs. Smith

Every woman sniper, pilot, medic and tank driver of the Red Army
Every woman Astronaut, Cosmonaut and Taikonaut
Zenobia
Both Queen Elizabeths
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
so many…

Red army female snipers

Mrs. Peel. 'Nuff said.

Boudicca/Boadicea, Cleopatra VII and Zenobia – led their countries against the Roman empire
Eleanor of Aquitaine and her mother-in-law the Empress Mathilda – redefined the rules for women in the twelfth century

Literary:
Juliet Capulet
Lisbeth Salander
Phryne Fisher

Film:
Alice
Elvira
Leia Organa

TV:
Jane Tennison
Sandra Pullman
Susan Walker

Mulan

Perhaps the most heroic heroine in the movies is Eowyn.
Not because she sneaks off to battle reversing gender blah blah blah.

No. She faces up to the Witch King because it is her duty. She knows she is going to die in defense of her King. The look on her face is sheer terror. And then suddenly that idiot Witch King sneers his prophecy at her that no man may kill her. Well! We all know how THAT turns out!

She is no elf maiden who can't be bothered to sweep her room because all the elf servant girls took off for the Havens.

Historical? Alice Paul, without whom we might have had suffrage for women a lot later. She also wrote the NRA. Nellie Bly, who opened the door for real female journalists and did it with some style. Diane Nash, who worked with SNCC during the civil rights movement. Eleanor of Acquitaine. I'd also admit to some admiration for Gloria Steinem. I wish we knew more about Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians.

Fictional? Eilonwy, from Lloyd Alexander's Taran series, with Eowyn from LotRs in the running.

Morticia Addams

No love for Jeanne d'Arc?

Ron

John, very good point on Eowyn. So I will have to add her (and Alice from the Resident Evil).
Thanks,
Pat

Robert Post's Child!

Agatha Hertrodyne

x42

Emma Peel
Telzey Amberdon
Ravenscraft named a good one. :)

Victoria (Helen Mirren) from RED.

Great women and great lists!

Tanya Rodham Bobbitt

Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

Hypatia.

Tarzan's Jane: Maureen O'Sullivan.

Sarah-Jane Smith.

Nobody's said Hillary yet. I won't.

Thursday Next, from the series by Jasper Fforde.

Irena Sendler

Mammy Yokum

Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)
Zenobia (Historical)
Eowyn (Lord of the Rings)
Joan of Arc (Historical)
Commander Miranda Keyes (Halo)
Pvt Vasquez (Aliens)
Signals Officer Mundy (Lt Leary)
Serrano (can't remember the series name by Moon)

Rob

Black tar.

My wife votes for 7 of 9 and Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour

Emma Peel.

Jeanne d'Arc.

And the real women mentioned by peterx.

Lagertha from The Vikings Series
Hermione Granger (Harry Potter Series)
Miss Havisham (Great Expectations)

Elizabeth the First
Catherine the Great
Golda Meir

Real life: Mother Theresa and Marie Curie

Fictional: Tara Chace (from Greg Rucka's "Queen & Country" comics and novels); Ripley.

At the risk of dating myself, Red Sonja.

Raven

Real: My mother. Survived Nazi and Communist occupation before immigrating to the US. Youngest of five, 1st generation college graduate. Became a teacher. Kicked my ass when I needed it.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Said what she meant. Did what she said. Lived what she preached.

Fictional: Alexia Tarabotti from Gail Carriger's "…less" novels. Had real character depth for me.

Penny Dreadful – Not the TV show (haven't seen it), the pulp detective heroine in my wargame scenario series. Always in control, one step ahead. Perfect counterpoint to the other continuing character detective, Ace Goodknight.

Dear Etotheipi

Kudos and Praise to your mom. I've studied history all my life, but in the end I find that my reverence and awe goes to the everyday women who after the most horrific and horrendous disasters begin to little by little pick up the pieces and rebuild life.

Dear Winston Smith

Could not but comment on your remark on Eown. I agree 100%. I thought that scene in the movie was of course classic Shakespeare (the meeting of Macbeth and Macduff) but you have hit the mark. She accepts her destiny. Yet she does NOT arrive there by some prophecy, or some knowledge that she will triumph- no she does what she does because it is her duty as a kings daughter, but more she rushes towards it.

There comes a moment a minute or so before where if you watch closely there is a subtle facial change in the actress. It's like Ripley in Alien when she is travelling down the elevator to the nest. There is a moment when she's loading the gun and strapping it up when her eyes are fearful, reticent. Then you see them go dull and calm, like a sharks. At that moment she has become a robot, a killing machine, and the it is the alien who should be fearful for its life. The same with Eown. It's the point when she says to herself "Alright-- this is it… this is where it all ends…" And she's off.

There was nothing to say that the Witch King couldn't kill her. She was not protected by immortality, but she was willing to step into the role of destiny, unknowing. It is that leap of faith that makes people able to triumph.