List of notable female characters

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This is a list of female characters who are notable as characters.

Criteria

This is a list of female characters who are notable as characters.

Criteria and examples might include:

• first example of a female character in a genre ("Jirel of Joiry")
• the character was pathbreaking ("Uhura" as played by Nichelle Nichols)
• the character is so well-known as to have virtually defined the character ("mata hari")
• the character is cited by many real-life people as an inspiration for their art or in their lives ("Wonder Woman")
• the character is the exemplar or best-known example of a female character in that role or genre (e.g., "Lara Croft" for female POV characters in the action adventure gaming genre)
• the character's story arc ("Podkayne of Mars") or personality ("Podkayne of Mars" spunky girl; "Susan Calvin" sterile female scientist) is frequently cited as an example of a particular way of characterizing female characters
• the character is highly notable in a highly notable series or work and has achieved significant notability for that ("Jean Grey/Phoenix")
• the character is well-known as a character and was pivotal in a feminist reclamation of a particular type of female character ("Buffy" as a damsel in distress; "Tenar" as a reclamation of the Earthsea series; "Alyx" as the female adventurer)

Characters need not be necessarily ideal, perfect, feminist, or good role-models; they are notable.

List of characters

A - C

• Ace (Doctor Who) - last companion of the original Dr Who; she had her own character arc
• Aeryn Sun - leading female character of Farscape, who also occupies the non-traditional position of being the tough warrior in a male-female relationship
• Alyx
• Isabelle Blundell - lesbian teenager
• Stephanie Brown (Female Robin)
• Susan Calvin - Major female scientist character by Isaac Asimov
• Chiana - omnisexual alien outlaw
• Lara Croft - The first successful character-based video game based on a female character, Lara Croft.

E - M

• Eowyn - Warrior woman in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
• Gabrielle - Xena's companion and partner; see Xena-Gabrielle relationship; the Every Woman on a long coming-of-age, growth, and discipleship story arc
• Jean Grey (Phoenix) - Arguably the most powerful character in the entire Marvel pantheon
• Jirel of Joiry - An early series of warrior woman stories from the pulps by C. L. Moore
• Princess Leia Organa - A wise-cracking leader of the Rebellion in "Star Wars"; only female representation in a major transformative media SF trend
• Moya - living, sentient spaceship character

N - R

• Vicki Nelson - lead character from a series of novels who became the lead in a TV series.
• Podkayne - A notable "spunky girl" character created by Robert A. Heinlein in Podkayne of Mars; universally cited as the "spunky" girl character; also perhaps the most popular example of an infuriating story arc with a girl who grows up to give up her career ambitions for wifedom & motherhood
• Ellen Ripley - Arguably the first modern female action hero in a major SF film series "Alien".

S

• Toshiko Sato - first character of colour regular in a Dr Who spin-off
• Servalan - arch-villain of Blake's 7, ruthless fascist dictator with real political power
• Sarah Jane Smith - Doctor Who companion who got her own spin-off
• Starbuck (Kara Thrace) - At least in her first season of "Battlestar Galactica" (2004 re-imagining), Starbuck successfully regendered the "lovable rogue" character from the first "Battlestar Galactica", a character envisioned by at least one of its creators as indelibly masculine.
• Chloe Sullivan - Smallville character original to the TV series and kick-ass investigative reporter -- the one female character on that show who's neither Clark's relative or love interest
• Buffy Summers - Significant fandom; inspired numerous ass-kicking girl imitators.

T - Z

• Tenar - Young Earthsea priestess who first appeared in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan, and who was the narrator and protagonist of Le Guin's feminist revisitation of Earthsea, Tehanu; also appeared in later
• Uhura - First black female character in a regular science fiction role on TV; Martin Luther King persuaded Nichelle Nichols to stay on Star Trek playing Uhura because she was a role model for African Americans; Uhura participated in first televised interracial kiss in US.
• Wonder Woman - First major female superhero
• Barbara Wright - arguably the real protagonist for S1 of the original Doctor Who series, rather than the Doctor
• Xena - Significant TV warrior princess that transformed fandom and representations of ass-kicking women; lexbian subtext acceptability; importation of Hong Kong-style action hero
• Zhaan - she's kicked more ass than you've sat on, and she's a plant

See also

• surely there are lots of other great lists of female characters we can make, like
• Index to female characters by occupation
• List of SF featuring women of color as protagonists
• List of SF featuring lesbians as protagonists
• List of mythological female characters
• Black warrior women (not a list but contains one)