The top five

And now, for International Women's Day, I present to you the top five women as voted by you. But first, a recap of numbers 50 - 6:

50. Lady Macbeth	41. Samantha Carter	32. Storm	23. River Tam	14. The Bride
49. Anne Shirley	40. Elizabeth Bennet	31. Riza Hawkeye	22. Xena	13. Galadriel
48. Rogue	39. Ygritte	30. Sarah Connor	21. Leela	12. Ellen Ripley
47. Nancy Drew	38. Catwoman	29. Jean Grey	20. Marceline the Vampire Queen	11. Willow Rosenberg
46. Belle	37. Trinity	28. Merida	19. Alice	10. Uhura
45. Olivier Mira Armstrong	36. Mary Poppins	27. Princess Bubblegum	18. Matilda Wormwood	9. Dana Scully
44. Leeloo	35. Amélie Poulain	26. Korra	17. Luna Lovegood	8. Daenerys Targaryen
43. Black Widow	34. San	25. Pippi Longstocking	16. Kathryn Janeway	7. Princess Leia
42. Amy Farrah Fowler	33. Toph Beifong	24. Lisbeth Salander	15. Katniss Everdeen	6. Mulan

And now,the top five:

5. Éowyn (The Lord of the Rings)

True, Tolkien’s books don’t tend to have a huge focus on the female heroes, but the ones they do focus on are generally pretty awesome. Éowyn, for example, is his answer to Mulan (see #6 on this list). She was told by her father that she couldn’t go into battle because she was a woman. In fact, it was her womanhood that served her in battle more than anything else. You’d think a creature as powerful the leader of the Nazgûl would realise a prophecy saying it couldn’t be killed by a man means that a woman could kill him, but I guess logical thinking doesn’t come with being Sauron’s second in command.

4. Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter)

You don’t get to be Dumbledore’s right hand woman without a damn good reason. Professor McGonagall’s reason is that she’s a really powerful witch. Seriously, Transfiguration is one of the most difficult and complicated forms of magic, AND SHE MASTERED IT! And she survived the Second Wizarding War. Did I mention she’s in her sixties when she did this? Because she was. On top of being a powerful witch though, she’s also tough but fair, jeopardising her own House’s chances of winning the House Cup when her own students broke the rules.

I also want to give a shout-out to Maggie Smith who played McGonagall in the movies, since she continued playing the character for the last three movies, despite the fact she was receiving chemo therapy and developed a case of shingles. I guess the character rubbed off on her a bit.

3. Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Honestly, her title says it all. Vampire Slayer. You don’t get a title like that without having some level of badassery. Buffy has the job of fighting and killing any kind of demon hoping to harm the human race, and will die protecting it. In fact, she has. Twice. And is still kicking ass. Buffy knows what has to be done, and will do it. Even if it means sending her newly reformed vampire boyfriend to hell to stop the world being sucked into a hell vortex. Really, anyone who can smack a goddess around with a hammer deserves recognition.

2. Arya Stark (A Song of Ice and Fire)

Most ten year old girls don’t have a hit list. But when most of your family has been murdered and your home destroyed, it can make you a little bit annoyed. Unlike her sister Sansa, Arya doesn’t want to simply be married off for the sake of gaining power. She’d rather get into a fight with someone. Her half-brother Jon even gave her a sword called Needle as a gift, with the clear instructions of how to use it: stick ‘em with the pointy end. With five very thick books to go through, let me just summarise some of her best bits: throwing Joffrey’s sword in the river, escaping Harrenhal with her friends, reclaiming Needle after killing The Tickler and becoming an assassin.

1. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)

As if you weren’t expecting to see Hermione here. She’s one of the most badass witches in anything ever. Think about it: she grew up with a normal life, with normal Muggle parents and school, and still got to be top of the class, beating witches and wizards who grew up with magic their whole life. True, she starts off as an annoying know-it-all, but how many times did that save her and her friends? She's so much of a nerd, she had to get a time-turner just to attend all her classes in her third year. And I'm pretty sure she's the only nerd to ever intentionally miss school (granted, she was saving the world at the time, but still...)

So, there you have it. The Top 50 Fictional Women in anything ever. Coming this November: The Top 50 Fictional Men.