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