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"I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation / You're living in the past, it's a new generation / A girl can do what she wants to do and that's what I'm gonna do."
— Bad Reputation, Joan Jett and the Black hearts
On many best of lists, we often focus on heroes and not heroines. It's easy to come up with male heroes who we feel embody our definition of "the perfect hero." But what of the heroines? Over the years we've seen more heroines appear, though they still do not get the respect or admiration that they truly deserve. While we're seeing a resurgence of feminist approaches in comics and television, video games in particular still fall behind in a lot of ways.
I posed a question to the RPGamer staff, which was essentially: "What makes a great female character?" which then spawned a list of characters that each of the staff members felt embodied strong qualities that make them a favourite character. Be it their physical or mental strengths, their relationships with others, or merely their can-do attitude, RPGs have always been very fortunate in the level of diversity presented in its female characters.
We hope you enjoy this look at some of the staff's favourite RPG ladies, and we encourage you to chime in on our forums with some of your favourites and why you adore them. This is not a popularity contest, but rather this is an opportunity to showcase women in the genre who offer more than players may realize at a first glance. As Sam Maggs says in her book, The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy, these women are "The Doctor and not the Companion."
Author's Note: Huge thank you goes out the staff for their wonderful write-ups and to Sarah McGarr for the lovely banner. You guys are amazing!
Meet the Ladies... »
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