Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is “Top Ten Favorite Heroines From Books (or movies or TV)”. The term “heroines” suggests a certain amount of adventure and thrilling heroics, and we’ve got plenty of that here. These women (and girls) take the lead, take charge, and are just overall amazing.
1) Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall Fraser (Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon): Claire is the strongest, smartest woman around in any century. Fiercely loyal, dedicated to her friends and family, a gifted scientist, and a passionate lover, Claire’s got it all. Plus, who else do you know who makes home-made penicillin?
2) Mercy Thompson (The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs): Auto mechanic, martial arts master, magical shape-shifter, and just overall an incredibly brave woman. Definitely the person you’d want on your side when the big baddies come to call.
3) Lyra (His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman): Lyra is dedicated to her friends, loves adventure, is highly curious, and puts herself at risk even when she’s afraid, if there’s something important on the line.
4) Diana Bishop (All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness): Witch and historian, Diana is a perfect combination of brains and magic.
5) Cassie Sullivan (The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey): How do you keep going when everything you know is gone? Bravery, commitment to a promise, and a sheer determination to make things right or die trying.
6) Scout Finch (To Kill A Mockingbird): Okay, what’s not to love? Scout is a little Southern tomboy who learned her values from an amazing father. Scout stands up for the people she loves and doesn’t understand injustice. Love her.
7) Harry Crewe (The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley): Harry goes from sheltered daughter to a wielder of a magical sword and one hell of a horsewoman, among other achievements. She’s a perfect example of a fantasy fiction woman who most definitely is not a damsel in distress.
I want to use the rest of my list to give shout-outs to a few bunches of amazing women:
8) The women of Fables (by Bill WIllingham): I love just about everything about this graphic novel series, especially the amazing female characters such as Snow White, Rose Red, Cinderella, and Beauty, to name but a few. These are no Disney princesses. Really, if you haven’t read Fables, go get volume one immediately! You’ll be happy you did, I promise.
9) The Stark women (A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin): Arya, Catelyn, even Sansa — all have been through enormous trauma, and manage to hold onto their courage even in the face of unbearable loss and misery.
10) The women of Harry Potter (the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling): Hermione is amazing, but so are Molly Weasley and Minerva McGonagall, not to mention Luna Lovegood, Lily Potter, Nymphadora Tonks, and so many more.
Okay, that’s 10 — but I do want to give three cheers to some of my favorite women on TV right now:
- Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans)
- Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)
- Jane Villanueva (Jane the Virgin)
- Zoe Hart (Hart of Dixie)
- The women of Black Sails: Eleanor Guthrie, Anne Bonny, and Max. (Does Max have a last name? Couldn’t find it.)
Oh, and one more just because no list of powerful women is complete without the one and only Slayer, Buffy Summers:
Who are your favorite heroines? Please share your links!
(Note: All images scavenged from miscellaneous Pinterest boards…)
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Bookshelf Fantasies 
Fantastic list! I love that you’ve included all the Starks and the Fables ladies, too. 🙂
Aw, thanks! It’s hard to choose just one when they’re all so terrific. 🙂
Great list. LOVE #s 5 and 6!
Thanks! I’m pretty fond of those two as well.
Great list! 🙂
You have to love Buffy! Great list.
Buffy rocks! I think I’m overdue for a rewatch.
This is great list. There are a lot of these I need to read yet.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
Fables is next on my graphic novels to-read list after Y: The Last Man — I totally scoured your GR graphic novels shelf for ideas because I’m totally hooked now. Also been in the mood for quicker reads, so these have been perfect — I think I will need to put in a LOT of library requests to get through all of Fables though 🙂
Fables is long, but so worth it! There’s also a spin-off series and a few stand-alones, so you can have a lot of fun in that world. I’m so glad you’re a fan of Y: The Last Man! I just treated myself to the hardcover editions (replacing my beat-up paperworks) — every time a good certificate or book-related credit came my way this past year. Fun!
Oooh great list 😀
Cora @ Tea Party Princess
loving the strioong heroines theme you got here.
MY TOP TEN TUESDAY
I love your picks! Cassie, of course, but also Diana Bishop, Lyra, and all the HP women! Strong female characters FTW 🙂
Thanks! I love great female characters. So glad to hear you’re a fan of Lyra too!
I haven’t seen Lyra enough, so good choice! She is my all-time fav!
My TTT: http://bookclubbabe.net/2015/02/24/top-ten-favorite-literary-heroines/
I love those books — I think I need to do a reread of the series!
Lyra! I love Lyra. She’s on my TTT, too. And Peggy Carter! I just recently started watching Agent Carter, and I am obsessed. I cannot wait for tonight’s episode. I hope they do more.
Ooh, I’m a day behind on Agent Carter! I’m excited to watch, but I’m sad that it’s the finale! I hope there’s more too — she’s a great character, and I think the show has been so great!
I am not sure how I managed to miss Scout. I absolutely adore that character! 😀 Great picks, as always!
Thank you! Having just re-read TKAM, Scout was definitely on my mind, especially since I’ve now convinced my husband to read it too. 🙂
The Stark and Hogwarts women made my list too. Scout is a great one! I’ve got to remember to include more classics in my list. Loved her! 😀 Great picks. My TTT
Thanks so much! Scout really is a great character. Maybe for the next freebie topic, I’ll do great dads in fiction so I can include Atticus!
So glad to see Cassie Sullivan on another list. Peggy Carter is amazing! So is Buffy 🙂
Buffy is amazing… and since we have the newer Buffy seasons as comics, she counts as a book AND a TV heroine. 🙂
I considered Diana Bishop for my list as well! I just haven’t finished the second book in the trilogy so I thought I’d hold off just in case. 😉 Great list!
My TTT: http://www.auggietalk.com/2015/02/top-ten-favorite-heroines.html
Diana stays great throughout the trilogy, so she’s a keeper! 🙂 Thanks!
I really should start watching Buffy, this is the third list with her on it i’ve seen!
My Top Ten :]
Definitely give Buffy a try! People were trying to convince me for years to watch the show, and once I finally gave in, I was pretty much instantly hooked. 🙂