This is a list put together of some of the women from books and movies that I have found most entertaining with their gung-ho, go get ‘em attitude.
10. Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua is a 12 year old girl who takes on parallel universes in an effort to find the truth the destroy death with her golden compass in Phillip Pullman’s trilogy “His Dark Materials”. Lyra hits number 10 on my list because although she is a brave little soldier; she doesn’t really have fighting skills. I love this ragged young girl though.
9. Alice
Alice (the one in Wonderland) shows some serious potential in Tim Burton’s epic take on the original ”Alice in Wonderland”. Slaying a Jabberwocky is no small feat.
8. Mulan
Cutting her hair off and joining the Chinese army to spare her father’s life, this young woman gets an A+ . Not to mention, she did score a pretty handsome hunk at the end.
7. Susan Pevensie
The eldest sister in “The Chronicles of Narnia” series, Susan fights in the raging war over Narnia yielding a bow and quiver of scarlet feathered arrows.
6. Katniss Everdeen
Katniss makes her debut in Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games”. Known as the “girl who was on fire” Katniss survives the horrific ordeal of being forced to play as a pawn in the Capitol’s beloved Hunger Games and forced to fight 23 other adolescents to the death. Katniss is a skilled archer and expert hunter.
5. Mrs. Smith
Everybody remembers the Bradgelina flick “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, right? Mrs. Smith displayed quite the skill set: from catlike reflexes to knife throwing, technology savvy and of course firearm precision to keeping a picture perfect home. Mrs. Smith takes the term domestic diva to whole new level.
4. Lara Croft
As long as we are talking about Angelina, lets not forget Lara Croft. Lara is the heiress to a pretty nice sum of money and an instinctual archeological passion. The nice thing about Lara is that she can shoot two Uzis while doing side-flips ten feet in the air.
3. Hanna
This movie made me want a daughter. Hanna is a deadly 16 year old assassin trained by her father and sent out on a mission that leads her to discover more than just the target.
2. Beatrix Kiddo
Beatrix is my favorite Tarantino creation. This lady can do more than just shoot a gun, she is also a kung fu master and is pretty handy with a sword. Her skill set lands her at number two on my list. Well, her skill set as well as her sweet move in Kill Bill vol. 2 when he plucks the only eyeball left out of a slimy adversary, gets buried alive and then digs herself out, exacting revenge on the long list of people who have wronged her. Beatrix holds a dear place close to my heart.
1. Lisbeth Salander
Lisbeth Salander is the heroine in Stieg Larsson’s ”Millenium” trilogy. Making her first step to stardom in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, Lisbeth went on to kick ass and steal the admiration of readers for another two books: “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”. If you’ve read the books, I’m sure you understand why Lisbeth gets the coveted number one spot on my list. For those of you who havent, let me just say this: Lisbeth takes revenge to whole new level. Her super creative (or should I say Stieg Larsson’s super creative…) torture tactics make her number one, hands down, in my playbook. Go Lisbeth!
And that’s my list. Let me know what you think, I want to see your lists!
The omission of Sarah Connor (Hamilton and Heady both did a great job) is criminal!
Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is at the top of my list. Saving 2 billion people from nuclear annihilation is pretty important. Ellen Ripley is a close second.
Another badass female is Diz, Dina Meyer’s character in Starship Troopers. One can disagree with director Paul Verhoeven’s fuzzily thought out but pretty far lefty politics, but his anti-fascist portrayal of a politically correct fascist society from the fascist’s perspective is spot on.
Diz’s was far and away the most interesting character in a movie which is vastly under rated by viewers who don’t understand that Verhoeven made an anti-fascist movie, not pro. Diz’s final scenes are real tear jerkers.
Also impressive is that Starship Troopers, made in 1997, captured the response to the 9-11 attacks nearly flawlessly.
And it is another very funny movie.
Thanks for the educated input and thank you for reading Packing Pretty
Hit Girl from movie Bad Ass. And +1 on Ripley.
found you from saysuncle
Love Lisbeth, but Buffy will always be #1 in my book. She kicked off the whole girl badass genre we now see a lot on TV.
I never saw the tv show so I have no opinion on that, but indeed, the movie Buffy was wonderful. That was a seriously funny movie. I’ve never understood why so few people saw it as a portrayal of the struggles of a young majority woman coming of age while learning to deal with the stresses inherent in a multi-cultural society.
Surprised not to see Ellen Ripley on this list.
Actually, I honestly haven’t seen very many movies, both because I’m young and because I rarely can find one I actually enjoy. So I am probably not even qualified to make this list. HAHA. Thanks for reading, WFDT!
Re: Lisbeth, I’ve watched the movies, and agree with your choice of her as the #1 kick-ass heroine of our time. My understanding is that Stieg modeled her on children’s storybook character Pippy Longstocking, whose stories are a staple of Nordic literature and were written by Astrid Lindgren.
I like your writing and I’m going to follow you on RSS.
Richard
Thank you for reading, Richard, and for your comment! I had heard that about Lisbeth being modeled after Pippy, I used to love those books as a little girl.
Just found your blog and love it, keep up the good work. My own list would always be topped by Emma Peel (from the BBC series not the movie, not the biggest or baddest woman warrior but she was my first love), I’d also swap the Alice on your list with Alice from Resident Evil, and add Eowyn from the Lord of the Rings Being the only person left in North America who has not read the Larson book I’ll have to take your word on Lisbeth.
Steve, all very good points…Eowyn should have made the list for sure, esp. considering I was watching Lord of the Rings the Twin Towers when I wrote the list…
Your not alone ,i have not read or watched Larsons book or movies ,not sure why ,same with harry Potter ( though i have seen 3-4 movies) and i do love swashbucklers and sci-fi,go figure lol. I got to go with Emma Peel (Avengers TV show)