Any female character from The Walking Dead

Every single female character in The Walking Dead is hugely commendable. They are all well-constructed, well written and designed, and they all have an important role in the story.

No character here feels out of place, no character works through a female stereotype, and not one of them is badly done. You could say, at best, that some of them are unlikable because of the decisions they make, but that’s because we are meant to be scared, disgusted or dislike what they’ve done. They are showing a broad range of emotions and depth that characters in other places haven’t done yet.

You always get one or two female characters that are good in a game and the rest are swappable NPC’s that don’t actually have much of a difference, and then there’s this game where every single character is critical, excellently crafted and even better still, completely human.

Sadly, a lot of people love the game, but rarely do talk about how important it is for the female demographic to have a videogame shock full of excellent representation. Hell, we barely even talk about how good it is that the main character of the first game is black rather than some one note blank slate.

This is the kind of game, and the kind of characters, that show you that there is no excuse for not making good characters of any gender or race.

Danielle Fireseed (Turok 3: The Shadow of Oblivion)

Turok is one of those game series that a lot of people recognize, but few people remember the details of. Those who have played Turok 3: The Shadow of Oblivion however have a very hard time forgetting about one of the game’s protagonists, Danielle Fireseed, and it’s for good reason.

Danielle isn’t just one of the most interesting female protagonists in gaming; she is also one of the few Native American protagonists. Oh yeah, we’re crossing two off the list with this one, ladies and gentlemen.

She, along with her brother, are the two possible characters that you can play through the entire game with each having their own sets of skills and reasons to take the “Light Burden”, becoming the powerful warrior Turok.

Right from the get-go, Danielle is not our normal female protagonist. She is more of a motherly figure to her brother rather than the usual cold and callous adventurer we see in the stereotypical soldier. Rather than being a character focused on stealth, she is actually the one who carries the heaviest forms of weaponry, as well as having to rely on platforming rather than just sneaking around like her brother.

More importantly, Danielle has what is arguably the best storyline for a character in the Turok games, being the first female Turok in several years, and having to prove that she will not become corrupted with the power of being the protector of the universe like the previous one.

This is the sort of character that is better experienced than told. Needless to say, however, Danielle shows us that your gender or even race do not matter, and that you do not need to be disconnected from your family or even your culture to be a great force of good.

Anita Sarkeesian (Vlogger)

Anita Sarkeesian has been the centre of some fairly public controversy, because of which many people have decided to write her off. But honestly, that would only be ignoring the facts. Opinions surrounding Anita Sarkeesian are contentious, but professionally she has brought up some of the more uncomfortable topics of Videogames to light, mainly when it comes to how women are portrayed in our loveable mess of an industry

Anita Sarkeesian is a controversial figure for the way she has handled the community’s reactions to her videos and ideas, and yet you will find very few people who will tell you that she does not have a point whenever she speaks of the good and bad things in gaming.

We do have an issue with how we show women in gaming, a real problem with mis-representation of a demographic that we simply cannot ignore. Anita Sarkeesian is one of those women in gaming who is pushing us into a more forward way of thinking, and whether you love or hate the way she’s doing it, it’s undeniable that things are changing thanks to her efforts.

Mona Sax (Max Payne)

Intelligent, witty, good looking, and even deadlier than Max himself. Mona Sax is one of the biggest characters in the series, as well as one of the most interesting female characters in gaming.

Mona is an assassin, and a pissed off one at that. During the events of the first Max Payne game, her twin sister is killed by gangsters, sparking a rampage for revenge all across New York. She finds herself bumping into Max Payne quite a bit, having to share information with him and even help him in order to get what she wants. Seems simple enough at first, but really it’s all a good set up for the second game, where she really shines

Her role in the second installment is a lot bigger and much more interesting. Similar to what happens with Danielle Fireseed, this is the sort of character that you have to experience for yourself rather than have someone else explain it to you. She is critical to the story, and rather than being a “Damsel in distress” or a simple stereotypical assassin, she becomes a fully-fledged and interesting character, even being playable at one part of the game.

She is equal if not better than Max, and what’s more, she is one of the biggest showcases of how you can have a love story (yes, a love story) in a videogame between two characters without having either one of them being the focal point.

Samus Aran (Metroid)

Samus? Underappreciated? It’s an interesting thing what happens with Samus. See, she is not underappreciated by gamers, far from it, she is one of the most beloved female characters in all of gaming to the point where the mere mention of what happened with Metroid: Other M gets people riled up and frothing at the mouth Where she is underappreciated, though, is by developers, of both her games and others alike.

A character can be misinterpreted in many ways, sometimes it’s by people who do not understand while other times it’s because the writer or editor of the story hasn’t conveyed them well enough, and this is what unfortunately happens quite a bit with Samus.

She is a strong female lead, yet she is usually treated as a character that is along for the ride rather than anything else. She already has a very interesting and amazing backstory, yet we have seen people try to pile up more on top of it than is really necessary, almost ruining the integrity of her development.

Samus is underappreciated in the sense that many developers haven’t realized the kind of character she really is. Samus shows us that female protagonists can garner the attention, even love of the gaming culture, and misrepresenting that is the worst thing a developer could do

We’re already seeing a lot more interest from female gamers in developing new videogames, and some of the biggest social movements like the LGBT movement are also dipping their feet into the huge pond of gaming culture. The future looks bright for more of these characters to appear, but it’ll only happen if we look back at our present and past, realizing that we may already have some models to follow and a lot more models that we need to improve on.

Images; Telltale Games, Acclaim Entertainment, Rockstar Games, transfuse (via deviantart.com)