Your Favorite Tough Gal

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Talvenya! The Dark Queen of Asgoth–coming soon guys–my novel that is 😃
 
Ok, and one more, I can’t believe I forgot . . . . MY WIFE! :o
 
PoliSciProf said:
Laura Croft (Tomb Raider), Ripley (Alien destoyer), Wonder Woman, Xena the Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rose Sayer (Katherine Hepburn’s character in The African Queen), Yu Shu Lien (Martial Arts master in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), G.I. Jane, and the list goes on and on. No damsels in distress these!! Who is your favorite fictional “Tough Gal?”

My choice: Mrs. Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers. Witty, clever “talented amateur” and a model for all that came after.
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My favorite is St. Joan of Arc!

-Jeanne
 
Real tough girls (like saints and wives) vs. fictional tough girls–if kids (and some grownups) get the idea that wives and saints are in the same “category” as Mrs. Peel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they will start believing that wives and saints are just “pretend.” Not good.

Or just the opposite–they’ll expect wives and saints to be vitually invincible, perfectly gorgeous, and good at everything from needlework to nuclear physics. I don’t want to be compared to Mrs. Peel, please. It’s too much to live up to.
 
Nausicaa, ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ (anime movie)
Kate Austin, ‘Lost’
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 
Seconding Rukia, not so much on the Naru. Wanderer, how you can like anything Akamatsu Ken writes I will never understand :confused:. Unless you’re enjoying the cheesecake, and you know you need to stop with that. :mad:

Princess Cornelia from Code Geass. She pilots a giant robot and isn’t afraid of anything, not even her scheming brothers the show centers around. Also Lady Ashe from Final Fantasy XII and Mitsuru from Persona 3. They don’t have robots, but they’re in the same mold as Cornelia, and Mitsuru has awesome fashion sense (even if she doesn’t pick her own outfits).

Odd how all of these are Japanese examples. I don’t particularly care for how Western media does “tough gals”: it seems like their toughness comes at expense of their personality. All of the examples that I listed, though, have things they care about beyond their cause that we get to see, such as Ashe’s dead husband and Rukia’s difficult relationship with her brother and the responsibility she feels for certain events which are spoilers.
 
Nevarlander said:
Seconding Rukia, not so much on the Naru. Wanderer, how you can like anything Akamatsu Ken writes I will never understand :confused:. Unless you’re enjoying the cheesecake, and you know you need to stop with that. :mad:
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Nah, that would be Dark, the pervy otaku in my head. I just find his works to be really funny. Plus Love Hina is pretty romantic for me in a way though obviously our opinions differ. 🤷
 
Grace Kelly in Rear Window. She was so gutsy. Actually, she was great in High Noon, too. I love the way she pulls off fiery and tough while still being a total woman.

Maureen O’Hara is also really good at that… I love her character in The Quiet Man.
 
Nevarlander said:
Seconding Rukia, not so much on the Naru. Wanderer, how you can like anything Akamatsu Ken writes I will never understand :confused:. Unless you’re enjoying the cheesecake, and you know you need to stop with that. :mad:

Princess Cornelia from Code Geass. She pilots a giant robot and isn’t afraid of anything, not even her scheming brothers the show centers around. Also Lady Ashe from Final Fantasy XII and Mitsuru from Persona 3. They don’t have robots, but they’re in the same mold as Cornelia, and Mitsuru has awesome fashion sense (even if she doesn’t pick her own outfits).

Odd how all of these are Japanese examples. I don’t particularly care for how Western media does “tough gals”: it seems like their toughness comes at expense of their personality. All of the examples that I listed, though, have things they care about beyond their cause that we get to see, such as Ashe’s dead husband and Rukia’s difficult relationship with her brother and the responsibility she feels for certain events which are spoilers.
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Celes from Final Fantasy VI was pretty tough too. Don’t forget Freya from FFIX…that jump attack saved my hide so many times.
 
Some of my personal favorites…

Movie good girl:
Roz Russell as the Reverend Mother in The Trouble with Angels (and in just about any other role, as someone mentioned).

Movie bad girl:
Barbara Stanwyck as Sugarpuss O’Shea in Ball of Fire.

Movie good girl/bad girl:
Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest.
“How *does *a girl like you get to be a girl like you?”

(You may have to be over 50 to appreciate those choices.)
 
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