Top 20 Kick Ass Female Characters: Part 2

So we kicked off our Top 20 Kick Ass Female Characters earlier this week with numbers 20 down to 11, which can be found here.

And now the countdown continues…

 

10. Chun Li (Street Fighter)

Chun Li was one of those characters that everyone remembers, with her Lightning Kick and Spinning Bird Kick moves.

She enters the Street Fighter competition to avenge her father’s death as he was killed while investigating Shadaloo, M. Bison’s crime syndicate.

Chun Li was the first playable female character in a fighting game, which is pretty kick ass in itself.

But anyone who’s played as her only needs to hear her shout ‘Spinning Bird Kick!’ to know how kick ass she really is.

 

9. The Boss (Metal Gear Solid)

Well without giving too much away from the (already confusing and downright wacky) Metal Gear Solid storylines, The Boss is a former C.I.A operative who was active throughout World War II and the Cold War as part of The Cobra Unit.

She has elite army training and is the founder of a specific type of close quarters combat using a combination of knife and gun to take down opponents.

The Boss was  a superspy who worked with lots of different organisations but her hand to hand prowess was almost unmatched and would easily take down squads of men before they realised what was going on.

 

8. Sarah Connor (Terminator)

Sarah Connor is a prime example of the maternal instinct – although in this case it’s also for the world’s benefit that she protects her son from harm.

After becoming pregnant following a liasion with a time travelling soldier Sarah Connor conceives her son John – who goes on to save humankind in a war against the machines.

Quite frankly anyone who can survive the advances of a Terminator is pretty hardcore in my book and you’re spoilt for choice with this entry as you have Linda Hamilton (film series) and Lena Headey (TV series) both playing the role so there’s twice as much carnage!

 

7. Miho (Sin City)

I think when I saw Sin City I was completely blown away by Miho – but in compiling this list all I could recall was her being handy with Shuriken. Well I checked out a clip on YouTube which confirmed her place in the Top 10.

Be warned this is VERY graphic violence from Sin City so don’t click the link if you like body parts remaining where they started:

Well I don’t feel like I have to add much but for those who didn’t watch the clip it basically showed Miho using her Shuriken and samurai swords to take out several bad guys.

Great skills but it’s the fact she doesn’t flinch once when killing these guys that makes Miho out as particualrly hardcore.

 

6. Buffy Summers (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)

Buffy Summers has done her fair share of kicking vampire ass over the 8 seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

While the show had a kind of camp, comedic quality the actual fight scenes and hand to hand combat were really well done.

Her ‘Watcher’ (mentor) Giles always had her training with the heavy bag and her skill set included lots of different types of martial arts.

She had to be at the top of her game to battle with the undead every night and there was a lot of high kicking and vicious punching in amongst the stakes through the heart.

Plus she was pretty handy with a crossbow.

 

5. The Bride (Kill Bill)

If you are looking for an assassin you could do a lot worse than The Bride, the cream of the Deadly Vipers assassin clan.

Her outrageous battle with The Crazy 88 is the stuff of legend and her use of the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique is hard to better.

She’s able to wield swords, guns… you name it, she’ll use it. The Bride is also good at adapting plans on the fly and just using whatever she can get her hands on to kill her target.

You better hope it’s not you she’s coming after.

 

4. Jill Valentine (Resident Evil)

One of the survivors of the original T-Virus outbreak in Resident Evil, Jill has been non-stop ever since.

Initially a member of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (STARS), Jill is highly skilled in hand to hand combat and gun play.

After leaving STARS, she helped Chris Redfield try to blow the lid on the Umbrella Corporation in various other games in the series.

She’s survived so many Zombie attacks it’s a testament to her skills that she is still alive to tell the tale.

 

3. Cherry Darling (Planet Terror)

 

You might not think a go-go dancer from Texas would be such a kick ass character but then again perhaps you haven’t encountered Cherry Darling.

Following on from a virus being released into the atmosphere that has turned the locals into flesh eating zombies it’s up to Cherry and a gang of uninfected peeps to save the day.

After a car accident sees Cherry thrown from the vehicle and one of her legs eaten by zombies she recovers in hospital and is eventually given a custom made machine gun instead of a false leg

Cherry uses her new found weapon to help stop the spread of the virus but unfortunately the spread does continue, albeit on a reduced scale.

From there on out Cherry leads what remains of mankind to a fort on the sea line, where they will do battle, defending the fort and living the best lives they can in the meantime.

 

2. Ripley (Aliens)

Ellen Ripley’s nightmare began when her ship the Nostromo encountered a distress signal and decided to investigate.

We all know how that ended but Ripley shows guts and determination during the Alien series of films.

Protecting Newt and even some Colonial Marines in the second film, she has a sense of leadership that others look to in times of trouble.

Ripley might not have the combat skills of the rest of the Top 20 but her heart and all out action style would give any of them a run for their money.

 

1. River Tam (Firefly/Serenity)

River is smuggled aboard Firefly by her brother Simon as the pair of them are on the run from The Alliance.

Upon coming out of hiding on the ship she is shown to be simple and most of the crew presume she has learning difficulties or the like.

That wasn’t true. Her emotional problems stemmed from botched brain surgery at ‘school.’

River came from a rich bakground and was considered a child prodigy. Sent to a private school called The Academy at age 14, which turned out to be an undercover government experiment that was trying to create the perfect assassin.

Highly skilled with firearms and deadly in hand to hand combat River can be triggered at any time, which activates her assassin ‘mode.’

Check out this fight scene from the film Serenity – absolutely kick ass

“I’m Not Crying, It’s Just Been Raining On My Face…”

NOTE: This piece contains potential spoilers regarding the following TV Shows and Games: 

• Ghost Whisperer
• Firefly/Serenity
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer
• Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
• GTA IV
• Dead Space

If you plan to watch/play these DON’T READ THIS ARTICLE!!!!

So now that’s out of the way let me explain.

A few weeks ago a main character died on a TV show that I watch and I found myself a little choked up. That in itself is not really a surprise as I’m not the most difficult person to get an emotional response from – though we’re talking lump in the throat as opposed to actual tears.

It got me thinking about the reasons I would feel these emotions about fictional characters – was there some sort of checklist the programme-makers tick off to evoke these feelings? Or is it just that the makers/actors create the illusion differently each time?

Likewise with games, although it seems harder to trigger that same response (for me personally) – I haven’t really choked up over a game but I have often found myself shaken, or perhaps stunned is more accurate, by characters deaths.

I discovered that research into this sort of thing has been going on for decades.

Back in 1956 an article entitled “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction” was written by Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl. They discussed how the general public (or audience) felt connected to the TV presenters at the time because they were addressing the screen (and therefore the viewers) directly.

Research continued in the 70′s and 80′s and the term ‘Para-Social Interaction/Relationship’ came to mean the affection that viewers feel with the characters or personalities they see on screen.

So why was I upset when Jim died in Ghost Whisperer? Or knocked for six when Kate got shot at the end of GTA IV? I am a rational person – I have no delusions that these are real people, so what’s going on?

The answer it seems lies in further research…

Viewers attach themselves to characters – that is an obvious statement. If no one cared about the characters no one would watch the show. However it’s the depth of the attachment and the reasons for it that seem to cause these Para-Social Relationships.

Some people identify with characters, or at the very least facets of them, and invest emotionally because they feel a sense of familiarity when watching.

Others idolize the characters or see them as role models. Someone they look up to perhaps, or aspire to be like.

Either way you’re drawn to these works of fiction and invest a great deal of emotion and time (especially in TV shows and games which can both last for hour upon hour) in them.

That is certainly a reasonable explanation – especially looking at something like GTA IV where you have crafted out a relationship with Kate for Niko (the character you control) by actually spending time with her and going on ‘dates’ etc. 

Several deaths in Buffy The Vampire Slayer shocked and moved me but for very different reasons.

The death of Buffy’s mother Joyce was possibly more to do with the way it was handled – with Buffy finding her stricken on the sofa, eyes wide open but unresponsive following a brain tumour. It was powerful stuff anyway but the bleakness and honesty of the scene was both upsetting and slightly disturbing. The fact that they showed the scene repeatedly during the episode also made it hit home harder.

Whereas the death of Anya, right at the end of the last season was upsetting in that a) she was a main character and b) in the chaos of the fight she was struck down almost without a death scene as the action continued.

Having said that Joss Whedon has a history of killing off main characters unexpectedly – in Serenity the ships pilot Wash is killed during a crash landing but at least with that death we got to see his wife’s reaction and emotion.

In Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Derek Reese is killed quickly and while the shock did hit home it wasn’t as emotional as the other deaths I mentioned, say Jim in Ghost Whisperer, which had a longer build up.

So is there a reason some deaths effect us more than others? Is it solely down to our relationship with the characters and how we feel about them? Or do the makers of these programmes have some tricks up their sleeves?

I suspect it’s a mixture of both. Of course the director can use certain shots/angles or a powerful piece of music under the scene to help things along but if the actors don’t put the performances in the response won’t be as strong.

Maybe the groundwork has already been laid by the director in revealing the character to you in a certain light to motivate you to like and identify with them?

Going back to the former point about actors, perhaps that is why the emotions I feel during games are weaker than TV/Film? As great as the graphics are in games these days they are not entirely lifelike and often the person voicing the character is doing so months before the character is even properly created.

I expect you would get more of an emotional tie to a character you’d created, say in something like World Of Warcraft. If a character you’d built up from scratch and moulded however you wanted was killed it would hit you harder I would guess. I don’t play those types of games so I couldn’t answer that question directly.

The closest I’ve ever come to that is when I tried the Sims in 2 player with my wife. We created ourselves but unfortunately I died in a house fire I certainly wouldn’t play that again

Either way I’m glad to feel those emotions watching. It restores a little of my faith in TV/Film that these shows can evoke feelings of emotional shock or choke me up – especially when so called ‘reality’ television seems to be taking over the TV schedules more and more all the time. Certainly a worrying trend if ever there was one.

As for games I look forward to increasingly improving stories – more of stuff like Fahrenheit, Bioshock, Infamous, GTA IV and Dead Space. Games that made me feel something.

As the world of gaming evolves even further I think we have plenty of great stories to look forward to playing through.

 

Note: I found the website below really helpful in researching this article and I’m not one to take unwarranted credit so please check it out if you’re interested or want more information:

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6428/Attachment-to-Media-Characters.html