Welcome to another weekly update of what is going on in my little nerdy brain. Let us kick right off and get this show started! I was replaying the new Tomb Raider the other day when it popped into my head; there are nowhere near enough kick ass female characters that run the show in video games.
Despite that, some of my favourite characters are women and I thought I would share my top four. Without further ado, here they are in order:
Tifa Lockhart
We start with Cloud’s childhood romance from Final Fantasy VII. When we first met Tifa she was a little bad ass but, unfortunately, the stronger male characters meant she was lost in the background a lot. Then to top it off, they gave her a fairly minor storyline that mostly consisted of her love towards Cloud. Tifa is also a very beautiful character, which has led to a lot of sexualisation in pop-culture and has ultimately resulted in her being depicted as a video game sex icon (if you don’t believe me, Google it!).
However, as they expanded the Final Fantasy VII franchise further with movies and spin-off games, they gave Tifa the revamp she needed, but still kept the characteristics that made her such a loveable character. The reason I came to love Tifa Lockhart is because of her personality and pleasant attributes. After her character benefited from further development, she became capable of kicking ass and no longer needed male heroes to protect and defend her. She also has a little mystery and somewhat of a flirtatious nature about her, but you’d also be wise to avoid pissing her off! The reason I have put her in last place is simply because she isn’t a lead character and thus hasn’t seen much action, but I really think that, with the right mind behind a project, she very well could be!
Lightning
Next we have the ominous Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII. Lightning is a complete warrior in every sense of the word. She weirdly reminds me of Xena a lot (in a good way). Lightning doesn’t bother wasting time with her emotions, she is just practical and tactical and she gets the job done with no questions. I love the way she isn’t ruled by her emotions, although this is usually considered a typical male personality trait of warriors in video games. Yet Lighting is a female and in my opinion pulls it off a lot better! You can tell the creators really put a lot of time and energy into sculpting Lightning’s personality.
The only downside to Lightning, which is a catch 22, is the fact that she has almost no emotions, even though she does eventually open up somewhat over the course of the games. I know I said I liked this but, in my opinion, the perfect female character needs to be a female in every sense of the word and yet still give off the impression that you wouldn’t mess with them or disregard them. Unfortunately, Lightning isn’t. Lightning has no desire for romance as well as the fact she is not really in touch with her feminine side. What I mean by this is her characteristics are more abrasive and over powering with little feminine traits to them.
Samus
At number two we have Samus from Metroid. I am not actually a huge fan of this game; I do like it, but you wouldn’t find it featured in any laminated top five lists a la Ross Geller. However, I have played it and I have to say I was well impressed with Samus! She has a lot in common with Lightning. She is a very strong warrior-type character. I also loved the fact that you played the whole original game of Metroid presuming you are playing as a guy and then Bam! it’s been a woman the whole time. This made her even more impressive and it was a great surprise. This proves that female characters can be just as strong and just as good in main roles as male characters. Though when you replay the game, you do start to notice some little feminine traits that you’re surprised you missed at the time.
The only single downside I will give Samus, which may seem contradictory to what I just said above, is the minor love interest story in Metroid. I just felt that they could have, in my opinion, not sugar-coated a love story. They have her captain that trained her and has made her what she is today and they pawn it off as she sees him as a father figure due to her parents being dead. You can feel that the real intent was to have some romance but, ultimately, they didn’t want to take the chance. I think if Samus wanted something she would just go and get it herself. So this whole fake romance just bugged me and kind of set her character back a bit. In later games, they made her out to be less independent and had her using people or asking people for help here and there. And there is nothing wrong with that, but previous Samus was always fine by herself.
Lara Croft
Here it is, number 1!
I hated the original Lara Croft. She was nothing but a sex symbol that guys literally pinned up on their walls in the nineties. She was gorgeous, fit and had huge gigantic boobs. Then to top it off, she wore skimpy clothes and every time she’d walk into a wall or climb something she’d sound like she was literally have an orgasm. After a while, she also sported pig tails, which is a hairstyle traditionally associated with immaturity and youth and generally worn by women who dress like girls for male attention. The one thing I could never understand was why they didn’t make her blonde. Sure they might as well have gone as far as possible! At least then she would have been the full stereotype. I mean, why go so close and not just complete it? To put the nail in the coffin, they then gave her the cheesiest, most stupid flirty lines throughout the games. Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan of this version of Lara.
Now, thanks to Square-Enix, we have a completely new Lara Croft that has snatched my number one spot for ‘Strongest Female Lead Character’. The reasoning for this is a mix of being kick ass, practical and tactical, but yet at the same time she has emotions, natural beauty and an interest in love. Most of all, these things don’t define her or her actions. What I’m basically trying to get at is all this fits perfectly together as second nature; it’s not our of character for her to have any of these traits. They just are part of her. She is an extremely well constructed character. Also, she has her flaws at the start of the game that she quickly adapts to and also has a lot of female qualities such as empathy. She can be sympathetic but, again, it doesn’t weaken her personality or persona. The final thing that I love about the new Lara Croft is, even with all this packed in, you still wouldn’t get on her bad side and this game only started exploring her beginnings and weaknesses. Just wait until they build her up to become a fully fledged tomb raider!
I hope you enjoyed reading this week’s column! What would your list of kick ass girls be? Do you agree with my views? Feel free to comment!
