Lenneth Valkyrie is a character that I’ve always loved even when I was probably too young to even really appreciate just how awesome she really is. Admittedly, I have yet to finish Valkyrie Profile 2, and not for lack of trying. I’ve got two game discs and two broken playstation 2’s staring at me from across the room…but still, she was an amazing character in Valkyrie Profile and in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume.

Lenneth is a Valkyrie charged with the mission to recruit fallen warriors and train their souls as einherjar so that they might be strong enough to fight in the upcoming battle of Ragnarok. This makes for an interesting story, because most of the narrative is actually comprised of glimpses into the last moments of the human’s that are to be recruited by Lenneth’s lives. It actually feels a lot like you’re viewing a lot of short stories rather than one long narrative. In the end, a lot of them come together and there is a narrative that leads to a climax. I can’t say I really see this type of storytelling done very often in games, or at least not done quite so well.  This works out for Lenneth’s character, because most of her development comes in the form of self-awareness and empathy for others. You can see the latter start to develop, and even when she has empathy it never makes her appear to be weak.

Lenneth is a cool headed warrior that is undoubtedly strong. However, it seems that her true strength is in how she inspires her soldiers. At a certain point of the game, Lenneth’s body is stolen by her older sister Hrist. Though the einherjar should technically all work for Hrist, they are loyal to Lenneth and run away to find a way to bring back the Valkyrie they love.

And I probably should really dislike her molded boob armor, but for some reason I really cannot. Something about it just works for her. I don’t know, maybe it seems elegant? Her entire outfit seems more decorative than functional, but not in the same sense that a chainmail bikini invokes.

The next character that made my list is Tron Bonne from the Megaman Legends series.

Oh, Tron, you were one of the largest girl crushes I harbored as a wee child. I guess I always had a thing for brash girls – or villains. Or whatever Tron and Mint count as. Antiheroes I guess?  Anyways, some of my first shipping wars occurred when I was a seven year old boy fighting with my best friend about whether Megaman in Megaman Legends should end up with Tron or Roll…The latter of whom I might add was raised as Megaman’s sister. 

Tron is the middle child of the air pirating Bonne family. Essentially the Bonnes could be considered the Team Rocket of the Megaman Legends series; they act as the antagonists for most of the game, yet inevitably help out Megaman whenever it serves the greater good. Despite being only 14 the genius has managed to create 40 sentient lego..robot…things as servants (they’re called servebots – get it?). She even creates all the death machines her family uses for pirating.

Truthfully, I’ve always had a hard time figuring out whether or not I consider her a true villain or not. Probably because even at her worst, she feels like a friendtagonist. She fights against Megaman all throughout both Megaman Legends games, but near the end she and her brothers’  will put aside their beef with Megaman and assist him for the greater good.  I guess it doesn’t matter though, Tron kicks ass either way. She might inevitably fail at beating up Megaman because - well he is the protagonist - but in her own game she shows how much she is capable of. 

But wtf is up with the metal plate on her crotch? 

Mint is insane. She’s lazy, entitled, gluttonous…Yeah, she’s basically all the seven deadly sins wrapped up into one package except for maybe lust. Maybe that seems strange that she’d appear on this list, but I love flawed characters. In general, people that are awful yet still able to function are far more interesting to me than nice characters. I didn’t always use to see things that way, but I wish there were more characters out there like Mint. Seeing her put aside her selfish ways for brief seconds at the end of the game have a more meaningful impact than if she were a martyr the entire time. But I digress…

She’s one of two playable protagonists in Squaresoft’s action rpg Threads of Fate for the Playstation. You can think of it as a sort of proto Kingdom Hearts…or at least the battle system is similar enough that I noticed similarities when Kingdom Hearts came out. And I am totally not bitter towards that series’s success when compared to Threads of Fate’s cult status. 

Anyways, Mint’s story’s story focuses on her being the eldest princess of the East Heaven kingdom. Literally minutes into the introduction, she loses her right to the throne for being too god damned lazy to effectively rule – especially when compared to her far more competent sister, Maya. Even if she wanted to retaliate, her sister possesses a fabled relic that grants her immense power.  Instead of just sitting back and taking it, she runs away and swears revenge upon her younger sister.  Not just that, though, she also declares that she’s going to get a [relic] so powerful that she can reclaim her throne and then TAKE OVER THE WORLD.

Maybe that’s why I love her so much? For such a lazy ass, she has such motivation to rule over everything. Her story is a bit more humorous than Rue, her male counterpart’s, but I actually prefer it more now. Rather, I like seeing her change compared to him. Mint remains silly and crazy, but she does grow as a person near the end. Rue does as well, but not quite as much. Still, both sides of the story are well done and it’s really a great gem for the original playstation which I cannot recommend enough.

Also, can I just say I love her huge-ass boots?

It’s time for the second of my favorite fifteen females in gaming! Yeah, this list is drastically late. Stuff has been happening, but most of the next few entries in it have been finished. I’d like to remind people that I may very well spoil plot points of the games as I write about these characters…So with that being stated to avoid anybody actually stalking me down and sniping me from the strategically placed tree outside my room, the next woman on the list is Lucina from Fire Emblem Awakening.

Is it safe? Can I start talking yet?

… Okay! So, Lucina is initially introduced to the player under the guise of Marth the ancient Hero-King. Anybody that’s played earlier Fire Emblems or SuperSmash Bros. Melee or Brawl probably knows that Marth is the original lord of the first Fire Emblem. While masquerading as Marth, Lucina wears a butterfly mask, tucks her hair into the back of her cowl, and lowers her voice a few octaves to fool the party into believing that she’s a man. How her hair stays in the cowl until the moment of the reveal, I don’t know. She does a butt-load of flips, but one slip and it comes wooshing out like her hair is auditioning for a shampoo commercial. After a few chapters of being a mysteries friendtagonist (Character that helps out, but also seems to hinder the party at times), Lucina makes the reveal that she is Chrom (the main lord of FE:A) own daughter from the future. After an understandably teary-eyed scene, Lucina joins your party as a full member for the rest of the game.  Yaaay.

So why do I love Lucina so much? Well, first of all, she’s a badass. She’s a couple years younger than her father and still able to hold her own against him in battle, she has been stated to have great leadership skills, and she had the nerve to challenge a dragon bigger than her castle pretty much all by herself (at least if we look at the cutscenes that way)

Sure, she has a goofy side to her like all the characters in Fire Emblem: Awakening, too. Most of her humorous interactions come from the supports where you see that she’s too serious and sometimes thinks she should try to ease up on being so polite. Most of them are very cute to watch, and my favorite might be if she confesses her love to Morgan.

And let’s take a moment to look at her armor design? I know I said that I wasn’t going to judge a character based on her attire, but I should have really stated that I won’t take away points for having unrealistic armor or “slutty” clothing….If a woman is wearing particularly realistic or aesthetically pleasing armor to me, they probably will get plus points. But back to the armor, look at it. It fits into the game’s aesthetics perfectly, and I love how it doesn’t change into a more feminine armor once Lucina’s true gender is revealed.  Compared to the men of the series, it’s just as practical, and the design…well…I love it if for no other reason than it doesn’t mold over her breasts. So f***k yeah, for awesome armor.

Seriously, I think I love this girl too much right now. I’ve got three play throughs of the game so far, and because of the family system in it, have tried all three relationships you can have with her. She’s been my daughter (my favorite), my daughter in-law, and my wife.  Certain scenes at the end differ depending on what her relationship to your avatar is in the game, and I loved watching her struggle with certain decisions.  

Honestly, I wish she was the main character over Chrom. I like him, and I love him paired up with the female avatar, but I found Lucina to have a far more gripping story than his. Maybe they each could have had their own game? Either way, Lucina fought her way to my heart very recently and I imagine she’s staying there for quite awhile.

So the next woman on the list should be up within an hour. Cause it’s already written. Yay? 

We’ve been hearing a lot about female characters in games, so I figured I’d dig deep down into my collection and see just which females stand above the rest in my heart. And that lead me to listing my top fifteen favorite female characters in gaming.  (Insert fun looking picture here if I had the time and energy to make one) 

I actually thought this list might be hard to make, what with how female representation in games is.  Turns out that I loved a lot of different female characters for many, many different reasons. In the end, I decided to put a list of criteria for which characters would make it on the list:

• The character must be playable in their main game. They can be a side character in an rpg and such, just so long as you can choose their actions when they’re on your party.  Sadly, this kicked the most characters off the list, like poor Kaine from Nier…Her ridiculous butt cleavage and all. 

• A female character will not be judged solely on their appearance and especially outfit. While I will probably mention the outfit if it is especially impractical or just a cleavage fest (once again looking at you, Kaine) that shouldn’t be what they are judged upon. Their actions speak louder than their outfits. 

• No silent protagonists. Sorry Chell and Samus, you’re both awesome – well, until Metroid: Other M for Samus…but that’s a whole different story.  This is more my own personal decision than anything. There is definitely value to such characters which I’ll probably cover some other day. 

Remember that the women that got onto this list are only my personal favorites and I’m not necessarily saying they’re the best since best is entirely subjective. They just had something that made me like them a bit more than the others.  If will probably go into spoilers for some of these characters so read on at your own discretion. 

So the first lady I’m letting loose is a bit controversial. Originally I was going to put one of my more conservative choices first, but I was also going to do an April Fools day joke with my list as well (listing my favorite ladies but putting awful and sexist reasons to like them, but it ended up not being funny…if not just cause I couldn’t get into that mindset) …

Bayonetta: Is she a satire of the typical depictions of females in gaming? Or is she just an over-sexualized gazelle woman that is the long lost sister of Slender man? Seriously look at her limbs….But anyways, I personally believe her to be a satirical character for a few reasons.

First, go back to looking at her limbs.  They’re exaggerated to the point where nobody could really find them attractive. (Seriously, has anybody actually found anyone that finds her sexy???) In fact, everything about her except her face is just a gross exaggeration as to what game creators exemplify in their female characters to make them sexy.  It almost feels like the creators designed her just so they could laugh to themselves about people getting off to this horrible abomination they created.

Hell, her hair is both her weapon and her clothing. It becomes f***ing  demons upon her command! She even has guns on her shoes. She is so bombastic that it’s hard to take anything in the game seriously, and that’s…kinda awesome to me. I actually really like that about her. 

Like Dante from the Devil may Cry series, it seems like Bayonetta was made to be a parody of all sorts of tropes to create a character. Dante was basically anime from the 90s, whereas Bayonetta is the fem-fatale. 

Well, I’ve talked enough about why I think she’s a parody, but why do I like her? As I said before, I looove satires, but I just generally like her attitude. It feels like the entire game she’s playing cat and mouse with her enemies and she gets to be the cat. She might not change a lot, but she does manage to have some character growth in the form of how she treats other people – especially Luka and Jeanne.  I’m not saying she’s a role model, but not every character needs to be.  

She has the skills and confidence to tackle to take on any challenge and the only time she’s put into a true position of weakness, it was really just to show how much Jeanne and Bayonnetta care about each other and how they would be willing to risk their lives to save the other. 

Sure, she has tangled limbs that are kinda scary…and I’d love to have just for a day to see how they work…but she’s fun and her game is fun. That’s really the most important thing.  

(Yeah, I ship it) 

This Friday, I’ll be covering another character…This one is….Lucina from the new Fire Emblem game! Oh, my love for her is eternal….Anyways, sorry for the grammar and spelling errors in this one. I’m writing it in a rush…Hopefully the next few entries won’t feel that way. Maybe I’ll go back and edit this once this month is over… 

            Less than a week ago the internet received a very informative video by Anita Sarkeesian, the creator of Feminist Frequency. Damsels in Distress is the topic covered in her first Tropes vs Women video, and it does a good job at showing how widespread the problem has become. Unfortunately, Anita does not go into enough details on specific issues that I feel are important to understanding the trope aside from the obvious fact that damseling ladies is not good representation for women in games. We need to perform a close enough look into why the trope is used so often and the r there are a variety of reasons that are all interlinked. I might not be the best candidate for talking about the trope, but every opinion on this means another voice is  Today, I’m going to go examine what ramifications excessive use of the damsel in distress has upon women and men, discuss the many interlinking reasons why it exists, and then conclude it by discussing why it needs to change and an obligatory recap.  

(It’s actually Peach’s family tradition to get kidnapped by turtles)

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