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100 FEMALE TV CHARACTERS
(In alphabetical order by first name because, well, A) it would take me about 100 years to try to rank these 100 ladies, but more importantly, B) I want this to be more about celebrating how awesome these ladies all are and not about who's the best or whatever. And it's by first name instead of last because of the way I had my spreadsheet organized. And yes, I used a spreadsheet to figure this all out. It was the only way to narrow this down to 100 and keep track of everyone!!! I'm still afraid I might be forgetting someone I really love who should've made the list.)
1. Aeryn Sun (Farscape)
Aeryn: I am not a scientist. I am, however, what I have always been, and that is superior.
When I think about character arcs on this show, I usually focus more on John's, but Aeryn's is really just as wonderful. I love how she starts out with this specific mindset of who she is and what her life will be and how it all gets turned on its end, but it happens so slowly and gradually and it's just excellent.
2. Alex Kerkovich (Happy Endings)
Alex: You guys have fun, 'cause I just got the Criterion Collection of Clueless, so I'll see you guys later. I hope not sporadically!
Alex was probably my least favorite of the group when the show first started, but somewhere during season 2, she became possibly my favorite? It's hard to choose between her and Brad-and-Jane, but I just have so much love for her. She is definitely hilarious in her cluelessness, but I also just love her warmth and heart. And the whole "I don't own a TV." / "What do you do at night?" exchange was one of the first things that really got me into the show.
3. Alice Morgan (Luther)
Alice: The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. The universe isn’t evil, John. It’s just indifferent. That hasn’t changed, it can’t. But what I did for you proved something to me. Something I hadn’t believed until that moment.
John: What?
Alice: It’s you who’s right. There is love in the world.
ughhhh, Alice. My beautiful little sociopath. She was a large part of what made season 1 so fascinating for me and so different from normal cop procedurals. I still haven't watched the second 2 episodes of season 2 due to her absence, and I was planning on watching them, but I just... lost interest knowing she wasn't going to be around. I just find her endlessly fascinating and entertaining and stunning.
4. Alicia Florrick (The Good Wife)
Alicia: I’ve been hurt deeply. I imagine I will heal one day. But for now, we need a plan.
ugh Alicia Florrick gives me all the feelings. I think part of it is that I see a lot of myself in her? She's very reserved and passive-seeming in many ways, but I love how loyal she is to the people she cares about and how she will fight for them aggressively if necessary. And just how practical she is, and that she knows she doesn't have the luxury of just following her feelings in so many circumstances, and instead she weighs what she needs to do and follows her plan. That line in the season 1 finale when she tells Will to show her the plan, because poetry is easy but parent-teacher conferences are hard is one of my absolute favorites, and it's so her. ugh I just love her so much.
5. Alisha Bailey (Misfits)
Curtis: My mum told me to stay away from girls like you.
Alisha: Your mum has never met a girl like me.
ugh I hate how this show ended up treating her. Her power alone was the actual worst, I don't know why anyone would come up with that, and even though I haven't watched season 3, I know what happens, and just... ughhh. But even despite that, I still adore her as a character. I love her arc through the end of season 2 and how she grows and develops. I'm just going to choose to believe that the show ended with season 2.
6. Alt!Olivia Dunham (Fringe)
Walternate: This morning in my office, you asked how I could be willing to let my son die to heal our world. But you understand sacrifice better than anyone, Olivia. You were willing to leave your son behind, to risk your life for what you perceived to be the greater good. We're more alike than you think.
Alt!Olivia: I don't understand how killing billions of people could possibly be in the interest of the greater good.
Another awesome lady who sadly got kind of screwed over by her show. I find the ways she's different from Olivia so interesting. She's lighter and more playful in a lot of ways. But I also love how her arc develops in season 3 and how she's kind of just a soldier for Walternate, but she starts questioning her orders and realizing that maybe she's not on the right side.
7. Amy Pond (Doctor Who)
Eleven: Amy Pond. The Girl Who Waited. All night in your garden. Was it worth it?
Amy: Shut up. Of course it was.
ugh another lady screwed over by canon. I just have so much love for Amy Pond. I love that she took off on the night of her wedding to travel through all of time and space, and just her whole arc through season 5 is so wonderful and beautiful and she remembered the Doctor back into existence and she never stops fighting and I will be forever bitter what the show decided to do with her narrative in season 6 because it was the worst. But at least I will always have season 5.
8. Ann Perkins (Parks and Recreation)
Ann: I could leave. I could. But I'm not going to. I will get my one minute of small talk, dammit! And it will be casual, and it will be amicable!
Oh, Ann, you beautiful tropical fish. I do still wish the show would give her more to do apart from her love life and even apart from Leslie (although I would definitely prefer stuff with Leslie than more Tom/Ann or Chris/Ann), but despite that, I loved seeing her be less sure of herself and more awkward in season 3, and then be more secure in herself in season 4. And I will always love how much she loves Leslie and everything she's willing to do for her.
9. Annie Edison (Community)
Annie: Bring it in for a boob bump, ladies! Nope? We'll get there.
Annie was one of my favorites on this show from the very start. I definitely overidentify with her perfectionism over school. I also love seeing the ways she can be like Jeff what with her occasional manipulation of others to get what she wants, and I loved seeing her as a lawyer (well, kind of) in that Law and Order episode. I really wish we could get more of an arc for her (then again, I wish that for basically all of the characters other than maybe Troy and Abed, who have had decent development and arcs. But the rest really don't get much; even with Jeff, I feel like the show just keeps treading into the same territory rehashing old issues and never really moving forward). So yeah, basically, I really do love her, but I just wish for more for her on the show.
10. April Ludgate (Parks and Recreation)
Tom: What do you know? You don't care about things.
April: Yes I do. I care about Andy and Champion ... and I want Leslie to win. And I like sleeping.
April was definitely one of my favorites from the very start, even in season 1 where I wasn't having many feelings about anything. Her sense of humor is very much my own. But I just loved how she slowly got more entrenched in the Parks Department, especially when she started having feelings for Andy, and I loved seeing those softer sides of her, and it's just great how that's continued. I do still want more storylines for her on her own next season, but I did really adore what we got last season with Ron asking her to step up and her trying with that pet adoption thing. And then in the finale when she was worried she had deleted all the files!!!! APRIL CARING ABOUT THINGS!!!!! ugh always my favorite.
I was going to try to have more in-depth thoughts on each lady, but ugh so tired and I'm recovering from feeling kind of sick earlier in the week and I know it'll end up taking me an extra week to post this if I try to do that, so quick thoughts are all I can give. Anyways, I'm happy to finally have this posted, and I'm going to try to keep working on this steadily so it won't take a year to get through all these, but I'll probably take a break for a couple days because this kind of project is a lot of work, especially when I only have a few hours of free time every day.