My 5 Most Kick-Ass Fictional Female Characters

I have chosen 5 of my most favorite female TV/movie characters that I think rise above others in terms of kickassness. I didn’t include the all-too-popular ones (e.g. Princess Leia, Sarah Connor, Ellen Ripley, etc.) because I just don’t feel that much affinity towards them.

Here goes. The list is in countdown.

5.   Daria Morgendorffer from Daria (2007)

Have you met Daria? This bitter sharp-tongued albeit intelligent 16-year-old is practically my poster girl when I started tasting the angst of teenage life (I call it “the Dark Ages”). Her clothes scream indifference, her expression perpetually flat, and her ever-monotonous tone never fails to come up with jabbing remarks. She comes from a family that seems to be in constant disappointment of her while her queen-bee, aptly named sister, Quinn, which is everything she’s not, gets all the attention. Quinn even goes so far to not admitting they’re related.

Daria’s view of life is no match for those around her, and so others estrange her (some insist on calling her “Diarrhea”). She only hangs out with Jane, her best friend, who suffers from similar low-self esteem. Daria’s audacious comments and her overall rejection to conform to pretentious normalcy are what I have always secretly aspired to have during those years.

Some of Her Memorable Quotes:

• [after talking to her sister, Quinn] “That's it. Must... contact... intelligent... life...” 
• “Sometimes your shallowness is so thorough, it's almost like depth.”
• “Do you think if you breathe on me, I might catch your enthusiasm?”

4.   Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family (1991) & Addams Family Values (1993)

Growing up in a long line of old family that finds joy in all things ghastly tends to make you a tad bit sociopathic, I guess. Wednesday Addams, in picture is portrayed so spot on by Christina Ricci, is that creepy little girl who is as pale as a sheet, never smiles, and stares into the deepest abyss of your soul. She is enthralled by the macabre, has played with death on more than one occasion (usually her object of experiment is her own brother, Pugsley), and goes around telling people that “she is a homicidal maniac”.

Wednesday is someone I’d like to be for a day in the way she doesn’t give a damn to anyone. Would be interesting to just give them one of those deathly stare, and they would falter like ants under a magnifying glass. One time, Wednesday fakes a smile in front of a crowd – a smile that only multiplies her sinister quality and makes people wish they hadn’t seen it in the first place.

Some of Her Memorable Quotes:

• [when asked about her Halloween costume] “This is my costume. I'm a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else.”
• “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color.”
• “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

3.   Irene Adler from Sherlock (2011)

Ah, The Woman. The Woman. Though only featured in a single Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, she has been considered as the most significant female character in the whole canon for being the only woman who has ever outwitted him. In BBC’s Sherlock, Irene Adler is the dominatrix who, using her incredible sexual appeal (and prowess, mainly), has established quite a reputation among the rich and influential. She uses these to her advantage in blackmailing and later terrorism. Only, there’s a slight glitch in the plan: she is genuinely attracted to Sherlock Holmes. This “flaw” is what allows Sherlock to reverse the table and defeats her in the end.

Despite everything, Irene is what I can call the equal female nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. It’s clear that they share mutual admiration and eagerness to overpower the other (although in Sherlock’s case, it doesn’t really show). As the only woman Sherlock doesn’t hesitate to fight off an entire Taliban terrorist cell for, this Irene Adler deserves my big fat gigantic respect.

Some of Her Memorable Quotes:

• “Brainy's the new sexy.” 
• [to Sherlock, after he solves her something in less than 7 seconds] “I would have you, right here, on this desk, until you begged for mercy twice.”
• "This is how I want you to remember me. The woman who beat you."

2.   Hayley Stark from Hard Candy (2005)

Okay, now we’re getting to a whole new level of kick-ass. We’ve done quirky, we’ve done creepy, we’ve done sexy, and now we will delve into downright psychopathic.

Hayley Stark is just your average pre-teen girl who sometimes likes to flirt online. She likes listening to Goldfrapp and munching on tiramisu. Totally harmless. Totally innocent. Or at least that’s what she leads us to believe. Hayley agrees to “hook up” on a café with a much older man she meets online, as fresh and naive as she is. The man, Jeff, has no clue as what the horror he will face after he takes the girl home.

No, this is not a slasher film. I will not spoil the fun for those who haven’t seen the movie, because you have to watch it to believe what Hayley is capable of. Not to mention that pre-Juno Ellen Page plays the part so chillingly perfect she will imprint not-so-easy to forget image in your mind. The kind of courage (or perhaps derangement) she got lands her the #2 spot on this list. You’ll get me when you see it yourself.  

Some of Her Memorable Quotes:

• “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Maybe it was the music. Or, I don’t know, maybe it was the bullshit.”
•  “Was I born a cute, vindictive, little bitch, or did society make me that way?”
•  “Well, 4 out of 5 doctors agree that I am actually insane.”

1.   Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass (2010) and Kick-Ass 2  (2013)

Since I couldn’t come up with a more creative title, I’m bound to repeat the same phrase when talking about Mindy Macready – no doubt the most kickass female movie character for yours truly. With an appearance of a cute, pony-tail sporting little girl, she will literally slaughter your ass in the most gruesome way possible if you’re so much as getting on her nerves. She is also blessed with the foulest mouth guaranteed to give your grandparents instant aneurysm and heart attack simultaneously. At night, Mindy turns into a masked vigilante, Hit-Girl, who runs around town eliminating crooks and criminals in insanely violent ways, dropping F- bombs and both kind of C-bombs all the while.

In short, this girl rocks my socks to kingdom come. Not to mention I have this sort of unhealthy obsession towards Chloë Grace Moretz (I mean, she can turn me if she really tries). Mindy is someone you’d rather plunge off building for than messing with. Yet, she also has some adorable moments that show she is still just some other teenager, albeit with fondness for murderous rampage and insatiable bloodlust. You know, like you sometimes secretly feel like doing.

Some of Her Memorable Quotes:
(NOTE: Her best lines involve languages that public would deem inappropriate, so I’ve chosen some of her ‘milder’ ones.)

• “Act like a bitch, get slapped like a bitch.”
•  “This 15 year old girl just owned your ass.”
•  And this gold:

Sorry. Can’t help it.