Fictional women we do like, and why?

I was going to put 'Ellen McArthur' and then I remembered she was real
she has done a good job of mythologising her own life (to help her get sponsorship) though - the story of her losing all the races on Rutland Water on a sailing holiday as a child and vowing she was never going to be defeated again, saving up her dinner money to buy her first boat....
and this willingness to master whatever different skills were necessary to achieve her goals is exactly why I admire her.

(should I apologise for hijack or claim that 'the mythologised Ellen McArthur' is in fact a fictional character?)

more kids' ones:

Mrs Pepperpot
Polly in the 'Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf' books
Arriety in The Borrowers

Dr Temperance Brennan, of the "Bones" TV series and series of books by Kath Reichs.
Major Samantha Carter from Stargate.
I rather like the new series Nikita - the female lead and her female insider are good.

:o Vezzie - she just didn't care, did she?

Matilda - incredibly clever, hates bullying and uses her brains/skills to protect the weaker (despite being an adult) Miss Honey.

Isobel (who met an enormous bear)

Did you have to look that up TeiTetua, or did you just know it? :)

Yes good lines, Eowyn. To be fair there were only about two women in the whole thing other than her, weren't there. What did the others get up to? Drippy elf girl didn't seem to do much (but that's a bit of an elf thing, isn't it?)

Aragorn: You have some skill with a blade.
Eowyn: The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither death nor pain.
Aragorn: What do you fear, my lady?
Eowyn: A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.
Aragorn: You are a daughter of kings, a shield maiden of Rohan. I do not think that will be your fate.

But she was, like, the only one.

Rafaella Barker's main character from Hens Dancing, Venetia. She's wonderfully eccentric (so is her mother), resilient and funny without realising it. The best way!! A highly recommended read for all those who don't feel like they fit in with so much of what they see around them. A good lesson in caring a lot less...

Fiorinda Slater in the Bold As Love books (these are phenomenal but noone but me seems to have read them) - bad shit happens to her (and everyone else) but she's the one who saves the day, time and time again with a mix of intelligence and her own superpowers.
Agree on Sookie Stackhouse in the books.
Also (for vampire smut lovers) ANita Blake in the early books, before the author got into BDSM and the whole lot pretty much jumped the shark.
Tarma and Kethry in Mercedes Lackey's 'Oathbound' books - these seem to have evolved out of the whole 'sword and sorceress' trend in the mid-1980s where there was a load of feminist sci-fi/fantasy being written, though sadly a lot of it was like a lot of policitally-motivated writing: crap.
QUite a few Jilly Cooper heroines are actually good at things, like Fenella and Perdita with their gold-medal winning skills, Lizzie Vereker the novelist (author's self projection Jilly? Not much!) and the various female musicians in Appassionata and Score - think of Abigail Rosen overcoming one sexist pig after another to boss the orchestra.

I don't like LOTR much, but who was that good female character who kills the Witch King thing? She was pretty cool. She resented being forced to babysit the other women/children IIRC.

Doesn't she just? I really enjoyed that book to.

Also, just to prove that I do read, and not just watch TV, I have always had a sneaking admiration for Zenia in the Robber Bride. The rest of the women were far better off without the feckless men.

I loved Dr Hunter in Kate Atkinson's book "When Will There Be Good News?". She is a working mother, lovely to her young childminder, unqilling to get caught up in dealings with dodgy husband, and in the end (not going to spoil it CJ) she fights back in magnificent style.

Damn - you've all got there first! Agree with
Buffy
CJ
Fevvers - now there's something I haven't read in years!
Scully

But how about Starbuck in the new BSG? Completely kick ass (until the last season anyway)

Dorcas Lane in Lark rise to Candleford

SOOKIE STACKHOUSE!

In the books, not the tv series so much. She knows what she wants and just gets on with things. She is smart and funny and tells people where to go if they piss her off. Love her.

Agent Scully

salta, yes, Dicey Tillerman! And GWTMH, all of Dana Wyyne Jones' books have good female characters.

How about Dido Twite and her sister Is, from Joan Aiken?

That's ok CJ :) I suppose it was fairly likely, and I'm pleased she had a baby if she wanted one. Just wish it wasn't with that (I am sure) halitosis-ridden hobbit.

Roalind Russell's character in "His Girl Friday" (another one that was adapted from a man's role).

She's about to leave her job as a journalist to get married to a boring man and be "a real woman" or some such, but Cary Grant her ex-husband/editor tempts her back in on a case of corruption, and she accidentally trashes her relationship with her fiance and future MIL, and doesn't seem to care at all. Basically she is too good as a "newspaperman" and loves it too much to go and be suburban and domesticated :)

Oops - sorry .

She gets together with Danny?

Have still never managed to watch the final 5 or so episodes.

Danny can look after the baby (baby?!) because he is a teddy in human form, and CJ is far too good at her job to give it up.

I think it's interesting, though, that CJ eventually does get together with Danny and has a baby, but only after the series has finished. Wonder how her high-powered job in California went after that? Did she get flexible hours and childcare vouchers?!

Strong, even.

Ok, some old 90s TV.

BUFFY.

Willow, especially Vamp Willow.

Ok, yeah, they are too thin, and Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter were both kinda ED-looking, but the Buffy character still rocks.

I hope you have ALL see youtube's Buffy Vs Edward...

Susan Lewis in ER. Then the actress went all girly and left the show, and when she came back there was some character rape, but the Lewis of Seasons 1-3 was awesome.

Melissa in thirtysomething. One of the first properly mature women on tv EVER.

In film everyone ever played, virtually, by Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, or Roz Russell (yes, even the bitch in The Women).
They just knock tiles off the modern liberated women, uhm, like - well, like - erm. Well, there's Ripley, or there was.

Shan Frankland, from the Wess'har wars series. Srong, complex, flawed, with her own moral code and beliefs that she fights to defend. The books have many other great females (I use that word because they aren't all human) but Shan is the best.