| 20. The Bene Gesserit (Dune) - The sisters of the Bene Gesserit train for years to develop mental and physical powers such as The Voice and The Weirding Way in order to manipulate the human race to their own ends. |
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| 19. Supergirl - Literally dozens of women in the DC Universe have had the name, but there really is only one - Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin. She has the same yellow-sun based abilities as the original, and has been a part of nearly every version of the Superman mythos to date. |
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| 18. Aeryn Sun (Farscape) - This former Peacekeeper commando has few social skills and appears to be devoid of emotion, but she makes Starbuck look like a sorority girl |
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| 17. Jean Grey (X-Men) - telekinesis, telepathy, first female member of the X-Men. Became Phoenix, died, came back, died again, came back… |
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| 16. Willow Rosenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - Started out as your basic shy, nerd-girl - ended up as one of the most powerful characters on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Her story arc mirrors that of Jean Grey (Phoenix to Dark Phoenix) over at the X-Mansion, but unlike the Dark Phoenix story-line when Phoenix was killed, Willow manages to overcome the dark magic inside her. |
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| 15. Species Chick - She’s incredibly strong and agile, and has regenerative powers that make Wolverine look like a wimp. So does she harness these abilities for fighting crime or becoming a movie stunt-woman? Nope, her abilities are put in the service of gettin’ some. |
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| 14. Borg Queen (Star Trek: Various) - Functioning as the nexus of the Borg Collective, the Borg Queen is able to control every Borg within the entire Collective, but she herself is not a mindless drone. She has individuality, emotion and the ability to manipulate. |
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| 13. Princess Leia (Star Wars Original Trilogy) - She started out needing rescuing, but by the end of the original Star Wars trilogy, she proved herself to be quite capable of doing the rescuing her own bad self. Not only that, but she’s the leader of the Rebel Alliance. Wait…she needed rescuing from Jabba, there, too. At least she maintains her snarky attitude throughout the films. As long as she didn’t inherit her mother’s propensity for DYING OF A FREAKING BROKEN HEART!!! there’s not much to get in her way. |
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| 12. Laura Roslin (Battlestar Galactica) - Faced with the extermination of humanity, former teacher Laura Roslin took it upon herself to rebuild and maintain the government despite considerable objections from Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh. Add rebel leader during the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, religious leader and cancer survivor to her list of credits and she’s among the most powerful. |
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| 11. Captain Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek: Voyager) - Captain of the USS Voyager. We finally get a lady captain and not only could Paramount not give her the Enterprise, they also exiled her to the Delta Quadrant. But she’s scrappy and handled off-the-cuff survival, first contact situations and the Borg with more daring than Captain Kirk and more diplomacy than Captain Picard. Sometimes, it just takes a woman. |
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| 10. Sarah Connor (Terminator) - She was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar…okay, so it was a diner. But she’s the mother of the future and can do more pull-ups than most of the people watching the Terminator flicks - shouldn’t she have a catchy 80’s song intro? |
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| 9. Xena - Formerly a warlord interested only in power and killing Hercules, Xena set out to redeem herself and became a hero to the innocent and the weak. But, her path isn’t easy and she winds up crucified, resurrected and immacculately impregnated. Ultimately, Xena brings about the Twighlight of the Greek gods and sacrafices herself to bring peace to the souls of those she’s killed in her lifetime. |
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| 8. Leeloo (The Fifth Element) - Leeloo is the fifth element, a perfect being who unites earth, air, fire and water to produce the Divine Light to send the Ultimate Evil running for another five thousand years. She’s also a girl dealing with the unfortunate fashion trends in a future designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, but she has the spunk and charisma to pull them off, which is almost as impressive as that saving humanity thing. |
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| 7. Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - Saving the world one vampire at a time since 1992, Buffy has become an icon of female power. A former cheerleader, she spends her free time slaying vampires, werewolves, demons and a variety of other ghoulies and beasties, while dealing with school, romantic relationships and her status as the Slayer. |
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| 6. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter) - Easily the smartest student at Hogwarts, Hermione is a witch with a strong social concsience and perseverance. Emma Watson, the actor who plays Hermione in the Harry Potter movies sums it up best when she says, “There are too many stupid girls in the media. Hermioneďż˝s not scared to be clever.” |
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| 5. Alien Queen (Alien) - She’s big. She’s bad. She bleeds acid and has a second mouth on her tongue. The Alien Queen is spends her days laying Facehugger eggs so that her parasitic species can continue expanding. There is no plan for universal domination with her - just the drive to hunt and procreate in the most primal way. |
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| 4. Women of Firefly - Joss Whedon certainly knows how to write them. A calculating warrior woman. A bubbly mechanic. A spiritual courtesan. A girl genius with bad ass mood swings. They break sterotypes, engage in all kinds of activities that would get them killed on other shows and live through it all to fly another day. |
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| 3. Ellen Ripley (Alien) - Imagine a world with no Lady Starbuck, no Aeryn Sun, and no Lara Croft. That almost happened because Ripley was supposed to be a man. Ellen Ripley is the one of the first and finest of modern, mainstream science fiction’s heroines. |
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| 2. Wonder Woman - “Fighting for our rights, in her satin tights…” There’s no more recognizable female action hero than Linda Carter as Wonder Woman. Besides her icon status, the publishing deal that the Marston family has with DC says that she must be in publication in some form or the other continuously, or copyright on the character reverts back to the family. Now THAT is power. |
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| 1. Death (Sandman) - The most powerful member of The Endless, Death is far from the Grim Reaper. She’s perky, likes floppy hats and often offers guidance to her brother, Dream. |
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September 11th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
What no Hal, Sarge, Voice, or even Cleo, from Cleopatra 2525?
September 11th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Agreed. The continued snubbing of Cleopatra 2525 by this outfit borders on the conspiratorial.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Cleopatra 2525 was one of those shows that only aired at something like 2am on the weekend. Due to it’s air-time, the only time I ever saw an episode I was drunk.
Of course, we’ll always accept arguments for or against any Power 100 character, and take them into consideration for the next edition.
September 12th, 2007 at 4:18 am
Cool list. Yeah, you can argue over certain omissions or quibble over the order but what the hey … any list with WW, Sarah Connor and Ripley gets my vote!
September 12th, 2007 at 8:12 am
I’d replace Minerva McGonagall with Dolores Umbridge. Umbridge is the most despicable fictional villain I’ve ever run across. She is to bureaucracy what Vlad the Impaler was to pointed sticks.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:32 am
True, Umbridge is a despicable villain. But, she’s also exceedingly narrow minded and arrogant, which makes her weak in other respects.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:45 am
I’ve seen several lists like this one and I have to say this one is about the worst. The ranking is simply absurd from beginning to end, with really minor figures being ranked far above very important ones. But I have to add that the women of CLEOPATRA 2525 deserves to be snubbed. But the Renaissance Productions heroine who should have made the list was Gabrielle. Seriously, would XENA have been even minimally interesting without her? Putting Death from the Sandman series #1 was silly.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
What about the Charmed Ones, or Several women from the Highlander universe, especially Amanda
September 12th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Veronica Mars is in the mid 80s what was it..85 or 86…she should of been way higher than that.
And the women of Firefly should not all be in a group..they are all special in there own way.
And where was Anya from Buffy…or Fred from Angel or Cordelia from Buffy.
I am sad…*sigh*
September 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Her name wasn’t Dark Angel, her name was Max Guevara, and hey in the second season she did something with her power. She created a freak nation and gave her boyfriend the ultimate communicable disease!
September 12th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
The list was limited to 100 and we’re pulling from 80 years of genre entertainment. Naturally, your favorites may not make the list.
September 12th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Robert - Sorry you think our list sucks so much. If you could be a darling, would you give us links to other Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Genre Film and Television lists. Cuz we couldn’t find one.
Which is why, well, we made this one.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:06 am
Just a note about Sveta from Night Watch: She isn’t being written out of the series, she (and Anton) will return in book 3 (Twilight/Dusk Watch) and book 4 (The Last Watch). It’s just that Day Watch is, as the name suggests, written from the perspective of members of the day watch.
I haven’t seen the movies, though, so I can’t comment on how she’s portrayed there.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Sveta and Anton both are seemingly written out of the movies - even though they’re the focal characters of Twilight Watch - The Book.
Nightwatch was a fun movie and inspired both Lisa and myself to head out and get the book(s). Daywatch - the Movie was a complete mess. I understand changes from the source material, but they’ve really taken things in a whole different direction.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:35 am
Where’s Faith from BtVS?
September 13th, 2007 at 11:11 am
We probably could have done a top 25 with nothing but Joss Whedon characters. Our power listing didn’t just take into account a character’s fictional strength within the fictional universe, but also the character’s power outside of that universe. For example: Even if someone had never watched an episode of BTVS, the names “Buffy” and “Willow” have more meaning in the real world. Buffy because it’s her show, and Willow, because of all the press she got regarding her sexuality. We didn’t feel that Buffy or Willow deserved to be lumped into a group as each was SUCH a standout.
Note the different approach we took for the women of Firefly - each character’s name was less likely to be known to civilians, but the women all survived the TV show, made it to the comic where they survived, and then made another media jump to the movie and survived again (unlike two of the male leads).
December 12th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
if the list is femmes of genre film and television, death should not be on it. she’s from comic/graphic novel land solely. if they make a movie out of sandman you could add her later. i don’t agree completely with the lineup, but i do think you got a lot of the best ladies in the genres. although missing gabrielle is… a sin. And the firefly ladies need to be separated. i agree with the others, they are completely fabulous individuals.
and that’s it. make it so.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:52 am
Where’s Gabrielle of Xena Warrior Princess? She went from needing rescued (okay some of that occurred later, but not as much) by Xena on a regular basis to fighting side by side with the Warrior Princess. And by the end of the series, she was the one with the Chakram, preparing to go help others.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am
Mary -
Gabrielle from Xena was an oversight. I’m expecting that with our second Top 100 list, she’ll find her way on to the list, especially since we’ll be opening up the list in a couple of months for public voting…Stay Tuned…
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Um, hello, how in the heck can one include Xena without thinking of her soulmate and partner,Gabrielle? In fact, I’ve read more about hercules and iolous on this site than I do about Gabrielle.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:04 am
i’m suprised not to see beatrix kido from kill bill here.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Im not offending you in saying your list sucks, i know its hard to look into 70 years of film and television, but i just want to point some characters you just forgot to look into
-The Bride, Kill Bill(got shot, survived, killed everybody who she hates, then kills bill and got her daughter back)
-O ‘Ren Ishi-Kill Bill(The boss of bosses in The japanese Maffia in Kill Bill, she chops a guy’s head in the middle of a meeting, how extremely cool!!)
-Chi-chi-Dragonball Series(I may look Stupid, but she’s the one who can make Goku scared, Gohan do his homework, Goten turn into SSJ, and forcing Goku and Piccolo to study driving)
-Charlies Angels-Charlies Angels(bit cliche, but ey, they where annoyingly good)
-Dolores Umbridge-Harry Potter Series(A qoute from the legendary Stephen King: greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter…, well if that doesnt convince you, then i am a vegetable)
-Arwen-Lord of the Rings(I dont know why, Shes just cool!)
-Elizabeth Swan-Pirates of the Caribbean(hot, mean, vile, hot, strong, hot, smart.)
-Sam, Alex and Clover-Totally Spies(drawing versions of charlies angels)
-Cruella DeVile-101 Dalmatians(she’s just soo damn cruel she has t be in the list)
just like
-Malivicent, The queen, Izma, Ursula and all the other main antagonist in a Disney movie
Or
-Yasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Belle, Ariel and all the other main antagonists or supporting lead’s in a Disney movie
Again for this comment, i aint attacking you that your lists sucks, but if you make a list about a genre spanding so long in history, you will always forget some of the big names.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
ow i almost forgot:
Dora The Explorer, Pls, only if its just 100, she must be in every list because she’s such a cult icon in my neighboorhood.