International Women's Day: My Favorite Female Characters

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As you know, it’s International Women’s Day, and so, instead of writing continually about the dudes trying to steal the world’s creativity and ingenuity for their own profit, I wanted to write about my personal favorite female characters. Maybe you’re thinking, “Shouldn’t Women’s Day posts be about real women?” But, aha! I gotchu. Female characters are voiced by women!

This is in no particular order, and is not an exhaustive list. More-so, just my top faves, so, let’s go.

• 1: Commander Shepard, i.e., “FemShep”

People born in or after 2013 might not have the context or experience of knowing this character, or this series, and that’s a real shame. The Mass Effect series is the pinnacle of gaming, and came about during the real golden age. There hasn’t been anything quite as good, since the end of Mass Effect 3. Not even Cyberpunk 2077 fully hits all the right notes.

FemShep was a turning point, though. I remember thinking, all through the early 2000s, “Why, in every game except for World of Warcraft, am I forced to play as some fuckin’ dude?” And then I discovered (what is now) old school BioWare. And Dragon Age. And then Mass Effect. And so began a years-long obsession with the greatest gaming franchise ever made, that, for some reason, never saw a worthy continuation (yet).

FemShep was voiced by: Jennifer Hale

• 2: Morrigan, the Witch of the Wilds

Continuing on with BioWare classics, and ongoing stories that have created a lot of controversy in post-2020 society (see: incels, gamergate, fascism), we move on to another one of my faves. The arrogant, shrewd, selfish, and sometimes evil, Witch of the Wilds, i.e., Morrigan, of the Dragon Age series.

Long before BioWare mostly stripped Dragon Age of its more extreme dark fantasy themes, there was Dragon Age: Origins. A game where you made the choice to side with a demon on whether or not she could possess a child, or whether or not you wanted to slaughter an entire village, and so on and so forth. But then there was Morrigan, the first character in a game I was ever … infatuated with! And it was the first game I ever played where you could romance characters.

You know what this means, and you know what I did. Continuing my Dragon Age legacy in Veilguard, I am definitely curious as to where my son is. I’ve abandoned my boy!

Morrigan is a powerful character, and seemingly invincible woman, who very much shaped the direction of the Dragon Age series, and is one of my all-time favorites.

She was (and still is) voiced by: Claudia Black

• 3: Lara Croft

My list of favorite female characters absolutely would not be complete without mention Lara Croft, of the ever-expanding Tomb Raider franchise (now owned by Embracer Group, the company that continues to kill dev studios). This one holds a special place in my heart, because I played Tomb Raider … in the 90s, when the very first game, was brand new. The gaming landscape in the 90s was much different than it is today, because a game with a leading female role was almost completely unheard of.

And then there was Tomb Raider.

A game, and character I spent numerous hours with, and then watched, and continued playing as the franchise evolved. I’m currently, and very slowly, making my way through Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Lara Croft was originally voiced by: Shelley Blond, and went on to be voiced by: Judith Gibbons, Jonell Elliot, Keeley Hawes, Minnie Driver, and Camilla Luddington.

• 4: Kassandra, the Spartan Mercenary

Now we do a bit of a time-jump to the far future, far from 1996, to 2019, and the first Assassin’s Creed game I actually enjoyed, and am still playing, despite there being a completely different sequel, and another slated to come out very soon (where, coincidentally, this character makes a return).

I am, of course, talking about Kassandra, the largely agreed upon canon hero of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, wherein you play a Spartan mercenary during the brick, slate, and robe-wearing era.

Kassandra, obviously, wasn’t the first example of a hugely badass woman in a lead role, but she is one of my all-time favorites, and I still enjoy, in 2025, running around descending on enemy camps, and knocking out entire fields of enemies just so that I can recruit them to staff my ship.

Not only is she a badass, but you can run around romancing other women, and I think that makes for one of the very few LGBTQ+ (using the acronym here, because, as you play, you can romance pretty much anyone you want) themed female lead roles in gaming. The others, of course, being FemShep, wherein you could totally romance Liara, which I did.

Kassandra is voiced by: Melissanthi Mahut

• 5: V, Valerie, of Cyberpunk 2077

Now we jump into the game I mentioned at the beginning of this post, for my final of the top five, Valerie. This one is a little different, because she can look and be any way you choose. But, V is definitely on my top faves, because, not only does she hold all the characteristics of the characters I’ve mentioned thus far, but her story is one of tragedy.

A story that takes place in the year 2077, where you’re thrust into an impossible situation, struggling with the visage and personality of an unreliable narrator, and a man, inside of your own head. Something that can be interpreted in … many different ways, in fiction analysis.

Suffice to say, the story does not have a happy ending. But, that’s how it goes in 2077.

Either way, Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the best games I have ever played, with one of the greatest characters I’ve ever inhabited in a virtual world. V is right up there with Lara Croft and FemShep, and hasn’t taken the top spot only because the Mass Effect series did things right, that I wish 2077 could, or would have done (like, for example, making room for your character to maybe … come back, in the sequel).

Valerie was voiced by: Cherami Leigh

That’s it, though! That’s my top five! I definitely have many more favorite female characters, but if I had to choose to live on an island with five of my favorite characters, or choose only five characters in gaming that have been utterly life changing, these would be those characters.

Who are your top five female characters? Name a woman!