I’ve been thinking about this list for a minute, partly because I love random list of people’s opinions as much as anyone. Diversity is a big thing now in days sometimes celebrated and sometimes controversial the best two opposite characters I can give to this is anecdotal evidence with the difference responses to characters like Spidey-Gwen/ Gwen-pool and Mile Morales. They both are highly praised characters now but when they were first released, I didn’t really see any hate for Gwen spin-offs not to say there wasn’t but just none came up on my feed while Miles, geez bro Miles got threads of hate before his comic was actually released. Granted feeling the iconic shoes of someone like Peter Parker is not easy, but I will say all I personally need is a spider-man universe where Peter has the genius intellect but severely lacks the funds for college and takes out huge amounts of student loans and smokes pot. I don’t feel like I should have to say this but we all are aware great characters are more than just gender and race, I’m sure majority agree. Hell, my favorite character is a blue hedgehog that runs faster than the speed of light and loves chili dogs. It’s really the personalities and the worlds around the characters that help shape them into who they are much like ourselves in real life, we come to love or hate them and how they further evolve as the story continues.
So lets start with my girl Samus Aran or the original Master Chief as I call her, I really didn’t get into Metroid until the Prime series which is understandable, geez I was born in the 90s so don’t fault me….what? you want me to travel back in time to super Nintendo 80s? Samus is the quite and get it done attitude type along with what I call a female pioneer within gaming. She is the definition of determination with her always having a new threat lingering around the corner whether it’s new space pirates, mother brain, a Metroid or other bounty hunters. Even though she loses her extra health, weapons and armor at the beginning of almost every game the girl doesn’t even flinch when in the presence of massive, not sure if it’s psychotic or just blood thirsty pirate aliens but she takes the challenge like it’s just another day. As jigga would say she just dust off her shoulders, plus I just need to add wave beam + missiles equal purple beam vortex for the win and don’t even get me started on that fire ass light suit she has.
Next, I’d have to go with Yuna. I think her journey overall is what makes her badass. Let’s recap a little when we first meet Yuna she is a young summoner who admittedly summons some of the coolest creatures I’ve ever seen in block-y 3D fashion, I’m sorry not sorry, that Infrit is beautiful and haven’t seen a better one yet (and no FF 15’s Infrit does not cut the cake for me). She hangs out with a crew I think everyone can be jealous of a little, she is friends with a tall blue cat, I don’t care that’s awesome. I’m sure it’s more mid-way through the story you realize this girl is really prominent to the story; I think it’s kind of obvious the tug of war that goes on between her and Tidus for lead and this was his story.
Her character design looks cultural (for clear reasons if you’ve played the game) now the area where her character lost me for a bit was the X-2 portion of the story where she becomes a national pop-star singer, kind odd no? Either way her character development between the two series is why I think she is bad ass to think she goes from an innocent and disciplined summoner to a care-free pop-star gunslinger with three friends by her side Rikku and Pain. By the way the trio over lightning (from FF-13) any day; dude I’m sorry lightning is not taking out those three, goddesses or no goddess. I know some people will be asking “Yuna really?” while scratching their heads but let me just say in all fairness Yuna is one of the many and I do mean many badass females from the Final Fantasy series.
Next up is Zelda/ sheik or maybe I should’ve put her first none the less the carrier of the wisdom tri-force. Without her I dare say there is no Link, I mean think about it Link can’t beat Ganondorf alone. This isn’t just for Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword but rather any encounter that involves the tri-force trio. The characters ability to empathize even with her enemies is pretty progressive and awesome to see kind of like that time Goku wished kid buu would come back as a good guy even after all of the death he had caused. With sheik being hands down one of the coolest alter egos ever, you can’t deny the first time you saw Zelda in the semi-ninja outfit that you weren’t like “holy shit this is Zelda?” I mean there is an excellent reason sheik is such a fan favorite. As much as I’d want a solo game with just Sheik, I doubt it would be as good in practice as it is in my head; I probably could go on and would need to give Zelda her own article to really do her character justice.
Clementine, oh man Clem possibly one of my favorite human females. More than likely because we’ve been with Clem since 2013 watching her grow from a innocent child cared for by Lee to a independent as her story progresses along to losing that innocents due to how shit the world around her was become chaotic and dangerous. Further more the adults a child should be able to trust to guide her only further to prove the point of how dangerous the world has become. 
While a lot of Clementine’s personally is based on you as the player (outside of the first game) but I get the feeling overall Clementine is exactly who a kid in a zombie world would be; lost innocence fast, cold and reasonably selfish but by the end of The Walk Dead: Clementine series we really see her grow out of that. She becomes like a mature older sister looking after and protecting Aj the same way Lee did for her. I have to say I love the way her character develops from this shy timid young girl to a confident, take no shit young adult.
Alright, we are moving more towards horror territory for this next one. Alma Wade is a psychic traumatized psychopath villain of the F.E.A.R series. I don’t want to hear any excuses about her being a child, my guy she is a adult who uses her powers to appear as a child and if that isn’t creepy enough she raped a physic soldier to have a third child (yes you read that right). The reason I qualify her for badass though is because of how powerful she is as a character, I’d dare say she is she dark phoenix (X-men) level destruction throughout the first two games there is always a period where a atomic bomb like explosion levels a whole town and it isn’t until you’re further into the game that it’s revealed to you that this kid just obliterated this city. She is terrifying and anyone who disagrees is a liar. *laughs, F.E.A.R is one of those games that would be a excellent animated show…eh eh Netflix?
Nudge nudge.
Lastly, I have to put Rubi on here dude, she is the definition of badass with the classic grind house theme, old-western cowboy vibes with the random duel sword wielding right hand women to the main villain. Her save check points were this really creative drink a bottle of Jack Daniel’s toss bottle into the air and shot it, that’s tough. Voice acting is incredible while the story was generic and I don’t mean that in a bad way just we have seen this story before probably multiple times. Rubi is badass though because she is unique, game wise I have yet to see another female character like her in this gen. Which is a real shame because I think she would be a much appreciated for her return.
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