Chell from Portal (1 & 2) is a fictional character in the Portal video game series developed by Valve Corporation. She appears in both Portal and Portal 2 as the main player character. She is extremely athletic and almost masculine because of her strength, which would be considered "uncharacteristic" for a woman character in most video games. (Un)fortunately, Valve is one of those companies that is terrible at following stereotypes.
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Karrie Norton, AKA Vandal, is the player character from Dead Space "Mobile." Vandal is similar to Samus Aran of the Metroid series, as they are both female protagonists of games set in space and both wear a powered suit to hide their true identity (i.e. their sex) until the end of their respective games. Vandal is hired and tricked by the Church of Unitology to sabotage the Sprawl's defense grid, allowing Necromorphs to storm the space colony and kill all its inhabitants (which leads up to the events of Dead Space 2). Vandal's character is definitely masculine in nature, and she has almost no stereotypical feminine traits despite being a woman. "Audiolog: RIG number 438642. These could be my last words...
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Cynthia (Japanese: シロナ Shirona) from Pokemon Diamond, Pokemon Pearl, and Pokemon Platinum is the Champion of the Sinnoh region's Elite Four. She is extremely fashionable and feminine in terms of her dress and initial appearance, but don't let that fool you: Cynthia, to date, is arguably one of the toughest Champions in all the Pokemon video games. Her wide-range of Pokemon makes her pretty formidable as an enemy, but despite this brutality she shows in Pokemon Battles, she is soft-spoken and definitely does not initially embody the masculinity expected of strong Pokemon Trainers. Cynthia was also the first female Champion introduced to the series, the other being Dianthia and the player character (if they choose to play as a girl).
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Princess Peach, more casually known as “Peach” (she used to be known as “Princess Toadstool” in the first installments) is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom in the Mario series. Ever since her debut, she has appeared in more video games than any other female character in video game history.
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Faith Connors, known to most simply as Faith, is a Runner (a courier for an underground rebel organization) and the protagonist of Mirror's Edge. An independent, young Asian woman, Faith detests the domineering, totalitarian regime that controls the city she lives in and the lives of its inhabitants. Faith, like Chell, is extremely athletic and fully capable of fending for herself despite being a woman.
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Samus Aran is an intergalactic bounty hunter and the main protagonist of the Metroid series. Orphaned during a Space Pirate raid on her home of K-2L, Samus was adopted by the Chozo (an alien bird-like race) and taken to the planet Zebes where she was infused with their DNA and raised to become a warrior. Once she reached adulthood, Samus joined the Federation Police where she served until she ultimately left to become a Bounty Hunter. Like Vandal, her identity as a woman is not revealed until the end of her first game. She is also extremely physically fit, like Chell, Faith, and Lara Croft.
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Lara Croft is the British, Amazonian-esque heroine of the Tomb Raider video games, movies, and comic book series. She is portrayed by Angelina Jolie in the two films, although Croft's origins stem specifically from video games. Lara Croft was born in either 1968 or 1971 (the dates are inconsistent between games and, to date, she has no canonical birthday), and she was raised at Croft Manor in a world of aristocracy. She attended a girl's school and received private tutoring, although that was never enough to stop her from pursuing her ruin-seeking, adventurous side. She is often compared to Indiana Jones as being the more "competent" between the two.
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Alice Liddell is the sole survivor of a house fire that killed her family, caused her immense trauma when she was a child, and is the protagonist of American McGee's Alice (an Alice and Wonderland horror video game spin off). Through her bouts of insanity, she is capable of visiting Wonderland and its citizens. As she struggles with the fragments of her memories and mental health after a ten year catatonic state in Rutledge Asylum, she visits Wonderland to find the true cause of her family's demise. Despite her small stature, Alice is a vicious fighter, usually wielding a bloodied knife as her weapon of choice.
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Princess Zelda is the name for several incarnations of Hyrule's Royal Family who play an integral role in the many versions of The Legend of Zelda. Though each is the titular character of the Legend of Zelda series, the actual player character is each era's respective Link. Despite this, Zelda is an extremely powerful character in her own right. Although she often needs to be rescued in her title games, she (and her descendants) are also able fighters. In one incarnation, she disguises herself as a "male" gendered character, Sheik, in order to better help Link without giving away her identity. Since Zelda doesn't hide her identity via a suit, she could be considered "genderfluid," and she is one of the few mainstream video characters to successfully pull this off.
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GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is the sentient A.I. designed to control, guide, and oversee the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center in the Portal series. In possession of a feminine programming (and it is later suggested that her "programming" is actually the human mind of a woman named Caroline trapped inside the A.I.) she is the antagonist of the franchise and by keeping Chell prisoner in the facility, and she is voiced by opera singer and voice actress Ellen McLain. GLaDOS is especially ruthless and vicious, both physically and verbally, and her intimidating nature puts most "masculine" antagonists to shame.
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Midna is a character from Twilight Princess, part of The Legend of Zelda franchise. A Twili and an inhabitant of the Twilight Realm, teams up with Link and Zelda to battle a "greater evil" that she alone cannot overcome. In fitting with her dark nature, she has a playfully mischievous sense of humor and has a cynical demeanor during most of the game. Although she was the strong, independent queen of her own world, being turned into an Imp made her somewhat cowardly and sneaky: fairly unique character traits that separate her from most female protagonists.
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Sentinel Sarah Lyons is a Brotherhood of Steel member and the commander of the Lyons' Pride in 2277, from Fallout 3. She aids the player character, the Lone Wanderer, several times in the game and can be chosen to "save" the Capital Wasteland if the player character chooses the "cowardly" ending and refuses to save everyone themselves. Sarah is extremely independent, leading a platoon of men and fighting alongside them as easily as any other man.
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Elizabeth, the "second" protagonist of Bioshock: Infinite (and protagonist of Burial at Sea - Episode 2), is a twenty-year-old woman who has been imprisoned in Columbia since she was an infant. The game's protagonist, Booker DeWitt, is sent to retrieve her from the city and bring her to New York, but escaping Columbia isn't an easy task. She is guarded by Songbird, a monstrous, winged creature who was both her guard and only friend during childhood. While Elizabeth appears to be a Damsel in Distress, she has the power to manipulate Tears that exist in the fabric of time, allowing herself to briefly open windows into alternate dimensions. In Episode 2, she evolves into a much stronger character, citing her development over the course of the gameplay in Columbia.
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The Administrator (real name: Helen), also referred to as the Announcer, is the CEO of both RED and BLU from Team Fortress 2. She is the source of the mysterious, disembodied voice that issues commands and announces vital events during matches. She is never seen outside the comics, although her presence is always felt (and heard) in the games. An aged and thoroughly evil mastermind of a woman, the Administrator possesses both a piercing gaze and the sort of voice that commands total and unwavering obedience... or else. Her general demeanor tends to lean between slight anger or various stages of bitter disappointment. Like GLaDOS, she is voiced by Ellen McLain.
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Ellie Langford is one of the survivors of the Necromorph outbreak aboard The Sprawl in Dead Space 2. Ellie was reluctant to trust anyone and thus relied on herself when the outbreak occurred, leading to her becoming a lone wolf. She served as a Class IV Heavy Equipment Pilot under the employment of the Concordance Extraction Corporation, and despite being a woman, she proves herself to be a competent (and very resourceful) ally. Considering she works as a miner (a less than feminine job), this shouldn't come across as a surprise. She is viewed as Isaac Clarke's equal (Isaac being the protagonist player character of the series). Ellie appears again in Dead Space 3, too.
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