For my brother’s birthday, I went over to my mom’s house. We had steak, had family dinner debates, and played a board game. During our dinner discussion, we talked about movies we would always watch growing up. This led to a discussion about strong female characters in the early ’00s. I wanted to create a list of my favorite heroines / kickass women in various forms of media.

Elektra

Elektra is a widely criticized movie and was considered a box office bomb. It’s not comic-book accurate by any means; however, I loved this movie. I always requested watching Elektra. I liked her katana’s, and I would play pretend in our backyard pretending to be Elektra. This is a movie I will always be fond of, despite its flaws.

Hermione

While I have been trying to distance myself from Harry Potter, I can’t make a list like this and leave out Hermione.

Padme

This was when I learned female characters could be written so poorly. I cannot believe George Lucas wrote in a script that she “lost the will to live”. Give me a break. I like the fan theory where Palpatine drew upon her life force to save Anakin. I know it’s not canon, but it gives her death way more clarity.

Evelyn (Evy) Carnahan

How can you not love Evy? Evy is first featured in The Mummy as a librarian who’s a bit clumsy. She is intelligent, capable, and helps Rick (played by Brendan Fraser) escape from the tomb. In The Mummy Returns, Evy is the same, except it’s clear Rick has taught her how to defend herself. She’s featured in more action sequences in the second film, which I was a huge fan of. Both The Mummy and The Mummy Returns are movies I would credit as to why action movies are often my favorite genre of movies to watch.

Martha Jones

I’m cheating with this pick since I started watching Doctor Who as an adult. Although I think I would have liked Martha still, even if I had seen Doctor Who when I was a kid. Martha Jones is the most underrated companion. I find a lot of people don’t like Martha because of her obvious crush on the Doctor. This isn’t the fault of Martha, but the writers on Doctor Who during her era. Martha calls out racism in one particular episode where she lists off the bones of the hand when a woman doesn’t believe she’s capable of being a medical doctor. Martha is easily one of the best companions of Tennant’s era.

Let me know which female heroines you loved growing up in the comments below!