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Maya

I wonder if anyone else here remembers this game? To this day I'm in awe with the setting: a planet consisting of seven “shells”, layered continents rotating around a shared axis. Different cultures exists on different Shells, and the rotation creates a sort of force that can be harvested and used to power both technology and magic.

Ahem! So, Maya. A junker girl from Shell 2, which means second outermost. She lost her parents when factions of the Chosen (aristocracy living on the outermost layer) from Shell 1 warred against each other with little regard to the fact they were simultaneously ravaging lower Shells.

Maya grows up to be a kind young woman, but she also takes no nonsense from anyone, can stand her ground and kick ass. The planet becomes consumed by a crisis brought about by a self-righteous Chosen man named Doskias, but the poetic irony dictates he never becomes the saviour he tries in his hubris to be; instead, a simple junker girl saves the world from him.

Another trait I love about Maya is her self-sufficiency. While a lot of people help her along the way (there's eight recruitable companions in the game, and the ultimate party consists of three women, three men and three non-human beings), she really is the most important person in the story, and avoids most (not all, I suppose) common tropes that would diminish her character, at least in my opinion.

Aerith

Original FF7 was so lovely in its clunkiness. The characters looked like Lego Duplo blocks, there was no voice acting, and the English localisation was probably inaccurate in many ways. But this also meant that despite everything being pictured on the screen there was still enough room for the player to interpret things and characters in their own way.

So “my” Aerith (Aeris back then) was a woman in her late twenties/early thirties who managed to be simultaneously delicate and resolute. (I don't remember her canon age, but I think it was said she was older than Cloud.) She dressed in a pink dress and had beautiful hair decorated with a ribbon. She sold flowers. That cute image was offset by the fact she also wore a pair of very practical, sturdy boots (I imagine a kick to the shin must have really hurt) and could smack sense into her enemies with a staff (no, seriously, the thing looks steel enforced, lol).

Again, she was a kind soul, but not above teasing Cloud merciless. She also carried that maturity and sorrow in her. She grieved after a lost love, and yet she understood it might be finally time to move on. Spoiler (is it, after so many years?): I think she might be the first video game character whose death made me cry.

I haven't played the remake, because I'm kind of scared that the Aerith I have in my head no longer exists. Or maybe she never existed in the first place, hah. Regardless, I will always remember the flower girl who was simultaneously cute, mature, determined and impish.

Ellen Ripley

I have never considered myself a hardcore Alien fan, though I have a great sentiment towards the first movie especially. I don’t have much to say here except for the obvious: Ripley is smart and self-sufficient, she manages to outlive her colleagues, and in the end, she’s the person who both is able of fighting the xenomorph, but also of understanding the species better than anyone else.

Granny Weatherwax

I've never really known my granddads – one died before I was born, and the other before I turned one. So when as a teenager I started devouring one Discworld book after another, I also kind of began treating (in my head, obviously) Terry Pratchett as that granddad I never had.

To his credit, he wrote lots of excellent characters, female and otherwise. I could mention Adora Belle Dearheart, Angua, Tiffany Aching and many, many more. But Granny Weatherwax somehow felt special to me – a wise old woman, very rough around the edges, yet dedicated to helping people, especially the common people. I loved how flawed she were, and yet she still managed to do the right thing.

The Lady of Pain

Does she count? She must count! She haunts me ever since I played Planescape: Torment for the first time. A mysterious, powerful entity that runs the city in the centre of the multiverse, forbids other Powers from entering it or being worshipped (to her credit, she also dislikes being worshipped herself). And when you manage to draw her ire, she mazes you: creates a pocket dimension that’s all yours, to keep you there away like a pest that you are, alive, until you go completely crazy, sorry berk, other Cagers tried to warn ya.

I love her design, that rusty bladed headpiece she wears, those orange robes that rustle as she ominously floats around the city. (I know, they're not orange in the picture I attached.) And as far as I know, the creators never made the mistake of actually explaining what she is or what her origin is, which makes it all even better.