Favorite Female Characters

Although I missed International Women's Day, I wanted to put together a list of my favorite female characters with something I like about each. Female characters don't have to just be "strong" (though that is cool too), but it's great when they have unique personalities as normal people and have their own role in the story apart from a leading or supporting male character (though this does not make their relationship bad or unimportant!). All of these characters are really great and I love how they are portrayed complexly - they are already cool and strong but have moments of weakness that show their humanity and ability to learn and grow. There are so many I want to mention and I'm probably forgetting some ladies I love, but here are my top choices at the moment:

Ellie Miller

Broadchurch

A detective sergeant and a mother, she's thrown into a situation she's not prepared to deal with but her compassion continually shines through.

Rose, Martha, Donna, Sarah Jane, and others

Doctor Who

Rose always puts others first and looks out for people many don't notice. Martha balances what everyone wants from her and stands up for herself. Donna sees the Doctor as he is and encourages people to be their best, even with her own insecurities. Sarah Jane is like another Doctor and adopts *all* the kids.

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Win and Joan Thursday

Endeavour

It's the 60s - Win, the mother of the Thursday family stays home and Joan, her daughter, has a job, and both are portrayed as good and important. Joan is funny and a bit adventurous and Win supports her family through thick and thin. (Dorothea Frazil is cool too)

Cully and Joyce Barnaby and Gail Stephens

Midsomer Murders

Daughter and wife of the lead detective, Cully and Joyce both have an interest in the arts (whether as a career or a hobby). Cully knows what she wants and works toward it, and Joyce likes to try new things and be involved in the community. Gail Stephens is a police officer and while junior to Barnaby and Jones, she has a different set of skills to contribute to investigations.

Molly Hooper

Sherlock

Molly has such a great character arc as she starts out as an awkward, love-sick, mouse and establishes herself and gets the respect she deserves. But it's the two sides of her existing simultaneously that make her so relatable. Also shout out to some other awesome women of Sherlock - Mrs. Hudson, Mary Morstan, Sally Donovan, Anthea, Janine, and Sarah.

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 Eowyn

 The Lord of the Rings

She's a leader and sacrifices what she wants for the good of others, not to mention brave and resourceful and all-around awesome. Shout out to the many other women of Middle-Earth as well.

Hermione Granger

Harry Potter

Her hard work and patient study make her the "brightest witch of her age," and she is strong and flawed and beautiful and loyal and keeps her friends together.

Maya Fey

Ace Attorney

How to summarize the awesomeness of Maya... She seems so real in that she has multiple sides to herself and surprises you as you get to know her. She's quirky and spunky most of the time but doubts her abilities and her worth. Throughout the series she works through personal tragedies while doing anything she can to help her friends. Franziska is also an amazing character I could go on about.

This is getting long so to say a few more:

 Lizzie, Jane, and Lydia Bennet from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Ahsoka, Padme, Leia, Siri, Bant, and many others from Star Wars

Carolyn Knapp-Shappey from Cabin Pressure

Emma Swan and others from Once Upon a Time

Fanny Price from Mansfield Park

Several of my favorite characters are guys, but these women are particularly special. I find many of them are realistic, relatable, and a great part of their story. For those in current series, hopefully this will continue! Who are your favorite female characters?

Closet Cosplay Challege - Results

 
First of all, you guys rock. Thanks so much to everyone who sent challenges! For a couple of these I borrowed something from a family member, made little things out of construction paper, or had actually already made something for a character, but otherwise this is stuff out of my closet. And sorry in advance for the quality of the pictures! I alternated between an iPod and digital camera, both with ups and downs.

Speaking of things I already made for characters - Shaak Ti suggested Elizabeth Swan, who I actually dressed as for Halloween years ago, so I had something okay for this:

accidental cosplaying in front of picture of actual character (right middle)

Shena had a few challenges- first an undercover Jedi (thought it was cool how this was open to interpretation, which I may have had a bit too much fun with) (I am wearing my Jedi tunic, it's just hard to see!):

cover

deep cover

deep deep cover

Sherlock Holmes:

I take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend

Rose Tyler (I went with her outfit from The End of the World, since I already made a shirt to look like hers):

we're in the year 5 billion! but first let me take a selfie.

Mary Margaret:

she makes me want to cut my hair and completely change my style

And Eowyn (was able to sort of pull off her costume from Dunharrow):

might be my new favorite costume of hers

Faith suggested two disney princess - Belle (who I'd love to cosplay for real now):

far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise...

And Cinderella:

learned my face doesn't like to cooperate for princesses so better to close eyes...

Zenta said Professor Layton (thank you bro for the shirt. and jacket. and hat.):

every puzzle has an answer

And Miles Edgeworth:

now then, if the defense is quite done embarrassing itself...

And last but not least Misty who, after I specifically said Smaug would be tricky, suggested I do said dragon. But just for you, my dear friend:

Benedict doing the motion capture for Smaug!

Mwahahaha! (I only laugh because I fail at doing a scary face)

And that's it! Again, thanks so much for the challenges, this was a ton of fun to do! Have a great week, keep calm, and cosplay motion capture versions of characters that are too hard.

Update on me

Stealing idea from Nessima and others!


Books I've Been Reading:
- Dear America: With the Might of Angels
- Meet Cécile (American Girl)
- Ace Attorney manga (The Miles Edgeworth Files)

Music I've Been Listening To:
- Adrisaurus
- Video game related music, as usual

Videos I've been watching:
- Blimey Cow
- This Time Productions

Things I love and/or can't wait for:
- Musicals (I'm in one and this is our final weekend of shows!)
- Ace Attorney (finished the third game yesterday - the last case was awesome, as always)
- Friends
- Upcoming church events

Other thoughts:
- I was finally able to request a transcript so I can transfer my credits from dual-enrolling to the college I'll be going to this fall! That was tricky to get.
- Three more days of putting on a ton of makeup for stage, then back to looking normal, thankfully. Maybe I'll start wearing a bit on a regular basis, but chances are my laziness will win out and I won't.
- I haven't written a song parody in a while.
- I haven't written anything in a while.
- You're awesome for reading this.

And because some were adding pictures...

Off to practice some music and later put on makeup for the millionth time! Hope this post wasn't too lame - I have one possible post idea for the future, but probably won't have time to write for the next few days. Have a great weekend everyone, and may the Lord be with you!

Video Game Music Remixes

Isn't video game music just awesome? Here are some cool remixes my brother and I found (he probably found most) and enjoyed listening to. Hope you enjoy too!

I've never actually played any Legend of Zelda games, but I must say, Zelda + violin = beautiful. The visuals of this video are gorgeous too!

An a cappella version of the Bowser stage music from Super Mario 64. It's so true to the original song, and interpreted using only voices! Very cool.

Just feel yourself relax. This combines a jazz/soul version of "The Fragrance of Dark Coffee" (from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations) with the sound of rain and a crackling fireplace. I'm listening to each song as I add it to this post, and I do not want to stop this one.

What if every time Mario died and returned with another "life," he had to come back as a baby and relive his life up to the place he died before? From the webcomic Brawl in the Family (an awesome Nintendo webcomic - check it out!) comes this idea, accompanied by a medley of Mario music from multiple games.

Now to take the reflective mood and utterly destroy it, here is the Bob-Omb Battlefield music from Super Mario 64 combined with the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It fits. And yes, two songs related to Super Mario 64 in this post. Sue me. It's one of the best games ever. Arguably.

I usually shy away from remixes, but there are some really great ones out there! Do you have any favorite video game remixes, songs, or soundtracks?

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 11

Two favorite Christmas recipes...

These are (imperfect) snowman top hats.  Mom and I saw them in a store once and thought they looked really cool, so we tried to make our own allergen-free version (three out of the four of us have food allergies).  They're kind of tricky to make, but so, so worth it.

They are made with chocolate, large marshmallows, and Oreos/sandwich cookies.  To make them, first melt chocolate chips (we used a make-shift double boiler).  The way I assembled them today was I dipped a marshmallow in chocolate, put it chocolate side down on the Oreo, spooned more chocolate on the top, and used a toothpick to spread the chocolate on the sides of the marshmallow and Oreo until getting something resembling a top hat!

I don't really have a second recipe, but I wanted to share a couple pictures of the cookies we decorated yesterday!  The recipe we use is a basic cutout cookie recipe from my aunt with powdered sugar frosting.

Here is a platter with cookies decorated by my mom, brother and myself...

And a few I did just for fun.  First is Piglet, then a japor snippet from Star Wars, Bilbo Baggins (as best as I could do by memory), Phoenix Wright, and Professor Layton (a snowman version, at least).  Piglet has frosting and the others were drawn with food coloring markers

Definitely had a lot of fun creating these Christmas treats and doing it with my mom and brother.  It has also been fun to eat a couple!

'Tis the night before Christmas, our goodnights have been said.  We're going to Mass in the morning, so I better go to bed!  May the Lord be with you this Christmas night!