I’ve been coming to come up with some answer to this topic, but I just can’t. Maybe I just think role models are kind of an artificial concept. Maybe I think the predominantly male base that is game developers shouldn’t be telling women what to behave like or what a woman would be. Like I feel like however you slice it, we get a feminist issues.

But when it comes to female characters I find awesome, there are plenty. But I want to mention someone controversial as an example: Lightning. She’s been memed to death and her game’s reputation is what it is, but I actually really dig her as a character. She’s the rare “badass female character” that actually has emotional depth and doesn’t entirely discard any feminine traits to perpetuate the insidious idea that feminine equals weak, inferior, “less than”. Yes she’s badass and violent a lot of the time but her defining traits throughout most of her story are her love for her sister and the nurturing side she shows hope. Plus she learns to forgive and just generally be kinder to people without ever losing any of her edge.

So yeah, ironically, a character made specifically to cater to a specific base - mostly fans of Cloud and Strong Independent WomenTM turned out to be probably the most nuanced character in a game that really tried to be about the characters but really failed at it