TV Meme: Day 15

"30 Days TV Meme"


Day 15 | Favorite female character

Even with a lot more candidates to choose from than the men, this was an easier choice to make. I knew I was always going to say Willow Rosenburg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She's my favorite character in my favorite show of all time, so it was pretty much a no-brainer. In my earlier entry on Buffy, I talked about how I personally related to it and well, Willow was the character I related to the most. She was the brainy and shy girl who would rather spend time in the library doing research than going out and partying. Basically, me.

With me relating to her to such a high degree, I found myself seeing the show through her eyes, feeling the emotions she was feeling. If she was sad, I was heartbroken. "Oz... don't you love me?" If she was deliriously happy, I was doing the Snoopy dance. "We're in love. W-we're lovers. We're lesbian, gay-type lovers!" If she was homicidally mad, I was cheering on for everyone's deaths. "Bored now... one down..."

Willow is the one character that probably grew the most from pilot to series finale. She went from bookish shy Willow to band groupie Willow to confident college Willow to powerful Wicca Willow to scary Dark Willow to beautiful goddess Willow. She even donned the leather once or twice to play Vamp Willow. To be honest, seeing Willow come out of her shell is just one of my favorite things from the show.

And I really felt that while she started the show as a sidekick, she grew into a strong lead character in her own right standing side by side with the titular slayer character. Hell, for a few episodes she became the main villain and in the series finale she was instrumental in changing the course of the entire slayer mythology.

Finally, special kudos to Alyson Hannigan for living as the character all those years and going through all those changes. It's a testament to her that I don't ever mistake Lily Aldrin (How I Met Your Mother) or Michelle Flaherty (American Pie) for Willow Rosenberg. Like Oz said, "As Willow goes, so goes my nation."

Honorable Mentions: Buffy Summers and Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Kaylee, Inara, and Zoe (Firefly), Echo, Sierra, and Adelle DeWitt (Dollhouse), Olive Snook (Pushing Daisies), Phoebe Buffay (Friends), Chloe O'Brien (24), President Laura Roslin, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, and Six (Battlestar Galactica), Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble (Doctor Who), Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls), Lily Aldrin (How I Met Your Mother), Sydney Bristow (ALIAS), Juliet and Sun (LOST), Karen Walker (Will & Grace), Betty Suarez (Ugly Betty), Captain Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek Voyager), Nancy Botwin (Weeds), Tara Gregson (United States of Tara), Lisa Simpson (The Simpsons), and I can probably name a few more but I'll stop right now.