Welcome to the second round of our March Madness tournament! This week, 32 contestants – 8 each in our 4 brackets – count down for the title of Girls in Capes Fan Favorite.
Molly Weasley
The matriarch of the Weasley family in the Harry Potter series, Molly is everything girls should look up to in female characters and women in general: courageous, supportive, strict when necessary, protective, and overall loving to all her family and friends. Molly Weasley is proof that you don’t have to wield a sword or shoot laser beams out of your eyes to be a “strong female character” – the nurturing (and sometimes suffocating) mothers are just as heroic and worth appreciating as the ladies in capes and cowls. – Gabby Taub
Alanna the Lioness
If there’s one woman in young adult fantasy fiction that is the quintessence of badassery, it’s Alanna the Lioness. From disguising herself as a boy – and getting away with it to knightdom – to fighting gods older than written language, she makes one hell of a woman, disregarding gender roles, adversity, and her own personal demons. – Christina Casano
Johanna Mason
This Johanna, the outspoken District Seven victor of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, achieved renown by winning her Hunger Games, where she feigned weakness until the Games’ end, at which point, she unleashed “a wicked ability to murder.” Her weapon of choice is an axe, though she is just as adept with her words, which she wields sharply and without censorship. – Hannah Pingelton
Eowyn
The shieldmaiden and daughter of the House of Eorl is a fan favorite from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The niece of King Théoden, Éowyn is given the reins to the kingdom of Rohan to rule in his stead while he rides to war, but chooses instead to disguise herself as a man and ride to war as well. There, during the Battle of Pelennor Fields, she faces the Witch-king of Angmar, whom no man can kill, and, announcing that “no living man am I!” slays him once and for all. – Hannah Pingelton
Dedicate Rosethorn
Named for her beauty, her love for plants, and her sharp tongue, Dedicate Rosethorn of the Winding Circle Temple in Emelan is an incredible woman with magic and internal strength that could destroy a mountain. Her harsh exterior hides an intensity and love for her partner, Dedicate Lark, and her adoptive son Briar, and that love is what truly makes Rosethorn one of my favorite characters not only in the Circle of Magic quartet, but in all of Tamora Pierce’s novels. – Feliza Casano
Brienne of Tarth
Brienne the Beauty has honor, dignity, and a strong sense of duty. Though her physical appearance is used against as a barb against her, she uses her build to her advantage. A fierce warrior that almost defeats Jaime Lannister in a fair fight, she makes one of the most badass characters in A Song of Ice and Fire. – Christina Casano
Elphaba
As the green-skinned protagonist of Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba Thropp starts out as an ambitious and intelligent student at Shiz University, where she befriends the popular Galinda and embarks on a long quest of self-discovery. As a woman who fights to be in control of her own destiny, Elphaba lives by her own moral code and is totally unapologetic about it. She believes in herself and in her cause – no matter what the ending might have in store for her. – Gabby Taub
Elizabeth Bennet
The epitome of sass and humor comes in the form of twenty-one-year-old Lizzie Bennet, a woman dealing with the craziness and drama of living in a house with five daughters in the Regency era. With the hero of the piece being the incomparable Mr. Darcy, we have a heroine that makes leaps and bounds in character development with the beautiful and endearing qualities that make us fall in love with the story. – Christina Casano
