Traditionally, females in fiction tend to be portrayed as secondary characters, side-kicks, plot devices, and prop pieces. On the occasions that they're allowed a moment in the spotlight, it's often in service of literally anything and anyone but herself and her own character development.
But sometimes...
Sometimes we get a female character that is unapologetic in her strength, her growth, her mission, her development—her badassery.
Reddit user Boat3000 asked:
"Who's the most badass fictional female character of all time?"
So here's to these inspirational bits of awesomeness. To the female characters who kicked down doors, who stomped all over expectations, and who changed their worlds.
We love a baddie around here.
Hard To Disagree
"Toph Bei Fong"
-Meringuas
"Toph will wreck absolutely ANYBODY's sh*t, bar none, from ANY fictional universe, and will dish out mad shade while doing so."
"Lara croft? Killed in seconds."
"Sarah Connor? Destroyed."
"Samus? Commander Sheppard? GLaDOS? All absolutely stomped."
"Toph is the G.O.A.T"
- --Ty--
"She was already the G.O.A.T. as a small, blind, and 'helpless' little girl. She became an absolute legend and force of nature as an adult."
"Nobody even remotely challenged Toph - except maybe Twinkle Toes, but that was only until she learned from him and I'm pretty sure half the reason she adored Aang was BECAUSE he was a challenge."
- [Reddit]
"And she’s just allowed to keep that strength!"
Avatar The Last Airbender GIFGiphy"A lot of other stories would have ‘humbled’ a character who claimed to be the best, put them up against someone stronger and/or forced them to use other abilities and admit that they clearly weren’t that great. Not Toph."
"Toph is the best. We see how much she worked to get to her level, how much completely deserved confidence she has in herself, and the show doesn’t punish her for taking pride in that."
"And even with her incredibly strength, Toph is under no illusions about her limits. She might be a bit petty about it sometimes because it irks her, (“you think I can’t put up posters on my own?!”) but she knows there are things she can’t do and it would be stupid to pretend otherwise."
"She had issues admitting that to others sometimes, but she gets better about it."
"And she never lost touch with her basics or failed to connect with people so far under her level-even when she was first training Aang, she wasn’t tough on him because she was so advanced she couldn’t dumb it down for him."
"She was tough because that’s what he needed. Earth is hard, stubborn, unyielding, just like her, and just like Aang needed to understand to master it."
- Faiakishi
The Influence
"Ellen Ripley is mine."
"I remember when Captain Marvel came out, my cousin said that he was glad to see that there was finally a strong female character that his daughters could look up to."
"I legit almost sent him a picture of her saying "Ellen Ripley would like a word with you."
-jarrettbrown
"ELLEN RIPLEY ELLEN RIPLEY ELLEN RIPLEY"
- Fr00gie
"I initially came here to say Samus Aran."
"But since Metroid’s biggest direct influence is Alien, Ellen Ripley is, in fact, the correct answer."
- squarefan80
Giphy"I Am No Man"
"How has nobody said Eowyn?"
-LeakySpaceBlob
"A young woman, fully mortal, from one of the races of man with the least amount of Numenorian Blood or Blood of the Gods."
"All but alone on a battlefield, standing atop the body of her Lord - her Uncle and father figure - faces down a powerful Immortal Sorcerer King who has been the death of beings magnitudes more powerful than her (and she knows it) as well as entire nations."
"Her horse is dead, her arm is broken, her shield rent asunder; but she still stares him in the eye and spits a defiant cry to the winds."
"And she does what no man can: she slays the Witch King and saves her Lord's body and soul."
-Kiyohara
"I am no man!"
- wine_traveler
lord of the rings GIFGiphyUnstoppable Machine V. Unstoppable Machine
"There are many bada** female characters in fiction, but I would have to say Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies is one of the most bada**."
"She is a strong and determined woman who does whatever it takes to protect her loved ones and fight for what is right. She is a survivor who has endured many challenges, and she never gives up."
-Oliverbay512
"I can still remember her fighting that liquid terminator. Two unstoppable machines."
- HabitualTheater
Linda Hamilton Ok GIF by Terminator: Dark FateGiphyXena AND Lucy
"Xena The Warrior Princess would hand everyone in this comment section their own respective arses and then back flip outta there."
-ACalcifiedHeart
"Let's be honest, Lucy Lawless should probably be on this list just as herself. Every character she's played is stronger and badder than the last."
"Xena, Domina in Spartacus, that rando background chick in Spider Man - all of them bad."
- [Reddit]
"Aiyaiyaiyaiyaiyai /flip /flip /chakram /flip."
- Olly0206
Xena Warrior Princess Punch GIFGiphyBaby Baddie
"Lyra Belaqua from His Dark Materials."
"She is so young but willing to risk death to save a friend, travels between universes to find her father, has her soul torn away, travels to a place where no mortal has stood and gives up the only person she has ever loved."
-CanCharacters
Bbc One GIF by BBCGiphyAll thanks to her
"Jyn Erso."
"She gave the Death Star plans to Leia. Without her the rebellion would not have taken the empire down."
- Halos123u.
"No Jyn. No Future."
"Any and every Star Wars fan needs to acknowledge how pivotal Jyn was for everything! Give that woman her flowers!"
- [Reddit]
rogue one GIF by Nerdist.comGiphyShe's a 100
"Octavia Blake from the 100"
-aelinivanov
"What makes her amazing? Most aggressive female characters are poorly written and they're always either ethical and moral or just punch people for no reason in skimpy clothing, they always feel so simple and one dimensional."
"What I love about Octavia is that she's flawed, she has emotions, she has a backstory, she has motives to do what she does, she makes mistakes, she's her own person and she feels real."
-[Reddit]
show the 100 season 2 GIFGiphyThe Secretary-General
"Chrisjen Avasarala from The Expanse."
-CurtKline
"Her character is wicked smart, straight to the point, and knows how to navigate social politics to keep herself out of the spotlight."
"Despite all of her bad-a**ery, she still has weaknesses. She hates losing. She comes apart when she gets frustrated."
"Avasarala is a wonderfully nuanced character, and Shohreh Aghdashloo does an amazing job playing her. I think she's a fantasitic role model for girls and young women."
-Razur
The Expanse GIF by Amazon Prime VideoGiphyAI Alpha
"Cortana is hugely badass in all Halo games she's in except 3."
"She's basically the smartest living being on the human side, and she's far more of an active protagonist than even Chief."
"Also, I just love hearing her speak."
-ClassyJacket
happy miss you GIF by XboxGiphyCelebrating girl power with Reddit is always fun, but we are more interested in who YOU want to shine the spotlight on.
Sound off in the comments and give your favorite fictional femme the applause she deserves.
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Companies and products rebrand for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes they want to revitalize a dying brand.
Or stay fresh and modern.
Other times they're trying to put a negative public image in their rear view mirror.
And sometimes, someone somewhere in a company has low impulse control.
Anyway...
Reddit user PulakHasan asked:
"What's the Weirdest Rebranding of all time?"
Weight Watchers
"Weight Watchers abbreviated their name down to 'WW' and in doing so, increased the syllables needed to pronounce their new company name."
~ hambone10
"You burn more calories uttering the extra syllables."
~ jungl3j1m
waitr
"Waitr was an extremely successful delivery service here. They had full time employees and you could get food delivered in 30-45 minutes."
"Then, they made everybody an independent contractor and started calling themselves ASAP."
"'As slow as possible' caught on and they lost the majority market share within a month."
~ bravesgeek
GiphyHBO
"I still don’t understand HBO dropping probably the most prestigious name in cable tv/streaming."
~ stoneman9284
"Right?! Also it literally means Home Box Office - that’s the best name for a streaming service????"
~ oreos_in_milk
Nordic Choice Hotels
"Nordic Choice Hotels rebranded to 'Strawberry'."
"They have to mention their old name all the time, because Strawberry could be absolutely anything."
"If only it were 'Strawberry Hotels' but it's not. It's just Strawberry."
"They removed the part that explains what kind of business it is."
"Madness."
~ WoodSheepClayWheat
GiphyUSWest
"USWest-->Qwest-->CenturyLink-->Lumen I don’t care what your name is."
"Can I have more than 10mbps DSL at my address?"
~ Trickycoolj
"In Europe, and it's now Level3--> Centurylink--> Lumen--> Colt."
"I'm sure they rename in the hope people forget the incompetence."
~ ConsciousValence
"My mom has worked for them since 1977 when they were Northwestern Bell."
"She's been through a billion name changes."
~ CorporalBB
Circuit City IQ Crew
"Circuit City rebranding their PC technician division from IQ Crew (which predated Geek Squad, by the way) to..."
"Firedog."
"I worked at a Circuit City from 2005-2008 and we all thought it was a prank when we saw the announcement."
"'The intensity of fire with the loyalty of man's best friend'."
"I sh*t you not—that was the marketing."
~ Tiberius_Jim
GiphyBritish Petroleum
"When after a major oil spill, BP changed their branding to Beyond Petroleum for an ad campaign showing how they were investing in renewables."
"Logo change too."
~ RandomAmuserNew
"An oil spilled followed by a huge effort to cover it up, including dumping Corexit into the water to mix with the oil and make it sink."
"So it was no longer visible from aerial shots, but it did far, far more damage mixed with a dangerous chemical and sitting on the sea floor than slowly evaporating or being soaked up on the surface."
~ LurkerOrHydralisk
Amoco
"When BP purchased Amoco, they quickly rebranded all the stations to BP."
"Not sure if it is everywhere but Amoco had a lot of brand recognition in the Midwest and a lot of people just didn’t like BP."
"Eventually, they started rebranding some of their stations back to Amoco to cash in on nostalgia."
"I always thought it was dumb but never realized that so many people hated it until after I worked for BP (very briefly) and was told the story of how much pushback they got."
~ anitabelle
British Petroleum (BP Oil)/Paul Sableman
Overstock.com
"Overstock.com I think qualifies for weird rebrand."
"Bed Bath and Beyond went out of business and was bought out by Overstock and then Overstock just rebranded everything to Bed Bath and Beyond."
"If you go to overstock.com it’s just BBB."
~ WhatsABuckland
Snoop Dogg
"When Snoop Dogg (temporarily) changed his name to Snoop Lion to make a reggae album."
~ RomanOnARiver
"Snoop’s original name on Death Row was 'Snoop Doggy Dogg'. When he left Death Row and went to No Limit, he had to alter his name (which might have been his original name) to 'Snoop Dogg'."
~ GotMoFans
"Snoop’s mother used to call him Snoopy as a nickname which is the origin."
~ OpanaMan
"The Charles Schulz people would have had a field day."
~ GotMoFans
GiphyBooks-A-Million
"Books-A-Million to 'BAM'."
"I was in a parking lot with one and had no idea it was a bookstore, as I was a bit too far out to see more than 'BAM' from where I was parked."
~ lynnyfox
KIA
"Everytime I see the new KIA logo I assume its a NIN [Nine Inch Nails] fan."
~ vinyalwhl
"I thought it was KN for an embarrassingly long time."
~ VulfSki
"KIA changed their logo on their cars and Google showed an uptick in the searches for 'K N cars' because people liked the look of them but didn’t realise it was a KIA."
~ User_Deleted_Content
Mark Chan on Unsplash
Royal Mail
"Royal Mail deciding Consignia was the way to go forwards."
~ PonITdude
"They wanted to go international but they lost so much money that year they had to stay national and reversed the name back."
~ ShinyHead0
"Twitter to X."
~ sandiercy
"And then everyone still refers to it as Twitter."
~ Safety_Drance
"'A user on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted…'.”
~ tommyk1210
"Rather like to see 'A user on Twitter, erroneously known as X, posted...'."
~ SagittaryX
"'A user on twitter, largely unknown as X, posted...'."
~ Pinksters
"A few days ago, I saw an article that said 'Twitter, which Elon Musk incorrectly thinks is called X for some reason...'."
"That was pretty funny."
~ temalyen
GiphyCity Landmarks
"In Chicago we still call it the Sears Tower [renamed Willis Tower in 2009]."
~ baccus83
"And in Pittsburgh, it’s still Heinz Field [renamed Acrisure Stadium in 2022]."
~ NoVaBurgher
"And in Toronto, it’s still the Skydome [renamed Rogers Centre in 2005]."
~ nonanarchist
"And in New York when you take 287 across the Hudson it's still the Tappan Zee Bridge [renamed Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in 2017]. "
~ keytarin
"A lot of LA people still call it Staples Center [renamed Crypto.com Arena in 2021]."
~ New_Simple_4531
"In Denver we will always say Mile High Stadium [renamed Empower Field at Mile High in 2019]."
~ SheBrokeHerCoccyx
Some rebrandings make perfect sense to the public.
Others are utterly baffling.
What would you add to this list?
Reddit user b-secret asked:
"What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever Googled?"
How Much?
"what's the alcohol percentage in 70% rubbing alcohol?"
~ LightsJusticeZ
"55% alcohol, 15% rubbing"
~ FishOfFishyness
Who?
"I Googled my work because I couldn’t remember my boss’ name after working there for 8 months."
"I just blanked and couldn’t think of it."
~ HCxTC
Spellcheck
"I Google how to spell restaurant all the time."
~ ParkOk6450
"I'm like that but with Febuary."
"EDIT: February"
~ NeoNero_x
"I go into incognito mode to check spellings of words I should know how to spell."
~ LordCaptain
GiphyUm, No.
"I was trying to find the name of those signs where a word is written down the side and each letter is used for a descriptive word."
"Confusing I know."
"So here’s an example: False Evidence Appearing Real"
"I know it has to have a name. So I googled 'Sign where every word starts with a letter' and Goggle responded with 'Did you mean a sentence?'.”
~ Team_Lift
Looks Like...
"Googled green beans once, was super high and forgot what they looked like."
~ testies2345
"I did the same thing with beets."
~ Jjetsk1_blows
Gaby Yerden on Unsplash
That Movie, With the Guy and the Stuff...
"I'll forget the name of a movie and just type in random sh*t I think I remember. Usually it works."
"Like 'that movie where the kid sleeps and has weird dreams and flies on a bed'."
"Works like a charm."
~ fohsupreme
Did They Have Blue Feet?
"big boobies"
"I was only 10."
"I was surprised to find some."
~ PoopPower99
"I’m 39 and I Google this every day."
~ dekkact
"They're nice birds but are they really worth Googling everyday?"
~ redwolf1219
Blue-Footed Boobies
GiphyPredictive Text
"I used to search something like 'no clothes' or 'without clothes' or something like that when I was a kid."
"Then I learnt the word NAKED because of the TV show Naked and Afraid."
"Then searched it so many times that my autocorrect started to show that word first when I wanted to type something."
~ sniper8207
NSF...S?
"My favorite band growing up was 'The Barenaked Ladies'."
"When I was at school, I once Googled them and clicked on a link that said 'free shows!'."
~ BW_Bird
Good Description
"I forgot what a 'gondola' was called so I typed in 'Thing that carries you through the mountains in a basket'."
~ TheGreatJaceyGee
"I once forgot the word for 'door' so my brain reached for adjacent concepts, smashed them together and threw them out my mouth: 'house portal'."
~ Tail_Nom
GiphyIt Just Doesn't Translate
"I have to search a random word 'auf Englisch' or a random word 'auf Deutsch'."
"Every damn day."
"It took me a minute to realize that there was no way to translate Schadenfreude into English."
~ grammar_fixer_2
Ah, Memories...
"I found out that as long as you're logged into Google, all your searches are saved to your Google account (I'm not talking about browser history)."
"So I looked back, and the 1st thing I ever googled after getting a Google account was 'Can ducks fly'."
"I've no idea why I googled this. I know ducks can fly."
~ caca__milis
GiphyYou Ate What‽‽
"Once I was with some friends and I was telling them about how when I was a kid we only got to eat nuts as a special treat around Christmas."
"Then I mentioned how much I liked squirrel nuts and no one knew what they were. So I Googled 'squirrel nuts' with image search."
"Not at all what we ate at Christmas time."
"Finally found out what my family called 'squirrel nuts' were actually called hazelnuts."
~ 123fofisix
100% NSFW
"A few years ago my coworker and I were looking at the calendar at work. It had pictures of birds and we were trying to figure out what kind of bird was pictured for that month."
"I can’t remember what she thought it was, but I darned sure it was a Great Tit."
"We have a great relationship and have been working together for a long time but we tend to argue like an old married couple. So we went to Mr Google for the answer."
"Let me tell you that Googling Great Tit at work isn’t something I will ever do again."
"For the record, I was right. The bird was a Great Tit."
~ pi11bott
Great Tit holds an insect in its beak
A Perry on Unsplash
Hope some of these folks remembered to clear their browser and search histories.
So, what's your hilarious—or embarrassing—little Google secret search?