Once a year at borg we ask: What makes a great screen heroine?  It’s time for borg′s annual look at the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines in film and television.  In 2024 we’ll be compiling our tenth annual list, but today we’re highlighting the very best of 2023 from a slate of fantastic characters, including some good villains, with characteristics to learn from and root for.  Determined, decisive, loyal, brave, smart, fierce, strong, savvy, you’ll find no one here timid or weepy, but all rely on their individual skills to beat the odds and overcome any obstacle that comes their way.  Do you want to see how roles for women have improved in only the past decade?  Here are links to: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.  Some of our selections may be frazzled, put-upon, war-weary, or just human, but all have fought, some against difficult circumstances, others against personal demons (literally, figuratively, or both), and some against sword, gun, laser fire, or disease.  And they all show what a tough, kick-ass, often badass, character is about.

This year we salute eleven women from the past, nine warriors, eight cops, three superheroines, four starfarers, three kids, three gods, two sleuths, two barbarians, two borgs, a scientist, a wizard, a lawyer, a lost timelord, an amputee archer, a nun, a stuntwoman, a driver, a mob leader, an alien from another world, some antlered folk, and a general, with 19 characters we’ve never seen in any medium before.  Credit goes to both the writers, animators, costumers, other creators of the characters, and the actors and performers that brought them all to life.

And here we go…

Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds).  “I fly the ship.”  Melissa Navia’s awesome, cocky young pilot was back again this season, arriving as the best component of the season.  As great (and funny) as ever, she’s saved the ship (how many times now?) and piloted the Enterprise out of its biggest problems.  (Paramount+)

Sister Simone (Mrs. Davis).  No actress this year had more insane tasks to perform for her heroine in any series or movie than Betty Gilpin.  Storming into an actual whale, being a very… modern… nun, all to defeat an all-powerful AI that’s taken control of everyone Earth.  Stay out of her way–she is an incredible force to be reckoned with.  (Peacock)

Lola (Star Wars: Visions, “Sith”).  A fantastically badass new borg, exciting enough to merit her own adventures.  She is an artist who made a bad bargain, but is not to be trifled with, becoming the year’s most interesting, most exciting new franchise character.  (Disney+)

Akane Haiya (Alice in Borderland).  The Hatter’s tough lieutenant Aguni befriends this new badass heroine played by Yuri Tsunematsu, a high school archery champion whose leg is amputated during a battle, leaving her to wear a prosthetic metal foot. Is it possible she could be back for a third season after the season 2 finale?  We hope so.  (Netflix)

Detective Eddie Redcliffe (Deadloch).  Take all the tropes of every male edgy, mouthy, foul, grimy TV cop, double it, and you have Eddie.  Madeleine Sami created the first-ever cop of her kind.  That’s not saying she was brilliant, but her style was her own, qualifying her as kick-ass (and smartass) by any definition. (Prime Video)

Sazz Pataki (Only Murders in the Building).  Second only to Martin Short’s brilliant humor on this show is Jane Lynch’s performance as Steve Martin’s stunt double from his days as TV’s action star Brazzos.  “I do what you cannot,” she says, succinctly and philosophically summing up her role. Everyone should have someone like Sazz as their go-to back-up.  (Hulu)

Mai Ling (Warrior).  Dianne Doan’s Tong queenpin dealt with every form of hell as a prisoner of her warlord husband in China. She found new opportunities in America: marrying a Chinatown gang leader, then killing him to rise up the ranks and become head of the burgeoning Chinese mob in 1880s San Francisco. Who knows what kind of awesomeness awaited her, were a fourth season ahead.  (HBO Max)

Annika (Annika).  Nicola Walker’s head of a new marine homicide division could be like every other British police protagonist, but she isn’t.  She’s brave enough to pull the entire audience into her often muddled, always literary thought process and equally off-kilter personal life.  Her leadership style swings from awkward to sharply professional–a one-of-a-kind mix to keep us coming back for more.  (PBS Mystery)

Mary Bromfield aka Mary Marvel (Shazam! Fury of the Gods). A classic superheroine who has been around almost as long as the comic book medium itself.  Here she had to balance going to college and saving the world as a reluctant member of her adoptive brothers’ family league of superheroes.  But she’s the kind of heroine that deserves her own story, and movie.  (Warner Bros.)

Officer Rebecca Quincy (Renfield).  She won’t back down to anyone–police chief or head of the mob or an older sister in the FBI.  Awkwafina turned in yet another badass performance as a good cop who seeks justice for her father’s death in a police squad where nearly everyone is crooked.  She’s a cool heroine in a crazy monster flick up against the villain of all villains–she even takes on and ultimately defeats Dracula! (Universal)

Elena Roarke (Fantasy Island).  Nobody carries herself with the grace and regal nature of Roselyn Sanchez’s legacy to Ricardo Montalban’s magic-filled tropical island fortress.  She has a certain infinite wisdom about her, yet the work and toil took a toll as she revealed her emotional side this season.  Being a host of a magical island has a price.  A brilliant creation for a reboot series that rivals the original.  (Fox)

Sergeant Bernadette Manuelito (Dark Winds).  TV audiences have never seen a tough woman cop like Jessica Matten’s Navajo cop protecting a small New Mexico town.  In a sparse squad she’s managing a lot, balancing local magic, crazy local crime plots, and bad guys passing through her town.  Young but tough and savvy, she has rescued nearly everyone including her boss more than once, often upstaging everyone else in the room.  (AMC+/Max)

Yo-Yo (They Cloned Tyrone).  For nearly a century Nancy Drew has inspired people and that included Teyonah Parris’s heroine’s younger self.  So what if she took a detour to be a sex worker on her way to Memphis?  Yo-Yo is more than the sum of her attributes.  Her sharp sleuthing instincts and no-nonsense attitude helped Tyrone and Charles bring down the ultimate conspiracy, an insidious plot perpetrated by The Man.  (Netflix)

Monica Rambeau (WandaVision/The Marvels).  Teyonah Parris did double duty this year, reprising her character from WandaVision, who first appeared in Captain Marvel.  Balancing out the newbie and the intergalactic warrior, she saved the universe again, as she readies to face new threats in the multiverse.  (Disney)

Elora Danan (Willow).  The beloved character from four decades ago emerged as the kind of wizard that fantasy fans have been waiting for.  Her character arc in ten short hours grew into what was sure to be an even bigger force in a second season.  It’s not our fault the corporate types canceled this promising series.  (Disney+)

Ariadne Oliver (A Haunting in Venice).  Tina Fey became an arch version of Agatha Christie’s sleuth, an old friend to Poirot, almost an apprentice to his meticulous detective powers.  Sly, cunning, and crafty, even with her flaws she became a cool new force audiences want to see more of.  (Hulu)

Queen of Spades (Alice in Borderland).  Chihiro Yamamoto’s Queen of Spades was a stunning addition in the series’ second season, possessing all the skills Usagi demonstrated in the first and using them all to defend her face card status, punching, flinging, climbing, kicking, and tagging all the players on the opposing team in her bid for survival.  (Netflix)

Helena Shaw (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny).  Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s god-daughter to old Dr. Jones brought the right balance of good guy/bad guy to the latest Indy adventure.  Smart, clever, and tough enough to punch Indy to wake him up to his place in history–so definitely badass–she not only carried Indy out of the past, but carried the franchise into the future.  (Disney/Lucasfilm)

Junior Constable Abbie Matsuda (Deadloch).  Of all the cops on this year’s list, none worked harder than Nina Oyama’s young woman in Tasmania.  She conquered her own love life issues and battled all kinds of strange encounters (and the patriarchy) this season as she earned the respect of her peers and bosses, becoming an ace at forensic crime scene examination.  (Netflix)

Mary Jayne Gold (Transatlantic).  It doesn’t get more kick-ass than a World War II resistance fighter played by Gillian Jacobs.  She played a Chicago heiress and American Emergency Rescue Committee operative sneaking the last people out of Nazi-occupied Europe.  The kind of heroine you want to stand up and cheer for, she blended Rosie the Riveter’s grit with unusual methods and a savvy only Jacobs could convey.  (Netflix)

Lai (Warrior).  Jenna Ortega’s stunt double on Wednesday, South African-born actress Jenny Umbhau’s mute former slave was taken in by immigrant madame Ah Toy, presumably the first time she was treated with any respect.  Protected from the sex worker business, she grew to be fiercely loyal to Ah Toy, and the feeling was mutual.  Sending her off to her friend’s farm to learn a better way of life unfortunately backfired, but not before Lai–master of the sword–made her mark for those she cared for.  (HBO Max)

Officer Dulcie Collins (Deadloch).  Kate Box played a local cop in Tasmania, the kind of place where murders never happen.  But every barrier to solving the latest crime was thrown in her path: a spouse that didn’t quite understand what it meant to be married to a cop, a brash, rude, obstructive new partner from the mainland, and a town full of the strange and intolerant.  She made the quiet, calm approach (usually) work for her.  (Prime Video)

General Hera Syndulla (Ahsoka).  The Twi-lek Rebel is included here more for her Star Wars Rebels appearances, but now also in live-action, Hera has been established as one of the stronger heroines of Star Wars’ canon, and she got to show some of that in the latest Lucasfilm series.  (Disney+)

Nana (Blue Beetle).  She kept her revolutionary past hidden behind her sewing machine and teacup, but when her grandson, the new Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes was kidnapped by Kord, Nana (Adriana Barraza) stepped up to rally the family and planned the assault and rescue.  (Warner Bros.)

Shirley Ann Bingham (Doctor Who).  The new head of UNIT, played by Ruth Madeley, knows something’s not quite right when her police squad investigates the starship that just landed in London.  Fortunately she’s equipped her wheelchair with some James Bond-type tech and weaponry.  A great new leader of the new era of UNIT.  (BBC)

Barbie (Barbie).  Who’s for breaking out of the daily monotony, out of your comfort zone, to see what’s out there?  Margot Robbie and a nearly endless cast took a grand adventure and brought nearly all the variants of the beloved toy doll to life, a two-hour parade of nostalgia.  Robbie & Co. leaned into the fun and reflected everyone everywhere and the bonds kids make, all via Barbie and her creator, ageless heroines for all. (Warner Bros.)

Agent Stacy Beale (Tulsa King).  Nobody wore middle-aged and dejected better than Andrea Savage’s FBI agent stuck with this job in this place with this guy.  She’s definitely on her way with that work-life balance thing, especially as she could potentially be her mob boss boyfriend’s worst new enemy.  (Paramount+)

Lt. J.G. Beckett Mariner (Star Trek: Lower Decks). Whether in animation or live-action, actor Tawny Newsome has created a spectacular character for the Star Trek universe.  Her prime hallmark is absence of fear, and you can trust if something needs to be said, she’s the one who will say it.  (Paramount+)

Officer Maddie Bosch (Bosch: Legacy). Viewers watched Madison Lintz’s character grow from teen to rookie cop, but this season she upgraded herself from victim to heroine, a breakout season for her.  She even saved her father’s life and killed a dirty cop in one fell swoop.  (Prime Video)

Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl (The Flash).  Sasha Calle evoked the Kara of Michael Turner’s Batman/Superman comic book series as the next iteration of Supergirl, and it didn’t matter if her hair color was different from the comics.  She was a refreshing new Kara for one of the many DC Comics timelines.  (Warner Bros.)

Jentorra (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania). Not relying on any real-world culture or style, Katy O’Brian’s barbarian was a fierce new leader who seized the screen in every scene in which she appeared. She helped define what badass means for the Quantum Realm and beyond.  (Disney+)

The Armorer (The Mandalorian).  For three seasons Emily Swallow has portrayed one of Star Wars’s most secretive characters.  How did she get her role?  How much power does she wield?  A mystic, a warrior, a teacher, and an artisan, she leads the coolest sect of the Star Wars galaxy.  (Disney+)

Holga Kilgore (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves).  A very different character for Michelle Rodriguez, this barbarian was a badass Red Sonja with the loyalty of Samwise Gamgee.  The fiercest warrior from the savage frontiers, and certainly among her companions, Holga proved her willingness to give everything for her friends.  (Netflix)

Letty Ortiz (Fast X).  She’s been THE badass heroine since the very beginning of the franchise.  Rodriguez also did double duty this year bringing Letty back to the fold in a sea of heroines.  And that’s after she was brought back from the dead.  But she’ll always be the queen of the franchise.  (Universal/Peacock)

The Daughters of Atlas (Shazam! Fury of the Gods). Hespera, Kalypso, and Anthena were three very different demi-gods–one up there with DC’s most vile villains, the second noble and earnest, and the third wide-eyed and benevolent.  Together they rose to the top of the DC movies’ decades of super-human antagonists.  And only one was really a villain.  (Warner Bros.)

Nemesis (Rebel Moon).  An assassin for the resistance who cut off her own arms as part of an ancient rite of passage, and replaced them with cyborg parts after her children were killed?  Past Kick-ass honoree Doona Bae is back as a borg swordmaster this time, and the previews speak for themselves.  (Netflix)

Sabine Wren (Ahsoka).  Natasha Liu looked cool in her first live-action take on the padawan to Vader’s own padawan.  This year she learned her way with the Force, but when she finally got the hang of it, albeit briefly, fans got to see a sign of things to come (hopefully).  Her rescue of Ezra was… unusual.  (Disney+)

Santa’s Reindeer (Dashing Through the Snow). If you don’t know it already, all reindeer with antlers in winter are female, and Santa refers to his sleigh-pulling crew as “ladies.”  His reindeer have many talents, including gift-wrapping and cooking roasts–and those are only the ones Santa tells us about.  Oh, and they’re fiercely loyal and will protect Santa and his mission no matter what.  When he was in trouble, they arrived from on-high, complete with the Rocky theme (their favorite), eliminating all the bad guys one by one.  What’s more kick-ass than that?  Literally nothing.  (Disney+)

Doctor Donna (Doctor Who).  Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble returned with a vengeance this year in the three anniversary episodes.  She gave away her millions in lottery winnings.  And the first thing she did when the Doctor returned was save 9 million Londoners. Had we been making this list during her initial run, she’d be here already, but we’re glad we have the opportunity to include her now.  (BBC).

Wanluo (New Gods: Yang Jian).  A great magic-wielding femme fatale in the year’s biggest spellbinding animated spectacle. Her secret, why she seeks a young boy, and what she knows about the story’s lead character pushes the tale forward. In action she’s one of the film’s high points. (Light Chaser / Bilibili / GKIDS)

Myrtle Hardcastle (Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity).  Five years along and five books in, the 12-year-old amateur detective returned to solve more murders this year than in any past adventure, using her wits and infectious curiosity, aided by her savvy governess Ms. Judson and opinionated cat partner Peony.  She has our vote for the next series or movie.  (Hachette)

Nimona (Nimona).  She’s street smart, swift, effective at eliminating threats, and a little–make that A LOT–over eager, AND she can shape-shift into any animal.  She’s full of energy, quick on her feet, and extremely funny, a good foil for the very prim and proper Ballister.  Think of her as the new iteration of Hit Girl–in a word, she’s perfect.  (Netflix)

Honey Chandler, Esq. (Bosch: Legacy).  Mimi Rogers’ powerhouse defense lawyer dazzled this season like never before, as the series co-lead, protecting the wrongly accused in one minute and herself and Bosch the next, delivering some legal magic that rivaled anything we saw from Jack McCoy in his whopping 400 episodes of Law & Order.  (Prime Video)

Ah Toy (Warrior).  Olivia Cheng’s Ah Toy ranks among the best kickass women in TV history.  An opportunist balancing an immigrant’s unlikely success in 1870s San Francisco as a business person–a business woman–she found a way to be a madame who took care of her girls.  At the same time she had a secret side, one which allowed her to use her incredible martial arts skills to seek vengeance on anyone who harmed her or those she loved.  (HBO Max)

And that’s this year’s list of heroines.  The roles were performed by an ethnically and geographically diverse slate of talent, including twenty-one of color, ten Asian, seven Latina/Hispanic, six Britons, five Australians, three Canadians, one Puerto Rican, one South African, and one Native American.  We’re not forgetting characters from past kick-ass lists like Ahsoka Tano, who was back this year in her own series, Uhura and La’an in Strange New Worlds, Seven in Star Trek Picard, Juliet Higgins in Magnum PI, Yukuha Usagi and the warrior women from Alice in Borderland, Sophie, Parker, and Breanna from Leverage: Redemption, Spider-Gwen in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel in The Marvels, Mera in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the Wasp in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and Sylvie in Loki. 

Keep coming back every day this week as we reveal the rest of our Best in Film, Best in TV, and Best in Print, and we wrap up the year with our borg Hall of Fame inductees for 2023.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg