Female Character of the Generation: Semifinals Group 1

Let's all vote for the robot!

GLaDOS.

I will say it again: Tali sucks.

Tali gets better after ME1; she graduates from all-purpose encyclopedia for Quarian stuff into an actual character. Her subplot in ME2 is pretty good. Still, I don't feel great voting for her as character of the gen. In fact, I don't feel great voting for any of the female ME characters, who all veer a little too often into pandery male ego-stroking territory, especially in the romances.

Glados it is, then?

Tali's arc is among the best in the series.

GLaDOS was amusing. The part where she tries to kill you and you were like "no way" was cool, but she's not that interesting.

Wait, what. Is anyone else getting an empty 4th bar?

Tali is the Garrus of a femshep playthrough in that she feels like Shepard's closest friend. That's why I voted for her, and that has nothing to do with male pandering. Liara is the male pandering character, with either gender Shepard.

GLaDOS is a computer not a female. Computers don't have vaginas.

Edit: Well, not yet.

GLaDOS has a female voice and personality.

Racist.

Taco Bell. *dong*

But seriously: Yes and GLaDOS.

It's a glitch. I think I had created a fourth poll slot without filling it and it just went ahead and added it with no way to vote for it.

Lies. The 4th slot is the dark horse candidate: Lightning.

I've got your number, pal.

Damn! I've been found out! Uh...look behind you! An obvious distraction!

*Runs*

Bot sound like a lady.

I don't think any of those characters deserve a 'best of the generation' award.

Why not? Who would you have preferred?

In sorry, but I can not vote for any of these.

GLaDOS used to be a woman called Carol or something. I need to replay that amazing masterpiece to remember the details.

GLADOS FOR PRESIDENT.

My brain says GLaDOS but my heart says Tali. The heart wins out.

Tali is the right answer. She was with me for 3 games, she's like family!

Tali for being my renegade Shephard's one weakness

I'd rather vote for the empty fourth slot than for any of these.

No, Liara, no...

The empty fourth slot gets my vote!!

this is a no brainer

No contest.

Last time I checked robots didn't have gender. Also anyone who didn't pick Liara is wrong and should be ashamed.

Oh boy, what if an AI wins best female character, haha.

So sick of seeing ME win things, lets go GLaDOS

Glados ain't female its a robot !

As long it's not Tali, I'm fine.

yes. A robot with a female voice is not a female character.

GlaDOS. Liara and Tali are my least favorite female characters in the Mass Effect series so seeing them on this poll is mind blowing to me. Even so, GlaDOS is one of the best characters, regardless of gender, species, robot or human, in this generation. She gets my vote.

You guys know glados is a freaking annoying unfunny robot right?

Wait a minute: the poll results add up to 101%. I THOUGHT WE WERE PAST THIS.

@karkarov: Well, a female consciousness in a robot body... I don't think we would be having this semantic argument if it was EDI, right? That's kind of how I look at it.

I have a feeling that if this were EDI, Mass Effect fans would put up no argument against her being in the poll. That being said, before voting started, all the way back at when I was accepting nominations, I specifically stated that non-human entities including robots and such would be grouped into whichever gender they most closely identified with. That means GLaDOS, EDI, and Labrys were all eligible as female characters.

Always bet robot.

I mostly think GLADOS is a spoof of SHODAN, which is obviously a few generations older, dating back to slightly before the release of the PlayStation 1.

She's not listed in the poll, but I still think Patricia Tannis is probably the best character of the generation, female or not, and I didn't particularly like the Borderlands games.

Aren't Asari not technically female in the lore? I swear in the first game Liara says something to the effect of "We're not female in the sense that humans are" or something.

Not to imply I think Liara should be removed, of course. Just seems like there's as much grounds to have her removed as GLaDOS.

This forum is whack yo.

Liara is the correct answer.

GlaDOS, easy choice

@hailinel: Except EDI actually identifies as a female character in game 3 of the series, displays personality, shows actual affection for Joker, etc etc. Glados is just a massive wall of tropes, memes, and basically just being an ai jerk. Glados "sounds female" but doesn't identify as being female. Even still if you voted not to include EDI as a result I would have said "fair enough" and dealt with it.

GLaDOS's personality was created from a human woman. And I'd argue that the fact that many of her lines, particularly from the first game, ended up becoming memes shouldn't be held against her. If you wanted to disqualify her because of that, then Garrus arguably is in the same boat because half the people that have talked about voting for him have brought up calibration.

Whatever the case, I had already made the decision that GLaDOS belongs in these polls.

Tali is the right choice. Why? Because:

Seriously, though. Her arc throughout the 3 games is great.

I don't have a problem with GLADOS winning, though. However, it think 90% of the success of GLADOS goes to McLain, more than the character itself.

And I absolutely have no problem with Liara being third. Even when I romanced her, I don't think her character is that good.

I'm really surprised that Tali and Liara made it this far, Laura Croft should've won.

I voted for Liara. She was the first video game character I ever really felt attracted too. But GLaDOS reminds me of my dead wife, so if she wins the whole fucking thing, that's cool too.

tali was ok, Liara as a love interest was awesome.

But Glados is on a different level.

Winner Glados

GlaDOS moves on to the finals!

@hailinel: Frankly, they're good characters and I can't really give better options though there are certainly characters in small roles I found far more engaging. It's more that I found all those characters pretty underwhelming more often than not.

Liara was great in ME1 but she lost all her complexity when ME2 rolled around and became very uninteresting. For all their volatility I found Miranda, Jack and even Samara to be much more interesting and believable people than someone like Tali. And Glados was one great, great, great idea in the first Portal that, when expanded upon, only served to flatten out the subtler elements from the first game and almost take away from the character.

I feel like all three were great starts that faltered pretty heavy on the follow-through.

And other, smaller roles were much more interesting and memorable in my eyes. Niko Bellic's girlfriend in GTAIV wanting to be with him because he has a good man deep down but fearing because she knows he's almost too far down a rabbit hole of anger and revenge. She wants a quiet life away from the criminal life of her brothers but she's so lonely that she allows this guy into her life, knowing even at the time that she is making the mistake she told herself not to.

Alice Wake (Alan's Wife) pleading with him to get to get help with his anger, still loving him, but pushing him to help himself in a smart and adult manner. Their scenes were some of the best in the game.

Samara (ME2) who has set herself on an almost funereal task of finding and killing her own daughter. She recognizes her daughter is a blight on every life she touches, a complete monster, while still loving her. It leaves this woman with power and drive but having to deal with the death of a child before it's happened. It leaves her ready to die, less out of sadness and more of failure. For all her ability she has failed at something much more important.

None of them had dozens and dozens of pages of spoken dialogue but I found them all believable and vivid in their smaller roles. Like I said, I like all three nominated. But considering how much time they had on screen I feel all three came out pretty spongy and insubstantial. Where as roles like this, while not spanning as broad a narrative, were stronger.

My 2 Cents.