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Female protagonists can be great. They can defy expectations and break down gender roles. Whether it's a seductive femme fatale or a powerful tomboy, it's always fun to see your favorite girl kicking ass. 

Today, I will be counting down CYS' top five female protagonists in story-gaming. 

Number 5 - Lydia, The Secret of Daphne 
The ninth spot goes to Lydia, who's name I honestly was Daphne til I realized that was the town. Despite acting like a stereotypical teenaged valleygirl, Lydia's greatest strength hides in that thick skull of hers. She's intelligent, resourceful, and tries her best to stay sane in the face of unbelievable odds... like being chosen for possession by a demon. 

Number 4 - Suzy, Suzy's Strange Saga (Epilogue 7) 
A devoted lover, fighter, and badass of every variety, Suzy from Epilogue 7's route takes the sixth spot on this list. Whether it's disposing of corpses, fighting off zombies, or just plain standing up to the bitchy sister that's controlled her life for far too long, Suzy proves herself a capable fighter and an interesting character. 

Number 3 - Sebastian, Mercenary Queen (Series) 
Let's be honest, is there any cooler line than ,"Rape steel, bitch", to tell a rapist as you stab him with a sword? This one speaks for itself. Sebastian makes having a male name cool, possesses innate badassery with the sword, and has one fucking cool title. 

Number 2 - Mia, Prometheus Academy 
Just barely missing the Number 1 spot, Mia is your average teenager... who's entire family was massacred by the incompetence of one superhero. Unlike some characters, Mia lets her quest for revenge define her actions, but not control them. Even after taking revenge on the one she hates, she's ready to keep on doing what she loves. She feels no emptiness or regret. Makes you wish she had her own comic! 

Number 1 - Eve, Homo Perfectus (Series) 
Truly one of the most prevalent female protagonists in CYS, Eve actually began as what I can only describe as a side character. She proves herself capable of doing things even her late lover Adam could not, such as reforming the Monster Adams and stopping global catastrophes ten times worse than Adam had ever faced. Eve really is, as her name suggests, 'perfect'. 

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of good choices. There wasn't even enough for a Top 10 list unless I included the more... awful ones. But still, here's to the first issue of CYS Weekly! What a joke that was.

Your numbering system seems a bit off.

I was hoping for more detailed reviews or something more like an article on the whole subject of female protags (or rather lack of them) here, but so far you're the only one on the 'newspaper' crew that's managed to get out anything at all, so congrats there.  A couple of these stories I wasn't aware of, I'll have to check them out.

I originally had a long-ass article about female protagonists I wrote... after bing-reading articles on buzzfeed.

It was, uh, very SJW-ey. I got rid of it because usually threads that provoke political arguments are deleted. By that point, the deadline was there and I didn't think I had time to rewrite an entire, 754 word article to be less provocative.

Of course, it turned out the deadline didn't even matter. It's been days since the deadline and still no news. I could've spent days extra working on it.

That would've been great. Hasn't been a good site arguments in a while.  

Steve's disappointment aside, think that was the right choice. I doubt regurgitated buzzfeed articles would address the specific problem here.

Really I think what it is, here at CYS is that 90% of what's published has nothing to recommend about it as a story, regardless of who the main character is. I've read plenty with female protagonists, it's just that like most new stories we get, they wind up removed. 

The answer to getting more female protags in GOOD stories is the same as the answer to getting more good stories of any other type. None of us are just passive consumers here, all it takes to make something happen is to buckle down, and write something that doesn't suck.