Harry Potter

Even more than that, the women in these stories have transcended being "good female characters" who subvert stereotyps into just being good characters, period; real ones, ones whose journeys we are, sometimes to a desperate extent, obsessed with.

Hermione, an always-wonderful sidekick, has moved onto center stage. Her emotions and choices, classically heroic, anchored a piece of the epic story that would have felt muddled and rootless without her.