If These Girls Played Granado Espada...

...We'd probably all be left eating their dust. They'd all have streaked toward Veteran and then Expert status, and they would have left no map unexplored, no dungeon uncrawled, and no raid boss undefeated.

And if they all got together in a server to form a faction - woe betide the population of that server. Even the famous factions of all five servers may likely stand no chance against these powerful, genre-savvy, literally world-altering girl gamers.

In other words: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

[This is an entry written to celebrate the Granado Espada Gamer Girls.]

Girl Gamer #1: Fuu - Magic Knight Rayearth



The elegant "girl with glasses" and the mistress of the wind, who controls the great bird-form Rune-God Windam. Of the three Magic Knights, it's Fuu who takes the sudden trip to a magic world, and their new responsibilities, with the most ease - and that's because back on planet Earth, she loved to play RPGs!

While searching out the legendary mineral called escudo, she makes explicit references to mithril, the light but indestructible metal from Middle-Earth. She talks about gaining experience points and looking for treasure as they journey through Cephiro. And of course, she has no worries while fighting the many mobs they encounter in their magical journey!

...Not to mention, she's got that ginormous sword of hers! How does a slender girl like her wield that sword - the largest of the Magic Knights' weapons by far - so easily? The power of wind, of course!

Might as well ask how the slender female Fighter wields gigantic Great Swords, Polearms, Javelins, and similar weapons and never seems to break a sweat....

Girl Gamers #2 to 5: Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki - Lucky Star



While diminutive Izumi Konata is the single biggest video-game player of the lead characters in Lucky Star, the twins Hiiragi Kagami and Tsukasa and their own "girl with glasses" Takara Megumi are no stranger to video games either.

They even have their own specialties: Konata's infamous for playing adult games even when she was underage, and loves MMOs - she might have even already heard of Granado Espada already! Smart and driven Kagami loves trivia games; Tsukasa loves cute games such as Keroro Gunso; and scariest of all, Miyuki's sweet and polite personality changes to something rather different when she plays video games!

Put all four together in a squad and you can just imagine how much devastation they could cause...Novia, Montoro, AND Sekhmet might have to cower in their respective dungeons when these girls come a-raiding!

Girl Gamers #6 to 8: Haruhi, Yuki, and Mikuru - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya



If you ever wondered what would happen if "God" and two of her cohorts decided to play video games, then all you have to do is watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, in particular the episode "The Day of Sagittarius".

The Computer Research Society attempts to reclaim the computer that they claim Haruhi extorted from them, and challenge her club, the SOS Dan, to a computer game called "The Day of Sagittarius III". The Society's not above cheating in order to make sure of their victory - it's like people who knowingly use RMT and bots, knowing that they're illegal....

But of course the SOS Dan have BOTH an artificial human interface for the Integrated Data Entity [Yuki] AND the Creator [Haruhi] on their side! Yuki equalizes the playing field in dramatic fashion, and Haruhi leads the counter-attack, plowing into the enemy forces with all the subtlety of a sledge-hammer to the brain - and not only are the Society soundly defeated, they're also out five laptops!

And afterwards, it looks like every single Society member has fallen in love - or at least DEFINITELY admire - Yuki's 1337 skills. How should boys react when they've been handed their heads in a PvP match by a girl? They should be polite and friendly, of course, and NOT rude or overbearing!

Girl Gamer #9: Renge - Ouran High School Host Club



Last but definitely not the least is Houshakuji Renge, who fell into the Host Club's lives after mistaking "Shadow King" Ootori Kyouya for her favorite visual novel character. But here's the kicker - after the hosts disabuse her of that notion, she becomes extremely helpful to them, often contributing her vast knowledge of pop culture to the Club's plans and activities.

Part of that knowledge hinges on her mastery of the concept of "moe" - a/k/a the sort of intense interest that certain things can inspire in their fans. In this case, moe for the club hosts, which Renge knows inside and out.

Think of Renge as the type of player who not only wants her pioneering family to be strong in the New World - but drop-dead gorgeous, too! And people wonder who actually buys all the various costume and accessory boxes from the Premium Item Shop....

***

If you've got any more examples of gamer-girl characters from anime, manga, TV, comic books, movies, and pop culture - tell me about them in the comments!

***

NineMoons's 50,000 Hits Screenshot Prompt Contest Ongoing!