In honor of Women’s History Month, Byte is doing a month long Byteing Question about the most iconic female characters and why they matter. Every day two writers will look at two characters that are important to them in many different ways. Today, we look at Mad Moxxi and Yukiko.

by Nick Dowell

The Borderlands universe is absolutely insane on every possible level. The world is crazy, the guns are out of this world, and the story is unbelievably good. But where the series has always stood out is its characters – especially its female ones.

There are too many good female characters to write about from the Borderlands universe. So many do so much good. But the absolute pinnacle of being a female character comes from Mad Moxxi.

Moxxi is, at first, an extremely sexy bartender who occasionally gives you quests. She mostly serves as a very large pair of boobs that just blends in with the craziness of Pandora. As the games progress, she becomes less of a trope and more of a character, especially in The Pre-Sequel. There, we learn one key piece of information about Moxxi: she is wicked smart.

Toward the beginning of The Pre-Sequel, the Vault Hunter sneaks into a secret room behind Moxxi’s bar to discover her in oil-stained overalls with a heavy southern accent, working on a robot. Turns out, she’s a very talented engineer and probably one of the smartest people on Pandora.

The engineering background shouldn’t be surprising considering Scooter and Ellie, two other engineers on Pandora, are her children. It makes total sense that they learned it from Moxxi. But why, then, does she play a dumbed down role as a simple, sultry bartender?

Moxxi’s more than just technically smart. She’s got a set of wits on her that makes everyone else on Pandora look like a moron. Much like Bayonetta, Moxxi knows she looks good and uses it to her fullest potential. She doesn’t have amazing Siren powers or great sharpshooting skills. She’s just got a big brain and looks that drive everyone wild. It doesn’t give her all the riches and adventure of Vault Hunting, but it gives her a chance to survive on Pandora, and have a little bit of fun doing it.

by Jake Doolin

One of the nice things about the Persona series, and more specifically Persona 4, is its wealth of fantastic female characters. From the prince detective Natao to the idol superstar Rise the female cast of Persona 4 is occupied with female characters that bursting with personality. But there is one that truly stands above the rest and that is the fan wielding Yukiko Amagi

At first Yukiko might seem like a fairly standard character in the Persona world. She doesn’t have any standout gags like Chie and her love of meat (although her poor cooking skills comes close) nor does she have the dramatic storyline of someone like Yumi. But that’s just surface level, and if you’ve ever played a Persona game you know it takes a lot more to truly get to know someone.

And Yukiko is someone who is worth knowing, as she has one of the best storylines in the game. Starting as somewhat of a basic sidekick to Chie, Yukiko truly comes into her own after you safe her from the Shadow World. It’s then you learn of Yukiko’s struggle to define herself and her own future. Her family owns the Amagi Inn, a popular tourist attraction in Inaba.

Since she was a kid she has pretty much been told that she would be running the Inn at some point in her life, limiting her to only imagine a future in Inaba. But she has bigger dream, she wants to get out of town and make something of herself. But as you continue down her social link you start to see that the Inn has had a positive effect on her, with most of her relationships stemming from it.

By the end of her social link she finds that maybe running the Inn wouldn’t be such a bad fate after all, as she comes to find she really does care for it, going as far as to yell at TV producers who try and tarnish it’s reputation. Some find this ending to be a little anti-climatic or not fitting to the character, but to me it perfectly gets to why Yukiko is so great. She’s been told her whole life that her future was going to be one way and all she longed for was a chance to make up her own mind

Just like what I talked about with Delilah, it’s important when a female character is given the opportunity to make their own decision, maybe you and I don’t agree with it but it’s not for us. They become their own people, or in the worlds of Persona they see their true self.

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