Also Miriam and Tzipporah

She's hilarious!

Marina is second after Esmeralda. :) Then, I'd pick Miriam, who's so inspiring and definitely in my top 10, then Tzipporah, who's awesome as well. I also adore Rain, I believe she's very underrated and while I'm not a huge fan of Chel, I still love her, she's hilarious, witty and cunning. Really, Dreamworks makes awesome female characters!

And Miriam.

Miriam or Chel

Miriam is very inspiring, though Marina I relate to the most. I love Tzipporah when she isn't annoying me with the whole "no man shall take me!!1!!" thing. Chel I don't like at all. Only saw Spirit once and it bored me so I don't remember much about Rain.

^ To be fair to Tzipporah, she only shows that attitude twice. When she does, I don't think it's so much "no man shall take me!!1!!" so much as:

The first time, she doesn't appreciate being kidnapped from her homeland and given to the prince of a nearby kingdom as a sex slave. Keep in mind that concubines had no rights, no freedom, and no option to say "no." Rape was in her future.

What's more, the priests presented her in the most degrading way. Presented her before a crowd at a party like an object, Ramesis physically grabbed her face and inspected it like a camel or a horse, then the brothers fought over who to "give" her to like an object or an animal. Naturally, she didn't take to that. Then Moses publicly humiliated her by causing her to drop in a pool of water, where everyone laughed.

You'd be pretty pissed too if you were in that situation.

The second time: when she sees him again in the well, again, I don't think it's a "no man shall defeat me!" thing. She recognizes him as the one that degraded and humiliated her in this kingdom. However, she doesn't hate him as she recognizes that he helped her escape. But, she probably still felt there was a score between them for how he treated her at his brother's party, she gets her quick revenge by letting go of the rope so he drops into the well (just like what he did to her), but we can see after that that she feels like "they're even" (I don't know how else to put it), and from then on she's much more friendly and civil.

So, again, I don't think it's "no man shall take me!!1!!" I think it's more, "I won't be kidnapped from my home, paraded around like an animal, or treated like a plaything." And only after Moses shows that he recognizes that that she's a human that deserves respect, dignity, freedom, and the right to go home does she warm up to him. I can get behind that.

^ Exactly. How is it annoying when a woman demands respect and doesn't want to be sold as an object? It's not like it comes from nowhere, Tzipporah's attitude isn't generally like that, just when she was humiliated and treated like nothing more than an animal. I don't really understand how it can be irritating.

and rain from spirit

Tizippora and Mairina.

Definitely! The others don't interest me that much.

Tzipporah
Miriam
Marina
Rain( unfamiliar with her but sentient characters are more interesting and she can’t be worse than Chel)
Chel

I think AF is right about Tzipporah - the movie doesn't tell us a whole lot about her, but the "that's why Papa says she'll never get married" line suggests she is normally like that; it's not just an occasional thing.

Anyway:

Miriam
Chel + Marina (for very different reasons)
Tzipporah
Rain

(Also, if Tzipporah gets to be a heroine, then imo so should both of Moses' moms. They contributed the same amount to the plot, if not more.
Same deal with Spirit's mom.)