“I have a duty to keep balance in the world, and protect both spirits and humans.”
This is our list of the top 25 female characters of all-time.We’re counting down one by one until we reach the best of the best on Sept. 30.
18) Milla Maxwell (Tales of Xillia) – 2 votes/119 points
Shaun: Gotta be honest, I didn’t really like Milla at first. I basically got stuck with her because everyone in the ATB crew wanted to roll with someone else from Xillia. She was haughty and stuck up, but also monotone and unrelatable. Hurray!
However, through the course of the title, she starts to change. And the more she changed, the more intrigued I became.
Early on, Milla is stripped of her god-like powers, and demoted to being simply human. As a result, she begins to experience the most basic human traits, like hunger and pain. Then she starts to experience the more complex, wonderful human emotions, like friendship and love. By the end of the title, she has explored the myriad of what it means to be a human in a world full of beauty and pain, losing her ability to walk and connect with the spirits, and even sacrificing her life at one point for the greater good.
Through Milla, a god in human form, Tales of Xillia actually explores the myriad of the human condition, and it made for one amazing ride.
Chris: In the beginning, I was concerned about Milla. Tales games frequently have great voice acting, but there are some bad individual performances mixed in there. Richard from Tales of Graces comes to mind — his stilted delivery and strange intonations almost ruin any conversation he’s in. Milla starts off sounding cold, distant and a little…disjointed. Insert warning sirens here.
But that concern turned out to be unfounded. Milla sounds cold and distant in the beginning because she IS those things. She’s the lord of the spirits, after all, so she doesn’t have time for trifling human matters, even though she has become one of them. It’s only after Milla accepts her newfound form (and some secrets about her past) that she starts to really open up. She has some hilarious exchanges and skits with the party, and her bluntness becomes a running gag rather than a grating stereotype. She starts to trust others to help her instead of thinking of them as hindrances who are tagging along.
Since Shaun didn’t talk about her battle utility (even though he played her the most), I will. Milla eventually ends up with multiple jumps and the ability to spam smaller versions of spells, which means she can take to the skies, hover out of reach, and rain damage down on unsuspecting foes. She’s also great at chaining together artes in normal-height aerial combos, which make her a ton of fun to play in Xillia’s endgame.
Some folks still didn’t like Milla because of her voice. That’s fine — people are entitled to incorrect opinions. To me, she’s one of the most interesting characters in the entire Tales series.
Joseph: Milla is the epitome of when your grandma says “That’s nice, dear.” She tears through the world completely focused on her own quest. Does she care what Jude has to say? Nope. Does she care how many toes she steps on? Nope. Milla is Milla, and the people who don’t like it don’t have to stick around. The party was more than welcome to tag along with her on her mission, but as soon as they wanted something different she would keep walking and never look back.
Stubborn, sure, but it’s nice to have a character who knows exactly what she wants, how she’s going to get it, and how many people she will let stand in her way (zero).
Jason: That hair! Those elemental spirits! I’m sure Shaun has already covered the best parts about Milla, so I’ll just talk about my favorite thing about her: she was kind of a bitch. She looked down on humans, was sick of their nonsense… but over time learned to love them and have faith in them. I loved having a main character who was just sick of dealing with people and willing to do whatever was needed to get shit done. It was a welcome change of pace, and I’ll always love Milla for that.
Michaela: Whenever there’s a character who’s been sheltered their whole lives and ventures into the outside world to discover many changes, it’s a great opportunity to flesh out a character’s personality, and Milla’s no different. At first prim and proper, her interactions with Jude and the party bring her more out of her shell as she discovers the wonders of the world outside of her isolated, humble village. She learns to understand other people and their feelings, and it’s fun watching her growth and see how she handles a given situation. Milla has a lot of quirks to her personality, but despite that, she’s dutiful in her role as the Lord of Spirits.
TOP 25 FEMALE CHARACTERS
Introduction/Honorable Mention
Objection Network 
Yes! I love Milla! =)