Hey y'all. Inspiration has struck, and struck hard. I've been writing a lot, reading a lot, and generally going nuts.
BUT! There's a lot that needs to be done to get any of it together into something unified, much less decent. I don't want to say much yet, but, Lord willing, I'll have something to post in the next few weeks.
In the mean time, I've got fun questions for people! I know that's not really the point of a blog, but I think it'll be fun, and it will certainly help me with the process.
First off, characters. As I've written before, I love making them. It's my favorite part of the whole process. Thinking about how they got to the point of the story, how they'll interact with each other, what personality traits and mentalities each will have and how they developed them through their lifetimes...it fills me with writing chutzpah like nothing else. And, like anyone, I've got my preferences, both in the characters I read about and in the characters I create. At the moment, this is what I am focusing on the most.
So, what I'd like to ask you all is, what characters (literary or otherwise) have left the greatest impression on you?
Seriously, I'm looking for anything here. Have a general character types and attributes you like or hate? Any specific characters that you remember that just captured your attention from the moment you were introduced to them? Any that you grew to love over time? Any that you despised immediately, but grew to like (or hate even more?) Heroes? Villains? Sidekicks? Rebels? Monsters? Even one-word names will help with the wonders of the internet on my side.
If you've only got a minute, a tiny little description is all I need. Enjoy reading from the perspective of cynical martyrs with speech impediments? Cool! Imperious overly philosophical
villain-turned-antiheroes? Sweet! Cute animals with funny hats? D'awww!
Anything you've got. It all helps.
Thanks a lot, and back to it!
This is partially influenced by how recently I've been reading stuff for my plotting crimes class, but I love love love film noir main characters, especially inner monologue types. Philip Marlowe has been a fantastic character mostly due to his lines. Even neo(-neo)-noir stuff like Sin City is fantastic, with Hartigan in particular being a favorite. By extension, Clint Eastwood in his detective-like roles (such as Dirty Harry) is quite memorable.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I think a particular ability for speech helps make a great character; for instance, Aragorn in LotR (There may come a day when the strength of men may fail etc), Tyrion Lannister is aSoIaF, Locke in Lies of Locke Lamora, Kvothe from Kingkiller Chronicles, even Dumbledore in HP all have a particular talent for extradordinary oratory, whether it's comedic, dramatic, or just awesome (similarly, Kamina from Gurren-Lagann). [There is definitely a recency bias at work here, but whatever).
This probably shows in my choice of fel-monkey RPG characters, but even things like Gaunt from Gaunt's Ghosts and Ciaphas Cain from the eponymous books all have that skill.
On the flip side of heroic characters, people like Scott Pilgrim and Marten from Questionable Content are memorable precisely of how "real" they are and how their actions and thoughts resonate with me personally, which I suppose is self-explanatory: people identify with characters similar to themselves.
From another tract, characters with extreme perseverance in the face of horrible odds have a special place in my heart: we find again Kamina, but also joined by people like Ozma from Macross Frontier, Sam from LotR, Harry in HP, Vimes from the Watch Discworld books (being potentially one of my favorite characters from anything), Bean from Ender's Shadow, Onizuka from GTO and a decent number of videogame characters all fit this bill.
In terms of attributes I hate, the biggest is probably just people who make stupid choices for stupid reasons: probably the key reason I can't stand the horror genre as a general rule. If my characters do something stupid, I don't want it to be because of an inherent flaw of stupidity, but rather some other force (lack of information, overconfidence, or almost any other factor is better).
I think many of the above characters are ones I grew to like almost instantly; especially in the first list, since such characters tend to make a strong (and accurate) first impression.
I think the best example of a "grow to love character" is also one of the more recent, but Kvothe from the Kingkiller Chronicles (ohgodwhyisthelastbooknotoutyet). Because we're hearing a truthful autobiography of his life, we see him slowly develop from a semi-omniscient viewpoint, and grow to love him as he discovers and fleshes out himself. He starts as a decent if not particularly interesting character and grows into one of the deeper and more complex characters I've read in a long time. Another slow build is probably Haruko from FLCL, who started out in a very "WTF" manner and was quite annoying, but at this point I love her precisely because of her off-the-wall nature and remains a surprisingly complex character. Most of the cast (besides maybe Haruhi) from OHSHC almost develop in such a slow manner, that go from being super trope-like to surprisingly deep and troubled characters I ended up caring a lot about.
ReplyDeleteThe only character I disliked and continued to dislike even more that immediately comes to mind is the braid-and-glasses chick from Code Geass, and I don't even want to try to look up her name because she annoys me so. Abnett also has a particular talent for making particularly abhorrent yet realistic characters, especially rival generals in Gaunt's Ghosts.
ASoIaF is full of characters who I have switched feelings about throughout the books, Theon Greyjoy and Jaime Lannister being the two biggest examples, and I won't say which directions to keep this somewhat spoiler free.
I also found Lacy Rand in the show Caprica to be particularly troubling, because I wanted so much to like her, yet she kept making horrible and horrible decisions for almost-understandable reasons, and I wanted to scream at her to grow up.
In terms of sidekicks, I feel like Avatar probably does it the best, because I would hesitate to call any character in the show a "sidekick" since every character is so fleshed out and worthy of being a main character, from Zuko to Toph to Jet.
In terms of villains, I'll agree with Max that Nox from Wakfu is one of the better developed villains that I've ever read. Also, the portrayal of Horus in the Horus Heresy series (particularly again Abnett's depictions) is a fantastic representation of the fallen hero trope. Grand Admiral Thrawn from many SW works probably would take the cake in terms of favorite villain, and I love how much he's been explored since his inception in the early 90s in Zahn's Heir to the Empire. His combination of logic, ruthlessness yet surprising pragmatism probably marks him as my favorite SW villain period, if not of almost any scifi work. Beyond that, I honestly can't think of very many villains that stick out, except perhaps maybe someone like Moriarty, but if we're basing ourselves on the novels rather than adaptations he's much more of an abstract figure than a concrete character.
Phew, holy shit I wrote a lot. I'm happy to expand on anything if you need more clarification, since I don't know exactly what you're looking for. Hopefully something in this big mess helps?
We definitely have some similarities in character preferences, especially in terms of slow development and rooting for the underdog. For me, though, as much as I enjoy a competent character, what really draws me in are a character's flaws. Whether or not I can sympathize with those problems, and whether or not they actually even overcome these problems, I find myself much more drawn to characters with some sort of turmoil. The archetype for this would probably be Kenshin from RK. More than a few characters I've tried to make for gaming purposes have fit this role as well, hence the' "No no no, Kenshin is short!" joke that keeps floating around. :)
DeleteWay on the other side of it all, I also tend to enjoy characters with ethics and drives completely alien to my own. Well...'enjoy' is probably a stretch. Perhaps it would be more reasonable to say that I'm drawn to such characters. Though this has always been the case, my studies in ethics have broadened my perspective and sharpened my ability to read and digest characters personalities, and I have since found myself moving towards all sorts of different characters and stories. More often than not this tends to mean villains, though some of my favorite characters have been protagonists whose views I can only scratch the surface of understanding. Ryougi Shiki is the first that comes to my mind.
Anyway, thanks for such a great response! You've given me a lot to think about.