Favourite Fictional Character(s)
 

From books, TV or movies, or wherever you happen to encounter them. Who and (if you want) why?

Arnold J Rimmer in Red Dwarf: If you watch the show, you'll know why. If you don't watch the show, watch the show.

Spock. Between Gene Roddenberry and he, they revolutionised the idea of aliens in sci-fi. Up to then, aliens were either evil, invaders or amorphous blobs or whatever. Spock's character opened up to us the idea that aliens could be, well, human, and part of the team. And of course nobody played him like Leonard did, god rest his soul.

O'Brien (Nineteen Eighty-Four): Sure, Winston Smith is the main character but I've always felt he did little and really I found it hard to care about him. O'Brien, on the other hand, gives this kind of almost grandfatherly performance (certainly Burton's portrayal in the movie does), and he seems even sad as he orders the switch to be thrown again as he "conditions" Smith to the party line.

Ambassadors G'Kar and Londo Mollari, Babylon 5: These guys start out hating each other, blood enemies, but in an amazing piece of character writing they become the oddest odd couple you ever saw on screen. Even though they will never admit it, they almost become friends. The humour between the two is worth the price of admission.

Jack Bauer: Who doesn't love Jack?

:/


sports athletes >

I watched Babylon 5 off and on for the entire run, and I definitely remember sideways mohawk dude and lizard dude having the most hilariously fun relationship dynamic of the show. I seriously need to go rewatch Babylon 5 cause I haven't seen it since it went off the air.

Wtf is this supposed to mean? Sports athletes aren't fictional. :confused:
I'm surprised you watched it at all. Well yes, without a question Londo and G'Kar (Londo had the hair like a 17th century Frenchman or something, big wide fan of hair) and G'kar (Lizard dude) gave the best value for money in terms of character experience. That show would not have been quite as good as it was without them. Did you know Andreas Katsulas, who played G'Kar and incidentally also played Commander Tamalok in Star Trek, passed away? Sad loss.

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Shaka, when the walls fell.

I'm going to halfway copy Trollheart and choose a Red Dwarf cast member, but I'm going with Kryten instead. His defeatist attitude and dorky mannerisms are hilarious, but he's also very lovable.
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Ellen Ripley from the Alien movies. I've loved strong women my entire life and watching Alien at a pretty young age had a lot to do with that. I used to play Alien with my Gi-Joe toys all the time and pretended that rows of trees were the Nostromo when I was playing outside.

Sioban from the 4 part comic book Complainte des Landes Perdues. She's a young princess who practises sword fighting in secret and has a strong moral compass. A witch eventually clouds her mind and has her fall in love with a diabolical prince and everyone in the kingdom loses faith in her and wants her dead. Stuff happens, and the day is saved. Damn, I really want someone to make a movie based on these comics. Lot's of celtic mythology and devil worshipping.
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I have too many favourite characters to really discuss, so I'll narrow it down to certain archetypes that I tend to gravitate to. Of course there are also lots of characters I love who fall outside of these archetypes, but these are probably the big ones.

1. The sarcastic loner with the heart of gold. The outward-misanthropes who closetedly care deeply about their friends. E.g., Mat Cauthon, Jeff Winger, Dr. Macartney.

2. The hapless nice guy. The guy who tries his best to be a good person, but has terrible luck and is frankly a bit of a ****-up. E.g., Michael Bluth, Ted Mosby, Phillip J. Fry, Jake Peralta, Peter Petrelli, Dirk Gently.

3. The jaded, reluctant mentor. This is probably what the sarcastic loner looks like after a decade or more of bitterness. E.g., Gregory House, Claude (Heroes), Bernard Black, Captain Levi.

4. The oblivious jackass. This type of character is enormously deluded and has a giant, fragile ego. They're a horrible person in theory, but in practice they're just kind of a giant knob. E.g., Barney Stinson, Guy Secretan, Gob Bluth, Mason (Dead Like Me), Harry Lockhart, Peter Quill.

And then there's an "other" category full of characters who are harder to characterize, like Sue White, Jared Dunn, Alan Statham, Abed Nadir, Edward Elric, Liz Lemon, Hans Landa, Amelie Poulain, Peter Whitman, Furiosa, Dug (Up!), Hedwig (of the Angry Inch), Hope Ann Gregory, etc.

Also, I feel like it's important to distinguish between characters I have bonded with and love to watch on screen and characters I don't love, but respect as incredible works of of acting and writing, like Walter White.

I only watched that show as a wide-eyed kid so I don't any of the history. Also makes me want to rewatch Deep Space Nine which I have the same relationship with. Was def my fav Star Trek series, even if it never quite made it to a Locutus of Borg level of awesomeness.

@ Ped: without quoting the whole thing, awesome post! Really well thought out and well written. You've reminded me of some more characters I love, which I'll come back to later.

Also, where have I heard of Peter Petrelli? I feel like I know the name ... oh wait. Heroes, right? Just came to me.

Batty, you need to watch B5 with an adult's eyes. It's one of the very best-written scif-fi ... **** that: one of the very best written dramas I have ever watched. Over a five-season, five-year arc an incredible story unfolds, and some superb character development takes place.

And yes, DS9 rules, but only really from season three onwards (you know what I mean). And if you think they never reached levels that challenge STNG, watch "In the Pale Moonlight" and then come back to me.