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.
https://static.comicvine.com/uploads...integrale1.jpg

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.

I love you more every day. :love:

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ted was the worst part of HIMYM.

This is the most common opinion that exists on the series.

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cuz he's totally a whiny bitch

i agree with the rest of your choices though.

I relate to Ted enough to feel ashamed of him, and also protective of the character, haha. I share too many of his best and worst qualities, although I like to think I'm a little less obnoxious and delusional.

Come on, there can be only one.

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Often imitated, never duplicated.

The Batlord

Rusty Shackleford

Mr. Hand in Fast Times but he's based on a real person.

Stacy Hamilton (same)

Fante's Arturo Bandini.

Horatio Hornblower

Tom Joad

Holden Caulfield

Dave Bowman

Kafka from Kafka on the Shore

The dude who turns into a giant insect

The dog in Timbuktu


Yumiko and Yukiko in Battle Royale

Ianto in Sheepshagger

The father in The Road

Giligan

Hank Moody

The kid in Almost Famous

Jodie Foster's character in Foxes

Ferris Bueller

Boom Boom Washington on Welcome Back Kotter

Juan Epstein on Welcome Back Kotter

Otis on Henry

The dude who gets his junk cut off in I Spit on Your Grave

The chick who hooks up with the Elephant Man

Bill Murray's character in Lost in Translation

Luke Skywalker in Corvette Summer

The girl in The Exorcist

Grandpa in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The kid in Dazed and Confused

Al Pacino's characters in Carlito's Way and Donnie Brasco (real) great book

The main character in Blow (real) great book

Harold in Harold and Maude

Jack Torrence

Travis Bickle

The dude who says "Warriors come out to play"

Who the actual ****????

Also:

Bender and Zoidberg

Homer and Mister Burns

Roger from American Dad (about the only character I don't hate from that)

Brian and Stewie: when it clicks, they're on fire and save the show, though recently it's been less often. I didn't separate them like Homer and Burns, because by themselves each is just meh, but together they often make one hell of a team.

Three from Dark Matter (I think it's three: the guy with all the guns and the one-liners)

Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels

Satan from Paradise Lost (what a badass!)

Anne Rice's Lestat

Ebeneezer Scrooge

Count Dracula

I forgot Zoidberg. I love Zoidberg. He's so sad and adorable.

I’m going to be the guy who mentions video game characters and say Kreia. Her and her voice actor are just legendary imo. Best INTJ archtype ever.

If we're including videogame characters, then Handsome Jack and Guybrush Threepwood make my list.

Pitfall Harry. Some say he is still jumping to this day.

From TV:

Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It
Dave Lister from Red Dwarf
Vyvyan Basterd from The Young Ones
Super Hans from Peep Show
Dr. Orpheus and Hank Venture from The Venture Bros.
Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls
Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama

From video games:

Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV
Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2: Episode 1
The Prince from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2
Garret from Thief 2: The Metal Age
Guybrush Treepwood from the Monkey Island series
Smilin' Jack from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Don Quixote.

Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

The Minotaur from The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break.

I guess I have a type. All of them are bumbling misfits who are out of step with everyone around them. All of them are funny. All of them are kind of tragic.

Zanthia from Legend of Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate.
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...t-you-have.gif
One of my favorite video game characters for sure. She's just good fun as a main character in a point and click adventure. I like her attitude and I love how she's a legit witch with her own cauldron and potion spell book. Many of the puzzles revolve around deciphering the recipe book to find out which ingredients to use for various potions. Sadly she's only a side character in the two other Kyrandia games.

Most of my favorite video game characters are from fighting games, but it would be too long a list so I'll spare the forum that. I don't think anyone in here really plays fighting games much anyway.

There is only one right answer...

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-COraVN56LE/hqdefault.jpg

Like, all of Saints Row are the best characters.

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Have you played SR2 yet?

I've played everything but Gat Out of Hell. But it's been years since I played 1 and 2.

Then you know what I mean when I say SR2 Shaundi > everyone else

SR2 Shaundi from SR4 was pretty epic as well. And The Boss from 3 and 4 was also the ****.