you came and you gave without taking

I’m watching Leinster being beaten by Edinburgh^[1] Tis quite annoying, especially cause the commentators on Setanta Sports are Scots, and so obviously enough up for Edinburgh. Can’t blame them, and they aren’t unfair or anything, but they are slightly biased. Still, first match of the Magner’s league for Leinster, and none of the internationals are playing, and they will improve… Plus, Connacht beat the Ospreys, so that’s great news.

Anyways, over at Random Burblings, Alan has a meme to join in. Name your top 25 tv characters and explain why.

These are in no particular order, just the way they popped into my head.
1. Firefly‘s Jayne, played by Adam Baldwin. Obvious, I know to any regular readers :) As for why, well he could so easily have been a clichéd muscle-no-brains character, but while Jayne was the muscle with the lack of brain he also had wonderful comedy moments. Violence and humour. Who could want for more.
   “Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don’t you think?”
2. Titus Pullo from Rome, played by Ray Stevenson. Hmm, a similar type of character to Jayne. Only instead of being a mercenary-type he’s a soldier. And a hero, sortof.
   “I’m going to drink all the wine, smoke all the smoke, and fuck every whore in the city!”
3. And also from Rome I can’t leave Lucius Vorenus played by Kevin McKidd. Vorenus is a great character, so devoted to the Legion and honour. But at the same time gradually becoming more and more disillusioned with life and the reality of Roman politics.
   “Fortune pisses on me once again!”
4. Darla, played by Julia Benz, in Buffy and Angel. Nothing but a bit character in Buffy, she returned in Angel to be so much more and so important. She was just cool.
   “Whatever pain he caused to your daughter was momentary, over in an instant or an hour.”
5. Life On Mars’ DI Gene Hunt, played by Philip Glenister. Just a great character. Blunt, insulting, violent, a crooked cop, a man with a thousand and one great lines.
   “DCI Gene Hunt: I’m not a Catholic me’self Mr Warren, but isn’t there something in the Bible about “Thou shalt not suck off rent boys”?
   Warren: How dare you come in here!
   DCI Gene Hunt: You could have said that to the boy.”
6. Stewie from Family Guy voiced by Seth MacFarlane. I really seem to have a load of foul mouthed character here don’t I?. But who doesn’t love a kid who want to kill his mother, who turned into a weird mutant squid thing and tried to take over the world?
   “Damn you, vile woman, you’ve impeded my work since the day I escaped your wretched womb”
7. Gary Cole as Sheriff Lucas Black in American Gothic. He’s just plain evil. Evil I tells you.
   “All guilt is relative. Loyalty counts. And never let your conscience be your guide”
8. Sean Bean as Sharpe in the various Sharpe tv specials. Okay, mainly for the Sean Beanliness, but also because Sharpe is a great fun adventure/action character. Yes, the actual plots are a little repetitive, but Sharpe is always entertaining.
   “And what the hell do I care what you and the lads want, eh? You think the British Army’s a bloody dem… dem…
   Harris: Democracy, sir. Comes from the Greek word “demos” and means “rule by-”
   Sharpe: Shut up, Harris!
9. Will Scarlet, in Robin of Sherwood, played by Ray Winstone. First off because the TV show itself is great. Secondly because Winstone is a fantastic actor and third, because Scarlet is a wonderful character here. Not the brightly-dressed dandy of other versions but a violent little thug^[2] With a heart, otherwise he wouldn’t be one of the good guys, would he?
10. Another Firefly character, Alan Tudyk‘s Wash. And look, he breaks the pattern. Cause he is as far from a bad-boy as it is possible to get.
    “Sweetie, we’re crooks. If everything were right, we’d be in jail.”
11. Oz, played by Seth Green in Buffy. Another non-bad boy. Oz was the coolest of the cool. And none of that fake acting cool crap, he simply was cool. And so monosyllabic, but still so verbal. If that makes sense?
    “[thinking]I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me and she becomes me. I cease to exist. Huh”
12. Wesley, played by Alexis Denisof in Angel. He just had such a great arc. From being the annoying lite-Giles, to becoming one of the heros on Angel. And then all that wrestling with good and bad. And his love for Fred.
    “Y’know, back in my days as a rogue demon hunter, I once used that very spear to pin down what I thought was a small Rodentius demon. Of course, the poodle’s owners weren’t very happy.”
13. Back to the bad boys with Veronica Mars‘ Logan Echolls, played by Jason Dohring. Just cause he is such an interesting, twisted, fucked up character.
    “If I donate to the United Latino Pain-in-the-Ass fund, will you shut the hell up?”

And I’m running out of characters. either that or I want to name the entire cast from certain shows which is a little unfair. So I’m going to post this list as is, incomplete, and if more pop into my head I’ll add them.