TT #10

29 March 2007


Thirteen Things Fictional Characters I Love in no particular order, and I know I’ve left out loads. So think of this as a random selection out of all the ones I love.

  1. Image Hosted by ImageShack.usObviously The Man They Call Jayne. C’mon, you all knew that was coming, right?
    After all, who doesn’t love a mercenary-type who’d turn you in as soon as look at you? Plus everyone loves that bad guy with the good heart, and as we all know men who wear knitted hats their mammy sends them, and that send money home, are good guys. It’s just well hidden inside that slighty dumb exterior. And then there is the dialogue. If Joss was a fictional character he’d certainly make the list :)
  2. Burrich from Robin Hobb’s Six Duchies books. Okay so he is a moody, grumpy bastard. But he’s great too. Especially once you learn Show Spoiler ▼

    And yes he has huge gaping flaws, but still, great character.

  3. Ferdia, or Ferdiad from Irish mythology, especially On Raven’s Wing‘s version of him. Not the hero of the legend, that’d be Cúchulainn, but I always preferred Ferdia. Plus he gets killed by his best friend, but it is okay, they stay friends[1] And while I’m here can I just say that this sounds horrendous. I mean, The Táin would make a great film, in the style of 300 but that description makes me shudder, and not in an anticipatory manner. Although this user comment is mildly amusing:

    This film is the quintessential, short-length, ancient-Celtic-Warriors-struggling-with-feelings- of-brotherhood, but-still-having-to-kill-each-other picture. Way better than “The Harp of Cooney-BoozeBain.” Kelby Akin’s performance has been called “unnervingly adequate,” by the Dublin Post Office Film Review. Dolph Paulsen has been hailed as “a pretty good Cuchullain, even though Dolph is actually a Norwegian poo-head.” Timothy O’Neill patented his now famous “more fog, damnit” approach to directing with this film project. Viewers across the globe have marveled at the special effects with comments such as “that was the greatest scene of a man in tartan pants jumping off the tips of flying spears in film history.”

  4. Mary Gentle’s Ash, from Ash: A secret history. Good book. Great character. And yet another mercenary type.
  5. Commissaire Adamsberg, from Fred Vargas’ novels. I first met him in Seeking Whom He May Devour and thought he was just fabtastic. A detective so very far away from the usual logical deducting Holmes types, but no less effective.

    ‘Dunno’ was among the frequent of Adamsberg utterances. He fell back on it neither from laziness nor from lack of wits, but because he really did not know the answer and was ready to admit it. The commissaire’s passive ignorance bemused and maddened his deputy, who could not conceive of the possibility of taking any appropriate steps in full ignorance of the facts. Wavering was Adamsberg’s most natural element, however, and his most productive by far.

  6. Life On Mars‘s DCI Gene Hunt. Now he is a complete bastard and tosser. The most un-pc person on telly at the moment. But somehow, despite his homophobic, racist, misogynistic, generally unpleasant attitude people love him.

    Sam: If it was to do with football he’d have serious injuries!
    Gene: He’s dead. That’s quite serious.

  7. Vimes from the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett. And I’m totally starting to notice a pattern here, cause Vimes is another anti-everything sort of person. In his own lovable, justice-driven way of course. He is a total cynic, and yet strangely idealistic about how people[2] should behave. Plus, he is the law.
  8. Logan, from X-Men. I don’t really need to say any more do I?
  9. Chicken. If you’ve a memory you’ll remember that that is Titus Pullo from the BBC’s Rome. I could have picked Lamb either. They’re both great, but I think Pullo is slightly ahead, if only because he is more himself than Vorenus. Plus, Vorenus can be a bit of an arse sometimes, Pullo can be a violent bastard, but not really an arse :)
  10. Image Hosted by ImageShack.usBoromir from LOTR, the film version, in the books I prefer Faramir. But Sean Bean is just great. And yes, I am aware that that picture is not Boromir, but it is still nice, don’t you think.
  11. Darla from Buffy and Angel. Okay so she wasn’t in it all the time, but I loved her when she was. Plus she had some great story lines.
  12. Kaylee from Firefly and Serenity. Awww, she’s so cute and bubbly, and okay, so sometimes you wanna duct-tape her mouth, but most of the time you just adore her and her cheerful ways.
  13. Elena from Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series. These are lite-horror books, but I’ve really enjoyed the ones narrated by Elena, especially the first one, Bitten.
    Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

  1. Opinion Minions
  2. April Decheine
  3. Everybody lies
  4. The Flatland Almanack
  5. Too many ideas
  6. In the what?
  7. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Linknotes:

  1. Honour and duty can sometimes be hard
  2. including trolls, werewolves, dwarfs etc in the word people

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16 Responses

  1. Harlequin says:

    I know all of em and agree with most of em.

    Sigh. I miss Firefly, ROME, new Vimes books, new LotRs, good X-Mens and so on and so forth.

    Sigh.

    At lease Pratchett keeps writing and there’s a whole nother series of ROME.

    Sigh.

    Sigh.

    Dammit, I’m all nostalgic now. GARGH.

  2. whenn says:

    Out of all of these, I only know Vimes! :0 oops….

  3. April says:

    I only no one of those, yikes I am not very schooled! I am up here Thursday Thirteen

  4. Harlequin says:

    I know all of em and agree with most of em.

    Sigh. I miss Firefly, ROME, new Vimes books, new LotRs, good X-Mens and so on and so forth.

    Sigh.

    At lease Pratchett keeps writing and there's a whole nother series of ROME.

    Sigh.

    Sigh.

    Dammit, I'm all nostalgic now. GARGH.

  5. Carl V. says:

    I have to admit not knowing many of the characters, but that just intrigues me all the more. Great choices from Firefly! And Sean Bean makes Boromir such a tortured, heroic character.

  6. samulli says:

    Fantastic list!

    Ah, Firefly! I just got hooked on it after watching Serenity. But I have to say, I'd rather go with Mal than Jayne… And I'd pick Giles from Buffy over Darla any day. ;o) But I second you on Logan and Vimes and Boromir and Gene Hunt.

    But, to be honest, although I develop crushes on fictional characters all the time, my list of the ones I really fell in love with would be quite short:

    Roland Deschain of Gilead (Stephen King's "Dark Tower" books).

    There can be only one. (I know I shouldn't mix taglines any more than metaphors, but it really is the only fitting one…)

  7. Fence says:

    Well Vimes is among the best to know Whenn.

    April, which one though? That's what we want to know.

    Nostalgia smalgia Harlequin, how are you finding Life on mars? Or have you watched any yet?

    Carl I think he has had such practice playing the bad guy that he has that menace there anyway, so all he had to do was throw in a bit of nobility and he was "da man" ;)

    Samuli, I watched Firefly first, but once you find the 'verse thats all that matters :) I've never read any of the Dark Tower series, but have heard good things and I do have the first in the series somewhere on my bookshelves. I'll get to it, eventually .

  8. Sean Bean's Boromir really helped make LotR work. His Sharp was pretty good too. Plus he turns his regular stereotype on its head so neatly in Ronin.

  9. Damozel says:

    I always prefer the moody, irritating ones to the men of action—but if I were to pick a guy from Rome, it would have been Memmio, pre-tonguing. I liked hearing him talk. And I liked Mal (sp?) better than Jayne and Sam better than Gene…I was surprised not to see Mark Antony from Rome mentioned; he got all the good lines!

  10. Amelia Elias says:

    Terrific list! Although I'd have to go with Mal over Jayne. Hmm, Mal over Jayne… now there's a combination for you…

  11. Scott says:

    As soon as I saw Jayne at the top I thought "I hope I hope I hope Kaylee's here too!" And I was pleased. I didn't know who most of the others were.

    Anyway, I'm not a Thurdsday Thirteen guy, but I wanted to let you know that I stole your idea and did a list of my own. Don't worry, I gave you total credit. You can expect your blog traffic to at least quadruple due to my raging popularity. :-

  12. Fence says:

    Yeah he did play against type in Ronin didn't he Mark? I'd forgotten about that.

    Damozel, Mark Anthony almost got a mention, but this is by no means a complete list. Just a random 13 :)

    Amelia, Mal is great, and I love Nathan Fillion, but Jayne is Jayne.

    Scott, how could we possibly forget Kaylee? She is in my gravatar and everything :)

  13. anne says:

    No House, MD?!

    How disappointing… ;)

  14. Fence says:

    I can't mention everyone Anne, plus it has been a while since I've watched House, although I think there are new ones on the telly at the moment so I really should get watching.

  15. she says:

    I'm hoping for a new Vimes' book too. Adore Discworld – but I'd have to say I do love Death just a teensy bit more than Vimes *hides*

  16. Fence says:

    Death is good, and can be great, but Vimes'll always be my fav :)