Favorite Character(s)

[Arachiel]

Kelsier is my overall fave book character honestly.

After that it's probably:

-Izumi Curtis (from the Fullmetal Alchemist books)

-Minene Uryuu (from the Future Diary books)

-Vlad Taltos (from The Adventures of Vlad Taltos series)

-Hank Rearden (from Atlas Shrugged)

[Galladon]

Elayne Trakand from the WoT. Oh no wrong thread woops .

 

But seriously:

 

-Galladon (well of course,,,)

non BS:

-Kilvin (kingkiller)

-Glokta (first law)

-Mat (WoT)

-Locke Lamora (G. Bastards)

 

First thought about several charackters from ASoIaF, but realized that I don't really like them but rather just don't hate them like all the rest...

[TwistedMisting]

Tehol Beddict and his manservant, Bugg. Malazan Book of the Fallen.

 

<3

 

 

 

Tehol and Bugg are brilliant. They made me laugh so much the first time I read them.

[Jeckal]

I really liked John Childermass and Vinculus in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

 

My other favorite characters all tend to be side characters who hardly show up at all, Axies the Collector in Way of Kings  for example and Thoros of Myr in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Edited January 18, 2014 by Jeckal

[bartbug]

Ender. Speaker of the Dead, mostly, but he's awesome everywhere.

'Nuff said.

[Swimmingly]

Tehol and Bugg are brilliant. They made me laugh so much the first time I read them.

I liked them so much I began compulsively skipping through books to get back to their viewpoint, in fact.

[freezedragon]

My favorite character would probably be Richard Rahl from the Sword OF Truth series because of his overall character development. I felt that if he existed in real life, we'd either be good friends or hated enemies. Any thoughts??

[PorridgeBrick]

Wow, pretty much everything I would have said has been said already. Oh well.

The Gentleman Bastards(yes, all of them) from the, well, Gentleman Bastards series

Arya Stark, and Tyrion Lannister (though only in the first few books) from ASoIaF

Kaladin and Szeth from WoK

Lightsong from Warbreaker

Kelsier, Wayne from Mistborn

Glokta from First Law

Tehol and Bugg from Malazan

[Moogle]

My favorite character would probably be Richard Rahl from the Sword OF Truth series because of his overall character development. I felt that if he existed in real life, we'd either be good friends or hated enemies. Any thoughts??

 

There was that part where he murdered a bunch of people protesting peacefully to stop the war, so I imagine he'd end up more as the hated enemy of... everyone?

 

In case no one actually read the series (gore warning):

They raced out from the long shadows of the buildings and poured around the corner. The people off at the end of the street all turned when they spotted Richard’s force coming. More people—men and women from the city—surged into the street in front of the compound of buildings the soldiers had taken oup as barracks and a command post. The people looked like a scraggly lot.

"No war! No war! No war!" the people shouted as Richard led the men up the street at a dead run.

"Out of the way!" Richard yelled as he closed the distance. This was no time for subtlety or discussions: the success of their attack depended in large part on speed. "Get out of the way! This is your only warning! Get out of the way or die!"

"Stop the hate! Stop the hate!" the people chanted as they locked arms.

They had no idea how much hate was raging through Richard. He drew the Sword of Truth. The wrath of its magic didn’t come out with it, but he had enough of his own. He slowed to a trot.

"Move!" Richard called as he bore down on the people.

A plump, curly-haired woman took a step out from the others. Her round face was red with anger as she screamed. “Stop the hate! No war! Stop the hate! No war!”

"Move or die!" Richard yelled as he picked up speed.

The red-faced woman shook her fleshy fist at Richard and his men, leading an angry chant. “Murderers! Murderers! Murderers!”

On his way past her, gritting his teeth as he screamed with the fury of the attack begun, Richard took a powerful swing, lopping off the woman’s head and upraised arm. Strings of blood and gore splashed across the faces behind her even as some still chanted their empty words. The head and loose arm tumbled through the crowd. A man mad the mistake of reaching for Richard’s weapon, and took the full weight of a charging thrust.

Men behind Richard hit the line of evil’s guardians with unrestrained violence. People armed only with their hatred for moral clarity fell bloodied, terribly injured, and dead. The line of people collapsed before the merciless charge. Some of the people, screaming their contempt, used their fists to attack Richard’s men. They were met with swift and deadly steel.

At the realization that their defense of the Imperial Order’s brutality would actually result in consequences to themselves, the crowd began scattering in fright, screaming curses back at Richard and his men.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Moogle

[PorridgeBrick]

I remember when I read the first Sword of Truth book.

Let's just say I didn't read the next.

[Gamma Fiend]

Hahaha. I have a friend who started reading The Wizard's First Rule, and I just thought to myself, "Oh, you poor thing."

[el_warko]

Mr. Croupe and Mr. Vandemar (Neverwhere).

Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter).

Death/Dream/Delerium/Destruction/Desire/Despair/Destiny - in that order (Sandman).

Cassidy (Preacher).

Pug and Nakor (Riftwar).

Kaladin and Szeth (SA).

Fat Charlie Nancy and Spider (Anansi Boys).

Laura and Mr. Wednesday (American Gods).

 

For those who haven't picked up on it yet, I have a man crush on Neil Gaiman.  

[The Question]

Hmm... This is a tough one for me. I love comic books more than just about anything and I don't think I do the other characters justice without separating those guys out first.

 

Top 5 favourite comic book characters:

1. Jamie Madrox

2. Superman

3. Captain America

4. The Question

5. Hawkman

 

Top 5 Favourite Fictional Characters:

1. Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings)

2. Spike (From Buffy: The Vampire Slayer)

3. The Doctor (Doctor Who, Tom Baker for ever!)

4. Mat Cauthon (Wheel of Time)

5. Reginald Barclay (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

 

El_Warko: You got an Upvote for Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. Shadow from American Gods almost made my list.

 

Blindillusions: You got an Upvote for Edmond Dontes. That's one of my all-time favourite books. Have you seen the movie from about ten years back with Jim Caviezal? It's brilliant. I highly, highly recommend it.

[Radda]

One of my favorite (non-BS) characters is "Garrett" (so he's called in the German translation) from The Chronicles of Siara (Alexey Pehov). I don't speak Russian so I can't compare (like English/German) but the German translation is very very good to read and I think it fits the tune of the book well (if not, I like it anyways). 

 

Hey! I've read Siala trilogy in Russian and, while I like another Pehov's book more, it's great to hear that it's doing well in Germany.

 

My favourite character got to be Miles Vorkosigan. He is very different from your typical main character, he's got that  perfect blend of  qualities that I admire in people and he's always a blast to read about.

[Duskshard]

Books

 

From - The Farseer Trilogy and the Tawny Man Trilogy - (Robin Hobb)

• Fitz Farseer
• The Fool
• Nighteyes
• Burrich
• Nettle

From - Mistborn - (Brandon Sanderson)

• Kelsier
• Vin
• Tensoon

From - Stormlight Archive - (Brandon Sanderson)

• Kaladin
• Lift
• Jasnah
• Syl

From - The First Law Trilogy - (Joe Abercrombie)

• Logen Ninefingers AKA The Bloody-nine - The only character which made these books worth reading.

From - The Riftwar Cycle - (Raymond E Feist)

• Jimmy the Hand
• Nakor
• Talan 
• Mara

From - A Song of Ice and Fire - (George RR Martin)

• Arya
• Tyrion
• Jamie
• Jon
• Syrio

From - The Count of Monte Cristo - (Alexandre Dumas) - Brillant book

• Edmund Dantes

From - The Sword of Truth

• The Mord-Sith

 

Games

 

From - FF7

• Cloud
• Sephiroth - best bad guy in a game ever IMO
• Reno - Just because he's an idiot

From - Metal Gear

• Big Boss
• Solid Snake
• The End

From - The Last of Us - Probably the best story I've seen in gaming.  

• Joel
• Ellie 

TV

 

From - Firefly

• Captain Malcolm Reynolds
• Jane
• Inara

From - Doctor Who

• The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) 

From - Stargate

• Jack O'Neill
• Daniel Jackson 
• Ronin

From - Sherlock

• Sherlock
• John Watson 

From - Justified

• Raylan Givens - I just love this character. 
• Boyd Crowder 

These are just the ones of the top of my head, I'm sure there's plenty more.

 

EDIT: Oops, how could I forget,

 

From - Dr Horrible's sing a long blog

• Captain Hammer

Edited February 22, 2014 by Duskshard

[TwistedMisting]

Hmm, I read Wizard's First Rule because my then boyfriend gave it to me for my birthday. I struggled through it, gritting my teeth at such inspired dialogue as 'You're my friend aren't you Kahlan?' (seriously, is he NINE?!). At the end, I for some reason thought that maybe I was being too harsh and read the second book in case it got better. Big mistake. I've not bothered with any of the others.

[Tamzin Ashevai]

Melisande & Phedre from Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel Legacy

Jasnah & Shallan from TWoK

Vin & Breeze from Mistborn

Lightsong & Nightblood from Warbreaker

Arya & Daenerys from G.R.R.M.'s ASoIaF

Locke Lamora from Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series

Verin Sedai from Robert Jordan's WoT series

Ender & Bean from Orson Scott Card's Ender series

Ansset from Orson Scott Card's Songmaster

Paul, Chani, Duncan, & Alia from Frank Herbert's Dune series

I could go on ...

[Tamzin Ashevai]

Hmm, I read Wizard's First Rule because my then boyfriend gave it to me for my birthday. I struggled through it, gritting my teeth at such inspired dialogue as 'You're my friend aren't you Kahlan?' (seriously, is he NINE?!). At the end, I for some reason thought that maybe I was being too harsh and read the second book in case it got better. Big mistake. I've not bothered with any of the others.

I hated WFR because it was so predictable. As a result, I've never read anything else in the Terry Goodkind library. I've read in other forums that he eventually involved his own "politics" in his successive novels in this series. I'll never read anything else he's written. While this IS harsh, it remains a truth for me.

[TwistedMisting]

I agree, it was utterly predictable and jam packed with stereotypes, even down to prophecy. I think that's why I love the whole twisted prophecy thing in Mistborn, because the whole prophesied hero trope is so overdone in fantasy. Generally badly done as in WFR!

[Tamzin Ashevai]

You know, I always want to believe in a writer of fantasy fiction whom I've chosen to read because that writer is within which genre I most want to read, male or female.  It's all about the WORLD and the SYSTEM of MAGIC!  However, when such a writer defies my basic precepts (i.e.:  gives me something I'd never expected from them), forget that author!  I regret to say that I have a stack of Terry Brooks' Shannara novels on my shelf that I wonder whether I'll read ... ever.  However, I've got Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series on my shelf that I'm very much looking forward to reading (and I have no idea what they're about).

[agentprimus]

I'll name a couple that haven't been mentioned. Lirael from the second two Abhorsen books found her more intriguing than Sabrial, Bartimaeus from the Bartimaeus trilogy just love the footnotes which encapsulate his sarcastic attitude, and Derfel from the Warlord chronicles. Total badass.

[Grayv]

It would have to depend on the book. the current character that makes me laugh is Oberon from The Iron Druid Chronicles.

[Wolven]

My all time favorite has got to be Drizzt Do'Urden. I love how he is a noble hero who was raised in a dark world of oppressive evil, but he manages to rise above it, and stay true to his strong moral code.

Raistlin Majere. Dark, troubled wizard who had a terrible childhood. He rose up to become the most powerful wizard in the world, seemingly dark and evil in nature, but when it came down to it, he sacrifices himself to stop the world from basically ending rather than ascending to godhood.

Samwise Gamgee. Simply because he is to me the ultimate personification of loyalty.

Kaladin. Constantly kicked down, horrible things happen to him at every turn in his life, and yet still somehow finds the will and determination to save the bridgemen.

Perrin Aybara. Mostly because I would love to be able to do what he does, talking to wolves. And for his simple, basic goodness.

And though a lot of people don't like kender, Tasslehoff Burrfoot. He always made me smile.

[Gabriele]

Faramir

 

(Book version, of course, not the scriptscrewer's travesty.)

 

OK, there's a number of other favourite characters, several from Malazan (Anomander, Ganoes Paran, Coltaine, Whiskeyjack ....), Jaime Lannister, Athos (again, book version and not the drunkard he's in all the movie ones), Geralt Tarrant. Dalinar is growing on me, too. Let's just say I got me my own harem.

[Briar King]

There are way to many I like in Malazan BUT if I have to pick it'd prob be Beak.

WoT: Mat by a longshot from bk3 onward in my 1st read.

First Law: Glokta

Shadows of the Apt: Thalric

The list could go on and on...