I'm looking for characters that are memorable and likeable.
Here's my list:
Odysseus, Achilles, Fantine, Eponine, Wong Fei Hung, Tony and Maria, Turandot, and lots of Chinese characters. I'm sure y'all are judging...certain Glee characters. I think I'm into either tragic or heroic characters. Then again, Turandot has a happy ending. I also have a lot of real life characters that are hilarious but I don't think I can list them all here.
Stu Redman, The Hardcase, Frannie from The Stand, The man and boy from The Road, John from the Christ Clone trilogy.
@Matt - did you really like Frannie? Or just find her memorable?
I hate characters.
Their names escape me.
I thought she was great. The fragility, strength and irreverence existing at once. She almost reminded me of someone that I'd actually love in real life, but try too hard and fuck it up and end up as just friends. Someone I wanted to rescue, but who didn't need rescuing or refused it.She is a prime example of why King is a genius at creating flesh and blood people.
Her Dad, despite not actually showing up much before he dies, was the most memorable I think of the whole book. Or Mother Abigail as well.
I thought Fran was a whiner and I hated her. However, I was a fan of Nick and Lloyd.
Nick was cool.
Glen was great. “Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”
― Stephen King, The Stand
Judge Holden from Blood Meridian, Yunior from Junot Diaz's books, Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby, Nick Adams from various Hemingway books, Tyler Durden from the movie Fight Club but not from the book, and Jack Torrance from The Shining. Those are the ones that stand out to me. Not really sure if there's a common thread to any of them. I just happened to enjoy all of them.
Hrm likeable is the hard part. Do you mean likeable, as in, you'd like to hang out and have a drink with them? Or can likeable include complete assholes too, because you still liked the character?
Ahab from Moby Dick, Annie Wilkes from Misery, Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, Quentin Compson from The Sound and the Fury, and most memorable for me--and PopeyeDoyle above beat me to it--is Judge Holden from Blood Meridian.
Zooey Glass from Franny and Zooey, Pete from Hearts in Atlantis.
There are lots. I'll add slowly and constantly over time.
These are some I find memorable and/or likeable:
~Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad
~the entire cast of Community
~Isaac and Miria from Baccano!
~Batman and The Joker
~Angel, Wesley Windham-Price, Winifred Burkle, and Lorne from Angel
~Ralph, Jack, Simon, and Piggy from Lord of the Flies
~Doc Holliday from Tombstone
~Sherlock Holmes
~Robocop
~Wilson from Castaway
~Frank TJ Mackey from Magnolia
~Alan Shore, Denny Crane, and Jerry Espenson from Boston Legal
Sebastian Dangerfield from "The Ginger Man", Yossarian -- "Catch-22", Gnossos Pappadopoulis -- "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me". Benny Profane from "V".
Hamlet.
Jaques ("As You Like It").
Dean Moriarty -- "On the Road".
Randle McMurphy --"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
Have you detected a pattern yet?
Henry Leydon of Black House. Man I wish he were real and I could have coffee dates with him.
I'm adding as honorable mention the following: Cornelius Sutree from Sutree, Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451, and Winston Smith from 1984.
Hrm likeable is the hard part. Do you mean likeable, as in, you'd like to hang out and have a drink with them? Or can likeable include complete assholes too, because you still liked the character?
As in...I'd like to hang out and have a drink with them...but I will settle for someone good. I find myself bringing that character into a random conversation. The character has to be THAT good.
I'm sort of a little ashamed of what I am about to list...Rosalie, Jasper, Jacob from Twilight. Seriously, where's Dwayne when I need him? Dwayne!
Gotcha.
My list:
* Hank Moody from Californication/ Fox Mulder from The X FIles (Pretty much Duchovny in anything).
* Dean from Supernatural.
* Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad
* Carter & Stark from Eureka
* Eric & Pam from True Blood
* Buffy & Spike from Buffy
* Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights - I know he's a jerk, but I find him fascinating.
* Ren from The Year of the Flood.
* Offred from The Handmaid's Tale
Ree from Winter's Bone is one of my favorite characters in recent memory. She's strong and dependable, smart, and fiercly loyal. She's in a bad place, but she never complains, she just tries to get things done. She's kind.
Every character Neil Gaiman writes is a favorite. But some of the best are Martin Tenbones (the sandman), Fiddler's Green (the sandman), Sam Black Crow (american gods), Dog (Good Omens - although this does read like it might have been Pratchett's character), oh... I just realized I could keep going for every book he's written. I'll stop there.
In the Sherlock Holmes books, Sherlock is facinating, but Watson is the more relatable of the two and easier to like. But you've got to love the tortured genius.
Another thought:
I love characters that are basically good people with one or two major character flaws that prevent them from ever succeeding in reaching their goals. So, goal + character flaw = good character (not always, but it helps).
Here's some (slightly) more literary examples:
~Daniel Dreiberg/Nite Owl, Walter Kovacs/Rorschach, Edward Blake/The Comedian, and Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen
~Kenny and Bryan Wastson from The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963
~Ponyboy, Dallas, and Johnny from The Outsiders
~Addie, Cash, and Darl Bundren from As I Lay Dying
~Charlie Gordon from Flowers for Algernon
I love characters that are basically good people with one or two major character flaws that prevent them from ever succeeding in reaching their goals. So, goal + character flaw = good character (not always, but it helps).
Love your thoughts, dude. Thank you.
Isaac Asimov was a great character writer, he could make them very likeable. More so than most sci-fi writers. I mean, many of his characters were not human, and some not even technically alive, yet he almost always gets you rooting for them.
Something more recent - hmm. Floyd from Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat is a good one.
Speaking of sci-fi. I recently read Espedair Street by Iain Banks. This wasn't a sci-fi one, really, but I liked the Danny Weir(d) character. I would have tossed a few back with him. His main character in The Wasp Factory was incredibly memorable, and likeable in a strange way. Like maybe I would like to be a fly on the wall, but not the kid's best friend.
Danny Weir definitely fits Howie's qualifications.
@Jen - What do I have to do with Twilight? I've never read the books, I've never seen the movies, I've never even seen the actor who played Jacob (or Edward, or anyone else in the movies that I can think of) play in anything else I can think of.
Caine/Hari & Ma'elKoth from Strover's various Caine books (important note, these are books people will read to try to understand us in a few hundred years).
Dwayne, sometimes when I feel like I'm heading in the wrong direction, I call out your name and turn myself around. Plus, you have a cool name, a good character name.
I can't wait to read your book: Dwayne: A Cautionary Tale, by Roaring Jen.
@Jen - Thanks.
@Howie - Think more, Dwayne, A You're Determined to Make Me Watch You Do Something Stupid Tale if we are talking about most days.
